The Beast of Beauty (3 page)

I was overwhelmed with my
feelings after my run-in with Daniel today. I wished that we didn’t have to be
partners, and I was trying to find a way that we could get out of it, but I
couldn’t think of anything. Any excuse that I could muster up just sounded
ridiculous. I couldn’t stop thinking about the way that he looked at me when I
told him I was sorry and then turned right around and looked at me like I was
the person who had stolen a spot on the team away from him, like I was the one
to blame for his misfortune.

“I wonder if she’s on drugs?”
someone said.

I was never going to be pretty
enough for anyone. Most of the time, it didn’t bother me much. However, on days
like today when someone looked at me with disgust, I wished that one day I
could be pretty. I wished that I could be noticed for something besides being
the freak that Jasper used as a punching bag.

“Maybe she’s having some kind of
seizure?”

“ADELINE!” someone shouted as
they grabbed my shoulders.

The table next to mine laughed
loudly. The boy who had grabbed me, Jasper, set across from me.

“You know, Adeline,” he said, “the
whole point of reading a book is to actually look at it, not to stare off into
space imagining what it would be like if I asked you to the prom.”

His audience laughed
hysterically, and the librarian came over.

“Adeline, what on earth are you
doing over here? This is a library, not a zoo. Take your book and go in the
back room!” Mrs. Stacy said without really looking at my face.

I silently got up and marched
myself into the room mostly used for storage. Stacy was out to get me, and I
knew it with every fiber of my being. I tried not to think of myself as a
victim, but every aspect of my life was fighting against that. Stacy had dated
my father for a short while and was convinced that I was the cause for their
break-up. My father stayed mad at me all of the time and therefore was always
in a bad mood around her. If I had not been there, their relationship would
have been amazing and they would have lived happily ever after. At least,
that’s what she thought. I just couldn’t accept her dating my father,
especially since she was both my librarian and one of my mother’s closest
friends.

The room was dark and musty. I
tried to turn on the light, but the bulb was out and probably had been for over
a year. As I sat along the back wall, fear began to creep up in me. I was
afraid of the dark; you can’t read a book in the dark. I was afraid of spiders.
I was afraid of being alone. I was afraid of being too much. I was afraid of
not being enough.

The cell phone that I wasn’t
supposed to bring to school buzzed in my pocket. I silenced it and let it go to
voicemail before putting it up to my ear.

“
Adeline, this is your father. It is 3:05, and you are not home yet.
What is the problem?  It’s really not that hard. School lets out at 3:00,
promptly. I have already seen a bus pass by. You have had plenty of time to
walk the short distance between our house and the school. It looks like you
need to exercise more often so you can get where you need to be on time. I’m
going out tonight and I need my shirt ironed, So get home and do it. Now!!!”

I let out a sigh as I stood up. I
could see the light of the door from where I was standing, but I could not make
out the path to get me though all of the piles of junk.

“Ahhh!!” I yelped as I tripped
and fell to the ground. My book went flying through the air in front of me, and
I barely caught myself with my hands.

The door flew open with Mrs.
Stacy raging behind it.

“ADELINE! You are not supposed to
be in here. No student is allowed to come back here at any time. I’m going to
have to write you up and you will need to see the principal first thing in the
morning because school is already out.” She knelt down and picked up my book
out of the darkness, “Take your book and GO!”

I grabbed my book out of her
hands and scurried past her. I couldn’t believe that she had become so insane.
She used to be a sweet person. I had gone on many shopping trips with just her
and my mom, and we always had a good time. Those days seemed like decades ago now
because she absolutely hated me. When my mother died, it was like I died to
Stacy as well.

Waiting outside the school was
Jasper and his friends: Elliot, James, Zeke, and Troy. They were the starters
on the basketball team this year. Jasper was the captain. This award was not
based on his ability to lead but rather on his ability to scare people into
doing whatever he wanted them to do. They made for a great basketball team, but
a terrible group of people.

“Need a ride, Jones?” He yelled
at me as I walked past them.

I walked in silence, refusing to
humor him.

“Hey, I’m talking to you,” he
said as he grabbed my arm and reeled me toward him. “What is this stupid book
you’re reading anyway?”

