Phytoremediation

To see how the fire side of us burns.

Sunny left his mother's car and looked at the taller-than-average school building. A bunch of lame looking guys were sitting around in front of the school, waiting for the bell to ring and be let in.

Many of them were wearing red bandanas.

What, wannabe gangsters?

Sunny sighed and kept his distance. Conversation with them didn't seem like it'd be productive or interesting. A bus passed by, going around to the back of the school.

The bell soon rang, and Sunny walked in. He put his backpack on the ground in front of his locker and threw some things inside it. Sunny shut his locker and looked to his right.

Basil...

"Oh, um, hey!" Sunny awkwardly smiled at Basil.

"Hey... I can get my locker moved, sorry." Basil directed his eyes down.

"No, Basil, don't leave me alone. I need you..." Sunny said, grabbing Basil's arm before he could walk away.

Basil sighed, "Sunny, you don't need me. Nobody does. I fucked up your life before, I don't want to do it again.

"No, Basil, I like you, I still want to be your- your friend." Sunny said more desperately.

"No, Sunny! You don't like me! You shouldn't like me! After what I did to you, you should hate me! Just... just get new friends! Get a girlfriend or boyfriend, someone you can love!" Basil raised his voice. The chattering in the hall didn't pause for even a second.

"But... you're the one I love, Basil..." Sunny said shyly. He looked up at Basil for a moment. His face was hard to read. Was it a look of shock, or a look of disgust?

Maybe both.

The bell rang again, and Sunny walked towards his first class, in the opposite direction of Basil.

Fuck... he hates me now, doesn't he?

Sunny sat in his new classroom and stewed in his thoughts. He felt as though he were the biggest idiot on the planet. The self-degrading finally paused as the teacher came into the room. "Hello everyone, and welcome to Grade 9." The teacher eyed Sunny, noting the clearly older student in the class.

"Depending what school you came from, your day structure may be rather clear. If any of you have lost your day schedule already, you may go down to the office during the breaks between classes to get a new one. This will be your homeroom, being for history class. I am Mr. Einerson." The teacher wrote his name on the board in pinyin. A weird name, with even weirder pronunciation.

"We'll start learning about our national history tomorrow, but instead, today we'll do an icebreaker sheet." Mr. Einerson announced, and he began to pass out sheets. Sunny stared at the sheet on his desk for a few moments before he began to fill it out absentmindedly, still thinking and worrying about Basil.

Sunny looked to his paper more attentively for a moment to make sure he didn't mess up.

Whitbakker. I accidentally put an extra k like a fucking idiot.

After erasing the extra k, Sunny continued to berate himself in his mind. At least it was his own voice.

He looked for a moment at the "My Family... 😃" section. The photocopied smiley face clipart mocked him. He wrote down "Magnolia" and moved on.

"Favourite colour 😍" was next, to which Sunny wrote down cyan, without much thought. The next question was truly a difficult one.

"Favourite food 😋"

Sunny stared at his sheet. By god. What food did he like again? I mean, pizza was obviously good. Steak was his favourite when he was a kid, but he got a bit sick of it. Tacos taste pretty good, too...

Then Sunny remembered... desserts are food, too. This made the question even more difficult. Red velvet cake? Pumpkin pie? Chocolate chip cookies? Even bubble gum could make it pretty high on a favourite food list, and there were 3 lines in that god forsaken section.

"Favourite food 😋" the page mocked him. It knew his dumb ass couldn't pick a favourite. Is this just too hard for you? All the other students would mock him for his indecisiveness.

Sunny noticed another boy get up and hand in the page. My god. His time was limited now. As soon as the first person hands their work in, it's not long until everyone else follows. How are you still only on the third question?

Ok, just write in taco... then maybe... red velvet cake, yeah, that'll be alright. Then maybe hamburger... oh god fuck, no, pizza is better, erase it... never mind, it doesn't matter.

Sunny finally moved on to the next section. Role models. Alright, Sunny, this is way easier. What? Five lines? Jesus Christ, what do they expect us to write? Well, I guess someone else already did it all... fine. Okay, let's see.

Well, Vladimir Lenin is obvious, everyone loves that guy...  next up... hmmm... I'm not Muslim, but the prophet Mohammed was cool, I guess... Buddha, too. Alright, two more. Who was that guy who freed Haiti..? Damn it. Uh... ok, forget it, someone else.

Who was that guy who invented penicillin..? Sunny snapped his fingers at his desk twice while thinking. Something Fleming... damn it! Fuck, forget it, Albert Einstein will work instead.

Sunny looked at the final line, and jotted down "Mari" before moving on. "If you could vacation anywhere, where would you go!? 😶" The little face next to it was fucked up by the photocopier.

Right now, probably in an active volcano.

Sunny wrote down "Havana" and looked at the last question. "Who are your best friends?" The smiley face being half cut off by the photocopier, again. Sunny looked at the page blankly.

Fuuuuck, I forgot The Maverick's real name.