I'm Not Real

Chapter Two

Chapter Two: A Lovely Day for a Lover

Once his three friends took their seats on either side and in front of him, Cherry had no choice but to sit behind him next to Senpai.
Senpai whispered something to her. She giggled and smirked at whatever he'd said.

Everything was fine up until third period. Keith had it with his group of friends along with Cherry.

Class started once the other students entered and took their seats. The teacher clapped, to which the students quieted down like elementary schoolers.
"Today, we'll be getting to know each other better!" The teacher said in a sing-songy voice "I'll put you in teams of three and you'll tell each other about yourselves!"

She began writing names on the board in rows, three in each row.

The second to last row read "Whitmore, Cherry, Keith"
'great.' Keith face palmed.
Once the names were written, everyone began to go to their partners.

Keith was never good with new people. And with Cherry there, he was bound to be made out to be a fool.

Cherry jumped up and grabbed Keith's burnt hand once again. "Whitmore?" She called. A tall boy in the 3rd row of seats motions us over there. The small student winced in pain as she dragged him about.

"Hi~!" Cherry said and dragged two chairs closer to Whitemore's desk, pulling Keith down with her as she sat. "I'm cherry! Nice to meet you!" Whitmore and Keith locked eyes. He looked as if he knew something was wrong but didn't know what. They both looked down seconds later. "C'mon introduce yourself, puppy!" Cherry nudged him and squeezed his hand.

"I-I'm Keith..." He said, sweating mildly in pain and anxiety. "You guys probably know my name, but you can call me Whitty." The tall student shrugged and looked at where the two other kids' hands connected.

"You should let go of his hand, he doesn't seem to like it." He pointed out bluntly. Cherry shook her head, "he's just shy! Right, dolly?" She dug her fingernails into his wounds, signaling the answer she wanted him to give. He only nodded. He knew if he said it out loud, he'd cry from the pain.

"What was that?" Cherry taunted with an innocent look.
"I-I'm f-fine." He spat out through a few tears.

Whitty looked displeased. He stood up and walked towards Keith, bending down to the shorter boys level, then looking back at his hand. He then pulled the two apart. Cherry was clearly pissed, while Keith was trying not to be scared of what she'd do to him later.

Whitty sighed and smiled at the blue haired boy and sat back down. "You shouldn't touch people without permission, you know." He glared at Cherry, her glaring back. All the while Keith put his face in his hands and tried not to let his burns and tears be seen

Suddenly the bell sounded. 'Perfect timin'.' Keith thought as Cherry angrily moved the chair back and stormed out with Senpai. The teacher just left to get her lunch so Cherry got away with kicking it into place.

"You good..? You were, um, are, crying?" Whitty bent down again, concerned.
"Whaddya mean he's cryin'?!" Darnell stood up from his desk. "You okay, dude?" Nene asked. Pico stood next to Keith and patted his head.

Whitty seemed a bit overwhelmed for a second but calmed down quickly.

Keith still wouldn't look up despite having stood up by then. "Let's go to our spot, kay?" Nene suggested. Keith looked up at her and nodded. He then looked to Whitty, and back to her. A childish gesture, but one Nene understood. "You wanna come with us?" She asked.

"There's this really cool room downstairs, it's the old gym, we're pretty sure. We keep our shit that we don't want confiscated there." Darnell explained.
"Are you aloud to do that?" "Probably not, but they did say on our sign up sheets for this year that we were aloud to go wherever except the offices, so..."

Whitty shrugged "lead the way." At this, Keith smiled a bit through his tears and hics. They walked downstairs into the art center, and at the end of the hall, there was a large door. It was dark inside the room. They opened it and shut the blinds each class door came with, turning on the dim lights.

When they got there, they sat down at the bleachers and Pico went to pick something up from the storage closet. "You guys come here, like every lunch, or?" Whitty asked Keith who'd recently called down a bit. He still wasn't as talkative as usual, but he wasn't crying so hard anymore. "Pretty much." He said quietly.

Darnell threw Keith a water bottle, "drink up." He yelled, "Clear ya throat and get some water back in ya system!" "Yes sir" Keith mock saluted and opened the bottle, drinking it.

"I've got my gun, nobody panic!" Pico yelled as he walked out of the storage closet. The tall student stared for a minute until he broke the silence, "What." It sounded less like a question than a statement, but Pico answered it as a question anyway. "My gun! Protection!" I need it!" He explained, jumping into the bleachers next to Keith, who sighed and shook his head fondly.

"You get used to em." He shrugged.
"You bet your ass you do!" Darnell and Nene shouted as Pico punched Keith's arm playfully, which did actually hurt, he had a real nasty bruise there.
Cherry had gotten mad at him for dropping her phone while trying to take a picture, and threw him on the ground then kicked him.

Keith rubbed his arm as he recalled that day's events.
Pico raised an eyebrow "you good?" Pico knew something was up. "Can't complain a bit, bitch." He smiled. "...okay." The redheaded student nodded, suspicious of him.

Whitty looked at Keith with the same skepticism. The two of them could scope out trouble a mile away.
Which is why they had a bad feeling about 7th period.