I'm in love with a monster

Chapter 1

When I flew out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house I had only one thing on my mind:

How I wished I looked like the other creatures in town.

They look normal and I don't.

But I guess my looks aren't so bad.

I have brown, beige tan hair, and purple eyes.

I wish they were lighter, because I hate most creatures who have purple eyes, but I have to be content with what I have.

I had a long walk home with no company, but I usually do it alone anyway, for no reason except that I like to watch movies undisturbed so I can get into them and live them with the actors.

When I see a movie with someone it's kind of uncomfortable, like having someone read your book over your shoulder.

I'm different that way.

I mean, my sister, Patricia, who is 134 going on 135, never cracks a book at all, and my oldest sister, Billy Bob who we call Billy, works too long and hard to be interested in a story or drawing a picture, so I'm not like them.

And nobody in our friend group digs movies and books the way I do.

For a while there, I thought I was the only creature in the world that did.

Patricia tries to understand, at least, which is more than Billy does.

But then, Patricia is different from anybody; she understands everything, almost.

Like she's never hollering at me all the time the way Billy is, or treating me as if I was 114 instead of 132.

I love Patricia more than I've ever loved anyone, even Mom and Dad.

She's always happy and grinning, while Billy is always hard and firm and rarely ever grins at all.

I don't know which way's the best.

I'll find out one of these days.

Anyway, I went on walking home, thinking about the movie, and then suddenly wishing I had some company.

Creatures, or "monsters" as some call us, can't walk alone too much or they'll get jumped, or someone will come by and scream "Monster!" at them, which doesn't make you feel to good.

We get jumped by the Stoners, the more socially acceptable creatures.

Technically, yes, they are creatures.

But no one sees them that way.

They're classified under the term "stoners"

It's like the term "monster," which is used to class all us creatures that actually look like creatures.

We're poorer than the Stoners and the middle class.

I guess we're wilder, too.

Not like the Stoners, who jump monsters and wreck houses and throw things for kicks, and get written about for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next.

Monsters are hard to describe.

We steal things and hold up flight stations and have a fight once in a while.

I don't mean I do those things like that.

Billy would kill me if I got into trouble with the police.

Since our mom and dad were killed in a flight wreck, the 3 of us get to stay together as long as we behave.