'Odd one out' by Louise Hurrell

 

Elva was the youngest of eleven sisters: Charlene, Colleen, Eileen, Francine, Irene, Janine, Kathleen, Maxine, Pauline and Nadine. She loved them (obviously), but why did she have to be born last? By the time she came around, their parents weren’t interested in buying an eleventh set of clothes, toys, books. Meaning Elva had to do with her sisters’ hand-me-downs; she chafed against the well-worn fabric that had long gone out of fashion and didn’t even fit her properly. She saw the popular girls, the cool girls, with the latest gear and her heart ached as she hid the fraying edges of her sleeve. She hated school, hated sitting alone at lunch.

Not that being at home was much better. 

‘Time to start thinking about college – you’re in the eleventh grade now,’ Mom had announced, as though Elva wasn’t already aware of this fact, ‘You can’t stay at that 7/11 forever’.

But Elva liked the 7/11, liked the night shift she worked with Pauline and Nadine; she enjoyed meeting up and hearing their latest gossip. In those few hours she felt accepted, felt like everyone else. She was closer to her sisters there, under the fluorescent lights, than she had ever been. However, when the chat turned to college she quietened, despondency flooding her.   

The truth was, she didn’t know what to study. Everyone else had gone on to great things: medicine, law, teaching. Colleen had her own business, Irene gained a PHD. But Elva…she wasn’t good at anything. At all.

She locked herself in the staff toilet and began to cry. The sadness, the worry was all too much, too too much… she didn’t know what to do. Someone banged on the door.

‘Elva, you OK? What’s wrong?’

Everything, she thought, took a deep breath and called:

‘Nothing, I’m fine’.