The Helrinians by Sambhu Vasudev (the best books of all time TXT) 📖

Chapter 1- My 'Normal' Life

"Just go away Brad, please." I muttered, only loud enough for the tall, muscled boy next to me to hear. "Why, you scared Kendall?" he sneered adding emphasize on my name, Kendall. He thought it was a girl's name and always made fun of it along with all of the other jerks in my grade. "No, I'm not." I whispered then dropped to the floor onto my hands and knees, and crawled quickly underneath his open legs. I threw myself up onto my feet then darted across the playground, into the wide open doors of my school, Jeskings S. Tomdals Public Elementary School. As I walked into the cafeteria I heard several boys behind me snickering and pointing. The warm smell of rotten food and dirty water immediately filled my nose, making my eyes water. I sprinted through the cafeteria and into the wide, open hallways. I sauntered all the way to the end of the hall then slipped into the Boy's Bathroom. The first stall was closed and locked but the second was open so I hurried in and locked the rusty door. I sat down on the old toilet seat and waited for the bell to ring, announcing that the torturous recess was finally over. I didn't have to wait long before

RING

The bell sounded loud and the hallway was filled with loud chatter and pounding footsteps. I flushed the toilet, so that no one would think I had been hiding in the bathroom, and then walked out into the hallway. Right there, leaning against the side of the door was Brad Jielsen. "Oh if it isn't little Red Hiding Hood. Decided to come out?" he snorted then turned to his friends to make sure that they were chortling with him. "Yeah, did you?" one of Brad's friends added. Brad shot him a glare meaning 'Shut up, I'm the one who talks you idiot.' His friend looked down at his shoes and started to wring his hands. I spun around then scampered to my next class, not looking back. Why did Brad have to be so mean?

When I arrived in my next class, Science, the teacher, Mr. Brimton, gave me a sympathetic look as if he had been watching the last 15 minutes of my life. I plopped down in an open seat and pulled out my composition book to read over my notes. Someone tapped me from behind and muttered "Hey." I turned around too quickly and fell off my chair onto the cold tile floor. My underarms started to sweat like they always do when I have just made a fool out of myself. The girl standing behind me reached a hand down to help me up. I stood up and pulled my glasses to the top of my nose. The girl who had helped me up was a few inches shorter than me and had fiery red hair that gave you an illusion that if you even slightly touched it with your finger you would get burned to a crisp. It was pulled into two loose pigtails. She was wearing a sweatshirt that said, 'Never, never, never, never give up.' and some jeans. "Hi, I'm new around here. My name's Janet but most people call me Janie. I just got here from Anchorage." She said in a delicate voice filled with excitement. I didn't know what Anchorage was and a look of confusion swept over my face." You know, Alaska." She added then continued, "Anyway I was wondering if you could show me around today. You seem very nice." She paused and silently sat down in the seat next to me then pulled out her notebook and sparkly, red pencil and began doodling pictures. "Umm, sure. I'm Kendall." I answered a little too late. She looked up from her drawing and stared deep into my eyes, "That's a nice name, Kendall." she said thinking of something else. I blushed and she went back to her doodles. As if right on cue Mr. Brimton began class and assigned lab partners for the new semester, I got assigned to be with Janie.


After class I walked with Janie to our next class, Math. I nodded and listened as she told me about her old school. When we dawdled into math she sat down next to me again and started her doodling again. Then Brad walked in. He took the seat next to me and leaned close to my face, his warm, rubbery breath hit me, right in the nostrils, and I leaned away. "Hey scardey cat. Today we have a test, right? It's a good thing I'm sitting next to you, some people in this class are so dumb, but at least I can cheat off you." He added with a smile, thinking of the many times he had cheated off of me and gotten an A+. Brad would always cheat off of me in Math for everything. Really, if he thought other people were dumb he should take a look at his grades.

As the teacher, Mrs. Helt, passed out the thick math test over multiplying and dividing fractions, Brad fell out of his chair purposely. He stood up and dusted himself off then walked up to me. "Gosh Kendall, why did you push me off my chair?" He made his tattletale face then said the words every kid in the world hates, "I'm telling." He started to stumble away but Janie spoke up and looked him straight in the eye. "He did not. I was watching." Brad ignored her and continued walking up to the teacher. He put on his goody-little-two-shoes face and asked the teacher if he could go to the bathroom. That's Brad's ultimate prank. He gets the person thinking he is going to go tell on them then he just asks the teacher if he can go to the bathroom. Unbelievable.

