Thirteen years ago today, a beautiful brown eyed baby was brought into this world. That was me, Raine. I was a perfect child, the right weight and size, but twelve years ago that all came crashing down. I had gotten a disease that would ruin my life forever. I had contracted purple eyes.

It was a very uncommon disease that people get at a young age. It causes an eyes irises to lose coloring making them look purple. I unfortunately had this disease making my life miserable.

In America if you had dark brown eyes you would be rich and admired. My whole family had these gifts of nature except me. If you had green or blue eyes you were middle class. Green upper and blue lower. If you had purple eyes you were hated. You were gunned down on the street, spat on, mentally and physically abused and basically treated like garbage.

I was not allowed to have friends or go to school. I had a poor blue eyed nanny and tutor. I lived upstairs. My father was abusive, often striking me when I did something wrong, and my mother ignored me except when it was time to eat. I was only allowed to play outside early in the morning or late at night. That was only when I did chores for hours.

I have never really been good at anything, except making people hate me. I was terrible at math, ok at science and decent at English. I always try to do good in everything but it never seems to work.

I drew a self portrait of myself that I was really proud of. When I showed it to my mother at supper-time she said it looked like me but was really ugly. I took offence to that but still kept the picture. The picture was the best thing I had ever drawn. I had long dirty blonde hair tied up. My large purple eyes and my small lips. My green shirt and blue pants. My dark skin and black shoes. I really loved that picture. It was my favorite thing in the world. The only thing I felt that loved me, that appreciated me.

Dong, Dong, Dong, the clock in my room went off interrupting my thoughts. I glanced up noticing it was noon. Time for my tutor to come! I ran to the edge of the stairs impatiently waiting for the next lesson. Most kids would think i'm insane for enjoying school, but that is almost all the human interaction I get. The only time I get to talk to people is when my tutor comes. I sat down in the small room I had dedicated to my daily lessons. "Raine, I'm here," I heard her cry up the stairs. I wondered if she would remember my birthday.

When she walked in the door I saw she was holding a basket along with the usual textbooks and paper. "What's in the basket Mrs. Sharie," I asked timidly.

"Well I heard it was someone's birthday so I brought some cookies," she replied, in probably the nicest tone anyone had ever spoken to me.

"Thank you so much, I really appreciate it," I happily claimed.

I was wondering what turn of events might have caused her to be so kind. She was usually a stereotypical old hag constantly yelling at me. I was zoning out thinking about it when I heard her answer my question before I even asked it.

"You may be wondering why I am being so nice all of a sudden. When I was a child I never got anything for my birthday. It always made me so sad and angry. I was thinking before I came over that even an obnoxious kid like you deserves a birthday."

I didn't know whether or not to be offended or flattered. I decided to just nod my head and go along with it. "Alright enough of my sob stories let's get down to business"

I groaned as she pulled out her literature textbook. "Today we are going to be reading a story by Crissella Shwernphaf . I didn't recognize that author so I asked about her. "She was a young green eyed woman with a strong passion for purple eyed people," she responded. The book we are going to read today has a deep and sad meaning. It is called Purple Haven and is about a so called purple haven. Read it and we will discuss these critical thinking questions the textbook gives us," Mrs. Sharie droned. I sighed and opened up to the given page. After reading a couple pages I was really getting into it. I quickly finished it and the questions.

Mrs. Sharie had left but I still kept thinking about that "purple haven." I couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard I tried. I kept thinking about how I needed answers. I had so many questions.

I was staring at the ceiling when an idea struck me. I needed to take matters into my own hands. There was a computer downstairs that I could get information on the author. I would find her and learn the answers. Maybe my life won't have to be miserable, maybe I could be happy.

I slowly stared at the clock waiting for the minute hand to strike midnight. Eventually it came and I got up. I slowly crept down the stairs making my way to the machine. When I got there I quietly typed in the information. I was successfully able to find all that I needed.

I was walking up the stairs relaying the information in my mind. She lived in New York just like me, making this a tad bit easier. Her address was 5234 West Cardinal Street. It was a large yellow house and was surrounded by topiary animals. I was unsure how to get there so I decided to go with the flow.

I could see the top of the long stairwell when I heard something behind me. I spun around to see my brother staring at me. "What are you doing Raine," he asked in a menacing tone.

I was terrified so I quietly replied " I, I, I came down to get some water. The, the water in my jug was empty."

