Monday morning. Kevin's mood was already black, as he got dressed and made his way through breakfast, mumbling stubborn non-answers to his mother while she grilled him over pancakes on the details of his impending week. Mechanically, he picked up his backpack by the door and went outside to a sky that was still lit more by stars than the nonexistent sun beyond the horizon.
The ten of them had to leave painfully early in the morning to catch the bus, since the distance the ride took from Peach Creek to the high school was over an hour. Bitterly, Kevin wished again that his pathetic excuse for a suburb had been able to keep its doors open to the high school ten more lousy years, long enough so that he and his friends could avoid the hassle of being shipped off day after day to the nearest metropolitan district. It would have saved him a hell of a lot of trouble, in more ways than one. As Kevin approached the bus stop over the sounds of crickets and other weird summer-nighttime bugs, he took in the sight of six other, weary figures under the street light that confirmed he was the last member of the cul-de-sac to arrive. The huddled group parted a space for him as he drew near.
"Good morning, Kevin," Double D said, greeting him with a smile that held a paring of its usual enthusiasm. "I trust you've slept well for the day?"
Aside from Rolf, Double D seemed to be the only one fully awake, though Keven suspected this had as much to do with nerves as his rigid sleep schedule.
"Hey, Edd," Kevin said to him, offering what he hoped passed for a weak smile. "Yeah, you know, slept okay...same old, same old..."
With the group now complete, a small number of quiet, yawning conversations began to form among the collected thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds, to whom Kevin listened with half his attention but didn't participate. He was busy examining the ranks of his six friends, trying wordlessly to gauge whether any of them were showing off signs of behavior that would set alarm bells ringing in his head. Two days was a long time for problems to stew, after all, and he wanted to brace early for any potential trouble at the week's start if he could.
As usual, Nazz was first on Kevin's list, both as a matter of personal bias and because she routinely gave Kevin the least cause to worry. The messy blonde had foregone standing next to Kevin today, as she usually did when he got to the bus stop, apparently out of sheer sleepiness: Nazz was currently leaning on Rolf with half her weight, and gave yawning responses to anyone who prompted her to talk. Kevin caught himself smiling a little at this and looked away, his face warm. He reminded himself that Nazz's airhead tendencies meant he had to watch her back twice as hard, in case someone at school was raring to give her trouble without her knowing it. Nazz could be like that sometimes; she tended to let negative stuff fly over her head or misinterpret it and see only the benevolent side of people. That wasn't always a good thing, but at least Kevin could feel relieved that the mild grumpiness he heard in her voice was obviously only due to schoolwork and scheduling stress.
The same, mercifully, applied for Jonny, when Kevin glanced over at him talking to two of the Eds—weekends tended to help recharge the resident space cadet's batteries, which Kevin knew had a lot to do with being able to talk to Plank instead of spending a whole day at school without him. Kevin knew he'd have to keep an eye on Jonny in the halls later, when he was wandering around with that sad puppy-dog look on his face that he usually got without his imaginary friend to chatter inside his head and make him stick out like a sore thumb. But for now, Kevin wasn't worried.
The Eds were another story. Kevin suppressed a sigh as he looked the three boys over, where they were stood together side by side on the sidewalk splitting conversation equally between Jonny and Rolf. Ed at least seemed himself enough today, having physically draped himself over Eddy's shoulders with a dopey grin that only occasionally twitched to accommodate him spouting some nonsense. Eddy for his part looked patently miserable where he stood, though Kevin didn't knew if he held back from snarling Ed off him out of resignation, acceptance, or just being too tired to bother with it. The early hour combined with Ed's piss-poor hygiene would be enough to make anyone upset, but Kevin knew Eddy well enough to tell there was something else eating at him to justify that look on his face.
Kevin racked his brain for the classes that Eddy had today. Pre-Algebra, Computer...Fine Arts? With a yawn, Kevin reluctantly let the train of thought slide, reminding himself to ask Eddy himself once they both got on the bus. He knew Eddy had the same lunch period as Kevin today, along with Jonny, so that was two less dorks Kevin had to worry about wandering around the halls making easy targets of themselves.
But speaking of easy targets...Kevin grimaced, letting his eyes wander to Double D and Rolf, who were busy making rather forced-sounding chitchat while Nazz slumped inelegantly against Rolf's side and Jonny kept the other two Eds occupied with questions about homework. Unlike Double D, whose jittery nature seemed have swung up in full force with a week of school looming ahead of him, Rolf was standing with a slouched bent to his shoulders that radiated overwhelming exhaustion.
It had nothing to do with the earliness of the hour. Rolf had bragged to him often enough that, as the son of a shepherd, he could easily finish by sunrise all the work and more that an 'urban ninny' like Kevin could do in a single day. But the aching weariness Kevin saw now in Rolf was coming from the guy's head, weeks of merciless taunting and cold rejection from the other eighth graders taking its toll. The latter half of sixth and seventh grade had ironed out the worst of Rolf's language kinks, and he'd acclimated a little better to suburban tech, but it was still painfully obvious to anyone with a brain that Rolf was Different in a way that metropolitan kids spent their entire lives learning how to stamp out.