He pulled it out of my arms and
passed it around between his friends.

Finally, I spoke, “It’s a William
Shakespeare book. Perhaps you’ve heard of him?”

He grabbed it from Elliot and
read the cover, “Really? Shakespeare wrote
Amara the Witch and Tales from
Deep Within the Woods
? I doubt it. It doesn’t even have the author’s name
on here. You and Daniel are going to fail the assignment with a stupid book
like this.”

He threw the book on the ground
and spit his dip on it, “You’re so stupid that you don’t even know what the
book is. At least I can read the title.”

The boys laughed and jumped in
his truck. “Good luck cleaning that up, Jones!” Zeke yelled out of the
passenger window as they drove off.

I lifted the book off the ground
carefully and held it by its corner until I came across some leaves on my walk
home. I smeared the dip with the leaves until it finally came off, and sure
enough, it wasn’t
The Twelfth Night
that he threw on the ground. It was exactly
as he said.

I drove home in absolute anger.
How could I not have made the A-team this year? I practiced all summer. I
worked my butt off, and for what? To be benched? To be supportive defense in
practice for the people who will actually SEE the floor this year? No. If I
can’t actually play the game, I’m not going to sit and watch jerks like Jasper
play it. I am no one’s cheerleader.

Dad is going to be so furious.

“I don’t understand how I can be
with someone who isn’t good at basketball,” Zoey whispered from the passenger’s
seat.

“What are you talking about?” I
asked calmly, even though I felt like I had been slapped in the face.

She suddenly got angry, “Well who
am I supposed to cheer for if you are riding the bench? How am I going to be
elected as homecoming queen if I’m not even dating someone important?”

I rolled my eyes, “You are
popular enough on your own, and you don’t need anyone else to help you get
anything you want.”

I looked over at her and tried my
best to smile. Even with her look of anger and disgust, she was beautiful. I
was so lucky that she picked me, and I never let myself forget it. Every guy in
school wanted to be with her, and I was the one who got to drive her home.

Her look began to soften, “Okay,
Daniel. Just promise me you’ll try harder? Maybe the coach will change his mind
mid-season. You never know. Maybe you can be important too, just like me.”

I tried to take her words as a
sign of comfort, but something about them made me feel like I had been run over
by a truck. I just couldn’t put my finger on it, though.

Suddenly, my car was tapped from
behind by a huge black truck. I slowed down and pulled over, knowing he would
pull over too.

Fuming, I flung my door open and
ran back toward Jasper, who was nonchalantly jumping down from his driver’s
seat.

“ARE YOU INSANE? WHY ON EARTH
WOULD YOU DO THAT? THIS CAR IS WORTH $25,000!! MY FATHER PAID FOR THIS CAR!”

Jasper scoffed, “Too bad he
couldn’t buy you a spot on the team, huh?”

The truck roared with laughter as
they exited to join Jasper.

“My father is the mayor of this
town and deserves respect,” I said, hollowly because I know that if I didn’t he
would find out. Being mayor was very important to him, and it was supposed to
be just as important to me too.

“Mhmm, I bet all of that money is
impressive, huh, Zoey?” Jasper said as he winked at her.

Zoey stood up straight, “Well,
yes, it is!”

I didn’t know whether to feel
validated or not.

“Well, would you look at that, Daniel?
Zoey is only in it for the money. Do you have to pay her to get her to go on a
date with you? Or is it just to go home with you afterwards?”

“Shut up!”

“We all know she isn’t dating you
because of your athletic ability; that’s for sure.”

I lunged at him, but the other
boys were too quick for me. I was outnumbered. They threw me on the asphalt. So
many fists were flying at me that I couldn’t have figured out which one they
were coming from. Feet kicked my sides and my head. The world was spinning. I
tasted blood.

“Get up!” Jasper yelled somewhere
above me, while the punches continued. I tried to get up and fight him, but I
couldn’t make it past all of the bodies between us.

“Let him go,” He finally
breathed, as if he had something better to do than watch me get beat all day.

I stumbled to my feet, unable to
hold my torso straight. Zoey touched my arm tenderly.

“I think I’m going to ride home
with Jasper,” she said slowly.

