14

Welcome to Planet Wren

The Little Women scene had been playing for a few minutes before Wren couldn’t take it anymore. All those sisters in their bonnets and capes trudging through the snow. She needed to get out of there.

The school hallways were wide and flat, like Izzy’s driveway, but better. Less friction. Wren wanted to take off her shoes and do axels in her socks. Or scratch spins. Or anything.

She glanced at Mr. Blair. He was sitting in the front row, flipping through the stack of index cards and writing notes on his clipboard. Izzy and some other kids had already snuck out. He’d never know Wren was gone.

Wren stepped into the hallway and saw Izzy slouched against the lockers. “That movie is so boring,” said Wren. “Never go back.”

“Did you find one of my drawings?” asked Izzy.

Wren slapped her forehead. She walked toward the pile where everyone threw their bags. “I forgot to give it to you this morning. It’s right here.”

“No, it’s not.”

“What?”

“Daphne and Phoebe have it,” said Izzy. “They said you gave it to them.”

Wren froze. “No way,” she said. “I would never give them anything.”

Wren picked up her bag. The zipper was open. The drawing that she’d tucked inside the main pocket was missing.

Those girls had gone into her bag and stolen Izzy’s drawing.

Wren wanted to pull Izzy from the floor and go find them. But Izzy’s bottom lip was trembling. Her head shaking back and forth.

“They’re so mad at me,” said Izzy. “They’re never going to forget this.”

“Why?” asked Wren. “It’s just a drawing.”

Izzy looked up, her eyes wet with tears. “It’s not just a drawing. It’s a drawing of them. And now they think I’m a bully and they’re going to show the drawing to everyone and use it against me. I know it. It’s bad enough that I have no friends; now everyone’s actually going to hate me.”

“That’s not true,” said Wren. But even as she said it, she knew that Izzy had a point. Girls like Daphne and Phoebe didn’t let insults go forgotten.

“I’m really sorry,” said Wren. “I didn’t realize. I found the drawing in your desk last night and thought you might be looking for it. I was going to give it to you this morning, but I guess the Nate crush thing distracted me.”

Wren smiled, and she really hoped Izzy would, too.

Instead, Izzy stood up. Tears ran down her cheeks.

“This is my life,” said Izzy. “You can’t steal my room, steal my drawings, and ruin everything. I wish you would just leave me alone forever.”

“I’m ruining everything?” said Wren. “They’re the ones who went into my bag. You’re the one who drew the picture. How is it my fault?”

Izzy wiped her cheeks. “Because you’re the one who brought the drawing to school.” She turned to walk away, down the hallway toward who knows where.

Wren couldn’t just let her go. “Hey, Izzy,” she called. “Truth or lie?”

Izzy stopped walking, but she didn’t answer.

“Okay, truth,” said Wren. “Maybe there’s a reason you don’t have any friends.”

The words left Wren’s mouth sharp and glistening, like the toe pick of her skate blade aiming for the ice before a jump, its sole purpose to dig deep and lift Wren up.

But it only took an instant for Wren to know what was coming next: a crash landing. A painful thud.

Izzy’s shoulders shook. She took a few slow steps, then began to run.

And Wren wished she could take the words back.

Wren sat in the hallway for ten minutes. Twenty minutes. The red numbers on the clock above the lockers flipped in a steady pace.

And still, no Izzy.

After half an hour, the doors to the auditorium opened and everyone spilled out, heading to their bags for food. Daphne and Phoebe wore triumphant grins. Serena walked a few steps behind them. Zach and Eli tried to trip each other. Then came Otto, the one who was always moving.

That is, until Otto changed course and sat down next to Wren.

“You’re new,” said Otto.

Wren did not answer. Otto did not take the hint.

He raised one finger to the corner of his mouth. “Not to this planet,” he said. “Unless, maybe you are new to this planet.” He tilted his head to the side and formed pretend binoculars with his hands, focusing them in a rotating movement. “Interesting. She does not talk. She does not eat. Has she come to take over our realm?”

Wren smiled. She couldn’t help it. If anyone was from another planet, it was Otto. It would be an odd planet. But not a mean one. There was too much joy in Otto’s voice for meanness.

Otto pushed himself up, his body as rigid as possible. “Snack,” he said. “Must get snack. Human beings need food. Will return soon.” With his legs swinging in a side-to-side motion, Otto robot-walked to the pile of bags.

Wren’s stomach growled. But there was no way she was walking over to get her snack. What if Izzy suddenly returned and saw her standing near Daphne and Phoebe? It was too risky.

Snack in hand, Otto robot-walked back. He sat down in one smooth motion. “Pretzels,” he said. “Crunchy human food, good human food. Space invader want to try one?”

Wren smelled salt and yeast. She couldn’t resist. “Thanks,” she said as she reached her hand into Otto’s pretzel bag.

“She speaks our language! It’s a galactic miracle!” Otto threw both hands into the air. As his pretzels spilled, Wren laughed, the worry and anger and tension in her body escaping through her mouth.

Otto, no longer a robot, tossed a fresh handful of pretzels into the air like they were confetti. As they fell onto Wren’s head and body, she laughed even harder.

Wren wiped the pretzels from her leg. When she looked up, she saw Izzy peering around the corner.

Wren swallowed a pretzel.

She swallowed her laughter.

But it was too late; Izzy disappeared again.

Otto put his pretzel bag down. He pulled on the ends of his lips making an exaggerated clown frown. “Space alien sad?”

A simple question. But in real life, as an actual human being, the answer was complicated. Wren was sad, but with a ton of other emotions as well. Anger, regret, confusion, sadness: they all floated in the hallway like the confetti pretzels.

And Wren didn’t want to stick around for them to fall on her head.

“Get a life,” she said.

She walked back into the auditorium. All alone.

Just how she wanted to stay for the rest of the week.