First Impressions
Bear stepped into Elwood City High, eying his new classmates carefully. His mother's medical practice folded back in Woodland, sending them to Elwood City for better opportunities. Bear hated leaving his friends behind, especially Franklin, but he knew he could write letters to him saying how everything went.
Or at least he thought he could.
As Bear moved to his locker, he heard giggling behind him. A pair of girls, one with pigtails and the other with berets, giggled nearby, pointing to Bear's large belly. A third person came up, a boy with glasses. He eyed Bear and grinned himself.
Bear immediately felt horrible. He'd always had a love for food, causing him to be much larger than the other kids his age. He was much taller too, but it was the weight that made people look in his direction.
Bear closed his locker and darted towards his first class, trying to forget the unfortunate encounter. Unfortunately for him, Muffy Crosswire was the girl with pigtails, and she was unforgiving when she posted onto her social media page: omg, who's seen the new fat kid? Lose some weight giant!
As Bear got settled into his seat in his first class, phones buzzed. The giggling began again, this time from everyone around him. He hung his head, wondering why this place could already be so cruel to him.
"Mind if I sit here?" a guy asked. Bear shrugged, keeping his head down. As he stared at the surface of his desk, he realized the giggling had stopped. He looked up to the guy. He was massive, his shirt barely containing his bulging biceps. His mouth fell open—no wonder those other kids stopped laughing. The guy eyed him, "So, you're the one they're whispering about? Well, I'm Binky, and I'm going to figure this out so they'll leave you alone."
Before Bear could respond, Binky moved over to another kid and snatched up their smart phone. On the screen was Muffy's post and dozens of responses, including pictures of the new student. Binky glared, barely resisting the urge to slam the student's phone to the ground.
As the teacher stepped into the room, Binky climbed onto the desk at the front of the room with the phone in his hand, "You all think this is funny? Huh? You think it's perfectly okay to make fun of someone you don't even know, that you haven't even met? Hmm? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
"Sit down, Mr. Barnes," the teacher hissed.
Binky shook his head as the teacher approached. He handed her the phone, "This was posted online a few minutes ago, and the morons of this pathetic high school think it's fine to do such a thing. It's not! And if you won't do anything about it, then you're just the same as them."
"Well, you're the one disrupting class," the teacher added, eying the phone. She turned with sympathetic eyes to Bear after reading the message, "I'll talk to someone, but we live in an age where this happens. Maybe you should lose a few pounds so people think you're healthy."
Binky's face turned from a light shade of pink to a dark shade of violet. He kicked the classroom's globe, snapping it in several pieces as it crashed against the wall. Before the teacher could tell him to leave, he barged out the door, his footsteps booming in the now empty hallway.
"Alright, let's get started," the teacher whispered. Bear hung his head, barely acknowledging anyone for the rest of the day.
"So Muffy posted that? I'd cream her if I had it in me," Molly glared, taking a sip of her strawberry milkshake. Rattles nodded in agreement as the bell over the Sugar Bowl's door tinkled. The three Tough Customers looked up to see Bear entering the restaurant.
At the next table, Fern, George, Jenna, and Maria were having an after school snack. Maria immediately snorted, "Oh my god, it's that kid. Run before he thinks we're on the menu!" she cried playfully. Immediately the booth cleared, and before Bear could approach the counter to order, they were gone.
"Can you believe those people?" Rattles muttered, rolling his eyes. "If we so much as raise our voice to people, they want us to seek professional help for our anger problems. If we say something semi-mean, we have to apologize to the whole school. But those people take the back door out and it's perfectly okay? Wait, they're 'popular'. They can do whatever they want. Ridiculous!" Rattles ranted.
"Hey Bear!" Molly called, standing. "Let's blow this joint for something better," she offered, signaling to the boys to stand up. They had no idea what she was thinking, but Bear instantly trusted her, following them out to the parking lot. Molly's car was barely big enough, but she drove them to her house. Once inside, she led them into the kitchen.
"Ooh, I know what you're doing," Binky grinned. Molly nodded with a smile, pulling out the flour container and beginning to sift. Binky turned to Bear, "Molly is a great cook. You haven't had pancakes until you've had her pancakes."
Bear was hesitant, "Maybe I should have something else instead. I was going to get a salad at the Sugar Bowl-"
"A salad at the Sugar Bowl?" Rattles scoffed. "That's not real food, kid. I mean, I'm sure everything on their menu is amazing, but when I go, I'm getting a big burger, a huge plate of fries, and a gigantic chocolate milkshake. And if our classmates don't like how we eat, tough! They're not us. They don't know anything about us, and they especially don't know anything about you."
"We'll pay them all back for what they said. You know how?" Molly asked. Bear shook his head. Molly grinned, "We're going to make something for ourselves, prove to everyone they got us wrong. So we liked to take over the jungle gym in elementary school? That made us so damn scary, didn't it?"
"Molly's going to Elwood City University for the pre-med program, then she's going south to be a vet. I'm going to be an engineer, and Binky, well Binky hasn't decided yet, but he's going to do something amazing with his life. And what'll they be doing? Live-tweeting mean thoughts from their pathetic cube farms!" Rattles hissed.
