Pizza

The school bell had just rung and for the next few hours V slugged through her class until it was around quarter past eleven.

Then it was time for lunch. The first thing V did when she arrived at school cafeteria for lunch was head straight to the counter. Already there was a long line of messy, noisy boys. Thanks to her counselling sessions, she was a few minutes late meaning the line was already very long. She was starved. After what seemed like an unbearable eternity of waiting, she had to face the Dinner Lady who always put on a hideous frog like frown. “Today’s special is pizza!” came a half dead grunt like sound from the Frowning Frog who then threw a huge slop of pale brown slop peppered with strange red cubes onto V’s plate.

V fell back in disgust. “That’s not pizza,”

The Dinner Lady gave V a look that now made her look like a cross between a frog and a very agitated staring owl.

“This is pizza! Cooked the healthier way! Boiled!”

With that V said no more as the owl frog was going to threaten to add another scoop onto her bowl. V gave a sniff at the unrecognizable slop. Yes, there was a familiar smell of Pizza but would it taste like pizza?

Picking up her breakfast she headed to the table where she always.. But it wasn’t all that bad in reality being deemed non-powered. V actually sometimes enjoyed the benefits that came with it. The government gave her a monthly allowance. She had special rights such as being given priority to be first in line. Nobody ever scolded you if you no matter what wrong you did as you were considered something to be pitied. It cheered her up a bit as she move to the table hoping he would be there as usual to give her a boost of his cheerful attitude

Her heart sank when she got to the table. Dawson wasn’t there.

“Hey V, how are you doing ?” It was Emile one of the few true friends. A guy who had the ability to manipulate the air. Nothing special really as twenty five percent of the rest of the children in that mass hall shared the same ability.

It was not that V was anti-social. So far no one ever mistreated her or ignored her when she spoke. But at the same time it gave her the feeling that she was somebody who was pitied. She was the few with no special ability at all. She wasn’t allowed to play dodge ball with the others in fear that the super strong ones might injure her badly. In basketball she was there was no way she could play with the elastic stretchiness. Had no special magical spark, had nothing but a perfectly normal healthy body and didn’t need glasses. She did learn the electric keyboard once which unfortunately fell far off from those sound benders who could manipulate the simple sound waves of a whistle into a symphony of epic proportions.

“Hey have you seen Dawson ?”

“Oh yeah, he just left a while. Had something to do with his girlfriend,”

It hit her like a ton of bricks.

“Girlfriend !!!”

Emile gave V a strange look. “Yeah Tanya. It should be normal right for a guy like him to have one,”

Suddenly there was a sharp pang inside of V. It seem to grow from the inside her gut. It may have been despair but V knew better than to give in. She began channelling her shock into an intense anger inside her. Any negative emotion was focused in fuelling the rage inside of her. It was directed to the world. She was angry at the society which had left her out because of her disability. She was angry at herself for being so dependent on others.

And also angry at her eccentric adoptive mom who kept so many secrets from her as well as force her to keep her identity a secret for some great purpose.

Not only was she now angry, she was also very hungry. Blinded by anger and common sense, she stuck her spoon into the strange muck. She closed her eyes and put the entire glop into her mouth. The first image that flash into her mind was that of a baboon’s red backside. “Eargh,” she spat out the “pizza” in disgust.

Emile looked at her in shock and awe.

“Wow, you’re the bravest person I know or you’re just plainly starve,”

She sighed heavily while giving him a tired smile.

It was time for a change.