The Cat That Went to Homecoming Read online

  The Cat That Went to Homecoming

  by Julie Otzelberger

  Published by

  Fire and Ice

  A Young Adult Imprint of Melange Books, LLC

  White Bear Lake, MN 55110

  www.fireandiceya.com

  The Cat That Went to Homecoming, Copyright 2014 by Julie Otzelberger

  ISBN: 978-1-61235-822-2

  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. 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.

  Published in the United States of America.

  Cover Design by Lynsee Lauritsen

  THE CAT THAT WENT TO HOMECOMING

  by Julie Otzelberger

  The Cat That Went To Homecoming is the coming of age story of Ellen Jones, an overweight teenage girl from a single family home. She is under constant attack by her peers, bullied because of her weight and her family's poverty. Through volunteer work with her cat, Hershey, Ellen finds her self esteem and the courage to stand up to her bullies. Along the way, she discovers what true friendship and forgiveness are and tells us how Hershey became The Cat That Went To Homecoming.

  "The Cat That Went To Homecoming addresses many serious social issues including family separation, bullying, homophobia, social isolation, and depression. The compelling story is also about fun, friendship, and forgiveness."

  —Paula Scott-Ginn, Pet Partners Marketing Coordinator

  Table of Contents

  "The Cat That Went to Homecoming"

  Foreword

  Preface

  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

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  About the Author

  Previews

  Foreword

  Pet Partners® is proud to have played a role in Julie Otzelberger’s coming-of-age novel, The Cat that went to Homecoming. Written from the perspective of a bullied teenage girl named Ellen, the story describes many positive changes that occur during the summer that Ellen begins her journey toward becoming a Pet Partners therapy animal team with her cat Hershey.

  Do you like stories where the ‘good guys’ get revenge on the ‘bad guys’? If so, this isn’t the book you’re looking for. The Cat that went to Homecoming is instead a novel where compassion and maturity triumph. That doesn’t mean the story is dull—actually, quite the opposite is true!

  The Cat that went to Homecoming addresses many serious social issues including family separation, bullying, homophobia, social isolation, and depression. The compelling story is also about fun, friendship and forgiveness. The transformations throughout the novel are not always a direct result of Hershey’s affectionate personality, but Ellen does gain self-confidence as she gets involved with Pet Partners. This strength helps her overcome many other problems in her life.

  Pet Partners was established in 1977 as Delta Society by several veterinarians and a psychiatrist who recognized the importance of the human-animal bond. They proposed and funded initial research that proves the health and emotional benefits of interacting with pets. Now recognized as a legitimate field of study, Animal-Assisted Therapy continues to be researched and taught within major universities.

  As the organization evolved, it launched one of the first visiting animal programs in 1990. Volunteers team with their calm, affectionate pets to provide comfort, motivation and entertainment to residents of nursing homes, hospitals, schools, and other facilities where animals are not typically allowed. Major health care organizations now consider Pet Partners to be the gold standard. We currently register over 11,000 therapy animal teams across North America. Although the majority of registered therapy animals are dogs and cats, Pet Partners also registers horses, rabbits, birds and other domesticated species.

  Ms. Otzelberger told us that the character of Hershey is based upon her own cat Bear. She and Bear recently became a registered Pet Partners therapy animal team and are already experiencing what other teams report to us daily; that visiting people in facilities where pets cannot be kept is just as beneficial for the therapy animal handler as it is for the person visited.

  Most high schools now require a certain number of community service hours from students. If you have a special pet—and if it makes you happy to bring joy to other people—you’ll be interested in reading about the steps Ellen and Hershey take together to become a registered Pet Partners therapy animal team. Of course, you’ll enjoy a lot of other things about this novel too; the main characters will seem like good friends and you’ll be hoping that Ms. Otzelberger writes another book about Ellen and Hershey soon!

  Paula Scott-Ginn

  Pet Partners Marketing Coordinator

  Bellevue, WA

  July 2013

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to my daughter, Ashley “Peanut” Marie, and to the bullies in her life who helped to shape her into the strong, compassionate woman she is today.

  I have to thank the many bullies in my past life for shaping my life as well. You broke me down, you hurt me, but you made me a better person than you. Thank you all for showing me that ugliness is not only skin deep and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

  Kevin, thank you for always loving me no matter what the scale said or what the size tag on my dress read. You’ve always made me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.

  Sharon Hust, Kathy Shultz, and Mom: thank you for your invaluable editorial help.

  I love my sisters with all my heart, my Mother and Father, my Stepmother, my Aunt Marilyn, my Mother–In-law, Stepson, and Bother-in-law. Thank you all for being in my life. There are so many more! I don’t have space to name you all, but you are all special.

