"Ryann?" Dally asked for his son’s attention, hesitance in his tone. Ryann simply glanced at his father, continuing to finish his breakfast before he headed off to school. His father sighed at his son’s silence, and started on his own breakfast before stating, "There's going to be a new student at school today—”
"And you want me to stay away from her, too, right?" Ryann finished his father's request as he put his half empty bowl in the sink.
His father didn't respond as he guiltily stared at his bowl of soggy cereal.
"Yeah, dad. Whatever." Ryann grabbed his backpack from the counter. "Maybe the town'll drive her out, too." He mumbled, his voice grim.
"That was ten years ago, damn it! Get over her, she practically killed herself!" his father hollered in worn out anger.
Ryann paused half way through the door. "Ten years ago?" He dug his nails into the wooden frame. "Ten years doesn't replace a best friend." He stated emotionlessly before slamming the door shut behind him.
"I heard that the new student is a third year!" One of the girls in homeroom gossiped to a classmate before the bell.
"Third year? But I heard that he was only 15!" a boy responded with a gasp.
"Is he going to be in algebra 2 or geometry?" another boy questioned.
"Do you think he'll be squeamish when we all dress up as grim reapers for the car crash act?" a girl asked with a devilish grin.
“The new kid is all the buzz, it seems." Cole chuckled as he pulled up a chair next to Ryann's desk.
Cole was one of the cool jocks. He's the star quarter back of the varsity football team and is adored by everyone in the school, but he doesn't let it get to his head. Heck, he even saves nerd from his own kind. Just how do you think he and Ryann became friends?
Ryann smiled at the warm memory. "Are you going to protect her from your friends, Cole? We could drop by the third year building at lunch if you want." He offered.
"No," Cole shook his head enthusiastically. "My parents made me promise not to talk to the new kid."
"Same here!" the girls next to them added.
"Why do you think they'd want us to stay away from him?" someone else asked as they joined the group.
"Maybe he's mentally unstable..."
"That's really mean! What if you were mentally unstable? Would you..."
"My parents made me write a contract to stay away from him! A contract!"
"What?! That's insane! Is he really that bad?"
"Maybe he killed someone..."
"He'd be in jail, retard..."
"Do you think it's the same person as last time?"
"No way! She's dead! My parents said that she caused the tsunami, so it was only right that she died by it!"
"Enough." Ryann silenced the chatty crowd that was growing around Cole and himself. He glared at his desk, his anger eating away at him. He was so tired of the crap about his childhood best friend. "It's ridiculous how you all eat up the crap that your parents feed you. How could she—A FIVE YEAR OLD—create a tsunami?" He stood to glare at his peers. "If any of you had the heart to go and meet her, you would've known that she was as normal as you and me. But none of you knew her. You didn't take the chance because you were all terrified children believing in lies. And none of you will ever have the guts to meet a person like her." All of the students turned away from the boy in shame. What could they say? He was right in every sense of the word.
Ryann kept his glare at the class before stomping out of the classroom, slamming the door on his way out.
ns 15.158.61.5da2
