illicit | five hargreeves - EDITING

thirty

chapter thirty: under the bleachers

"You look ridiculous in that uniform" Anthony heard the voice in the back of his mind as he pulled on the blue shirt, buttoning it up quickly "That's brave coming from someone who wears schoolboy shorts everyday" he muttered to himself, before catching his reflection in the mirror and furrowing his eyebrows. He really was fucking loosing it.

Anthony had been in the 1960s for just over a week now, and he had adapted relatively well to his new environment so far. He lived with his grandparents, who still just assumed that he was a random kid that they had found while he was running away from home. It was a weird situation for him, being around the people he loved, then lost, mourned for years, and now found again. Anthony didn't mind it though, and he relished in the feeling of belonging to his family once again after all those years.

Throughout the week, he had learned quite a lot about his new neighbors, Dorothea and Inez Johnson; they were sisters, obviously, with Dorothea being the oldest at seventeen and Inez being just barely fifteen years old. They lived just across the street with their parents John and Linda, and their baby brother Benjamin. Their father worked a high and steady paying job at the local bankers, and their mother stayed at home with the kids all day.

Dorothea and Inez were quite the pair, they were either constantly arguing or constantly getting into stupid situations together, and there really was no in-between with them. Anthony couldn't even count the amount of times they had either lunged at each other or yelled at each other in the past couple of days. They really did love each other though, and that was very apparent to Anthony whenever he saw them. Despite the fact that he had only known the girls for eleven days, he already really liked them and would consider them his friends.

When Peggy had mentioned that if Anthony was going to stay with them long term, he would really benefit from attending a local school, Dorothea insisted that he must go to the same high school as her and her sister, and of course Peggy would never refuse anything like that. There was a slight concern about the fact that Anthony had no documents or anything along those lines, but when that issue was approached, Antoine swiftly made the remark:

"He's white, they won't give a damn"

Which was true, and also provided as a quick reminder to Anthony of the world he was currently living in. A world where it was bad to be gay, but it was even worse to be a person of color. He hadn't yet done much exploring of the towns or cities around him yet, but when he had walked into town with Dorothea and Inez last weekend, he did notice the concerning amount of 'Whites Only' signs on the doors of numerous stores and restaurants. Anthony didn't know whether the other Hargreeves had ended up somewhere else, or if they were even in the same year as him, but the thought of Allison and Diego being there was always lingering in the back of his mind, and he worried for them.

So Peggy had enrolled Anthony in the local high school that was only a fifteen minute walk from their house, and quickly set out to buy him everything he would need, although he insisted that she didn't have to, and when he had told her that he would eventually pay her all back for everything, she replied with "Oh hush dear, I wouldn't have taken you in if I wanted something in return"

Anthony picked up the red tie off of the table and draped it around his neck, before he began tying it carefully. He was never fond of uniforms, and this one was no exception; he hated how it hung off of him, and Antoine had even commented on it earlier when he stated how the boy was just "Skin and bone" and that he "Needs to eat a cheeseburger or something like that" He didn't like that comment, and honestly the thought of eating a cheeseburger made him feel physically sick.

He finished tying his tie, taking a moment to look at his reflection, tugging at the shirt slightly to get it right into the place he wanted. The voice in his head was right, he did look ridiculous.