ODDILY (11 page)

“
Hey guys, check out this one!” A boy stood in front of another entry and read it out loud. “I’m sick of overhearing Starla complain about Kip’s bad breath and what a horrible kisser he is. I wish she would buy him some mouth wash and use it herself.”

There was an eruption of jokes and teasing comments spreading around campus as Oddily headed for her next class. Her stomach hurt from all the laughter—laughter she had never experienced in her whole young life. This would teach Starla not to mess with her journal. In fact, she wasn’t going to keep one anymore. She became tired of worrying over whose hands it may fall into because as careful as she was, her worst nightmare had come true. No—she was going to destroy the remaining entries and mourn its loss, as though she had lost her best friend.

Oddily entered the classroom, heading down the aisle between school desks and didn’t see Kip stretch out his foot until it was too late. She uttered a cry when she tripped over his outstretched shoe. She fell down, landing hard on her hands and knees while Kip snorted. In her haste to get up and go to her desk, she accidentally brushed against Kip’s desk.

“
Sorry,” she mumbled, reaching out to save his books from sliding to the floor.

“
You little Troll,” he croaked. “Keep your grubby hands off of my stuff!”

“
Is Oddily your new girlfriend? One of Kip’s friends piped up and teased. “Maybe she can teach you how to kiss.”

Kip abruptly jumped to his feet and glared at his friend. “Shut up!” he growled. “I wouldn’t touch that stupid freak if she were the last girl on earth.”

Ms. Kline entered the classroom and overheard the last comment. She was an easygoing teacher but never allowed outright rudeness. “That is enough, Kip. Sit down! You will not speak like that in my classroom ever again, do you understand?”

Flushed with embarrassment, Oddily went to her seat and sat down. She opened her notebook and turned to her homework while Kip sat back down to glare at the chalkboard.

While Oddily reflected over the morning’s events instead of paying attention to the teacher, a student entered the room with a note for the teacher.

“
Oddily, will you come up here please—and bring your things with you.”

There were low murmurs throughout the class while students watched her gather up her things and go to the front of the class. The teacher handed her a message from the Principal’s office.

“
Is this where I’m supposed to go?” She whispered.

“
Yes dear.”

Oddily waited at the admittance counter in the administration’s office. One of the school clerks looked up from her paperwork and asked, “May I help you?”

“
Yes, I’m here to see Mr. Dumb Ass.”

The clerk gasped, and then sneered in disgust, “His name is Mr. Dumas!”

Oddily was mortified that she slipped and called the Principal the notorious ‘Dumb Ass’ name out loud and bit her tongue in punishment while the clerk directed her into the Principal’s office. Oddily sat down in the chair across from the intimidating man and waited while he finished a call.

“
Do you know why you are here, Oddily?” He hung up the phone.

“
No sir.”

“
Do you know who Kip Bellini is?”

“
Yes sir.”

“
Is there a problem between you two that I should be aware of?”

Oddily wanted to say yes, yes, a thousand times, yes! “No sir.”

The Principal observed Oddily shrink in her chair. “Are you aware of the vandalism done to his truck?”

Oddily’s head perked up in surprise.

“
A witness said they saw you with rolls of toilet paper by his truck around the time it happened. Is that true?”

“
Well—yes sir, but not really.” The Principal appeared to be confused by her answer, so she quickly tried to explain the best she could. “I must admit I did teepee his truck and have done it many times, but only in my head…not for real! I guess that makes me a horrible person when I think about it, don’t you think? What a stupid thing to do, unless of course, I want to die a torturous death at the hands of Kip.”

The principal took a deep breath after Oddily’s breathless dissertation and asked, “So you’re telling me you didn’t do it?”

“
Yes sir—except for in my head.”

Mr. Dumas squinted as if he might clear his mind from her gibber jabber. “That will be all for now, Oddily. You’re excused.”

16

After school, Starla and her friend Kendall barged into Oddily’s bedroom unannounced.

Oddily jumped. “What do you want?” She stared at the overly accessorized intruders. If she had her way, the two would
drop to the floor and
die from an acute case of cuteness
.

“
You don’t appear to be overjoyed by my presence.” Starla’s rosy lips curled up in a not so pretty smile. Oddily ignored her comment and reflected rather absently on Starla’s ugly, oversized ring. She thought the pink stone looked like a wad of bubblegum stuck on top of the band.

“
I think you already know that you have messed with the wrong girl.” Starla scowled. Her threat seemed to vibrate in the atmosphere well after the warning.

Oddily wished Starla would stop making scary innuendos and just get it over with, so they would leave.

“
You’re such a little freak!” Oddily’s silence seemed to anger Starla more than ever.

Oddily shrugged her shoulders, acknowledging the meanness towards her. She even feared it, but she had no way to appease this beautiful girl with an ugly soul. She knew Starla was upset over the revised entries from her journal, and that made her smile. Her foster sister deserved to know the same humiliation she went through even if that meant the wrath of God would be upon her.

A knock at the front door came unexpectedly. Kendall ran from the room, and down the hall. Oddily listened, but all she overheard was excited whispering. It wasn’t until Kendall returned that she knew the identity of their quest. Kip stepped into her bedroom after Kendall, and stood right in front of Oddily as the two girls found their place on either side of her bed. Kip was livid with anger and yet, he smiled down at her with his eyes only. Oddily found the smile to be more threatening than if he had scowled.

“
Messed with any trucks recently?” His tone sounded satanic.

Oddily shook her head and became filled with terror when he pulled out a switchblade from his back pocket. She tried to scoot away, but it was too late.

