(Cover Art by the lovely )

Ever since mom died, my sister and I grew further apart. Instead of hanging out with me, her weirdo sister, she would go hang out with other rock trolls. In fact, the only time my sister would talk to me was when she called me down for dinner. That and whenever she wanted to talk about her new boyfriend, Thrash, which was like once or twice a month. Those conversations always ended up being one way and seemed to last for hours.

Dad didn't make my life any easier. He forced me to get my ears pierced when I turned 13, made sure my clothes and hair was styled to his liking and he never let me perform in front of our kingdom anymore. "Only Katheryn is allowed to perform from now on," he had said one day. "Our kingdom needs to get to know more about their future queen, and you'll just end up getting in the way." However, his strict rules didn't stop me from performing on stage when nobody was around. I would sneak in at night and play for hours and then sleep in the next morning. It actually was kind of nice to do that. Just me, an empty stadium, and music.

I thought that being constantly neglected by my own family would change the way I felt towards the two of them, but I didn't mind that much. Change was a natural thing in life. I had my books and my music to keep me company, so I didn't really need friends. Besides, it'll be better for Katheryn if she starts socializing with other trolls in our kingdom if she wants to be a great queen someday, or something like that.

Still, I wished someone would talk to me every once in a while. Now that mom was no longer here, everyone seemed to be ignoring me even more than before. Nobody seemed to care about the younger princess.

Again, I didn't really mind that much. This became my new normal, and I was frighteningly okay with it.

As I grew older and fell in love with even more music, the more colored bands began to appear on my arms. By the time I had turned 18, I had a blue, yellow, purple, orange, and pink band on each arm in that order. The cool part about these mysterious bands on my arms was that every time I would start playing a certain type of music, one of them would start glowing brighter than the rest. I still didn't know why they were there or what they were for, but I had a feeling I would figure out someday.

But, in order to keep them hidden, I would wrap thick bandages from my wrist all the way up to my forearm, which was where they stopped. Now that I think about it, it was freaky how okay I was about everything that was happening around me. I was ready to live like this until the day I died, because as long as I could still enjoy all of my different kinds of music in peace, I'd be happy!

Unfortunately, that happiness was short lived...

On one fateful day, I ran into Katie and her friends while I was retrieving some music and books that I had accidentally left behind at the stadium the night before. When I bumped into her, one of my books fell onto the ground and one of her friends picked it up.

"Pop Culture and You?" She laughed. "Wow, no wonder nobody hangs out with your sister."

I ignored her comment and snatched the book back. "Yes, I've gotten really into pop music lately." I said while smiling. "It's just got this rhythm to it that makes you want to jump around and-"

"Look at this freak," said Slick, one of the Katie's new friends. "She's beaming like some stupid sunflower over other music and books and crap." All of her other friends laughed at his comment.

My sister looked visibly embarrassed. "Roxy, just go home."

I just turned around and walked away. I knew when I wasn't welcome somewhere, believe me, I've known that feeling my entire life. His words didn't effect me that much, since I was used to being talked to like that now. So, I just brushed it off and forgot about the entire encounter. However, he didn't stop there.

As I went back to my room later that day to play some violin in peace before dinner, a hand reached out of my room, grabbed me by my shirt collar, and pulled me inside, slamming the door behind me. It was Slick and about two of Katie's other friends. But, where was Katie?

"Hey sunflower, you think you've got enough books and music, huh?" Slick asked me as he tightened his grip on my shirt.

"Actually, I was thinking about getting some more later-"

"SHUT IT! I was making fun of you," he shouted at me. He threw me across the room and I landed in my lockable box that I normally would've kept all of my music sheets in. I hit my head on the back of the lid. It hurt a lot.

As I tried to recover, I saw Slick place one hand one top of the lid of the box.

"Hey freak, do you know how long it takes for a sunflower to wilt in the dark?" He said as he laughed, slammed the lid shut and locked the box, trapping me inside.

"It takes just one night."

I couldn't see anything, it was so dark. But I could hear the sounds of paper ripping and tearing and the sounds of their laughter.

"LET ME OUT! What are you guys doing out there?!" I screamed. They didn't care; they just laughed and kept going. I was in there for an hour, maybe two at the most? I wasn't entirely sure. It wasn't until they were finished when they finally unlocked the box and left.

I shook the box back and forth until it tumbled onto its side and busted open, flinging me out into my room.

"Ugh..." I groaned. I kept my eyes closed as I got to my feet. The back of my head really stung. Luckily I had a first aid kit somewhere in my room I could use to reduce the pain and maybe bandage it if it was bleeding. Then, when I opened my eyes to go look for it, I froze.

They were right...one night was all it took...for me to wilt.