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

in class as we were the same grade—looked surprisingly hopeful. “You serious?”

I nodded, thinking it over. Quinn was glad we were at the school, the guy people picked on for being a cursed backward talker while also being a weird telepath. Rick Deacon was glad for us to be there—though I was never exactly sure why. Some gob-father situation.

I looked to Sean. “What’s a gobfather?”

Sean shrugged. But then, mid another shrug, he cocked his head and said, “Unless you are talking about Bobby Cassidy.”

“That’s the name,” I pointed to him. “What is that?”

He regarded me for a second, then said, “It happened long before I came here. Some mafi kid had formed a small mafia type organization in the school, and another mafi—uh, I think his name was Emil—helped get rid of it. But their plan was to eventually overthrow Tom Brown’s gang and ruled the whole school, ‘cause darn near everyone was scared of crossing Tom….” His voice drifted as he stared at me.

I wondered how this was relevant to anything. Mr. Wilderman had said to Rick the gobfather situation wasn’t the same as what was going on now. But what was Rick implying about?

“There is no gobfather now,” Sean said slowly, watching me. “But those Junior girls are pretty bad.”

I knew which Junior girls he was talking about—though technically Leah was in my grade.

“Some of us call them the coven,” Sean whispered.

My ears perked up.

“It makes no difference,” Sean said, looking at me. “No one can prove anything. They’re good at making everyone else look bad and getting away with it.”

I knew he was right. They had done it to me countless times. And yet, I knew that perhaps it was time they no longer got away with anything. Perhaps I really ought to follow Spastic’s lead and go full-Tom. Heck, Rick had given me permission, and he’s the chairman’s son—soon to be CEO himself.

I pointed at all the porn and girl’s underwear with a look to the imps. “Give them back to their owners!”

The imps pounced on the clothes and tore off with them. But the magazines, they lifted them up and then pelted Sean with them.

“Really?” I shot him an extremely dirty look as he lifted his arms up to fed off the attack.  

When most of the magazines hit the floor, Sean looked around in panic, then at me. His face immediately flushed red, but he quickly gathered them up.

“Really?” I said again, shaking my head at him. I looked to the imps. “Shred them.”

Sean’s eyes went wide. He jumped to his feet. “No!”

As the imps ripped up each and every magazine, he chased after the flying things shreds, trying to collect them up. “No! No! No!”

I backed out of the room. “Don’t make me have to tell Mr. Wilderman about this, Sean.”

Standing in the wreckage of his porn, Sean swore at me. But he also backed from me, nodding. He knew Mr. Wilderman would believe me.

I strode out down the corridor toward Quinn’s room next. He wasn’t there either. But then hardly anyone was. That’s when I realized it was probably still class hour and Sean was ditching. I wondered what he had told the teacher. Stomach ache?

I went down to the girls’ dorms next, hoping to find Piranha. But that hall was also empty—except for Lorelei.

I could hear her from her room. She was sobbing.

And her imps were screaming that she was trash and she ought to kill herself for what she had done.

I ran to her room.

Her window was open and she was climbing into it, onto the sill.

My heart jumped. I grabbed her, pulling back into the room, hugging her to the floor.

“Lemme go!” she screamed.

“No!” I snapped. “You are not jumping out the window!”

She whipped her eyes on me and pushed me hard to get out from under me. Her face was ragged, her eyes red, and her brown Hanna hair all askew. She looked like death.

In fact, a death angel was in the room—a shabby one. He looked like a hobo really. And when he saw me, he winked and disappeared out of the room.

“Don’t do that!” I shouted at her. “Would Wipsy want you to kill yourself?”

Lorelei stared at me. I could see a swell of a thousand emotions flood over her—all of mine. I could see my rage, my fear, my sadness, my worry, my confusion, all of it sweep through and out of her. And I… I suddenly felt serenely calm.

I stared at her. “Is this why Wispy likes you so much?”

Lorelei lowered her head, averting her eyes. I reached over to her, trying to find out what she was thinking.

“There! See!” Leah shrieked with wicked glee from the doorway, pointing into the room. “Now he is after Lorelei!”

Lorelei froze. Horror washed over her, and I realized it wasn’t her horror—but mine.

I was horrified. It did look bad. Both of us were on the floor. She was a mess. I had grabbed her and her legs were still under me. And part of her clothes had gotten torn and I had tackled her to the floor.

“No!” Lorelei jumped to her feet. “He didn’t do anything!”

“You’re just lying for him because of Wispy,” Leah said, her eyes glaringly triumphant on me as other girls ran to the doorway to peek in.

“She’s not lying.” I rose. “I just came here because—”

“Liar!” Leah screamed. And then with that wicked glint in her evil eye, she shrieked out, “RAPE!”

I was done for.

Capt. Eifert had charged in the next second and her face washed out of color when she saw us there. It really, really, really looked bad. Her expression was of complete astonishment. She really hadn’t believe that I had done anything wrong before. But now… now, I was screwed.

“Captain, he didn’t do anything,” Lorelei said, rushing up to her, begging.

But the captain gazed on Lorelei with the eyes of a woman who knew how easily this girl could be manipulated to see things from the view of her own attacker. Then she shot me a reproving glance of betrayal.

