Colors.

Eva loved them. As she wandered the halls, she left a rainbow trail.

Freak.

She heard the voice, soft and malicious, just loud enough. Barely. Directed right at her heart like a little arrow of void, trying to suck out all her bright colors. But she wouldn't let them. The one thing she had complete control over was her self-ex
pression, and that was were her beautiful brilliant colors came from. Her parents, an artist and an author, had given her free reign of their tools and bank account, saying: "If you have the passion, you should have the resources." In retrospect, she hadn't properly thanked them for that, which wasn't very nice of her.

So Eva added a little skip to her step, grinning as she went. Her eyes flashed with a silent challenge, hair flouncing. Her colors were all her own. No one could make her something less than what she was, and with that knowledge came power. Eva's thoughts turned to the Camaro in the parking lot, coated with acryllic paints in swirls and splashes, patterns she changed whenever it tickled her fancy. 'Defacing something your parents payed for. Downright disrespectful.' Not if they helped. Like a balloon of happiness Eva drifted along, letting her colors shine.

Ha Min watched with a chuckle, shaking his head. Eva was... Well, she was a cool girl. He envied her strength and pride, looking down at his rather passe ensemble. Nothing special, though nothing to be sniffed at. He felt like he expressed himself well enough. Maybe he just had different colors to express. Shrugging he returned to his sketching, doing the barest of sketches as people walked by. Unfortunately he hadn't brougth his markers, and the boy simpy didn't feel right drawing Eva without the colors that made her so memorable.

On the other hand, people recognized Ha Min no matter what he wore. He tried to imagine what Eva looked like in plain clothing without her makeup and just couldn't. He doubted anyone would know it was her if she showed up to school dressed like... Well, like Lizzy, for example. The girl liked colors just fine, but she tended towards an altogether simpler, more natural palette. No one would recognize her dressed like that. He went back to the sketches, thinking that maybe everyone had their own colors and no one should try to hide behind another's set.

Exactly. Lizzy giggled at Eva, waving cheerfully. Seeing that walking rainbow always brightened her day. Like Ha Min she thought to her own colors and agreed with the idea that no one should try to be something they weren't. At the same time, people shouldn't let their colors define who they are. That was taking it a bit far. Also like Ha Min, she thought how no one would recognize Eva outside her ridiculously bright get-ups and ultra-neon makeup. Perhaps that was when it was just too much. Colors were never meant to be that restricting.

After all, what good was freedom of ex
pression if it eliminated pretty much all your other freedoms? The petite red-head sighed, looking down at the book in her lap. There were other forms of ex
pression. Ha Min had his art, she had her books and poetry. Colors were just one part of an extremely colorful deal. It was more the pity if Rainbow Brite Eva didn't see that. At least she had the coloring and facial structure to pull of neon and heavy makeup. The colors were even brighter against her dark tan skin and near-black hair. Hey, new poem idea. Lizzy went to her notebook, scribbling lines at random. She could go back and organize them later; she always did.