He glared me down and growled, "Mom will hear about this. Wait no, Dad will hear about this tomorrow." I nodded and bolted upstairs. I would have to act fast.

I went into my room and rummaged around in my closet. I found a good sized bag that would certainly fit all my necessities. I quickly started shoving all my clothes, toiletries, food and water into it's large opening. I also brought along my notecard with all the information and my drawing notebook.

When I finished packing my bag, I headed for the window. It would take a lot of guts but I was still going to do it. I had to jump.

I carefully opened the window because even a little creak would be heard. I was just about to jump when I realized I should write a note. I quickly scribbled one down and placed it on my bed. I knew Mrs. Sharie would find it. I carefully crept back to the window.

When I got to the roof, I began to doubt my choices. I contemplated going back inside and forgetting the whole thing. Then I remembered my brother. He would tell my dad. My dad would hurt me. Oh the whole idea sounded just terrible! I kept thinking until I saw a bit of pink in the sky; sunrise was coming so I had to act now or never.

I jumped. When I got to the bottom I was momentarily stunned from the pain. I looked to see if anything was broken or bleeding. I was fine. In the distance I saw the bustling part of the city. That was where I needed to go. I hobbled for about half a mile when I reached a bus stop. I was incredibly tired so I thought about resting. I was far enough from home that a small rest wouldn't harm me at all. I was walking in when I heard a voice squeak, "Hello."

I stopped in my tracks. The many thoughts that were flying around in my head stopped. Only one question remained, "Who is that?!?" I decided I would have to find out.

"Ha-hi, who are, are you?" I stammered.

The voice squeaked back," I am Cristen, who are you?"

I walked all the way in before replying, " I am Raine." He stared at me blankly for a long time. I noticed his eyes were a bright green.

"You have purple eyes," he said all of a sudden.

I jumped before turning my head away bashfully. I was about to run away when he quietly whispered, " I am not a believer." I turned my head to look at him. " I don't believe in eye color discrimination. You are fine with me."

After about an hour Cristen and I became close friends. I was very awkward at first but I slowly warmed up. After we talked a while he told me how he got here. Even though he was only twelve his father and mother wanted to give him to a rich lady. She had a daughter and wanted them to get married. Cristen was not attracted to women at all. His whole life he had been in "the closet" afraid to tell anyone. When he came out to his mother and father they immediately disowned him. Nowhere to go he wandered around until he found this bus stop. He was yearning for a friend or adventure but he could never find one until now. I packed my notebook and colors so I drew a picture of him. He said he liked it.

After talking awhile, he decided he wanted to come with me. He had nowhere else to go or nothing else to do. "Well I suppose we ought to get going in the morning," he remarked. I begrudgingly agreed.

As I drifted asleep dreams started haunting me. I saw my father bringing down a hammer on my head scolding me for making a friend. I also watched him morph into what I imagined as Cristen's dad. I screamed and told him to stop as he abused him. Then a purple mist swallowed us both with nothing left but the sounds of our fathers possessive yelling.

I woke up in a cold sweat and panickedly took a look around. It was as dark as a city gets at night and quiet except for the sounds of my friend's soft breath. I tried to go back to sleep and avoid my fear. It just wouldn't go away.

When Cristen woke up it was about seven in the morning. He complained about being hungry. Me, being the nice person that I am, gave him half of the stale bread roll I packed. I asked him if he knew how to get to West Cardinal Street. He looked back at me and said," No."

"Well we better get moving then," I said half-heartedly.

He nodded in agreement.

After about an hour of walking we got to a main part of the city. There was cars everywhere. I thought we should get a taxi. "That's a great idea, minus the fact that we have no money," he grumbled back to me.

"I have a good idea," I said to him.

"What is it?"

"You will see," I replied maliciously. We went to find a taxi.

When we finally got a taxi it was about 1:30. We were both exhausted and we could not wait to sit down. It had been hard for me to hide my eyes from every person I came across. When we got into the taxi, the guy had brown eyes. "What are you doing driving a taxi when you've got brown eyes? Shouldn't you be really rich or have a really good job," Cristen asked.

"Shut your mouth," the taxi driver growled back.

I could see on his name tag that his name was Gerald.

"So Gerald I suppose you would want to know where we were going," I remarked. He didn't say anything. After a long pause he pointed at hydroscreen. It said,"TYPE LOCATION HERE." I raked my mind for the information and typed it in.