-Earth, The United States of Arica: Alabama
"Alright, kids, let’s wrap these paintings up and head ho for the day. Mama’s got a date with MasterChef and a bottle of Moscato."
A group of teenagers finished applying their last few brush strokes to their canvases before putting away their materials to be cleaned.
In the midst of their getting ready to leave, one student looked over to see her classmate still actively painting.
"Wow... that’s amazing, Odie! It’s so lifelike!"
Beside her, an orange-haired young woman briefly stopped her painting and turned to smile at her classmate.
A tablet rested on a small table beside her.
She quickly typed away on the screen.
Thank you! I mixed so sawdust with the paint to give it a more textured look!
"Oh, wow... think you can teach that soti??"
Naturally, with one person calling such attention to the work of another, the rest of the class, of course, beca curious.
Everyone wandered over to Odessa’s easel and marveled at the scene on her canvas.
A sprawling countryside scene, complete with a log cabin with a smoking chimney and even fenced-in animals.
"This is crazy!"
"She’s like a little Bobberta Ross!"
"Mind if I take a picture of this and tell my mom I did it?"
In the face of so much attention, Odessa blushed shyly.
At sixteen years of age, she was unfortunately no better at accepting praise and complints than when she was six.
Eventually, her teacher ca over and inspected her work with the rest of the class.
Needless to say, she was floored to see that the work of a young girl less than half her age superseded anything she could have created by light-years.
"T-That’s... truly sothing. Y-You should enter that in the upcoming contest."
At this, Odessa’s smile beca a little less genuine and her eyes dimd.
’I will think about it.’ She typed, knowing that her mind was already made up.
-
After school, it was always quiet for the most part. Other than sports activities, which were seasonal, and a few tutoring sessions, there was really no reason to stay unless you were forced.
Odessa thought that was really a sha because she actually liked school. Sotis she wished it were longer.
Between her after-school art program and occasionally volleyball, Odessa had another excuse to hang around before going ho.
As she skipped through the hall, Odessa heard nothing but the sound of her footsteps and the jingling of the wooden necklaces hanging from her neck.
Odessa saw herself in the reflection of a nearby window and paused to fix herself in the mirror.
She adjusted her black overalls and the verdant green shirt underneath until they were as picture-perfect as when she left ho that morning.
"I’d better not hear any more laughing, shut up!"
Odessa heard the sound of yelling co from a classroom four doors down.
She skipped down the hall and opened the door with impunity.
Squeezing inside the opening so as to let as little light inside as possible, she entered the dark room that was filled with young n in dry-fit shirts and shorts.
Odessa moved quietly so as not to draw any attention to herself and interrupt everything that was going on.
A projector was busy playing footage of what appeared to be a high school football ga.
She made her way over to the desk at the back of the room, where a large and very in-shape man was conducting film review.
Odessa sat next to him, and he smiled instantly. Though that didn’t prevent him from continuing the study and barking at a room full of teenagers.
"Alright, fellas, look here, it’s a zero-zero ball ga. Everyone, take a look at Deacon’s dumbass."
One of the players hid his face in his hands.
"Okay, look here, it’s first and goal. Look at their play side linebacker. Blowing past Deacon and penetrating our backside like he just got out of prison. Getting to the sack like his momma after she’s had too much to drink."
Snickering arose in the room. All Odessa could do was shake her head at her father’s crass remarks.
"I don’t know why y’all are laughing. I really don’t see shit funny. Everyone, take a look at the very next play. Fellas, what do we always say about doing to the quarterback when he goes on a run?"
"Cut him off like food stamps after you get a good job..." The entire room responded.
"Okay, so if we know it, why aren’t we doing it? You played good ball the first two quarters, then we got our ankles pinned behind our head and fucked in the third.
And this was our hocoming ga, fellas! You know what they call people who let young n co into their ho and have their way with them?? Jada Pinkett!"
Odie stared at her father with a look of clear disbelief.
Finally, Abaddon sighed and cut off the projector.
