July 20, 2000
Eeh...this just...appeared. Without the aid of my muse...
The moment the new boy stepped into Classroom 4-C, Duo knew that they'd found this year's plaything. He had long, girly lashes and a pretty face, with sharp chiseled features like stone carved into a human. Behind thick, horn-rimmed black glasses hid two expressive blue eyes.
"Everyone, say hi to Heero Yoo-ee," the American teacher said, badly butchering his name. "Hi Heero!" Her voice rang out, singular, in the silence. Blushing slightly, Heero sat down at an empty seat looking apprehensive. His hands, delicate and pale, rested on his knees, knuckles white.
"Hi," he mumbled after a moment, revealing a mouthful of braces. They shone, metallic and wiry, reflecting the sunlight into the face of the unfortunate girl who happened to be sitting across from him.
"Hey," she snapped, brushing her long hair back over her shoulder, "watch where you're shining those things, pal." She began coloring her desk tag again, which read in long, crooked letters: Relena P.
"Oh man," Wufei said loudly, leaning back in his chair as he sneaked a glance at the teacher. Daydreaming as she corrected spelling papers. "I think I've been blinded." Duo snickered and punched the Chinese boy affectionately in the arm; Trowa said nothing, but still managed to be included in the merry ragging.
"You're the new kid, so you've got to do what we tell you," the black-haired boy continued smoothly. "Give us your lunch." Heero looked at them with apprehensive eyes, surveying his classmates, looking for a source of aid. It never came. Relena had stopped coloring her name tag and was watching intently. Even Dorothy, who was usually writing bloody (albeit...creative) stories about blowing the school up, had ceased her scritchings to watch how the events unfolded.
"No. It's mine."
"No," Wufei declared, plucking the blue lunchbox from Heero's red backpack, "it's mine now." Duo grabbed Heero's arms, pinning them at his sides as Wufei ate everything in the box, including his bologna and cheese Lunchable.
"Children! You can stop working on your nametags, it's time for lunch!" They all laughed and sprinted for the picnic tables outside near the playground.
"What, you didn't bring a lunch, Heero? Don't they do that in China?" she yelled, as if he were deaf instead of foreign.
"No," he replied flatly, his eyes beginning to turn cold.
"How was school?" asked his mom. "You look like you had a lot of fun!" Heero glared at her behind his now-taped horn-rimmed glasses and decided not to mention the fact that his molar had fallen out not because his adult teeth were coming in, but because Duo had punched him when he'd looked at his braid funny. At least he'd get a quarter from the tooth fairy, he thought glumly.
"Fine," he muttered, brushing back his bangs. He could taste blood in his mouth from where the braces had cut his lip. "Just fine, Mom." He excused himself from dinner and ran into his room to play video games until his brain rotted.
Things only grew worse for Heero. What allies he might have made either suffered bodily harm for befriending him or were glad someone else was finally lower on the pecking order.
"Hey," said Otto, a rather twitchy, nasal-voiced boy with head gear. "I'm glad you came along, Yoo-ee! Man, I was the one they picked on before. It's your turn now, buddy." He then slapped his back so hard Heero choked and ran away laughing, "I'm free!"
The Japanese boy had a bad feeling as Lucy, a pretty girl with dark hair falling over one side of her face and the girlfriend of a *fifth grader*, Milliardo "Milli Vanilli" Peacecraft, Relena's obnoxious older brother, walked up to him, violet eyes burning into his back. "You little snot!" she shouted, waving a torn paper in her hands. He recognized it as their last math worksheet; he'd aced it. In fact, he aced pretty much everything. "I'm the best at math; everyone knows that. You'd better watch your back, boy!"
"I'm not trying to--"
"Yeah, yeah. Well, you'll learn soon enough." With that ominously vague threat thrown into his face, Lucy turned and stomped back to her desk. The entire math period she drew mean pictures of him with buck teeth and horns. Dorothy just laughed.
The worst was yet to come. Heero wasn't sure how much bad it could get; after all, he'd already had his lunch *and* his ice cream money stolen from him. Then the teacher announced the winners of the Young Authors contest.
Duo rolled his eyes. Every year it was the same. Sometimes he really hated being in a class with Dorothy. Her violence in real life translated into bloody, but good stories and she *always* won First Prize in the YA contest. There was no point of them even holding it, unless she was banned from it. Last year's winner had been, "A Tale of Blood and Gore on L-1".
"Third Prize--Duo Maxwell, with 'My Dog Shinigami'!" The slender braided boy made a choked noise and fell out of his chair. The teacher smiled warmly--Duo was one of her favorite students, always so helpful and so nice to the new students...
"Second Prize--Dorothy Catalonia, with 'The Bloody Ravaging of L-4'!" There was a collective gasp. Someone else had won First Prize instead of the blonde girl. She looked ready to cry or whip out her fencing sword or both. Her eyes scanned the room; she'd read all of the stories, they were all inferior to hers. It couldn't hurt to scout the competition, she'd thought. The only good one had been Maxwell's; but he'd won third prize...
Her eyes fell on an unsuspecting, daydreaming Japanese boy and she silently cursed. He'd been sick that day...
"First Prize--Heero Yoo...Heero Y., with 'Sins of the Fathers'!"
Dorothy's eyes narrowed.
But by far, P.E. was the class he was truly dreading. The fifth graders were splitting the gym with them, and as a result, they had to change with them in the locker room too. Even Duo knew not to mess with the fifth graders. They were big and could beat the crap out of you with their eyes closed, even the girls. Such were the mysterious powers of middle school.
The instructor had them run a few laps to warm up; Duo ran behind him and repeatedly stepped on his heels, making him fall into one of the taller boys in fifth grade. Strong hands gripped his arm, tugging him to his feet. He looked up and saw the most gorgeous pair of blue eyes, framed by forked eyebrows.
"Are you all right?" the boy asked, his elegant accent only refining his handsome features. Heero nodded a mute yes and continued jogging, his head held a little higher.
That day, he hit the wiffle ball farther than he ever had before, knowing the mysterious boy was watching him. They were scrimmaging, fifth graders against fourth graders, and he was up at bat.
The score was tied; the other team had just had its last ups and he was the last out the fifth graders needed to end the game with some kind of dignity. Imagine, losing to fourth graders! The pitcher reared back and sent a fastball straight into his balls. He collapsed to the ground, hearing his classmate's laughter echoing in his ears.
The next day, things were ten times worse. Duo kept bumping his desk with his knee as he wrote; the teacher tried to send him to the corner to work on his letters, since they were so funny shaped. Relena drew pictures of him and Dorothy wrote stories to go with them. Although no one understood them, they laughed just the same. Trowa, who didn't really do anything, just laughed at everything.
By lunchtime he had five spitballs down his shirt and one inside his ear. He went to the bathroom to clean them off and Duo and Wufei followed him inside, the light blue door shutting ominously.
"You think you're hot *shit*, don't you?" Wufei said, pleased with the way he'd said the word 'shit' so nonchalantly. Sixth graders didn't even do that, he thought smugly.
"No," Heero said calmly, and tried to walk out. Duo stuck out a skinny arm, fancying the bulge in his shoulder was muscle instead of a packet of licorice.
"Where do you think you're going, Heero?" he asked, violet eyes shining with childish malice. He shoved him against the sink. "No where, I think." He nodded at Wufei, who shoved him back at Duo. "I think--crap! A teacher!" They ducked under the sink, just long enough to give the Japanese boy time to get away.
"What are you two doing in here? You're supposed to be at lunch..."
He hid in the woods behind the playground for the rest of the day.
End Part One
Ariana
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