We Are the Wild Things

Maxine sat in her dorm hunched over her corner desk, four large small printed text books surrounded her notepad as she scribbled away in her unreadable chicken scratch hand writing. Her dorm room was dimly lit and the window covered with the curtains. Maxine gave a deep low groan as her right arm dangled loosely from her shoulder joint. She sighed and using her Left hand pushed her shoulder back into the proper place. As the dorm door flew open Maxine jumped a bit “Relax Maxie, It’s just me” a tall lean Cuban girl said with amusement. A bright friendly smile on her face Maxine nodded and smiled “Hey Rita … out to another party?” Maxine asked turning back to her studies. “Yeah, headed out with Daren and his roomie…” Rita said as she quickly began to change in to club suited wear. “Hey you know Maxie…Daren’s roomie’s pretty darn cute….smile that would rock the moon…beautiful hazel eyes…eh?” Rita hinted. “No Rita…I want to finish this paper ahead of time…” Maxine muttered. “Gorgeous raven hair Maxie….lovely sun kissed skin….beach model Maxie…if I didn’t have Daren…” Rita trailed off. Maxine chuckled softly “Thank you Rita, really, but I can’t” Maxine said turning her attention to her friend briefly before looking back to her paper. Rita sighed and shrugged “suit yourself…but one of these days Maxine you’re going to have to learn what fun is” Rita said before rushing out of the Dorm door in a lovely club fashioned silver dress.

Maxine sighed as she was alone now, she rotated her shoulder around in circles as it was somewhat sore after falling out of joint. She groaned to herself and looked around. “It has been about a month now” she thought brushing back her ginger curls. She turned her office chair around, the middle of the floor was clear of any tossed shirts or items. Maxine moved her eyes to the door “I should lock it just to be safe” she thought “no everyone’s at the stupid party” she muttered to herself as she pushed out of the chair and walked to the middle of the floor. She did some basic stretches and took in a deep breath. Slowly she began to bend backwards keeping her legs straight. Farther, farther, and father still. Maxine sighed in relaxation as her hands touched the floor behind her, she was completely bent in half, backwards. She felt every inch of her spine loosen up and sigh with her, if felt good. She lifted her legs in the air and went into a hand stand, she then slowly brought herself down so that she was lying flat on her stomach on the ground. With an almost effortless movement she arched her lower body back until her legs sat over her shoulders, her head between them. She rested her head in her hands, propped up on her elbows and kicked her feet. A content smile on her face. Contortion made her body feel lose and free. She had a habit of practicing it every day or at least that was before collage life. Now she hardly does it at all, which has had her body falling apart. You see Maxine was not just flexible forwards or backwards, she was one of the few contortionist who could bend forwards and backwards. And what’s more, she could bend her body from left to right as well.

Maxine continued on with the basic movements, she had gotten so lost in the peace she felt that she had not noticed that the door had been cracked, nor did she notice the tiny blinking red light. An hour past and Maxine finally felt loosened up all the way. She stood up straight and reached for the shy with a small yawn. Already having been in her pajamas, Maxine clicked off her desk lamp and curled into her twin bed, finally she could sleep comfortably.

The Next Morning

Maxine walked through the halls to her first class, while her nerves were generally on end with her perfectionist OCD making her fear and fuss about if her papers had been good enough or if she had studied enough, today she felt weightless and at peace. A smile lingered on her face as hummed softly with the song that came from her MP3. The other students around her seemed to be in an equally good mood, most where laughing and smiling as she walked by. Maxine smiled and waved as two guys spoke something to her while chuckling to themselves. However her music was so loud she did not hear them. As she kept walked she noticed that not just a few people where laughing but nearly everyone was. A few ere pointing. Maxine frowned a bit and made it a point to walk faster, she didn’t know what was going on but she wanted to get to her first class as soon as she could.

