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

other side.

“Never mind that. Just tell me what Leah said.”

“That’s he’s been sexually harassing her behind the teacher’s back.”

“Coming from Leah?”

One of the guys snorted.

“You think she’s lying?”

“Probably.” “What do I know?”

“Leah’s got it in for him because Mr. Wilderman likes him.”

Mr. Wilderman liked me? That sounded impossible. He tolerated me.

“She’s got it in for him because that imp Piranha says Roddy’s best buddies with Howard the Third and is wearing his pajamas.”

The girl was jealous of his pajamas? Seriously? The best buddies thing was absurd, though. He hardly knew the guy.

“I don’t care what she says,” one of the older guys finally said. “I just don’t want another reigning Tom Brown. The one was bad enough. Bringing in four is intolerable. And they must be stopped.”

And that was it. The conversation ended. The younger boys hurried out of the room and so did Tim. I leaned against the outside wall, thinking—what could I do? They were aiming to get rid of us by any means necessary.

However, first, I had to fortify Valhalla.

Valhalla

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eleven

 

 

“I like what you’ve done to the place,” Piranha said with an assessing nod at Valhalla. We had just brought more of our personal things into the place for their protection, as we realized people were going to continue to harass us. Her eyes trailed to the bars over the window which I had ‘procured’ from some other place in town via imp. I think they actually had come from a real jail.

“I like them,” I said, grinning at the perfect security. I had explained to her what I had overheard when I had led her to the room. I had also put bars in the back of the closet entrance, so even if someone pried out crowbars, they would not be able to get in. It wasn’t just our haven. It was our fortress.

“Do you think Mr. Wilderman knows we are doing this?” Piranha asked with a side glance to me.

I nodded. “I think he knows we need a haven. And I don’t think he objects to the idea.”

Piranha nodded, sighing. We had accepted the fact that the headmaster was truly not a bad guy, but stuck with a lousy job corralling dangerous kids.

Unfortunately we had to leave Vahalla and go to class, which was like stepping from heaven into a war zone.

But of course our troubles with jerks messing with us did not end with that. They just took a detour. Piranha still regularly ended up in detention for her continued war against Kendra the fire-starter and Moyra. And Leah continued to maintain the act that I was ‘sexually harassing’ her with suggestive gestures and dirty jokes behind backs and under tables. I think only a handful of teachers believed her at first. I deliberately chose to sit far from her whenever I could so such things would be physically impossible, but she always found a way to make it look as if I had—as if I were just waiting for the opportune moment to harass her. But most of the teachers never gave me the benefit of the doubt. It was at least clear to Ms. Keyes (my math teacher) that I wasn’t messing around like that. She was a hyper aware human being who always knew what was really going on in her classroom, so nothing went past her ever. But Ms. Amherst and Dr. Folger with that nasty psychic lady Ms. Arntz never gave me a chance at all to defend myself. Rather, Leah convincingly acted out her disgust and shock for them, and I ended up getting sent out of class more frequently—though in the case of Ms. Arntz, she continued to give me headaches when she thought I was guilty. The worst part was, the other teachers were starting to doubt me.

I could endure it, I told myself often. But I wasn’t the only person they had been targeting. And why would I be? I wasn’t an easy target.

Wispy was.

Wispy took the brunt of their harassment.

Fact was, Wispy had the worst class schedule, Piranha and I decided. She had two class hours with nasty Ms. Amherst, back to back. English and Spanish. And though she had break with Capt. Eifert for PE—even the good captain was unable to guard those jerks from harassing Wispy all the time during sports. The girls planned ahead their nastiness so their imps could not clue Wispy in on what they were up to. They tripped her, called her cruel names, and did everything within their power to mess with her. The only reason they got away with it was that Wispy was trying with all her might to play it straight. And after PE she was stuck with suck-face Dr. Folger for an hour of History. He was cruelly prejudiced against her—blaming her for any and every classroom mishap that occurred. And lunch with us was barely a break. I was just glad that Ms. Keyes and Dr. Pierce had her after that. But, damn, she was stuck with Ms. Arntz in her final hour in stupid Home Ec. Wispy’s only consolation was that she had a friend in Lorelei during her electives. Problem was, Lorelei was such a flake. Too easily influenced.

After a week of this hell, I finally protested to Mr. Wilderman that he had to change Wispy’s schedule before she broke—as she was stuck with three of the worst kids in the school—Moyra, Kendra, and my roommate.

I think he was getting tired of seeing me in his office.

Shaking his head, Mr. Wilderman gazed sadly on me and said, “I can’t. She’s a junior and she’s barely on grade level.”

“Then put her back with me,” I said earnestly. I’d protect her.

But he shook his head more. “I’m sorry, Roddy. But the teachers can’t handle more than one half-imp per grade.”

