Page 28 of The Sins of Noelle

But just because she'd thought herself normal didn't mean she fit everyone else's standard of normality—a fact which she'd learned the moment she started school.

In a matter of days, everyone had taken a dislike to her, and the insults had started pouring. And since kids at that age could be truly vicious, their words had been even more so.

Noelle might have entertained the idea of making friends at first if she hadn't been so totally and utterly ostracized by everyone in her grade.

They laughed at her clothes. They mocked her manner of speech. They didn't hold back from criticizing any part of her. It was even worse when they directed those insults towards her talent at playing the piano.

It was a universally acknowledged fact that the moment Noelle's fingers touched the piano keys, silence descended upon a room until there was nothing left but pure, divine musicality.

Soon, though, the praise had turned into sourness as she'd been accused of witchcraft; that she'd made a deal with the devil for her ability to play the piano. A ludicrous thing to originate from an elementary-grade kid, but the idea had been first put forward by one of her first teachers who'd praised her talent as otherworldly and implied some less than orthodox forces might be at play. The kids who'd eavesdropped had taken the rumor further, until Noelle's name was the equivalent of witch, or little devil.

An outsider could very well see that the root of the issue had been a combination of her slightly odd demeanor and the jealousy of the others at her musical talent.

But for a young child, the entire experience had been jarring. Made even more so by her mother's response.

When Noelle had gone home crying about the bullying at school, her mother had told her to suck it up and face it like a big girl. But when she'd detailed the horrible names people were calling her, instead of taking her side, her mother had told her she must have done something to deserve being called that.

Noelle had been stunned by her mother's reaction and the fact that Elena had emphatically told her she would not get involved in any of the school matters.

In one last attempt at fitting in, Noelle had worn the ugly pink dress her mother had bought her. Yet that had been even more of a disaster.

She'd barely been able to hold her head high. Everyone had laughed in her face. Including the teachers. Why, Miss Lawson herself had asked Noelle if she'd decided to join the living.

A few hours was all she'd been able to survive, and ultimately she'd just doused herself in black paint to stop people from staring and commenting about her pink dress.

Since then, she'd had a phobia of the color. Every time she wore it, she thought she was the butt of all jokes.

But that had been the last straw, and Noelle's last attempt at beingnormal. And armed with her mother'snot so greatadvice, she'd decided to take matters into her own hands.

She might be blunt and she might make people uncomfortable, but why should she change for them? Why should she compromise who she was for people who didn't like her anyway and only sought the next thing they could criticize and laugh about?

As she'd honed on that mentality, she'd stopped minding what others thought about her or heroddmanner. Instead, she acted as she saw fit and she spoke as she thought necessary. She didn't sugar-coat things, and she certainly didn't mind anyone's tender sensibilities.

She was already a witch in everyone's mind.

Elena might complain about Noelle that she was a loner. But it had never been truly of her own making. It had been a by-product of society and the fact that people abhorred those who were different. Instead of fostering those qualities that made Noelle different, people crucified her for them.

So why would Noelle try to get along with people who only sought to change her; who hated who she was at her core?

No one listened to her anyway.

From the beginning, her thoughts had been received as incorrect, her opinions as worthless, and her entire personality as wrong.

Besides her talent at the piano, which more often than not was attributed to outside influences, there wasn't anythingrightabout her.

And it wasn't just at school that she was met with that criticism.

It could be said that it was even worse at home.

Her mother was never satisfied with her, and she never missed a chance to tell her that she wasn't the daughter she would have wished for.

Elena had wanted a ladylike daughter. She'd gotten a rude hoyden who didn't know when to keep her mouth shut.

But if she'd gotten used to her mother's everlasting disappointment, it didn't help that everyone else in the house echoed her opinions. Especially the staff, who'd taken to referring to Noelle as the spoiled, impetuous child, sometimes going out of their way to snub her the way her mother usually did. If the mistress of the house did it, why couldn't everyone else do it too?

After all, Noellewasodd, and deserving of all the scorn.

Her father was sick and bed-ridden, but on the few instances Noelle could meet with him, he didn't shy away from telling her how disappointed he was and that he would have rather had another son than a useless daughter.

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