บท 1: Born Without A Belly Button
Hi. My name is Goldie Markell. I am seventeen years old, and I have a secret.
I was born without a navel.
You know that round little button thingy you have on the bottom of your belly?... the one you call a belly button?
Yes, that. Feel it. Touch it. Fascinating, right?
Well, I do not have one. No navel. No belly button. Nothing. Not even a depression.
My belly is smooth as an eggplant!
Ha! I can hear you laugh. You probably think I'm a weirdo. Well, you're the weirdo! Your whole family's a weirdo!
Mom says I'm just special. Not that I don't believe her, but yeah, of course, I'm special being born without a belly button.
I'm one in a million!
I might be a little weird, but yeah, I AM special. I was born that way, and I'm not hating it or anything, but I just have a few complaints.
You might be wondering… what's so bad about not having something so little and insignificant as a belly button?
Well… imagine hot summer days. The heat! The melting, burning, scorching heat! What's the first thing you think about?
Water! Yes. Pools, beaches, ice cream, happiness!
All the cool kids hang out at pool parties with the cutest, bikinis and the sweetest "minimalist" outfits.
And why not? I mean…
It's hot, there's a pool, it's a party, there are cute boys everywhere!
Yay! Fun, right?
And then there's me in a summer dress, or a little sleeveless romper because I happen to be all smooth down there without a belly button.
Girlie showing no belly skin.
And my friends be like, "Goldie! Come on in. The water is awesome!"
And I be like, "Hah… don't worry, I'm good." when I am literally dying to just go into that sweet, sweet water.
Why do I not go in, you ask?
Well, I'm one of the cool kids, hanging out at a pool party with the cool kids, in a beautiful summer dress… the prettiest one.
But just imagine me having to go change into a stupid onesie to swim at the pool!
No. Never going to happen.
Why, you ask?
Just cause… BEcause of my smooth dxrn unexpose-able stomach. That's why!
How about when I go to the beach? Well, that would be cool and awesome, except… I have to wear a dumb onesie again, to protect the well-kept secret of my smooth-xss tummy.
Might as well just wear a surfer's suit and surf. It's all I can do at the beach, anyway.
How about regular days, you ask? Not having a navel shouldn't be a problem on regular days, right?
No. You're wrong.
Being without a navel affects every single day of my life because, for one, I'm a cheerleader. And let's just say I looove fashion.
No navel means no crop tops. No low-waist trousers. No inordinately short tops. No bikinis, and a whole lot of high-waist outfits.
Good thing my cheerleading uniform is a high waist. But even at that, I still have to be extra careful.
Otherwise, one day, someone might see my super smooth, belly button-less stomach and scream "WEIRDO!", and my whole life would come crashing to the ground.
And everyone would find out my secret and know I'm not normal. They might even call me a freak, expunge me from society, and stone me to death or something.
But hah… it's okay. I'm good. Great. I can always work my way around outfits. It shouldn't be a problem, right? I mean it's just a small matter of not having a belly button, right? RIGHT??
Well, it was the small matter of not having a belly button until this morning when…
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"AAAAH!!!"
Goldie's high-pitched scream travels all the way from her room upstairs to the living room downstairs, right before her quick, thumping footsteps are heard travelling down the stairs at high speed.
"Mom! Dad!", she yells at the top of her voice as she comes running down the stairs in search of her parents in the living room, dressed in a tank top.
"What is it, Goldie?"
"Goldie? Are you okay?"
Her parents approach her at the sofa, with worried expressions, chock full of questions.
The scream had interrupted her father from watching the morning news, and her mother from preparing pancakes for breakfast in the kitchen just beside the living room.
"Did something happen?", asks her father as Goldie hurries to grab her mother's arms with both her hands with a shocked and utterly amazed expression on her face.
"Mom.", says Goldie to her mother, looking straight into her mother's eyes with bewilderment, mind-blown and partially speechless.
"Yes, sweetie?", Goldie's mother, Mrs Becky Markell urges her to speak.
Her eyes, full of wonder, run a quick, mental scan as she looks over her daughter to ensure that she is unharmed whilst her husband, Goldie's father comes up right beside her with several questions written all over his face.
"..."
Unable to explain her overflowing thoughts, Goldie's mouth hangs agape for a few seconds, with no words coming out as she has difficulty translating her overwhelming shock to actual words.
Goldie had discovered something completely unbelievable whilst in her room. Too unbelievable for words. Too outstanding to explain.
"...???"
Her parents look back at the wordless Goldie, tilting their heads with puzzled gazes directed at their daughter as they wait for words to to come out of her mouth.
"...u- n-...", begins Goldie, gesturing briefly with her hands before she wordlessly lets her mother's hands go with a huff, giving it up, and swiftly turns around with her back against her parents.
Rather that try to explain, she would 'show' them.
With her back against both her parents and her gaze tilted to the side, Goldie sweeps away her long, wavy, curly hair to the front of her shoulder to show something on her back.
"Mother, father… What is this?", Goldie asks with her back turned against her parents.
On the two corners of her upper back, exposed by her backless tank top, both parents can see clearly what looks like roughly plucked chicken wings etched onto the two sides of Goldie's back, like a horrid growth out of nightmares.
The growths had a few tiny sticks of feathers sticking out too. With a few throbbing veins lying around them where Goldie's fair skin was being broken through as they were protruding out of her back.
Simply put, it looked like wings were starting to grow out of Goldie's back!
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