"I don’t care if we won 44-13. We were playing a god damn 4-A team as the reigning state champions; our ga should have been perfect on every drive.
Instead, our offense had to bail out our defense because we wanted to make stupid mistakes.
I’m telling you, if you all play like this against Clay-Chalkville this week, they are going to throw you to the ground like dice. Don’t let the scouts we got coming see you like that."
The lights in the room were switched on.
Finally, the boys laid eyes on the beautiful young coach’s daughter. Several of them waved in an overtly friendly manner.
She started to wave back when her father stood up and glared at the boys.
"Don’t test in here today. I will run you as long as I am legally allowed."
"Damn, coach, we can’t be nice?" One boy said.
"Everybody, thank Desmond, he just bought you bear crawls with his big mouth."
There were several complaints and clicking teeth as players slapped their teammate on the back of the head.
"Let’s get to it. Defense, you’re on the field first, offense, hit that weight room."
The boys shuffled out of the room with sour, broken looks on their faces like n who were marching to their deaths.
Once players and assistant coaches left, Abaddon stood up and held out his arms for his young daughter.
’You could have been a little bit nicer to them, you know?’ Odie said telepathically.
"Always be tougher on the n after a win than a loss, babygirl. I’m afraid that’s coaching 101. Can’t have these boys start thinking it’s okay to phone in their performances just because we’re playing cupcake teams."
Odessa looked up at her father and smiled as she hugged him.
’You like coaching, huh, Dad?’
Abaddon smiled widely. His eyes had a hint of sadness. "You know, your sister in law and I always talked about getting to do sothing like this together... I miss that girl so much."
’More than your actual kids?’
"Jazmine never got snippy with or complained about cleaning her room, doing the dishes, taking out the trash-"
’Did you ever even ask her to do any of those things?’
"No, but I’m sure if I had, she wouldn’t have complained.’
Odie pinched her father hard, but he proceeded to laugh it off as if it didn’t bother him in the slightest.
"I got a few minutes before I have to hit the field." Abaddon sat back in his chair and gestured for Odie to do the sa. "How was school?"
’You didn’t spy on all day this ti?’
"Please, I have classes to teach." Abaddon rolled his eyes. "You know how hard it is to get tenth and eleventh graders to focus on world literature? If it’s not a social dia reference or another naked classmate, you kids really don’t give a shit."
’Language.’ Odessa chidded.
"Yes, yes..."
Abaddon watched his daughter take out her notebooks to begin her howork. ’School was fine. Lunch kind of sucked, but then again, that’s not really super surprising...’
Her father’s brow furrowed slightly.
"What’s wrong?"
’Hm? I just told you, I’m kind of hungry. Can you order a chicken salad?’
"What? No, I’m not talking about your stomach."
’We should be talking about it. I think I saw my milk move earlier.’ Odessa shivered.
"I an, what happened in your day that didn’t happen involve the lunch room?" Abaddon asked again.
’A couple of boys in second period tried to feed a tampon to the pet hamster when Mrs Gonzalez stepped out. I had to stop them.’
"I know, I saw, their parents have been notified."
’I knew you were peeping.’ Odie frowned at her father.
Abaddon snapped his fingers, and a plastic container appeared on the table.
’...I am willing to forgive you on the condition that you don’t do it again.’
"I promise. For real this ti." Abaddon kissed her on top of the head.
Sohow, Odessa doubted her father very much, but she couldn’t really hear him over the sll coming from the container in front of her.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and a woman in glasses poked her head inside the room.
The way that she stared at Abaddon was scandalous in a number of ways.
"Hey there, Mr. Carter~!"
Abaddon positioned his seat behind his daughter. ’Odie, protect . If she cos near , hit her.’
Odessa almost choked on her salad.
"You’ve got a guest out here for you, says he’s your... cousin?"
Abaddon saw a man step into view behind his fellow faculty mber.
At first, he didn’t recognize him. It was a face he’d never seen before.
But his eyes quickly peered through the individual’s shape to his very soul.
"Michael...!"
Reviews
All reviews (0)