🌈 RAINBOWS🌈

⤵️The Multiple Ways Someone's Life can Flip Upside Down⤵️

⚠️Implications of abuse, bullying/fighting, kidnapping, death/murder⚠️

There's also some mediocre bully, fight, and chase scenes in this, so be prepared for that.

This is also ridiculously long for a one-shot, so you better get yourselves comfortable! (This also has several time skips.)

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Burlington, Vermont
November 2015

If you think your school is chaotic, you have to see Highgate Middle School.

Students run amok around the halls until the bell rings. Even then, every once in a while, you'll hear a student just running down the hall, yelling, for no apparent reason.

In the mornings it's somehow even worse.

Just a flood of students of various ages. Grades are supposed to be separated by floors and halls. The bottom floor is for the sixth graders, middle for the seventh graders, and top for the eighth. Despite this, that doesn't stop the grades from mixing in the halls, and this causes most of the chaos.

There are the students that feel the need to stand in the middle of the halls, even when there's enough room for them to move and still chat with whoever. Some decide that 8 am is just the perfect time to have a screaming contest with their friends. Others simply run and bump into others or stand in front of another person's locker and make a rude retort when you ask them to move.

Sometimes you just need to get away from the craziness that is the students of Highgate.

This is how you get students like Andrew King, who has made it a regular routine to hide out in the restroom until the bell rings in the mornings.

It's not the ideal hiding spot, but it'll have to do.

During these ten minutes, Andrew usually just paces around, trying to block out the muffled insanity happening on the other side of the restroom door. Sometimes he will try his best to stay still and look at his reflection in the long mirror they have above the sinks. He never knows how to feel about his reflection, and unfortunately, his plans to stay still never work, and he finds himself always rocking back and forth.

When ten minutes become three, Andrew goes ahead and washes his hands. He never touches anything in the restroom if he doesn't have to, but being in the restroom is enough to make him feel gross.

As he turned the faucet on and put his soap-y hands in the water, a squeak echoed. Three more boys walked in. Andrew's eyes glanced to the side to get a better look.

The three boys were standing, staring at Andrew as if his existence ruined their whole day. Knowing the three, Andrew had no doubt it did ruin their day.

"Hey, can't you read?" A ginger headed boy snapped. He was in the middle of the line they had formed. He was always in the middle. "The sign says 'boy.'"

With a roll of his eyes, Andrew went back to looking at his hands. He didn't have time for this. The boy didn't like that.

"Hey, freak!" The boy moved two steps away from the line to get closer to Andrew. "I'm talking to you."

Andrew continues not to respond, and instead just turns off the faucet and goes towards the hand dryers. He doesn't get a chance to dry his hands before the boy walks and stands between him and the hand dryer.

Andrew just looked up at the boy, slightly annoyed. Andrew mumbles something under his breath.

The boy leaned forward, cupping his hand around his ear. "What was that? Couldn't hear you?" He asked.