  Kelly Rea, Nadine Uttke, Kathy Schulz, and Kris Ochocki: you know why! XOXO

  Preface

  “We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.”

  Immanuel Kant, German philosopher

  Chapter One

  It didn’t matter whether he was my date or not, Hershey would be going to Homecoming with me! For two weeks I had taken painstaking efforts to keep my dress pristine. My one mistake was laying it across the bed outside the confines of its protective garment bag while I showered. Oh well, I should have known Hershey wouldn’t let Ellen Ellen Watermelon go to her first dance without him.

  Homecoming is the first big event of the school year. It centers on a football game played to honor the alumni of the school, and during halftime a senior boy and a senior girl are crowned the “Homecoming King and Queen”. It’s really nothing more than a popularity contest. To me it’s a very shallow and meaningless event, but to the popular crowd, it is the highlight of the year.

  Dressing up and having my hair and nails professionally styled wa
s so out of character for a simple girl like me. If you had told me a four months ago that I would be doing this, I would have thought you were joking. But the unthinkable happened; the fat girl was going to Homecoming! Let me tell you how it happened.

  My real name is Ellen Jones, not Ellen Ellen Watermelon. My mom and I lived alone in a dumpy house in the poor side of a subdivision in rural Wisconsin. I have no idea how my parents could afford the house in the first place. After they divorced, Mom and I stayed in the house while my dad moved on to another state with another woman, raising another child, and forgot all about me. I often wished Mom and I had been the ones to move out of state. Maybe the kids in Ohio were nicer than the ones here.

  My parents split up when I was in seventh grade. Shortly after my dad moved out, my mom got me a kitten to help me cope. He was a little black fluff ball with big blue eyes that changed to green when he got older. I named him Hershey, my little Hershey Kiss

  We lived in small rural community where most of the residents were moderately wealthy families. You know, where the moms didn’t have to work, “Soccer Moms” as my mom put it, and the dads wore suits and ties to work. The kids all wore name-brand clothing and expensive shoes. Girls my age went to hairdressers for cuts regularly and some even got their hair colored.

  My mom worked as a cashier at the local Wal-Mart and did her best to support us. She couldn’t buy me Nike shoes, but I never complained. Nikes wouldn’t stop the kids from teasing me anyway. I had never been to a hairdresser. My mom cut my hair herself and she did a fine job.

  I was overweight. Most of our meals consisted of high calorie staples Mom would get at the local food pantry: salty government cheese, canned chili, and canned veggies. Fresh fruits, vegetables, and other perishables are not usually given out. Mom was able to buy us those things most of the time, but during the leaner weeks of the month, we relied on grilled cheese sandwiches or Hamburger Helper.

  Hershey was overweight too. We could not afford to feed him high-end cat food so he ate the less expensive commercial brands. He also ate a lot of “people food” that I shared with him. After all, he and I were best friends so we shared everything! He was the most important companion in my life so if he wanted the crust from my sandwich, he got it. His comfort was of the utmost importance to me. He slept next to me every night and if I needed to roll over, I would do it carefully so I wouldn’t disrupt his sleep.

  Grade school was the most traumatic time of my life because I was teased mercilessly. My classmates would call me “JMS” because jeans from Abercrombie and Fitch didn’t fit girls built like me. I wore Just My Size from Wal-Mart. They also called me “Ellen Ellen Watermelon.” They would poke me with sharpened pencils to see if I’d pop like a balloon. I was always picked last in gym class. I didn’t want anyone to see my fat jiggle, so I never ran. Nobody wants someone on their kickball team who walks to base. In dodge ball, I was a favorite target. God, how I hated dodge ball!

  Graduating from grade school to high school did not improve matters at all. You would think high school aged people would be a little more grown up, but that wasn’t the case.

  On the last day of my sophomore geometry class, I drifted off into my favorite fantasy. It was about Prom. I was walking to a limo wearing a beautiful gown and feeling like a princess. In the misty distance of the fantasy, holding the back door open for me, stood my date. He was the most popular boy in grade school who became even more popular in high school.

  “You are so beautiful.” John said to me as he pinned a corsage to my dress.

  Before I could respond, Mrs. Johnson burst the bubble of my daydream!

  “Ellen?” she said in an annoyed tone.

  I shook away the dream and said, “I’m sorry, what did you say Mrs. Johnson?”

  “I said please come up to the blackboard and show us how to solve the fourth equation.”

  Great! I had to stand in front of the class, solve an equation, and listen to the snickers behind me while my big butt faced the class.

  I slunk to the front of the room, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. I tried in vain to pull my shirt down as far as I could to cover my butt. My palms were sweating and I couldn’t concentrate. All I could think of was the embarrassing comments that would be whispered behind me.

