The Odd One Out

     No, as far back as Rin could remember, she had always been just different enough to be labelled an oddball. She liked the same things that her classmates did - to an extent. She liked the importance she felt when fulfilling a quest as much as anyone, but while the others lined up hoping for a faerie to send them on a mission, Rin would sneak into the Haunted Woods by herself and check in on Edna. While the others were giggling over their Race to Riches Scratchcards, Rin was buying Crypt of Chance Scratchcards from Sydney.

     And it wasn’t even like Rin had ever been painted Halloween to explain this affinity for the Haunted Woods. By all appearances, she was just your run-of-the-mill Blue Ixi, and wasn’t she supposed to be prancing through the fields of Neopia Central instead of sneaking into the Deserted Fairground?

     Eva had been painted Halloween once, and for a while, Crypt of Chance Scratchcards were cooler than their Race to Riches equivalent. Everyone at school liked Eva. She was theatrical and entertaining, and she could fill up a room with laughter. And while Eva was Halloween, Rin thought that maybe she could fit in for once. But then the next month, she was Pirate, and then her thing was suddenly all about treasure, and Rin’s chance to be popular was gone.

     “Should’ve known better,” Rin muttered to herself, kicking a pebble. She’d tried to enjoy the things the other kids talked about, sneaking into the Snowager’s cave and shooting bullseyes in Meridell. And she was okay at them, too - but all of those adventures didn’t make her blood rush with excitement.

     “Should’ve known better than what?”

     Rin spun around, surprised. She’d been to the Haunted Woods enough times to know that she should always keep her guard up when wandering the trees, but she’d been so busy moping today that she hadn’t noticed that she’d been crept up on.

     Instinctively, Rin reached for the Ghostkerchief Dagger that she always kept at her side. The Wocky before her laughed. “Whoah, whoah - no need to take anyone’s eye out,” he said, holding his paws up.

     Rin frowned. She was quite certain she’d never met this Wocky before in her life, but there was something all too familiar about him and the scar that ran across his right eye. “Who are you?” she demanded.

     He grinned a feral grin. “The name’s Magax,” he introduced. “And you are?”

     “Ma - Ma - Magax?!” And now that he said it, of course that’s who he was! She’d seen enough of his pictures around the Haunted Woods - and even in her textbooks! She’d been foolish not to recognize him immediately! His story was one of the greatest redemption stories of villains turned good - at least, in Rin’s expert opinion.

     “You’ve heard of me, I see,” Magax said. “Now, what are you doing here? Don’t you know how dangerous it is in this part of Neopia?”

     Rin stood a little taller. “I come here all the time. I can protect myself,” she said, a little proudly - like she had something to prove to Magax that she wasn’t just any Blue Ixi. “I’m a student at Neopian Adventuring Academy.”

     Magax raised an eyebrow. “A prestigious institution,” he acknowledged, and Rin preened a little. Because she was proud of her skills that had won her admission to the school, and to have Magax himself - Magax, the Wocky with his own Neopedia entry! - recognize it made something warm and strong bloom within her chest. “But you still haven’t said. What should you have known better about?”

     “Oh, that.” And just like that, the pride she’d felt wilted a little. “It’s nothing. Just some kids at school.”

     “Some kids at school, huh?” Magax said.

     Rin nodded, and - well, how was she supposed to explain it? “We had an assignment to hunt for clues at the bottom of a lake,” she said finally. “And Noelle - she’s a Maraquan Elephante, you see, and she was doing all these flips in the water and finding all these clues and everyone was so impressed and - ”

     She broke off. The truth was, Rin was a little jealous. She wanted to be the one her classmates noticed for a change, she wanted to be cheered on and supported like Noelle had been today. And it wasn’t like her classmates were actively mean to her, they just - didn’t notice her. Rin had thought that when she was accepted into the Neopian Adventuring Academy, she would meet other people like her - that she’d finally find her people. Instead, she found out that she was still different, that she still didn’t fit in, and everything about it was all just a bit sad and lonely and pathetic.

     “Nevermind,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s stupid.”

     Magax studied her with those unnerving trademark bright yellow eyes. “And you wanted to be recognized for something, too,” he concluded for her.

     “Yeah,” Rin admitted, a little ashamed. It sounded like such a silly want when voiced aloud. It wasn’t something that the one and only Magax should be troubled with, at any rate. “How’d you know?”

     “Neopets don’t apply to a school like the Neopian Adventuring Academy to be a wallflower,” Magax said easily.

     Rin bit her lip, unsure if she should continue or not. But Magax was still there, waiting for her to say something, and - it felt so good to be heard for once that the words rushed forward before she could really acknowledge them. “But I don’t belong in the Neopian Adventuring Academy! I don’t fit in!” Rin burst out. “I thought I would finally find a place for me - but I’m just a Blue Ixi, and everyone else is so much more.”

     Magax laughed, and Rin felt the familiar pinpricks of humiliation. He was laughing at her. Of course she didn’t fit in, he was going to say, because look at her! A Blue Ixi wandering around alone in the Haunted Woods? Ridiculous!

     “If you’re just a Blue Ixi, then I’m just a Blue Wocky,” he pointed out, gesturing to himself.

     “But you’re not just a Blue Wocky,” Rin said miserably. He’d never understand. “You’re Magax.”

     “Then you’re not just a Blue Ixi,” Magax said. “We’re all more than just a label.”

     More than just a label, he said. But what did that mean?

     “Maybe ask your teachers if you can take a trip to the Haunted Woods on the next assignment,” Magax suggested, and then he cracked another feral grin. “I’m sure there’s plenty of lessons within these trees for future adventurers to learn from.”

     And suddenly, Rin thought maybe she understood his meaning. That maybe the reason she was never understood was that she’d never tried to share her point of view with anyone else. Instead, she’d been keeping it to herself, all bottled up and wondering why no one saw things the way she did.

     Maybe - maybe - and this was such a big if, such a big dream that Rin was scared to articulate it even in her mind - and maybe they’d think that her penchant for exploring the Haunted Woods would be a fun different. A quirky different, like the way Eva was different, or an interesting different, and the way Jordan was different. Not a weird, oddball kind of different.

     “Thanks, Magax,” Rin said honestly.

     He tilted his head towards her. “Stay safe, young one,” he said in response and lifted from the ground, moving to float away.

     And Rin supposed that made sense - he’d only appeared to check up on her, to see if she was lost and in danger in the first place. And when that turned out not to be true, he’d stayed long enough to give her so much more that she needed to hear - but Rin thought that she wasn’t quite ready for him to leave.

     “Wait!” she called out - and when Magax stopped in his tracks, she finished almost shyly, “I never told you my name.” He’d asked and she’d never answered, too awestruck by Magax’s presence to be polite.

     He threw a grin over his shoulder. “I’m sure I’ll hear of it one day soon enough,” he said, winking his good yellow eye. “Or maybe I’ll read about it in a Neopedia entry of your own.”

     Then he spun back around and floated away, leaving Rin alone, but not lonely.

     A Neopedia entry of her own, she thought, smiling. A Neopedia entry of her own!

     And Rin promised herself that she’d see to it. She’d become a great adventurer, one to be remembered by the history books - if not for herself, then for Magax, to show him that his encouraging words weren’t wasted.

     But Rin already felt like she’d won something precious: a memory shared with a Neopian legend where she finally, finally felt heard.

     The End.