wow title? I don't think so (Moonie)

Hayden was glad that she was in the 2nd cohort. Most of the time, anyways. The kids here were as strong and hard-willed as she was, and Hayden felt more comfortable here than anywhere else. She was not a reject, and although these kids were the ones that would taunt her, they belonged just as much as she did. In fact, Hayden wasn't actually part of the legion yet. Since she was not yet 14, she was not allowed to become part of it. But that was something that was going to change soon.

Hayden slumped in her chair, doodling in her notebook. She was a good artist (or at least she thought so), but she was slow, and her subjects kept moving around. This time it was a panorama of the entire lounge. Hayden had gotten the objects down in a sketchy manner (They were to be inked in later), but the people kept moving. There were only one or two others in the cabin (to Hayden's relief), so she was not having such a hard time keeping them in one spot. The campers mostly were slouched around the couches, and they weren't really in any hurry. Hayden solidified the lines on her rough sketch, and was about to reach into the black leather bag that she always carried around when she noticed one coming towards her. The camper was much bigger than she was, and Hayden sat up immediately, clenching her pen tightly with her fist. Hayden held her head high, no matter what. Her body looked smaller in the tee shirt that no longer fit Hayden. It had once been to big, but Hayden had long since grown out of it. The ends were frayed from being caught on tree branches and other things, and her arms stuck out of it like an awkward giraffe. The kids in the 2nd cohort made fun of her for it, but Hayden didn't have any problem shouting insults back at them (or in her case, writing out big cards to stick on their backs while they were preoccupied). Hayden tried not to let some of their insults get to her, but she was an easy target. For one, Hayden was much younger than a lot of the campers, and although she had been at camp for three whole years, she was still on probatio and wasn't yet claimed. Hayden tried to ignore her father as much as possible. In the beginning, she prayed that he would claim her, but it had been three years and Hayden was done with waiting. She signed quietly to herself, hiding her hands beneath her sketchbook. One good thing about signing was that no one knew what you were saying. Hayden could talk to herself all she wanted about any person in the room and they wouldn't be able to tell anything.

Hayden sat up higher in her chair. A cocky looking boy with ruffled boy was approaching. He was older than she was and a good deal bigger. No one approached Hayden unless... Hayden waited for the boy to say something. She was an easy target for bullying. While Hayden would use her fists to defend herself, words stung more than her fists did, and Hayden could not use words. It was too difficult to write out the terrible insults she wanted to scream at the kids. Hayden had gotten caught too many times with insults written on flashcards because she had no other choice. She could not utter a word back.

Freak... They would whisper, pinning Hayden against a fence so she couldn’t fight back or call for help. She was half blind and mute, but was that really reason enough to subject her to that kind of torture? Apparently it was. Hayden had been a freak in school, but now she was really a freak at camp. A freak that was in the 2nd best cohort. Hayden felt humiliated every time she was teased by the kids in her own cohort. 1st cohort kids she could understand, and give them a massive bruise, but Hayden considered it worse to be alienated by the people who she was supposed to give her undying trust to.

She was not surprised when the boy wanted her to leave the seat that she had been so happily occupying for the last 45 minutes. She crossed her arms and looked up at the boy, unwilling to read. Hayden quickly flipped to the word art in her sketchbook. In the midst of delicately drawn cityscapes, Hayden had written the words NO in very bold letters. After shoving it in the boy’s face, Hayden flipped to a clean page. You don’t own this place. I can sit where ever I want. Hayden showed this too the boy and raised her eyebrows, as if challenging him to say otherwise.