I opened my eyes, blinking at first, and then focusing on what I saw outside the window. The sun beat down, casting an almost fictional effect on the sloping hills. I could hear the river rushing, and the birds chirping in the silence. I closed my eyes keeping the presence of the peace with me when…
“I DIDN’T DO IT!”
“YEAH, YOU DID.”
“CHARLOTTE WHO DID IT?”
Ugh. So much for my “moment of peace.” I told my brothers to leave and reluctantly dragged myself out of bed.
I plonked down the stairs and walked into the kitchen to see my parents whispering. They looked up, saw me, and abruptly stopped, so I yawned to mask the awkwardness lingering in the air. Luckily just then my little twin brothers ran in, breaking the silence. With their curly red hair and freckled faces, and my straight blonde hair, nobody would realize we were siblings, until they saw the stubbornness all three of us shared. I quickly shoveled my breakfast down my throat and left the house to get to school, after slipping on sweats, and my old camp sweatshirt.
I walked at first, but soon broke into a run, excited to tell my best friend Allison what I witnessed today. I grew even more surprised because when I told Allison, she brushed it off like it was nothing, changed the subject, and kept at an icy distance the rest of the day. I didn’t push it and walked home alone, frowning the whole way because I didn’t think that was the way a best friend should act.
As if my day wasn’t weird enough already, I got home and some strange man was there. He introduced himself as Mr. Krail. He then forced me to go to sleep with laughing gas. The rest of the night blurred.
The first time I woke up I heard Mr. Krail say, “Charlotte is exactly what I’m looking for”.
In my head, it registered that he was talking about me, before I slipped under the control of the powerful gas again.
“Beep beep beep.”
I hit the snooze button on my alarm, closed my eyes again, and then suddenly remembered the strange events from yesterday and almost jumped out of my bed!
“Wait, I’m in bed!”
I squeezed my eyes shut. Maybe I dreamed everything. Maybe I imagined Mr. Krail, along with his glasses that covered his piercing blue eyes, his crooked smile, and his bent nose. Maybe he doesn’t exist! I rushed downstairs catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror as I ran. I skidded to a stop and peered closely at my reflection, seeing dark circles under my eyes, my blonde hair stuck out in all directions, and my crazed hazelnut eyes looked lost. My hands worked quickly through my hair and tried to look more confident as I marched downstairs and into the kitchen.
My parents sat there with glossy smiles on their faces.
“Good morning sweetheart!”
“Did you sleep well?”
Given that this was the most attention I had gotten from my parents in 3 years, I backed away uncertainly. Then I saw my mom’s chocolate chip pancakes sitting on the table. I decided to see if they mentioned anything about last night and stayed. They started a conversation about my grades, and said they were extremely proud that my lowest grade was a 97% in PE because I failed my pushup test. I nodded, my mouth full of heavenly pancakes,
“Do you remember Mr. Krail?”.
I looked up so quickly, I heard my neck crack. While I digested the pancakes, and the fact that he had been real, my parents continued saying that Mr. Krail wanted my help with a science project (which is my best subject). I pretended not to look scared by this request.
“Why me?” I asked.
My parents exchanged a look of uncertainty before revealing the biggest secret ever.
“You are a prodigy, Charlotte.”
I slowly chewed my food my brain processing this when I lost it. I started screaming at the top of my lungs, and throwing things, and doing whatever I could to get my anger out! The morning went by quickly and Mr Krail showed up in the middle of my tantrum, and helped my parents lock me in my room so I could “think”, even though I know they were more worried about me breaking things. The thought of how little my parents ever cared about me over took my brain and I went crazy again, only this time without breaking things. I refused to believe that I’m different. My parents can’t make me believe it, Mr Krail can’t make me believe it, nobody can.
I closed my eyes in denial, remembering the last time my parents and I had an actual conversation. I had been worried because as a 4th grader I was getting good grades, and enjoying home work. I had been crying and my parents assured me by saying you are just like everyone else. Ever since then I always feared being different. I worried that Allison was my best friend even though she was 14 and I was 12, I worried that I was the only one who ate alone doing homework at lunch, I worried that in all of my academic classes I had 100% and more, but I never voiced those fears. And now I wish I had because maybe my parents would have told my earlier “Charlotte you are different, you are a prodigy.” but nothing like that ever happened.
The door opened a crack, and I heard Allison’s voice asking if she could come in. I didn’t answer and she came in anyways. She then told me that she had always known about it and that she had always been jealous but I was on a rage.
“I thought you were my best friend!” I shouted. “I thought we promised never to lie to each other!” I screamed, throwing anything within reach at her.
She opened her mouth but I turned my back on her and in a much lower tone I told her to leave. And she did.
