“Gosh, that IS a weird dream,” Danica said as we walked through the cafeteria at recess. I had been telling her about my dreams while she chewed on a sandwich her mom packed for her, and I bit into the peanut butter and jelly sandwich my mom made for me.
I nodded at her between chews. “I know, right? I mean, honestly, I think I must be very close to loosing my mind.”
“But that strange girl really told you to ask me about stuff you don’t know?” She said, finishing off her sandwich. “I’m just an ordinary girl who doesn’t know the answers to my geography homework, mush less the answers to someone’s dreams.”
I laughed at her little comment, and she grinned smugly, proud to be able to please her new friend. I elbowed her in the ribs and she laughed, the breeze blowing her hair into tangles. I untied my ponytail and tied it up again, more neatly this time.
She brushed her fringe out of her eyes. “I’m an unusual girl which doesn’t have any friends, other than you,” she said, frowning deeply. “A lot of people in my last school had tried to befriend me, but one look at my-” she gulped. “And they go off running…”
I stared at her face, which went all droopy and distorted, clearly upset. Even though I knew better than just to pry into other people’s business, I was just too curious. One look at her what?
“One look at your….?” I asked her, and she frowned deeper. “Ears,” she said, continuing it for me. “One look at my ears, and they go off running…..”
I didn’t have to say anything to make her tuck her hair behind her ears, and I almost fell over! Her ears were pointed, like an elf’s!!! I think my jaw must have fell open when I didn’t mean for it too, because Danika suddenly went all quiet, sure I was about to run off too.
But I didn’t. I gazed at her elf ears in wonder, and then said: “Wow. Was this from birth, or something? I always wondered what it felt like to be an elf!!”
As soon as she was convinced I wasn’t about to stalk off and leave her, she said: “Yes, it’s from birth, but I am NOT an elf!” she complained, her face red. “I am a genuine human! I just have weird ear shapes, but that’s enough to make me friendless.” She sighed, and stared at the ground. I felt sorry for her.
As soon as I was about to say something comforting, Jackie barged in, her cheerfulness breaking this awkward moment. “Yo, Av!” she said, patting me on the back so suddenly I almost screamed. Danica whirled around, shocked, at the sudden appearance of her.
Jackie took one look at Danica and said: “Well, howdy do, Dani! What’s up with you?” I liked Jackie that way. No matter how sudden I befriended someone new, she didn’t get jealous, in fact, she treated the new friend like she knew her for all her life, and I think Danica liked that too.
“I just LOVE your name!” Jackie shrieked, warming up to Danica already. “It’s so uncommon, so elegant sounding, so ladylike! I love it! Danica Forsythia, right? Wow, I wish I had such a name!!!”
“Yeah, she’s ladylike, alright, unlike you,” I joked, and Jackie spat her tongue out at me. “Meanie!!”
It was always like this, between us. We were sort of like boys, throwing insults at each other we didn’t mean at all. Danica was new to this, so I couldn’t blame her when she went bright scarlet after our insults, unsure of what to do. I think Jackie noticed it too, because she suddenly said: “No worries, ol’ chum! We ain’t fightin’! Just some casual insults, that’s all!!”
She patted Danica on the back, but she still seemed tight and bothered. I was wondering what was wrong when I felt a mild irritation on both my ears that seemed to be growing more painful by the second. I told Jackie to take care of Danica while I went to the bathroom to inspect my ears.
“I need to go to the bathroom, Jackie. Take care of Danika and don’t be abducted by aliens!!” I joked, but I could feel my ears burning as I ran to the ladies bathroom and ducked into a room, shutting the door behind me.
I was lucky every room had their own attached mirror. I peered at myself in the mirror, and was relieved when I didn’t look much different; My reflection showed a girl with pale skin that looked like it never saw daylight, with long, honey blonde hair spilling down my shoulders and down my back. I also had dark blue eyes that peered back at me from the mirror. I didn’t look any different at all, yet I had a feeling something was wrong.
I peered closer at my reflection in the mirror, so close I could probably see were my hair began if I got any closer. The mild sensation on my ear started to fade, and I was wondering whether it was just a feeling that something was wrong.
Suddenly, I knew where to look.
I hooked my hair over my ears, so I could see them, and then peered back into the mirror. When my reflection peered back at me, I almost fell back and straight into the toilet bowl.
Like Danica’s, my ears were pointed and they jutted upwards, like an elf’s. My heart pounded in my chest, and my eyes were as big as saucers. I slapped my palm towards my ears and used my index finger to feel them, and to my horror, my finger felt something pointy at where my ears use to be. I couldn’t avoid the truth:
I was going elf.
I grabbed a fistful of my hair, trying to cover up the existence of my elf ears. Luckily for me, my hair not only grew long and straight, it also grew thick, so I was able to fully cover my ears, just barely.
