Duckling Ugly

sold a car?not a word of truth, and bought for the highest price possible. I didn't mind being Linda DeFido for a day. After all, Linda was my middle name.

There was still plenty of time before the bell rang, so I went out into the yard to size up what had changed since I had left. As I suspected, nothing had changed. The same kids in the same groups. Of course, some girls were hanging on different boys' shoulders, but even then, the shoulders on which they hung were the predictable ones. One couple, however, had stood the test of time. Marshall and Marisol. They were all slithered around each other in the yard, like always. I made a beeline straight toward them.

'Excuse me,' I said innocently, getting their attention.

I had Marshall's eye immediately. Marisol already looked worried.

'Aren't you Marshall Astor, of the famous Astors?'

Marisol answered for him. 'That's none of your business. Who are you?'

'Oh, I'm sorry,' I said, as sweetly as could be. 'I'm Linda DeFido. I'll be moving here from Billington.' I kept my eye on Marshall, totally ignoring Marisol. 'I remember you from one of last year's football games. I have never seen a run that long. I re­member wishing that you were on our team.'

Marshall just smiled dumbly. I made sure I had a lock on his eyes like a tractor beam. 'So you're moving here?' he asked.

'And she's a DeFido?' said Marisol. 'That family is a bunch of losers.'

'Oh, we're all right,' I said, still smiling. 'Except, of course, for my poor cousin, Cara?wherever she is.'

Marshall broke eye contact and looked down. 'The DeFidos don't like me much. They think I'm the reason their daughter ran off. Your cousin, I mean.'

'Oh, they don't think that,' I said. 'They know that Cara brought it on herself. They don't blame you at all.'

Marshall smiled. 'Really?'

'You should come by and talk to my uncle. I'm sure he'll be very forgiving.'

'Yeah,' he said, still smiling. 'Maybe I'll do that.'

'You will not,' said Marisol. 'You don't need to talk to trailer trash.'

'Not all trash lives in trailers,' I told her. She started going colors I didn't know the human face could go. 'What's the mat­ter, Marisol?' I asked. 'You didn't choke on your gum, did you?'

'How'd you know my name?'

'Oh,' I said, 'you've got a reputation. Even as far as Billington.'

'What?' Her mouth opened, and she just looked at me, her head shaking slightly, like her pea brain had just popped its one blood vessel.

Marshall looked at her like she was suddenly something un­clean, and I went on my merry way. This was the start of a won­derful day!

I was the center of attention in every class, and when I walked into the lunchroom, all heads turned, boys and girls alike. They were whispering about me. By force of habit, I looked for my usual empty table?but without the old Cara here, creating her aura of untouchability, there were no empty tables.

I thought I'd find Marshall and Marisol again, and play with their meager minds some more?but then I spotted Gerardo.

I'd known I would see him today, and I thought I'd be okay with it?that I was beyond all those mixed-up feelings I had for him?but I was wrong. It only took a moment for all the feelings to come back.

It didn't make sense to me?I had Aaron now, didn't I? Ger­ardo was a flyspeck compared to Aaron, and yet he made me numb and light-headed in a way that Aaron never quite did. It made me mad, but not mad enough to turn and walk the other way.

I went to the table where he sat with his friends?and let me tell you, they made a space for me like I was Moses and they were the Red Sea.

'You need a place to sit?'

'Sit here!'

'No, sit here, he smells!'

'I've got lots of room for you on the end!'

'Don't listen to those idiots, you can sit wherever you want. As long as it's next to me!'

I smiled, and didn't accept any of their invitations. I knew just how to play this. 'Someone told me one of you boys knows something about computers?'

And all of a sudden all five boys at the table were computer experts. I knew for a fact at least three of them weren't, but that didn't stop them from practically climbing all over one another to impress me with their know- how.

I didn't know all that much about computers, but I knew enough to be able to weed out the poseurs.

'Good,' I said, 'because I need to find a way to install a thirty-two-bit sound card in a sixteen-bit slot.'

Sudden silence from four of the five. But Gerardo perked up.

'It sounds like you need to upgrade your motherboard. I could do that for you.'

I put out my hand and smiled at him.

'Hi, I'm Linda.'

'Gerardo,' he said, shaking my hand. 'I was a friend of your cousin's.'

For a second it caught me by surprise. Then I realized, in a high school, news traveled at the speed of pheromones. Probably every boy in school heard that I was a DeFido. Of course, they didn't know which DeFido I was.

'Gerardo ...' I said, pretending to think about his name. 'I think Cara talked about you.'

'She did?'

'She was in love with him,' said one of the other boys.

Gerardo shrugged. 'We were just friends.'

'Yeah, that's what she said. She said you were dating Nikki somebody.'

'Ah,' said Gerardo, 'that was months ago.'

I looked down at my plate, then picked up my brownie and put it on Gerardo's plate, like I used to do back in the ugly days.

He looked a little creeped out for a second. 'Just how much did Cara talk about me?'

I didn't answer him; I just gave him a wink. 'Have a nice lunch.' Then I stood up and left with the grace of a swan.

There's this expression. I think it's French. Femme fatale. It means 'deadly woman,' but really means more than that. It means a woman so beautiful, she can twist the world around her finger.

That was me now, and until today, I had no idea how much fun twisting could be. The problem was, I only had today to do it, and it frustrated me. I wanted to take on this school like a tornado, and leave people quivering in my wake?but with only one day, I'd be little more than a passing breeze. I was already trying to fig­ure ways to stretch out my visit?if only for a few more hours.

I knew Marisol had started spreading nasty rumors about me. Marshall was already preening to get my attention, and when I waved to Gerardo in the hall a little bit later in the day, he walked right into a locker. Femme fatale. In a way, it was so much more satisfying than just being one of the beautiful people in De Leon.

By the end of the day, Marshall had already asked me on a date, and I'd accepted?mainly because I knew once Marisol found out, she'd gnaw her own limbs off. Unfortunately, the date was for Saturday, so I wouldn't be able to follow through. It burned me that Marisol would have the satisfaction of my per­manent disappearance.

Gerardo wasted no time, either. He showed up at my house right after school.

'Hi, is Linda home?'

'Who?' said my idiot brother, who had answered the door. 'Oh. Linda, right. Yeah, she's here.'

I ducked into my room and tried to get the sudden flush to leave my face. I didn't even think he knew where I lived. When I stepped out, I had the poise and presence of a movie star.