Beauty of Gold by rosey_the_bear | |
Untitled Document
"Go away you stupid Buzz, nobody wants you here."
Taking my cue, I slumped away, trying to be
as invisible as possible. I sighed. Just the beginning of another great day,
I thought. But no, not really, the day had already been awful before. Just like
the day before that. Oh, and of course the day before that day, and the day
before that other day, and the day before that day that's behind all the others,
and maybe the day before that… no, that was Sunday. I let out a groan. My head
hurt, and I hadn't even gotten to Math yet.
***
The day hadn't really started out that much differently than the others. I
had woken up 15 minutes before I had to catch the bus, and Rosey had kissed
me and my Peophin sister, Pheo, a quick goodbye kiss. And like usual, after
that, Pheo tried to give me a pep talk about how that day would be different
from all the others, better. I could tell she didn't really believe it, but
I always pretended like I did, because then she could have a good school day
she deserved without worrying about her little brother, the dorky Al. Then of
course, I allowed myself to be pounced upon by the newcomer, the Kougra DredgNeo.
And then I was out on the bus, sitting by myself alone in the very last row.
Breakfast? A fleeting dream.
The first 3 subjects taught by Ms. Kinlinski,
English, Spelling and Reading, were always horrid. Ms. Kinlinksi herself was
always grouchy, always looking for opportunities to give out extra homework
or to pull a student's card, the disciplinary method used for 1st graders like
myself. The consequence: to stay ten minutes after school for every time pulled.
And of course, just my luck, her favorite victim was yours truly. I had been
lucky today, I only had to stay after school 10 minutes, and I only had one
extra spelling assignment.
***
And of course, after that, 1st graders have lunch at 12 on the dot, preceding
the yucky classes of Science, Math and Social Studies I had to have in the afternoon
with Mrs. Huton. But truly, lunch was always the worst. I had known that since
my 1st day of school, I would never fit in. So I always sat alone, at a table
reserved just for me, in the corner of the courtyard. I guess I should feel
special.
The honest truth is, I don't think there is
another Buzz in this school. I guess there's not that many of us around, seeing
as how we're so "scary" and "ugly" looking. I had always thought I had been
kind of beautiful, my wings were always so glossy and bright in the daylight.
Rosey had told me that they had always shined like gold, and from the moment
she laid eyes on me she knew she had struck gold. But that was before school,
in the little section of time between my solitary stay at the Neopian Pound,
and the just as solitary chore of going to school everyday.
I suddenly gasped, blinked, and then gasped
again. I closed my eyes, opened them, and refocused them again. It couldn't
be, I thought, at the same time I knew I wasn't hallucinating. There, crossing
the courtyard, was the most beautiful Buzz I had ever seen. All of a sudden
I began choking. Oh great, the perfect timing to suffocate on my sandwich of
all things.
After a moment of staring, I realized she was
coming toward me. Of course, I thought, she's probably not beautiful to the
other "normal" Neopets. Then I realized she was smiling shyly, giggling at…
me? Ah! I quickly shifted my attention back to my food, now fully aware that
my eyes had been goggling out of their sockets at her.
"Hello," she said quietly, now having reached
my table, "May I please sit here?" She spoke with a quietness to her voice,
very much like my own, only much daintier.
"Uh, yeah, I mean, sure… yeah, go ahead." I
stumbled over my words, and chided myself mentally realizing how stupid I must
sound.
"Oh, thanks!" She sat down quickly, across from
me, and we stared at each other a moment. She started to giggle profusely, at
the same time I started to laugh.
"I'm sorry," I gasped out, "I didn't introduce
myself, my name is Al."
"My name is Rebby," she replied.
"Well uh, actually, my real, I mean "whole"
name is Alla133101," I said with uncertainty.
"Well hello Alla133101," she replied, with amazing
accuracy at getting my name right, "Actually, you see, my real name is Rebbaca66."
"Most people think Buzz are evil," I said.