  I started to work on the equation, but my sweaty hands made the chalk a little pasty and I ended up dropping it. My classmates started laughing so Mrs. Johnson “shhhssshhed” them. Unfortunately, I had to bend over to pick up the chalk. I closed my eyes to squeeze back tears as I bent over and waited for the inevitable screams of feigned horror.

  “Cover your eyes!” John Peck cried. He was my fantasy Prom date. In real life he was the school’s star quarterback and point guard. Not only did he excel in football and basketball, but he had dated every cheerleader and excelled in breaking their hearts.

  “John, be quiet.” That was all Mrs. Johnson said. After all, she never had my back in these situations. Why would she? Mrs. Johnson was all of 120 pounds, had long blonde hair, and was very pretty. All the boys in the class were in love with her, including John Peck. The opposite was true of the girls. All of the girls in the class hated Mrs. Johnson because they were all in love with John Peck.

  I straightened up with the piece of chalk in hand and began to quickly and incorrectly finish the math equation. I wanted to sit back down as soon as possible. I wanted to slide down in my chair and escape this classroom full of beautiful people. I scribbled a bunch of numbers on the board, put the chalk down, and faced Mrs. Johnson.

  “Ellen, that’s not correct,” she said shaking her head in disgust while erasing my work. “John, please come up here and show us how to do this equation.”

  John stood up and walked toward me, exaggeratingly squeezing between me and Mrs. Johnson’s desk to get to the blackboard. I returned to my seat, my face flushed with humiliation and holding back tears. I was accustomed to the tight feeling in my throat and chest when holding in tears. I did it daily. There was no way I would let these people see me cry; it was bad enough they had to see me in gym shorts!

  John finished the equation, correctly of course, and smugly walked back to his seat behind me. As he sat down, he asked me, “Are all fat people as stupid as you are?” Everyone within earshot laughed. Then he poked me with his pencil and made a pop sound. I didn’t respond, I never responded to any comments they made. I thought that if they thought I was deaf, maybe they would eventually stop and move on to someone else.

  Chapter Two

  The hierarchy of the school bus was always the cool kids in the back, and the unpopular kids in the front. I always sat in the seat directly behind the bus driver and no one ever sat next to me. The beauty of this arrangement was that I could put my book bag on the seat and not have to hold it on my lap. It also meant I didn’t have to listen to the beautiful people discussing the fun things they had planned for the weekend; the slumber parties I wasn’t invited to, who was going to meet up at the skating rink, and who was going to the mall to shop at stores that didn’t have clothes that fit me.

  The downside to this arrangement was that the bus driver would try to strike up conversations with me. Since she was always shouting at the cool kids to sit down, or stop hanging out of the window, she was not very well liked. I didn’t want anyone to harass me for being friendly to the bus driver, so I put on my deaf act with her too. She eventually stopped trying to engage me in conversation, and for that I felt guilty.

  Every day at 3:45 p.m. the bus would drop me off at the end of my driveway. A few stops ahead, I would make sure to gather my belongings together so they were ready in my arms and I could escape the bus as quickly as possible. The bus driver would tell me to have a good night, but I always ignored her. I would step off the bus and look to my front window where I’d see Hershey waiting for me.

  The black cloud lifted from above me at that moment every afternoon and if I hadn’t been afraid the kids on the bus would see me, I would have run up the
driveway. Instead I just walked, smiling at Hershey, watching his fully erect tail flick back and forth and seeing his mouth open as he meowed at me. When I neared the door, he would jump down from the window and seconds later, as I opened the door, there he would be to greet me!

  My mom was usually working when I got home from school. In two hours she’d be home to cook dinner, but I couldn’t wait to eat something. I hadn’t eaten lunch at school for two years. I was usually all alone at the lunch table, but one day in eighth grade, a group of kids sat around me to watch me eat.

  “You shouldn’t eat that Watermelon, you’re already too fat.”

  That was John Peck, and that was the last day I ate lunch at school. Instead I waited until I got home and stuffed myself with whatever I could get my hands on. Hershey especially liked it when I ate a bowl of cereal because he got the milk when I was finished.

  After sharing my snack with him, I would plop down on the couch and turn on the TV. Hershey sat on my lap purring and kneading while I rubbed his chin and stroked his back. Once he was content, he would flop into my lap and roll onto his back, allowing me to pet his soft tummy. This action is the greatest gift a cat can give a human, for offering the belly means the cat has complete trust in you.

  After our petting and purring session, Hershey would race me to my bedroom; he always won the race! He jumped onto my bed and positioned himself at the head of the bed waiting for me to lie down, pull the pillow beneath my chest, and lay out my homework in front of me. Then he would climb onto my back and start kneading while I worked on my assignment. This was my reward for enduring the grueling day at school, a massage from my best friend!