A Life Less Ordinary | Claire Tessum

A Life Less Ordinary

Claire Tessum

Fiction

The smell of a new school year resonated in the air. It has a certain scent.

It smells like shaved pencils, and eager smiles hiding begrudging intentions.

And I, for one, think it smells good.

As good as the smell of freshly cut grass, or the doctor’s office. As good as any.

I’m known for being The Nerd. The nobody. The desperate, hopeless, friendless creep, wishing for some more math homework to fill my lonely life.

A minion. I wish I wasn’t, but I’m the chattel of some not-so-nice-- “friends.”

How I got to be with these not-so-nice people, isn’t much of a story. I used to have some real friends, who then got bored of me, and added some more friends to the group. Then they moved away, leaving me trying to claw my way back, to stay included. So the maliciously foul humans keep me around as the freak.

The only reason I stay with them is that everyone else sees me the same way. I’m nobody.

I’m--

…Iris.

A glasses-wearing cliche, wishing to be anyone but who I am.

I dropped my head to my book, and studied it through my curtain of hair-- my dark brown bangs that created the perfect two-way mirror. Nobody can see in, but I can see out.

The noise of Mr De’ath lecturing the class for the second time this week, filtered in, then out my ears. I couldn’t help but not pay attention. His class was all things I’d known about since the third grade. Besides, how can you take him seriously with a name like De’ath?

Not that he didn’t live up to the somber tone of his name. The sound of one more shout from him was a sobering thought to the whole of sophomores throughout the school.

But despite the torture of cliche mean girls, and the horror of terrible teachers, there was only one thing that I looked forward to each day. His name is Jimmy.

“Iris--

He harshly whispered, careful not to grab the attention of Mr De’ath.

“Is it true that Ms. Francis’ name is actually Edna?”

“Of course not, Jimmy--

I whispered back, just loud enough so only he could hear.

“Mac’s just messing with you. Her name is Amy. You know that.”

“He told me she was trying to cover it up.”

He explained sheepishly, avoiding my eyes.

Jimmy. Short-ish messy hair, brown eyes deep enough to dive head-first into, and a smile that I can’t ever seem to get out of my daydreams.

But he isn’t exactly flawless. He has a problem, that lately, I’ve been trying to fix. He will believe anything anybody says.

For years, I’ve had to be careful about the way I talk to him, but everyone else hasn’t always been so considerate. He’s been told more lies than anyone I know, and he’s regarded every one of them as true.

Jenna. More cliche than myself. The classic ‘queen bee’, rich girl stereotype.

She strutted up to where I sat at lunch, a deceiving look in her pale blue eyes. They were, in fact, so pale they were almost white, which I couldn’t decide if looked angelic or creepy. But they looked different, nonetheless.

“You ready for tonight?”

“What’s tonight?”

I asked, quiet enough to not overpower her confident tone.

“Aw, did Liz not tell you? We’re hanging out at the school after it gets dark. You know… just having some fun.”

“And you want me there?”

As lookout, no doubt.

“Yeah. Just come. You won’t want to miss this.”

And something in me didn’t want to miss it. I nervously said yes, before she strode back to her table among the others. But agreeing had to mean something for myself, right? At least that’s the way I looked at it.

My eyes naturally drifted to Jimmy, across the lunchroom, who I noticed was actually staring, just as I was. He gave me a confused look, before joining his conversation once more.

Before long, and before I exploded due to anxiety, I was near the outer edge of a group of rough-looking guys and dolled -up girls. I found myself walking closer to Jenny, who was drenched in at least four coats of makeup.

“Rose?”

“It’s Iris.”

“A flower name’s a flower name. What do you want?”

“What are we doing here?”

“Hanging out. Like I said. Oh! Hey-- do you want to run to the gas station across the street?”

“W-why?”

“Just pick up some pop or something. Any kind will do. I’ll pay you back tomorrow.”

“You’re sure?”

“Do I look like I’d lie to you, Lily?”

walked to the dingy, outdated, KwikTrip.

With two cases of 7-up in my sweating hands, I squinted out the glared window into the darkness.

And across the street, I saw nothing. Just the dead grass of the schoolyard.

“Shoot.”

I unconsciously whispered, dropping the pop to the floor, and sprinting back across the deserted road.

“H-h-hello?”

I called out breathlessly into the night, searching for any sign of human life.

“J-Jenny?”

The call of her name echoed off the school, and back into my soul where it resonated.

Jenny had to be behind this.

The cool breeze of slight confidence flowed through me as my voice grew louder, each call I made.

“If this is your idea of some cruel joke--

Suddenly my heart dropped out of my chest in the same way I swallowed my throat.

