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Tough Childhood

Tough Life

Friday

Jesse and I walked to school together, all the way in silence. I left my skateboard at home.

I didn't feel like causing trouble and then trying to escape. If anything, I would cause trouble out of anger, tire from my lack of energy, and in the end, understand why people did stupid things after they lost someone who had a giant impact on them.

Luckily, I didn't even have the energy to cause trouble in the first place, and no one had the guts to pick on me. Correction: Most didn't have the guts. 

Jesse seemed like he was a shell of himself. Will acknowledged us in the halls with a nod, but no fight followed considering he would start walking faster instead. Calvin came to school to my surprise, and I remembered the night before.

He'd fallen asleep on my couch with Carrie between his arms. We both arrived home later than we should have, and Mom and Carrie were not pleased.

Mom at least had that motherly instinct so she knew something terribly wrong had gone down, especially when my look was worse than when it used to be as a young kid after some bully had brought up Dad. Carrie, on the other hand, was another story with all her questions.

Mom wasn't pleased with having Calvin over, but she got over it pretty much a few seconds after we walked in. He immediately crashed on the couch, and I dragged my feet into my room, locking the door behind me.

However, that was the night before where I had a locked door to hide behind. It was the next day now, and Mom wasn't about to let me miss school.

I'd gone to school before when there was a death. Everyday there was death, but once it cooled down with Dad's story, the deaths no longer had connections to me. This death was different. It just was.

~

It was lunch, and the halls were practically vacant except for a few others, including myself. And Chad, which quickly morphed into a scene.

Chad was striding towards me, and fast. His humorous nature that appeared during class and when he was around friends, had disappeared.

I wasn't in the mood to run. I let him catch up, and mentally, emotionally, and physically prepared for a beating. Instead, he stopped right in front of me. Just stopped. No punch before talk.

"Hey! What the hell did you do to Will?"

"Nothing," I mumbled.

"Then why doesn't he listen to me when we plan to beat the shit out of you!" Chad fumed.

"Technically, it's not we if only you are planning," I replied.

"Technically, it's the whole cross country team-except Jesse, and apparently Will! Care to explain?" Chad snarled.

"No."

Suddenly I was pushed against the lockers, hard. I winced as the pain shot down my back. Metal against skin wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing in the world.

I didn't want to pick a fight. I just wanted to be left be-not alone and without Jesse and Calvin, but not receive any unwanted attention also. Shouldn't that be simple? Well, for me, since my birth, it has never been that way.

"Let go," I murmured indifferently.

"No fight? No one-on-one?" Chad pathetically attempted to provoke me.

"I said no. How many times do you need it said for it to sink in?" I kept my tone at monotone, hoping that would be less likely to get angry.

Monotone was not the reaction this stuck-up jock wanted, and so he just got angrier. Poking the bear? More like stepping on a twig while trying to sneak around and waking up a sleepless bear.

He jerked back his hand, and I threw up my arms in front of my face. I was unwilling to punch him and race out of the situation. Weird, no? When you're really effected by something, it can be really great, but in my case, it just really sucked. 

It never came. I suspected a trick, and refused to lower my hands. If I lowered them, and it was a trick, I could lose a few teeth and possibly leave with a broken jaw. If it wasn't a trick, then I'd find out by some other way. And this was the way:

"What the fuck?" shouted Chad, and I still refused to lower my arms. There was no punch, however, I continued to cower. 

"Don't piss me off. I'm running out of places to hide bodies, Chad," I heard Will sneer. 

Now it was my turn to have a reaction. I thought, What. The. Freaking. Fudge?!

I lowered my arms. "You-" Will slapped his hand over my mouth. 

"What the hell happened to you?" snarled Chad, refusing to let go of me. His grip on my arms only got tighter. 

I tried to tell Will to let go, but it came out all muffled. I bit down on his hand. With a sharp outcry, he jerked his hand back. We glared at each other for a moment until Will whipped his head in Chad's direction. 

"Willow died. You remember Willow? Your kindergarten crush?" Will asked Chad, Will's eyes meeting Chad's with confidence but also with a soft shine. 

I looked conspicuously at Chad, and opened my mouth. From Chad, that earned me a hard jerk forward and then sharply backwards, making me slam against the lockers again. This time all the pain went to my head. 

Holy crap! What is wrong with these guys? I thought and let out an exasperated breath from the pain in the back of my head. 

"That was a long time ago," Chad snapped. "It was kindergarten-no other time, and you know it. Ray-Ray, say something and I'll give Will another body to hide." 

"Lovely," I sarcastically grunted under my breath. 

"She died. We all saw it coming!" Chad snapped. he let go of me only to give me one last good shove into the lockers before storming off. 

Once Chad was out of the school building, Will let out a screech that sounded like it came from an angry, hurt hawk. Next, somewhere inside of him decided it was a good idea to freak out and start kicking the lockers. 

Maybe if I just slip away, I thought, glancing back over shoulder at the door Chad had disappeared through. Dammit. Why do I have to deal with this now? It's lunch. I didn't even get my food!

"Will," I said, a little gently, but also with a hint of boredom. 

"Will," I repeated. 

He wasn't listening, and I was one to get frustrated easily. 

"William Red!" I yelled so loud it echoed. The freak finally stopped kicking the lockers. "Was it that hard?"

"Yes!" Will screamed, breaking down. His wall of caution towards me was crumbling rapidly. "Willow meant everything but I never told her that! I never thanked her for convincing my mom to not only foster me, but adopt me to! Do you have any idea how hard foster care is when those searching for a fresh start like sweet little boy but see instead a kid in junior high whose dad is dead from drugs, mom is an alcoholic, and all other family is dead?!"

My eyes widened and my eyebrows shot up. "Well...I kind of meant hard to stop, but never mind. Doesn't matter anymore." -Will leaned against the locker and slid down with his back against them to the floor- "So...you're adopted?...That's cool. My dad's a serial killer."

Will looked up with a small smile, and then chuckled. He looked back down and examined his hands. He looked at his cast. "I'm going to be getting this off at the end of the week. it was the one thing keeping me from fights and forcing me to go visit Willow. I never visited her only because I didn't want to believe that she would be leaving...She's gone now, and I miss her, but I'm still healthy and young."

"Except for the cast-which was my fault," I murmured teasingly. 

Why am I freaking teasing him? Since when did I get over stupid high school things so easily? Since when was I mature enough to do that?