"I want to be a doctor like my mom," Bear said. Molly nodded firmly as she began to add eggs and other ingredients to her batter, "You do that, Bear, and you stick with us. We won't judge anyone. No legs? We'll carry you on our backs if we need to. Blind? We'll blindfold ourselves during movies to 'see' things from their perspective. Differences are what make people beautiful and we won't hide. So you're taller than the other kids. They're just jealous," she grinned, turning on a burner and sliding a pan on top.
"Mmm," her mom called, peeking in from behind the wall of boys. "James will be home soon. I hope you'll share," she said. Molly nodded, moving to another area to get a different type of flour.
Bear eyed Molly carefully, "Does your brother have a medical condition?" he asked, quickly adding with embarrassment, "if it's okay for me to ask."
"No, I don't mind telling you. He has a disorder called celiac disease. He can't have any gluten whatsoever. That's why I got into cooking. He needed gluten-free recipes, so I made them for him. He's never been happier," she smiled, looking up as James entered the room. "Hey, little bro. I'm making your special pancakes," she smiled.
"Wow, thanks Molly," James cried, rushing to his room to put away his things.
Rattles smiled, "I love that kid like my own brother. We do that for people, Bear, and tomorrow, if those kids are still making a big deal out of nothing, we'll show them what really is a big deal: Their bullying."
Bear didn't want to be confrontational, but this new group of friends made him feel strong. With their help, maybe he could strike back. Besides, Molly was an angel in an apron, her pancakes reminding him of being in Woodland with Franklin and his mother, who also made great pancakes. He was happy here too now, and he hoped it continued.
Binky and Rattles flanked either side of Bear as they marched into Elwood City High. In the middle of the hallway, a group of kids were circled around something. There were too many kids to see what was in the middle of the circle, at least for Binky and Rattles. Bear was tall enough to see over them. In the center of the circle was a boy with tall ears. The rest of him was huge—he looked far too overweight for his age. Bear almost felt bad for the boy as Binky and Rattles barged into the crowd.
Muffy shrieked, "Buster, why are you so fat?!"
"How dare you say that about Buster!" Arthur said sternly. "Come on, Buster, tell us this is a joke or something, like you got a fat suit from your father or something."
"Nope," he smiled, looking up to see Bear. Buster stepped forward, "Hey, Bear. I'm sorry I missed the first day of school. I would've taught all these haters a lesson, but we'll do it today instead. This is real. I kept eating and eating and eating, and now my body looks like this. I'm not ashamed of it. If I want to lose weight, I'll work hard. But I went to the doctor, Bear's mother to be exact, and she said I'm healthy otherwise. I just need to watch my sugar intake, but I can do that."
"It's not fake? OMG, I think I'm going to be sick!" Muffy cried. "Why would you want to look like that, Buster? You look disgusting!"
"And you don't?" Buster asked. The crowd ooh-ed and stepped back as Buster approached her, "You're wearing a dead baby around your neck, but you want to call me out for being fat? You're so fully of yourself, Mary Alice Crosswire, and it's time we taught you a lesson. I'm reporting you for bullying, and if the school won't do anything about it, I'll take the story to my mother."
"Then everyone would know," Fern whispered. "The school better do something or this'll make national news."
Buster nodded, "Exactly, Fern. So, Muffy, what's your choice?"
Muffy had no choice but to turn herself in. The school forced her to delete the negative post, but only after each response was checked. The comments were matched with students, and over five hundred were forced into sensitivity training.
Bear was accepted, not just by the Tough Customers, but by everyone else too. No one wanted to put up with that kind of biased hatred where one person could face so many obstacles for one trait. So Bear overate. Buster overate too, and though they agreed to do some workouts together to be stronger, they were okay with their personal appearance. And if anyone else had a problem with it, they stuck together, ignoring the negativity.
Bear and the Tough Customers would stick to the initial plan to pay everyone back by being successful. At their twenty-five year reunion, Rattles was a leading engineer for the Elwood City government, inspecting the area's buildings and bridges for fatal flaws. He saved hundreds of lives when he discovered flaws in an apartment building's layout, a flaw that caused the building to collapse as soon as they started to look into it, mere days after people were meant to move in.
Molly moved to New Mexico to be an accomplished veterinarian. She ran a large and small animal practice, making farm calls day and night to her loyal customers. She was an expert in her field, delivering live calves in the worst of dust storms while her partners cared for cats and dogs at her small animal practice. She was married to one of her classmates from college, a fellow vet, and they ran their practice together.
Binky took a while to figure himself out, but in the end, he went with Bear to medical school. Both became general practitioners and settled near Elwood City. Both watched their classmates that stayed in the city come through their practice doors. Binky was Muffy's physician, and she transformed in those twenty-five years from a beautiful fashionista to a disheveled house wife with four kids.
They proved themselves by being successful, and in the end, they were all accepted. And in return, they accepted their classmates whether they looked like models or not.
~End
Theme 118: High School, Theme 202: First Impression
Theme from my Infinite Arthur Theme List Challenge. PM me if you're interested.
So this is my second Franklin/Arthur crossover. This one is much more lighthearted despite the tough issue here. I hope you guys liked it^^ And if you have any crossover ideas, I'm open for requests. You can see my profile for fandoms I'm familiar with, but there's a few more not listed because I haven't written/posted for them yet too. Just ask and I'll let you know if I can do it.