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

imps were no help either, as they told him to tell me to go to the school to whip the butts of everyone who had messed with Wispy. He knew what it meant to go full Tom Brown, and for some odd reason, he did not seem averse to it. Yet hearing his imps shout those things to him, and seeing him hold off telling me, I knew that I had to wait as anything else would cause seriously bad chaos.

“Ok,” I said, though my hands were still shaking in fury on behalf of Wispy.

He smiled painfully at me as he walked over and put an arm around my shoulder. “Man, I love imp communication. It saves so much time.”

That tall spooky police officer from before came to our hall not long after and ‘claimed’ me from Officer Calamori. He took me straight through the hospital building, past all the nurses and doctors who were nervously whispering about my horns and ‘creepy face’.

“You see them, right?” the cop finally said as we rushed past the death angels reaping the dying in the emergency room.

I looked to him. “You can?”

The cop nodded stiffly. “Yes. I see the dead.”

I stared.

“Ghosts,” he explained. Then he looked to me. “That was how I knew your friend was ok.”

I put a hand to my forehead as he steered me out through the lobby and toward the parking lot. We went directly to his car where he let me sit in the side front seat next to him rather than in the back like most riders. It was his way of saying I was no criminal. In fact, it felt like a thank you for making sure there wasn’t another ghost in the world.

He cleared this throat as he started the car. “So many deaths are unnecessary.”

I nodded.

“But I noticed those destroying angels are watching you,” he said.

I stiffened.

He glanced to my horns. “I’d hate to see you go full demon, kid. Tom told me all about horns and imps. Never let them grow.”

I nodded, mostly because he frightened me. A normal man who saw death angels and didn’t crap his pants was a terrifying thing.

He took me in a very roundabout way to the school. We went up and down the city roads in a meander, like a snake going through the grass. It was oddly indirect and confusing. When it started to really bug me, I finally asked him why we were driving in the long snaky way.

“Sorry,” he chuckled. “It’s procedure in case the mafia are following us.”

I stared for a minute to make sure he wasn’t joking.

“Lots of kids are at Gulinger for their protection,” he explained.

I knew that, of course. But it still freaked me out.

When we long last arrived, Officer Johnson came into the building and school with me. We went up to Mr. Wilderman’s office where we discovered a gathering of teachers inside conferencing together. I overheard their shouts.

“…bullying! They are doing just as much damage, if not more to the student body than any of our regular kids are.” It was Ms. Arntz. I hated her voice. It bit into the brain like knives.

“The girl had not reported to the nurse as she ought to have, her previous—” Dr. Folger drawled out.

“What child would share something like that!?” Capt. Eifert shouted at him. “Like she’d just out and out say: ‘Oh yeah I was raped by the gang I was in!’ as if she wasn’t already traumatized. Why would she trust strangers after all that she had gone through?”

“She should have told the police,” Ms. Amherst said.

“Oh, please!” Capt. Eifert shot back. “Would they have actually cared? They would have blamed her for it, saying ‘That’s what you get for being part of a gang’.”

I bristled. Capt. Eifert was right. Of course Wispy would have never told a soul except those that she deeply trusted. But why had she trusted Lorelei? She knew the girl was a pushover. Was she that starved for a friend? Weren’t we enough?

“The issue is not whether they knew their teasing—”

“Bullying.”

“—would push her to suicide.” Ms. Arntz’s voice bit out each word. “Kids are impulsive. Often thoughtless.”

“This was not just thoughtlessness,” Capt. Eifert shot back. “This was an out and out smear campaign. And worse, I think someone believed the rumors that she was some kind of hooker and tried to take advantage of her.”

“Who would dare even think of an imp in that way?” shot out Dr. Coffee. “Soliciting sex with a disgusting—”

“Wispy is a frightened and shy girl, who also happens to be pretty.”

“In a starved Cossette sort of way,” someone muttered.

“She’s a demon!” Dr. Folger shot back again.

I was ready to storm in there and punch him in the nose, but Officer Johnson held me back.

“And that Piranha set loose all those little demons on those poor girls that now they are traumatized,” Ms. Amherst said with bite. “Their parents are calling for your resignation for allowing it.”

“Allowing it?” Mr. Wilderman quietly spoke up.

I listened.

So did Officer Johnson—intently.

I could hear his chair scoot back. He had to be rising from his seat.

“For your illumination, Ms. Amherst. Those little demons are everywhere in this school. They were not set loose.”

Ms. Amherst drew in a breath.

“If you had read the memo I gave you about imps and half-imps and all that we know about them, you would know that you must never upset a half-imp if you want peace,” Mr. Wilderman said.

“I want them out of this school,” she bit back.

“And Mr. Deacon wants them in,” he answered with a louder voice.

“The parents of—”

“It is not a right for ghoulies to go to Gulinger, but a privilege. And Mr. Deacon still owns most of the shares of this school. They founded it. They set the rules.” I could hear Mr. Wilderman breathing heavily. “We were lucky to stay here to be educated and protected—on their good graces.”

“The good graces of werewolves,” Dr. Folger muttered under his breath.

Officer Johnson stiffened.

