The Insanity of a Wallflower

Inspiration- V

My knuckles clunked the cold wooden door as I stiffened the shivers that rolled up my spine. I could hear the quiet footsteps moving throughout the inside of the house. The latch clicked and the door pulled away from me, revealing Mr. Hendricks as he watched me from below his nose.

"Hello, Sir," I lowered my head respectfully, "Is Karri home?"

She hadn't met me half way like she was supposed to and I had a feeling her father had intervened. I watched him from my beneath my lowered lashes uncomfortable. He always made my skin crawl.

Mr. Hendricks had a strong jaw and thick neck, very stiff perfect form, and a commanding voice people never wanted to refuse. He was cliché' in every aspect of what you would expect. He had willing let himself be molded by the military, for the better of course, and it left his cold and honestly; socially disrespectful to the rest of the world. He was, by all means, the perfect drill sergeant. But he seemed to despise me just as I did him. I was not his choice of friend for his daughter. I watched him patiently, awaiting his reply.

"Alys," He acknowledged, "Karri's in her room right now. Where she should be." I saw his eyes narrow slightly at me and I could smell his disapproval. "I don't appreciate you telling my daughter to go outside in the cold rain storm and to leave my house without my permission."

"Sorry sir," My voice was as soft and polite as I could muster, "I had an extra credit assignment for a class that I just found out about. And I wanted Karri to do it with me." I watched those eyes blankly before me. "May I come in?"

Mr. Hendricks watched me for a second more beneath him. Finally he stepped aside and allowed me in. "Be done by nine," he said, walked away from me and into the kitchen.

"Yes Sir."

My eyes rose to the high ceilings and to where Karri stood against the top balcony of the stair well. "Extra credit?" she smiled, flashing her teeth.

"Yes," I unbuttoned my jacket, "For the animal shelter. For all those poor cats in need of a home."

She grinned. "Lovely, I was just putting the last touches on my poster."

The coat left my fingers and hooked itself against the coat rack. I trudged up stairs until we were safely out of hearing range. She had a towel ready and she placed it over my head, "Sorry about Dad," she sighed, "He blew his top off when I told him I was running out real quick. He said I needed to be studying and not frolicking."

I chuckled and rub my head vigorously with the towel, "You do like to frolic."

We stepped into her room and my eyes glance to a poster on her desk. I picked it up, eyed it for a quick second and then smiled. She had redrawn the quick handed strokes with deeper more prominent lines. In the background, she had drawn over the girls whom actually brought us to state, and had given them crowns and bouquets of flowers.

"I like this," I pointed to Stacey's circlet. "Brings the eyes to the background."

"Yeah, I guess I felt bad for them. I don't really care about sports, but I just felt it must suck to be them and having to stand behind the catfish." she turned to face me.

"So, you never told me what the inspiration for this was?"

"Aw," she tilted her head back remembering, "Yeah well obviously I wouldn't normally openly doodle like this. I don't know, I just kind of couldn't help it. I got to school early and was studying in the library. The catfish were there too putting up the posters before the rest of the school arrived. I don't think they knew I was in the library though," she shrugged as she traced the edge of the poster, now in her grasp.