I moaned, ready to debate whether Wispy ought to be regarded in such a way as she hardly caused trouble at all. Her impishness was more in how distracted she was with all the imp chatter and chaos than in her own prankishness. Wispy hardly used her imp skills.

But then he added the most shocking and insulting information ever, “Look, I’ve already had complaints from the school board over favoritism towards you kids.”

My mouth opened in protest. I was always glad he called us kids and not one of the hundred slurs the other kids (and some teachers) used. But still….

“Some of the students have started a petition for my removal, and their parents have gotten involved,” he said gravely.

“Parents?” I stared, unaware that there were parents connected to any of the kids at the school. We were all boarders, right?

“Yes,” Mr. Wilderman nodded earnestly. “Several… uh… ghoulie children have families. This school is not just a place to hide people. It is also a last chance for some of these kids who can’t go to regular public school to get an education.”

I stared more. I hadn’t known that.

“Like Selena Davenport and, of course, Rick Deacon, whom you know.”

I nodded. I never really thought about it. Eve would have been one of those too if she had accepted Rick’s offer. She had family. So… some of these kids had parents. Tom’s mother had been in jail, so I never really thought that the school was something people actually chose outside of living on the streets. I had always figured that cops had brought all the kids to Gulinger.

“Whose parents have complained?” I asked, mostly curious.

Mr. Wilderman eyed me to assess if I was seeking vengeance then nodded as he said, “The Foldgers. The Yateses. The Doorleys. The Fails. The Collenses. You know Kendra….”

“The fire-starter who burned off Wispy’s hair?” I bristled. Desire for vengeance was rising in me.

He frowned, nodding. “They are an influential family.”

I huffed angrily. “Oh, so they all threatened to set the school on fire?”

He shook his head wearily. “No. They can’t threaten us like that. But Mr. Deacon only has so much sway here over who is hired. It is about staffing. When parents complain, the teachers get rattled. It is extremely difficult to retain teachers you know.”

I stared at him. Teachers. Of course. These old folks were teaching in an extremely dangerous environment, of which they had to keep secret about. One of the names he had mentioned lifted to the forefront. “The Folgers… You mean Dr. Coffee was hired because of that family?”

Mr. Wilderman nodded, glad I could see it.

Groaning, I huffed. “He’s a lousy teacher.”

“Actually, he a good, yet prejudiced, teacher,” Mr. Wilderman replied wearily.

“Doesn’t that make him a bad teacher?” I groaned in complete disgust, throwing up my hands. “Prejudice?”

Chuckling, Mr. Wilderman shook his head. “Not what I meant. He knows his subjects and the students perform well under his tutelage. And he knows how to handle dangerous demons. He used to be an exorcist.”

I groaned. Who used words like ‘tutelage’? And why did we need an exorcist at the school? None of us were possessed that I knew of.

“The point is, Roddy, I can’t do anything that shows favoritism for one student over another,” Mr. Wilderman said. “I’m sorry.”

Frowning at him, I stiffly lifted my chin. “Fine. But if Wispy breaks, it is going to be on your head.”

I stormed out through the solid closed door, too angry to bother to open it. His imps shouted for him to give me detention for sassing, but he said nothing in response. I’m sure he knew I was right.

 

And the day just seemed to get worse.

Spastic got into a tussle with a shapeshifter from Florida and ended up in detention. Piranha was caught urging imps to put hair remover into Kendra’s shampoo bottle. And I finally got what I had asked for from the imps—as later that day Kendra’s hair got chopped through in Home Ec. with a sharp meat cleaver, and it looked like an accident.

But it also got blamed on Wispy who laughed when she saw it happen. I was nearby, which was how I knew.

I heard Ms. Arntz from the hallway, screeching at Wispy while mostly likely inflicting Wispy with a headache. The teacher also telekinetically threw Wispy off her chair. I overheard the clatter of the chair and her screams while on my way to the restroom from Dr. Pierce’s Art class. But there was no boom from Wispy hitting the ground. She didn’t hit it. Her wings caught her before she could. But she was shouting back with hands clenched to her throbbing head “I didn’t do it! BUT NOW I WISH I DID!”

I ran over to the closed door and peeked my head into the room.

Flour was everywhere. The air smelled like sizzling pork and chicken with pepper enough to make you sneeze. I stepped in through the door the same moment Wispy had had enough. She launched through the ceiling, clearly going back to her room.

“Come back here!” Ms. Arntz shouted after her.

Kendra, whom I was gratified to see was the target, was in hysterics. Her long brown hair had an asymmetrical chop in it, taking a third of it out. It was beautiful imp workmanship.

I shoved my hands into my pockets, smirking at her. Classic justice. Juicy revenge.

Hers and Moyra’s eyes whipped up to me when they heard me chuckle.

“You did this!” Moyra shouted,