ODDILY Read Online Free Page B

slung over her shoulder and found nothing, then searched the ground. “It’s not here!”
    “ You are so stupid,” Kip smirked, shaking his head as he sucked on a toothpick. “There’s no way I’d ever hang out with someone like you.”
    The air became filled with laughter and snide remarks while the group returned to their vehicles and drove off, leaving Oddily alone, in a cloud of dust.

 
     
     
     
    5
     
    Oddily choked, turning her head to try and protect her nose and mouth with her hands. After the dust had settled, she glanced around and assumed she was alone, unaware of the watchful eyes from beyond the shadows of the giant trees.
    From his hiding place, Maxim observed the injured girl try to reopen the gate; and thankfully, she was too small to reach the latch. Assuming she was smart enough, she would try again, contemplating her backpack may truly be inside the grounds. He was puzzled that someone would be so beside themselves over what were probably a few school books and some homework assignments.
    Maxim had to act fast and headed to where the girl had fallen. He had already viewed the place where she fell from one of the computer screens in his workshop. He had been tinkering with repairs when the projected image of the landslide appeared.
    As he ran, his legs pumped with smooth power twisting around trees, and jumping over debris where it lay on the trail. Like the wind, he sprinted through the timber. Ducking and dodging branches, as though he had been doing this all his life. Not until he reached the collapsed hillside did he slow his pace to where the soiled, pink backpack lay.
    For some reason, this young girl hung out with high-school students, and he suspected they used her for their own questionable purposes. Why did they desire a picture of Stafford Manor? He shook his head at the boldness of their intrusion into his private world. He took this as a direct threat to him and his family.
    Maxim’s thoughts returned to the backpack. He became curious and sat down on a boulder to check out the contents. There were no surprises waiting. Maxim found an English book, a notebook, an unused camera, and a half-empty box of raisins. However, another book bound in dull green leather with a golden spider web on the cover did surprise him—a book that took on a peculiar aspect like its owner…her personal journal.
    That’s why she’s so distraught, he mused. She kept her diary in her backpack. Didn’t girls usually hide them under their pillow, or between their mattresses? He flipped through some of her school work and whispered her name, Oddily. He shook his head in disbelief when he realized that, despite her size, she was also a high-school student. He pulled out the journal and began to read.
    DEC. 3: While walking to school, a dark haired girl stuck her arm out of the car window, and slapped me on the back of my head. I accidentally bit my tongue, and I’m still in pain.
    Maxim turned several pages to another entry.
    MAR. 17: Today, across the front of my locker door, someone wrote, “Troll” with a green marker.
    What Maxim read was bothersome, cruelty beyond his understanding. He turned the pages to an entry from the previous month.
    FEB. 14: I found a Valentine card in my locker signed by Paul, and was ecstatic! It turned out to be a joke and my tears keep coming. At least Paul wasn’t the one who did it.
    Maxim couldn’t continue and closed the book. He mulled over what he had read as a strange emotion seeped through him. This peculiar, uncomfortable sadness was out of the ordinary for him while he thought about the girl. He had a desire to help her, but it was unsafe for him to get involved in anyone’s life without jeopardizing his own existence. Could he do nothing when someone’s problematic life literally fell into his lap? If only his father would come home to advise him.
    Maxim retraced his steps back to the gate, and decided to leave the backpack on the path a few feet from the