They say May is a robot. I say otherwise. May is different, not programmed. She does everything right, and in an orderly fashion. She also doesn’t talk, like, ever. And no one talks to her.

I slide in to the chair opposite the gracefully tall girl with sheets of silver for hair and emeralds for eyes and place my cellophane wrapped sandwich down in front of me. “Hey, May.” I try but she doesn’t look up from her pasta pot and elegantly puts a fork full of pasta in her mouth. I reach forwards and tap her hand, quickly withdrawing it. She jerks her head upwards with a blank expression, I give her a small smile that she doesn’t return. I sigh as some people walking behind me snigger and I hear a muttered ‘idiot’ and ‘she never talks, why would she talk to him?’

When I’m leaving my last class I see May coming out of the door ahead of me and I jog to catch her up. ‘Hey, May’ I try with less enthusiasm than the first time that day. She turns this time, like she is actually aware of her own name and I grin. She is stock still, but her green eyes dart around until they land on me. The edges of her lips strain and twitch like she isn’t able to move them any more than that. Her head twists suddenly back around like it’s being pulled and she, once again, starts walking away from me.

May is sat on a bench reading a book. I approach her slowly and slip silently in to the seat next to her. The book she’s reading has no title on the red, hardback cover and when I lean over to her, there are no words. Just endless blank pages.

May starts looking up from her book and towards me, she’s shaking violently and my first instinct is to run. I don’t. Her head flicks upwards twice, like she’s trying to get rid of a fly. Her eyes are still looking at the book she’s clutching so hard her fingers are turning white.

‘May’

Her eyes snap towards me and her fingers un-tense so much the blank book falls out of her hands and on to the grass. She becomes limp and falls in to my arms. I lifter her upwards gently, like she could break. Her pale face breaks in to a fragile smile. The spell broke, and just like that, she could see everything with fresh eyes.