When I had a problem and was scared something was wrong with me, I always told someone, like my mom, or Jackie, but this was far too embarrassing and terrible for me to confide in anyone. There was only one person I could tell, one and one person alone:
Danica.
********
I lived in horror for the rest of the day, expecting someone to just pull away my hair and discover my elf ears, but luckily for me no-one did, and I felt tremendously relieved when school ended, and it was time for me to go home. I found Danica standing alone in a bus stop and caught up to her, waving as I did.
Her face lit up when she saw me, then immediately faded as soon as she saw how serious I was, meaning it meant business. “Avery,” she said, smiling slightly. “Is there something wrong?”
“Danica,” I said, swallowing hard. “I think there might be something wrong with me.” As soon as I said that, Danica became instantly alert, and we both sat, side by side, in the bus stop. Even though I knew Danica wouldn’t stalk off and leave me when she found out my secret, I was still really jumpy when the time came to tell her the truth.
“Danica, today at school…” I stammered my voice cracking. I swallowed and started over, more confident this time. “Danica, today at school, when it was recess I told you and Jackie I needed to go to the bathroom, right?”
When she nodded, I continued: “Well, it wasn’t really the truth. Thing is, I told you guys I needed to go to the bathroom because I had to deal with this stinging sensation I suddenly felt on my ears, and when I reached the bathroom, the sensation stopped, and I found out I grew these!” I pulled my hair aside and she gasped, slapping tow hands to her mouth as she did. She knew it was wrong to act so surprised when she wasn’t any better, but I could understand she was shocked. How did this happen? This morning I had perfectly round human ears, so what had happened?
Suddenly, Danica shrieked: “I’m sorry! I must have infected you! I’m such a wicked friend!!” She covered her face with her hands and sobbed. “I’m sorry!!”
I just stared at her. “Danica, I don’t think elf ears are catching,” I said, sighing. “Just think about it. If it was catching, Jackie would’ve caught it too.”
“Oh no, you’re right!!” She said, horrified. “I infected Jackie too!!” I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “Danica! Stop blaming yourself! This isn’t your fault, okay? Say that it isn’t your fault!”
“But I-”
“Just say it!!”
She gulped. “I-It’s not my fault,” she said, her voice quivering. I let go of her, satisfied. She sat down next to me, sneaking glances at my ears when she thought I wasn’t looking. “Let’s get you home now,” I said. “You’re parents are probably worried.”
She looked down and miserably shuffled her feet. “They don’t do that. They’re just like the parents in Roald Dahl’s Matilda. They don’t care what I do…”
Tears were streaming down her face, and I just looked at her, thinking: Help. This girl needs help.
I stood up, and offered her my hand. She looked at it, then up at me. I smiled at her, then asked: “Do you want to come to my house?”
After some hesitation, she agreed.
JACKIE
It was too loud. Far too loud.
After waving goodbye to Danica and Avery, I headed back home, humming my favorite song, Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne. When I arrived, neither mom or dad was back yet. Typical.
So I did what I did best: I made some noise! I grabbed the radio up to my room and clamped the headset onto my ears and turned the volume as high as it could go, until I felt like I was crashing in sea of sound. Perfect!
I grabbed my homework and just scribbled random answers like I usually do while moving to and fro to the beat of the song, until…..
It happened.
I splitting headache cracked through my brain, causing me to drop my pencil, which clattered onto the desk and rolled off the edge with a muted thunk. I held my head in my hands, the headache draining so much of my energy I couldn’t lift the headset off my ears.
I crashed onto the desk, my cheek lying on it’s cold wooden surface. The music was suddenly too much for me to bear, the beat thumping into my ears and to my brain, where the headache raged onward. I was in agony, unable to even lift a finger, much less walk to the living room and call for help. After some effort, I managed to shake my headphones off my ears and the headache faded. Slightly.
Suddenly, all the pain in my head was transferred to my ears, and I shrieked as my ears throbbed. I fell back, landing on my bed, tears streaming down my cheeks. What was going on with me? My black hair swirled around my pillow like I was floating on top of water or flying in the sky, and finally, after what seemed like forever of agony, the pain stopped.
I got up, sighing. I heard the faint noise of a drumbeat coming from the head phones still lying on my desk. I smiled, and picked the headphones up, and put them over my ears. But they wouldn’t.
Instead of just sliding into place like headphones should go, it just stopped midway and folded my ears down painfully when I tried to force it into place. I dropped the headphones, muttering a soft: “Ow,” and tried to massage my ears.
My heart stopped.
They didn’t feel like my ears. They felt like…..they felt just like…….
Yikes.
I glided of my bed and ran downstairs to the nearest bathroom. My heart leapt into my chest as I slammed the bathroom door behind me and peered into the mirror, watching my reflection do the same.
I gasped not at the sight of my black hair, long enough just to brush my shoulders, nor at the sight of my deep black eyes, dark to match my hair. I gasped at the sight of my ears.
My elf ears.
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