The Perfect Outcast

by Melissa O. Hansen

  They broke into laughter when they embraced. “I’m so glad you’re okay!” Jade exclaimed. “I’ve worried so much about you!”

  “I’ve been worried about you!” Alina responded. “Maxwell said you were injured. Is everyone okay?”

  “Oh, we had a little skirmish with the nightstalks. Don’t worry; we’re all fine,” she added, seeing Alina’s expression. “I’ll tell you the story when we’re with Rex. He’s the hero, and he’ll want to hear it again. I’m healing nicely. The nightstalks didn’t hurt me the second time.”

  She waved to Maxwell as he drove past them. “You met Max, I see. This is his home. His sweet wife has been kind enough to house us, though there was no shortage of offers—nearly everyone in town volunteered their home to Carthem’s ‘chosen one,’ it seems. But the mayor and some others requested no young men be living where you stay. You’re such a famed beauty, maybe they didn’t think it safe.” Jade giggled.

  Alina crossed her arms. “Why? Because I plan to seduce every boy in sight?”

  Jade noticed her irritation and stopped laughing. “They meant your safety. I’m sure no one thinks you’re a danger to the boys, or they’re a danger to you. But it’s good to be careful. Maxwell is trustworthy, and he has three daughters. You like him, don’t you?”

  Alina nodded. “Yes. I’m glad he found me. Some of the other men gave me the creeps.”

  Maxwell’s home was so charming, Alina couldn’t pull her eyes from the scene as they walked up the path. A wide porch wrapped around the brick walls, with three dormer windows extending from the roof on the second floor. A maple tree towered over the home, its broad leaves covering the lawn in deep, cool shade. Several chickens roamed through the yard, pecking at the ground and squawking at the cat that stalked them.

  They climbed up the porch steps and a beautiful, fair-skinned woman came out to greet them. She smiled warmly at Alina.

  “Welcome, Alina. I’m Christine. We’re honored to have you stay with us.”

  “Thank you,” Alina said. “I’m grateful your husband found me.”

  A young girl peeked around Christine and eyed Alina shyly. Christine smiled and put her arm around her, bringing her forward. She possessed her mother’s blue-green eyes and long blonde hair.

  “This is my youngest daughter, Rachel.”

  Alina smiled. “Hi, Rachel.”

  “Hi.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Ten.”

  Alina paused. She wasn’t good with kids. Jade stretched open her arms and Rachel ran into them. Why can’t I be more like that?

  “Rachel is an expert on the farm and will teach us our duties while we’re here,” Jade said as Rachel beamed. “Of course, they say we don’t have to work,” she spoke over Christine’s protests, “but I told them nothing could stop me. I love the animals already.”

  “I’m sure I’ll love them as well,” Alina agreed.

  Another girl came out, this one with Maxwell’s red hair. Her eyes grew wide when she saw Alina.

  “Wow! You really are pretty!” she exclaimed.

  Christine smiled and put her arm around her other daughter. “This is Katherine. She’s my thirteen-year-old.”

  “All my friends want to come over to see you. I hope you don’t mind. Maybe you can tell us stories about Pria,” Katherine jabbered without drawing breath. “Everyone is so jealous you’re staying here. Well, except Nicole.”

  “Katherine!” Christine chided under her breath.

  “Everyone will find out soon anyway, Mom. She just told me she won’t come down to meet her.”

  Christine flushed. “Run upstairs, Kat, and make sure Alina’s room is ready for her.”

  “It is, but Nicole won’t leave.”

  Christine reddened further. “Just go!” she whispered. Katherine went back inside.

  Christine looked at Alina. “I apologize for both Katherine and Nicole. Katherine is a chatterbox and slow to learn manners. Nicole is suffering from the jealousy I’m afraid many girls in town are suffering from. She hasn’t wanted to give up her room.”

  “Oh! Please don’t have her give it up. I don’t sleep anyway.”

  “Yes, dear, but you need a place to go when you want to be alone. It’s hard being in a strange home.”

  “Let me be with Jade, then,” Alina said. Jade looked at Christine and nodded.

