Show me love like I've never known (Gold)

By Tiffani Pateman

Prologue – Clarissa Johnson

There were a lot of things right with Clarissa Johnson's life.

The first thing is her appearance. Clarissa is 5 foot 9 inches and weighs nine stone roughly. It is considered between healthy and unhealthy weight, on the borderline. She is slim with curves at her chest and hips, only small curves, nothing too in your face. Her skin is naturally slightly tanned with the added tan from a holiday abroad, the only skin untouched by skin would have been covered by a bikini. The brown curls stretch past her shoulders a few inches in big wavy curls. A streak in her hair is bleached and coloured in dark but bright purple that she can hide behind the brown strands if need be. Her eyes are an average blue, nothing exciting or overly pretty but they are bright beneath her long lashes. Her face is built up of delicate features, she was lucky to not have a large crooked nose or a weird chin. Overall she was attractive, very much so.

The second, she is bright. Her head is not simply empty space like it is on many pretty girls, no she has a brain and she uses it. An A grade student throughout her school life but that didn't mean it was all natural. She had to try, really try to get her grades. She would often spend the evenings studying in the library or pull all-nighters in the name of god grades.

The third thing's about Clarissa's life that was defiantly right was her musical abilities. She was a very talented singer even if she was modest about the very fact. Now she was able to play piano and guitar quite well, while playing violin as an amateur.

Clarissa also had friends. Well everyone has friends but she had an adequate amount of friends. She could be considered quite popular even if she chose her studies over her friends most of the time.

There could also be considered a few things wrong with her life.

There was her father for one. An angry man with greying hair and brown eyes surrounded by wrinkles, he was broad and strong. Since the death of her mother (a gentle woman with brown hair and blue eyes like Clarissa) her father had become even angrier. He had started taking his anger out on his daughter. It was subtle things at first, shouting and raising his hand until it developed into hitting. The real reason was that he just couldn't deal with the loss of her mother or the fact that Clarissa looked so much like her. She was "a constant reminder" of her mother and it meant she had to be punished. Punished for not being perfect or right like her mother. Clarissa had learnt to just accept the pain, it was easier than fighting back and being hurt further. It was easier to pretend like it wasn't happening to her, like she was someone else.

That's how we get to our next point. Clarissa is motherless, of course she is not the only girl in the world to lose a mother but that doesn't stop it from being traumatic. Cancer was the cause, so the death itself wasn't quick. But perhaps it's best if we go into that later.

The worst thing in Clarissa's life is not her mother's death or her father's abuse but instead that she had a hopeless crush on her physics teacher Mr Holmes. It was stupid. He was a strict teacher who only cared about his work and it being done correctly. He could read the students if he chose to, often using their personal lives against them if they started to pick a fight with him. He wouldn't hesitate to give detentions or embarrass you completely. Clarissa had so far kept on his good side by doing her work and keeping her head down. It was like a curse to have a crush on him, especially when he had no interest in anybody.