“Hi Lisa!” Mrs. Jones shouts out from the door of her café. 

 

   “Hi Mrs. Jones, how are you!” This is a day to day routine, but it is very nice, I had never felt happy but in this place I can. I take my iPod out and put my head phones on; the music is the only reminder of my family, of the place I used to live. My story is chaotic, everything started when I started Middle School, when you’re a kid everyone loves you they can’t resist your face, and everything you do is forgiven, because you are just a kid. Well, not in this case.

 

   I used to live in a small town in Australia where everyone was so focused on how everyone looked and how important it is to be beautiful, except me, I didn’t care. Well that’s what I told myself I did care. When I started Middle School, everything went to hell. They criticized everyone for the looks and I wasn’t the exception, I was the puppet of the school, I was bullied by everyone just because I wasn’t blond and anorexic. I try not to care but when I got home from school I would normally cry myself to sleep. I used to fight with my mind because she was always telling me that what they said was not true, she was always telling me how beauty is defined by the person’s personality not their looks. Inside I knew she was right, but outside I felt like trash. I looked in the mirror and saw a brunette fat as a cow, a skin as white as milk, and that made me sadder. I used to say that when I had money I would change the way I looked, that I would go to one of those doctors that in three seconds will leave you beautiful. Every day was as the day before, me being bullied, me trying to ignore everyone by listening to music with the volume as high as possible, me going home to cry myself to sleep. 

 

   “I am good, how is your friend Al”, I heard Mrs. Jones say. Jones say. I turned to my left and there she was standing with a bag of bagels on her hand.

 

   “He is good, as annoying as ever” I told her.

 

   She laughed saying “He is annoying, but he is also to cute of an alien, I can’t resist to spoil him”, she gives me the bag, tells me to say hi to Al, and goes back in to the café. I thank her and continue walking thinking about Al. Al is all I have now; he is my saver and my best friend. You probably are asking yourself how I met Al, well just wait. 

 

   When I started freshman year of High School I wasn’t the one being bullied, my cousin who came from Sydney was the new donkey, that’s what they called the ugly one at school. We weren’t close so I really didn’t care, and I was happy because all the attention was taken away from me, so now I was a ghost, no one bothered me, I was very thankful. I still had my self-esteem problems, or still have, anyway, freshman was awesome I sort of felt free, sort of. I still fought with my mind because even though I wasn’t being bullied I still felt ugly and fat, I felt like no one loved me. I think she was getting tired and was about to killed herself because one day she started fighting against me. That day I thought I lost everything, I went to school, and hid myself in the library, I asked robot-one if he could look for a book about the life in the 1900s, I don’t know why I chose that topic the words were out of my mouth before I could even think. I read all day and when school was over for the day I went looking for a quiet meadow. I found it, but what I found in the meadow was more interesting.

 

   “Hi Lisa!”, my boss Mr. Evans sing song, he is weird, with a mustache, glasses and clothes that reminded me of  the book I read about the world war two. Mr. Evans is not, old he is in his mid-thirties, but his wardrobe and that mustache make him look as old as santa clause. 

 

   “Hi Marcus, how’s is it?”

 

   “Oh, you know same old.” I was hoping he’ll say something different, I work in a library, the public library of Chicago to be exact. This place is always lonely, only book nerds come here, and to be precise those are like three, including me. Yeah, best place to work ever, the smell of the pages of the old books is addictive.

 

   I don’t know how but, he back off and introduce himself, “Hello human, my name is Al”, yeah that was quite a meeting. We talked for a while and for some weird reason I told him everything about myself, everything even how they treated me at school and the fact that I wanted for people to see me as beautiful.

 

   The little animal interrupted me in the middle of that thought saying, “BUT YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!”, “Lisa, you are beautiful and I am an alien saying this, those humans are blind, trust me.” I didn’t believed him, and I never told him so, but I have a feeling he knew it.

 

   That night he told me, “You know Lisa if you want to change your appearance I will do it, but just before I do so you need to understand that what your mind always said is true, beauty is not physical.” Well, as you can imagine I, being as blind as I was, accepted. Next day I woke up looking different, blonde her curvy, body as toned as if I worked out for years, you know, all that stuff that people seem to think is pretty. I went to school and everyone looked at me, but not even close to the way they looked at me before. Their jaws fell to the ground, I felt empowered, I felt like I was the queen. Everyone wanted to be with me, everyone talked with me, a normal conversation without being disrespectful. Life in that moment was heaven. Days passed and things were the same, or so I thought. 

 

   “Lisa go home, watch a movie, and take a nap. You look tire” Marcus murmured in my ear, I didn’t realize I was falling asleep.

 

   “Are you sure?” I asked.

 

   “Oh yeah, taking care of these place is a piece of cake.”

 

   “Okay, see you tomorrow Marcus.” Two minutes later I was on my way home. I love this country, it is beautiful. I feel happy. I was walking by Mrs. Jones when I saw an advertisement that said they were doing a concert in honor of Hannah Reid, I swear started crying. I love her band, London Grammar, it’s old but song such as “Strong” has helped me through a lot of weak moments. 

 

   When I got home one day Al told me he had something to you to me. He took me to the basement and turned on the TV.  It was weird I was confused, he started a video and the first thing that came on was a frozen image of me before and me now. Weird. The video started and what I saw and heard left me crying until there were no more tears. My classmates were saying that I was a bitch, that a slept with whatever doctor had changed my appearance. They were saying ugly things about me, I don’t know why Al showed me the video, but I will be eternally thankful. In that moment realized that my mind was correct beauty is not physical. I also came to understand that you can’t make everyone happy. I changed but, in the inside I wasn’t happy and I knew it, I just didn’t want to take notice of it, of what I was really feeling. After watching the video I told Al, “Al, change me back to being what I was born being as. I hate this I hate this place, I now comprehend that they are all obsessed with themselves, they are all self-centered. Please Al, change me now!”

 

   I took the train and was at home before I could even realize it. I opened the front door and what I saw melt my heart, Al was trying to clean the whole house, he never did it, I was always the one who did everything in this house. 

 

   “AL! What in the world are you doing!” I shouted stiffening a laugh

 

   “I was trying to clean, but I wasn’t successful as you can see.” He said pouting, cute. “I’ll clean, just get away from the books, they are precious.”

 

   “Ok.”

 

   Al immediately took the famous equipment from his spaceship and in seconds I was back to being the brunette, fat, paled skin I not long ago was. The difference is that this time I didn’t see myself as disgusting. Al and I had a long conversation on how he got hold of that video, the sneaky monster had, somehow, hide inside my backpack. That night I realized that I had to leave, I was not happy there. The next day I woke up early and took all the money in my father’s save box. I waited until they left for work to pack a bag. Al was surprised but he still traveled with me. I went to the airport and bought tickets for the first flight to America. Three days later I found myself in Chicago.

 

   

   “HEY, HEY LISA! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?” Al screamed, making me realize I had space out for quite a while.

 

   “You know just how we got here, how we met, and how my life was miserable.” I said thoughtfully.

 

    “Uh, that is quite a story, good thing we left that town. Good thing you found me, you are nothing without me.” He laughed. 

 

   “Yeah, I love you Al thank you for everything. I just hope everything keeps going as well as it has.” I started crying. Al was next to me instantly hugging me and comforting me, telling me that everything will continue to go this good, forever.

 

   “Thanks Al, by the way, in my way here I so that they are doing a concert honoring Hannah Reid and London Grammar, you want to go?” I swear I’ve never seen Al that happy, he couldn’t stop singing their songs, it was an interesting sight. I really hope things going this well, this place has changed my life, and I want to be positive.