  Christine sighed. “Very well. But you may be denying my girl a valuable lesson. I had hoped sacrificing something for you might change her feelings. But it’s difficult for the girls here. They outnumber the boys two to one. The competition is already so fierce—you know how girls are, and since the news of your coming, the boys haven’t paid much attention to them. I suppose they all want to be free in case you should choose one of them.”

  Alina’s mouth dropped. “I won’t be choosing any, thank you very much!”

  “She left her heart back in Pria,” Jade teased.

  “That will break many hearts here, then,” Christine said as she led them inside.

  “Your pack is in Nicole’s room,” Jade told Alina as they followed Christine upstairs. “We’ll grab it and take it to the guest room where I’m staying. Rex and Baylor are set up in the parlor downstairs.”

  Christine knocked on a door and opened it, where a cross-looking girl sat on the bed, writing furiously in a notebook. She jumped up when they entered. Her eyes found Alina and looked shocked for a moment, then narrowed.

  “Nicole,” Christine said, “Alina has offered to share Jade’s room so you may keep yours.”

  Nicole fumed. “I suppose you think I’m very rude, then,” she blurted.

  Alina tried to sound friendly. “No, of course not. I understand why you don’t want to give up your room for someone you don’t know. I don’t want to make you do that for me.”

  “You aren’t making me. In fact, have it. I’ve changed my mind.” She stormed out of the room.

  Christine sighed, closing her eyes. “I’m sorry, Alina. You may not receive a warm welcome from her. But the rest of us are glad you’re here. There are your things in the corner.”

  Jade grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room. “Let’s go see Rex and Baylor. I want to hear everything that happened to you, and we’ve got a great story too.”

  Alina followed her downstairs, past the dining room and kitchen to the back of the house. She caught a glimpse of Nicole in the yard, talking with a girl outside the fence. They frowned with their arms crossed. Alina bit her lip.

  Jade led her to the back parlor where Rex and Baylor were recovering, and when she opened the door, Alina covered her mouth and screamed. Jade put her arm around her.

  “I’m sorry, Alina, I should have prepared you. Don’t worry. The doctor says they’ll recover fine.”

  “Hi, Alina,” Rex growled from his recliner. Baylor sat next to him in an identical chair, sipping a drink through a straw. A movie blared on the monitor in front of them.

  The slashes on their faces made them almost unrecognizable. Thick bandages wrapped their arms and legs, covered with red and yellow splotches. A pale discharge oozed from a cut on Baylor’s forehead, just above a patch on his eye. Rex’s left leg was in a cast.

  “What happened?” Alina exclaimed.

  “The nightstalks found us,” Rex replied.

  “I know that part—how did you get away?”

  “It wasn’t easy. We escaped because there were only two of them. We don’t know where the others were.”

  “They came after me,” Alina answered.

  “Hmm,” Baylor said, shifting his weight in his chair. “They must have traced you as the killer of the first one.”

  Rex continued, “Well, that’s a good thing, or we never would’ve survived. It was bad enough facing two! We were frozen stiff with fear.” He winced and groaned, then leaned his head back and shut his eyes.

  “Let me tell the story,” Jade said. She lowered her voice. “I think it hurts him to talk. He’s still in a lot of
pain.”

  “How is he handling the pain so well?” Alina whispered. “I mean this is Rex we’re talking about.”

  “They’re on some pretty strong medication. Rex says it numbs the pain but makes them sleepy.”

  Alina sat down on a blue couch with frilly cushions. “So, you were all frozen stiff. What happened next?”

  Jade cleared her throat. “The nightstalks went for Rex and Baylor first. The attack was awful to watch. Night had come, but I could see in the moonlight—claws scraping their skin and blood dripping down their bodies. Their screams horrified me, but the pain roused them from the terror, and they started to fight back. Baylor recovered first and after a lengthy struggle, finally killed one of them.”

  Jade took a deep breath. “But during all this, the other nightstalk saw me a few feet away, still frozen. I was an easy target it couldn’t resist. It started toward me and then—” She broke off.

  “What?” Alina asked.

  Jade shook her head, too overcome with emotion to speak.

