The Teddy Bear Eye Club

By Suzanne M. Hurley

Sometimes a person walks into your life and changes it forever.
That is exactly what happened to fourteen-year-old Mayah Lewis.
Depressed, she hides from the world, until she meets new girl, beautiful bald-headed Celeste Daniels. Her love of life, inspires Mayah to live again.
Everything begins looking up, until one day, Celeste disappears.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wings ePress, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781613092378

Book preview

THE TEDDYBEAR EYE CLUB

By

Suzanne M. Hurley

A Wings ePress, Inc. Young Adult Novel

Published by Wings ePress at Smashwords

http://www.books-by-wings-epress.com

Copyright © Suzanne Hurley 2015

ISBN 978-1-61309-237-8

All Right Reserved

Smashwords Edition

Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher. This is a work of historical fiction and as such word usage, grammar and spelling can be depicted of the setting and should not be confused with current word usage, grammar and spelling.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Electronic formats are numerous for the variety of readers now available. Due to the different formats there can be problems with fonts, spacing and words. Please realize the novel is edited and copy edited, and that these types of errors can happen after the fact.

Edited by: Jeanne Smith

Copy Edited by: Joan Powell

Senior Editor: Jeanne Smith

Executive Editor: Marilyn Kapp

Cover Artist: Trisha FitzGerald

Wings ePress Inc.

3000 N. Rock Road

Newton, KS 67114

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my mother, Mary Hurley, whose courage, strength and love of life was truly an inspiration to everyone she met. And to Shannon and Paula. Your beauty that shines from your heart, teaches me every day that God, Family and Friends, are what life is all about and that love is the essence of everything.

Also, to Mike and Rico, with all my love.

Although I spend many long hours alone writing my stories, they could not be created without the input, inspiration, feedback and laughter breaks from many people. I’d like to acknowledge and thank Mary Lou for listening intently to my plotlines and providing valuable insight, Lynda whose enthusiasm for writing inspires me, Dorothy and Teresa who encourage me in leaps and bounds, Sheila for her laughter which means a lot to me, my sister Maureen and my brother Brian and his wife Charlotte who promote my books tirelessly and my brother Peter, a fellow-author. Finally, I thank Trisha Fitzgerald for her thoughtful and delightful cover art. She is a joy to work with and her artistic skills, unsurpassed.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Epilogue

Other Works from this Author

What they are Saying About this Book

Meet the Author

One

Oh, what’s the point?

Fourteen-year-old Mayah Lewis threw the tube of lipstick at the mirror. It bounced off the glass, hit the wall and rolled under a stall.

She didn’t care.

She was the only one there, having sneaked out of boring Biology class when the teacher was writing their homework on the board. Mostly hating the way she looked, she didn’t like doing her makeup when anyone was around and she wanted to look good—or at least relatively okay—cuz Joey Marshall was in her next class and she had a huge crush on him. This way she had the girls’ bathroom to herself, for at least a few minutes, since no one was supposed to be in there during instruction time, unless it was a dire emergency.

She stared at her face—ugly freckles creating swirls of uneven patterns across her nose and cheeks that no amount of foundation cream seemed to cover, beady blue eyes, two zits on her chin big enough to ski down and long, wiry red hair that curled as if having a life of its own. Blue eyes were usually an asset, except hers were a dull pale blue. Not attractive in the least.

Sigh.

She dumped the rest of her make-up in her backpack, flipped her mirror image the bird, shouting out, Forget it. It’s hopeless.

No, it’s not.

What the…?

She turned to watch beautiful, blond Kitty Richards come swinging around the corner, her golden curls flying behind her.

Mayah was stunned.

She’d looked when she came in and hadn’t seen anyone, but she’d forgotten about the wheelchair accessible stall way at the back, basically because no one ever went there. Or at least that was what she’d thought, since no one was in a wheelchair in the whole school. Obviously, that was where Kitty was, which was kinda weird. She was not handicapped in the least—or at least not physically. Now, personality-wise, maybe a bit, or at least she always came across stuck-up as anything.

Crap.

Mayah had no luck whatsoever.

And why, oh why, had she picked up Isobel’s habit of talking out loud when alone? It was bad enough to agonize about her face, but to have a witness was horrifying. And especially Kitty, the most gorgeous girl in grade nine, if not the whole school. Yep, she was stereotypically tall and thin with one of those perfect complexions. No way would pimples ever take up residence there—she was a masterpiece. And to think she was smiling, looking real friendly-like.

Yeah, right.

Kitty’d never spoken to her before. She only associated with the ‘cool’ crowd, not paying any attention to the rest of the so-called losers. Today must be just a pity call, like mock the ugly girl by building her up, then ripping her down later—probably in front of a crowd of students all laughing at her.

