There’s An Ogre Beast in the Playground

CHAPTER TEN

Henry shares the message left by the Ogre-Beast with everyone, including the frightened little girl, and Chloe Swan. After the big scare, life changes for Henry as he becomes proud of his unique qualities. At school everyone wants to talk to him... including Corban Barkley.

“Hi Corban,” I said. “Would you like a piece of gum?”

He shook his head and puffed out his chest.

“Just because you talked to the Ogre-Beast, and got a few hits on your YouTube video, it doesn’t mean you’re cool,” he said.

He looked at my shoes and spit on the ground in front of me.

I glanced over his shoulder and noticed a whole boat-load of students watching us talk. I think they thought Corban was going to beat me up or something. Or... maybe apologize for being so nasty to me all the time.

“I don’t want to be cool,” I said finally. “Whatever,” he replied. I never knew how to respond when someone said that to me. I guess it’s something that cool people like to say. “Okay,” I mumbled. Corban inched closer and pushed his chest into my belly. I noticed he was wearing a green shirt. I think that’s what adults call ‘ironic’.

He breathed his root beer and tuna breath on me and grinned.

“I heard that there’s such a thing as a half human and half Ogre-Beast. Did you know that? A ‘Human-Ogre-Beast’. To think, all this time, there was one going to Red Apple Creek Public School and his name was Henry Horkenminder.”

Corban laughed and poked me in the belly with his finger. “Okay,” I mumbled again. “Okay? Is that all you can say?” He flicked his hair back and grinned. “And what did I say to you about standing on the blacktop?” There it was. I knew he was going to ask me that. He always asked me that.

“Giant ugly red headed freaks belong in a circus,” I said.

“Don’t you mean, giant ugly red headed Ogre-Beasts belong in a circus?” laughed Corban pointing to the dumpster by the parking lot.

I turned around and walked over to the garbage bins and sat down on the tarmac. It was too bad Biggens wasn’t around to flatten Corban with his giant hand. Although that would be kinda bad. Forget I said that. Maybe Biggens would suck Corban’s blonde hair up through his huge nostrils and toss him back to the ground. That would be funny. Anyway. As I sat there picking my hangnail again on my thumb I noticed the little grade 3 girl who spit on me last month. She skipped over and sat down beside me.

I covered my face expecting a wad of goop to be fired into my face, but nothing happened. When I opened my eyes I was surprised to see all of the kids on the blacktop walking towards me. They all sat down on the tarmac as well. I looked over at Corban. He didn’t look happy. My ears weren’t warm anymore either.

I was so happy I felt like I was going to cry. But I didn’t. I swear. Well, maybe a little but I think it was from a piece of dust.

As the year went on Corban Barkley was still mean to me from time to time, but it didn’t affect me anymore. He still made me feel like a green apple, but that was okay. I wanted to be green. My mom even started buying Granny Smiths. I liked being different. I guess other people liked that I was different as well.

“Do you want to play with me at recess?” asked Farid in the hallway one morning. Our class was just about to go for a hike in the back woods to look at plants and mud... or something.

“Sure,” I replied. “I’ll meet you at the sandpit at first break.” “Okay, see you there,” smiled Farid. Farid and I hung out a lot. We liked to bring our toy spaceships from home and pretend that we were astronauts exploring strange planets. We would use sticks as laser guns and pretend to defend earth from scary fire breathing space zombies. People sometimes stared at us because we would be buzzing around the playground and crashing into stuff. We didn’t mind.

I don’t think anyone else minded anymore either.

Sometimes Chloe Swan would say hi to me at recess. I asked her what she whispered to Bita that one time when we were sitting on the carpet. I remembered that my ears were warm and I thought they were laughing at me. Turns out they weren’t.

“I told Bita that I thought you were cute,” she replied with a smile. She thought I was cute. Chloe Swan thought I was cute. Me. Anyway. As our class set off for the nature walk that day Mrs. Featherly made us all carry little magnifying glasses. We were supposed to look closely at bugs and plants and draw little pictures.

I forgot my pencil so I had to borrow Jeremy Bird’s. We weren’t best friends anymore, but he wasn’t mean to me.

As I knelt down in some dirt with my magnifying glass a strange feeling came over me.

“Mrs. Featherly? Can I go and look at those flowers over there?” I asked. She looked over to me and nodded. I don’t think she was allergic to me anymore.

I looked around at the other students to make sure that no one was looking and stepped over an old log and into a patch of wildflowers. They smelled really sweet. I reached over and picked up a small flower in front of me. It was purple. I lifted it up to my nose and sucked the petals right off the stem. Shhh.... Don’t tell anyone.

THE END