The Color of My Heart (This is the story with the names you voted on, so here! This is also the story with the goth chick)

The first time Araceli Evans saw the famous LoBella School for the Gifted was through the window of a small airplane. It had drawn her eyes as soon as they descended beneath the clouds, its bright blue roof and shorter stature making it instantly recognizable among the tall, sleek skyscrapers around it that rose higher than the clouds on the small island of Mindsar. Mindsar was just off the coast of Florida and was only known for LoBella School -- even more so the residents of said school. Sometimes called the Prodigy School, it housed some of the world's most gifted students.

But this was no Ivy League school or Juliard arts place. It was for kids who showed immense talent in any area, be it brains, brawn or beauty.

Araceli had been accepted at the age of 13, but it had taken her and her single mother three years to save up enough to pay for the steep admission price. Now, just a month before her sixteenth birthday, she'd be able to go.

She was hoping going to LoBella would help to cure her stage fright. Araceli had a gorgeous voice, but she was so afraid to use it in front of people that she would only sing when she knew no one but her mom was listening. On top of that, she could play the saxophone, flute, harp, piano, guitar and chimes, but had the same issue. She wrote songs regularly, and she could hear a song once and be able to write her own arrangement of it, but never showed these to anyone but her mother.

The only way the school had found out about her was when they sent an agent to her house and her mom let them listen at the keyhole. She had been singing an original composition, and the agent had been in tears by the end of the song.

Araceli laughed at the memory of her mother's guilty face when she'd gotten her acceptance letter on her thirteenth birthday. Thinking of her helped the homesickness as the plane flew in for a landing.

She glanced around at the one other person in the plane. She was about her age, but much taller than Araceli was. She had black streaks in her short, choppy, punk-style blond hair. She wore copious amounts of goth makeup and had two small butterflies tattooed onto the far corners of her eyes. She had a huge gray sweatshirt on, rolled up to her elbows, and she wore black fingerless gloves on both hands, not concealing her dark purple and black nails. Her skin was pale, and she had freckles.

She was listening to a sleek silver iPod Touch, which was sticking out of the pocket of her black skinny jeans. As Araceli watched, she absentmindedly tapped out the beat to the song on her thigh. She stared out the window with deep, dark blue eyes. Those eyes were full of pain beyond her years.

The plane halted, and Araceli grabbed her suitcases and her shoulder bag. She towed her two small packs outside the airplane and waited a little awkwardly in the humid air for the other girl. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, Araceli held out her hand to her. "Hi," she said shakily. She was very new to introducing herself to people. She usually didn't ever do that.

"Hi," said the other girl, taking her hand and shaking it without taking her dark blue eyes off Araceli's face. "My name's Layla."

"Araceli." Having those dark eyes trained on her face was making Araceli nervous. But then the girl started toward the school building.

"Follow me," she called back to Araceli. "We're supposed to just walk in."

Araceli followed Layla all the way to the school. Halfway there, she asked Layla a question that had been on her mind. "Layla, did you know that the school building used to be an old opera house?"

"I did know that, actually."

"Is it true that there are secret passageways that lead all over?"

"I'm not sure. We could find out." Layla said this with more emotion than Araceli had ever heard her, and she only sounded mildly interested.

Up close, the building was huge. It was very, very wide, almost as wide as the skyscrapers were tall, and had large, sprawling grounds bursting with bright flowers that contrasted sharply with the stark white of the building itself and the gray, stormy sky. Araceli and Layla walked up to the huge blue doors and opened them, hurrying into the air conditioned building.

"Hello and welcome to LoBella School for the Gifted. Please come here." A tall, stern looking lady was sitting at the front desk, looking down her spectacles at them.

Araceli walked forward. "Name, please."

"Araceli Evans."

"Good. Fourteenth floor, West Wing, Starlily Room. Here is your schedule and off you go."

Araceli walked towards the staircase labeled, "WEST". She walked up flights, counting them as she went. Eight, nine, ten . . .

And then finally she was at the top, on the fourteenth floor. She walked past the doors . . . Rose, Lilac, Bluebell . . . and finally Starlily. She opened the door and found herself staring into the prettiest room she had ever seen.

