fragile | jelix

chapter 12

the curtains are open. he's alone, inside. it's time for another visit. since my last one i had been thinking a lot about what he told me. i hadn't gotten much further with knowing what was wrong with him. i'd only gathered some information about he apparently has trouble with his hand, but i'm sure that his hand wasn't enough reason to keep him locked indoors all day. i pondered this as i once again opened up the window and entered the room, closing said window behind me.

when jack saw me he smiled at me, and motioned towards the wooden chair in the corner of the room. i grabbed it and pulled it closer to him, but not too close so i was crossing any line, prior to sitting down. at first we engaged in small talk, just like we did near the end of my last visit. then i eventually got around to asking him something that had been on my mind for a while.

"have you ever been to school?"

the question seemed to hit him hard, which was not my intention at all. despite this, he answered without pretty much any hesitation.

"no..no, i haven't."

"how do you learn all of your stuff then?"

"my parents. they only teach me basic stuff though, like english and basic maths. everything else is like a foreign language to me." i nodded slowly, my assumptions being true. i had guessed his parents taught him, since he didn't go to school and i had never seen a tutor go their house.

"what's school like?" he asked. i wasn't all too sure whether to be honest with him or sugarcoat it and make school out to be a lovely place where dreams are made and achieved. even though it was literally the exact opposite.

"do you want my honest opinion?" he nodded, seeming a little unsure of himself. i sighed.

"well...i'll go through the positives first because there's not many." he nodded, his eyes growing wide with interest and curiosity.

"most of the time you get the opportunity to make friends. some of those friends will stick with you for years, they'll stick with you even after you've left high school. you'll have a couple of nice teachers that make the days bearable and a few lessons that are quite easy to get through. and i guess it does kill time." i paused, not able to think of any more positives. onto the negatives.

"i guess now it's time to explain the negatives...most of the teachers are evil. they scream at you even when you're not doing anything wrong, they give you detention for the dumbest reasons and they give you so much homework to do, it's unbelievable." he looked slightly puzzled.

"detention? homework?" i nodded.

"what are those?" he really didn't know? well, i guess he wouldn't.

"detention is when you have to stay behind when school is over for a certain amount of time because you've annoyed a teacher or haven't followed the rules. and homework is just school work that they tell you to take home and complete for a certain date. if you don't do that then you get a detention." he already looked like he didn't enjoy the idea of school. he was lucky: i was the one who had to go, not him.

"anyway...most of the lessons are super boring and they drag on for hours. the cafeteria food is gross and expensive, gym sucks...that's when they make you do sports for an entire lesson. oh, and there are a bunch of bullies too."

"i know what they are. my mom always used to tell me that if i ever went to school i'd probably get bullied." i frowned at his comment. kind of a dickish thing for his mother to say. telling her own son that if he went to school people would bully him? how is that meant to make him feel confident in his own body?

"yeah, there's bullies in every school, you can't avoid them, no matter what you do. there's a bunch in my school in particular. even the nerds can be bullies sometimes." i chuckled at myself, getting no reaction from jack. he really was curious about all of this. we talked for a while about school and it's many negatives and very few positives, before i realised that it was probably best if i left. we said goodbye to each other before i climbed out of the window and made my way down the tree and back to my house as fast as my legs could go.