“She’s not lying,” I said desperately.

“What? And I am supposed to take this on your word and not what my eyes see?” The captain wrapped her arms around Lorelei and steered her out of there—far from me. She shot me one last look, saying, “Report to Sergeant Kreiner, now.”

Shuddering, I staggered back from her. It was too late.

And I had liked that teacher too.

Leah gloated in the doorway as I passed through it, me willingly going down to the teacher’s offices to turn myself in to Sgt. Kreiner.

When I knocked, the teacher looked at me as if I had come to simply have a chat. But when I opened my mouth to say something, his cell phone chimed and he took the text. As he read it, his expression darkened. Then he looked to me.

“I didn’t do it,” I said, wishing more than believing he would listen to me.

His mouth thinned into a line. He closed his eyes, shaking his head. But then he beckoned me toward him. “I have to bind your wings.”

I nodded, pulling up my hoodie and shirt to expose them and turning around. There was nothing else to do. To run was to admit to guilt—and I wasn’t guilty.

I could hear him sigh. As for his imps, they were shouting that he should just bind all of me up—hands and feet tied, along with my mouth—and chuck me into a closet.

But he only bound my wings.

His eyes raked over me, mentally asking me questions with each look. Gesturing to a seat, he said, “Alright. Have your say.”

“I was looking for Piranha,” I explained once I sat down.

“In Leah Fail’s room?”

“No,” I said with a little bite. “I was walking through the hall when I heard suicidal imps screaming, and I decided to investigate.”

Sgt. Kreiner stiffened. His pupils tightened a little. “And?”

“And I found Lorelei—Wispy’s friend—trying to jump out the window, and I—”

He rose out of his seat. He pointed to me and said, “Stay. And don’t touch anything.”

He hurried out of the room. But then he ran back two seconds later, grabbing his cell phone, texting (I believe) Capt. Eifert. The sergeant was gone for several minutes.

And I was bored.

Don’t touch anything, huh?

So I sat back in the chair, my wings itching, and whistled a song. Then I called up to the imps around me and said, “Can you fetch me one of my comic books?”

The imp stared at me, snapping back, “What fun is that?”

I thought about that. Of course, they had to cause mischief for them to listen to me. That was what Tom understood. Ok….

So I said, “You can fly it through the classrooms and freak people out with it if you want, just get it to me whole.”

Cackling, the imp did just that. I didn’t get the comic book until five minutes later, though. And I could hear shouts coming from rooms around me when it finally arrived.

The imp looked a little chubbier, and full.

I read the book for another ten minutes before the sergeant returned. With him was Captain Eifert. Her face was flushed and her eyes were wet.

“I am so sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.”

I rose from my seat, hope also rising in me.

“Lorelei explained everything,” she said. Her damp eyes were on me still. “Everything.”

What did that—? But I suddenly knew. Lorelei told her all that she had felt through me. Everything that I felt.

“We will fix this,” Capt. Eifert said. But she did not look happy with whatever was coming up. “However, Roddy, I already filed a report. It is in the system. And I am afraid you will have to undergo a trial anyway.”

“But you know I didn’t do it!” I protested, rising.

She nodded, cringing. “I know. I know. But Mr. Deacon the Second was informed of the trouble here, and he has contacted the headmaster, ordering a hearing as well as an investigation. And I have to tell you, Mr. Deacon the Second is not as, uh, lenient as Rick is. He doesn’t favor people.”

I stared, not quite understanding what she meant. Not favoring people was good. It was fair.

“More plainly,” she explained, “He would more likely side with the teachers than any new cluster of imps.”

I paled.

“He’s an intelligent man, but he does not understand impishness,” she explained even more clearly. “In fact… he is rather hardnosed about mischief.”

“He doesn’t like Tom Brown, you mean,” I said, making sure.

Shaking her head, Capt. Eifert said, “He… tolerates Tom. The man is more of a lone wolf—so to say. A stick-to-the-rules kind of guy. Not really even a people person like his son.”

I felt like laughing. Both were wolves for pity’s sake.

“And your wings will have to remain bound until the actual hearing,” she added.

That, I hated.

But they let me loose from the room. No detention.

I trudged back to my bedroom.

I got several sneers from classmates who passed by me. That is, until I hissed to the imps to give them wedgies. They yelped and hurried away, realizing that though my wings were tied, my mouth was not sealed. I still had an invisible army at my beck and call, and I was more inclined to use them now.

When I arrived finally, Spastic was in my room, sitting on my bed, waiting for me. He smelled like bleach.

“Where have you been?” I nearly punched him, angry that he had snuck off.

He shrugged, handing me a box of donuts. “About.”

I slumped against the bed.

“You ditched school,” he said stiffly.

I said nothing.

“The imps said you had run away.”

I still said nothing. I just held the box of donuts in my hands, wondering what to do with it. It was hungry, but I was also feeling drained. For all I knew, they had mayonnaise in them and Spastic was testing them on me.

“They said you were going to die out there.”

I lifted my head and stared at him. “I’m not dead.”

But Spastic shook his head. “You don’t