She sits at her desk
in the back left corner of the room,
her journal open on the hard surface,
her usually glistening chocolate eyes,
now dull and the color of dirt,
stare into space,
as she holds her purple pen to her lips
with her small, slender hands,
between short, thin fingers,
with nails painted purple.

She gets up and moves to the floor,
sitting as far away from her peers as possible.

She folds in on herself,
hugging her knees to her chest
and covering them
with her over-sized black hoodie.

She drags the hood over her low brown ponytail
and wraps her arms around her legs,
the sleeves of her hoodie quickly following,
pulled by the thumbs poking through them.

She pulls off her silver-rimmed glasses
that have baby pink arms,
and cleans them
with the dark gray t-shirt under her hoodie.

She stands,
returns to her desk,
and proceeds to write
about an upbeat girl
having an off-beat day.