Salty Skin ☾cake au

8

The bell rang, making Luke jump as he followed Calum to a crowded stairwell. Calum pushed Luke to walk in front of him when a boy in a football jersey shoved the dark haired boy into a railing with an eruption of laughter. Calum wasn't fazed by it since it happened all the time, but he didn't want Luke to see.

Once in the classroom, Calum found the error in the situation when he realized his teacher would never let a random person sit in their classroom for the hour. Calum pulled Luke to a pair of seats in the back of the classroom.

The bell rang and everyone else took their seats. Luke got strange looks from people as they sat down in front or beside him and Calum. Mr. Korvick, the history teacher, began taking attendance. With every name he called, Calum became more and more nervous as he approached the 'H's.

"Cameron."

"Here."

"Addy."

"Here."

"Luke... Luke? Who's Luke?" Mr. Korvick looked around the classroom.

Luke's arm shot up, "I'm Luke!" he exclaimed, unnecessarily loud and Calum shushed him. Luke turned to Calum and lowered to a whisper, "What? I'm Luke."

"Are you a new student?" The teacher interrupted. Small giggles and insults were heard around the classroom.

"Um-" Calum answered, "He's here to observe me from another school. It's only for today."

"I didn't get any word of this-"

"I can assure you the whole faculty knows he's here. There's a lot of observers here today," Calum continued, crossing his fingers that the short, balding man would buy the story.

The teacher sighed, "He's on my attendance sheet so I'm sure it's fine. I'm in no mood to argue with anyone today."

Calum mentally jumped for joy as Mr. Korvick proceeded to announce the work written on the board which was due at the end of the class period. Calum took out his notebook and a pen and began answering questions from the history textbook. Luke watched him scribble foreign symbols on the sheet and then let his eyes roam the open page of the textbook.

"Who's this?" Luke whispered, pointing to a picture of a man.

"Christopher Columbus."

"Why is there a picture of him in your book?"

"Because this is history class and he's part of history," Calum said. "Basically, the dude sucks. People say he discovered America, but really, he just killed all the Native Americans that were already living there and claimed the land as his."

Luke put his hands over his mouth and slowly removed them, not believing what he just heard, "Why would he kill them?" Luke was on the verge of tears and Calum just shrugged, finishing writing the answer to a question and moving onto the next.

•••

Fifth period, calculus, came quickly and Luke actually liked this class. He understood it. The way the numbers and letters added up and worked together just made sense to him.

He felt a strange feeling in his lower region, one he'd felt a few times since having his legs, and leaned into Calum's ear. "Calum, I have to go to the bathroom."

Calum looked at him, "Okay, I'll ask if we can go," he started getting out of his seat but Luke stopped him.

"No, I can do it," Luke walked to the desk where the teacher, a bitter old woman with glasses bigger than her face, sat.

"Can I- can I go to the bathroom?" Luke asked nervously and the woman nodded without looking up from her computer.

"Take a pass. Be back in five minutes." She pointed to a laminated bathroom pass on her desk which Luke grabbed and left the room with.