Misfit Toys
In every school, there's that one lunch table that's populated by the schools weirdos. The unpopular kids that people loathe. Those people that are different from the rest. The misfit toys. A lesser known secret about misfit toys, is that they are some of the best people you'll ever meet. They're also some of the saddest.
Old Eastern highschool had a small group of misfit toys. Two boys and one girl. Even amongst themselves they looked strange. They didn't look compatible. You would have never guessed this group of drastically different people could be friends. What did they have in common?
As it turns out, the foreign kid, the guy whose brother killed someone, and the girl who was in the hospital too much, had more in common than anyone would have suspected. This is their story.
The boy whose brother killed someone
Bakura had hair the color of clouds and eyes the color of dirt. He also had a twin brother with matching features. Ryou and Bakura were identical in every way. Their mannerisms, their speech patterns, their clothing choices, everything was the same. No one could tell them apart. There were even rumors that their own parents couldn't tell them apart.
Bakura and Ryou didn't have many friends. They didn't need them, they had each other. The twins were in a world of their own, distant from everyone else. They understood each other, and if others didn't get them, it didn't matter.
As they grew older and entered eighth grade, there was one difference between the twins. Of course, only the twins could see this difference, the rest of the world was blind. Bakura was gay. Ryou was not. Bakura wanted to keep it a secret. And so, the one difference between them was kept hidden, tucked away. It stayed in the realm of the twins.
Ryou never found himself attracted to any girls or boys. It didn't particularly bother him or anyone else. Bakura however, was a different story.
Joey Wheeler was a loud, rough and tumble, popular boy. He was captain of the basketball team and had a swanky Brooklyn accent that every girl adored. While Ryou didn't see anything particularly special about him, Bakura thought he was wonderful. For about a month, Bakura watched Joey from afar. Secretly laughing at all his jokes, watching all of his games and cringing whenever a girl tried to get close to him. Joey never had a girlfriend. His favorite color was yellow. He had a sister named Serenity. She was a year younger that Joey, but had skipped a grade. Bakura knew everything about Joey, and Joey didn't even know he existed.
One day, Ryou got the flu. Bakura came to school, feeling incomplete and lonely without his mirror image. During fifth period history, the whole class was assigned a project which they were required to work in pairs. It was by a stroke of fate that Ryou wasn't there to be Bakura's partner. It was also by a stroke if fate that Joey was late for class that day. By the time he showed up everyone had a partner. Everyone except Bakura.
Joey was less than thrilled to be working with one of the freaky twins. Bakura wasn't sure if he was happy or terrified.
"So... which one are you?" Joey asked.
"Oh I'm Bakura," Bakura answered, his voice coming out far shakier than he had meant it too.
"Damn, I got is wrong. Thought you was Ryou," Joey said.
"I get that a lot," Bakura said, scratching the back of his head. For once in his life he wished he wasn't part of a matched set.
After a seemingly endless awkward silence Joey cleared his throat and asked, "Can we work on the project at your place?"
"Oh, um, Ryou's sick with the flu so it's probably a better idea to go to your place," Bakura said.
"Oh," Joey said, trying to mask his disappointment.
Bakura was puzzled, but didn't say anything. He didn't want Joey thinking he was nosy. People are allowed to have their secrets, after all he had his.
A week later, Joey and Bakura turned in their project. They got a D. Ryou recovered from the flu and came back to school. Bakura swore nothing happened between himself and Joey, but Ryou knew better. Bakura had changed somehow. He had seen something or done something in the week that Ryou was gone. And Ryou knew that Joey must have been involved.
It was a Wednesday night in the middle of January. The phone rang at 1:00 am. Ryou answered it to hear Bakura's voice on the other end.
"Ryou, I'm in a bit of a mess," Bakura said, panting heavily into the phone.
"Where are you?" Ryou said his voice filling with panic, "What happened?!"
Bakura was at Joey's house. After locating the address, Ryou ran to the Wheeler residence. He burst through the door. He didn't see Bakura or Joey, but he did see Joey's sister Serenity. He ran up to her. She was crying.
"What happened?" Ryou asked, confused and out of breathe, "Where's Bakura?"
His question only seemed to make Serenity more distraught. She grabbed Ryou around the waist and cried into his shirt. Ryou held her and waited for her to calm down. Serenity was one of the most level headed people he knew, what had caused her to be so scared?
Just then, Ryou heard someone tumble down the stairs.
"Joey!" He heard Bakura shout.
"Bakura what's happening?!" Ryou shouted, still holding a terrified Serenity.
"Ryou! Come in here and help me!" Bakura barked from the next room.
Ryou grabbed Serenity by the wrist and dragged her into the stairwell. At the bottom of the stairs was a battered and bleeding, barely conscious Joey. Bakura was crouching over him, concern bubbling in his eyes.
"Bakura, what happened?" Ryou asked, his voice full of exasperation.
"I did something bad, Ryou," Bakura said quietly.
"We need to get Joey to the hospital," Ryou said anxiously, "You can tell me what happened later."
"Ryou can we not call the police yet?" Bakura said, his voice edging with despair. It was then that Ryou knew his brother had for something truly horrible.
Ryou eventually did call the police. Joey and Serenity were taken to a hospital. So was Bakura. In the hospital Bakura explained what had happened.
When he had gone to Joey's house the first time, he watched as Joeys father punched him in the gut and kicked him to the ground. Joey told him to stay silent and protect Serenity. He did. As the week went by he spent a lot of time at Joey's house. He helped Joey with household chores and served as another punching bag for Joey's father. He found out that his love was not unrequited. They kissed in the doorway of Joey's house when they thought no one was looking, but apparently Joey's dad saw. The following night, he pulled a knife on Joey and beat him half to death. Joey called a Bakura on his cell screaming for help.
Bakura came and did what he had to do. He protected Joey and Serenity. But he killed their father in the process.
"I did everything. Joey never hurt anyone, but he told the police he helped. We're both going to jail now and it's all my fault!"
Ryou looked at his brother in shock. He was out sick for a week an he had missed so much.
"Am I a monster?" Bakura muttered staring at his hands.
"Bakura don't talk like that! Anyone would have done what you did. He was going to kill Joey!" Ryou said, his voice filled with alarm.
"Would you have done it? If it had been you, could you have killed a man?" Bakura whispered in a quavering voice.
Ryou was silent. He didn't have an answer. Maybe, they weren't as alike as they seemed.
Bakura and Joey went to a juvenile penitentiary. They were to stay there for four years. Ryou and Serenity visit them every week.
Ryou and Serenity went back to school. Serenity was doted upon. People offered her condolences and gifts. How much pain she must be in, having her father murdered right before her eyes. What her classmates didn't know was how cruel and abusive her father was.
Ryou and Bakura were supposedly alike in every way. So that meant that Ryou must be a psychopathic murderer just like his brother. That's all they saw when they looked at him. A mistake his brother had made.
Serenity saw different. She didn't see a murderer, she saw the boy who held her when she was crying. She saw a boy who kept a calm level head as her world was falling apart at its seams. She saw Ryou, not Bakura. She was the first person able to tell them apart.
A/N I have this crazy notion that in an AU setting Ryou, Marik and Serenity would be good friends for weird reasons. I do plan on continuing this fic, so stay tuned!
Next Chapter: That foreign kid
R&R!
~Olivia
