Ding Dong, Evelone Calling...

Bang, Bang, Bang! The door was about to come off its hinges, but Evelone didn't care. She knew the door was unlocked, she could have simply turned the knob and walked in, but the noise, like most things Evelone did, was for effect...the drama of it all. Terrified, Sampson hopped quickly behind Sebastian's left ear, peaking out, hoping she would tire and go away, but Sebastian knew better. He grabbed the old grey blanket that had been keeping him warm, tied the ends around his neck, pulled up the edges like a cape and wrapped himself up inside like Dracula protecting himself from the new morning's sun.

Finally, the door flew open with a kick, and there she stood, the sister from hell. In one hand, Evelone held the mysterious package, and in the other, the now half eaten plate of food. Luckily, Sebastian had no appetite, staring into his sister's face and the evil smile upon it, Sebastian wasn't sure if he would ever eat again. He was, however, curious about the package she held. Could it be a birthday gift from her, he thought...for a split second, then almost laughed out loud at such a ridiculous notion. Evelone did not give gifts. She hid gifts, she returned gifts, she had been know to open the gifts of others, but giving a gift? Oh no. But who was it from? Evelone walked into the room like she owned the place, criticising with her eyes everything in it, shaking her head, tisk, tisk, tisking away, but Sebastian barely noticed, his eyes remained on the package. Noticing this interest, Evelone held the box up and began to shake it violently, "I wonder what's inside," she cackled, then threw it hard across the room where it finally landed safely on his bed beside the opened gift sent by his parents - a bag of coffee beans from the Democratic Republic of Congo. They both stared at the box, then Evelone's left eye moved in Sebastian's direction. Her ability for independent eye movement always unnerved the boy, so he remained still, no sudden movements. Evelone was fast and could strike without warning. He knew to be patient.

She walked toward the desk, illuminated by the reading lamp, her face grotesque in shadows. With her free hand, she grabbed off the plate the remaining bit of Red Velvet cake and licked her dry, cracked lips, but before shoving it into her mouth, she ever so politely asked, "You didn't want this did you? No, I didn't think so." And like a python set free in a pet mouse store, she tossed the cake down her gullet and swallowed it whole. Finished and satisfied, she smiled in Sebastian's direction, her teeth stained red from the red dye of the Red Velvet cake. Dropping the empty plate on the floor, she slowly walked over to the bed, shaking her head, disgusted by the embarrassingly large amount of gifts Sebastian had received this year. "Two presents?" she asked. "Why do you get two? Everybody turns ten, you're not special. I mean for shit's sake, Hitler turned ten, so big deal for you." She slid the box across the bed, "Go ahead, open it." Sebastian did not move. "I said open it!" she screamed. Careful and carefully, Sebastian took one step and since he was still alive, he took one more, then another, still breathing, then another till he was holding the package in his sweaty and shaking hands. He looked at the box with no return address, simply addressed to him. Slowly, he pulled the tape off the edges, one by one. "You gonna keep that paper for your hope chest?" Evelone yelled. "Just rip it open!" But Sebastian paid no attention. After a moment, the gift was unwrapped. Sebastian pulled off the lid, set it down and looked inside. Sitting on top of the Styrofoam peanuts was a note, and like a scent, the familiar handwriting instantly brought him back to a happier time, it read simply - Happy Birthday, Bro. I miss you, JoJo.

"What does it say?" asked Evelone. Knowing no answer would come, she grabbed the note from Sebastian's hand and read it to herself, and for a moment, Sebastian thought he saw something human in her face, some true emotion like "hurt" because the note hadn't mentioned her...and then as quickly as it came, it was gone. Evelone crumpled up the note and looked inside the box, "He sent you nothing," she laughed. "Just a box of Styrofoam crap. Happy Birthday, Sebastian, have fun with you're crap." Picking up the box, Evelone started tossing the peanuts around the room, "You can pretend it's snowing," she cried. "Watch out, here comes an avalanche," and dumped the remaining bits over Sebastian's sad little head. The boy tried not to cry, but couldn't understand why his JoJo would play such a terrible joke. He lowered his head and watched the Styrofoam accumulate around his legs. Looking up into the box, he watched the white storm fall, wanting more, wishing there was enough to bury him alive, when Crack, something hard fell from the box and smacked him across the face. Sebastian looked down at his feet and saw, covered in the snow, the object the Styrofoam was truly protecting - his gift, his birthday gift from JoJo. Quickly, the boy reached down, brushed of the white bits and smiled in amazement by what he saw - a silver painted, sheathed plastic sword, bright and full of light, engraved with one word - GOODNIGHT.

When Things Could Get No Worse - Evelone...

The clock hits three and the last bell rings, another school day has ended. The empty halls quickly flood with happy, screaming children pouring from the opened classroom doors - higher and higher the tide, its current, strong, carrying all past the gym, the lunch room and library, bursting through the front doors and spilling out onto the open yard. The children run to their parents, showing construction paper projects and page after page of practiced cursive letter "P". After a while, the steady stream of students get thinner until the last and final drip slowly drips out - his name, Sebastian Goodnight.

