• “Get out of here freak!” The owner bellowed at the top of his lungs as he grabbed the collar to my coat and threw me out into the street. I swear I did nothing wrong.
    “I’m not a freak!” I called back to him as I pulled myself to my feet just in time for the door to slam an inch before my nose. I stared at the door for a moment immersed in my own thoughts. Nobody had ever called me a freak in the circus. Oh no, it was different then, I mean it was the circus! You are meant to be a freak there. I fixed my top hat and started heading back down the street ignoring the strange glances that were thrown at me. Its interesting how I’m being treated like less of a man just because of the clothes I wear. I assumed there was nothing wrong with my attire, but others apparently think otherwise. I now sat myself down on a park bench, slouching slightly as I stared up at the stars. I wondered why I had never actually looked at the night sky before. The moon was full and quite lovely…Ouch! I turned around quickly seeing a couple of foolish teens, one of whom was holding a rock, about to throw it at my head. I looked down beside me finding the device that had caused me pain. I turned back towards the teens, but they were no longer there. I grabbed my whip that hung around my neck and cracked it on the ground out of frustration. Ah, so now they throw rocks at me. I slouched even more hoping that perhaps I could become one with the dirt that lay on the ground. Besides that’s the way I was being treated, like dirt.
    I turned my nose up towards the sky again, my top hat casting a shadow over my eyes as I watched clouds start to form over the moon. Then I heard something, something so familiar. Yes! It was the ringing of bells, and they were getting closer. Right past my face flew an angel, and I would have leapt for joy, except for the fact that a very large ruddy man was running after this angel. I grabbed my whip ready to crack it on the beast that was after this poor girl. I cracked the whip on the ground as a warning, and so that the ruddy man would stop. He did stop, and wobbled for a moment.
    “What you want freak?” The man snapped towards my direction slurring slightly. I knew my eyes were probably beginning to glow a brighter green than usual.
    “What I want is for you to leave this girl alone,” I motioned towards the angel who had stopped as well.
    “You mean the Jester?” The man laughed slurring again. The angel behind him took a step forward and put her fists out.
    “If you call me a Jester one more time you creep...” She growled through clenched teeth. I could only smile for a moment before I took my whip and tangled it around the man. I brought him just a bit closer to me so he could get a good long look at my eyes. I smiled, revealing two sharp canines, and untangled my whip.
    “I suggest you go now Monsieur,” I smirked. Wide eyed, he wobbled off back down the sidewalk away from me and the angel.
    “Oh thank you Zech!” The angel smiled as she ran up to me and wrapped her arms around me, the bells on her hat ringing.
    “It was nothing, really. So Genevieve, how have you been?” I asked casually. Yes, as you could tell by now, she was, and still is, a dear friend of mine. We grew up in the circus together, and left it together, and that’s the way things should be.
    “Besides the fact that I have men running after me left and right, children calling me names and throwing stones at my face, besides all that, I’ve been good,” She smiled through the torment that was in her eyes. It was hard, hard on us both. No one seemed to accept us here. I mean, probably all we had to do was change our clothing, but why should we have to change who we are? People should just accept us for who we are.
    “That’s funny,” I started to say but Genevieve frowned at me, “Wasn’t finished yet. That’s funny a couple of teens just a minute ago were throwing rocks at me.”
    Genevieve stamped her ballerina flats on the ground out of frustration. I took in her apparel for the moment as she murmured to herself. A tight little skirt hung on her hips, just above that she wore a corset over top of a short sleeved shirt. Black and white arm warmers adorned her arms. The ballerina flats fit snugly on her petite feet, and a pair of black leg warmers sat above them. I brought my eyes back up to her face so that I could see the large Jester hat she was wearing, and the lace chocker around her neck. Yes, her attire was different, but to her it was perfectly normal, to me it was perfectly normal. I just wonder why no one could accept that. We are just as normal as anybody. The only difference is that our attire is, well, uncommon apparently.
    “Zechariah!” She screamed suddenly, bringing me back to earth.
    “Yes Madame?” I jumped.
    “Were you listening at all?” She asked, frowning and stamping her petite feet again.
    “I’m afraid I have to say I wasn’t,” I said cringing, waiting for her to slap me or something, but she didn’t, she only let out a small breath. Watching her face for a moment I placed my whip back around my neck.
    “Genevieve, do you think, well, do you think we ought to just change our clothes?” I asked slowly hoping not to cause a huge reaction. Unfortunately I had though. She gave me a long dark look of disgust, her pallid face turning a bright pink.
    “No, we should not change our clothes,” She said sharply through her teeth. “But that’s the only reason we are being caused grief. I mean its not that big of a deal, they’re just clothes aren’t they?” As I spoke the words I cringed, knowing I shouldn’t have said anything. Genevieve advanced closer to me, a light breeze grabbing at her skirt playfully as she scanned through my eyes.
    “Then that gives us even more reason to wear these clothes. They should accept us as we are, should they not?” She replied cantankerously.
    “Well yes, but I mean, well, err,” I stumbled for the right words.
    “Exactly!” She stamped, her hat jingling gleefully. I rolled my eyes for a moment, then decided to walk across the back of the park bench carefully, as though I were on a tight rope.
    “So, what exactly do we do now?” She asked watching me carefully. I closed my eyes for a moment, about to part my lips to speak, but a high pitched scream covered up my words. I opened my eyes quickly and stared down towards Genevieve.
    "Why are you screaming?" I frowned.
    "The-there's, there is a bi-big spider on you're head," She stuttered. I took my top hat off slowly to gaze at the top of it and fell over backwards off the bench. Another high pitched squeal came from Genevieve as I watched the spider crawl towards her.
    "You aren't seriously afraid of spiders are you?" I wondered curiously. She glared at me for a moment then squealed again. I couldn't help but laugh.
