He started to say something else but then Stinky was calling to me, “Hey, Bud! Leave the freak alone—the bell rang!” and I ran back to class.
After school, there was a big circle of kids in front of the new kid’s bus again, and I went home unbothered.
In a strange way, I feel kind of lonely.
~ * ~
Not a bad day for me.
But another bad one for the new kid.
The gang of bullies went after him at lunch again. This time Stinky put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Come on, Bud! Join in the fun!”
I had no choice and went along with him, but I just didn’t have the heart to turn the kid’s English book into confetti or his lunch into mush.
When the gang dispersed, I stayed behind.
“You look better without pants,” I said, trying to cheer him up.
When I held out half of his English book he flinched.
“Hey, I won’t hurt you,” I said. “If fact, until you came along, I was the one they beat up on.”
He looked up at me, his almond-shaped eyes suddenly brightening, and said, “My name’s Oort. Want to be friends?”
I hesitated for a moment, thinking that maybe Chunky and Stinky wouldn’t like it, but then I said, “Sure, why not?”
At that moment I saw Chunky and the others heading in our direction.
Oort groaned and said, “You’d better leave. Looks like they want to get in a little more fun before the bell rings. See you later?”
“Sure.”
I backed away as the gang arrived, Stinky rubbing his hands in anticipation, and watched from a distance as the rest of Oort’s books flew to pieces above the laughing circle that surrounded him.
But it looks like I won’t be lonely anymore.
~ * ~
Turns out Oort’s a pretty nice guy.
I wish I could do something to help him at school, but he seems to understand what being the new kid’s all about and takes it as best he can.
He came over after school today, and after we cleaned him up and got most of the dried mud and peanut butter out of his hair he wasn’t in too bad shape. We played video games for a couple of hours and then did our homework, and I managed to sneak some snacks up to my room. Oort really likes potato chips, it turns out, and scarfed them down like he’d never had them before.
“Don’t they have potato chips where you came from?” I asked, joking.
“Actually…no,” Oort said, a little hesitantly.
“Where’s that?” I answered, amazed that there could be anywhere without potato chips.
Oort shrugged, still stuffing his face, and said, “Just…somewhere else.”
“I can’t imagine a place without potato chips…”
But Oort was still stuffing his face, and shrugged again, so I let it drop.
When he left later I felt like we were real friends, and said, “I really wish there was something I could do for you at school.”
Again he shrugged and said, “That’s what being the new kid’s all about. There’s nothing you can do about it. Want to come over my house tomorrow after school?”
“Sure,” I said, and when Oort was gone I knew I’d made a real friend.
~ * ~
It seemed like school would never end today, and, since it was Friday, and the bullies wouldn’t see Oort again till Monday, they really let him have it at lunch.
But he seemed to take it really well, and after we’d found all his clothes, even both of his socks, all he did was ask me if I was still coming over after school.
“You bet,” I said, “and I’ll even bring a bag of potato chips!”
“Great!” he said, giving me directions to his house, and then staggered off as Stinky headed his way to get in one more pop.
They got Oort again at his bus, but he managed to wave to me as he stumbled out of the crowd.
“Don’t forget the potato chips!” he shouted, before they were on him again.
~ * ~
I had a heck of a time finding his house. It’s not that Oort’s directions were bad, but the house was in a place I’d never been before. There was a street I knew pretty well, and at the end of it there was a right turn I didn’t remember, which led to a dead end I’d never seen.
But there was the house at the end, just like Oort said it would be.
A strange place. It was house-shaped, but seemed to have too many corners. Also, it was way too tall. The porch was narrow, and all the windows had boards over them. The shingles were strange, some of them round and some of them square at the bottom; the same thing for the shingles on the roof. But it all seemed to fit together in a weird type of way, except that the whole house seemed to vibrate slightly, and glow in a faint greenish light.
It looked weird enough that I was about to turn around and go home when the front door opened and there was Oort, waving to me and smiling. He was wearing clothes different from his school clothes: really bright green, narrow pants and a thin-collared shirt in blinding yellow.
“Come on in!” he said.
I held up the potato chips.
“Great!” Oort said.
I stepped up onto the porch, feeling the boards give way slightly under my feet as if they were rotten inside.
I was about to say something to Oort when he laughed and said, “Uh…old house!” and brought me inside. He took the potato chips from me, popped open the bag, and began to shove big handfuls of them into his mouth.
“I love these things!” he said.
It was just as weird inside the house as outside. We were in a hallway, and as we went down it each room to either side seemed to be too narrow and had too many walls and glowed faintly. There were paintings on some of the walls, but the pictures were long and narrow. They looked like landscapes, but the trees in them were tall and thin with blue bark and the ground was covered with orange grass.
“What—” I asked, but Oort was still moving down the hallway so I rushed to catch up.
“Want to play video games?” I asked.
“Forget it—I’ve got something better to do!” he said.
We were in something like a kitchen, and on the table, which had different-lengthed legs and was taller than it was wide, was a jar of peanut butter and a half a loaf of bread.
“Not too much time to shop,” Oort explained. He tossed the potato chip bag on the table, and I saw with amazement that it was empty.
“Those were great!” he said.
“Where are your parents?” I asked.
“They’re…close,” Oort said.
He moved to the back door, which had no windows in it and was barely wide enough to get through.
“Like I said, I’ve got something better than video games!” he laughed, throwing it open.
The doorway was filled with bright light. When my eyes adjusted I said, “Wow!” and stepped toward it.
Instead of the backyard of the house there was a whole other world, just like the one in the landscape painting, with orange grass leading up a rolling hill, brown flowers and blue trees, and a bright green sky.
“