Embarrassed, wanting to die, Mayah ignored her and tore out of the room, down the hall to a door at the back of the auditorium. She pulled out her key, inserted it, tugged it open and ran up the stairs to the projection room. This was her hideaway, for no one ever came here during the day and it was only used when there were assemblies or plays.

Opening up one of the cupboards, she dug around, lifting up a slew of brand new light bulbs that’d been stored there.

Good.

Her emergency box of chocolate chip cookies was still there.

Grabbing a few, she hid them again and plopped down on one of the old raggedy chairs, apparently purchased at a garage sale, or so the story went. Someone had dragged them up the stairs to become a permanent fixture in the small room. Ugly but comfortable, this was her refuge several times a day.

Luckily, she’d discovered it when she’d joined the sound crew at the beginning of the year. Of course, she’d only gone to two meetings before she’d realized everyone was a senior and no one was interested in the new freshman girl’s help. So she’d quit. But not before she’d secured a duplicate key, loaned to her by the head member, namely because she was the only one who had volunteered to come in extra early one morning to set up a microphone for a ‘before school’ drama rehearsal. She’d just never returned it and fortunately, he hadn’t noticed. Rumor had it that he was in possession of several illegal copies, so guess missing one of them flew under the radar. Sure that was sneaky and she’d be in big trouble if the principal ever found out, but for now, it was like her own little office—a place to hide. And that was what she was into these days—wanting to hide as much as possible, from everyone and everything.

Crunching on a cookie, all she could think about was why Kitty, of all people, had to be there. They were both in the same grade, but Kitty was some kind of goddess here and had been since she’d first walked in the school doors. She’d even been the Peach Princess at the festival last summer and articles had been written in the Hamilton Spectator about how beautiful and poised she was. Enough to make you gag—several times, in fact.

For sure, Kitty would probably spread all through their ninth grade class the fact that Mayah was a crazy, talking-to-herself psycho.

Stressed out even more, she wolfed down another cookie. She could just picture it now—she’d be shunned—labelled as some kind of freak, which would probably follow her all through high school. After all, everyone always listened to what Kitty said. In fact, they hung onto her every word.

Sigh.

She wished Molly were there. Okay, yeah, that was a weird thought, since Molly was her old teddy bear. And fourteen-year-olds didn’t still cling to childhood toys. Did they? But Isobel had given it to her when she was two years old, saying, Look, she has the same color of hair as you, and it was her ‘go to’ whenever she was sad. Hugging the old stuffed animal, somehow always made her feel better. But then again, if anyone saw her hugging a straggly, hairy, orange bear, that’d be even worse.

Sigh.

If only it were two years ago and she didn’t know that life could be so horrible when you looked like a tall, skinny carrot, or a bean pole, or a ‘Beanrot’ as Freddy Murphy called her—thinking he was clever, combining bean with the last part of carrot, due to the fact she was actually six feet tall with orange hair. Yeah, she was a real ‘gawky’ kind of kid, or that was what she’d overheard Mrs. Martin call her when she was talking to Isobel last summer, her voice so loud Mayah could hear her all through the house. She was already self-conscious about her height and slumped over a lot, but gawky seemed downright mean and totally unflattering.

And to think Kitty had seen her.

Perfect Kitty, who could rival Amanda Seyfried with her good looks. Apparently she was smart too, did well in school and was also very athletic. She’d even heard that John Basey, who was a senior and hot as could be, had asked her to the Christmas dance. And here it was only October. But he was making sure no one else got to her before he did.

How could one kid have it all?

It just wasn’t fair.

She looked down at her long skinny legs, envying Kitty, not just for her beauty but for her athleticism, because although Mayah was on the school newspaper staff and did kinda well, she’d always wanted to play basketball. With her height, you’d think she’d be a natural but nope, turned out she was a klutz. Even tried out for the team, but kept tripping over her own two feet. Of course, Kitty made the team. That was a given.

She tossed down another cookie just as the bell rang.

Time to get to class.

At least it was Drama, which was kinda interesting and who knew, maybe Joey would smile at her today. He did once before, when they had to act out fairy tales. By luck, or divine intervention, they had been paired up and had chosen a scene from Rapunzel. Of course, having curly red hair, not the token flowing golden hair, ruined the moment and got everyone laughing, but Joey had just grinned and said, Ignore them, and for that moment, she’d been in heaven. Total bliss.

The second warning bell rang.

Not wanting to be late and end up getting a detention, she eased herself out of the chair, thrust aside her thoughts and hurried down the stairs. Fumbling with the doorknob, she set it to lock when she went through. That way she didn’t have to mess around with the key and chance getting caught. Luckily, this particular hall wasn’t used much, as it was out of the way from the main foyer and there were no classrooms in the area, just the auditorium.

Keeping her head down, like she did every day, slumping over, trying to pretend she was small, she flew down the hall to her classroom.

Hey, Beanrot.

Oh no! She knew that loud, obnoxious voice. Freddy!

Ignoring him, she broke into a run.