Mr. Krail came in. Surprisingly, I realized he was one of the only people I wasn’t mad at. He never lied to me, unlike everyone else. He approached me cautiously, but after realizing I calmed down, he became an open book. We talked and he told me about his offer. He said he needed help on a project that he thought to be the cure to cancer. We didn’t go into details, but after over an hour of him telling me how my parents, family, friends had all told me lies, that I would be free of them and I wouldn’t ever feel forgotten. That nobody there would bring out the fact that you are different. He had almost convinced me to go. I told him what a great opportunity it sounded like, and I smiled, a genuine smile. Mr. Krail then said “but” and my smile fell. He explained that I would also be used to advertise the cure as a prodigy. I knew I would never come back to my old life. Charlotte and I probably wouldn’t be friends, my brothers and parents would treat me differently. And if I ever came back to this town, everyone would know I was a prodigy, everyone would realize I was different. Seeing Mr. Krail’s face go from hopeful to worried, I tried to put back the smile, but I knew it looked fake. I left the conversation with “I’ll think about it.”
I laid in bed awake for hours, crying, thinking, and talking to myself, and when I finally fell asleep, I slept through the whole day. My parents sent my brothers in to wake me at 3:00 pm and they did this quietly, and left as soon as my eyes snapped open. I realized my door was no longer locked, and opened it, dreading going downstairs, but I was hungry so I knew I had to. I came to the top of the stairs and saw a plate of hot chocolate chip pancakes with a note that said eat up! While I bent to pick up the plate I saw my reflection. My eyes were red and puffy, my face streaked with tears, my hair in a messy bun, my sweats that I hadn’t changed since 2 days ago, my lips dry and chapped, scratches everywhere from fighting and things breaking, and nails with dirt underneath them since I hadn’t showered in 2 days. A tear slipped down my face, not just because of how pathetic I looked, but realizing, my brothers, my parents, my friend, my only friend were all not only mad at me, but also scared of me. I had turned into a monster. I took the plate into my bedroom and ate in silence, the only noise being my mouth opening and closing while I chewed.
Instead of going back to sleep, I decided I wasn’t going to be drowned by Mr. Krail saying my family wasn’t worth it. I showered, brushed my hair and teeth, wore a purple dress that hugged tight on my waist, and then flowed outwards until right before my knees, braided my blonde hair and put a matching purple ribbon at the end of the braid. I applied mascara carefully and put my new favorite lip gloss on my lips. As my final touch I slipped on a pair of black heels that my mother had bought me a couple weeks ago, and my dad had polished until I could see my reflection off it. I felt sad for a second because I realized my parents did things for me, just not the right ones. I then straightened up put on a smile, and when I looked at my reflection in the mirror, it actually made me smile. I walked downstairs confidently and opened the kitchen door.
I gasped. My parents were a wreck. They had cuts everywhere, there was glass everywhere. I realized was all my fault. I felt my eyes watering but held back tears. I cleared my throat and they looked up. A smile slowly spread across my mothers face and she pulled me into a hug. While hugging her, I whispered in her ear
“I’m sorry for everything. For not appreciating everything you did for me, to giving you all of these cuts.”
She replied “It’s okay. We should have told you sooner.”
I let go, smiled and said its fine. My dad looked somewhere between puzzled and angry. I met his eyes and I saw defiance, causing me to lower my gaze to the shoes I wore His eyes followed mine, and when he saw the shoes, a tear slipped down his face. this time I didn’t hesitate and ran to him for a hug. He accepted it. I felt a tear drop on my shoulder, but realized it was mine, not my father’s tears.
I pulled away and out of the corner of my eye saw my brothers peering from behind the door. I gave them a watery smile, and opened up my arms again, and both of them and ran into the them. I closed my arms and gave them a quick squeeze. I realized one person I hadn’t apologized to was Allison. I told my parents I would be right back, took the heels and took off running down the street barefoot with my shoes hanging over my shoulder. When I got there her mom opened the door. She took a look at me, then pulled me into a hug and said
“its good to have you back.”
I walked up stairs and found Allison at the top. I gave her a weak smile and she didn’t return it. I sat down beside her and she scooted as far as she could be from me on the step.
I opened my mouth, “I don't know what to say”
She replied in an angry tone ”Saying sorry would be a good start.”
This time my smile was watery “I’m sorry.”
She couldn’t help but smiling. We sat in silence for another 5 minutes, before she said “Wanna get something to eat?”
I laughed and replied ”When would I say no to that question?”
We both laughed and went downstairs together.
Now I had to tell Mr. Krail my answer. He came over and I tried to talk, but my tongue stuck to the top of my mouth, along with my mind. He didn’t have to open his mouth for me to know that he would be angry if I said no. Then I realized I was done with him. I looked straight into those piercing blue eyes and said,
“I have everything I need here. There is nothing I will gain from going with you. All you have done is disrupt the peace in this town. Why would I want to go with you?” convincing myself as much as Mr. Krail.
He replied with one word.
“Fame.”
Thats when I truly realized that my fame would just be because I have a different mind. That was the furthest thing from what I wanted. He could tell he was rapidly losing my attention and said that if I stayed I would have to pretend to be normal my whole life. So I replied saying I won’t have to pretend, and then told him
“Take your business somewhere else where people want to be famous, because you won’t find anyone here.”
I then turned on my heel and marched upstairs. I heard my parents telling him sorry and then finally hearing the front door shut, locking Mr. Krail out from our lives. I guess life isn’t perfect yet, but its much better now that I know what I have, and appreciate it.