In which I somehow rant about a story for longer than intended

Claudia sat alone at her table. Par usual, no one had sat next to her. Her lunch already gone so she pulled out her history book and started to read the chapter. After the first two sentences she slammed her head into her book.  Claudia glanced up to see Trina Heatsom and her gang of adoring followers coming her way.

“Great. I have company.” Claudia said, slamming her head back into the textbook.

“Claudia, I saw you got sent to the principal’s office. That’s rough. Hey, I have a pillow in my locker if you need it next block.” She laughed and so did her followers.

“You’re hilarious.” Claudia said to the book.

“Excuse me?" Trina asked. Claudia lifted her head out of the American Revolution.

I've always liked this part of the story. Just the way I wrote it, something about it, I like it.

That by the way, is an excerpt from a short story I wrote that is currently being re-written. (I'm currently writing about seven billion stories)

Anyways, this excerpt isn't done. The sentence flow still needs altering, but the basic idea is complete. I just like it.

The story itself is about a werewolf, Claudia, struggling to fit in.

WAIT! Don't call the over-used-plotline police! I swear I'm not finished!

Claudia has, I feel, almost a different look on it.

All those other characters just want to be normal, but by the end of the story they either realize

1. Everyone is special, and so they're good.
or
2. It's cool being different.

But that's not the case. Claudia KNOWS that.

Yeah, everyone is special in their own way, yada yada, but for the most part, in the grand scheme of things not everyone is special.

Those struggling to fit in, feel good specials, always say that special is good.

But Claudia knows that's not true.

People hate different. People shy away from the odd. Punish those who question the status quo.

She will never be, in any sense, normal.

Here is a excerpt from a scene earlier than the other one.

Across the hall were some short stories from the English classes. She skimmed over a few stories. Most were corny romances or stupid action stories. One line happened to catch her eye.

“Everyone wants to be special!” Claudia snorted. Wrong. What she wouldn’t give to be normal, to be one of the anonymous masses. To have people look at her and think, ‘Oh look! It’s an average teenage girl, how boring!’ Without thinking she ripped the story off the wall.

See?

Okay maybe I'm not making sense, in my head (and by extension Claudia's) it makes sense.

And as for "It's cool being different"

I do go there a little in the story. But then Claudia is yanked back into reality.

She can't control herself.

This is no "aw man, sometimes I turn into a dog"

Claudia is a legitimate werewolf. When she turns, it takes all of her energy to even know what's happening, and a ridiculous amount of strength to stop herself.

But that's not her only issue, because as the full moon nears it starts getting harder and harder to act like she's just a girl. She's angry and tired and alone and all she really wants is to be able to walk into  room and not have to think about the fastest way to get out if some animal instinct takes over.

Yeah. So that's Moonlight.