Now, Rolf spent most of his time at school walking around in a quiet sort of shock, unable to fully process the wall of intolerance he'd hit at every turn when he tried to express himself the way he always had in the cul-de-sac. In Peach Creek, there were few enough kids that you simply had to learn to deal with weirdos when they cropped up; in the city, there were so many kids that the ones from unorthodox backgrounds either worked toward or felt compelled to blend in by simple force of repetition, or didn't and faced the consequences of their peers taking it as a personal insult. After the first week, Rolf had learned to keep his mouth shut about small reminders in his everyday activities, which formerly would have led to tangents related to his old home or his family's habits. In fact, Rolf no longer spoke about his family at all at school if he could help it, and lately, Kevin had noticed the other boy nervously glancing over his shoulder before did so in the cul-de-sac as well. Kevin had wasted plenty of time the first two weeks exploding at any kids stupid enough to give his best friend a hard time within his hearing, but Rolf and Kevin didn't have all their classes together, and there was nothing he could do to be in two places at once. It was hard to justify besides, that a retaliation on Rolf's tormenters was in defense when the abuse was mostly verbal and left no evidence that anything had transpired. Kevin already had a mean enough reputation built up for himself that people didn't try to start shit with him one-on-one, and that extended to the people he was walking with. But Kevin couldn't follow Rolf around the school forever.
Nor could he do the same for Double D—whom Kevin could now say without exaggerating was becoming a legitimate source of panic for him, as the weeks went on and the target on the dork's back grew and grew. The eccentricities and love of education that had earned Double D rolled eyes and cutting remarks at Peach Creek were now earning him far, far worse in high school, and Kevin knew the brutal teasing that erupted every time Edd raised his hand or volunteered information outside of class was small potatoes compared to what people were doing to him in the halls. The jeans Double D had picked to wear today despite the summer heat (on top of a few pairs of knee-high socks, most likely) didn't hide Kevin's memory of the just-fading bruises littered all over the dork's scrawny legs from the knees downward from people tripping him. Kevin had intervened twice on Double D's behalf just last week, in the middle of a beating, with students forming a cluster around the altercation so that teachers couldn't see. Kevin had no idea how many other incidents he and the other kids might have missed while Edd was walking in school alone, and it freaked him out more than he'd admit that one of the guys from last week had been a sophomore. The jerk wasn't even in Double D's class, and he was still wailing on him. Kevin didn't know if he could kick a junior's ass, or a senior's if the situation came to that. He was tough, but puberty wasn't done with him yet, and wouldn't be for at least a few more years. He couldn't let the dweeb just get pounded on but Kevin didn't relish the thought of suffering the same fate on his behalf, either.
Finally, about fifteen minutes before the sun's first rays hit the horizon, the bus to the school creaked its way up the street toward the sidewalk where they were waiting. As if on cue, a chorus of angry, breathless guffaws from the nearby woods informed Kevin that the Kanker sisters had arrived: he tensed, expression morphing naturally into a scowl, and held his ground while the other kids shifted uneasily behind him. If one thing had stayed the same between seventh and eighth grade, it was unfortunately that the Kankers were still as dangerous as a pack of wild dingoes, and three times less civilized. Kevin bared his teeth at the jostling girls and Lee moved forward, a jaunty swing in her hips as she leered openly in the direction of the Eds.
"Hiya, Eddyyy," she catcalled, ignoring the way the other kids shuddered at her voice. "You gonna save me a seat?"
"In your dreams you fucking twat!" Eddy snarled back.
Lee only blew a kiss in response, not seeming bothered by Eddy's latest rejection. If she even registered them anymore, Keven thought, with an ugly surge of anger. Eddy and the other two Eds had enough to deal with this year, without those ugly trailer harpies trying constantly to get in their pants. His scowl deepened.
"I'm WARNING you, Lee—" Kevin began hotly.
Behind him, a sudden whoosh of air cut his argument short. The bus had pulled up, and the driver was waiting on them expectantly. The Kankers would have to get an earful from Kevin another day.
Kevin had plenty of shit on his plate to deal with outside of them, too. He watched his six neighbors file onto the bus ahead of him before stepping on himself, checking instinctively to make sure the Eds were surrounded on all sides before he gave enough room for the sisters to go by him and sit down. Kevin fell heavily into the seat by Nazz, and felt her eyes fixate on him with growing concern. The other five pairs joined in soon after, and Kevin felt the weight on his shoulders grow upon sensing the various degrees of haunted, overwhelmed trepidation with which his friends were contemplating the upcoming day at school.
Kevin had lived in a city before. He knew how to deal with schools that held a thousand students, knew how to face the terrifying social realities that were threatening to pull the others under.
He just didn't know how long he could carry them all himself before he drowned.