Andy the Droid - a YA science fiction adventure

 

PENNY WISE

 

      "Penelope Wise?"

     "Present," said a small voice in the front row, near the corner of the crowded classroom.

     "Hello Penny," said Ms. Randolph.  Her face was pleasant, like a favorite aunt who knew more than one family secret.

     "You're reputation precedes you."

     "Thank you," Penny said meekly, sqautting lower in her desk and wishing for all of the world that a hole would rip open in the fabric of the universe and steal her away.  She could feel the eyes of the other students boring into her, some glaring with knowledge, some under raised eyebrows, curious.

     She wasn't new to the school, wasn’t a new face to most of the students in the room.  But Penny spent as much time as she could trying to be inconspicuios.  She didn't want to be seen, or heard, or even known about.  She didn't want a reputation preceding her.

     "I'm glad that you're in my class," said Ms. Randolph pleasently.

     "Thanks," answered Penny.

     She didn't want Ms. Randloph to be glad.  It would just be one more thing that her peers could tease her about.  They would tease her, mercilessly, if not starting today, then starting within the week.  It was her curse, her bane, and she weathered under it year after year.

     Penny was smart enough to be in college with her older brother Alex.  Heck, she was smart enough to be done with college and finishing graduate school, and deciding what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.  She was a board certified, multi-tested card carrying super genius.  And she hated it.

 

     The end of the school day couln't come fast enough for Penny.  She sat in her last class of the day, staring at the clock as it slowly ticked off the seconds.  Each second seemed to take a minute, each tick stretching into an hour, each tock lasting a day.  She could feel the tension building in the pit of her stomach, boiling like a blazing sun, threatening to bubble up her constricted throat until hse almost screamed.

     The bell rang, saving her the effort.  She gathered her books and hurried out into the hallway.

     All around her, the other students were talking.  About school.  About their lives.  Their parties.  Their dates.  Penny knew she would never be a part of anything like that.

     As much as her mother talked about wanting her kids to have a normal life, she didn't allow Penny to have one.  Normal school was followed by not so normal University courses.  One class on Mondays and Wednesdays, and a second on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  For an hour after that, she met with a music tutor.

     Penny could play six instruments, piano, guitar, violin, cello, bass, and the saxophone.  Her father loved jazz.  One of her earliest, favorite memories was listeing to him scat as he danced her around on his shoulder.  So, partly to lease him, and partly because she felt like it was expected of her, she learned to play, one instrument after the other.  Like verything else she put her mind to, she mastered them.  The tutor was to keep her fresh.