Never Judge A Boy By His Face

Chapter 1: Oscar's His Name

Hi. I'm Oscar. Yes, I do ordinary stuff, but the thing is, I have a face unlike anyone else's. I've had 42 surgeries since I was born. I had half of them when I was younger, around 20. I have around 4 or 5 each year. This year I'm going alright. I had my last surgery in April which was a couple of months ago. Mom says that I have been very very brave. I used to have a cleft palate. It's when the bit between your nose and your lips isn't there, and it looks like you have a confused face. When I was 2, I had plastic surgery to get rid of it. I also have asthma, so I don't like to do sport. I don't go to school either. I have 3 friends: Liam, Zachary, and Kevin. Our moms met in the Baby Clinic and we've been friends ever since. I was about 7 months then, so we've been friends for around 10 years. But I've never seen them since 4 years ago, because Kevin moved further north and Liam and Zach now go to school.

Mom and Dad love me more than anyone else in the world. When people look at me with that stupid "whoa, he's ugly" look, I just pretend to not notice. People look at me whenever they get the chance: at the train station, the shopping centre and Alvin's soccer practice (Alvin is my brother, by the way).

Mom homeschools me. She used to be a primary school teacher before she had me, so she's great at being my teacher. I'm supposed to be in Grade 4 if I was at school, but it's not because I don't go to school because I have an ugly face, it's because I hate being outside of the house.