After school was finally over I hopped onto the yellow bus that took everyone home and sat in the front of it and waited for the stocky, old driver to start the engine and drive. Outside of the bus I saw Brad flirting with this girl called Jessica that he had a huge crush on. She giggled every two seconds. Brad looked pretty pleased with himself until he caught my eye. A couple minutes later Brad and two of his best friends JT and Richard got on the bus, each with a handful of ketchup packets and slid into the seats behind me. I tried to act like they weren't there and pressed my face against the window. Suddenly the bus jerked forward and moved out of the dusty parking lot. As soon as we were on the road JT leaned over and whispered 'Go!' loudly in Brad's ear. "All right." Brad replied and each of the two boys dropped their ketchup packets into his outstretched hand. Quickly he ripped two of them open and poured the gooey liquid onto the tip of his nose. I turned around and asked them what they were doing. Then Brad screamed and held his hand to his nose, leaning back. "What happened?" I yelled. "Ohh, god. Kendall I can't believe you hit me in the face. My nose is bleeding now." He said in a nasal voice. The bus came to a halt and the bus driver got to his feet then bustled to the row of appalled students. Everyone was whispering stuff like, "Ohh, he's going to get in trouble." and "Why would he do that?" The bus driver scrunched up his wrinkled face and asked, "Now Kendall. Why would you do that? You know my rules." I did know his rules; anyone who fought or yelled just a little too loud would be kicked out of the bus and have to walk home. He paced back to his seat at the front and pushed the button that opened the rusty doors on the side of the bus.

Not needing to be told I got up from my seat and hesitated at the door before walking out onto the cold, hard pavement. Several boys, including Brad, waved as the bus drove away.

On my way home I stopped by the old creek that everyone thought was haunted because a nice old lady, named Sara Lee Adams, lived there alone. Her house was rickety and covered in vines. When I was six, seven years ago, I was running away from the grade bully, Ashton, and decided I'd better hide under a huge chunk of wood that was sticking out over a side of the house to avoid a broken nose or black eye from Ashton, the grade bully. Ashton wouldn't put even one toe into the forest that divided the busy roads and the creepy house, such a 'fraidy cat' as Brad would say.

He turned back and yelled to his friends that were waiting for him by a red stop sign, that he would get me next time. Anyway, once I had worked up the nerve to finally come out of my dark, little sanctuary I almost had a heart attack when I saw that a short lady with fading gray hair and a crippled looking left leg was standing right next to me. I was about to run up the hill, away from the odd looking person but some pleading look in her face stopped me. She twisted her expression and gave me the same look Jamie had that morning. She cleared her throat, coughed once, and said in an ancient voice, "Come in son." I obeyed her and wandered into the large, musky house. We talked a little and she gave me a slice of delicious apple pie. Ever since then I have been coming down to visit her once or twice a week.

Today before heading inside I leaned over the little stream and dipped my head into the cool water. I felt the blood rushing in my ears, and the loud thumping of my heart, but I broke through the surface after moments and shook out my hair. I ran my hand through the chilly, smoothness of cold water and skimmed the bottom, looking for a cool rock to put in my collection of rocks. I felt something round and skinny then picked it up, letting it rinse off in the clear part of the water. When I finally caught sight of it, I saw a little silver rock with a tiny engraving of a boy, kind of like me, short and clumsy looking. 'Hmm, odd' I thought, and tucked it into my shirt pocket, and walked into Mrs. Adam's house.

That day Mrs. Adam's seemed unusually cheerful, like she had just won the lottery or got $500 worth of free clothes. We did our usual stuff, she told me stories of her childhood while we both bustled around the house finishing extra chores that were hard for Mrs. Adams to do alone. Once we were done drying out the clothes and washing a few dishes I sat down in the huge parlor while Mrs. Adams baked some lemon tarts for me to take home. I sauntered around the room looking into the black and white pictures of Mrs. Adam's childhood. She had a huge smile, big with tons of white teeth. Her face looked very familiar, particularly the expression. Suddenly I realized that it was the same odd, happy smile as if no one else in the world could bring her down or cause her any pain, misery. She was still wearing it as she strolled into the room carrying a tray filled with