The Unfortunate Story of Roddy Mayhem, Julie Steimle [i can read book club TXT] 📗

said, hopping up in my seat, as the stink in our room was due to some fish I had dumped on his bed after Morgan had somehow gotten my shampoo bottle and had filled it with cooking oil.

“Don’t bother,” Mr. Wilderman said, “Your job is to clean it up. Our school policy is simple—you damage it, you fix it.”

I cringed, as while during battle with my roommate we had damaged quite a bit.

“So if you don’t want to be perpetually cleaning something up, don’t make the mess,” he said.

I nodded. It was fair.

I was also dismissed after that.

Moyra, Kendra, and Leah were waiting outside to hear the verdict. At first they took heart when they saw me exit with dragging feet. But on seeing them, I straightened up my shoulders and back then marched past them with my chin raised, my wings fluttering behind me with imp pride. 

“Nice try,” I said, strolling away.

They bristled and fumed, eyes darkening on me. And Kendra muttered under her breath.

The tips of my horns almost immediately felt hot. Her imps were screaming for her set me entirely ablaze. She was about to set my horns on fire when Piranha hopped down the stairs to meet me.

“Are you free?” she briskly said to me.

“Am now,” I replied.

She quickly grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me away, straight through the stairs and up. Piranha dragged me all the way up to the roof. When we landed up top, Piranha whipped around and asked, “So he believed you?”

I nodded. “I didn’t lie to him.”

Piranha smiled. She nodded to herself. Strolling over to the edge of the roof, she looked down, murmuring, “I’ve been spying on them.”

I stared, following her to the edge. Down below was nothing more than the usual traffic. It felt a bit like I was one of those gargoyles on cathedrals, leering down on the passersby below. I listened to her imps and her sighs as she stared at one guy in particular who thought it ok to pee against the wall near the trash pile in the alley. Our imps screamed for us to drop something on him.

“Those girls think they are so clever,” Piranha muttered, her fingernails digging into the brick edge. “But they still have no clue how much their imps broadcast their plans. I can read the glee in them when they decide to follow imp suggestions. They are so stupid.”

I cringed. “What did you overhear?”

Piranha turned around and leaned against the roof edge. “They plan to get us all expelled, if they can.”

I felt sick in my gut. I had a feeling they were like that. I had overheard other imps shout that as well.

“Moyra and Leah are leading their little plot,” Piranha muttered with such a glower at the city sky. “Kendra is well into following.”

“What about Wispy’s friend—Lorelei?” I asked, knowing she was a roommate of Leah’s.

Piranha shook her head. “Not in on it. But she’s too easily pushed around by them. No backbone at all.”

“Anyone else in on it?” I asked grimly.

Piranha nodded. “Plenty of others. Though your creep roommate isn’t actually part of it. No one likes him enough to want to include him. But Roddy, they’re targeting you the most.”

My eyes widened.

“They can’t scare me,” Piranha said almost proudly. She shook her head as if she wanted to spit. “And they’ve already gone after Wispy in ways to hurt her. They’re also giving Spastic a heap of trouble. But they seem to think the way to take the rest of us down is to get you thrown out of the school.”

“Why me?” I whined. It was entirely unfair.

Piranha shrugged yet said, “Maybe because they heard you know a powerful demon, and had actually stayed at Mr. Deacon’s house. They think you are too dangerous of an enemy.”

I stared at her. “What?”

She nodded smartly. “Word travels fast.”

I shook my head. “No. Why? Why would that make me an enemy?”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Please. Roddy. We upset their pecking order. And according to them, if they get rid of you then they think they will have no trouble getting rid of us.”

That made no sense to me. I was not the most powerful half imp in the group. Piranha was. She was older, wiser, and more skilled. Heavens, she could sneak around better than the best of them. In fact, I was sure she’d literally be able to get away with murder.

“Just be careful,” Piranha said, then walked across the roof to where Valhalla was and sank to the floor.

I followed her, going down through and landing on the carpet below. “You don’t think I am being careful?”

But then I saw Wispy. She was rocking herself. She smelled of burnt hair. I walked around her. Her hair was shorter by a hand’s length and frizzy on the ends. I drew in a breath. Looking up, Piranha and I both shared an angry look. “I’m gonna kill her.”

Kendra had gone too far. We all loved Wispy’s long flowing hair. It was her pride and joy. Piranha and I didn’t care really what happened to our hair fluff. We both wore ours spiked and in all directions, but Wispy…. She was our flower.

Kendra had to be punished.

“Oil in her shampoo,” Piranha murmured.

I blinked at her.

“Oil in everything…” Piranha continued under her breath—clearly to the imps around us.

“What will that do?” I whispered, peeking back at Wispy who sniffled and rocked.

With a steely eye, Piranha said, “Make her world flammable.”

Wasn’t Kendra’s entire world flammable already, as a fire starter?

“So it will burn even easier,” Piranha said, seeing I didn’t get it.

“Oh…” I nodded. Though I wondered if Kendra could also control existing fire. If she could, making her world extra flammable would make no difference.

Piranha crouched next to Wispy and whispered, “We’re gonna get that witch.”

Wispy nodded, grasping her hair tighter, pawing the frizzled ends.

