Wednesday glanced around the coffeeshop as Tyler said being friends with normies was considered arbitrary. She didn’t blame him for that and nodded her head. “That makes sense.” She could at least agree to that. She licked her lips, taking a sip of her coffee. She felt like Tyler was trying to get to know her – and she didn’t know if he had ulterior motives for that or not. Wednesday often questioned why people wanted to go to know her. It couldn’t be because they wanted to be friends with her.
Wednesday was an oddity and she wore that title with pride. She knew that she was considered different because of her less than cheerful disposition. She was monotone and flat. She didn’t show emotions – hated emotions, to be fair. So why the hell was Tyler intrigued by her. She shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t blame you for not being friends with them. I’m not friends with any of the outcasts at Nevermore.”
Though, it wasn’t for a lack of trying on Enid and Xaviers’ parts. Both weirdos had asked her to be their friend and she wasn’t sure why. She was a lone wolf in her pack. The only weirdo she relied on was herself. She didn’t trust other people to not disappoint her and it was too much to try and change her viewpoint on that. She hated people. They irked her. There was no denying that.
Taking another sip of her coffee, she glanced up at Tyler. “So why do you talk to them, then? If they’re not your friends?” That was one thing Wednesday could never understand. Why people talked to one another if they weren’t friends. It was time-consuming and irritating. She didn’t like talking to Enid for the mere fact that the other girl pushed her friendship on her. Sure, she was kooky in a sense that related to Wednesday, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be her friend.
And then there was Tyler. The artist had chosen her to be his muse. She knew that he liked her – for whatever weird reason – and there was nothing she could do about it. She didn’t think it would irk her this much if it was someone else. But, Tyler had known her from when she was a kid. Had taken an interest in her because she saved his life. If she had known it would make him want to be her friend, she’d have never done it in the first place.
Wednesday looked at Tyler, wondering why he was still talking to her. Most people had forethought to leave her after she made it adamantly clear she didn’t want to talk to them. She quirked an eyebrow. Was she supposed to tell him it was nice to meet him? She hadn’t ever thought it was nice to meet anyone. She looked away from him, taking a sip of her coffee. Didn’t people know she preferred her alone time? And here he was, not giving it to her. The audacity.
Her lips twitched upwards briefly. She did suppose she was a troublemaker. She still didn’t appreciate the compliment. Remaining stoic, she shrugged a shoulder. “I just do things my way.” That was enough to let him know she was bored with this conversation. If he couldn’t hear the obvious boredom dripping off her tongue, then she didn’t know how else to clue him in.
And, if he wanted to talk to her, he was going to have to take the effort to keep up his one-sided conversation. She didn’t want to ask him any questions about himself, mainly because she didn’t care. She released a sigh when she realized he was still talking. God, would it end?
Her mind flickered back onto something he had said moments before, and she looked up at him briefly, before flickering her eyes elsewhere. “You respect a troublemaker. With the town sheriff as your dad?” She didn’t think the two facts canceled each other out but she’d admit, she was slightly intrigued.
Glancing around the coffee shop, she saw other normies giving them weird looks and a wide berth. She sighed as she rolled her eyes. “Your friends are scared of what they don’t understand.” And, there wasn’t an iota of doubt in her sentence. His friends didn’t understand her and they were scared because of that. It was pathetic.
She turned back to her coffee, taking another sip as she wondered how long he was going to stand next to her. Xavier had warned her about the fact that the normies didn’t like the outcasts. But she didn’t want to let her opinions be based off what other people told her. Besides, she didn’t like anyone, so there was that. Wednesday snickered to herself, running her fingers along the book cover on her book. She wanted to get back to reading but it seemed like Tyler was going to talk to her. Sigh.
Wednesday Addams definitely hated Nevermore and everything it represented. She hated the too perky teachers - looking at you, Marilyn - and she hated the students. They all thought she was a freak, which, admittedly she was. But instead of being repulsed by her nature, there were people who were immersed in her ways; in her personality. She didn’t understand it and she definitely didn’t like it but what was she to do? She knew the Nevermore Academy had a great divide with the “normies” in the town. The students who didn’t have abilities or didn’t turn into wolves or had a siren song tucked away into their back pocket for a rainy day. Wednesday didn’t know who she agreed with more.
