text: Calli spent her high school life getting hurt, so she decided to spend her university life getting misunderstood. It took a persistent few to break down the wall she had put up and see what lie beneath. When Rita met Calli, she thought the other girl to be cold and emotionless. She thought that way for a while. They met on their first day of university, both starting off their degree in Engineering. Rita had seen this small girl sitting alone in the corner while everyone else mingled and her kind heart would not allow for her to ignore the other girl. She walked to be closer and when her presence was noticed, the other girl had raised her head. The blank stare would have sent shivers up a weaker girl’s spine, but Rita gave her patented warm smile and spoke up, “Hi, my name is Rita. What’s yours?” The girl appeared to be thinking about whether or not to answer, but eventually settled on a toneless, “Calli.” Rita decided on that day that she would work towards opening Calli up and to see through the cold exterior, believing that no one could be that emotionless. If you asked Rita, her persistence was friendly, but if you asked Calli, her persistence was exasperating. All the same, Calli found that Rita attached herself to her hip and was going no where. Yet three months into knowing each other, Calli said the first thing that was not completely void of emotion. “The last time I had a best friend, she spread false rumours behind my back,” Calli explained with a frown on her face, yet Rita could sense the sadness in those eyes. “So I apologise for not being so willing to open up to you. Please understand.” Rita, sensitive as she was, wanted to cry. Yet she held in the tears, because she had done it. The first crack had appeared. When Vera first interacted with Calli, she thought her student to be rude. Calli never greeted her whenever their paths crossed, she also never reacted to feedback Vera offered on her projects. Vera found herself frowning whenever she settled her eyes on the expressionless face. Five months into being one of Calli’s many professors, Vera began to observe and learn. She wanted to understand all of her students, one of the reasons she had never pulled up Calli on what Vera perceived to be rudeness. One of her first observations of her student was that she only had the one friend, another student of hers named Rita. A warm, friendly girl that seemed out of place next to such an emotionless person. Another observation was that the girl did not trust easily, Vera often having complaints from other students that Calli would do their parts for them in group assignments on the off chance they did not do it themselves. This showed her that Calli felt the need to be preemptive just in case she happened to be grouped with slackers. Then the day came that she realised the girl was not rude or emotionless, she was shielding herself. She realised this when she happened to pass Calli and Rita in an empty hall. The two girls appeared not to notice her and Vera caught the first glimpse of an emotion on Calli’s face. A small upturn of one corner of her mouth that betrayed a smile at something her only friend had just said. Rita was someone she cared for and trusted. A week later, Vera approached Calli when she noticed the girl was alone for once, her sunny shadow nowhere in sight. “Calli,” she calls softly. That expressionless face turned to face her, the only sign she was ready to listen. Vera gives her a warm smile, noticing the surprise in the girl’s eyes to be smiled at when she had not given her teacher a reason to smile at her. “How are you finding this week’s readings? The next exam is coming and a lot of the content this week will be covered in it.” Calli appeared to hesitate, but eventually, she started to discuss the readings with Vera. The spark that steadily came to life in her eyes belayed her passion for Engineering she had been keeping hidden. The second crack appeared. When Daniel met Calli, the first thing he noticed was that she was rather pretty. The second thing he noticed was that she was antisocial and preferred the company of her one friend. Honestly, she had peeked his interest and he spent the last few months of the semester observing her. They were not in the same faculty, but he had learned her habits rather quickly as she frequented the same cafeteria every day and only went from class to class. She never even hung out at the library. That being said, he did eventually take note that her friend was not the only person she interacted with. On the rare occasion her friend was not around, he found Calli to be talking to one of her professors. He did not know the woman’s name, but he at least recognised her as one of the second year teachers for Engineering. He never got close enough to hear their conversations, but the girl seemed engaged with what they were discussing. The interested look, the first emotion he had seen on her face in several weeks, brightened up her face in ways he would think only a smile could do. The more he observed her with her friend and her professor, the more he came to like her. She was different than most other girls he knew, she kept her feelings close to the chest and saved her emotions for those she cared about, not wasting them on those that may not even deserve it. He learned based on the way some people behaved around her that they did not appreciate the way she was like her friend did, nor did they try to understand her like her professor did. One day, he worked up the courage to talk to her directly, finding her alone in the cafeteria. Taking a deep breath, he walked over to stand beside her table and waited for her to look up at him. He noticed a confusion in her eyes, yet he was sure he only saw it because he was beginning to understand her micro expressions. With a gentle smile, he tells her one of his many observations. “You’re beautiful,” because he knew she had not heard it often, or even at all. A blush rose upon her cheeks, and he took that as a success as he walked away. All he had wanted to do was firstly, get her to react, and secondly, make her day. The third crack appeared. When Dia met Calli for the first time in five years, she barely recognised her. The last several weeks of high school, Calli had been morose, lonely and not once had she smiled. Dia knew it had been her fault, she had become jealous of the attention Calli was getting and without thinking, had started vicious rumours. Those rumours ended up hurting her best friend and destroying their friendship. After graduation, she never saw Calli again. The guilt she felt over everything made her glad for it. She was scared what would happen to Calli, what her life would be like knowing that particularly hard teenage years can effect adulthood. She knew shew was being selfish, but she never wanted to know the outcome of what had happened to the girl whose high school life she had ruined. Yet before her stood Calli, not how she had expected to find her. She was smiling, holding hands with a tall man beside her and a bright girl to her other side. The smile slowly faded from Calli’s face as she took in the woman before her, starting to recognise the face of the person who had once been her friend. “Cal? You okay?” the other woman asked, a frown starting to take away her wide smile. “Dia,” Calli says pointedly, eyes narrowing. The way her two companions flinch and face her quickly tells Dia that they knew exactly who she was. Dia was speechless, all her nightmares were unwarranted. Calli was fine and as far as Dia could tell, unaffected. What Dia did not know was that Calli had not been fine and unaffected. It is just that Dia was not around for the years it took. The years it took for the wall to shatter.