Behavioural Tutor

10 // Tommy's Return

It had been six days. Six days since Tommy had left and not returned to school (two of which were the weekend). It was now a dull Monday morning, grey clouds and slight drizzle, but nothing out of the ordinary British weather.

Phil stood outside the school gates, desperately scouting around for Tommy, like he had done every day since he ran off. Of course, he wasn't actually expecting anything, so surprise would be an understatement when he spotted a very tired looking Tommy shuffle towards the main school building.

"Tommy! Tommy there you are - I've been so worried! Where have you been!?"

Tommy looked at the ground and just shrugged. He was trying to stay hidden until he found someone to have another fight with, and besides - he didn't want to say anything; it wasn't hard to recognise the raspiness of his voice from all of his crying. Turns out Tommy didn't have to say anything.

Phil took one look at the boy and instantly knew something was wrong. He was covered in purple, red and orange marks. There were visible bags under his eyes, and his face looked drained of energy. There were cuts and scrapes all over his limbs - some going worryingly deep beneath the skin. Not to mention his black eye.

Of course, Phil knew better than to pressure Tommy into telling him. He'd seen how well that worked out last time. His only hope was that Bad could pry some valuable information out of him at lunchtime.

"Wanna go see the nurse?"

"I- I'm fine Phil." Tommy was clearly not fine, and his voice came out as little more than a whisper.

"Fine... then let's go to class."Phil started moving forward, but realised Tommy wasn't moving. "Tommy?"

That's when he saw it. Tommy's foot was positioned in a very unnatural position. Why would he hide something like that?

"Tommy, if you're not going to the nurse, you're going to the hospital. You are very clearly injured."

Tommy opened his mouth to protest, but was interrupted before he would get any words out.

"You're either going to the nurse, or going to the hospital." Guess he had no choice then.

Sighing, he took a step forward, only for his bad foot to completely give way, causing him to fall into Phil's arms.

"Careful there."

Phil carried Tommy bridal-style to the office, and laid him down on the bed.

"Back again?" Niki appeared in-front of them, coming over to inspect Tommy's foot."Looks worse than it is. Take some ice."

Phil looked skeptical, but decided not to question Niki's nursing knowledge.

"To class, then Tommy?"

Tommy hopped of of the bed, and limped his way out of the small office.

"Bye Tommy!" Niki waved goodbye, but it was kind of pointless considering Tommy was out of the room, and already half way down the corridor.

He was trying to create as much distance as possible between him and Phil. Of course, it was just his luck when he walked head-on into someone's chest.

"Why don't you watch the fuck where yo-" Tommy stopped mid-sentence when he realised who it was. "...Techno?"

"Tommy, what have you been doing? You look like shit." Thanks Techno.

Tommy just shrugged, and tried to walk away.

"Hold up, kid." Techno grabbed Tommy's wrist and pulled him closer.

"Fuck off!" Tommy yanked his wrist back, and held it close to his chest. Techno was about to say something else, but Tommy just flipped him off, and ran away. So much for apologising.

Techno was planning to talk to Tommy on behalf of Wilbur, as he had made it very clear to Techno that he wasn't going to do it himself. However, Techno hadn't heard nor seen Tommy since the intercom incident. Needless to say, it had made him very worried, and seeing Tommy covered in scrapes, with a black eye, definitely didn't ease his conscience. Something was going on - he was sure of it.

Tommy ran into class, not bothering to explain why he was late, and took his usual seat at the back of the classroom. Soon after, Phil followed.

"You need to stop running off." He whispered to Tommy.

"You need to stop following me!" Tommy's whisper wasn't really a whisper at all. It was more like a stage whisper - a shout that sounds like a whisper, but in reality is much, much louder.

Tommy began his mindless doodles once again, but this time they consisted of a lot more words than doodles. They were just whatever popped into his head. It was like a stress coping mechanism, and allowed him to fully zone out. After what only felt like two minutes to Tommy, the bell rang, signalling the end of the lesson.

"This week's homework will be on calculating the speed of a moving object. I expect it to be handed in to me by Wednesday's lesson." The teacher said this in a very dull voice, sounding as though they would rather be anywhere but there. Phil was quick to make note of this.

"Don't worry Tommy - I'll do it." Tommy just rolled his eyes and put away his 'notes'.

On the way out of the classroom, Tommy bumped into a frazzled looking Tubbo. "Hey Tommy... can we talk?"

"Tubbo, let me make this clear: I want nothing to do with you. Now let me go before I actually I you something give you something to be upset about."

"NO TOMMY! YOU'RE JUST A SELF-CENTRED JERK THAT ONLY CARES ABOUT THEM SELF. YOU LEFT ME FOR SIX WHOLE DAYS!"

"WELL MAYBE THIS 'SELF-CENTRED JERK HAS BETTER THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT THAN SOME CLINGY TODDLER ALWAYS FOLLOWING ME AROUND."

"Tommy that's en-"

"NO PHIL - YOU DON'T GET TO BE A PART OF THIS! YOU'RE ALMOST AS BAD AS HE HIS."

"OH REALLY!?!? I'M WORSE THAN SOME STUPID SENIOR FOLLOWING YOU AROUND LIKE SOME BABYSITTER!?!?"

Phil interjected again, "Hey! Guys I'm not that-"

"YOU KNOW WHAT TUBBO? MAYBE YOU ARE!"

"Um," A random boy interrupted them. "You're kinda blocking the doorway for the rest of the class- would you mind-"

"FUCK OFF!"

"Right! Yep - no. Sorry." He quickly retreated into the crowd of students still waiting in the classroom.

"Tommy, if you think I'm that annoying, why don't you just say so?"

"I am. You're that annoying."

"Fine!" Tubbo's voice cracked a bit.

"FINE!" Tommy's voice went unusually high.

They stormed off in opposite directions, leaving a puzzled Phil and a bunch of classmates standing awkwardly in the classroom. Phil knew better than to follow him, he just hoped Tommy would get over it by himself.