You would think Emil Steilsson would be bitter over the fact that he's been stuck inside a wheelchair for most of his life, but he hardly has any memories of walking, so he has nothing to complain about. This wasn't necessarily a happy thing to think about, but it didn't seem to bother him anyways. Still, seeing pictures of him as a tiny baby, a young toddler waddling around on two working legs made him feel a bit funny, as he was so used to the safety of his wheelchair.

To make things even worse, he had emphysema, which made it difficult for him to breathe. He had AAT deficiency, which contributed to it-but it wasn't so bad. Sometimes he was in the need of an inhaler when outside, but other than that, his life went on smoothly.

His house was wheelchair-friendly-he could roll over to the top of the staircase (there were no bedrooms on the first floor) and lower himself into the electronic wheelchair installed onto the staircase. Unfortunately, Emil has (and always will be) rather prideful, so instead of getting onto some weird new electronic installation to go up and down, he'll settle on crawling.

It irked his brother the first few times, but after a while, it was amusing.

"Come on," Lukas said as he watched Emil slowly lower himself down, step by step, "We don't have all day."

"Yes I do," Emil said, hooking his elbows on the edge of the step in front of him and dragging himself forward, "I don't want to go to school."

"You have to."
"No."

"Why can't I just continue being homeschooled?"

"Because mom and dad aren't here to school you anymore," Lukas responded curtly, taking one step back every time Emil lowered himself onto a stair, "And you need to meet people, Emil."

"That's great," Emil stopped for a moment, giving a slight pant. At once, Lukas looked concerned.

"Do you need your inhaler?"

"No, I'm fine." Emil grunted, hastily dragging himself down again. By the time he got to the bottom of the steps, Lukas was in a serious rush, so he lifted Emil by his underarms into his wheelchair.

"Come on, bro." Lukas's hands reached out as if to push Emil, but he retracted them quickly to his side. Thankfully, Emil didn't see this.

The steps had been replaced with a ramp so his wheelchair could roll easily down it, though sometimes Emil was going a bit faster than he should be and he would accidentally hit the gate.

Today was one of those days.

"Careful, Speed Racer," Lukas joked lightly, watching Emil kick the gate open. However, before he could get himself entirely through it, the gate closed on his wheel. Lukas had to open it for him again.

The car ride to the high school was rather uneventful, except for the usual fight at the beginning of the car trip.

"Fall Out Boy."

"No. Imagine Dragons."

"Fall Out Boy."

"Imagine Dragons."

"Fall Out Boy."

"Imaginary Dragons.

"Boys Falling Out."

They glared at each other for a second. Then Lukas said,

"Whatever the iPod decides."

"No cheating!" Emil jabbed his finger at his brother's face. Lukas picked shuffled, and they both closed their eyes and waited with bated breath for the song to play.

There was a pause….

"I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world-"

Lukas's finger smashed the 'shuffle' button once again, and instead, the familiar violin of an Alexander Rybak song was heard.

"I guess nobody wins this round," Lukas huffed, "Again."

"It's like the universe doesn't want me to listen to My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark," Emil sighed.

"That song is so overrated."

"Yeah, and Imagine Dragons has like, one song. Radioactive."

"Excuse you, it has-"

"The only one I ever hear is Radioactive. They might as well have one song."

Lukas refused to talk to Emil for the rest of the ten minute drive.

When they finally arrived at the brownstone building, Emil felt a strong feeling of pressure build up in his chest that had nothing to do with his breathing problems, and more like to do with nerves. The music faded out and the beginnings of a new song started, but Emil hardly heard it. He stared at the seemingly menacing building set against the bleak, cloudy sky, and felt his heart thump. His first day of school in nearly five years. Today, he was fifteen, and today, he was a freshman.

But before Lukas could say anything, before Emil could do anything like pretend to vomit to put off going to hel-school for another day, a face was smashed against the window.

Emil and Lukas jumped a little in their seats as a familiar face grinned at them from the driver side window, an excitable and happy one.

"LUKAS!" Matthias shouted, his voice clearly heard even through the thick glass, "And-Awe, is that Emil? HEY GUYS!"

