The Fall of the Aftons

105: Michael Afton

A few weeks passed and Michael was on winter break. He had been working very hard at Fredbear's and Fazbear's, which was much easier to do when he could walk on his leg properly.

Mark, Simon, and Frederick were still total assholes. They were constantly getting him in trouble. Henry had noticed and talked to the boys, but that had just made them worse. They behaved around William and Henry, but as soon as the boys were out of their bosses' sight, they were back to making Michael's life miserable. Not to mention that they had gotten worse, too, since Michael had left them at the public high school to go to his gifted school.

Though maybe that was about to change.

After having received a partial scholarship from the other school's annual science fair, Simon transferred to the gifted school, too. But he and Michael were in separate classes. They only had homeroom, science, and art with each other. And besides, Simon was fairly quiet. He barely so much glanced at Michael, less than acknowledged his presence.

But, when school started back up again, he and Michael were shoved together for a huge project in their science class. And one day, when the two were working peacefully, Simon started talking. And it wasn't stuff related to the project.

"Your... Your little brother's name is Evan. Right?" Simon asked Michael. His voice was so quiet that Michael almost couldn't hear him. "Evan Afton?"

"Uh..." Michael stared at him for a moment or two, confused. "Yes. Yes, that's his name. Why? Do you and your friends plan on bullying him, too?"

Simon laughed softly. "No. We're not planning to bully him, at least not what I'm aware of." He scribbled notes for their project in his notebook before he continued. "My neighbor is always talking about him. She thinks that it's so cool how he's not afraid to cry in front of others. Or show any other emotion. She also thinks that it's cool how he pretty much didn't give a shit about his speech impediment whenever he was talking and would actually laugh it off when he said something weirdly because of said impediment." He chuckled. "I don't know why she thinks that it's so cool, but..."

"Who's your neighbor?" Michael asked in response.

"Cassidy O'Rion. A small little girl, with super long black hair, has one light blue eye and an unnaturally bright red one? She usually goes by Cass."

"Oh, okay. I know her. She's at our house all of the time for playdates with my brother."

Simon chuckled. "I guess then you know where I live now if you ever want to, like, toilet paper or egg my house or something."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"For revenge. I mean, Mark, Fred, and I have been bullying you for years now. Don't you want some payback?"

"Not really. You guys don't bother me that much. I'm used to the beatings and mocking." He wrote a few notes in his notebook before he set his pencil down and glanced over the graphs and models in his textbook. "It is annoying how many times you three have gotten me in trouble at Fredbear's and Fazbear's, but other than that, I don't notice. I'm used to it."

"Weren't you the vic of the Bite of '83?" Simon suddenly asked, his tone curious.

"What does it matter?" Michael snapped back, defensive.

The boy raised his hands in surrender. "Sorry. I'm not trying to be rude. It's just that you've changed since the story started spreading around the town." He hesitated. "It was you. Wasn't it?"

Michael sighed. Why did everybody care about the Bite? Honestly. It didn't make any sense to him. He didn't die. If he had died, then the Bite would've been important. But he didn't die. Therefore it shouldn't matter.

"Yes," he grumbled begrudgingly. "I was the victim. I was the one Foxy bit. Happy now?"

"Is that why your leg used to drag behind you?"

He sighed. "Yes. I had lost all mobility and the majority of my childhood memories. It took quite some time, but I regained all of my mobility back. Never got the memories, though."

"Oy. That's no fun. I'm sorry that happened to you."

He shrugged. "It is what it is."

Throughout their science project, the two boys started to acquaint each other as they realized they shared a lot in common. They both despised the masks that they were assigned at Fazbear's. They shared a love for Exerion and Galaxian. They were both the eldest out of two siblings, too--Michael had Evan and Elizabeth while Simon had an Irish twin brother named Chip and a little sister named Daisy.

Result of their acquaintanceship, Simon wasn't as utterly cruel to Michael anymore at the restaurants. And soon, Simon started to say that Michael wasn't "as bad as he seemed" and encouraged the other two that all four of them should become friends.