A Nobody

“What’s going on here?!” A voice suddenly roared in the cafeteria causing the throwing competition to come to an end.

Who was that? What had taken them so long? I wondered, unable to open my eyes because they were covered with liquids and food particles that had been thrown on me, more than a hundred times.

When Noah had chosen to make me a target for practice, the others in the cafeteria had taken it as a go ahead to replicate the mess. Everyone in the cafeteria, except Naomi, had emptied their lunch packs on me.

“Who is that sitting on the floor? Stand up!” The same hoarse voice echoed.

Mr Johnson, the principal. I was sure now.

It can only mean that Naomi had made the report herself. Her father was an important member of the pack’s council—she couldn’t be ignored by the school’s authorities.

I tried obeying the principal’s command, I tried standing up from the floor, but my feet and hands kept slipping on the slippery floor.

A hand grabbed me by my arm—certainly Naomi—and helped me to my feet. No one else would have done that apart from her. I had no one in this school.

“What is your name, girl?” Mr. Johnson asked.

“Maya, sir. Maya Holins.” My voice was barely audible. But he was a werewolf, so there wasn’t a problem.

“Maya Holins? The wolfless girl??”

I clamped my teeth in anger and frustration wishing that I would disappear right in front of them.

“Answer me!” The principal shouted, annoyance coating his voice. “Are you the wolfless one that had been banished from the cafeteria a few years ago?”

Is that all there was to me? The wolfless one? So, he had known of the banishment too, and had allowed it? I chuckled, then barked out a laugh. Here was I thinking that it was just the students who were bullies, but the teachers were too, the principal was one too.

“Is there something funny, wolfless girl?”

I ignored him, and laughed again, not minding the murmurs that were spreading around the cafeteria. I ignored him, shrugged Noami’s hand from my arm, and started walking out of the cafeteria. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t bothered about suspension, or even expulsion.

I laughed with every step I took away from the principal, aware of the utmost silence in the hall. They must think I was crazy.

They were right. I was crazy.

I was crazy and fed up with this.

Maybe it was a sign to drop out of school. Mother will understand when I explain things to her.

Outside the school block, I inhaled deeply as I felt the cool breeze glide over my skin thick with food and liquids. I was surprised no one had stopped me. I started coughing the next second—turns out I had inhaled food particles alongside oxygen.

“Maya! Are you okay?”

Naomi rubbed my back frantically, causing me to wonder how she could touch my sticky back comfortably, without hesitation.

“Why did you follow me out? Won’t the principal suspend you too?”

I touched my nose intermittently, when the cough subsided, slowly getting rid of the particles around it. I didn’t need a second fit when I breathed in again.

“He wouldn’t dare. Where do you want to go?”

“Home. I don’t think I can stay here a minute more.” I answered, furrowing my eyebrows when Naomi pushed her lunch pack into my hands.

“Wait here, let me get my car. I need to get our bags too.”

I shook my head. I had planned to walk home. The distance wasn’t far after all. I couldn’t stain Naomi’s car seats with my stinky self.

Naomi, however, was having none of that. Before I could launch a complaint, she zapped away from me, into the hallways to get what she had mentioned earlier.

Fifteen minutes later, we left the school’s premises. Six minutes after that, we were at my house.

I kept checking my wristwatch at intervals.

“Are you sure you will be okay?” Noami asked as soon as we stepped onto my front porch.

“Yeah. Nothing, a good sleep can’t cure. Thanks for today, Naomi.”

Naomi shrugged her shoulders. “It’s nothing. Do you think…”

She stopped mid sentence , turning sharply toward the door when a loud bang and clash echoed in the house.

I heard a shout.

What was going on?

“Do you want me to leave?” Naomi asked, her voice barely over a whisper.

She had obviously connected the dots together. My parents were having a row. It was next to impossible. What could be the problem?

“No, don’t. Let’s follow the backyard.” I suggested, wanting her with me. She gave me a thumbs up before we scurried past the front porch to the backyard in a beat, heaving in deeply when we got to the back door.

I heard Naomi sigh first, and turning aside to look at her, I noticed the creases on her forehead.

She looked at me guiltily, like I had caught her stealing. But I shook my head, a bland smile on my lips, knowing that she couldn’t help her super hearing abilities. I knew she must have picked up something already.

“What is happening? What is the matter?” I refused to dwell and languish in the feeling that I couldn’t super-hear like her.

“They are having an argument…and it’s about you…” She stuttered, a flash of concern on her face which only served to make me more curious about what my parents could be talking about that centered on me.

Was my father campaigning to have me thrown away or sold? I wondered, not pushing the act past him at all. He had made it clear since I was sixteen that I was of no use at all to him.

Opening the back door, I tiptoed into the kitchen, Naomi following right behind me. From there, we moved stealthily into the passageway. The location was perfect. I could hear them clearly now.

“We have to let her go! She is of no use to us for god sake. Why are you so hell bent on keeping her when she isn’t ours? She was dumped at the edge of the pack, and you had to be a Good Samaritan to bring her in here, and now she keeps causing trouble everywhere she goes. I have never fallen under the king’s radar and now he is calling for us for her sake? We need to be ready to oust her!”

That was my father, or rather the man that had raised me.

My heart shattered under the onslaught of a searing pain. I was an unknown person?

“Are you listening to yourself? She was bullied in school, and this is all you have to say? Day by day, you make me wonder if the goddess had made a mistake pairing us both together. Maya isn’t our daughter, yes, but does that justify your daily callousness towards her? You want to kick her out? You better kick me out first.”

My mother stated vehemently, causing a tear to slip down my eye.

I retreated from the hallway, not wanting them to hear me whimpering. Naomi couldn’t hug me because I was still baked in food, but she settled for ‘sorry’ as we walked toward her car. I couldn’t stay at home either.

“Do you want to go to my house?”

I gave no response.

I was still speechless over the conversation I just heard. My parents were not my parents.

My father seemed to have a justifiable reason for being wicked then. I thought.

I was not his daughter. I knew, however, that he wouldn’t be kicking me out anytime soon. Mother was as stubborn as him.

I glanced at Noami then, getting my emotions under check—the tears were making my stinky face more sticky. My friend had a dazed look of shock on her face, despite being the first to speak after the secret reveal.

“Hey…” I called out to her, pushing my emotions and the questions about my real parents into the background. I needed to bathe. I can stew in my misery after that.

“Can I use your bathroom?” I asked when she looked at me.

“Of course. You can stay till evening, till all these blow over.” A tentative smile buttered her lips. It’s been a while since we spent time at her beautiful house. Nevertheless, she didn’t want to be insensitive by showing giddiness.

But what if Timothy comes back? I wasn’t ready for another drama, not with the breaking news I just heard.

“Don’t worry about that sicko.”

Naomi said, rightfully interpreting the look of uncertainty on my face. “He won’t do anything; my parents are around.”

As I entered her car for the long drive, I hoped for my sake that she wasn’t wrong in her calculations again…