A jar of white starlilies was set on a white writing desk and a large white piano. There were two large bunk beds, decorated with white and gold sheets and embroidered with green and gold flowers. There were lacy curtains framing the window, which was made of bubbly glass, and there was a springy green carpet and four small wardrobes. One was labeled "Araceli" and one was labeled "Layla".

Layla came up behind her. "A little too soft for my taste. Oh well," she said. "I call top bunk." She went over to the bed furthest from the door and climbed the ladder.

"Fine by me," Araceli said, running over to the bottom bunk and flopping down on top of it.

The door opened again, and a girl with yellow hair bounced into the room, followed by a girl who was shockingly gorgeous, but would have been more so if she hadn't been scowling.

The yellow-haired girl ran over to Layla, and threw her arms around her. "Oh my goodness," she squealed. "I've been waiting for you two all day!"

Instead of looking annoyed, though, to Araceli's surprise, Layla looked vaguely amused. "Hi."

"Hello!" the girl said. Her curly hair bounced as she rushed over to Araceli and hugged her too. "I'm Kaela, you can call me Kae. I'm so excited, we hardly ever get new girls!!!" She smiled at the other two like she'd be happy just to sit and watch them all day.

"Hi," said Araceli. "I'm Araceli."

"Oooooooooh, that's a pretty name!!! Mind if I call you Ara? Araceli would be too long for me to say, because in case you haven't noticed, I talk really fast!"

"Oh, sure," Araceli said, meeting eyes with Layla and grinning.

Layla was smiling. "I'm Layla," she said.

"Who're you?" she continued, pointing at the other girl.

She had dyed platinum blond hair and huge green eyes. Her arms were folded, and she looked down at the others with a haughty expression. "I'm Brittney Fox. Singer, songwriter."

She sounded so bored. Araceli gave her a tentative smile, which she did not return. Brittney stalked out of the room.

"Brittney is in the Music Department, but she hangs around with the Modeling and Designing department, on the second floor. They're in the Jewel rooms. She hates being stuck up here with all the artsy 'freaks.'" Kaela looked sadly out the door. "I've tried to be nice to her . . . really, she doesn't do anything but sulk nowadays."

"What do you do, then?" asked Araceli.

"Oh! I write! I write anything . . . plays, songs, books, stories, anything! I love doing it!" She beamed. "That's my desk, over there." She pointed to the white desk with the white flowers set atop it. "What do you guys do?"

"Paint," said Layla.

"Music . . . in general. My mom's sending my saxophone, flute and harp over. I brought everything else, besides my piano. That's not a problem, though," said Araceli, gesturing toward the piano.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! Could you play something for us?"

"Er, I'd rather not."

"Why not?" asked Layla.

"I . . . I have stage fright."

"Not for us, you don't." Kae dragged Araceli over and sat her down on the piano bench. She stood behind her, smiling encouragingly. "I've got your back."

The words comforted Araceli. It was only Layla she had to play for. Just Layla. Who wouldn't care if she messed up. And Kae had her back.

She shocked herself when she tapped out a few notes to "Kiss the Rain". (http://grooveshark.com/ look up Kiss the Rain by Yiruma) And then, like it was for all the music she'd ever played, once she played the first part she couldn't stop. She played the whole thing, with her eyes closed, swaying to the beat.

After it was over, she opened her eyes to see Layla with her eyes wide open. "That was awesome. Yiruma, right?"

"Yeah," Araceli said, blushing at the compliment.

"You're amazing! I don't know what you have to be afraid of." Kaela winked at her.

"But you can't tell anyone about me! Then they'll want me to play for them!" Araceli couldn't imagine performing for more than two people at once. "I still have stage fright."

"Really?"

"Yes. Just the thought of performing for a whole audience makes me weak in the knees."

Then a bell rang somewhere outside the room. "Time for lunch!" said Kae, grinning and bouncing out into the hallway. "You both have to meet everybody!"

"Guess we should follow her," said Layla, a slow smile spreading onto her dark purple lips.

"Guess we should," said Araceli, smiling back.

Today was looking up in a way Araceli hadn't ever imagined.