Chapter Text
It was the week after the winter break when Enid saw her for the first time. The principal brought her in during math class and announced to the group that they had a new classmate: Wednesday Addams. They were to make her feel welcome and include her in their school activities.
The girl was like nothing Enid had seen before. It was like seeing a character from an old black and white movie come to life. The new kid was dressed entirely in black, from head to toes, and her dark hair was styled in two braids. She looked half dead. That was one of Enids' thoughts at first. Wednesday was pale and had dark circles under her eyes, not usual for a kid in elementary school. Enid wondered if everything was alright at home.
Wednesday Addams sat where the teacher told her and glared at the principal, who talked quietly to the teacher for a bit. After the principal left, the teacher asked Wednesday to introduce herself.
"We always like to hear a little more than our names, so why don't you introduce yourself, say how old you are and perhaps tell us what your favourite animal is?"
The girl stood up and looked at the class with something akin to disgust.
"My name is Wednesday Addams. I am, as well as most of my classmates, 10 years old. My favourite animal is the scorpion, specifically the one with the name Centuroides noxius. It is native to Mexico."
"That sounds lovely," the teacher smiled. "Thank you, Wednesday. You can sit. Now, who remembers fractions? We learned about it last week..."
The woman went on explaining the topic and Enid tuned it out, because she was staring at Wednesday Addams. There was something unsettling about her that Enid couldn't put a finger on. Maybe it was the lack of emotions she showed, or maybe the over-extended vocabulary for a 10-year-old kid, or something else. The new girl was weird and it intrigued her.
At recess, nobody tried to approach her. Enid and her friends sat under the tree in the courtyard eating their lunch and the four of them looked at the new girl sporadically. She was sitting stiffly in a corner. She was eating from her lunchbox, which was black, of course. Enid felt a ping in her chest, it made her kind of sad that the girl was so alone.
"Do you think she is a vampire?" asked Yoko.
"Nonsense" replied Tamika ", vampires don't exist, Yoko. Maybe she's like...allergic to the sun or something."
"I'm going to say hi" she told her friends ", I kinda feel bad that nobody has said a word to her. Maybe she's nice. I'll be right back."
Enid got to her feet and approached the new kid, who quickly noticed her presence and looked up at her with an unreadable expression. Enid looked at her lunchbox. Black beans, blue corn tortillas, blackberries. Of course, everything had to be monochromatic, even her food.
"Howdy!" she greeted with a smile. "I'm Enid Sinclair, we're classmates, if you hadn't noticed already. Uh... you could sit with us if you want. Me, Sabrina, Yoko, Tamika, Axel... they're on the table over there. They're nice. We can be friends, if you want."
Wednesday stared and said in a very serious tone:
"I rather be alone."
"Oh, okay. But really, if you want to come sit with us, at any time, it's fine. We're happy to have you..."
"I rather choke on nuclear waste water, Sinclair. Leave me alone" she said dryly and Enid turned on her feet and went back to her friends. That was...something.
When Wednesday Addams appeared the next day the chaos began. Their history teacher assigned homework at the end of the lesson about Cristopher Columbus and the discovery of the Americas. They had to write a small text about it and draw some ships. The dark haired girl raised her hand and Mr. Shannon smiled and encouraged her to ask.
"Excuse me, but why do we refer to it as a discovery and not as the beginning of a horrible genocide, which describes more accurately the event?"
The teacher was at loss of words. He stuttered and managed to respond:
"Those are big words for a young girl, Wednesday. We learn as it is in our books, what the curriculum says."
"But then what is the intent of teaching history inaccurately? I think it is immensly suspicious. It also baffles me that you, as a teacher, condone it."
Enid stared at Wednesday. The rest of the class did too. Nobody in their class would dare to speak to Mr. Shannon like that, ever. He was very strict and most kids feared him. But Wednesday was new, she wouldn't know. Mr. Shannon looked irritated and spat out:
"Look, girl. This is my class. You will write about the discovery of the Americas and we'll move onto the next topic. If you have complaints, you can send a letter to the Department of Education. Anybody have another question? Yes, Addams?"
The girl stood up and straightened her black t-shirt. She looked at Mr. Shannon with a poker face.
"It is not a question. I am to go on a hunger strike until this institution of torture you call school agrees to teach an historically accurate curriculum. You can also notify the Department of Education, so they are aware."
The class exploded in whispers and the teacher looked baffled. Yoko whispered in Enid's ear:
"What is a hunger strike?"
"It's when you don't eat to prove a point, I think. But I'm not sure. This girl is crazy."
Wednesday was sent to the principal's office for the first time of many. She walked with her head high and glared at the teacher before leaving the room. Enid wondered if they would suspend her or call her parents. She wondered if her parents were as eccentric as her. Would they be angry? Enid knew that she wouldn't be able to pull this off with her own family. Her mother would disown her if she was sent to the principal's office.
The second time, Addams set fire to the flag flying in the courtyard. How she did it, a complete mystery. Enid watched as the kids screamed, the adults tried to throw buckets of water at the pole without success and the girl with the braids stood in the middle of the courtyard and stared with excitement as the chaos unfolded. She was still on a hunger strike, she had announced to Mr. Shannon earlier. Only drinking water until the Department of Education or the school changed their curriculum. The firefighters were called and Addams returned to the principal's office. It became clear to Enid that it would be a daily occurrence.
It had already been two weeks since Wednesday had arrived to Enid's elementary and she had already been sent to the principal more times than Enid could count. Mr. Shannon had a special hatred for Addams, and it seemed like the hunger strike had worked and the principal had interrupted biology class to announce that the Department of Education was willing to see Wednesday Addams.
Most of their classmates avoided her like the plague. Enid had tried to approach her again and was met with a "I'd rather eat a rat than entretain myself with such childish endeavors", so Enid left her alone. But something kept her awake at night. Probably the mystery surrounding the Addams girl. Where did she come from? Why did she appear in the middle of the school year? She had never seen her parents, nobody picked her up after school. She walked home on her own, it seemed. Most importantly, she avoided color at all costs, and when asked, she replied that she was allergic to it. Enid doubted it.
After the third week, Wednesday did the most unhinged thing that would have her expelled right there. Mr. Shannon was explaining something about the french revolution and then went still all of the sudden. He swallowed hard and someone asked what had happened.
"I think...there's something under my clothes. Argh!" He screamed really loud. "Something stung me! It hurts! Agh! There's another one in my shoe!" And then, out of his desk emerged a myriad of small and black scorpions. Everyone screamed. Enid grabbed Yoko's arm and screamed to run. The scorpions crawled all over Mr. Shannon's body and the class went crazy. Except, obviously, for Wednesday Addams. She sat calmly at her desk, with a small sadistic smirk on her face. Everyone rushed out but her. The last thing Enid saw before running out of the room with Yoko was Wednesday Addams sitting there, very still, with one hand under chin and watching how the teacher screamed and trashed and was stung by several scorpions with something akin to fascination. That was the last time she saw her. And Mr. Shannon too, he never returned to the school, but they were later informed that he had survived.
As the years passed, Enid slowly buried those memories. They had talked for weeks at school about the Addams girl, but time had passed and everyone had forgotten. But the memories came rushing back 9 and a half years later, when she opened the door of her university's library while texting and bumped into a warm body and dropped her phone.
"Spare me the apologies, I need to get through."