Short Stories!

"I Am Just Like You..."

The first time I saw him, we were in school.  He was a new student, a loner, and wore all black. He wore a beanie on the first day and the teacher told him to take it off, which he didn't do. He had a stubborn attitude and seemed to hate everything. People shy away from him because he gave then bad vibes, like all my friends. I was the only one to see any good in him. During our free period, I saw him drawing birds all over the back of our math homework. The birds were delicate and extremely detailed, precise, I never saw any drawing so good. I wanted to ask him about it, maybe talk to him, but my friends pulled me away from him. He looked so lonely and scared being in a new school and I felt sad for him. I also felt that it was my duty to go and interduce hi/m to my friends and introduce him to our school. I wanted to help him out, to be his friend, but my friends dragged me away. They kept me focused by asking me questions about my favorite topics so I would start to rant about them. Topics like books and Norse mythology could make me forget about him, which I did, as I ranted to my friends. At lunch that day I saw him sitting alone at a table with no food in front of him. Being the kind person I am, I bought him a meal from the cafeteria cooks. My friends questioned me as I went towards him. They all stayed behind me as I went up to him and sat down on the seat next to him. He looked incredulously as I handed him the tray of food. 

"What is this for?" He says and gestures to the tray.

"You didn't have any food and I didn't want you to be hungry," I said simply. 

He smiled slightly at me, "Thank you, thank you so much".

"Your welcome!" I trilled, "Considering I gave you food, I want to know what your name is, Mrs. Verman didn't say it".

"Wren," He stuttered, "Wren Trest".

"Nice to meet you, Wren, my name is Rene Shore," I said.

Then just like that our meeting had to end because my friends dragged me away from him. They dragged me away from him and towards our lunch table. They pushed me into my seat and gave me dirty looks. 

Then my friend Ander said, "I heard that dude does drugs".

"I heard he smokes weed," My friend Olivia said. 

"Where did you hear this from?!" I said loudly, "He doesn't seem like he does any of those things!"

"The internet of course!" Olivia said and showed me her phone.

It was pulled up to an article about how you know someone does drugs. All the things in the article were definitely blasphemy, but the fake "symptoms" they had did sound a lot like him. I looked through the article, seeing no punctuation or correct grammar, I rolled my eyes.

"That's a fake article," I said and they all dismissed me as crazy, stating false claims that a famous scientist wrote it.

So for the rest of the day, my friends kept me away from Wren. The hard part was that he was in every single one of my classes making it impossible to learn because all of my friends kept asking me questions and I would start to rant. Of course, I would rant, I loving ranting. I rant day and night about every topic I feel should be ranted about. All of my friends know this, of course, making it a disadvantage throughout the day. Then the school day ended and I went home. My friends wanted to come with me but I told them I had a lot of studying to do. I don't even know why they believe me, I never study! So as my bus pulled up in front of my apartment complex, I saw Wren. He was wearing all black like he was at school but more hunched over and sad. I got off my bus quickly and ran over to him, determined to make him feel better. It was already dark out, being November, and he was standing in the shadow of a street light, trying not to be noticed. I walked over to him and gave him the most reassuring smile I could muster. 

"What's wrong?" I asked him. 

"Nothing, absolutely nothing," He said with a wavering voice, "I'm fine".

"No you are not, you are hunched over, have a sad look on your face, and have been stubborn all day," I said, "I don't know if you're always like this but I need to know, what's wrong?"

He then gently pushed me away from him and started to walk down the street. I followed him as he walked briskly, then broke out into a full run. I chased him down the street, dodging passerby's, vendors, dogs, and stray cats. There is a huge museum on one side of the street and a dog park on the other, making it so many people are in my way as I try to chase after him. I don't lose sight of him though, he is the only one running. I can easily tell where he is by the various people moving out of the way. So I chase him down and soon we end up in the abandoned house that lay right next to the Fox Forest. It had been abandoned ever since we moved here when I was five. I chased up onto the porch of the house, then suddenly, he stopped.

"Do you really want to know why I am so dismal?" He said in a raspy voice.  

My parents always told me never to go near Fox Forest because the foxes inside are savage and sometimes attack humans but here I am. I took a deep breath and tried to act brave.

"Yes, I do," I said with as much confidence as I could muster. 

He then turns away from me and looks off of the porch of the house. Then his feet start to turn black and shrink, then his head, then his whole body! I watch in fascination as he turns into a real life raven. 

"I know it might be hard for you to understand, or to process, but this is why my parents disowned me and kicked me out, I just moved to this school because my foster care told me it would be better suited for my education," The raven squawks and then starts to grow.

Wren then turns back into himself, clothing and all. He looks at me like he is ashamed of his talent, his unique ability. I laugh slightly to myself and look him in the eyes. I then begin to morph into my bird-like state, which is not a raven but a bluejay. He looked at me, stunned into silence. I turned myself back into my human state and smiled wider at him.

Then we said in unison, "I am just like you....."