offer Alessa a break from her misery. She was in junior high school and still had no friends. Given her situation at home, she had always felt too much of an outcast to even try to make friends.
One afternoon, right before Easter break, she was in the school bathroom washing her hands. She was delaying going outside to where her creepy Uncle Danny was waiting to pick her up. As she looked at herself in the mirror, a girl from her gym class walked in.
“Hey, Alessa, how are you?” Rhonda asked. “Listen, there’s this party tonight at the valley woods. They’re getting a keg of beer and I wanted to know if you’d go with me. I live near your house. So I can come over and we can walk there together.”
Stunned someone was asking her to go somewhere, Alessa tried to remain calm as she replied, “Yeah, sure. Give me your phone number. I’ll ask my mom and call you.”
She was thrilled to be invited to a party. Even at fourteen, she had never been to a party with teenagers and beer.
The moment she got home, she asked her mother about it.
“Who is this Rhonda girl?” Caterina asked at once. “How come I’ve never heard of her before?”
Alessa explained that she knew Rhonda from gym class, and then Anthony walked in on the conversation.
“Just let her go, Mom,” he said. “She’s a mutant. She doesn’t have any friends and maybe if she goes to the party, she will get some eventually.”
Caterina agreed and told Alessa to be home by ten o’clock or she’d give her a beating.
Alessa ran to her bedroom to find something to wear. Her selection was limited. She picked out her best jeans, a pair of hand-me-downs from her sister, Rosabella. The back pockets were slightly torn, but they would pass. Besides, she thought they fit her perfectly. Over them, she wore a plain black T-shirt, faded beyond its life, since it, too, was a hand-me-down and had been washed so often it had lost its shape. At least she wouldn’t stand out in her outfit. She hoped that if there was a God, she would blend in with the rest of the crowd. Her hair wasn’t much better than it used to be when she was younger. Although she had never actually had it cut and styled by a professional, it barely reached her shoulders. It was naturally curly and could have looked stylish with a professional cut and a hair product to boost its shape and sheen.
When Rhonda arrived at Alessa’s house, Caterina was pleasant and warm. It was in her nature to go to great lengths to make people love and admire her, even if it was her daughter’s fourteen-year-old girlfriend. Rhonda was wearing a pair of brand-new jeans and a new tube top with a rainbow on the front. Her long, shiny brown hair was pulled back from her face in a perfect braid running down the center of her back. She wore a silver necklace with a round turquoise pendant the size of a quarter dangling from it. Rhonda looked beautiful and Alessa immediately noticed the look of disapproval directed at her as her new friend silently assessed her appearance.
As the girls were preparing to leave, Uncle Danny entered the room and walked toward them. Alessa wanted to scream. She could feel the evil lurking inside of him. This was the first time a friend had come to her house, and she fidgeted as he inched up too close to her. Uncle Danny turned and looked Rhonda over as if he knew a secret, shaking his head with his lips curled in a cruel smile. He turned to Caterina and opened his mouth as if to say something, but for a dramatic effect, he dropped his head in disgust and walked away.
As they opened the door to leave, Caterina reminded her, “Alessa, don’t forget your curfew.”
Walking out the door, Alessa looked over at her Uncle Danny sitting in his chair in front of the television. As she closed the door behind her, she did not miss the scowl on his face. It was a signal of his displeasure that she was leaving the house with a friend.