* * * * * *

Later that night, Oddily sat on a chair in the living room, hiding herself under a large floppy hat while the Maple’s gasped and wheezed while they listened to Starla’s story. They were horrified that Oddily would do such a cruel thing to their precious child. Starla showed them a hand full of revised entries that Oddily re-posted, and they acted appalled when their daughter read some of them out loud. She failed to mention that what she read were replacements for her own mean and hateful ones.

Oddily peeked out from under the rim of her hat and gazed nervously at Starla’s parents. Mrs. Maple’s eyebrows were so knotted together they practically met above her nose. Whatever she thought couldn’t be good news.

“
What are we going to do about this?” she whispered to her husband. “How can we keep Starla happy with this hateful girl living here? How could we have been so stupid to bring someone like this into our home? This little oddball is trying to give our child a tarnished reputation. The election is over with, and you won your spot on the city council, so we have no reason to keep her around.”

Oddily started to shake when she overheard the conversation. She was used as part of a campaign strategy! They wanted to impress potential supporters for their votes in an election. She tried to pull herself together while they continued to talk as if she weren’t in the room.

“
I hate her, mom! If I have to see her ugly face one more time, I’m running away from home!”

Oddily drew in a breath so sharply Starla gave her a cold stare. “Stop breathing, you little creep!”

Oddily tried to hold her breath. She realized they were going to send her back into the foster care system. Although she didn’t want to go back, she could no longer stay. One way or another, it didn’t matter because she only had a handful of days left before her eighteenth birthday. That meant she had outgrown both this family and the foster system. What a horrifying realization, but so was staying there for even one more day.

Mr. Maple cleared his throat and announced, “We will send Oddily back tomorrow.”

“
Excuse me,” Oddily jumped to her feet.

“
You’re such an ugly toad!”

Oddily didn’t miss Starla’s last insult before she ran from the room. She reached her bedroom, and stood near the window for the longest time uncontrollably shaking. She needed to take her life into her own hands, but how? Where would she go? How would she eat and where would she sleep? She had no other options. She would have to fumble through and hope for the best. The moon looked at her through the curtains, but she found the remote, cold light in the sky to be of no comfort.

Oddily rushed to the closet, slipped on her sweater and boots, and removed her clothes from the hangers. She folded them neatly into her backpack, positioning the broken glasses between two of her dresses. She placed her toiletries into a side flap, and then tucked Teddy, her well loved pink bear, under her arm.  The stuffed animal was the only thing found with her at the site of the accident where she was first discovered so many years ago. She looked around, and nothing that remained in the room belonged to her. After one final glance, she grabbed her backpack and snuck out the back door into the night.

After gulping down her fear, Oddily set her face towards Forest Ridge High. School was the only sensible place to go, so she headed for the campus, fighting her fear gallantly. The moon lit up the road, but the moonlight allowed her to see things, and nothing looked familiar. Once, when she was out at night with Starla’s mom, she thought she had never seen anything as pretty as a moonlit road crossed by tree shadows. Now, Oddily felt frightened by the dark, sharp angles of the trees. They were no longer friendly, appearing to be watching her. Even the meadows had put on a cloak of strangeness.

Just then, two eyes blazed out at her from the ditch up ahead, and an animal of unimaginable size ran across the road. What was that? Oddily couldn’t let herself think about animals or the strange sounds and nameless other things prowling in the woods. She kept her attention on the cold of the night, shivering in her thin dress and sweater, and wondered what life would be like not to be afraid of anything.

At one point, she tripped and fell on a stone, skinning her already wounded knee from a previous accident she couldn’t remember.  In another moment, a truck came along, so she hid behind a tree until it passed believing Kip was on the prowl for her.

Oddily moved on after the car passed, then stopped in sheer terror of something dark and furry looming at the side of the road. She couldn’t pass it! She didn’t want to, but she did. Was the creature a large black dog, or was it something else? Either way, she dared not run in case it chased her. She felt moist with sweat while she stole a desperate glance over her shoulder and was relieved to see it move away in the opposite direction.

A star fell in the sky, but she didn’t make a wish this time. She had become too overwhelmed with worries, fretting that her legs would give out before she reached the school. Thankfully, the idea of being stranded in this nightmare forced her to continue. She became so cold she almost ceased to be afraid. Would she never get there? She figured hours and hours had gone by since she had left the house. In truth, only forty five long minutes had passed when she spotted the school campus, and sobbed in relief.

17

For five days, Maxim refused to let himself think of Oddily. He spent Saturday evening with his sister, Nexa. He reserved Sunday for tightening up security around the estate grounds. Monday, he hung out in the control room all day experimenting with Artificial Intelligence. He set Tuesday aside to revise and update several virtual holographic projections. Wednesday he drove to town and picked up repair parts for his miniature robot, Waffle. Today, he stayed on the grounds and did nothing at all.

Maxim found it impossible to ignore the connection he felt with Oddily. The harder he tried to forget, the more keenly and insistently he remembered. The mystery of the girl’s pathetic life both haunted and intrigued him.

In truth, the problem could have been easily solved by going to the school and asking around about her. Then he would have the assurance that her behavior was back to normal after their whirlwind adventure. Despite this, he wouldn’t allow himself the luxury. It would be impossible to question anyone without having his inquiry overflow into a stream of gossip.  He had to find another way.

“
Nero, when are you coming home?” he threw his head back and shouted to his father as if he could hear him.

What’s wrong with you, Maxim?
His sister’s voice echoed in his mind.

I need to talk with someone from my own gender.