Chapter 2

Juana? Let's talk about her. She's twelve, tall, pretty, intelligent and smart, asthmatic, lonely and a genius. Juana was one of a kind, a smart, emotional person and an only child. She had eyebrows and eyelashes that had been shaped from infancy and a very clear skin; she was adorable. Juana Leon is her full name. She had been asthmatic since childhood and as a result, inhalers have had to be a constant presence in her life. Doctors actually told her parents to let her know about her condition while she was still a kid because according to them, coping with asthma would be easier for her as she grew up. "She'll be able to cope quite well on her own, especially when you're not available" they told her parents and they were right; Juana has learnt to cope with it quite well on her own. Being an only child, she grew up to develop interests in pets especially dogs and rabbits but that didn't stop her from feeling like having siblings to call her own, especially a younger sister and an older brother. Her Grandmother whenever she visited always called her 'Our blessing' and sometimes added 'Princess' to her name, but Juana didn't understand any of it. She didn't think she was a blessing to anyone, like how can a girl living with three things worse than a disease be revered like a princess? but she never told anyone her mind. "I'm asthmatic, I almost cannot live without inhalers, I'm a stupid genius, and I have some silly power to make bad dreams come to pass, how can I be a blessing?No I'm just a stupid waste, a carrier of some silly curse." She always told herself. Sometimes she writes it in her diary, sometimes she keeps it in her mind, but she's never told anyone how she felt about herself, not even her mom who was the closest to her.

She was not the first born of her parents as she had been made to believe. Although she had always thought she was an only child, the truth was, she was the only child that stayed. Dawn had had three miscarriages before Juana's conception. After she was born, she didn't fall pregnant anymore and she stopped trying. Maybe if Juana had heard this story she would have believed she was indeed a blessing after all.

Juana was a special kind, not the normal breed of children anyone had. She was a born genius and it was such a peculiar thing. Sometimes being a genius could be good. Sometimes it could be accompanied with loneliness. Juana's genius brought her the latter, and that was why she hated being a genius. She wanted to be normal, have friends and be cool but it did her no good pretending to be normal because she knew she wasn't.

By the time she was four, Baron and Leon had noticed some things about her and had known that she was not a normal child. Maybe not abnormal, but not regular either. From the age of four when they had discovered that she was intellectually gifted, Juana had been the object of a conspiracy of protection. She grew up alone in libraries and laboratories, classrooms and lecture halls mostly writing and talking to herself:"Stop knowing what will happen in two months, okay? Try to breathe normally without any help, okay? Juana, you're not a genius. You're stupid. You need to read before understanding anything. Listen to your teacher or you'll fail your subjects, okay?". But it didn't help. Her genius brought her both good and bad though. She excelled in hopes of winning her classmates' love and company for a while before her friends began to act like she was an alien. Everyone including few insensitive teachers thought that she was proud and arrogant, and others who didn't think that just bullied her and alienated her like a plague, just because they were jealous of her incredible intelligence. Some weren't jealous, they just thought she was abnormal especially when she was caught talking to herself in the old empty library during recess. Juana had that memory plastered in her brain, it was an embarrassing moment for her. Some of her bullies had heard her talking to herself and had secretly hidden somewhere to record her voice. In five minutes, it became the talk of her class. In the audio, she was heard telling herself: "Lisa will be hit by a motorbike in three months time, I don't hate you Lisa, but I can't stop this from happening. It must happen, because that's how it's been. I didn't see you die, but you were badly injured. I'm sorry Lisa, you'll have to miss a whole term in school". Lisa was a girl in her class, one of her top bullies and a child of an influential person. The other students who had made the audio showed it to her and she began to rant and threaten around, looking for Juana.

Juana returned to class after recess not knowing what had just happened, and Lisa confronted her with the audio. She was shocked and silently begged the ground to open and swallow her whole, but it was Lisa who almost swallowed her. She punched and hit her and Juana almost passed out but for the timely intervention of a teacher.

" I've not beaten you enough. After school, I'm gonna still hunt you down" Lisa threatened in class.

So Juana didn't wait to hear the closing bell, she ran to the empty library and hid there until she was sure everyone had gone home. She didn't run home for a big reason; she would be alone and Lisa knew where she lived. She kept avoiding Lisa for the rest of the week. Exactly three months later, Lisa had an accident and died. Juana's parents had to take their daughter away from that school to save her from further emotional torture. That was how Juana started in another school but the bullying never stopped.

She was the perfect girl for "Innocent, not ignorant". In her new school, she tried to behave herself and spoke to no one. She was not like most of her classmates who loved partying and clubbing with their boyfriends. She just did her own thing: do assignments, sports, attend practicals and classes, go for break in the library and go home after closing hour.

When Juana was four, she was already doing simple algebra. She could wear her shoes right and tie the laces correctly. She could pack her hair into a ponytail and make neat cornrows just by staring at the mirror. She could take her toys apart and put them back together.

At seven, she had learnt to bake and lay her bed neatly. She grew up to be an emotional coward too, she cried too much. Her pet kept her company. White large puppy. A fluffy dog. She got this dog as a birthday gift when she turned nine, from her dad. She took the dog with her everywhere, to malls, restaurants, pools, beach. It was her dream pet but it gave her allergies and aggravated her asthma in the space of seven months. So it had to be taken away from her. It was a sad thing for her because taking away Campbell(for so her dog was named) from her made her lonely again. "Play with it from a distance or say goodbye to it forever" Baron had given her that condition. But she could not do without Campbell; it was her best friend.

Juana had two human friends-Ivy and Alicia, they were her next door neighbours and they became friends when her family just moved in, but they too soon stopped talking to her and avoided talking to her as if she were some sort of epidemic. She wondered why for a long time, until she learnt to accept the fault as her own. Of course there were few people who wanted to be friends with her but they all turned strangers after few weeks of knowing her. Each year passed lonelier than the last, and she ached for human contact. Her parents were supportive and took good care of her but she still wanted friends.

Somehow Juana knew that she was a mixture of goodness and a touch of mystery or misery that is. Her parents made her a priority and she knew it. The only place she felt loved was at home, and she always looked forward to closing hour everyday. Juana was very close to her mom, she could tell her anything, but she did save a little from Dad's knowledge because she thought, 'Dads should not know one hundred percent of everything about girls'. For instance, the fact that she began her period few weeks after her twelfth birthday was unknown to Baron. She loved her family, and her mom and her were like twins. They did everything together and cuddled in her bed whenever she was lonely or sad. Every time they were together, Juana felt good, but she couldn't hide the fact that her greatest fear was losing her. That is why she was especially scared about the nightmare she had, two weeks to her thirteenth birthday because she thought it might involve her mom