It's not as if he didn't hear what they said.
"You know the new kid? I heard he got kicked out of his old school for fighting."
"Damn, he's scary. I mean, he never smiles, and he always looks like he wants to kill you."
"I feel sorry for the guy that gets on his nerves."
"That guy is so weird. He never talks...Shhh, I think he's looking!"
"He probably kills things for fun."
"What a freak."
They had been talking like that for years. Everywhere he went, he always heard the same hushed whispers behind his back. He was used to it by now. Even so, no matter how many times he told himself that, it still left a stinging feeling in his chest. It had dulled over time, but never really vanished.
"Mr. Oxen-oxy-ugh, Berwald." The math teacher managed to choke out. The other students in the class giggled annoyingly as Berwald looked up from staring at his notes.
"Hm?" he grunted.
"Do you have the answer?" the teacher asked, obviously annoyed. Berwald starred at him blankly. Seeing as this was calculus class, he couldn't help but be bored into oblivion, and the teacher wasn't a very good one anyway, so Berwald had drifted off into his thoughts. Berwald quickly evaluated the risk of asking the teacher what the question was in the first place. Seeing as many of the morons in his class did the same on a regular basis, he deemed the act safe.
"What's th'question?" he asked calmly. His teacher sighed heavily (a rather exaggerated effort, Berwald noted).
"Mr. Oxenstierna, listen next time so you don't make a fool of yourself." he said. The vultures sitting around Berwald looked at him, but Berwald just sighed and again lowered his head to stare at his papers. Several minutes later, the bell announcing the end of class rung out, and the students quickly gathered their things and filed out of the classroom. His books in his left hand, Berwald slowly walked out of the room and into the hall, nonchalantly looking both ways down the hallway, and then turning right on the route to his next class. He momentarily stopped at his locker and entered the combination. A dulled 'click' rang out, and he opened it to scrounge through the locker's contents. As he searched for the proper books, a girl talking to her friend accidentally bumped into him.
"Oh, sorry-" she said as she turned. She cringed as she saw who he was. "I-I'm so sorry! I…I didn't watch where I was going..." she then walked off, head bent, her friend in tow. Berwald sighed, took out his books, and closed his locker.
…
"Hey, Nik!" called a tall blonde boy with an unkempt appearance about him as he put his arm around Nikolai's shoulder. Nikolai finished adjusting his hairclip and looked at his…Whatever he was with the same apathetic look as always.
"D'ya hear the news?" the taller of the two asked.
"Does it look like I care?" Nikolai replied. As usual, the other ignored his cutting remarks and went on.
"Apparently we're all getting a big physics project." He said. "Won't that be fun?" he said with just a hint of sarcasm.
"Ode to joy…" Nikolai replied.
"And we have to have partners, no exceptions." He said. "Seeing as we don't have the same teacher, there's no chance of us being paired up." He sighed. Nikolai rolled his eyes.
"What a shame." He said.
"Second to you, I hope I get some hot chick." He said, smiling his trademark grin. Nikolai, just a tiny bit offended, perhaps, pushed the other boy's arm away before walking away.
"Aw, Nik, y'know I'm kidding!" the other said, only half believing himself as he ran after Nikolai.
...
Berwald took his usual seat in the back of Ms. Bathory's third period physics. He rather liked Ms. Bathory, she was a kind, intelligent woman that always somehow managed to perfectly balance listening and speaking, a thing Berwald found very difficult not only for himself but humanity in general.
"Good morning, class." She said as cordially as ever. "As many of you seem to have heard, I'm going to assign you all a project that will count for half of your grade this quarter." She said. Most of the students exchanged looks, having silent one-ups or conversations, but Berwald just stared forward.
"I'm also going to be assigning you all partners." She said. At this point, most of the students began exchanging somewhat panicked expressions. Being assigned a partner was never a good thing for someone who stuck with two or three people in their own little caste. Berwald, however, trusted in her judgment. She knew him well because she was a friend of his mother's, and he was certain she would put him with someone he could get along with.
"Here are the partners:" she began. "Elizabveta Hedervary and Roderich Edelstein." She said. Elizaveta smiled at Roderich nervously, it was a well-known fact by everyone by Roderich that she had a huge crush on him. Without looking up from her list, Ms. Bathory continued.
"Basch Zwigli and Heracles Karpusi" Basch looked over at his partner, who happened to be sleeping at the time, and practically hit his head on the desk.
"Toris Laurinaitis and Felix Lukasiewicz" Toris didn't know whether to feel lucky that he was with a friend or unlucky because he knew it was going to be hard to get Felix to do his fair share.
"Berwald Oxenstierna," she said perfectly, being one of the very few teachers in the school that could pronounce his name correctly. "And Matthias Kohler."
For all Berwald knew, Ms. Bathory might as well have been sending him to the guillotine. He glanced over at Matthias very quickly, and his stomach practically sank to the floor. Matthias smiled back his trademark grin, a little disappointed that he didn't get partnered with a hot girl like he wanted, but at least he was with someone he could respect. Berwald, sadly, didn't return the sentiment. From what Berwald had observed, Matthias was little more than a loudmouth troublemaker. He put his face in his hand and sighed quietly. The next few weeks were going to be long and probably excruciatingly annoying.
Why is it that I can spell and say 'Oxenstierna' but not 'Lukasiewicz'? How do any of the teachers get through the day without messing up on their student's names? *sigh*
Yes, it's true. Denmark is my second favorite Nordic. So...Yeah, don't think I hate him or anything in the next few chapters.
