Being an only child wasn’t all that bad. Olifar got to spend a lot of time with his mom, especially since his dad had passed away when he was only one. His mom didn’t talk about him much, but whenever she did, her eyes turned misty and she turned quiet. Anyone who was close to her could tell she had loved him a lot. Since his mom had been diagnosed a couple orbits ago, Olifar had decided to help out in any way he could. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, washing the dishes, he did this all so his mom could focus on getting better.

For Olifar, school was quite boring, as he was currently being ignored by virtually everyone. He was always impatient to go home, so he never really knew why everyone was so against him. He had tried making friends for a while, before his mom had gotten the diagnosis, before he had decided to devote his time to help his mom, and no one had ever wanted to be friends with him. Some had given him glares, while others had been nicer and gave excuses. He had never figured out the real reason, though.

Was it because of his looks? His snowy white hair? His overly pale skin?

He had never figured it out, and no one told him, so he eventually stopped caring, keeping to himself and not bothering to keep trying. This led to many lonely stirs, finding new hobbies and helping his mom during all his free time. Olifar’s mom had liked to braid her hair every morning, but unfortunately had to cut her hair during treatment. When she heard she would have to cut her hair, she convinced Olifar to grow his out, so she could continue braiding his hair instead.

Eventually, her hair grew back out, but Olifar decided to keep it long. He felt it suited him better this way. He would pull it back into a ponytail during school so it didn’t fall in his face.

Every orbit on his birthstir, it had become a tradition to skip school and spend the whole stir with his mom. Just the two of them, playing games, baking sweets, and watching movies until they pass out together on the couch in their living room. At the end of the stir, his mom pulled out a small, white box with a navy blue ribbon tying it together.

“Oh, they’ll look so good on you!” Olifar’s mom said excitedly, urging him to unwrap the gift quickly. He pulled off the navy ribbon and opened the lid, laying eyes on three intricately carved hairpins that glinted a dark purple in the light. He pulled them out carefully and slipped them into his hair, two on the left side to hold back his bangs, and one on the right side as decoration. He was definitely going to wear these to school tomorrow, Olifar thought with a grin.

The next stir, Olifar wore his pins to school proudly, smiling when one of his nicer classmates came up to him and complimented him during the last class of the stir.

“Those pins are so pretty!” the girl, Nadie, if he remembered correctly, exclaimed.

“Thank you, I got them for my birthstir.” Olifar was excited, and couldn’t help but grin and reach up to touch one of them.

“Oh, happy birthstir! How old are you now?” Nadie looked genuinely interested, leaning forward and tilting her head, almost like a young hippalar would.

“Thanks, I just turned nine.” Olifar smiled, glad that someone was interacting with him. They started talking, at first about things like hobbies and such, but Nadie kept finding ways to turn the conversation back around to the hairpins.

“Can I borrow them?” she asked at one point, looking at the pins with slight envy. Olifar was reluctant, he didn’t want to risk her losing or breaking them by accident, so he hesitantly refused her.

“I’m sorry… these pins are really important to me, so I can’t let you borrow them.” He knew this was the right choice, but still felt bad letting her down like that.

“What?? You won’t let me borrow them at all? Come on, I’ll give them back tomorrow!” she leaned forward reaching toward Olifar’s head with both hands. She grabbed a handful of his hair and forcefully yanked him down so she could reach better, reaching to pull out one of the pins with her other hand.

“Wha-!?” Olifar was surprised and jerked his head back, then felt a sharp sting on his cheek. He reached up to touch the spot that hurt and winced, pulling his hand back at the burn that occurred. A glimpse of crimson flashed as he brought his hand down and he stood up quickly, grabbing his bag and running all the way to the bathroom.

The bathroom door squeaked as Olifar opened it, and made a rusty clicking sound as he locked it. He couldn’t believe what had just happened.

Why did Nadie do that? Did I not make it clear that I wouldn’t let her borrow them?

He looked in the mirror and saw a fairly shallow but long scratch running down his cheekbone. It had bled a little, but the track running down the side of his face was already starting to dry up.

He turned on the faucet and wiped up the blood, then pulled all three pins out of his hair and stashed them in the smallest outer pocket of his new backpack. Olifar just decided to wait in the bathroom until school was almost over, then hurry to the bus before the bell rang so he could avoid her. He walked out to the docks a few minutes before the bell and climbed up into the big red bus. After getting settled, he took out a book and relaxed into his seat, then remembered… she rode the same bus as him.

He felt a little embarrassed to forget that, especially since she sat directly behind him. The shrill bell rang loudly and a few minutes later, students flooded out of the front doors and made their way down the docks to each bus. As they began to file onto the bus and sat down, the driver reminded everyone to keep their bags under their seat and put their seat belts on.

“Hey Olifar, I’m really sorry about earlier… I won’t do that again, promise.” Nadie spoke up, tapping him on the shoulder and suddenly apologizing. He wasn’t sure what to do in this situation and decided to accept her apology. She said she wouldn’t do it again, and that she was sorry, so it would be fine, right?

“I-it’s ok as long as you don’t do it again, I guess.” Olifar saw her nod, so he turned back around and continued reading. After a few minutes, he heard some rustling behind him and figured it was just someone trying to find something in their bag. So, he paid no attention to it and kept reading.

He only noticed when he got home, some pockets on his backpack had been opened. Frantically, Olifar looked inside the pocket he had left the hairpins in and pulled out only two. Could he have lost it? No, multiple pockets that had previously been closed were now open. Did someone take it? The only person close enough would have been Nadie… but she apologized! Even if she had taken one and he asked her, she’d probably lie or get mad that he was accusing her.

The only thing he could do now was just to leave the remaining pins at home. Olifar couldn’t trust that Nadie would leave him alone if he continued bringing the pins to school, so he just decided not to. He set the two pins in his small, almost empty jewelry box and closed the lid carefully.

The next stir, Olifar didn’t see Nadie with the pin during class but as he was walking past her table at lunch, heard her mention the word ‘pretty’. Her group of friends was huddled together, leaning to look at whatever she was holding. He glanced at them as he walked past and clearly caught a glimpse of the purple pin before it was shoved back in her pocket. He sighed and kept walking, knowing she would get away with it even if he told the teachers. He should have been more wary of her sudden kindness.