  Rex’s eyes flew open and he sat up. “Something snapped in me the moment it started for her, and my fear vanished. Let me tell you something else, though, that Jade doesn’t know. Right before the nightstalk went for her, it turned and looked at me. It stood in the moonlight, and its body became a window—and I saw the nightstalk slicing out her heart. I even heard her screaming. Then it smirked at me, like I’d never be able to save her. I think it was trying to kill any courage I had. This almost worked, but as it turned toward her, the panic in her eyes did it for me.

  “I jumped on that devil, and seconds later it was dead. I don’t know how, but I killed it without a gun.” Rex flaunted his bandaged hands. “With my bare hands.”

  Then he looked at Jade with hot, feverish eyes, and she held his gaze for a long time, through her tears. They stared so fiercely that Alina cleared her throat and looked away. The moment was too intimate for any eyes but their own.

  She didn’t know what their gaze meant but couldn’t help thinking if J’koby were there to see it, he wouldn’t have a hope left.

  Alina’s time in Millflower passed more unpleasantly than she expected. Maxwell’s home felt welcoming as long as she avoided Nicole, but if they found themselves in the same room, a sudden chill filled the air. Nicole dismissed Alina’s friendly efforts, which hurt deeply coming from someone she hoped would be a friend. Max and Christine, appalled by their daughter’s behavior, attempted to reason with her, but this resulted in shouting matches and slammed doors.

  Nicole worked hard to look beautiful, but her genes seemed set against her. Instead of her mother’s fair skin and hair, she got her father’s short eyelashes, freckled skin, and strawberry blonde hair, which was too frizzy to manage. Tall for her age, she appeared bony and lank. The heavy makeup she used did little to minimize or enhance her features but caked her face like a mask.

  Alina found it curious that someone so homely could be as haughty as the stunning girls of Pria, which Alina always attributed to their vanity. Nicole’s confidence was so forced and false, however, that Alina pitied her more than she disliked her.

  Rex and Baylor improved each day, but healing was slow, so travel plans to Jaden were put on hold. This depressed Alina’s spirits, but she enjoyed caring for the animals on Maxwell’s farm. Often on boring nights, she headed out before the sun rose and finished the work before the others awoke.

  On one such day, when Alina completed the chores before breakfast, Jade persuaded her to walk into town.

  “Maybe you’ll make some new friends,” she encouraged.

  Alina forced a smile. “I don’t think anyone wants to be my friend.”

  “Jealous girls don’t make good friends, anyway. I was thinking of the boys.”

  Talking to boys intimidated Alina more than the mean girls. She felt they expected her to be without faults, as if perfection in appearance meant perfection in everything else.

  “Come on, Alina, they’re just people. Nothing to be afraid of.”

  She gave a small shrug. “All right, I’ll go with you. But I’m not talking to any boys.”

  Millflower was so small, everyone called each other by their first name and knew if they were having a good day or not. Alina received warm smiles from the older women and winks from the men. Children ran up and hugged her, and some gave her hand-drawn pictures of her in a long gown with a crown on her head.

  They think I’m a fairy princess like in their bedtime stories. If only they knew how ordinary I am. The older girls found out soon enough.

  These girls huddled in groups and glared at her without meeting her eyes. They whispered to each other and didn’t offer to include her in their activities. The boys gawked from a distance, but if she got close enough to speak to them, they stared at the ground as if it hurt to look at her. All around, she felt uncomfortable.

  She clung to Jade but watched the girls in their clusters and ached for a friend like Trinee. Jade struck up a conversation with everyone they passed, and before long seemed to know every person in town, except the girls who avoided her because of Alina. By noon Alina wanted to hide, so when Jade said she was hungry, she pulled her into an empty cafe with heavy drapes at the windows.

  The hostess, a girl about her same age, put her nose in the air as she led them to a table. She filled two glasses with lemon water and left without a word. Alina slumped in her seat.

  “Are you okay?” Jade asked.

  She shrugged, twirling the straw in her glass. “It’s awkward.”

  “I can imagine,” Jade sympathized. “I don’t know what it’s like to stand out so much.”

