Pepe’s Frankenbuddy

[A middle grade story, ages 7-12, inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein]

 Photo by Matt Barnard from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/masked-wedding-couple-in-forest-setting-28968710/

            Pepe Rivera was always the odd kid out. He never quite fit right in and was labeled as “awkward” and just going through a phase since he was chubby, poor and had no friends. His mom, Sylvia, was a potter and his dad was out of the picture, so Pepe spent the days making art with her. She taught him to comb the streets for garbage he liked and make it into something exquisit by sundown, like she had learned from her friend Miz Cracker in the 2010s. So with her, he was never bored.

            One day, Pepe was walking home from school when Tyler and Buz, the school bullies, showed up and began to haggle him.

            “Hey chubby wad! Gonna go pick up trash with your mommy?” Tyler asked mockingly as Buddy laughed behind him as he pushed him off the side walk.

            “Maybe you should make a friend out of the trash!” Buz screamed at him as the bullies ran away.

            So as Pepe laid on the grass processing what just happened, he realized that the bullies weren’t so off on their idea. Make a friend out of the trash! So he got up, and decided to get straight to work. He pulled aluminum out of the garbage and soda cans out of the recycling. Pepe mixed it all with air dry clay and made his own creation.

            “I shall name him Frank,” said Pepe proudly.

            The next day, Pepe decided to take his creation to school to show off his brand new buddy, but was met with stares and raised eyebrows.

            “What’s that nerd turd?” asked Buz the bully as he tried to yank the creation out of Pepe’s hands.

            “Stop it, it’s mine!” Pepe yelled in defense.

            “Come take it from us,” said Tyler.

            The three fought back and forth Frank fell to the floor and broke into pieces.

            With tears in his eyes, Pepe looked at his buddy on the floor and fell to his knees. The bullies laughed at him and left him with the pile of garbage that made up Frank. But then something interesting happened. Fellow students went to help him and check on him to make sure Pepe was okay.

            “Pepe, how can we help your friend be put back together?” asked Marsha, a girl from his class.

            Pepe sniffled and said, “I don’t know.”

            “We can try glueing him back together!” exclamined a nerdy Walter.

            “Yeah, that sounds good,” said Marsha.

So the kids went to the art classroom and asked Mrs. McBride to help them put Frank back together during lunchtime. They glued him, sewed him and even painted on some new features.
            “What do you think, Pepe?” asked Walter.

“He’s perfect!” exclaimed a happy Pepe.

“We are so glad,” said Marsha. ”Now let’s go get some food. I’m hungry. You can sit with us, Pepe. Frank too.”

Pepe smiled, for he had finally made some friends. So moral of this story, you’ll find your place, your community, your people in life. No matter how awkward, poor or chubby you might be, you’ll find people that appriciate you and your weird, scary and random creations.