Hey, wait up.

She kept on going, jogging faster and faster until she got to the doorway of her classroom where she raced in and quickly sat down, so glad Freddy didn’t take this class. She ignored the fact that he was standing in the doorway waving at her and quickly glanced over at Joey, who was paying no attention to her whatsoever, but was busy chatting with Frank Evans, who was showing him some video or something on his iPad. But then again, that was the norm. Joey never really did acknowledge her except that one time. But she always hoped.

I think this is yours.

Mayah swung her head around to find Kitty standing there, smiling, and holding out her lipstick.

You know, with your hair color, a deeper shade of coral would look better. She smiled. My mom’s an aesthetician so I know about stuff like this. It would make your face pop more.

Pop? I’d like to pop her—right in the mouth—thought Mayah, noticing everyone staring at them. After all, it was probably big news—the ‘cool’ girl was talking to the ‘loser’.

She snatched it from Kitty’s hand, threw it in her backpack, and grumbled, Uh, thanks.

The nerve of Kitty telling her what would look good on her.

Was she being sarcastic? Rude? Drawing attention to how ugly Mayah was?

She put her head down and ignored her. She didn’t need Kitty’s assessment of her make-up requirements.

In fact, she didn’t need anyone.

Not anymore.

Suddenly there was a rustle of sound, a few shocked ‘whats?’ Then…total silence.

Curious, Mayah looked up.

Her breath caught in her throat.

Two

Standing in the doorway was a girl she’d never seen before.

And she was bald.

Like there was not one hair on her head.

Mayah gasped in shock—loudly.

The new girl looked her way and their eyes locked. Embarrassed, Mayah could feel her face redden as she put her head down again. But only for a moment. Mesmerized, she sneaked another peek.

She also had no eyebrows.

What was even more amazing was that she didn’t look the least bit embarrassed. She was smiling widely as she glanced around the classroom, as if taking everyone and everything in.

I’d be mortified meeting new people with no hair, thought Mayah. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have come to school at all.

Drama teacher Mrs. Johnson came whipping in beside her, beckoning the girl to follow her.

Class, I’d like to you meet Celeste Daniels. She’s new and will be joining us from now on.

Hello, said Celeste, grinning ear-to-ear.

Hi, said the classroom, in unison, sounding like little kids in kindergarten or something. Usually, if someone new arrived or a visitor popped their head in, there’d be a few grunts of acknowledgement. Then, they’d be prompted by Mrs. Johnson to remember their manners. But the new girl had thrown everyone off. She was just so strange-looking.

Celeste has moved here to Hamilton from Ottawa, so I’m sure she has lots of tales to tell about our nation’s capital, continued Mrs. Johnson. I hope you will all put forth a great effort to make her feel welcomed here. It can be tough starting over in a new school, especially a month into the semester. And, as you know, I’m very fond of the buddy system, so I thought I’d pair her up with Kitty Richards to show her around.

Mayah couldn’t help but notice Kitty roll her eyes, then quickly compose herself and plant a wide, friendly smile on her face.

Thank you, Mrs. Johnson. I’ll take good care of Celeste, said Kitty, sounding excited and encouraging.

Fake, for sure, but it figured she’d be picked. Even though she was nasty to everyone but a handful of those she apparently felt were worthy of her friendship, Kitty was golden to teachers—always being nice to them, sucking up by giving them presents and volunteering to help all the time. And much to Mayah’s disgust, they bought right into the whole bogus front she hid behind.

Sigh.

Mayah watched with interest as Celeste made her way to a seat near the blond goddess. The more she looked, the more she couldn’t get over how darn cute the new girl was—like a saucy little imp with big, beautiful, dark blue eyes enhanced by pale blue eye shadow. Her cheeks had a sweep of blush, highlighting gorgeous cheek bones and pale pink covered her lips. Wow, Mayah was starting to think like Kitty or some kind of fashion expert, but really, this girl was perfection.

But she still couldn’t get over how she had just waltzed in, not looking self-conscious in the least, bald as a newborn.

Actually, even most newborns had at least some hair.

If that were me, I’d be slinking in, head down, ignoring everyone, thought Mayah. Or she’d definitely be wearing a wig. Or wouldn’t come to school at all and demand to be homeschooled.

Not this Celeste character. She acted as if nothing was wrong and it was completely normal not to have any hair.

Mayah was equally disgusted and in awe.

What was her story?

Was she sick? Had chemo?

She didn’t look sick.

Or did she lose her hair from stress like that teacher in her elementary school who retired? Isobel said she must have a condition called alopecia because her hair kept falling out, but she wasn’t really sick.

Or…was it a fashion statement? Was she trying to create a trend?

Totally weird.

Now, class. Let’s get started on The Taming of the Shrew. We’ll go around the class taking turns reading it out loud.

Groan.

Drama class seemed to drag on. Just sitting there reading was not much fun