Books and a Bad Reputation || chippedcupbelle
Robert Gold couldn't be faulted with a poor study ethic. Quite the contrary--he believed he worked harder than any other student. He didn't always make A's, but the teachers who got to know him understood fairly quickly that he wanted to succeed academically. He was studious, meticulous, responsible. Completely unlike his father, he chanted to himself.
Most students and even a fair percent of teachers never noticed his efforts. He was still a Gold, in fact the son of Malcolm Gold, Storybrooke's skeevy, suspiciously well-off pawnbroker. Bobby's quiet demeanor didn't help matters. They took his silence for the contemplative mode of a schemer. Resentment stemmed just as much from the fact so many people were in Malcolm's pocket, usually out of desperation, as from a general moral condemnation of the man, and by extension his progeny.
Robert walked into school the first day of his junior year expecting more of the same looks--the fearful gawks, the sneers--and the same bubble of isolation that formed around him when he walked through the lunchroom or down the halls. Sometimes a big guy like Gaston Redman or one of the Bean Boys (the Beanstalks, as the school populous called them) would bump him on purpose, trip him, shove him against a locker. Despite Bobby's shortness and skinny frame, he rarely suffered major injury. There was that Hod kid who utterly humiliated him freshman year, then landed him in the hospital with a couple broken ribs. Malcolm made sure Hod's father paid the bills.
The homeroom bell rang. Robert hurried to his assigned room, which thankfully was headed by Mr. Hopper this year, one of the only teachers who showed him kindness. Nevertheless he sat in the back. His satchel slumped against the chair. He pulled out The Grapes of Wrath and delved into it, gladly ignoring the conversations bouncing around him.