Underhand Insult

"You know kid..." He starts. "I think you should be a lawyer.

You are great at picking arguments and winning." I gasp, pretending to be pleasantly surprised at his remark. "You really think so?"

"Yeah."

I hum, shrugging. "Yeah well, too bad. I plan to stay faithful to my dream of becoming a doctor."

"You do know that doctors see blood a lot. But you can barely handle seeing yours.

I truly support your dream, but you are not cut out to be a doctor in my irrelevant opinion." I hold up my hand in a stop sign.

"Wait, remind me how we strayed away from the topic of you answering your job call to my career choices? You purposefully brought that up as a distraction didn’t you?"

"You can say that. And didn’t you say it was close by? Why are we still not there yet?"

"Fine. You caught me. I lied—considerately. Its still a little far. So you should drop me off and go to work. I have been there before. So I can find my way around it."

"You might believe that. But then you would get lost. And I will get a call from a random stranger telling me to come collect someone called Gweneth."

"That was ages ago! I was a kid then." I vehemently argue.

"You still are." I cross my hands, dramatically huffing with feigned disprove at him calling me a kid. He is referencing to four years ago when I used to go stay with his sister at her pizza shop as a past time when I was tired of being home alone after school. Aunt Kathy. She is an almost kind fellow. A litt bit of nutcase and a little bit of cranky too. She did not like my presence much but she pretended to and that was great and more than enough for me. She tried her best for a step Aunt. With her, I learned how to play card games. She did not have to put up with me any longer from when I started my part-time waitressing job last year. I had gotten lost the first time when I had tried to visit her shop on my own for the first time. I was twelve, and on my own with almost no sense of direction.

The crowded and buzzing streets only made it worse. I ended up crying to a kind looking woman telling her that I was lost and needed her cellphone to make a call to Dad who came to pick me up. Dad went with me to Aunt Kathy’s place a few more times before he allowed me to start going on my own. His sense of concern for me is more than Mom’s.

He doesn’t listen and drives me to the school main gate. I wave him bye from the second I come out of the car until I walk into the gate. There wasn’t just one security at the gate post. There are four of them. They even have a small office. Two are inside the office. Two are standing in front of me. Three men and one woman. One asks for my student ID. I ask in my head if that is necessary. Do I look like a bomb parcel courier instead of a student?

"I’m a new student. This is my first day. I don’t have a student ID yet."

"You are a scholarship student, right?" Another one asks. I respond yes. "You are a scholarship student and yet you are late on the first day?" It is the woman among them this time."

"I know. I am very sorry. I did not sleep early. So I woke up late." I explain. She nudges her chin. "That is a nice dress you are putting on by the way. It would make a great Halloween costume. Where did you get it from?"

I point at it. "My d-dress....?

I bought the material at a thrift store. It was also sewn together there. The shop is down Marty street if you also want to get it." I tell excitedly. I cannot conceal how happy I am at the idea that someone other than mom complimented my dress. It is the very first time. She hums. "Maybe I will."

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here." The man standing besides her whistles. Looking past me. I too look back to see a boy around my age coming in on a scooter. "Pleasant to see you Walker. Whatever happened to the rat hole you used to sneak in through?" Okay.... I do not know if that is cynical or condescending. "Well, if you must know. Some big bad cat blocked it. That is why I am here crossing the wolf-path bridge."

"Your sense of humor is getting higher by the day." The security woman remarks.

"I have you guys to thank for that, don’t I?"

"We are feeling generous today. So you get to go without punishment." She glances at me. "That includes you too."

".... Thank you."

I was walking behind the guy on his scooter. Suddenly he stops and looks back. "You are a new student right?"

"Yes I am."

"I thought so. No wonder you did not know that she was being cynically sarcastic."

I furrow my brows, "Who?"

"Who else? That damn security lady!"

"How was she—"

"Your dress." He points at it. "Do not tell me you seriously thought she was complimenting you?"

"What else could it have been if not a compliment?" What is this guy trying to say?

He chuckles. "You seriously didn’t pick it up. It takes the smart ones. I’m not surprised."

"What?" Is that an insult?

"She said it would make a good Halloween costume. By that, she meant it was hideous."

I pull a face. That cannot be right. "What are you trying to say?"

"Halloween costumes are not beautiful. They are hideous looking. Your dress is too. She just did not point it out directly so she made an underhand Insult."