It was as if I had been punched
again. The boys all snickered at me.

“Hot women don’t go for losers,”
Jasper said as he gave his keys to Elliot. “It doesn’t matter how much money
they have.”

They got in the truck, and Zoey
sat in his lap. She kissed him passionately as if he had just saved her from
me. I would never be good enough.

My father was going to kill me.

I bent over and threw up.

When I opened the front door, I
was relieved to hear the sound of the shower running, which meant that I had a
few more minutes before my father knew I was home. I quickly found his shirt
and ironed it before going to my room to inspect the book and clean it up a
little more. It was brown and flimsy, almost resembling a journal. The ratty
cover made it look very old.

Amara the Witch and Tales from
Deep Within the Woods

It was the strangest title I had
ever seen. I opened up and turned page after page. There was no indication of
an author anywhere on it. There wasn’t a copyright page either for me to tell
how old it was.

My father burst through the door.

“I see you ironed my shirt. Too
bad you didn’t do it good enough,” he said as he threw the shirt at me.

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

“Why were you late?”

“I don’t know.”

“I doubt that. What were you
doing? Do I need to call up to the school? What irresponsible crap did you get
yourself into this time?”

Anger was building in me, “I was
being bullied!”

He scoffed, “Yeah, right. Who
would even bother bullying you?”

“The basketball team!” I
screamed.

“The basketball team has much
better things to do. They have to take us to state this year. Those boys
probably don’t even know you exist.”

I wished he was right.

“Mrs. Stacy bullies me too,” I
whispered, immediately wishing that I hadn’t said anything.

I watched as his face turned
deeper and deeper shades of red.

“STACY WAS A NICE WOMAN! SHE
WANTED TO DO NOTHING BESIDES LOVE YOU AND BE YOUR STEPMOTHER SOMEDAY. HOW DARE
YOU TREAT HER LIKE SHE’S A BAD PERSON?  IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU, SHE WOULD STILL
BE LIVING HERE! BUT NO! YOU DRIVE ME CRAZY! YOU CAN’T DO ONE SINGLE THING
RIGHT, EVEN SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS IRONING A SHIRT. IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU, I
COULD BE NICER! I COULD DO BETTER! BUT YOU WANT TO MAKE ME ANGRY, DON’T YOU?”

I knew that I had just fallen
into one of his traps, knowing that any answer I gave him would only make it
worse for me in the end.

“Iron my shirt,” he said calmly
as he exited the room.

Once he was gone, I exhaled. I
didn’t even realize that I had been holding my breath.

I grabbed the book again and laid
the shirt down on the bed. It would do me no good to go iron the shirt now; I
needed to wait for him to cool down before exiting my bedroom.

The book was written very
strangely. The chapters had subject-headings instead of numbers, and there were
poems in some of them. It didn’t take long for me to realize that this was
supposed to be a book of spells since the title was about a witch. There were
tiny stories in it as well, but none lasting more than a page.

“Am I not worth your precious
time?” my father said eerily from the doorway. I had not heard him come back.

“I’m sorry,” I said as sincerely
as I could.

“I know you’re sorry. You’re a
sorry excuse for a daughter. You’re a sorry excuse for a person. No one will
ever love you, and I’m not just talking about me. What man do you think is
going to get over how you look if you can’t even iron a shirt?”

“What do you mean, how I look?” I
said, trembling.

He sighed, “You know what I mean.
You just aren’t pretty. It’s a shame, because your mother was beautiful. Beauty
doesn’t come easy to you. That’s why I make you do all of this stuff for me, so
that you might have a chance of someone forgiving how ugly you are because you
are really good at cleaning and keeping up the house. You know what I mean?”

My heart was breaking. I knew I
wasn’t beautiful, but no one had ever actually told me that before. Not even
him.

He turned around and walked out.
I followed him and ironed his shirt again. He grunted in approval when I handed
it to him.

Back in my room, I looked in my
mirror over my dresser. I saw a plain girl, with brown hair and tan skin. My
nose was a little too big, as were my ears. My eyes were the only thing that I
looked at without feeling ashamed. They were different shades of green, with a
little blue, brown, and gold mixed in. But even my eyes looked empty. It was
probably because they were looking at me.

