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“What’s wrong, Kells?” Vic whispers rubbing my back as I cry into my pillow.
“I’m scared.” I sob.
“About going to school?” He asks and I nod sniveling. “Hey, look at me.” He says and I pull my face out of the pillow before looking at him.
He’s smiling lightly at me as he continues to gently rub my back.
“Everything’s going to be just fine. Stop worrying.” He smiles. “If you don’t know where to go, I’ll show you. It’s already been proven that you’re smart enough for the work and if you need any help then you just ask the teacher. Besides, you’re new so they’ll take it easy on you. You’re really stressing over nothing.”
“Really?” I question hopefully and he nods smiling.
“Of course, now come on. We’re going to be late if you don’t hurry up.” Vic says with a chuckle.
I get out of bed and take a deep breath. Vic ruffles my hair before leaving the room. I smile to myself as I go over to my drawers and take out some clothes. I then go down to the bathroom and shower quickly before fixing my hair and leaving. I go downstairs and into the dining room as always.
I can hear that Mama and Papa Fuentes are in the kitchen, probably making breakfast. Vic’s sitting at his usual spot, drinking some orange juice as he does something on his phone. I take a seat beside him and he looks up at me. He flashes me a smile that I return before Mama and Papa Fuentes walk back into the room, holding plates of what I think are waffles. I don’t know, I’ve never had waffles before.
Mama Fuentes places a plate in front of me and I notice ice-cream on the side. Ive heard about ice-cream and from what I can tell, it’s amazing.
After giving a plate to Vic, Mama and Papa Fuentes sit down across from us.
“We made you something special for your first day of school. Have you had waffles before, Kell?” Mama Fuentes asks with a smile and I shake my head truthfully. “What about ice-cream?”
I shake my head again and she nods sadly.
“What did you usually eat back at home?” Mama Fuentes asks and I shrug.
“Sometimes bread, then sometimes soup and rice. But that’s about it.” I admit. “Oh, one time I had mac and cheese. It was amazing.” I grin.
I notice Vic give me a confused look. I guess something I said wasn’t normal. Is mac and cheese not amazing?
“How often did you eat, Kell?” Papa Fuentes asks me.
“Once a day usually. Though, sometimes my parents would get busy and forget so I wouldn’t eat for a week. Or sometimes I’d do something wrong and I wasn’t allowed to have food for a few days.” I explain.
“No wonder you’re so skinny.” Mama Fuentes mumbles to herself and I start feeling bad about myself again. I’m not that skinny, am I? I know I’m a little underweight, but it’s not that noticeable, right?
No one speaks anymore on the subject and I start eating my waffles. They’re absolutely amazing, and the ice-cream, oh my lord. It’s all so good.
“This is great. Thank you Mama and Papa Fuentes.” I smile and they return the smile.
“It’s fine, Kells.” Mama Fuentes replies.
I eat the rest of my food before Vic gets up and gestures for me to do the same. Mama and Papa Fuentes stand up as well. They both pull me into a hug before they pull away and Mama Fuentes cups my face.
“Have a good first day. If you need anything, just go to the front office and call me.” She says and I nod.
She kisses my forehead and Papa Fuentes ruffles my hair.
“Have a good day Vic.” Papa Fuentes chirps sounding hopeful.
Vic looks ahead blankly staying silence before he hesitantly nods, a frown falling onto his face.
Vic gestures for me to follow him so I do and we leave the house. I look up at the sky and notice rain clouds. It was always so cold in the basement when it rained. The window was broken down there so it would sometimes flood and I’d have to sleep the wet floor. I always got really sick after that. Not that I could do anything about it because my parents didn’t care all too much.
Vic and I get into a car, that I’m assuming is Vic’s. He starts the car and drives off. I look out of the window, something that I love doing. I love seeing the world. I’ve experienced so many new things living with Mama and Papa Fuentes but going places would have to be my favorite so far.
“You’re far too excited for school. You know that you’re supposed to hate it right?” Vic mumbles as he drives along.
“I am?” I ask and he nods.
“Everyone hates school.” He shrugs.
“Oh.” I frown in confusion.
The rest of the drive is silent and we soon pull up at a big school. I wasn’t expecting it to be this big. I start to feel nervous once again. What if I get lost? What if I stuff up? What if I get into trouble? What if no one likes me?
“You’re going to be fine.” Vic says giving me a reassuring look, sensing my anxiety.
I nod and take a breath. We get out of the car and I heave my bag onto my shoulder. I follow him as we start walking through the school grounds. I keep my head down, overwhelmed and scared because of how many people are here. I thought that McDonalds and the shopping mall was bad; this is so much worse.