  Alina closed the drapes as people walked by the window. “I’ll be glad when we leave. Jaden is a bigger town. Maybe they’ll be more welcoming.”

  “Perhaps you can forgive the girls. They feel threatened by you, you know. Getting married is so important to them, and the limited selection of boys is all they have to choose from. They can’t move to another town; it’s too dangerous.”

  “So, they marry and stay here their whole lives?” Alina asked in surprise.

  “That’s what Christine said.”

  A waiter approached them with a small grin on his face. The snooty hostess glared from across the room.

  “I can’t believe my luck!” he exclaimed when he reached their table. “My friends told me to take the day off because the famous Alina was in town and I’d miss my chance to meet her. Wait until they hear where you showed up!” He laughed, then smiled warmly at her. “I’m Oliver, by the way. Oliver Brook. I’m sure you’re tired of everyone fussing over you. Why else would you hide in here? You don’t even eat, right?” His relaxed nature put her at ease.

  “No, not really, but Jade does, and she’s very hungry—right, Jade?”

  “Starving,” she said with a big grin.

  “Then I’ll take your order and bring your food as fast as I can,” Oliver said, reaching into the pocket of his apron and clicking a pen.

  As Jade looked over the menu, Alina stole a glance at Oliver. She found him interesting. She knew staring was rude, but he wasn’t looking at her, so she continued to study him.

  He was a good-looking boy, nothing to Zaiden of course, but it didn’t seem fair to compare him to an immortal. Though not drop-dead gorgeous, he wasn’t plain, either. Oliver was simply nice-looking. He tucked his dark, wavy hair behind his ears, showing off a handsome jawline. His sharp, blue eyes rested on Jade.

  As he waited with his pen poised above a notepad, he moved his eyes without turning his head and met Alina’s stare. He gave her a caught-you-in-the-act kind of smile, and Alina looked away, blushing. She listened to Jade’s questions about the menu and smiled at his witty answers. He wrote down the order, and as he turned to leave, Alina risked another glance at him. Their eyes met, and he smiled softly. Something fluttered in her stomach.

  After he left, Jade raised an eyebrow at her. “So, what do you think?”

  Alina played dumb. “Hu
h? What do you mean?”

  Jade giggled. “Come on, there was some chemistry between you two. I felt it.”

  Alina rolled her eyes. “You know I like Zaiden.”

  “Yes, and you know him so well and see him so often.”

  “Don’t remind me that I left him behind. Besides, we’re leaving Millflower soon anyway.”

  “Who knows how long it will take Rex and Baylor to recover? We could be here a while yet. You may as well have a friend.”

  Alina chanced another peek at Oliver across the room. He leaned over a counter as he talked to the hostess, who now seemed likable. She giggled like a chipmunk as he spoke to her.

  A short while later, Oliver brought Jade’s food and set it in front of her, then took off his apron. “Well, ladies, I’m off. It was nice to meet you both. Now I have to tell my buddies how I met you and make them all jealous.”

  “Oh! Stay and visit with us first,” said Jade. “You need to give them a better story than you simply brought us food. Maybe Alina will give you a kiss on the cheek to make it really juicy.”

  “Jade!” Alina exclaimed, but she laughed.

  “You know what’s funny,” said Oliver, sitting down as if Jade’s invitation was exactly what he planned on, “I told some of my friends last night that you” —he looked at Alina— “are no different from the other girls in town. You just look better, that’s all. They’re all nervous about talking to you. I told them to pretend you’re the ugliest thing they’d ever seen, and they’d do fine. ’Course now I see that’s easier said than done.”

  “I see. So, right now you’re pretending I’m ugly. That’s why you talk so easily with me,” Alina teased, not knowing whether to be flattered or offended.

  He laughed. “I put my foot in my mouth, didn’t I? Well, if you want to know the truth” —he leaned in toward her— “I talk easily with you because I’m not dumb. I know you’re not going to fall for me. I’m a bit of a realist, you see. Reality doesn’t bother me; I prefer it, actually. Give me reality over dreams any day. I can do a lot more with it.” He grinned and took a sip of her drink with such self-assurance, it astonished and lightened her.