I sat on my bed and looked at the
book again. It wasn’t on the same page that I had left it on. The spell on this
page only had one stanza, and it had no title. It read:

Make me a warrior

The creatures are people

The people I fear

I will fight back

I will be strong

I will bring justice here

It sounded more like an
inspirational speech than a spell. I let the words fill me, wishing that I
could fight back. I may not be beautiful, but maybe I could be a warrior, just
like Amara. People are creatures. They are cruel and terrible. They have beaten
me down. If only I could be strong…

I reread the text again and
again. It gave me a strength that I didn’t even know was possible. I started to
believe in myself. To give the words more power, I decided to say them aloud.

“
Make me a warrior
”

The words didn’t sound as good
when my voice said them.

“Stop that,” I said aloud to
myself, “A warrior would not think like that.”

“
Make me a warrior

The creatures are people

The people I fear

I will fight back

I will be strong

I will bring justice here
”

Suddenly, I felt sick. I ran to
the bathroom and threw up. My hands grasped the sides of the toilet for
support, but then, they weren’t my hands anymore.

I stared in shock as I saw that
my hands were now covered in hair. My eyes traveled up my arms and I saw that
they too looked like I was staring at a dog, not at myself.

I jumped back away from the
toilet and yelped as I hit my head on the wall behind me.

“What’s going on in there?” my
father yelled.

“Nothing!” I said back. My voice
was still the same.

I stood up and slowly walked
toward the mirror.

In the place of my reflection, I
saw what I had always feared.

I saw a monster.

My whole face was covered in
hair. Other than that, I was the same. My body was the same, my clothes were
the same, and my actual hair was the same. I had just grown short, animal-like
hair all over my body.

My eyes were the same, so I
focused on them. I was so afraid that I couldn’t even move.

My father knocked on the door.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT?!!” I screamed
and hit the sink with my hands. The porcelain broke.

I was strong. I was very strong.

“GET OUT HERE, NOW!!!” he yelled.

I was going to fight my father.

When I opened the door and saw
his face, all determination inside of me disappeared. He wasn’t afraid of me; he
was disgusted with me. He looked at me like I was the ugliest thing he had ever
seen in his life, and I probably was. He backed away and ran to his room, and I
ran to mine.

I grabbed the first bag I saw and
began to throw stuff inside. I threw in a book on plants, the book that had
just changed me just in case there was something in there that could change me
back, my travel sized medicine bag, and my cell phone. I immediately took my
phone back out and tossed it on the bed. There wasn’t anyone that I could call
anyway.

In the living room, my father
stood perfectly still, aiming a gun at me.

“Dad, it’s me,” I said slowly,
“its Adeline. I don’t know how this happened to me, but I’m leaving. I won’t
hurt you.”

His finger moved to the trigger.

I lunged at him, unaware of what
I was doing, and tore the gun from his hands. It flew across the room, and I
raced for the door.

As I ran to the woods behind our
house, I heard gunshots, but I kept on running. I didn’t look back, not even
for a glimpse.

I didn’t get far into the woods
before I ran into someone.

It was Zoey. She held a beer
bottle in her hand, and I could hear other people in the distance. I had
accidentally stumbled upon a party.

“Ahhh!!!” She screamed, “It’s a
werewolf!!”

She backed away from me in fear.

“There is no such thing as
werewolves, Babe,” Jasper said as he weaved through the trees toward us.

When he saw me, his eyes widened,
“What the…”

Zoey looked like she might faint.

Don’t be afraid,” I said, trying
to soothe her.

“Jones? Adeline Jones?” Jasper
whispered.

I nodded.

His look of fear disappeared, and
he burst into laughter.

“You look hideous,” he said,
barely able to speak he was laughing so hard, “What on earth happened to you?”

I shoved him to the ground and
ran past him.

“ACTUALLY, YOU LOOK BETTER THIS
WAY!” he screamed at me as I ran.

With tears in my eyes, I ran as
hard as I could run. I wasn’t even getting tired.

I ran for what seemed like ages
before I found what I was looking for: a cabin. It was an old hunter’s cabin
that looked abandoned. Hopefully no one would stumble upon me here.

I knew no one would look for me.