Then there was the fact that she kept having these visions that Goody Addams had given her. She knew that the other girl was her ancestor but what she was doing handing out visions like it was a free for all remained to be unseen. Then there was Marilyn. Her dorm mother was kooky and kind; two things that didn’t go hand-in-hand for Wednesday. She knew that dorm mother wanted her to break out of her shell and socialize with people. The problem with that was the fact that Wednesday couldn’t think of something less trivial.
Also, a huge problem for her was Xavier Thorpe. He was proving to be someone who was determined to be her friend. She wasn’t in the market for friends and never had been. She operated alone. Between Enid and Xavier, she was afraid she’d have a best friend soon. The torture.
A soft sigh fell past petal lips, leaving her to flip the page of her book with flourish. If she looked off-putting, like she didn’t want to be bothered, then good. Mission accomplished. Just then, she was derailed from her option of studiously ignoring every person in the coffee shop by Tyler, the barista and Sheriff’s son. How small could this town get? He was speaking to her, looking at the book and she paused from flipping to the next page, looking up at him.
What did he want? Most barista’s - at least in her situation - didn’t bother to strike up a conversation with the book reader in an all-black ensemble. She was surprised that Tyler had the gall. And the audacity. She looked at her book, staring at the words for a minute, wondering if it was worth a reply. But then she found herself speaking. “It’s Truman Capote’s ‘In Cold Blood’. It’s my favorite book.”
Wednesday didn’t know if that would be the end of the conversation. She hoped it would, least of all because she didn’t know what the hell to talk to the barista about. But it seemed like Tyler was going to stand there, hovering, and she sighed, carefully marking her page. Pushing her book aside, she looked at him. “I’m Wednesday. I haven’t really talked to you since moving here. You’re the Sheriff’s son, yes?” That was an easy enough topic to seem like she cared about.
Wednesday walked the quiet streets of her town. She knew that she had the afternoon off from Nevermore and she wanted to get away from the school. With Enid constantly breathing down her neck about them being best friends, and Bianca Barclay glaring at her as if she had personally offended her, Wednesday was ready to be away from the school grounds.
As she walked into town, she only had one destination in mind. The coffee shop she had come to start frequenting. It served some of the best coffee she had ever tasted and she was amused by the normies who hung out there. She was loathe to admit that she called them by the nickname the students of Nevermore had given them, but that’s who they were. Normies.
Marilyn Thornhill was also a normie - or close to it - but she was still odd enough to be allowed to teach at Nevermore. She had gone out of her way to prove that she took an interest in Wednesday and the other girl was not enjoying it. Between her and Enid, she was scared she was going to be in real danger of making friends soon.
As she walked, she saw the coffee shop drawing nearer and almost sighed in relief. She could practically taste the dark beans of the black roast she drank. Of course, she didn’t put any flavor or anything in her coffee. That was for people like Enid.
Walking into the shop, she spotted Tyler Galpin standing at the register. She knew who he was. Resident normie and the sheriff’s son. But she hadn’t ever really talked to him. Just a polite smile from him whenever she came in and a nod from her. She didn’t like talking to people; didn’t want to make friends with anyone.
She had always been like that and no new school was going to change that for her. Morticia and Gomez wanted her to make friends, of course, but she had Thing, didn’t she? He was good enough company for her. Walking up to the bar, she placed her order with Tyler, before going to make her way to sit down at one of the tables.
Glancing around the shop, she spotted several other normies in there, and a couple of outcasts. She knew she was considered an outcast but it didn’t bother her. She never lived by the status quo before. Never found any reason to. And that didn’t bother her in the slightest. Pulling out her book she brought to occupy her time, she waited for her coffee to be served, hoping against hope no one would talk to her.