“Things have changed,” Ms. Amherst said. “Mr. Deacon is out of touch. His son especially so. Those demons have no place at—”

“Do you really want to argue about demons right now?” Mr. Wilderman’s voice raised in pitch. “Fine. Let’s talk about demons. Let’s take Miss Fail for an example. She’s half demon. Do you know how much trouble she has been? And what about Miss Nixie? Her father’s a demon and her mother’s a witch. They both are a bad influence on Kendra—that nasty little fire-starter who still has not learned to leave Piranha alone—whom she knows would fight back no matter what.”

“Piranha has damaged—”

“Tom Brown would have turned this school upside down and inside out by now! These kids have been mild in comparison!” Mr. Wilderman’s voice boomed.

I looked to Officer Johnson, who nodded.

“He regularly turned upside-down my office and flooded the bathrooms! But these kids are doing nothing but minding their own business! And they are here for the same reason Tom was here—they are more dangerous out on the streets!”

I paled. But of course that was the reason. I knew it from day one. It wasn’t just to give us opportunity because they liked us. I noticed Officer Johnson had cringed, clearly not wanting that to be the admitted reason.

“This place was supposed to be their doorway into civilized society,” Mr. Wilderman snapped. “This prejudice has got to stop!”

“Prejudice?” Dr. Coffee balked loudly.

“Yes,” I heard Dr. Pierce say, the first time he ever spoke up. “I’ve seen enough of it. You in particular have been giving them a hard time.”

“They’re dunces,” Dr. Coffee huffed.

“Not,” Ms. Keys said. “Piranha is brilliant at math. And none of the others are failing. They just are starting later than their classmates.”

I could hear dissenting moans. But Officer Johnson decided then to knock on the door.

“Yes?” Mr. Wilderman called out. “We’re in a meeting.”

“This is Officer Joshua Johnson. I need to speak with you.” The cop stared at the door, waiting for it to open.

Someone unlocked it and pulled it open. As it widened to allow us entry, I could see all the staring faces of most of the teachers. Mr. Wilderman drew a breath as he stared at me, taking me in with widening eyes.

More breaths drew in as Officer Johnson nudged me forward while he stepped into the room. I went in with him, my anger swelling as I saw the glowers from Ms. Arntz, Ms. Amherst, and Dr. Folger. The other teachers looked like they were going to vomit from shock as I got nearer. Was me overhearing them that scary?

“Mr. Wilderman, I came to return Roddy to school, but also to ask you all a few questions.”

“Who laid a hand on Wispy?” I bit out.

Mr. Wilderman looked a little pale when I said that. “You overheard.”

“We stood outside the door,” Officer Johnson replied for us.

Casting him a chiding look, Mr. Wilderman said, “Did you think that was appropriate?”

Nodding, Officer Johnson replied, “Most definitely. Roddy needed to hear the truth without any filters. He needs to know who his friends and enemies are.”

The three teachers who had been glaring at me flustered, bristling toward Officer Johnson now.

Capt. Eifert, Col. Jefferson, and Sgt. Kreiner all nodded. But then so did Dr. Pierce who sighed.

“Enemies?” Ms. Arntz echoed.

“Oh, I already know,” I muttered.

They all looked to me. So I stepped forward, eying them up. But then I said to Mr. Wilderman, “I told you so.”

The headmaster closed his eyes, cringing. He knew it. It was now on his head. But he said to the cop, “Joshua, can you take him back to his dorm room so he can change and get cleaned up?”

Cleaned up? But then I looked at myself. My school uniform was covered in Wispy’s blood. So was my face and hands. I hadn’t realized.

“I wanted you to see for yourself,” Officer Johnson replied, not moving. “She nearly died.”

I looked to him.

He cringed as he said, “Her ghost wanted to go. Death angels were everywhere.”

My eyes widened as I had not seen them. “You kept them away?”

The cop nodded to me.

I hugged him again. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

He nodded again, patting me gingerly on the head, trying to dodge my horns and then moving his hand to my back, trying to avoid my fluttering wings. His eyes turned to the teachers, raking over them. “There should never be a suicide at Gulinger. I have spent years warding off ghosts, sending them to the peaceful afterlife. The last thing I want to see is a Gulinger ghost haunting me for restitution. That girl was attacked—I don’t care the method. You have to stop this now.”

“But what about the people she attacked?” Ms. Arntz bit back.

“She never did!” I shouted at her. “If you want to blame someone for that stupid Kendra’s hair—blame me. I was getting her back for burning off Wispy’s hair—and Piranha’s hair, and MY hair! And you people let her get away with it! That isn’t fair!”

“Life isn’t fair, kid,” Dr. Folger said.

“No!” I shouted back at him. “You jerks have been blaming Mr. Wilderman for favoritism towards us! And he never did anything for us except believe the truth! Those girls are damned liars! And you let somebody mess with Wispy! Someone touched her! And when I find out who, I’m gonna castrate him!”

Several teacher’s shared panicked looks while my horns itched. They wanted to grow. They wanted me to follow through with that threat.

But one teacher said, “So you never slept with—?”

“No!” I shouted at the teacher who had dare accuse me of that. How dare he even assume I was such a guy! It was vile. “This was the first time I had heard about what had happened to her in the gang! I was avoiding them! And she told no one but Piranha and that stupid Lorelei who is such a sucky pushover!”

More teachers flustered, though I saw Capt. Eifert nod about Lorelei being a pushover.

“Piranha attacked her,” Ms. Arntz