Lily Parsons stared despondently at her empty lunch table the hot Texas sun beating through the cafeteria windows. As she picked at her salad another giggling cluster of girls flounced by in their stylish outfits and perfect hair not even glancing her way. A twinge of loneliness twisted in her chest. If only she could be one of the popular crowd just this once instead of the perpetual invisible girl.
Shoving her tray aside she stormed outside needing a break from the daily humiliation. Her sneakers crunched across the parched football field as she found a quiet corner behind the bleachers. A glint of light in the dirt caught her eye - she brushed aside the dust to reveal a jagged blackened stone that seemed to almost...pulse. Lily's breath caught her heart racing as the sky itself darkened as if morning had suddenly twisted back to night.
"Freedom at long last!" rasped a malevolent voice from her rear, the wicked words seeming to ooze like poison. Whirling around, she gasped at the tall, cloaked specter fixing her with a hollow-eyed glare. "You have awoken me, pathetic creature. For liberating me from celestial imprisonment, I shall grant a single wish."
Lily's hands shook her throat closing with fear but powered by years of being mocked and shunned her deepest desire slipped out. "I-I want to be popular. To be desired and admired by everyone at school."
The ghastly apparition grinned a awful rictus grin thin lips stretching back over jagged teeth. "Granted."With a sweeping motion its cloak billowed outward and a sudden raging wind whipped around them both. Just as quickly as it began the disturbance ended...yet nothing seemed changed.
Heart still thundering Lily started to stammer doubts but the creature had vanished as quickly as it appeared. Shaken she hurried back to class mind spinning but assuming she'd imagined the whole bizarre incident. Until first period English when she was immediately surrounded by six girls she'd never spoken to before chatting about clothes makeup celebrities like she was their newest best friend. Even Luke Henderson her long-time crush gazed at her with a look she'd never seen before as she passed by his desk. Was this...Was this what being popular felt like?
Over the next few weeks Lily drifted through a blissful haze of constant affirmation. Everyone knew her name they friended her on social media they laughed at all her jokes and showered her with complements. She basked in the warm newfound glow of admiration especially from Luke who asked her on a date then another and seemed to be falling for her.
Too soon the dark side of popularity reared its ugly head. The same friends who were plastering her social media with heart emojis one week turned viciously sarcastic and cold the next. They claimed she dress frumpy her makeup was trying too hard her personality too bland and basic to deserve their adoration. Luke backed off as well having gotten what he wanted from her romantically.
Lily soon realized with horror that everyone's fixation on her was insatiable and constantly shifting. As soon as they were done adoring one aspect of her they instantly needed to admire a new quality or interest or look to reman enamored. If she failed to keep shocking them over and over again with new facets to appreciate the cruelty became overwhelming. She found herself frantically struggling to remake her appearance personality hobbies friend groups weekly monthly just to court enough approval to keep from being utterly cast aside.
Even worse any flaws Lily showed any weakness or imperfection was relentlessly mocked and dissected across social media and in person. The pressure was too much - she stopped sleeping barely ate because she was limiting food so strictly to maintain an admired body type. Lily's grades tanked as she had no time for studying only obsessing over reinventing herself for her captive audience of so-called friends and admirers.
One night after another brutal bout of malicious gossip and being turned on by the entire school for daring to have a breakout on her cheek Lily collapsed onto her bed in despair. As she reached the bottom of that dark emotional pit something drastic shifted inside of her. Was this shallow torture really what she wished for all those months ago? To be admired and liked by everyone only on the very surface while her own soul was slowly shredded away?
She found herself speaking aloud to the empty room. "I don't want this. I don't want to be admired anymore - I just want to be seen. To be liked for who I am without all this ridiculous suffocating pressure!" No sooner did those words leave Lily's lips then an ominous wind howled through her bedroom window. Just as suddenly it stopped and Lily sat in stillness her heart pounding.
The next day at school it was as if a veil had been lifted from everyone's eyes. People politely said hi to Lily if they passed in the halls but that was it - no avalanche of compliments no obsessive analyzations of her clothing and looks. Luke smiled at her for a brief warm moment before rejoining his friend group. Everywhere around her people were just being...normal. Treating her as an equal not a prize or an enemy but just another person.
A bubble of relief swelled inside Lily's chest allowing her to breathe fully for what felt like the first time in ages. She raised her chin a bit higher and strolled to her locker with a small confident smile. For the first time in a long time she felt centered within herself not buffeted by the shifting winds of popularity but standing on her own solid ground. Just being seen for who she was turned out to be more precious than all the empty admiration in the world.
