Weird Frankie

The red van dropped Weird Frankie at the curb and pulled an illegal U-Turn. Weird Frankie was the sort of guy who seemed to be in a perpetual daze. He saw the off-white rags, the big yellow dollar store sponges, the cheap posterboard signs. He heard the freshie girls screaming “CAR WASH”. He didn't seem to notice any of it. He sat on the bench outside of Paul B. Stevenson High without looking at anybody. No one noticed him either.
Mr. Thorndike was genuinely upset. It was his first year at the school. The department wide science field trip had its funding cut. He and the other faculty had laid out their own money in September expecting to be reimbursed. He touched his hand to his face, and picked at the three days of a beard on his chin. He did that when he was nervous.
Weird Frankie looked at the other kids enjoying themselves, washing cars, muscly shirtless boys squirting the pretty girls with the hose. Girls responding in mock outrage. Taking the hoses. Squirting the guys back. Frankie didn't know how to join them. He wished he wasn't such a failure at group gatherings like this. He wanted to go home.
Mr. Thorndike felt guilty for getting an erection looking at the girls covered in water and sweat. He put his newspaper over his lap and reminded himself that it didn't make him a bad person unless he acted on those urges. He rubbed at his eyes. He had been out late. Mr. Thorndike moonlights. Mr. Thorndike drove a van. Mr. Thorndike couldn't tell anybody. Weird Frankie went back to his bench.
Sable noticed Weird Frankie. She never knew what to think of him. Sometimes she found herself making nasty comments about him with her friends, and she never really knew why. She tried not to think about it. Everyone else was doing it. They must have had a reason, and that was good enough for her. She didn't like being squirted with the water hoses. She was glad she didn't wear white today. She half entertained the notion of going to sit with Weird Frankie. She knew she would be laughed at. She squired Charlie back with the hose.
Mr. Thorndike was very concerned. There was little business. He was the only member of the faculty reluctant to lay out the money in the first place. He knew he didn't have a job for the next year either. He scratched at an itch on his ass, and hoped none of his students noticed. Weird Frankie got up and started lying down on the grass.
Mr. Thorndike gulped in anticipation. He had to do this. He stood up. He told the kids that due to WayWay land raising the prices at the last minute, they would have to pay an additional forty dollars each for the field trip. They grumbled. They whined. They kept working.
Weird Frankie noticed that they were pissed off. He said brightly, glad for an opportunity to join in “I can help get more customers”. Charlie started to snicker. Sable laughed too and didn't know why. Mr. Thorndike didn't like Weird Frankie. There seemed to be something off about him. He was a teacher though, and couldn't express how he felt.
“Let's hear him out.”
and Frankie said “watch!”

. . .

Frankie went over to a pigeon. He started cooing at it. The pigeon started cooing back. Charlie couldn't hold in his laughter. Sable laughed too. Edgar chuckled. Molly snickered. Renny laughed the hardest. Everybody hated Renny. He figured that if he laughed with them, maybe they'd accept him. That's always why the kid who laughs the hardest laughs the hardest. Even Mr. Thorndike laughed. “Oh boy Frankie, I'm glad for the comic relief.”
Frankie sulked back to his bench embarrassed. The pigeon followed him. He started stroking it, and no one seemed to notice but Mr. Thorndike. He would have given it more thought, but he was getting an erection again. “God,” he thought “It's hard being a teacher”.
All of a sudden, the sky went dark. Sable screamed. Renny gulped and offered her his hand. She took Charlie's hand. Charlie tried to hide how afraid he was. The sky fell down. There were pigeons everywhere. They swarmed around the street, clearly everywhere for miles. Renny called his dad's number on his cell phone. Renny's dad was the local weatherman. The call went through, and was immediately dropped. He tried again. The same thing.
The birds shit all over the place. Store fronts, people's heads, their clothing. Most importantly, the birds shit on the cars. They make more than twice what they needed to go on the field trip. Mr. Thorndike figured there was no point telling the rest of the faculty. He kept the extra money for himself.

…

There was talk of the pigeons for weeks. Rumours started to spread about Weird Frankie. Frankie and his voodoo shit. Kids stayed even further than usual. He was called in to see the guidance counselor. The counselor was a devout Catholic. She wished she didn't have to deal with the demon boy. “God,” she thought. “It's hard being a guidance counselor.”
Charlie told the story with relish, with his hand on Sable's leg. Sable liked when he touched her there, but would never admit it. She simply pretended like nothing was any different. She laughed at Frankie like the rest of them, and grew uneasy when his name was spoken.
Edgar asked Frankie what kind of strange coincidence it was. Frankie said “It wasn't a coincidence. I told you I could help.” Edgar didn't believe him. Frankie said, “Watch this!” Frankie pointed at Edgar's lunch tray, and it started to slide across the counter on its own. Edgar pointed and shouted “Stay away from me!”.
The story of Weird Frankie and the lunch tray made its rounds. The guidance counselor came to the cafeteria with rosary beads and candles and holy water. She muttered things. Renny took out a gun. He was on a pure adrenaline high induced by fear, and the gun he'd had for months. Said he'd use it on Charlie after school. He never did. He knew it was wrong. But something in the room was feral. Something had his balls hanging low and his teeth bared. He pointed it at Frankie. No one in the room tried to stop him. Sable wanted to vomit. She didn't want this to happen to Frankie. Charlie held her close. “God,” she thought. “He smells so good.” and Renny pulled the trigger.