"Thanks for helping make new friends, guys. Amy and her friends asked me to be in her study group with her!" Chloe said with excitement. She was talking to her three best friends, who also happened to be anthropomorphic bears.
"No prob, Chloe!" Grizz yelled as he hugged her.
"Ice Bear is excited," The polar bear said in his usually monotone voice. Panda smiled at her as the four of them started to walk towards the north side of the campus where Chloe's mother would pick them up. They passed by a group of college kids that caught their attention.
"C'mon, just leave me alone Derek," a boy said in the middle of the group of five. The boy, supposedly named Derek, then spoke up.
"What's wrong, fatty? Gonna cry?" He let out a nasty chuckle as tears streamed down the younger boy's face.
"Yeah, Jason. You gonna cry?" Another kid in the group said while mocking the poor kid. Derek then picked the crying boy who was presumed to be Jason by his neck and threw him to the ground. The rest of the group erupted into fits of laughter as they walked away from Jason, Derek giving him a final kick in the gut before saying,
"See you around, fat ass." He laughed as he ran to catch up with his rotten group of friends. The trio of bears and Chloe had witnessed the whole incident. They all were in a state of shock as the looked upon the now sobbing boy laying on the concrete. It broke their heart.
"Oh my gosh why did they do that to him?" Panda said with confusion and sadness lingering in his voice.
"That's Jason. He's in my economics class. Derek and his friends always mess with him because of his weight and how smart he is," Chloe explained to Grizz, Ice, and Panda.
"They've crossed over from 'messing with him' to 'bullying him' it seems like," Grizz said sadly.
"Let's go help him," Chloe suggested. The group of four walked over to the boy sitting on the sidewalk.
"Hey, are you okay Jason?" Chloe asked him. Jason looked at her, his eyes red from crying. He quickly wiped away the tears he had rolling down his cheeks.
"Oh, uh, y-yeah, I-I'm fine," he whimpered. He looked at the ground and a few stray tears fell and hit the ground.
"It's okay, don't cry. Look, would you like to hang with us for a while. You can talk to us." Grizz said putting his furry paw under Jason's chin, forcing him to look at the four of them. He avoided direct eye contact with them.
"Are you sure, I don't want to be trouble for you guys." Jason said in a quiet voice.
"Nonsense, you won't be trouble for us. We wanna help," Panda showed a gentle smile.
"Ice Bear will make milkshakes." Ice Bear declared. There was a tiny smile on Jason's face.
"Well I do like milkshakes," he said a little louder than before.
"Perfect, let's go!" Chloe exclaimed. Grizz gave Jason his paw and helped him off the ground. Jason brushed off his grey and blue Adidas hoodie as they started to walk in the direction of their destination.
"So, Jason, what happened back there?" Chloe asked as they walked together.
"Oh, it was Derek being Derek I guess. He's been doing that since I got here. He thinks that since I'm younger and slower than he is he thinks that he could push me around and put me down," Jason explained with a sad, depressed expression creeping his way onto his face.
"He's a jerk, it seems like," Panda said, sorry for the younger boy, "but you do look younger than most of the kids here. How old are you?"
"Fifteen," Jason responded nonchalantly. This caused Chloe's head to snap back to look at him. A shocked expression plastered onto her face.
"You're a child prodigy like me?" Chloe asked the newly revealed child prodigy.
"Yeah, but everyone here knows you as the child prodigy because your younger and smarter than I am. Most people don't know I exist or they think I'm here visiting a sibling or something like that," The four other figures tried to soak in what he had just told them. The rest of the walk was filled with awkward silence. As the reached Chloe's mother's car, Chloe went up to the passenger seat window.
"Hey mom! Is it okay if you can take us to the Bears' cave?" Chloe asked her mother
"Of course, Chloe," she said in her Korean accent, "And who is this?" She asked, referring to Jason.
"Hi, I'm Jason." He told Mrs. Park. She gave him a smile.
"Nice to meet you, Jason," She said, ",hop in, I'll take you five there,"
"Thanks mom!" Chloe said happily. The five of them all crammed into the back seat, Chloe ended up sitting on Grizz's lap.
-One Cramped Car Ride Later-
"Jason, do you want juice? It's pulp free," Grizzly said with emphasis on the free part.
"Yeah, sure," Jason said. He sat down on the couch in the Bears' cave. Grizz, Chloe, and Ice Bear went to the kitchen, and Panda went to his room. Jason looked a around the cave, which looked more like a home than a cave. Grizz came back with Ice Bear with cups of juice in their hands. He handed a cup of juice to Jason.
"Thanks," he said politely to them. He took a sip of the drink,"This is really good,"
Grizz smiled. "So, do you have any friends?" Jason frowned as he heard this question.
"Well, back in my hometown I did. Not here though," he looked down.
"Where are you from?" Grizz asked curiously.
"You know where St. Louis is?" Jason asked the bears. They both shook their heads,"Well, it's not close. So I haven't really seen those friends in probably two years. They most likely forgot about me, like everyone else here," He let a few stray tears fall. Chloe came out from the kitchen to see what was going on.
Grizz wrapped his arms around the crying boy. "It's okay, we'll be your friends, right guys?"
"Absolutely!" Chloe said excitedly.
"Ice Bear is friend," the polar bear stated plainly.
"I'll be your friend too!" Panda shouted from his room.
"You'd guys do that. Really?" Jason asked unbelievingly. They all smiled and nodded. He pulled them all into group hug.
"Finally, I found some friends,"
~Hey guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm still relatively new at writing, so any constructive criticism is welcomed. Thanks :)