At the corner across from school, the nanny leans against her car and waves the boy forward, smiling. Sebastian runs to her and seeing his wrinkled and red face, she opens her arms, wishing he would speak, just a word or two, to explain, to let it out, "You would feel so much better," she whispers into his ear, now snuggled safely deep in her hug. But Sebastian says nothing. He climbs into the front seat and shuts the door, but through the car window, he catches a glimpse of someone, a little girl, standing by the flagpole with her mother, holding an ice pack to a black and rapidly swelling eye. "What happened, Penny?" cries the mother. "Tell me what happened?" Sebastian turns and sits forward, staring straight at the open road ahead.

Earlier today, Sebastian was excited about the evening's possibles, but now, he just wanted to be alone. Good boys deserved good things, Sebastian deserved nothing. Should such cowards be rewarded with loving parents and a homemade birthday dinner, the biggest piece of Red Velvet cake, ten candles, and presents? No! And as the car rounded the curve and his house approached fast, all he wanted for his birthday this year was an empty driveway...and that's exactly what he got. The nanny parked her car, no problem, plenty of room - hers would be the only car parked tonight. The nanny turned to Sebastian and gave him a slight smile, "More cake for us, huh?" Out of the car, they walked through the front door, and in the hallway, sitting alone on the small table, a gift, wrapped in brown paper and covered in stamps from some far away country, waited for Sebastian. Comforted by the overwhelming pain of it all, he grabbed the gift and ran straight to his room.

Hours had past and Sebastian had not come out. The nanny, on her third trip to his door, noticed the plate of food she left on her first trip - lasagna with meatballs and hard boiled eggs and a piece of Red Velvet cake, had still not been touched. "He likes cold lasagna," she thought, and decided to leave the plate be. She did not knock, he would come out when ready and when that time came, he would open the door and see, sitting beside the plate of lasagna, a new package, one that had just arrived a few minutes earlier, but from who, she did not know. A mysterious box, wrapped in the same brown paper his parents had used, but this box was different - no stamps from some far away country, no return address, no lame excuses. To: Sebastian, it read, and nothing more. She set down the box beside the lasagna and Red Velvet cake, turned and walked back downstairs.

Inside Sebastian's room, the boy, wrapped up in his brother JoJo's old grey blanket, sat quietly in front of his open window, staring out into the night, still ashamed by his behavior at lunch. Sampson, his tiny yellow parakeet, perched still on Sebastian's shoulders, silently lending his support and comfort the only way he knew. Quiet, still, then startled at the loud bang, bang, banging coming from Sebastian's bedroom door. Such a disturbance, and not from the nanny the boy was sure. This racket could be only one thing - Evelone, and she wanted in!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Cowardly Lion...

Sebastian opened his lunch bag and looked inside - peanut butter on whole wheat bread, salt-less Saltine Crackers and a perfectly sliced, cored and peeled crisp Fuji apple...yum! At the bottom of the bag, a note in the nanny's handwriting read, "All your favorites. I hope you have the best Birthday ever! Love, Nanny." Sebastian appreciated the sentiment and in all honesty, he'd had worse, though if anyone saw him, squatting painfully, smashed up between the row of prickly bushes and the cold, dirty brick wall of the maintenance shed, eating alone his birthday lunch, hiding from the entire school, no one would believe it, but he'd had worse birthdays. Sure, if one more kid ran up to Sebastian, patting hard his shoulders, screaming, "Happy Birthday!" into his ears, slapping his back side for one to grow on, just one more time, he would have screamed, well, figuratively screamed, Sebastian hasn't screamed for years, but he'd had worse. And how he hated being touched with those hands attached to little kids attached to germs and sticky things and things that stick to fingers when those fingers go sticking up their noses. But yes, sadly yes, he'd had worse birthdays.

Carefully, Sebastian smoothed out his paper lunch bag and set it on the bare ground with the intention to sit. He understood dirt in of itself is not dirty, it's what's in the dirt - the gum, the cigarette butts, the pee, but dirt is OK...as long as it didn't get on him. He would begin to sit then rethink his decision, then try it again, but in the end, he knew his end would remain forever off the ground. Knees shaking from squatting so long, Sebastian tried thinking the pain away, imagining himself at home, his parents driving up the driveway, running through the front door with open arms. Knees steady, Sebastian smiled and licked his lips, ready to bite into his peanut butter sandwich when to his surprise, a dark shadow wiped across the bushes in which he hid. His knees began shaking again and he wished to himself he would have sat, but it was too late, someone was out there, getting closer. Sebastian could hear footsteps slowly crushing the leaves, getting closer and closer and it was just a matter of time before they found him.

Sebastian did not breathe, he did not move, frozen he was as the footsteps stopped just a few feet from the bushes. Over his shoulder, he felt someone watching. Caught, he slowly turned his head and saw standing above him, Penny Nickels holding a bright red ball. Somewhat relieved, he smiled and their eyes met and for a moment, Sebastian thought she was about to speak, but she didn't, she didn't have to. His short lived relief quickly dissipated as Penny Nickels' face said all without saying a single word, "We are not alone!" Penny turned and Sebastian could see coming around the corner, grunting and squealing, the three little pigs - Teddy Green, Mark Lee Tappen, and Mark Lee Lloyd, brothers - same mother, same interchangeable personalities, same pink pimpled skin, same greasy slicked back, dirty blond tuffs of hair, all different dads, making their way towards Penny. Had they followed Penny? Why? Nobody follows Penny. For as long as she had been in school, everyone had made fun of her, but always from a distance, never up close.

