'But I Am Odd!'

"The trees are leaking again." You say just above a whisper. You have a stiffened gaze directed out the window where the large oaks and pines tower above the roof of your home.

"Leaking what?" Your older sister, Macy, ask as she walks over to you. She has bright blonde curls and enticing blue eyes. She had been engaged once, (which resulted in a dramatic ending) had multiple more boyfriends than you could count, and was in a relationship once more. This time everyone prayed it would work out.

"Don't you see?" You ask, pointing. "Shadows. That dark stuff, it's coming straight from the bottom of the trunk. The weather forecast was wrong once more. They said it was supposed to be rainy, not leaky."

Macy seems to scoff as she walk away again. The whole family always wonders at your curious imagination and eccentric behavior. Your only friend was one that no one could see, and your last friend had left you for a unicorn. Now of course you realize that unicorns aren't real, but that the much more regal pegasus is the only mythical creature. Your friend's name is Diddie. Her father is half Italian and half Polish. Her mother however has a splash of mermaid and a tall amount of giant. Of course you can never have a 'titch' or a 'bit' of mermaid or giant, in you. It always has to be a splash or a tall amount.

Your mother walks over to you just as your sister had.

"Embla Johnson!" She only calls you by your full name when she senses the psychotic behavior oozing out of you. Normally you are just called Em. "Why are you standing at the window like that? If someone came in they might think you odd!" For that was her worst nightmare, someone thinking anyone in the family was odd. Your mother lives off of organization and human acceptance. When she doesn't have one, she feeds off the other.

"But I am odd." This is always your reply when she says this. For you know that you are indeed peculiar. No one else in your grade has a friend that they alone could see, no one else sees shadows leaking out of trees, and no one else knows that it is insane to think that unicorns are real, but only right to conclude that pegasus roam the skies around you.

"You are not odd and that is final. Now let me fluff your hair, yes, that's right. Pull down your dress for heaven's sakes! Look at me, I guess that will do." As she gets you looking presentable you look at the familiar room around you. It's the family's living room. Perfect and untouched white walls close you in, and a fake wooden floor lies in wait beneath you. Only a single picture graces the wall, and it is an old and historical portrait of some ancestor. A glamorous rug is in the middle of the room, and your sister stands on it, a cell-phone in hand.

"Now, let us get on to the party. You don't want us to be late, people are never late." She takes you by the hand and pulls you next to her. You sadly and obediently comply. Why pull against when there is no point?

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At the party you stand alone in the corner. You never look forward to events such as this. Your mother always made Diddie stay at home, for she always suspected that she would distract you from making friends. Of course it wouldn't, because there was no friends to make. The only other girl your age was in the other corner, all alone and staring at the ground.

Suddenly you think to yourself, 'What if she is odd too?' Then maybe she could accept you and you her. Your mother would be happy and Diddie would be happy. Diddie had always encouraged you to get out there on earth for maybe someday, if you gained the human's trust, you could save them from the invasion of the goblins.

You walk over to her. She has white skin, white hair, white eyes, and white everything. She had a scarf tied around her straight and limp hair, and she had an unusual and very colorful blouse on.

"Excuse me." The girl didn't even look. "Excuse me?!" You say a bit louder. She finally looks up and scans the floor for you. She spots you, scowls, and looks away. This doesn't phase you and you just walk up to her.

"Hello, my name is Em. I am ten-years-old, and I really like your shirt. I have never seen one so colorful! Why are you so white?" You say all of this in one short breath and then smile widely.

"Go away." The girl glares at you like no one ever has.

"No." You say, leaning up on the wall next to her.

"Yes."

"No."

"Why?" The other girl asks you now genuinely curious.

"Because my mom makes me make friends. You will be my first friend and you can't stop that." You say triumphantly.

"Fine. I'll answer your questions." She looked away once again. "I have a skin disease that makes me what's called an 'Albino'. It means I don't have any color. I wear bright colors so that people don't think I am so drab."

"I don't think you are drab." You take her hand and hold it. This was the first action of a friendship that would last a lifetime.

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A year later you said goodbye to Diddie. This was the last time you ever held onto your imaginations, and the last time someone called you odd. The girl in the corner, who's name turned out to be Maria, had helped you let go of your fake friends and gain new ones, real ones.

In the future you helped Maria let go of the color of her skin. Of course she still looked the same, she just acted different. She no longer felt that she had to cover it up, instead she let it shine. You both married and had your own children, yet you stayed in contact throughout the years.

It doesn't matter if you look or act different, we are all the same in the end. Humans in need of friends and in need of help.