The Devil Child

Chapter Fifteen

Polly saw Minny before he saw her. He was getting out of his car, and for a moment, Polly swore he was from some sort of movie. First, Polly had never seen him in a car. He was always on a skateboard. Second, Minny was not wearing his usual style of clothing.

It was all disillusioning. Seeing Minny as someone else.

Gone were the sunglasses that he always wore, outside or not. Gone were the too short pants with the socks that covered his ankles - Polly realized that the pants weren't actually too short, but rather Minny folded them up so they were short. And gone were the tee shirts with the strange designs.

This new Minny wore a button up shirt tucked into his pants, with a few buttons at the top undone. The sleeves were rolled up to his forearms. He wore khakis, which were undeniably fancy and looked like they'd been pressed by an iron before he put them on. And his shoes, the boat shoes, were so unlike Minny that Polly's breath caught in her throat.

Minny looked good. More than good, but this wasn't the Minny Polly knew. This Minny rolled up in an expensive car, wearing expensive clothing. The only thing that was like the old Minny was his hair style.

This wasn't Minny at all. The boy getting out of the car was Benjamin.

His usual friends joined him by his car, and they didn't seem to think anything differently about him. His closest friend, the one who asked Kenzie to the dance, clasped Minny on the back and said something in his ear.

Polly was struck by how popular Minny looked in that moment. She'd always known about his popularity and his status at school, and that had never bothered her before. But at that time, Minny was also decidedly humble. He wore commoner clothing, because it suddenly dawned on Polly that Minny was not poor.

No, he was the exact opposite.

Polly watched as the pack of boys made their way to the front doors of the school. Minny wasn't wearing a backpack, which was normal, but instead he had a messenger bag slung across his body that looked like it belonged on the body of a politician.

Polly wasn't sure she liked this Minny.

Before she could squeeze her way into the school and out of view, Minny saw her, and called out her name. Polly thought it sounded like delight, but she wasn't sure. His appearance threw her off, and for a moment, she had believed that maybe she'd made her friendship with Minny up.

She spun on her heel, looking wildly out of place in her Save the Whales! tee shirt and jeans. It was her usual style, but suddenly she felt like a commoner, like she was too poor to wear nice fashion.

"Hey," she offered, standing in front of Minny. He was wearing his usual, carefree grin. It looked so easy for him, like his face was born for smiling. She stood close enough to count his freckles on his face, so she took a step back to give him space.

"Polly, guess what I found?"

She had no clue. A new identity? She couldn't help but guess to herself, because that was what it looked like to her.

Minny reached into the back pockets of his khakis and pulled out what looked like a compact for makeup. She peered closer as he opened it, and then she jumped back, suddenly shaky and out of breath.

There, where the mirror was supposed to go, was a picture of her. It was her face, as a young girl, braces and all. Polly could remember the day that picture was taken. She was in middle school, and it was picture day. Her hair wasn't cooperating the way she wanted it to - she had wanted her hair to be straight, like all the other girls, but it was wavy and frizzy and did not want to cooperate.