A deafening silence filled my ears, despite the fact that I was shrieking at the top of my lungs. My eyes blurred similarly to how I couldn’t hear my own scream.

As I felt myself tip, I also felt two hands holding me up.

The sight of it rested underneath my eyelids, and no matter how many times I tried to blink it away, it never left.

Although I don’t remember sitting down, or even walking away, my pants dampened from the dew of the grass. Two piercing eyes stared into my bangs, and a guy I’d never actually met, carefully moved them out of the way.

“You okay?”

I dazedly nodded, lying through my teeth.

“I’m Kenny.”

He grabbed his phone out of his pocket, still squatting next to me, almost like he was debating on whether or not he should call the police.

Eventually, he did, leading to each of us being individually questioned by the cops.

“And where did the rest of the group go?”

The tired-sounding police officer asked as I sat in a cold chair in a pale office.

“I don’t know.”

“Can you name anyone from the group?”

“Just Jenny, that I know.”

He nodded and continued.

“So you and Kenny were the only people to discover Cody Jenkenson’s body?”

“Y-yes.”

“I’d like for you to tell me about everything that happened tonight, Iris.”

Shattered fragments of air filtered through me as I swiped the tears off my face.

“Jenny invited me to hang out with the group. I was only there for-- probably two minutes-- before she asked me to get pop from the KwikTrip…”

I said through loud sobs.

“Then before I paid, I saw they were gone, so I ran back and started looking for them. Then I walked to the back of the school-- and-- that’s when I saw--

“Thank you, Iris. I’m going to ask Kenny some questions, now. Your parents should be here to pick you up, is what I’m told.”

“T-thanks.”

My weighted backpack added to the heaviness of my cement feet. The whispers in the hallway were new, however.

Every so often, someone would glance over at me, making it painfully obvious that whatever it was, was about me.

I sat down at my grouping of desks in Mr De’ath’s class, noticing a startled look in Jimmy’s eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

Without a word, he, and his hurt look, got up and moved to the pod of desks across the room.

Carefully, I whispered, “Why are you moving away from me?”

Everyone was staring now, as class was supposed to begin just about now, but I didn’t care. If everyone else wanted to hate me, so be it. But I couldn’t let Jimmy hate me, too.

“Is it true that you killed Cody?”

He stated, in his usual fashion, but more bitter than usual. But with a statement like that, I didn't blame him. Cody was his best friend, but so was I.

“How could you say that?”

“Don’t tell me that it’s not true, Iris. The police told me you’re a suspect.”

“Suspect doesn’t mean I did it! I found him! I saw him dead! Don’t blame me for this, Jimmy! I thought we were friends!”

I stormed out of the classroom, Mr De’ath not bothering to calm the class down.

That’s when I saw Kenny. The hallway was surprisingly empty, but just down the hall, he stood there, staring at me.

“You--

I pointed, not realizing my voice would carry so loudly.

He walked closer.

“Explain. What did you tell the police.”

a whole thing. Nobody who was there was actually allowed to be there, that night. There’s no use for getting innocent people in trouble when they didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“And I did?!”

“All I told them was that I was on a walk when I heard you scream, and I ran over to help and call the police.”

“But that’s not true!”

“That’s the idea.”

He mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Iris?”

A voice down the hall startled me, and I flipped my head to find the source.

The principal stood, staring at the two of us, with a policeman.

“Can you please come with us for a moment?”

I glanced at Kenny, shooting him a nasty look before following the two men.

Soon enough I was back in the pale room, answering more questions with the same answers. I was sure before it ended, there was a loud knock on the door. The policeman carefully opened it, leaving me sitting in the cold chair.

“Can I talk to Iris, please?”

I nervous, yet familiar utterance seeped through the door.

The policeman left the room, allowing Jimmy to walk in.

“Iris?”

He sat down in the policeman’s chair.

I denied looking him in the eyes, the pain in my chest resinating until it was too much not to meet his gaze.

“I believe you.”

He said plainly.

“Do you believe me because I wanted you to believe me, or because you actually believe me?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re so gullible! I could tell you anything and you’d believe it! Anybody could! We’ve been friends for years. Or at least I thought we were friends. And you’d throw that all away because some idiot told you I murdered your best friend? Why wouldn’t you just trust me?”

“...Yeah.”

“So do you actually believe it, now, or are you just saying that because I wanted you to?” “No… I really believe you. You’d never do something like that, Iris. I’m sorry you have to go through something like this. You should never have been put in this situation in the first place.”

“Thanks.”

I don’t know what more he could have said, but it didn’t feel like enough.

“You know…”