Pepper

She had always hated her name, hated her face, hated her body, hated everything about her. Why did her parents have to name her Pepper? All the kids in the village called her fiery Pepper after her red hair. They laughed at her curls. Her scrawny body. All about her. She would draw her fist and bite and kick them, but all it did was get her in more trouble.

It was a cursed name.

She pushed a rock into the water, watching it make ripples in the river. She had taken shelter from he...