"Oh god, the cancer is here," Lukas groaned, before rolling down his window, successfully unsticking Matthias's face from it. At once, the tall teen leaned inside the car, face split into a wide grin.

"Oh, it's so good to see Emil out of the house and actually in public!" Matthias smiled, bright eyes twinkling, "Ya ready for some human interaction, Ice Ice?"

Emil wished he had one of his textbooks to chuck it at the Dane's head.

"No, I'm not ready to face on of the Earth's worst creations," Emil shuddered, "And stop calling me that."

"Never," Matthias's grin looked a bit evil now, "Never gonna let you forget it."

"I was twelve!"

"You were snazzy as fuck."

Emil felt his ears redden, but luckily, Lukas came to his rescue.

"Don't you have a certain Dutch druggie to harass?" Lukas asked, casting a glare to Matthias. Matthias blinked before laughing.

"Oh yeah…Lars still owes me!"

And with that, he jogged away. Emil closed his mouth, which had hung open.

"Drug addict? Is he...Is he into drugs, now?"

"No, just friends with a few questionable people," Lukas said, turning off the car engine, "Lars isn't really a druggie. He had weed once and has never done it again...To our knowledge. But the nickname has stuck."

"Oh," Emil suddenly felt extremely overwhelmed by the largeness of the school and the amount of students milling around it, "I might be sick."

"No you're not."

They waited a couple of seconds before Lukas gave a groan.

"Junior year...One more year of being here. One more year."

"At least Triangle Hair Man won't be around next year," Emil said half-heartedly, but even he knew that Lukas didn't truly dislike the Dane. Sure, his hair was eccentric and he had a piercing and wore strange 'hipster' things (like the checkered bracelet and sometimes the huge hipster glasses) and he was loud and obnoxious and he made friends with weird people. But Emil knew Lukas really did care a lot about him.

Speaking of the devil….

"Lars says he doesn't have my money," Matthias pouted as he seemingly appeared out of thin air behind Lukas. Lukas gave a roll of his eyes before saying,

"Okay."

The inside of the school was much less intimidating than the outside. Drawings and colorful posters hung everywhere, especially posters that had various anti-bullying messages. Emil felt rather discouraged by this-it was certainly a bad sign if there were so many anti-bully messages, which meant that bullying must be a big thing here…

"You're going to love it here, Ice-Er, Emil," Matthias said, noticing the look on his face and his own face softening a bit, "There's a hella lot of clubs, and there aren't many bullies around."

Emil cast a doubtful look to the many posters, his fingers nervously combing through his silvery blond hair. Lukas placed his hands on Emil's shoulders, leaning over the back of his wheelchair, long, narrow fingers squeezing his shoulders tightly.

"It's all right, brother," Lukas said in a low, yet flat voice, "You can always come find me if you need help."

As if. While Emil appreciated it and all, he still had some pride, damn it! First day of school in years...Couldn't be that bad, could it?

"Or you could ask your guide for help," Lukas straightened up, his voice a little brisk as they approached the principal's office, "She's-er-nice."

"Okay…" Emil said, not really liking the slight hesitation in his brother's voice. Inside the (very small, very cramped) office, there was a girl wearing the strangest assortment of clothing Emil had ever seen. She probably didn't even know what the word fashion meant. However, she looked so intimidating and so tall (even though she barely reached Lukas's chin) that he didn't really care what she wore.

"Hello, Natalia," Lukas said, giving her a small wave. Furious blue eyes shot towards him and Emil almost swore he saw his brother gulp nervously. His brother, who showed nearly no emotion, was scared of this girl.

The horror.

"Nat!" Matthias rushed forward and gave her a sort of hug that just involved his hands on her shoulders forcing her torso into his chest, her back rigid. Her hands flew up to his stomach and she pushed him away, sending him back into the desk uncomfortably. Emil felt as if he was taking up the most room in the small space with this suddenly huge wheelchair.

"This your brother?" She turned to face him, and at once Emil's hands jumped to the armrests of his chair, leaning back in it as if to get as far away from her. Gosh darn, she was so fucking scary!

