Chapter 5: YARON

It was my birthday, and even though she and I had already celebrated our birthdays together a few days earlier, I had arranged to meet my friends at my parents’ house.

I had never included Vee in any group plans. I was one of the few people she let into her world. I knew no one else would get her. Daniel probably would, but no one else.

So, I kept Vee and my small group of friends apart.

But for the first time, I felt like bringing the two parts of my world together. As we walked down the path from her house toward the road, I noticed that she looked nervous. Her dark hair was pulled back with a flower headband she had made herself. Her denim overalls stuck out like a sack over her black sweater. She had decorated the sides of her eyes with glitter. Vee always loved to sparkle. She looked beautiful in her own way, one that never fit in with the fashion trends of the moment, or what was considered appropriate for a girl her age, but to me, it seemed to make her even prettier.

“I like your headband,” I said.

She sighed with obvious relief and laughed.

“Thank goodness, Yaron! I didn’t know if it would be too fancy for your birthday. I don’t want to steal the attention from you.”

I smiled. I realized, once again, that with Vee, there was no keeping things to myself. With Vee, I could say that I liked a flower headband, and it would be okay. Boys would have laughed at me and other girls would have looked at me strangely for not complimenting her dress or her shoes.

But with Vee, I could be myself.

However, as soon as we arrived at my house, and I saw the expression on my friends’ faces, I knew I had made a huge mistake. There were things that should never be put together.

Teens can be cruel and thoughtless. They can destroy everything that stands out from the ordinary. No matter how unique teens claim they want to be, no one wants to stand out from the herd.

And Vee was a shining star.

“Do you think she is going to fit with the rest?” Daniel put his arm around my shoulders and whispered that question in my ear.

I twisted my mouth, “I was sure she would a while ago. Now, I’m not so sure.”

“Don’t worry, I got your back,” Daniel said. My best friend looked like the stereotypical nerd. Tall, unkempt, his hair was a mess, and he was wearing thick glasses.

“I love your shirt,” Vee said, placing a dirty nail on Daniel’s Star Trek T-shirt.

“Thank you, Vee. I love your style,” he praised her.

Vee smiled and twirled around.

Everything had gone more or less well, apart from the barely concealed glances from some of my friends towards Vee. They had even tried to include her in some conversation. Despite this, at one point there had been some tension in the atmosphere.

When Gillian asked her where she had bought that headband and Vee launched into a speech of hers about how she was going to become famous and successful with flower accessories that she would make herself.

“I didn’t mean that because it’s pretty,” Gillian muttered, once Vee stopped her explanation and focused her attention back on her ice cream.

Or maybe it was Dave’s question that made us all uncomfortable.

“What happened to your hand?” Vee slowly pulled back the sleeve of her sweater, exposing her scar. “It looks ugly.”

Vee’s wound was visible to everyone. At school, the kids often asked her how she had done it, and she would answer whatever she wanted or anything at all depending on her mood.

But there, that day, I could tell something was not right. I was aware that this time the question had upset her. Maybe it was the tone Dave used. Maybe it was the giggles of the girls behind him.

I looked at Vee. Her eyes were darker than usual. Her shoulders were tense. Her skinny body seemed even smaller in that huge sweater. She was no longer the indestructible girl capable of anything, but weak, vulnerable, and closer to the version that people had of her than the one I knew and admired.

I couldn’t stand it. I wasn’t going to let her be reduced to that. I wasn’t going to tolerate anyone turning off her magic. So I spoke.

“She was struck by lightning.”

All eyes turned to me, including Vee’s.

“What?” asked Natalie, just as shocked as everyone else.

I didn’t know if I could do it as well as Vee did, but I sure was going to try.

“Yes, she was struck by lightning right in the hand. It happened just before she moved here. It was during a huge electric storm. She was in the park looking for her dog. She passed out. She was unconscious for ten minutes. Or was it longer, Vee?”

Vee blinked. Her eyes lit up. I smiled at her and raised my eyebrows, encouraging her to continue my story, which was then hers. For the first time, I was the one giving her one, and I liked that. She curled her lips, sighed, and I read an implicit thank you on her lips that only the two of us saw.

“It was fifteen minutes. I was practically dead.”

“And did you see anything? Is there a tunnel? A hooded man with a scythe? A bright light and a choir of angels?” asked Daniel, who was fascinated by stories of the afterlife.

“There is...”

Everyone held on to the table, waiting for Vee to reveal this universal secret; her eyes widened, and I knew from her theatricality that she was about to pull the wool over their eyes.