Sui Generis

Chapter five - Logan

Chapter V

Logan Costello

I nodded enthusiastically, trying to look more awake than I felt. I wasn’t exactly proud of the fact that I felt completely drained and hardly even did anything to the water. Especially since, normally, it takes a lot to wear me out. I blinked hard, trying to wake myself up a bit. “Nah,” I answered to her statement about her bad skating. “Surely you can’t be that bad…” I said, but paused. Well, no, I thought. Maybe I was wrong. Because, working at the skating rink, I had seen some people who were, well… That bad. 

“C’mon,” I said, trying to save her from answering what I’d said. She looked like she was about to reply, but I regarded the dorm building and started walking toward it. In my dorm-room, I had a pair of skates that would probably fit her. I’d managed to get a hold of them out of the pro section of the skate shop built into Great Skates, for my Mom, but she never was awful fond of it. She used them once or twice, and then they wound up under my bed as very efficient space hoggers. “What size are you?” I asked Misty, “I think I’ve got some really nice skates that would fit you. You don’t want to use rentals— trust me. They’re awful.” I said with a laugh.

She took a few long steps to catch up with me. “Depends,” She answered with a small shrug. “Sometimes I’m a 7½ and other times I’m an 8. Size doesn’t really work these days, each brand has their own size.” She added with a laugh. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but I pretended to know what she was talking about and laughed.

“Well,” I said, “These ones are an 8½, but they’re really padded on the inside. So it’ll probably be alright.”

“Okay, that sounds pretty good, thanks!” She beamed. I nodded to her with a wide smile, then glanced up at the sky. It was starting to clear up some in the west, but just about everywhere else was blanketed with thick, dark clouds that threatened rain. I stared up at the sky for as long as I could without my eyes starting to hurt, then looked at the ground as we walked. I racked my brain trying to think of something to say to her, but nothing really came up. Luckily, she saved me and spoke first.

“So, how’s your first day going so far?” She asked, looking around also. “Looks like you've made an impression on the girls.” She elbowed my side lightly, and I hardly dared to look up. But I did anyways. There was a group of four or five girls, sure enough, all staring our way. One was glowering at Misty as if she could disintegrate her with the sheer force of her glare. Two others gained a sudden interest in the ground beneath their feet, shyly staring at it when they saw me looking, and one on the very end of the group gave me a wink and held up her hand like a phone, mouthing ‘call me’.

“Smooth…” Misty said under her breath. 

“Mhmm,” I mumbled in reply, rolling my eyes a bit as I faced away from the girls. “You know, it’s funny. At school back home, no girl would be caught dead looking at me. I just love how they apply being Dyslexic to being stupid or geeky.” I rolled my eyes again, but smiled too. I wasn’t gonna let it get me down, but it was really stupid how low some people were.

“Well,” Misty said, “They’re idiots.” She added firmly with a nod of her head, and I smiled some more. “I mean, seriously. Picasso had Dyslexia, so did Walt Disney, and Thomas Jefferson! And, Orlando Bloom, Whoopi Goldberg, and… And… Jay Leno!” She said, sounding pretty peeved about the whole thing. “And I could go on and on.” She added at last, sounding exasperated.

“Yeah, I guess.” I said, trying to suppress a smile as I pulled open one of the heavy glass doors for her. The familiar narrow hallway from earlier that day stood in front of us, which made me confident that I was starting to know my way around.