Uniquely The Same - Luca (Pixar) Fanfic

Seeing Things For The First Time

2 years later

I was finally finishing primary school. The smile on my face as the last day of school arrived was probably unmistakably the biggest smile in the whole darn universe. And I should know, I studied it in class.

I waved goodbye to some of my schoolmates as I stepped out of my final class for the year and my smile grew even bigger when I saw Giulia. I quickly waved to her and she giggled, waving her tanned hand back at me.

"Can you believe it, Luca?" She said with a small slight grin growing up her mouth, "We did it!" I beamed back as she continued with excitement, "We did the impossible and passed SCHOOL!"

"Oh, how I'll miss this place," I replied, patting the brick wall in the hallway we were both walking down, "The many hours of study, the many days writing till my hand was blue."

We both looked at each other that second with smirks on our mouths.

"Your hand is blue... sometimes," Giulia responded and we both cracked into laughter. The red-headed girl suddenly stiffened up as she seemed to realize something, "Mama Mia! I forgot a book!" She went and ran it back to the last class she was in and I stood there in the hall, rolling back and forth on my feet as I waited for her return.

I tensed, however, myself, when I saw who was coming down the hallway and I pushed up against the wall, hoping they would pass me with no hassle.

I was wrong.

"Luca, Luca..." The older boy said to me, a dangerous look present deep in his eyes, "Going back to the sewer are you?"

"N-no," I uttered afraid, and the boy rammed me against the wall, pinning me there as he glared into my brown eyes.

"Are you sure about that, Luca?" He asked coldly and then spat on my face, my skin turning blue from the liquid, "Monsters like you should be kept in a tank."

"Leave HIM alone, you big bully!"

I let a relieved smile slip up my mouth as Giulia came storming down the hall toward the menacing boy and slapped him on the back of the head.

He just glared at her, before clutching my shirt and ripping me forward, making me crash into the ground.

"Here's your pet, witch."

"ENOUGH." She replied in an angry yell. He smiled darkly before walking off in a cold chilled stride.

"Ah, Luca!" Giulia said to me quickly as she bent down on her knees and helped me stand back up, "You have to learn how to protect yourself when I'm not around."

That hurt for some reason when she said that. I did not know why. For years as a sea creature, I would go up against sharks and killer whales. Yet I couldn't even handle one school bully. My eyes were welling with tears and as they rolled down my cheeks, blue skin streamed after them, in place.

"Giulia, I was handling it." I finally muttered, wiping the wetness with the back of my hand. She looked at me worried before asking.

"Who was that boy anyway?"

"Antonio..." I whispered, just in case he would hear me somehow, "Usually he doesn't hassle me in public... I guess because it's our last day that he-"

"W-w-wait." Giulia quickly interrupted by putting her hand up to my mouth and adding, "Usually? Has he been at you for a while?"

"What..." I stretched out and thought quickly in my head, don't tell her for a year, don't tell her for a year, "Er..." I mumbled then smiled charmingly and uttered, "No, not at all."

"Hmm..." Giulia only murmured out and froze when the school's last bell went and it was now time for all the kids to leave, "C'mon."

~x~

We arrived back at her mother's house within the hour and Giulia's mother was busy painting flowers in a vase, that stood on a table before her easel and paints.

"Hello, Mama." She said to her mom and kissed her on the cheek as she went away into the kitchen to get something to eat.

"Good evening, Miss Jelapactia"

"Ah, Luca," She sighed in return with a tired smile on her face, "Please, just call me Maria."

"Sorry," I said nervously, rolling on the soles of my feet, "Just the way my parents raised me."

"And they did a good job." She replied with warm eyes. She pat me on my brown bouncy hair and nudged her head to the kitchen indicating for me to go in for some reason.

I smiled nervously, my arms swinging slightly as I headed to the other room, and there it was, a giant cream cake on the kitchen bench. Giulia was just there, gawking at it with drool nearly running down her chin.

"For Luca and Giulia..." I read the words that were in white icing on the cake's top, "Have a wonderful summer together!"

"Yes! Yes!" Giulia said as she got out a sharp knife like a maniac and aimed it for the cake's guts.

"Giulia!" Her mother called as the older woman quickly came into the room and pinched the knife off her daughter, "Tonight we have it, to fill your heads with sweet sugary dreams!"

"Aye ya!" Giulia just groaned and plopped on the seat just before the delicious cake, "I'm not leaving till I get some cake."

Her mother sighed and walked off. I looked between the two of them, not knowing which one to support.

"Game of poker, Luca?" Giulia asked pulling out a deck of cards from her pocket.

"Luca? Would you like to paint with me?" Her mother called from away.

"I, er-" I peeped, not knowing which one to go to.

"Luca...?" Giulia said with a sweet sigh and I felt my little heart skip a beat at her voice. That... had never happened before... and I looked shyly back at Giulia.

She cocked an eyebrow up shaking the deck in her hand and I smiled slightly deliriously back at her. I was twelve years old now, and the opposite gender was seeming to become more elusive and hard to understand. For me and Giulia were both nearly teens... and the hormones were starting to remind us of that.

"Er!" I yelped and pointed both my hands' index fingers to the other room as a blush skimmed my cheeks, "Your mother needs me."

"But-?"

"Ciao!" I squeaked and hurried to her mother. Her mother stared at me as if knowing something I didn't yet and asked.

"You okay, Luca?"

"Uh-huh... but I think I just realized something."

"What?" She asked with a spark in her eyes, almost reading my mind. I gulped and uttered.

"That Giulia... is a girl."