Chapter 7

The precedent being set, Mary, Sean, and I rode our bikes to school again on Friday, even though the day wasn't nearly as nice. When Sean and I went to stand by the grade-six door, Al moved away from us. That is, moved away from me, most likely. "Hey, Sean, go see if Al is OK." Al didn't move away from Sean, hypothesis proved.

Kirsten, talking to Pam, was in the crowd waiting for the door to open. Go say hello to her, prompted Ursus. I didn't see how I could make the situation any worse, so I did as Ursus instructed. "Good morning, Kirsten, Pam."

They returned my greeting. Pam giggled, which I found a little disconcerting. Kirsten asked, "Did you like the square dancing yesterday."

I felt Ursus steer my gaze away from her shoes and aim it at her face. "I felt kinda awkward, and we didn't actually get to dance, but I did like it, yes."

"Let's make sure we dance together again next week, then, if you want."

"I would like that. It's a deal."

We made a bit of small talk until Ms. Dutner, another grade-six teacher, unlocked the door. Once Mr. Dean noticed that I had arrived, he returned my graded make-up work. I noticed that the sentence writing assignment for the vocabulary words was marked 100% with the obligatory smiley face in the second zero. He had written, "Excellent work. It seems you were inspired." He also had a little "Hah!" by my stamen sentence.

Sean, who sat beside me, leaned over and said quietly, "Al is really pissed off."

"He say anything?"

"He didn't want to talk."

I acknowledged the information with a nod. The morning passed normally. At lunch, Al sat as far away from me as he could get. It looks like I've lost a friend, I said to the other voices in my head.

I felt a wave of regret come from Arthur. Ursus thought, Al had no claim on Kirsten, and you can't help liking her. She's a jewel.

I knew how Al felt about her. Why did you interfere?

I'm in your head, remember? I feel what you feel, and yesterday I felt some of the strongest attraction for someone that I've ever felt. Looking through what you know about Kirsten, I don't blame you at all.

But you made me fuck Al over.

I doubt if Al ever had a shot with her.

I knew he was right, but it seemed disrespectful to Al. What made you think that I had a shot?

What? Do you need me to spell it out?

I'm fat, ugly, slow, uncoordinated, shy, and get tongue-tied around girls.

The voices in my head went mostly silent as I recalled snatches of memory. I looked up and noticed Sean looking in Al's direction, but he didn't say anything. After a while, Ursus thought at me, shit, you actually believe that garbage. How did your ego get so crushed? Look, you have a bit of chub, but it's not an outrageous amount, and you could lose most of it if you moved around more. You aren't in the least ugly. It's almost like you've never looked in a mirror. Truth is, you are quite a bit above average.

Slow, I'll give you. In part, it's the extra weight you carry around. In larger part, though, you have a heavy skeleton, and it is going to get heavier as you get older. Your legs are also short compared to your trunk, and they are going to stay that way. On the other hand, now that you have hit puberty, you are going to find that your body gains muscle easier than most, and with a little practice, you can develop excellent acceleration. With some work, you will have sudden quickness, but you will never have sustained foot speed. More pertinently, not all girls are that attracted to jocks, and really, would you want one who was?

The lack of coordination is in part a lack of practice and in part the result of an early growth spurt. Your physical control is still catching up to your new size. That growth spurt also makes you taller than most guys your age, and women are attracted to height almost as much as guys are attracted to boobs.

You can learn to deal with being shy. I'm going to help you with that. Same with the tongue-tied. You just need to understand that girls are people, too. Some are nice, and some are mean. Be nice to the nice ones, and stay away from the mean ones.

Now, take a look at what you have going for you, besides the looks and height. When you aren't panicking from social fear, you can be articulate, even eloquent. When I take over this body's tongue, you know, I'm drawing on your knowledge of English. I didn't know the language until we began to merge. It's all you.

You keep your word and are generally honest and trustworthy. You are loyal to your friends. You are tearing yourself up right now over going after a girl that your friend liked, even though he had no chance with her.

Your biggest asset, however, other than the magic, is that you are very smart.

I know I'm pretty bright, but--

Dude, you are a copy of me. It's true that I enhanced my intellect over the years through magical means, and the enhancements didn't make the transition because of the unconventional way I entered this node, but even fresh out of the box, I had a considerably better than average brain. Wizards have to, or they get themselves killed. You're probably the smartest person in your grade, at least.