Odd One Out

CHAPTER 10

Naya
Friday, October 10

After the funeral, everyone seemed to calm down a bit. Things at school were beginning to grudge back to normality, with the exception of a couple things.

For one, Francisco's locker was blossoming with flowers, cards, notes, ribbons, and even a couple stuffed animals. The school was allowing students to receive free therapy at any point during the remainder of the semester, and people seemed...at peace. There was absolutely no fear of being exposed now that Francisco was gone.

He's not gone. He's dead.

My dad had given me a small bottle of pepper spray, a pocket knife, and a small screwdriver and sent me to school thinking that those items would keep me safe. It was a small form of protection and even inconvenient to do, but I Ioved him for trying to keep me safe.

The cops had also started to move further and further away from us — not completely, but enough so that Viktor could start up his business again for some clients. Life around us seemed to slowly fall back into place, back into normality. Normality.

If that even existed anymore.

"Naya?" Laney murmured at me from across the lunch table, snapping his fingers to catch my attention.

"Huh?"

"Are you even paying attention?"

I was stunned for a second before clearing my throat, readjusting my sitting position before looking at the phone Laney had in his hand.

"Look girl, I don't know what's got your head in the clouds but we need to figure out the theme we're going for this year," Rachel told me, her eyes glancing back to the phone screen.

Oh...right. So it was that time of year again, where we'd revive our annual tradition of planning our costume theme for Halloween. To be honest, I wasn't all that into the matching theme sets but there really wasn't any harm in matching. Besides, Laney, Rachel and Gianna seemed to really like it so it was just better to leave it alone.

"I like the PowerPuff Girls idea," I answered, grinning slightly to show them I was still interested. "It's cute—"

Rachel suddenly gasped loudly, turning to Laney. "Oh. My. God. Laney, you could be like, a fourth PowerPuff!"

Laney scoffed. "Fuck no."

"C'mon, it'll be fun! Tell him Naya."

Both Rachel and Laney looked over at me, and I had to quickly avert my gaze back to them before they grew suspicious of what I was staring at.

Truth is, Ellis was sitting about two tables in front of ours and for some reason, I couldn't keep my eyes off of him. Maybe it was the denim jacket hugging him, or the baseball cap that accentuated his eyes, but something about him was unusually alluring. Usually I'd ignore him, but the way he was laughing with his friends, talking to them with ease, so naturally funny and easygoing...

"I think that we should wait for Gia's input," I smiled, "or she'd absolutely flip."

"Ugh, screw Gia. It's her fault for going to the doctor's today."

"It's actually a dentist, and she's getting her wisdom teeth removed," Laney retorted. "But I'm glad to know you care about your friends, Rachel."

"Whatever!" she exclaimed. "The point is, you could be the next PowerPuff Girl—"

"Or he could just be the doctor," I chimed in, causing them both to turn their eyes to me. When they didn't say anything, I continued.

"You know, the doctor. Their dad or whatever. The guy who made them—"