#brixtul

Trollgust 1- Portrait

Trollgust 3- Loa

Ahh! Love! I will do my best to get to this asap!!...

*happy shrieks*

Yii! ; u ; 

Mrs. Bennette’s classroom was pure chaos in the mornings. Each child scrambling to toss their backpacks down first and run off to the play stations. Screaming and pushing each other over the toys that were flung from bins. A girl was already crying because a boy said her pig-tails made her look like a pig and kept oinking at her.

Keovi stared after a boy who bumped into his shoulder and ran past.

“Watch it!”

Keovi’s expression went flat. The other kid had hit HIM why was he supposed to watch for where the other child was running?

With a heavy sigh, he hung up his backpack on the wallhook, removed his notebook and went to sit in his desk.

He hated Kindergarten.

Mostly because he was bored to tears.

It was six weeks into the school year and they were just now reviewing the letter “C.” Keovi had learned to read in the accelerated preschool program. So, the academics were painfully below where he was working at. And so, his teacher had given him a notebook to practice writing sentences in and books to read while the rest of the class struggled to understand that “C” doesn’t make a “seeeeee” sound. Motion caught his attention from the doorway and he side glanced over.

A rather haphazard looking woman was ushering a reluctant boy into the class. “You -have- to go to school, Cal.” “BUT I DON’T WANT TO!” A foot was stomped.

The mother, who seemed to have already have had the argument several times that day, dragged a hand over her face.

“No. I don’t care. You have to stay. I can’t deal with you.”

Callum Oakes missed a lot of school. In fact, Keovi had kept track and it added up to 18 days already since the start of the year.

Cal growled at his mother. “But you let me stay home YESTERDAY. And YOU said the teacher’s a dumb bitch. Why do I have to stay with the dumb bitch?”

Keovi’s eyes went wide. He didn’t know what a bitch was, but he assumed it was the literally worst.

Voices were raised. More swearing.

But eventually, Cal was left behind without a backpack, without a lunchbox, staring at the door and breathing heavily.

Cal also hated school.

But mostly because he didn’t understand why he had to sit still and raise his hand in order to talk. Who actually sat that long in the real world? NO ONE. And adults didn’t raise their hands to speak. It was ALL STUPID.

Cal found Keovi staring at him and blasted his anger at the quiet kid.

“What the HELL you looking at?”

Keovi didn’t understand why the other boy was mad at -him-. So, it didn’t deter him from watching the angry boy. Although Keovi was painfully quiet, he wasn’t timid. In fact, Cal’s question caused the dark haired boy to stare harder at Cal. He was wearing the same shirt he had yesterday. He had worn it three times last week.

Cal stormed by and paused by the teacher’s desk to steal a mint from the bowl. It didn’t matter how many times he was told he needed to ask first. He was hungry and they were there. And she was a dumb bitch, just like his mama said. SO. Keovi shook his head and went to practice writing in his notebook. ----------

The bell rang for lunch. Keovi was working through a Sudoku puzzle game and closed the book with his pencil inside to mark the page. As always, he waited for the rest of the class to stampede by before he stood.

Behind him, the teacher was reprimanding Cal again for not remaining in his seat during story time.

Cal grumbled an insincere apology and then walked by Keovi. Once again, catching the quiet boy looking at him. For some reason, it made him really, really angry.

He bolted to the cafeteria.

Keovi tilted his head as he caught the teacher muttering something about apples falling from trees and then eventually made his way to his lunchbox.

He opened it to check. Yep.

Two.

A tiny smile pulled at his lips and he nodded at the contents of the box before closing it again.

Keovi had to look through the sea of children’s bobbing heads before he caught sight of the familiar shirt.

Cal had his head down on the table and his arms folded around his face. He hadn’t brought a lunch box and refused to get lectured by the lunch lady again about some stupid papers his mom needed to fill out to eat their nasty food.

Keovi walked up and sat next to Cal. Close enough that their arms were practically touching. Proximity that only friends shared.

Cal lifted his head in confusion and balked when he saw Keovi next to him. Truth be told, he was kind of freaked out by the mute boy.

“What are you DOING?!”

Keovi, who didn’t talk to -anyone- in class, set his luchbox down on the table and opened it. Inside, were two sandwiches, two sets of cookies, and two juice boxes.