Fuming, I walked through the closet wall back onto school grounds thinking Piranha’s revenge wasn’t enough. Kendra deserved a harsher punishment. With a look to the imps, I said, “When you get the opportunity, get Kendra to accidentally cut off her own hair. Or get one of her friends to do it. But make it look like an accident.”

The imps nodded, grinning wickedly at me.

A felt a twinge in my scalp. And for a second… I was sure my horns grew a little.

I pawed them, feeling the almost blackened tips. They were longer.

Was that an evil thought? I wondered as I wandered back to my room. Was it evil to want to get back at Kendra so badly for what she had done to Wispy? If I was, I was starting to understand why some imps wanted to go full demon, because I also felt strangely powerful.

 

However, I did not have the joy of seeing Kendra’s hair get cut in the following days, though the imps constantly watched and waited for the opportunity. Rather, I did see Kendra constantly washing off the oil Piranha kept having her doused with. Piranha ended up in detention again over it, though she swore to Mr. Wilderman that she never laid a finger on Kendra’s stuff. Funny thing was, unlike with me, Mr. Wilderman only extended Piranha’s detention for that remark. I guess it reminded him too much of Tom Brown at his worst.

Then the worst of the worst started.

I heard an astonished gasp from the rows not too far in front of me in History class. Blinking, I saw that trollip Leah staring at me as if I had just done something obscene. Honestly, all I was doing was making paper throwing stars. But the next thing I knew Leah was raising her hand and calling to the teacher. “Dr. Folger! Roddy just made a dirty gesture at me!”

I stared. Then I looked at my hands, wondering what I did that could possibly be construed as dirty. Her imps weren’t making any suggestions to lie, so I was confused.

“Roddy! See Mr. Wilderman, immediately!” Dr. Coffee shouted, his face red on behalf of Leah. “Sexual harassment is not allowed at this school.”

I lifted up my hands and said, “I didn’t do anything!”

But he glowered at me.

“He was doing it under his desk!” Leah snapped, her face in a convincingly offended contortion.

Our teacher, Coffee-face, rose from his seat and pointed to the door. “I said out!”

Rising, I glowered at Leah. “She’s lying.”

“OUT!” Mr. Folger pointed harder.

Grabbing my bag, I stormed out of the room, but not before muttering under my breath for the imps to trip Mr. Folger so that he fell on his butt rather than ended back in his chair. The class erupted into laughter after I had stepped through of the door, proof they had done it.

“Roddy!”

“I did THAT one!” I shouted as I stomped away.

But I didn’t go to Mr. Wilderman’s. I went back to my dorm room—where I walked in on Morgan shredding my Hellboy comic books with his bare hands. The wall planks had been torn open and he had somehow gotten to them.

I saw red. “No!”

Pouncing on him with my fists flying, I wailed into the jerk.

Morgan’s girlish shouts drew in teachers as he kicked back and used all his psychic ability to fight. But I didn’t care. I blackened his eye good and ripped into him. It took everything to tear us apart while the contents of our room flew everywhere. By the time Sgt. Kreiner and Col. Jefferson were able to drag us apart and subdue us (Morgan had to be knocked out, and my wings were red-ribbon-spell bound), our room was trashed and more of my comics had been destroyed.

“They were cherry!” I screamed at Morgan, tears running down my face. “Why can’t you just leave my stuff alone? It was all I had!”

But Morgan was too unconscious to hear my screams, and I was really shouting at the world.

Sgt. Kreiner looked at the shredded comic books, then at me. He was frowning deeply.

Col. Jefferson heaved me off my feet and dragged me and Morgan both to Mr. Wilderman’s office. He set me on a chair there.

Mr. Wilderman was pale, staring at me and the state of Morgan who was hanging like a potato sack in Col. Jefferson’s grip. He shook his head, his eyes turning on me again. “Why?”

I snarled back, “Why? WHY? Mr. Wilderman! I have done everything you stupid people have asked me! I’ve played nice! I’ve left most people alone! I haven’t stolen or harassed—”

“What about Miss Fail?”

“She’s LYING!” My face went dark red as I bellowed. “I didn’t do anything to her!”

“Mr. Folger?”

“Yes, I made the imps trip him! He’d rather believe Leah’s lies than listen to me!” My face was now going livid white. “They’ve been picking on Wispy like alley cats! They set her hair on fire!”

“And Morgan?”

“HE WAS SHREDDING MY HELLBOY COMIC BOOKS!”

Mr. Wilderman closed his eyes.

“NO ONE TOUCHES HELLBOY!”

“It seems even he has limits,” Sgt. Kreiner murmured.

I didn’t see him come in. My head was throbbing. My ears were ringing. And all the imps in the room were screaming for me to just throw the entire room upside down—or rather begging for me to ask them to do it. I wondered in the back of my head if Tom ever did that sort of thing. No one would tell us what antics Tom got up to. Everyone afraid us halfs would get ideas.

“Roddy,” Mr. Wilderman said in a calm voice. “Fighting is inexcusable at Gulinger. You will have detention for the rest of the day.”

I stared at him, the injustice of all of it pounding down on me.

“Sergeant Kreiner, please collect all of Roddy’s class assignments and bring them to the solitary detention room for Roddy.” Mr. Wilderman’s voice had remained calm. Oddly, his imps were just shouting for him to get out a bottle and drink for the rest of the day.

Col. Jefferson dropped Morgan on the chair and dragged me off to the detention room. With my wings bound the way they were, I could not