Tusktaker's Secret Part 1

Lorka Tusktaker isn’t exactly a typical orc teenager. Most orcs her age spend their free time fighting, maintaining their hunting gear, goofing around with a large group of friends and getting into trouble. Lorka likes to spend most of her time reading. She enjoyed learning more around the world around her, especially humans.  Human culture and books have always been her favorite subjects. It’s part of the reason she chose to enroll in an integrated human/monster highschool. There is something about the way they express themselves through literature. She can’t quite put her finger on it, but draws her in. Still, she struggled with the language a good bit at first, as most orcs do. But Lorka isn’t dumb by any means. She’s been very successful in her math and science courses. English can be a pain in the ass because she’s terrible at grammar, that’s always been her weak point. But a strong orc doesn’t ask for help from their problems, so she bears through it by herself. Asking for help is a sign of weakness after all, especially on something as trivial as English.

Unfortunately, Lorka’s friends don’t share her interest in academics or reading. They are more focused on competing to prove who the strongest orc is or telling crude stories about what they would do the boys they liked if the school’s new management wasn’t so strict on “proactive dating”. Often times Lorka would sneak away to read her books by herself at lunch, or hide her books in old Orcish hunting guides or war stories. She loves her friends, but having no outlet for her nerdier side causes Lorka an immense amount of frustration. Sometimes she goes on the internet and posts on image boards or forums to relieve her boredom but it’s not the same as personal contact.
There is one person she wants to share this side of herself with. He’s a nerd named Thomas. Always sits near the front so he can’t be harassed by the other students. He’s somewhat scrawny and pretty short (well compared to most monster girls) but he’s kind and very intelligent. Lorka often sees him help other students with school work. Unfortunately, most other monster girls ignore him. A helpful person, they say, but not boyfriend material. So Lorka sees him reading by himself more often than not. She wants to know more about him, and share her love of books with him. But she’s too afraid of spoiling her reputation and looking weak in front of the girls by dating the little “humie.”

One day she is bullying her “nerd.” Her favorite pastimes is to grab his latest book and tease him about what he is reading.  She pulls the book above his head and makes him jump for it while she recites passages from it.(Though she makes it a point to only read aloud the parts he’s read. Spoiling a good story is a horrible sin after all.) Her friends find it endlessly amusing, listening to the mushy stuff the little “humie” reads. Lorka secretly takes it as a chance to fish for book recommendations. Usually Thomas gives up after a couple minutes of trying to pry the book from her hands, offering to help Lorka with homework or by giving her cash to get the novel back.But today is different. He just stares at her and sighs.
 "Look, I've read that one before. It's one of my favorites. Just take it. "he tells her.
He starts to walk out of the classroom. Lorka’s friends are snickering. It's the first time he's ever done something like this. Before he leaves, he turns around.
 "Give it a read. Maybe you'll like it.”
Lorka gives him an arrogant laugh and slams it into a trash can. Thomas shakes his head and walks out of the room, muttering something about boneheaded orcs under his breath. Lorka's friends high five her and pat her on the back. When everyone else left, Lorka fished the book out of the trashcan and hid it in her backpack. She turned it over and looked at the cover.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.