    "Zech, just make it go away!" She pleaded frantically. I rolled my eyes and stood up taking my time to dust of my suit and tap off the dirt that was on my top hat. I gingerly placed it back on my head and walked over towards Genevieve and stomped down on the massive spider.
    "These shoes are Italian, I hope you know," I teased her as she enveloped me in a death grip.
    "Alright, alright, get off. Lets go find somewhere to stay," I said prying her off me and beginning to walk towards the apartment buildings.
    We had found many apartment buildings, the only problem was that no one seemed to have enough room for freaks. Genevieve and I both confessed to have slept in an alley many times, because no one would rent us a room. Apparently we were going to have to sleep in an alley again.
    "Come on, I know where there is an alley with blankets," Genevieve said gleefully, skipping down the sidewalk.
    "Why do we need blankets?" I wondered.
    "'Cause they're cozy," She smirked. I had no idea what she meant by that, but honestly I didn't care. I kept walking, not looking where I was going. I knew I was heading the right direction, because I could hear Genevieve's bells ahead, but like I said I wasn't watching where I was going. I stomped on someone’s foot and began to get whacked with a very large cane.
    "S'arrêter le! S'arrêter le!" I cried. Genevieve turned around quickly, seeing me in the fetal position.
    “What are you saying there Frenchy?” an elderly voice asked as I looked up slowly.
    “I was telling you to stop!” I yelled infuriated that an elderly woman had beaten me to the ground.
    “Oh, sorry,” She said as she set her cane back down on the ground. I stood up slowly, afraid she might start hitting me again.
    “What did you do that for anyhow?” I asked, curiously watching as Genevieve slowly cocked her head to the side.
    “Thought you were trying to steal my purse,” She said furrowing her brow.
    “Are you stereotyping me because of my clothes!” I barked.
    “No, I was stereotyping you because of your age. What’s wrong with your clothes?” She asked.
    “Oh. Wait, you don’t think my clothes are odd?” I asked cocking my head just like Genevieve’s.
    “What if they are? It doesn’t matter,” She said sincerely. I blinked for a moment not believing my ears.
    “Would you happen to have a place to stay?” Genevieve jumped in quickly.
    “Actually I do. I own a boarding house. There is an extra room there,” The elderly woman said turning towards Genevieve.
    “Oh thank goodness. Would you rent us the room?” Genevieve questioned.
    “Why wouldn’t I?” The elderly woman wondered.
    “Never mind that,” I said, now with a skip to my voice.
    “Well come along then, I’ll show you the way,” The elderly woman bustled us along.
    The room was nice when we finally did arrive there. The elderly woman pointed out the bathroom to us then went off to her own quarters. Genevieve and I stayed up, until the sun was about to come up. We decided to play cards that we had found in one of the dresser drawers.
    The next night, when Genevieve and I were going out to eat I happened to bump into someone. Which wasn’t unlikely for me. The only problem was that this man had to be about seven feet tall and a body builder. I on the other hand was about 5’ 10”, and very thin. Well manly man grabbed my collar, lifted me up, and pushed me into the wall.
    “Er, Tiens monsieur,” I said slowly hoping that he wasn’t crushing my top hat against the wall. Of course, that should have been the least of my worries.
    “What are you doing running into me like that freak!” He spat at my face. I wiped the spit from my face and then smiled weakly.
    “Sir, I am not a freak,” I said coolly. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Genevieve’s fists at the ready.
    “Yeah and I’m, uh, err, that, that, Albert guy,” The man stammered.
    “Albert Einstein?” I asked slowly.
    “Yeah, him,” The man said pulling his eyebrows together as if still concentrating on it. All brawn, no brain.
    “Well, would you mind putting me down?” I asked as politely as possible.
    “Yeah I would mind! Why’d you run into me!” He continued to spit.
    “It was an accident,” I said now clenching my teeth together out of frustration as I, yet again, wiped spit from my face.
    “Hey dummy head! He told you to put him down!” Genevieve growled in the background.
    “Was that really the best word you could come up with?” I turned to her in disbelief. She only shrugged.
    “I didn’t ask your opinion, Jester,” the man mocked.
    “I didn’t give you an opinion. Now, I’m telling you to put him down, or are you too dumb to understand that?” Genevieve threw her own mockery back. I wasn’t sure if this was her plan or not, but the man put me down and went after her.
    “Merde le!” Genevieve gasped running in a sprint down the hallway, the man following behind her. I grabbed my whip quickly and snapped it towards the man’s back. The man jumped and slowly turned back towards me. Uh oh. I gripped my whip tighter, ready to fling it at his face when someone grabbed my hand from behind.
    “There will be no fighting in these hallways!” The shrill voice of the elderly woman chided.
    “He started it!” I growled like a foolish child.
    “I don’t care who started it, but if I have anything to say about it, you two will be the best of friends in this house,” the elderly woman said, sounding like our mother’s or something.
    “Yes ma’am,” both the man and I said at the same time.
    “Good, now run along with you two,” she finished as she let go of my hand and walked away. The man and I glared at each other for a minute then departed. I grabbed Genevieve by the arm and yanked her out of the house.
    The next night the elderly woman made the man and I talk and get to know each other. He was very vain, but he seemed to like me a little bit more. The same stuff kept happening over and over again though. I ran into someone bigger than me and got called a freak and treated like one and then the elderly woman came along and made us buddies. Some of them were nice, others still had issues with my clothes, but most were beginning to get to know me for me. The same stuff kept happening to Genevieve, only Genevieve actually started the fights. She ended up introducing me to some very nice dames, who actually liked my top hat. I felt better in that house, no one was staring at our clothes, they were just accepting us as we were. Now, if only we could make the whole world that way. Well, at least it was a start.