Part one
It is late one night at the beginning of September and in one Birmingham flat a little girl- no more than eight or nine- kneels by her window. She wears a long pink nightdress and her long black hair tumbles in a plat down her back. Her eyes are sealed shut but the tears coat her eyelashes better than any mascara. Her fingers are linked together as her hands rest in front of her mouth. Add the moonlight that glistens off the frost in the window and her teddy bear that lies abandoned at her feet and you will see that this little girl could be on the front of a Christmas card, the perfect image of prayer. Except this girl isn't praying. She has no concept of god or any higher being than herself. Her lips move as she whispers words to herself. But she is not praying, or talking to herself, or talking to an invisible friend even. Though that would be completely normal at her age. No, she's doing the only thing she's been taught to do when things go wrong- she's wishing. If you listen very closely you can hear her whispered words.
"Star light, star bright.
First star I see tonight.
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.
I wish to be normal: I wish I were just like the rest of them. I wish to fit in. Please?" She opened her eyes cautiously and then gazed heavenward, in search of an answer. Or at least a sign that there would be an answer: one day.
"Anna?" Her mother called from the landing. "What on earth are you doing up a this time of night?" She asked as she walked into Anna's room.
"I'm studying. English test tomorrow." Anna said as she held up a random book from her floor. Hoping this would satisfy her mother's curiosity.
"Oh… Okay then." She replied and then walked out of the room. Anna knew that her mother would never stop her studying and she was using it to her advantage.
As soon as she saw the light out side her room go off and heard her mother's door click shut she glanced down at her hands. She sighed in disappointment when she saw that nothing had changed. Still the same colour despite all her wishing. But she wasn't going to stop wishing now: she wasn't going to give up. She was so sure that her wishes would be answered soon. She'd been sure from the very first day she'd started. The day she had first started to wish stuck out clear in Anna's mind: the first time she so desperately wanted to be different. Not to be her self. It was when she got back from her first day at her new school.
"How was it, Anna?" Her mum pounced on her the moment she walked through the door. Wanting details: names, places, sights, and feelings. Anna just sighed sadly.
"It was horrid, like I said it would be. I want to go home now, and back to my old school. I don't like this new one!"
"But Anna this is a good school we've moved out of that dump of a flat and now you're going to this good school. To get a proper education."
"I don’t like it there. They are all so nasty to me."
"You'll fit in soon enough." Her mother reassured her. "It'll just take a little while." Anna nodded and then thought for a wile before asking:
"Mum, what's a Paki?" Her mum took in a deep breath and her eyes widened as her daughter said this. She pulled Anna onto her lap and asked her gently:
"Who said that to you, sugar?"
"A boy at school, he said I was a 'nasty little Paki who shouldn't be going to their school.' What does it mean mummy?"
"It's someone who comes from Pakistan."
"But I come from Birmingham." Anna said, not completely understanding. "So why did they say that about me?"
"Because the are stupid and don't know anything about you. I'll go and talk to the head about them, until then you just ignore them. Okay sugar?"
"Okay. But I wish I had pink skin like yours mummy. Then they wouldn't pick on me at all."
"Don't be so silly Anna! Your perfect just the way you are." Anna had nodded even though she didn't agree.
Part two
Remember the little girl? Well here she is again. Not so little any more: quite grown up in fact. Well, that's what she will have you believe. But deep down she's still that frightened and confused little girl who's wishing on a star. But she's learnt how to hide it. She's ten years old now. Wearing a mini skirt that is still a few centimetres too long but is the shortest her mum will buy her, a strappy top that hangs awkwardly of her still flat chest and high-healed shoes that she can barely walk in. She is trying to be fashionable but failing miserably.
Her and her friends are standing outside their local cinema. After having just been thrown out for trying to get into the film that every one's talking about which is a twelve. And if you could see them you would know that they look no where near twelve. So now all they have to do is sit outside on the steps and freeze for the next hour and a half. They can't go home to their parents as they told them that they were only going to see a PG. So they are left sitting there: Anna and her friends.
Only a close group of friends: ones that don't fit into the 'normal' group of people and were picked on at school. These are the kids who didn't get invited to all the 'cool' parties, who are bullied for what they are, what the look like. They call themselves the 'out casts' they act like they are proud not to be liked but I can guarantee that all of them will give anything to be popular. To be liked: or at least not to be hated.
The first one of Anna's friends is a tall girl with braces and glasses. She is wearing jeans and a t-shirt and looks like every other ten-year-old girl. But she is very clever. She is smarter than the most popular girl in her year: and this is a great crime. She is probably the one that they hate the most out of the group. But you wouldn't guess this from the way they talk to her. They call her a geek, a boffin and a teacher's pet. They wont have anything to do with her unless they need the answers to the science test. Then suddenly she isn't that bad.
Then there was an over weight girl. Not so fat that people point at her when she walks down the street or that she has to go to the doctors for her weight to be checked on but enough to be noticed by her ever judging class mates. She doesn't wear clothes designed for ten year olds because she doesn't fit into them. Instead she wears ones for older children or teenagers where the sizes vary more. Fatty. That's what they call her, among other things. They make fun of her when she has to do PE: knowing that she will come last in every race. And they always comment whenever they see her eat anything. Not that she eats very often: she is always on a diet. Ten and already on a diet: a diet that will last the rest of her life.
And now we come to the last member of the group. The remaining 'out cast.' The girl with long brown hair sitting next to Anna, hair that looks like it hasn't been cut in years, and it probably hasn't. This is the girl who never wears the right clothes when she goes out because she never has enough money to buy the right clothes. She wears sandals instead of trainers and comes to school on a bus because her family doesn't have a car. She gets free school meals. And because of this she is the girl who gets called a gypsy. The one people at school look at in a funny way and whisper that 'she's got nits' or that 'she lives in a cardboard box' or that 'her parents don't love her enough to buy her proper clothes.' She is the one who is always left without a partner and people avoid in the corridors. Yet people tell these kids that these are the best days of their lives. It doesn't give them much hope.
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