A Loaded God Complex

It was the first and of course, the worst day of school. The first day was always the worst because I found out if I had Nicole or Pete in my classes and everyone seemed to remember I existed. During summer I spent most of my time by the river and around my house. So, people don't really see me much during the break. And other horrible feeling of the first day: there's always sighs when I walk into classrooms, from fellow students dreading having me in their class. I was going three for three of my eight class day, until gym. Nicole said she didn't have and it by a lack of Pete in the locker room I knew he didn't have it either.

I changed, keeping to my staked out corner in the locker room. Once spraying on deodorant I headed out to the gym, my sneakers squeaking on the freshly polished floors. Taking my spot, I stood at the start of the K section for attendance. Again sighs and some whispers followed, I grabbed my elbow and stared straight ahead. They didn't die down at all… When I did break my stance I leaned forward to look up and down the line to see what everyone was fidgeting about.

And there she was. My spirits lifted a little and I suddenly went back to my old stance. How did I know she wasn't just being nice to me? She probably wouldn't want to be seen with me now that we were in school. Attendance was taken and then we were divided into two teams for dodge ball, I started walking over to the other half of the gym when Raya started walking next to me.

"Hey," Raya said calmly, a hint of smirk played in her dimples.

"Hi," I managed to get out. The thud of balls echoed behinds us. "I haven't seen around the river lately."

"I had to unpack and then I had to get ready for school."

"Oh."

"Yeah," Raya tilted her head so she could look me in the eyes as I stared at my feet.

"How's your first day going?" It felt natural, but nerve racking to continue the conversation.

"Pretty good, I guess." She shrugged and then the whistle was blown signaling the game starting: dodge ball.

We stopped walking and took our positions, mine was standing stiffly in the back. Raya on the other hand was in the front line catching. Then she picked up a ball and then threw it high and slow. Another girl on the other team promptly caught it, Raya was given several high fives from boys on her team as she made her way other to the wall. I watched all of it intrigued.

"Looks like I'm going to have to show you how to aim," The school's star basket ball player, Gabe, teased.

Raya muffled a snicker and shook her head, "That's what she said."

Gabe laughed and watched with his head sideways staring at Raya's...walk. I tried not to see what he was looking at, but I knew.Gabe whispered to his friends between throws. It wasn't polite to look at girls that way. It made my insides feel like they were a pot of boiling water and steam was pumping through my head. It was silly, I knew it.

The emotion didn't last long as a ball came at my face, it caught on a prong and deflated hissing at me. Snickers arose throughout the class, along with a high-five distributed throughout the other team to the person who threw it. Some members of my team even went up to the edge of the line to give the person on the other team a high five. I was left mortified. I pulled the rubber shell off and carried it with me to the other side, not quite knowing what to do with it. Taking an open spot on the bleachers I tried to look invisible, for I realized how stupid I must have appeared. I'm nerdy already: I wear glasses, am a metal mouth, my socks are just a little too high, and I have horns. I concentrated on the sheen of my athletic shorts, but it didn't work, they were red like the ball and my cheeks. I moved to staring at my shoes, when my teacher came over to talk to me.

"Now, Kirche," She said slowly with her overly sprayed perfume wafting towards me, "I won't charge you to replace it, but I think it best if you sit by the kids who forgot their clothes." I nodded silently and relocated higher up on the bleachers. The two girls that didn't have a change of clothes ignored me, which I knew to be just another tactic of making sure I didn't get any closer.

I sat there twiddling my thumbs and watching the ceiling for most of the period until my teacher let me change. When I went back to the gym everyone else was filing out to the locker rooms. I was put in charge of picking up the balls. Angrily, I kicked the last remaining ball towards the storage room. With one last distressed sigh I wheeled the wire basket; much to my surprise Raya was already holding the heavy metal door to the storage room open for me.

She took one end of the caddy once we were inside the concrete bricked room and helped me position it against the wall. Raya opened her mouth to talk with a friendly grin and then it fell. It fell quickly.

"Mason you're bleeding." She stated startled. Her hand slipped away from mine, which had momentarily froze.

"What?" I surely didn't feel anything. Raya grazed a prong on my antler, holding a red stained finger front of my face. "Oh!"

I felt sick at the sight, I stumbled only my feet didn't go anywhere. My insides made a run for it and landed all over the front of Raya. She stood dripping in vile, leftover breakfast, a small creaking and speechless sound escaped her mouth. I don't know how much time passed as she stood there, but it was making my stomach churn, again. As I relieved my chest of a stifled breath and was about to say something, she bolted for the door.

Time had started again, minutes passed when I decided to needed to man up and just go out there. It would be expected from a freak like me to throw up on the prettiest girl in school. Light flooded in as the door opened again, I figured it'd be Mrs. Ramsey, the gym teacher. I was surprised to see pink flats glide against the concrete floor.

"Mason?" Raya cautiously tip-toed over, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I answered my voice small, turning away I wiped my mouth with my sleeve. Raya sat down on the floor next to me facing towards the wall.

"Are you sure you don't want me to get Mrs. Ramsey?" Raya offered.

"No, I'm fine."

"Well, here. I figured you'd need it." She handed me a paper towel and water from the vending machine in the lunchroom. "To clean off your--"

She stopped at the word and then just started to dab, my throat burned and now it was dry. Still, the water remained limply in my hand and my fingers didn't itch to open it. My whole body became warm despite the fact I hadn't done any physical activity.

"Thanks… again."

I slowly stood up, just in case I was still light headed, chuckling she led us out of the storage room. Once approaching a garbage can she crumpled the paper towel and threw it with perfect aim in the trashcan five feet away. I cocked an eyebrow, Raya simply started heading out the door to the bustling cafeteria.

"Coming?" Raya popped her head back through the door. Nodding I caught up to her, "Or do you think you're not up to lunch?" This time I shook my head feeling my nausea wave over my stomach at seeing the food on a passer-by's tray. "Neither am I. Sorry about leaving you, I had to change…"

"I didn't think you'd come back anyways." I admitted, taking no offense.

I spotted Pete and Nicole sitting at a nearly empty table, naturally I joined them. Raya was still following, I figured she'd peel off to a different table with another group. Another group that is, other than the freaks. Pete and Nicole sat up straighter like their shoulders were pulled by a string; they glanced sideways at each other and then back at me.

"Um… this is Raya. This is Nicole and this is Pete."

Nicole shyly adjusted her glasses and Pete's mouth hung a little slack realizing that the girl I was talking about was real. Once the reverberation of shock left the small group they went back to their previous activities. Pete went back to reading his video game magazine and eating chips, Nicole continued to pick at her food.

"So…" Raya dragged out the o sound and all attention was back on her before she finished the short word, "What's fun to do around here on weekends?"

Pete shrugged nonchalantly. His tone held some bitterness that I hoped went undetected by Raya, "We wouldn't be the people to ask."

"Shut up Pete!" Nicole scolded, and elbowed his side; he let out a small whine. She went on, "There's bowling." Nicole groaned and normally I would have agreed with him. Big, old man bowlers scare me.

"Yeah, maybe it won't be so bad." Pete's face contorted to doubt as I jubilantly agreed.

"All right, cool. How about this Friday night?"

"Really?" Nicole's voice was rushed and excited, Raya nodded chuckling and then turned to smile at me.

Our lunch break ended and we all departed to our next class. Even after that night when I finally saw the injured horn, the outlook for my class schedule, including gym, was seemingly good. The rest of my week would carry on just as well.