Through the bushes, Sebastian saw the boys getting closer, their faces red and angry. "What's you doing, Penny Nickels?" shouted Mark Lee Lloyd, or maybe it was Teddy Green, which ever one it was, he looked pissed. Mark Lee Tappen or maybe it was Mark Lee Lloyd then shouted, "Give me back the ball, retard!" Penny turned and looked at Sebastian again and he recognized that bright red ball. Dodge Ball. It was the dodge ball from the most evil game ever invented, and it was now in Penny Nickels' hands, and the boys wanted it back.

Sebastian stared at Penny, pleading with his eyes for her to go away, but she just stood there as the pigs got closer. Teddy Green or maybe it was Mark Lee Lloyd laughed, "Maybe she wants to play Dodge Ball." They stood, just three feet from her, Mark Lee Tappen or maybe it was Teddy Green whispered, "What's you looking at in those bushes, Penny Nickels?" Sebastian's eyes grew. Penny looked once more at Sebastian, maybe she was hoping for help, maybe she was hoping to be saved, maybe she was hoping Sebastian would jump out of the bushes and scare off the pigs, making them run wee wee wee, all the way home, but Sebastian didn't know because he was not looking at Penny, the ground, the dirty, gum, cigarette butt and pee filled ground suddenly demanded his undivided attention. Penny turned slowly and faced the boys. She took the ball, raised it high and threw it far over their heads, far away from the bushes and far away from Sebastian Goodnight. Teddy Green or maybe it was Mark Lee Tappen screamed as they watched the ball roll out of sight, "Stupid retard!" They trotted after it and Penny slowly walked away, leaving Sebastian to enjoy his peanut butter sandwich.

From the safety of his hiding place, Sebastian watched the boys find the ball. From the safety of his hiding place, Sebastian watched as they found Penny. From the safety of his hiding place, Sebastian witnessed the one action that would change Penny's life at school forever. One of the boys, maybe it was Mark Lee Tappen, picked up the bright red ball and threw it directly at Penny Nickels' head. She did not dodge. And then one of the boys, maybe it was Teddy Green picked up the ball again and threw it again at her, and again she did not dodge.

Behind the bushes, smashed up between the cold and dirty brick wall of the maintenance shed, Sebastian watched the three pigs tear down Penny Nickels' once indestructible wall one brick at a time...and Sebastian did nothing, he sat quietly and ate his peanut butter sandwich, hating each and every bite.

It was his worst Birthday ever.

Bent Penny...

They should have been friends, Sebastian and Penny Nickels, and most thought they were or at least joked about them being - being friends, she's your girlfriend, he's your boyfriend - sitting them in trees together, k.i.s.s.i.n.ging together - yes, they should have been friends. Both outcasts, teased and tormented, both freaks, unknown and unwanted, they should have been friends, but they weren't...not really. Why? Don't we, in school, seek out and attach ourselves to those with similar qualities, clothing styles, tastes and muscle sizes. And with that said, might not a school's entire jock and cheerleading population be wiped clean with just one tiny bomb, strategically placed under that certain cafeteria table under the trophy case, or instead, the table by the exit door, tick, tick, tick, KABOOM...no more drama kids. We go with what we know, and while Sebastian knew Penny, she didn't know him. Their similarities meant nothing to her and what ever connection they should have had was lost on the girl, for Penny Nickels lived in a world all her own.

They were in the same grade, though Penny spent most of her time in the "special" class, the same special class which Sebastian's parents fought vehemently to have him removed - such a thing would not look good in the yearly Family Christmas Newsletter. The few days Sebastian spent as a classmate of Penny's, he came away from the experience grateful for his parent's prejudices. That class, filled with kids in helmets and padded chairs, plastic and unusable scissors seemed more of a holding pen than anything else. The noise from hands and heads banging on chairs, feet on floors and windows, pounding and smacking and screaming and in the middle of all the chaos sat Penny, quiet and still, unaffected and disconnected. Sebastian noticed as the kids ran and rocked themselves around and around the room, no one, not a single child came within three feet of the girl. Her chair, dead center of class remained an unspoken restricted area, and for Billy's constant pacing, well, he knew to detour. Penny Nickels lived within the confines of that three feet zone and it followed her from class to the hallways, to lunch and the playground at recess - her wall, her invisible stone and mortar wall where no one may enter.

Penny's silence, unlike Sebastian's, was dark. It frightened people, kept them away. She exuded absolute passivity, her non-reactions to the most hateful words thrown at her smashed against her wall, its strength made her invulnerable, crippling her assailants, rendering them and their words useless. Sebastian studied her and at times tried to copy what she did, showing no weakness, but...Sebastian was weak - the fatal crack in the wall, needing just one push and down it comes. Sebastian admired Penny Nickels and believed they should have been friends...maybe someday.