ODDILY

ODDILY

Linda Pohring

This is a book of fiction. All of the characters, organizations,

and events portrayed in this novel either are products of the author’s

imagination or are used fictitiously.

Oddily. Copyright © 2011 by Linda Pohring

Title page photo © Lev Dolgatshjov / 123rf.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means without permission of the author.

For Pauline Stafford

My mom

By biggest fan

My first reader

My sounding board

My friend

1

“
Ow!” Oddily wanted to turn around and confront the one who had pulled her hair, but she didn’t. After half a semester of trial and error, she discovered that standing up to them didn’t work. In addition to that, she realized that to confide in a teacher was out of the question because it made her a bigger target.

“
Are you going to cry?” A female voice made fun of her.

Oddily kept walking and suddenly imagined all eyes resting on her while she headed for the school cafeteria. How stupid to be so self-conscious, but she was, and her awkwardness showed. She seemed to have forgotten how to move her arms while walking, and after several failed attempts to swing them naturally, she had no choice but to let them dangle by her side.

After finding an empty table where she could breathe again, Oddily pulled out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from her backpack. While eating, she peeked over at the place where the “in” group of snobbish kids gathered. The head of the pack was unfortunately, her foster sister, the golden haired Starla.

Oddily often wondered what made Starla and her group of friends so popular, especially the girls. For months, she passed the entire lunch time away in an effort to try and figure them out. She ruled out their appearance because other than Starla and Kendall most of the groupies looked like average students. She couldn’t think of one exceptional talent or achievement among them. Maybe their designer clothing was the reason.

Oddily turned her head when she heard friendly commotion coming from the main entrance and sighed when she spotted Paul. The hottest boy on campus had just stepped inside the cafeteria. She had a crush on him, and felt butterflies fluttering in her stomach just to be in the same room. She sat taller in her seat to appear taller than her short stature in hopes that he would notice her.

Don’t get your hopes up
, her inner voice warned; but because she believed in miracles, she ignored her intuition. Several minutes later her heart sank. Paul’s brown puppy dog eyes had searched the room, and then passed her table to join Starla. Unfortunately, he had recently become the newest member of their elite group.

“
Oh my God, Oddily—quit staring at us!” Starla’s deep blue eyes bore into hers. Oddily cringed at the reprimand while others turned their head in her direction. She overheard a few of them snicker and suddenly felt stupid knowing full well that staring was rude.

Embarrassed, and not wanting to meet anyone’s eyes, Oddily glanced down at her half eaten sandwich. What reasonable excuse was there for staring? Unless, living in Starla’s home gave her exclusive rights to observe the life she wanted.

“
Hey, what have I warned you about stalking,” Kip, Starla’s boyfriend called out. Then he stared at Starla. “How can you stand living in the same house with her?”

“
Trust me, it’s not easy!” Starla frowned. Several more students from the table sympathized with her.

Oddily got up and left the cafeteria to get away from the belittling statements. She found a bench outside in the sunshine and sat down, her thoughts still on Starla. It was crazy how the girl’s attractiveness allowed her to get away with murder because of how she manipulated her parents and friends. Truthfully, Starla’s parents probably would have decided they liked Oddily because they had offered to buy her some new clothes when she first moved in; but, the golden haired Starla threw a “Diva” tantrum, so it never happened.

Oddily never forgot the first day she arrived at their home. Within the first hour, Starla brought her to a mirror and mercilessly pointed out all of her supposed flaws. She hadn’t thought much about her features before, but thanks to her new foster sister, she was convinced of her ugliness. Thin and pale, underdeveloped, a thick mop of red hair, hazel eyes that appeared to be too large for her face, an imperfect nose, and a crooked smile—yuck! And the worst thing of all, Starla took pleasure in making sure as many kids as possible shared her opinion.

Because of Starla her whole existence had become a life of solitude, and Oddily often wondered how different her circumstances would have been had her real parents been raising her. Would she still be this shy, awkward—and lonely?

The weird thing was, Oddily had no idea what happened to cause her fate as an orphan. When she became old enough to read, all she obtained were two news clippings from the past. The articles claimed that there were no survivors from the mangled car, living or dead, except for her three month old self. To this day, the rest of the baffling accident has remained a mystery.

As a result, her life ended up being tossed around the childcare system like a ping-pong ball, each foster family eventually sending her back to the orphanage. This frequent moving finally took its toll on her young heart, causing her to become insecure.

To escape her pain, she learned to live her life in daydreams, always pretending to be someone other than herself. Her fantasies became the only thing supporting her through the lonely days and nights.

The school bell rang. With a jolt, Oddily quickly gathered up her belongings and headed for the hallway of lockers. She meandered through a maze of backpacks, and elbows, but stopped short when she spotted the newest prank. Someone had used a red marker and wrote FREAK on the door of her locker. She fought to stop the onslaught of humiliation, and was rushing over to the offensive graffiti when a hint of caution crossed her mind. She glanced around for a moment but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Once again, she ignored her gut warning; and, had just opened the locker door when a malicious shove from behind her sent her sprawling, head first into the locker. With a cry of surprise, she twisted her head just in time to see the face of her adversary before he slammed the door shut, plunging her into confinement.