He couldn't even explain why. For god's sake, she had a 'Save The Whales' sticker on her binder (this might have been ironic) and she was literally wearing a big black bow and a blue cardigan. But her eyes made her chilling.

"I. Am. Emil. I. Am. Fifteen. I. Am. In. A. Wheelchair." His voice came out like a robot's, and he bit his tongue to get himself to just shut up.

Do you want to live, Emil? Then shut the fuck up. Just stop it. Think of memes, Emil. You love memes, right?

His eyes flickered around the room, before landing on Matthias's shoes.

Daaaamn Dane, back at it again with the white vans?

His brother suddenly sneezed. It was like a kitten.

Much cat. Very meow. Many purr.

"-in the girl's bathroom."

"What?" Emil's eyes flew back to meet Natalia's to find she had straightened up, arms crossed. Natalia's head turned to face Lukas, who immediately backed away.

"He's almost as awkward as you," She said thoughtfully, before turning her gaze back to Emil, who immediately straightened up.

"But if you turn your head this way," She tilted her head, squinting her eyes, before saying, "Yeah, nope, still a piece of shit."

Matthias was the only one who laughed, and very awkwardly at that.

Oh god. Is this school? Am I in a nightmare?

"Lighten up," Natalia said, before walking over to the door and holding it open, "I'm supposed to take you to your class."

"Why can't Lukas be my guide?" Emil asked weakly. Natalia blinked.

"Because I'm not a student volunteer," Lukas said quickly, not letting her answer, "And I'm a junior."

"I am a freshman," Natalia added.

"Oh," Emil suddenly found his pants very interesting. They were a nice shade of blue. The next thing he knew, he was being pushed out the door. Giving a small squeak of surprise, Emil gave a small jolt.

That's what he hated about being in his wheelchair. Feeling as if he were at the mercy of anyone. If they so wished, they could just give his wheelchair a light shove and send him rolling down the hallway.

And speaking of hallways…

The hallways, which had previously held about maybe seven students, now seemed to contain about fifty. People pressing in from all sides, and Emil felt suddenly as if every eye were on him, and those girls muttering across the hall were talking about him, and that everyone was thinking that he was a total loser.

"Come on," Natalia said, and she pressed a hand on the back of his wheelchair and pushed him to the side of the hallway, as everyone seemed to be walking in the middle of it. Emil felt a little better about being with Natalia-at least he knew she thought he was a loser.

The walls were painted a rather pleasant, periwinkle blue color, while the floor was a beige. Concentrating on the colors were rather comforting. Colors, in general, were comforting to Emil-he liked to associate them with things.

"You're quiet," Natalia suddenly stopped, and that meant Emil had to stop to. He craned his head to the right to look up at her, and she was staring down the hall. He was going to answer her, but she suddenly pushed him forward again, and he resolved to silence.

All eyes seemed to be on him, and Emil nervously picked at the hem of his jacket. He would be the only one in a wheelchair, the one who's never walked before. The one who was a weirdo without any friends.

And, all too suddenly, they were at the door to his first period of the day-art.

"Here you go," Natalia said, "I have to take you to all your classes, and since it'll take you a longer time to get to them, I have to bring this note for the teacher's to see to excuse you for your tardiness."

She showed him a blue slip of paper.

"Oh," Emil's voice sounded small and far away.

"If you feel sick, just ask to be excused," Natalia's voice was flat, but her eyes were locked on his, hands still on his wheelchair.

"Okay."

"If you want to contact Lukas or me, we're both all the way down," She nodded her head to the long, main hallway that ran from the classroom to the other side of the hall. up 289, Mr. Lorrence is Lukas. I'm just next to him, Mrs. Hinajosa."

"Alright."

"You can do this."

"Sure."

Natalia blinked, before letting go of his wheelchair, and walking away. Emil watched her go, before turning his head back to the art classroom. It seemed almost full.

Natalia was alright, Emil thought, and not really that scary and horrifying.

Now, to face the true horror-

Class.


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