Maxine took a seat at a desk near the front of the room and took out her ear buds. She sighed and tucked them away in her bra before pulling out her notes, and essays. “Hey Maxine” A deep smooth voice called out to her. Maxine looked up into the grey eyes of a guy named Matthew Timmons. He was on the school’s Football team, and just like most of the players he was easy on the eyes. Your typical jock in most ways however. Maxine smiled a bit, she had little to do with sports around the school and she couldn’t imagine why a guy like Matthew was even talking to her. “Hi what’s up?” she said offering a friendly smile from behind her sky blue rimmed glasses. Matthew looked around with room with a sly crooked smile on his face as he leaned over on her desk. “I was wondering….if you and I can come up with some new” Matthew paused and tried to stifle a chuckle “positions tonight” he asked in a deep flirtatious tone, and tone implying one thing and one thing only. “If you get what I mean” He added running his tongue over the front of his perfectly white teeth. Maxine watched him baffled. “No-no I don’t!” she said quickly as her face began to heat up, what would have driven him to say that? “What’s really going on?” she asked skeptically Matthew stood up and laughed freely now. “Oh so you don’t know?” he asked taking out his phone she turned it for Maxine to see. Her mouth fell ajar and her heart stopped as she watch the video. It was of her, in her Pajamas going through her contortionist routine. “Oh my god” she gasped snatching the phone from him “hey!” He called as she quickly deleted it off his phone “it doesn’t matter, it’s all over the internet” He said shrugging “I can just get it again….it’s great to beat off to” he said with a smirk. “You’re sick!” Maxine said standing up from her chair. “Who took that?” she asked frantically “Rita’s man Daren” he said in amusement, Maxine shook her head in disbelief, as others started to come into the room, a few began to laugh among themselves while looking at Maxine, one guy started to sing the cliché circus tune, which had been playing in the background of the video along with Daren’s mocking fake erotic moans Maxine grabbed her bag, notes and papers and rushed out of the room.

As Maxine flew through the hallways, she could briefly hear Rita’s voice calling out for her, but Maxine kept running as fast as she could. She needed to get to her laptop and see just how bad the damage actually it was and how many hits this video had actually gotten. Maxine slammed the dorn door behind her locking it this time she sat down in her office chair and hopped online. “Where would he have posted it?” she thought “Facebook” she muttered quickly signing in. she went to Rita’s page and found Daren’s page. She enough there was the video. Maxine frantically looked through the comments. It had several likes. Daren had a lot of friends, and that meant a lot of eyes and a lot of opinions. The first comment read “Ew, she looks like Boneless chicken” Maine frowned and bit as they didn’t get better from there “that’s just sick” “what is she an alien” “normal contortionist is epic, but that…that’s weird” Maxine shook her head and quickly reported the video. “Where else…youtube?” she muttered, quickly adding a new tab she search youtube under contortionists, it took her a while but soon enough she found it and went to the comments “ha fail” “would be sexy if she wasn’t a ginger” “I guess ginger doesn’t snap” “freak” “is that Maxine? Omg I know her!” they read. Maxine quickly reported that video as well but she knew once it was online, it wasn’t going away. And what was worse, it was out for the world to see, and if the world could see it…so could her ultra conservative Mormon parents. Maxine sunk into chair and bit down on her thumb “this isn’t happening…this isn’t happening” she thought over and over to herself. Her heart was racing and she could feel she was on the verge of a panic attack.

If her parents found out about this they would surely stop funding her way to collage, after all they wouldn’t think that this was just a mistake, they’d think it was taken on purpose, she had to admit, her pajama shorts were a bit too short, and her spaghetti strap pajama top didn’t help her look very “clean” the truth was the video was a bit erotic. She just wasn’t naked. She had never told her parents about the fact she could pretty much bend and twist her body anyway she pleased, they just thought she was double jointed with EDS. She never told them how Contortion was relaxing or how she actively practiced it. Well one thing was for certain “they’re going to know now” she muttered looking at her computer in disbelief. The Lock on the dorm room jiggled and in came Rita. She was talking fast really fast and in Cuban “Rita English” Maxine said her voice was dry and monotone. Rita took a breath and swiftly walked over to Maxine, she twirled around the office chair and kneeled on the ground. “Oh my god Maxie I am so, so, so, so sorry! It’s completely over between Daren and me, I promise, and when I find him I’ve got a lot to say believe me!” She said quickly. Maxine looked at her blankly “besides, it will probably blow over soon huh?” Rita said smiling nervously. “it’s on face book…in which Daren has over 300 friends….from all over the world” Maxine said dryly this made Rita cringe “and it’s on Youtube where everyone in the whole wide world can see it...” Maxine said her voice was now rising and becoming more frantic and shrill “and it’s stuck on the World Wide Web forever Rita!” Maxine finally yelled “It’s on facebook Rita! Facebook! My parents are on there, my whole family is! You know how they are! Rita your boyfriend’s killed my life!” Maxine shouted as tears began to well up in her eyes. Rita hugged her friend close “it’s going to be ok, you’re just upset, it’s not going to be like that you’ll see….it will all blow over soon” Rita said rocking her friend. “Soon” she added looking down at the computer screen. Maxine latched onto Rita she had hopped she was right, she hoped that in a god couple of days everyone would forget. She had hoped that she’d never get that call from her folks. But hope is a dangerous and wild thing.