"Loki!" Akemi whispered, breaking the fragile silence and shattering my concentration.
I sighed and quickly used my arm to cover my sketchbook.
"What Kem?" I hissed.
She quickly checked to make sure the teacher wasn't looking and slipped me a crumpled piece of paper. I frowned and set my shading pencil down, plucking the paper from her hand and swiftly unfolded it. Scrawled on it in shaky handwriting were the words "Meet me after school at the playground. Signed, I.B." I shook my head and gave Akemi a lopsided smile and a nod.
What does Ivan need…? I thought. Hopefully he didn't get bullied again…
As my thoughts swirled around I again picked up my pencil, uncovered my book, and continued drawing the black rose. I smiled quietly and turned my music up just a little bit more, lost in my own little world once again.
The bell rang and the students all jumped up and ran out the door. I quietly shut my sketchbook, slid it into my backpack, pulled it onto my shoulders, and stuck my hands in to the front of my black hoodie. I nodded and smiled at the kind Algebra teacher, Mr. Nemer, and left the room. I speedily walked past the crowds of my noisy peers, happy to be free of the dreary classroom. I made my way from the 400 Quad all the way up to the 700, where I opened my locker and exchanged my un-needed materials for that night's needed textbooks and notebooks. I slammed the locker shut and shifted my headphones more comfortably around my head. Then I left campus, disappearing into the shade of the autumn trees, feeling lonely as ever, and wondering about the future.
15 minutes later, the old abandoned playground came into sight. I slowed my pace and stopped at the crest of the grassy hill overlooking the rusty, precarious swing-set. There sat Ivan, staring at the ground and gently rocking himself back and forth. I silently padded down the hill and quietly laid all of my stuff underneath a tree. I then slowly approached Ivan so I wouldn't startle him. I sat down on the swing to his right and the scrap of plastic and metal protested with a high-pitched squeak. Ivan slowly raised his head and smiled. He didn't look at me, and I knew he was trying to hide his tears.
"Privyet Loki…thanks for coming so quickly," he said murmured in his rich Russian accent.
"Hey, no problem…" I quietly answered in my own docile tone.
We sat there in silence, letting the words hang over our heads like the smoky auburn haze, listening to the chirping of the swallows and the whisper of the breeze through the trees. Finally, I couldn't take it any longer…I had to know.
"Iv…did they…bother you again…?" I asked gently.
"Y-…yeah…" he sniffed, wiping an arm across his eyes.
Suddenly he yelped and jerked his head up. He quickly tried to cover his face with his scarf, but it was too late. I had already seen the black, swollen mess of his left eye.
"Ivan!" I exclaimed in shock. "They did this to you!"
"It's nothing Loki…" he replied, pressing his scarf to his eye. "I can handle them and-"
"NO!" I cut him off.
I jumped off my swing, upsetting it into a wild, squeaking racket.
"It is something, and they can't just do this to you because they think you're weird! You're just from a different country and this is what you get! We've gotta do something…these jerks can't do this!" My voice was rising as was my anger.
Ivan's expression turned hard.
"Loki…" he said rising from his swing and drawing himself up to his full 5 feet 7 inches, intimidating to me, being only 4 feet 4 inches and we were both 12 and in the 8th grade. "That's not a way to deal with bullies," he continued. "You can't just confront them and challenge them. That won't prove anyone stronger. Besides, that isn't how Christians handle things. And one day they'll see…they will see…"
I absorbed all his words, wincing when he mentioned being Christian, because I had acted out a little extremely. But then I heard his ending.
"They'll…they'll see what, Iv?" I asked, a little afraid.
Ivan turned and hoisted his backpack onto his shoulders and walked past me to the edge of the forest. He stopped, turned, and let his scarf fall to his side, revealing an ugly red cut across his cheek, under his black eye.
"They'll see that we don't want children who don't play nice…da?"
He smiled, winked, then turned and disappeared among the darkening trees, as the sun slipped down.
