Author's Note: I should mention that I've never been to Chicago and all I know about the city and the university is what I was able to learn online. Chapters 2 and 3 are pretty short, so I'll put 3 up soon. I guess the first three chapters might seem kind of slow and boring but after that the story should get more interesting.
If anyone is actually reading this, please review. I'm lonely. :P
Oh, and one sentence in this chapter is a deliberate paraphrase of something Max says in Ch. 3 of Max the Mighty. Philbrick's original sentence is "Which if you know how big I am is like not noticing an elephant in your living room." You'll know my hommage when you see it. Enjoy!
A Better Fate Than Wisdom
Chapter 2: Multiples of Nine
The first couple of days are crazy, and scary. There aren't any classes yet, but I have to figure out where the dining hall is, and I have to fill out all kinds of forms and take them from one place to another, and get my timetable and map so I can start figuring out where my courses are going to be, cause I'm terrified I'll get lost and end up wandering around like a moron looking for the right building, and I expect it'll be hard enough to keep up without missing half my classes cause I can't find them.
But by now I think I'm doing okay. I've marked on my map where all my classes are going to be (they start tomorrow), and I can find Bartlett Hall no problem. That's where I am now, finishing up supper. Some girls at the table next to mine were whispering and snickering about how much food I had on my tray, and a lot of people stare when I walk past them, but that's not so bad. I've been picked on a lot worse.
I'm standing in line behind a couple of girls in cheerleader outfits, waiting to dump my tray. They're talking loudly about their boyfriends and glaring back at me like they think I'm going to try to hit on them or something. Like that would ever happen. I mean, of course I like girls, and of course I'd like to have a girlfriend someday. Who wouldn't? But not a girl like that. They're pretty, sure, but they look mean. They have hard, cold eyes, and shrill voices; and every look, every gesture, every tilt of their heads and flick of their perfect hair means I'm better than you are, and don't you forget it. I wouldn't want a girlfriend like that, mean and self-centered and so wrapped up in being popular they never stop to think about anything. Anything at all, anything that actually matters, like what fire really is or why all the multiples of nine add up to nine or who the real hero of The Lord of the Rings is, Frodo or Sam. That's the kind of stuff I think about, although I know you wouldn't believe it to look at me.
It was my best friend Freak who taught me to think, and all of a sudden I miss him really bad. I bet if he was here he'd have some smartass comment that would put these snobby cheerleaders in their place, and make me laugh so hard I'd probably drop my tray.
Just as I'm thinking that, I almost do drop my tray, cause somebody walks right into me. I look down to see who it is, and I realize right away this must be the girl Worm tried to point out to me the day I got here. She has long hair, golden blonde on top, a shade or two lighter than mine, and orange underneath – blazing bright orange, like a traffic cone or a construction sign. She has her nose buried in her planner – I can see it's open to the campus map – but looks up to see what she ran into. She has to back up a couple of feet to get an angle on my face, and that's when I notice she's really short, maybe even shorter than the Worm; the top of her head just reaches the middle of my chest. "Sorry," she says, and smiles; "I didn't see you."
Then, before I can think of anything to say, she's walking out of the dining hall, and I'm standing there staring after her like a big moron. The cheerleaders in front of me are giggling to each other. "How could she not see him?" one of them whispers loudly. "He fills up the whole room!"
Her friend shushes her, but honestly, I think she has a point. Not seeing me is like not seeing a hippopotamus in your bathtub. I'm still thinking about it after I dump my tray and start heading back to my dorm, cause there was something else strange about the situation, only I can't quite figure it out.
When I open the door to Maclean Hall and go in, there are these girls just coming out, and they flinch back when I duck through the door. And then I realize what was strange: it wasn't just what the girl with orange hair said, it was the look on her face. She didn't get that funny look everybody gets when they see me for the first time, that look that means they're thinking God what a freak or Cripes he's enormous or Eek I hope he doesn't hurt me or whatever. She just smiled. At me.
Weird.