She knew her predator. It was Kip, the tall, annoying student who played embarrassing pranks on her nearly every day. Unfortunately, he had an obsession with her beautiful foster sister, and no doubt Starla had put him up to this.

She tensed, thinking about the cruel expression in Kip’s gray eyes—the way they pierced her with an injection of revulsion. She feared him. Everything about him was outrageous and edgy, from his wild, unkempt hair to the funky choice of clothes. He even had tattoos. One whole arm was covered with markings, a black and gold dragon—blending into red flames. Maybe Kip’s appearance had something to do with his being the lead singer of a punk rock band.

“
Let me out!” She pleaded.

“
Why should we?” Oddily guessed the voice belonged to Kendall, her foster sister’s best friend. She could almost imagine the pretty girl’s amber eyes flashing proudly at the others because of her contribution to the taunting.

Panicky feelings took hold when Oddily realized that they had no plans of letting her out. Despite being small, she had to scrunch down into a position that made her legs tremble. Plus, not enough air came through the vents. It was getting hard to breathe.

“
What’s your combo?” Oddily didn’t recognize the voice, but her heart jumped with hopeful anticipation.

“
Turn left to twenty-six—right on nine—left to fourteen.”

“
We can’t hear you.” That had to be Starla, obviously intoxicated with pride at what Kip had just done for her.

She spoke louder and gave them the combination again, listening for the dial to turn. Instead, it became quiet.

Oddily pressed her ear to the vent. “Hello, can anyone hear me?” She called out over and over again while pounding on the locker door, but no one came. It was no use. She crumpled against the cold metal walls, bitter tears coming fast and furious. She believed she was in a nightmare knowing she must wake up. This situation called her life couldn’t be real!

While waiting to be rescued, beads of sweat started to dot her forehead. To be in such a small space made her drowsy and light-headed. Her thoughts became scattered while she tried to decide whether her hair was golden-red, or orange. Bright orange hair flashed across her mind, and the idea made her smile. She had such a funny sensation in her head. Perhaps she was dying—she hoped she was. Then her thoughts faded into dreams.

* * * * * *

Oddily’s eyelids fluttered open with the smell of turpentine and the sound of her lock spinning outside her locker making a clicking noise. The door opened, and a burst of pungent air sent tiny goose bumps up and down her limbs.

She slowly unfolded her legs from their tangled web, climbed out of the locker on cramped legs and stood there in a maze of bewilderment. She was still too confused and dazed to think clearly as she stared up into the face of the custodian. Mr. Jack was at the door holding a soiled rag.

The old man was staring down at her in concern before he spoke, “Are ya all right?”

Oddily nodded with a weak smile. Her tear filled eyes were as much from relief as from the pain of the locker experience.

“
Do ya want me to walk ya to the health office?” He gently patted her on the head, as though she were a child.

She shook her head and mumbled, “No. I…I’m okay.”

“
Are ya sure?” His kind, old, wrinkled face showed sadness and concern.

She nodded again.

“
Well, okay then,” he started to hobble down the hall, but paused for a brief moment. “It’s a good thing ya snore, missy.”

“
I was snoring?” Oddily would have laughed if she had her wits about her, but the locker ordeal had upset and confused her as though a veil of fog had settled on her mind. One thing became clear though—school had ended for the day. The halls were empty.

2

Taking off towards home, Oddily walked in the dirt alongside the asphalt road. She was dragging her feet with her head held down wishing for invisibility. She thought about all the empty wishes she had made in the past. Anything from “First Star at Night” wishes; to “Wishing Well” wishes. She had just about decided not to believe in wishes ever again when someone called out from up ahead.

“
She’s coming!”

Oddily glanced up and saw Starla and Kip standing in front of an iron gate with their small group of friends, including Paul, looking so cute with his hands tucked in his pockets.

The old gate was the side entrance to the grounds of the mysterious Stafford Estate. Why did they gather in front of such a creepy place? All the rumors she had listened to concerning the Manor with thirty-one rooms had flashed through her mind. How twenty years ago, an unusually tall stranger with a fair-haired pregnant companion had wandered into town and bought the immense property and surrounding acreage. The two moved in and the girl was never to be seen again.

Except for an occasional visit to town, the young man remained secluded on the property, reportedly living in the original Stafford Manor hidden somewhere on the grounds. Several of the schools' alumni who had graduated years before said he kept himself isolated from the world. Some of them attempted to find him, but supposedly vanished after trespassing onto the property. Of course, the stories couldn’t be true Oddily told herself—could they?

Oddily didn’t care to know the answer, and turned on her heels, heading in the opposite direction. She hurried as fast as she could until someone called out, “Oddily, wait!”

Her first instinct was to keep on going, but her body wouldn’t obey. Instead, she stopped and turned around as though an invisible puppet master was pulling her strings.

“
What do you want?” she tried to sound brave.

“
Come here and I’ll tell you!” phony sweetness dripped from Starla’s lips.