We go into a building that’s almost empty making me relax a bit. Vic takes me up to a lady who’s sitting at a desk behind a window. He says a few things to her while I look around curiously. This entire thing is so new to me. The last time I had stepped foot in a school was fourth grade and that was an elementary school. I have no idea what high school’s going to be like. Heck, I even skipped middle school so I’m not in the slightest prepared for today. I hope it turns out okay.
Vic finishes talking to the lady and turns to me holding a piece of paper. He looks over it, furrowing his eyes in concentration as he reads. As he reads, he looks…cute, I guess. His eyebrows are furrowed together and there’s a small crease in his forehead as his bottom lip pokes out ever so slightly. Is that wrong of me to call him cute? Is it wrong of me to find him attractive? I decide to just shake the thoughts out of my head.
“So these are your classes for the week and it looks like you have most of your classes with me. In fact, we have every class together today so that makes things a shit-ton easier. Just stick with me the whole day.” Vic explains handing me the piece of paper.
I nod and begin reading over it. We have math first.
“This is your locker number and combination.” Vic explains handing me another piece of paper with a bunch of numbers on it.
I nod and he puts his hand on my lower back. He guides me out of the building and we walk into another building where there’s more people. Lockers are lined against the walls and there’s a door every few feet along the walls. We walk down the hall and I start to notice a few people looking towards us. I stand a little closer to Vic, feeling safer near him. We stop in front of a locker and Vic puts in the combination before opening it.
“Mama ga‒” He’s cut off from talking as he’s shoved into the lockers.
I jump back frightened.
“Fag boy still calls his parents mama and papa.” The guy who just pushed him laughs to his friends as they walk off.
Vic squeezes his eyes shut tightly.
“Are you okay?” I ask concerned.
“I’m fucking fine Kellin.” He snaps and I swallow hard. I didn’t mean to make him angry.
He sighs and runs his fingers through his hair.
“Mama gave me your books this morning.” He mumbles taking his bag off and opening it.
He pulls out some books and hands them to me. I put them in my locker and Vic lifts his bag over his shoulder again. He takes a few books and a pen out of the locker before handing them to me.
“These are the books you’re going to need.” He mumbles and I nod.
He closes the locker and starts walking down the hall. I follow closely behind, not wanting to get lost. We stop at another locker but this one has notes stuck to it. One of them says ‘kill yourself’ and that kind of scares me. Another one says ‘faggot’. I don’t know what that means but I’ve heard it a few times before. I don’t think it’s a very nice word. There’s other words written on the notes too but some of them I shouldn’t repeat. Vic sighs and pulls the notes off, scrunching them up and throwing them in a nearby trashcan. He puts the combination in and opens the locker. He takes out a few books before closing the locker. A loud noise suddenly rings throughout the school and people start walking down the hall in different directions.
“Come on, we have to go to class.” Vic says and I nod as he starts leading me through the school.
We then walk into a classroom and Vic walks me over to a lady.
“Mrs. Jaxon, this is Kellin. He’s new.” Vic explains and the lady smiles gently at me.
“Oh, it’s wonderful to meet you Kellin. I’m Mrs. Jaxon.” She grins and I give her a nod and a small smile.
Being around adults still makes me uncomfortable. I trust Mama and Papa Fuentes because they’ve been so kind to me but I don’t know how anyone else is so I’m being cautious. For the first sixteen years off my life the adults that were supposed to care for me did nothing but hurt me.
“Vic, who do you usually sit next to?” Mrs. Jaxon asks.
“Uh, no one.” Vic mumbles.
“Oh great. Kellin you can sit next to Vic.” She smiles and I nod.
I follow Vic as he walks to the corner of the classroom. He sits down at the desk and I sit down next to him. More and more people pile into the classroom until it’s full. A lot of people are looking at me and it’s making me so anxious.
“Vic, why are they looking at me?” I squeak out in a whisper.
“Because you’re new and they haven’t seen you before. They’re just curious. Stop worrying.” Vic explains sounding amused and I nod.
“Okay.” I whisper.
Mrs. Jaxon stands at the front of the class and begins talking about things that I don’t understand but I listen intently anyway. When she’s finished with the lesson, she tells everyone to continue on from last week’s work. I wasn’t here last week so I just sit in silence doing nothing. A minute later Mrs. Jaxon appears next to my desk holding a piece of paper.
“You can start on this worksheet. If you have any problems with it don’t hesitate to ask any questions.” She explains and I nod, looking over the worksheet.
I sigh realizing that I don’t know the answer to the first question nor how to work it out. This is going to be hard.
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