She spoke now solemnly, not a flicker of amusement
on her face, "I know, but I'm not." She cast a glance toward the other Neopets.,
"They seem to think I am…" she trailed off.
"I know," I said suddenly with conviction, "But
we aren't, and we need to show them that."
"What?" she stammered, "How? How could we, uh,
what?" she repeated again, obviously astounded.
"We need to show them that we aren't evil, that
we are just the same as them, that we deserve respect!" I ended with a shout.
Trembling, I realized how much I needed this, proof that we weren't evil.
"But how?" Rebby replied intently, seemingly
as needy as me.
Suddenly, I came across an idea. "The truth."
We settled a time with the principal that day,
and after hearing that we wanted to help educate the students, he agreed to
let us show the students what we had to show them in two weeks. Until then,
Rebby and I practiced.
***
Rebby turned out to be a great friend, and for the first time ever, I felt
like I really belonged. We shared many of the same interests, and she came over
almost everyday. But it wasn't enough, we both knew that, we had to show the
world what we really were.
Finally the day came, and Rosey and DredgNeo
came to attend the assembly. Pheo was already there of course, in the grade
above me, and just knowing they would be there, filled me with courage. At 3:00,
near the end of school, the bell rang symbolizing an assembly, and all the students
filed out to the auditorium. But however, instead of going into the seats, me
and Rebby went up onto the stage.
The moment I got up there, I began sweating.
The light above the stage was very bright, and emitted great heat too. Nervousness
crept back into my system, and I located Rosey in the audience. Silence had
fallen over the auditorium the moment the only two Buzz had gotten up on stage,
and we knew what we had to do.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are here today to
correct the false rumors you have heard about us Buzz," said Rebby, into a microphone,
enlarging her small voice until it filled the entire room. All remained quiet.
"Please listen, to what Al has to say."
"We Buzz, we aren't evil," I started slowly
and uncertainly. "We are just like all of you, not bloodthirsty, not cruel.
We are just normal Neopets. like you, that want to be treated with respect,
and fairly."
At this point, some of the almighty Buzz haters
started to boo. Among these included Ktulu, a mean old bully who has hated me
since Kindergarten.
"Please!" I said, gaining more intensity and
losing more fear by the second, "Just because we look different, just because
we may look scary, does not mean we should be treated differently than all of
you! It doesn't really matter what's on the outside, it's what's on the-" I
was cut off abruptly by Ktulu.
"Hey creep! It does matter what you look like,
you're a freak. You got wings on you, and you ain't no Neopet like us. You just
a freak, a mutant, a bug, that only deserves to be squashed!"
Silence fell over the hall, and I for one didn't
speak. Then, miraculously, the crowd began booing. "Go back to where you came
from, you're the creep!" And at the obvious dislike, Ktulu all of a sudden seemed
to become small, and he sneaked out of the room.
The crowd began to cheer, and I looked over
at Rebby. She had tears in her eyes, as one small Aisha shouted, "Look! That
Buzz has wings of gold!" This was quickly followed by, "The other one has green
wings!" "Their wings are beautiful!" And soon the audience began to shout all
these wing compliments up on the stage.
"Thank you everybody!" I said, and was about
to get off the stage, when everything was abruptly stopped by a mighty roar.
"What do you mean, they have pretty wings?"
yelled the Kougra, my little brother DredgNeo, "Is that all they've got? I mean,
look at them."
The crowd looked back up at us, obviously puzzled.
"They don't just have wings of gold ladies and gentlemen, those Buzz have beauty
of gold."
This time the applause that rippled from the
audience was deafening, and shouts, cheers and whistles filled the air. Screams
of "Go Buzz!" filled the auditorium. And then I took the best cue I had ever
gotten in my life. I jumped into the air, spreading my wings of gold and shouting
to Rebby, shouting to everybody that cared to listen, more ecstatic then I had
ever been in my life, "We have beauty of gold!"
The End
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