I came out of my piano teachers house and began the short walk toward home. My teacher had just started me on a new song; "A Winter Story" by Yiruma. I loved it and hummed it as I was walking. Hearing laughing beside me I turned and saw Janessa, my former best friend, laughing with all of her friends in her new pool. Another party I hadn't been invited to. I wasn't exactly sure what had gone wrong with our friendship. We had been best friends since kindergarten, but when we got to high school she entered the popular crowed and I did not. She was a cheerleader, I was in the orchestra. She was at a party every weekend; I spent my weekends between practicing violin and piano and reading. She had had at least 20 boyfriends in the last 2 years; guys didn't notice I existed. She shopped at the mall; I shopped at Kholes. Her parents were rich; my parents weren't (well, not to me). She was an American; I was an adopted Black-Asian. I guessed that our friendship was bound to stop soon, but I hadn't expected that. As I walked in to our simply finished home I saw myself in the long mirror. I knew I wasn't pretty. I had curly black hair that I had let grow as long at it would. Now it was at my waist. My skin was a creamy vanilla, the only thing I liked about myself. My eyes were blue. It was crazy. From what I knew about my parents I knew that neither of them had blue eyes. I had no idea where they came from. But they seemed to throw my face off and make me look even weirder. "You home, Cahlina?" my mom called out calling me by the name my birth mother had given me before she gave me up. Cahlina was not my name. My name was weird. Xiana Elia Corban. Xiana from my birth mother; her middle name was Xian. Elia from Cahlina, the name she had given me. And Corban, of course, because that was my parents last name. "Yeah, I'm home", I called to her as I evalutated my wardrobe. I loved skinny jeans and on this particular day I had bright pink ones with a plaid pink and white shirt (yes, you can find cool stuff at Kholes). Heading to my plain room I put everything away in its place and pulled out my mountains of homework. With no friends and no social life I didn't have much else to do. Putting away my music books I spread out my homework, popped in my iPod (Yiruma all the way!), and began to do the homework that never went away. I slaved away for a good hour until I s