Silently he set one set of each in front of Cal, and without any further explanation, just started eating his own food.

Cal blinked. He looked at the food, then back at Keovi, then at the food.

He had that angry feeling again.

“What? Are you making FUN of me?!” Cal picked up the sandwich and tossed it back in front of Keovi.

The light blue eyes of the quiet kid watched Cal for a moment but he didn’t say anything.

Cal didn’t understand the offer. “I don’t have anything to trade, okay? So, you can take your stupid sandwich back.”

And with that, Cal got up and ran out to recess despite the bell not having rung yet.

Keovi continued to eat unfazed.

Cal avoided him for the rest of the day.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day, Keovi did the same.

Cal had watched him walk up this time and already looked stressed.

“No. Get away from me. Go sit somewhere else.” Cal sat stubbornly where he was. Keovi ignored him and sat beside him.

The same thing, one sandwich, juice, and snack set out for Cal. But it was a different combination from the day before. Cal looked at the food in pure confusion.

“I don’t understand. What do you -want-?”

Keovi just shook his head.

“You’re WEIRD. You know that? Can you NOT talk or something?” Cal berated the quiet kid.

Keovi side glanced Cal but drank his juice, a rather dry look of sarcasm. Yes, he could talk. He just didn’t want to.

Cal took the cookies and left the rest.

“Well. Jokes on you. I’m not giving you anything for these.” Cal warned him. That should show the stupid quiet kid.

Keovi watched Cal run off with the snack but shrugged his shoulders.

-------------

Day three of the routine, and Cal watched Keovi walk up but didn’t tell him to leave this time.

Keovi set out the lunch for Cal.

Cal stared at it quietly for a long time.

“Why do you keep doing this?”

Keovi shrugged his shoulders, already working to open his own lunch.

Cal gave him a strange look. The cookies hadn’t been poisoned, so, maybe the rest was safe?

Cal bit into the sandwich and frowned at Keovi. It had lettuce on it. “This is gross.” But he ate it anyway, starving since his mother hadn’t come home last night and all that had been left in the house was some ritz crackers.

-----------------

And so it went. Keovi brought Cal lunch each day. Cal would attempt to get Keovi to talk to him. It never worked. But, it there was some comfort in having the same company each day at lunch.

---------

Getting punched HURT.

Keovi had fallen off of his bike. He had skinned his knee before, hit his head on furniture. All of the typical kid things.

This was different.

The blow had knocked the wind out of him and he was left coughing on the ground as the older kid laughed in his victory.

“What? Cat got your tongue?! Hm? SAY something.”

Keovi looked up from the ground, glaring daggers at the older boy who had stolen the game he had brought from home.

He stood up and once again tried to reach for the game back a second time.

And a second time, the kid laid him flat.

“Nope! MINE NOW.”

Keovi’s eyes stung with tears because he was so unbelievably angry. This boy wasn’t allowed to have his game. He hadn’t given him permission. It wasn’t his to take or keep. Grabbing wasn’t nice! UGH!

The kid lifted up a leg to kick Keovi while he was down but ended up stumbling forward and smashing into the ground next to Keovi.

Keovi’s eyes went wide as Cal stood over them both with a sick smile on his face. “ASSHOLE.”

The kid gasped. “You can’t say that word. That’s a bad word!” He accused.

Cal snatched the game back from the kid and it looked as though they were about to fight. Keovi quickly pushed himself to his feet and stood beside Cal and now it was two against one.

The kid frowned at them both and ran off. “I’M TELLING!”

Cal called after him. “YEA. GO AHEAD ASSHOLE.”

Keovi stared at Cal with wide eyes. A hesitant step was taken forward and he hugged his friend, hiding his face in embarrassment at the tears.

Cal didn’t know what to do. “No. No. Key-vy. Whatever your name is.” Cal always pretended not to know the boy’s name, trying to get him to correct him on it and say SOMETHING.

“Don’t cry. Boys don’t cry.” Cal repeated what his mom had always lectured him on.

Keovi inhaled a deep breath and stepped back, attempting to obey Cal’s request and smearing his face on his sleeve, looking super pissed.

Cal patted him on the shoulder. “There. See. Got your game.” He held it up, trying to make it better.

And for the first time, the mute boy spoke.

Sixteen, clumsy and shy- that’s the story of my life.

Magic Meat Brix