Prejudice. Xeno. Animosity. Pain.
Magnet deals with the nature of discrimination.
By Aly the WheelerChick.
Disclaimer(s):
the lyrics are AFI's. Magnet, Holes, and other related persons and items are copywritten to Louis Sachar and other people that aren't myself.REALLY IMPORTANT STUFF: this fic contains racism read art thou own risk. This author is by no mean racist, in fact, this author has been discriminated against….so….she knows what's she's talking about. OH! And I put a lot of Spanish in this. It's nothing of much importance though. All you really need to know is that "si" means "yes". Everything else is basically different ways of saying "leave me alone, it's nothing" etc, in Spanish.
Prejudice - To affect injuriously or detrimentally by a judgment or an act.
Xeno - Stranger; foreigner:
xenophobia.Animosity - Bitter hostility or open enmity; active hatred.
Pain - An unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder
. (source used: dictionary.com)As a rapturous voice escapes, I will tremble a prayer
And I'll beg for forgiveness
Your sins into me, oh my beautiful one
It all seemed to happen within a matter of about twenty-five seconds.
"Wha wassat?!" Armpit said groggily, sitting up abruptly on his cot. Everyone around him in D-tent was also sitting up. Outside the tent, someone had fired a gunshot.
"Well would someone turn on a light?" muttered X-Ray, feeling around for his glasses.
Squid yawned. "'was probably just Mr. Sir firing at one'a them yellow lizards or whatever. I'm zonkin back out guys," he yawned again, laying back down.
There was a pause as Stanley turned a light on, and everyone groaned.
"Man, would you turn the light off, yo?!" X-Ray yelled, and Zigzag screeched, "MY EYYYYES!"
"Well you wanted it on," Stanley mumbled his response. And then reaching to switch his lantern off, Zero suddenly shouted, "WAIT!"
"Huh?" answered six voices.
"….Magnet," Zero said quietly, "where's Magnet?"
Everyone looked from him to Magnet's cot. The sheets and blanket were in a jumbled mess. It looked like someone was sleeping in it…
But it was empty.
There was another pause as the six of them just shrugged and looked t eachother, absentmindedly. They suddenly they all simultaneously jerked their heads to the entry flap. Outside, something coughed and then said, "I'm going to throw up!"
Whoever, or whatever it was, had a thick Hispanic accent.
"Man, what's up?!" whispered Armpit. X-Ray snapped, "SHH!"
Then they heard Pendanski's unmistakably all-too-familiar voice, saying, "well maybe if you would've fought back-"
There was a belch, then a gag, than a sound like a splash. Someone outside was throwing up. Back inside the tent, Stanley emitted a slight, "ew."
"Mom," the person with the Hispanic voice outside said, "it was two AM!" then they gagged again.
"José, go get a drink," said Pendanski.
That had to be Magnet he was talking to.
"Zig, Squid," X-Ray ordered, "go see what's going on!"
"No way, man," responded Squid, "I'm staying in here. Zig, you're the psycho, you go check it out."
Zigzag stared at him for a second, his eyes open wide. Then he slowly stood up…
Suddenly there was a dull THUD and a shirtless figure stumbled into the tent, and fell to it's knees, gasping.
And it was pure pandemonium. Zigzag shrieked and fell back onto his cot. Both armpit and Squid yelled, "OHMIGOD!" X-Ray shouted, "MAGNET?!" Stanley gasped. Zero dove under his pillow.
The figure grasped its stomach, and gagged, lurching forward, like it was trying to vomit, with nothing coming up. Then it whimpered slightly, and laid on the floor, rolling onto it's stomach, and curling into a ball. It was still gasping and gagging.
It was Magnet.
"Magnet? HEY! HEY MAN! SPEAK TO US MAGNET! Magnet….."
They all stared at him. It was definitely him….or at least what was left of him. Something had undoubtedly happened to him.
He yelped a little bit. "Mi estómago," he moaned.
Squid looked from him, to X-Ray. "Is he…?" X-Ray shrugged.
Then slowly, Magnet unraveled himself, and slowly stood, bending over, placing his hands on his knees. He still gasped, like he couldn't breathe.
When he finally stood up fully, he winced and sat back down on the floor. Everyone else in D-tent gasped. On Magnet's thin torso, there were three huge welts. He also had various other bruises on his shoulders, forearms, neck, and face.
"Awe man," X-Ray sighed.
"Lookit you…." Added Armpit, who got up and bent over the Hispanic boy. "C'mon, lets get you on yo' bed." He carefully put his big, burly arm around Magnet's waist, and placed the boy's other arm around his neck. Then slowly, carefully, stood up. Magnet had all of his weight propped against Armpit.
The other boys were whispering quietly amongst themselves, as Armpit half-carried Magnet to his cot and sat him there. Magnet looked at him, and then began to mumble on in Spanish. "Es aceptable, yo no ned ayuda, yo está muy bien."
"What happened?" asked Stanley, concentrating hard on Magnet.
"Nada, ningún reparto grande, viviré."
"Whaa?"
"Yo y algunos individuos apenas conseguidos áspero para arriba, comprende?"
"Make him speak English!" whined Squid.
"Man," sighed X-Ray, "don't you remember when Magnet first came here, all he spoke was Spanish?"
"Yeah," added Zigzag, "he only goes off in Spanish when he's mad."
"Or sad, or confused," said X-Ray.
Stanley was still concentrating really hard on Magnet. And then softly, gently, he said, "Tell us how you got hurt…in English."
They were all quiet, looking at him intently, though half-expecting another response in Spanish. But Magnet just glanced up, and mumbled, "…you mean I wasn't speaking English?"
"No!" they all replied at once.
"Damn." He paused and then said, "It's nothin really, just-"
"BULLSHIT!" X-Ray yelled, shaking his head, "and my mom is Pamela Anderson, please, Magnet."
"Estoy apesadumbrado."
"English."
"GODAMMIT, I'M SORRY!" Magnet barked. He pulled his knees up to his chin, and buried his face in his knees. "Look, I'm sorry I'm Hispanic, but it ain't like I chose it, okay?"
They raised their eyebrows at him. "Magnet," said Zigzag, "no one said anything about you being Mexican."
"Dominican! Dammit I was born in the Dominican Republic!"
"Whatever," sighed Squid, "we just don't like it when you go off in Spanish, cause none of us here know what you're sayin, alright?"
Magnet looked up, and shrugged. "I just don't like being bagged on for it."
"Who was bagging on you?" asked Stanley.
"Eh. Just some idiotas in B-tent, earlier," he pointed to the entry flap, "but I'm alright, you-"
"THEY WHAT?!" shouted Armpit.
"JUST NOW?!" added X-Ray.
"WERE THEY WITH THE KKK?" Zigzag shrieked.
Magnet blushed, knowing they weren't going to give up until they got the whole story out of him anyway. "….ye-…..y…si," he stuttered.
"YOU MEAN THET WERE WITH THE KKK?" Zigzag's eyes widened, and his hair stood up, wild as ever, "I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT ALL ALONG!"
"No, Zig," X-Ray sighed.
"Yeah, chill dog," said Armpit. X-Ray shook his head again and looked back to Magnet. Everyone looked back to Magnet.
"So lemme get this strait," said Squid, "a bunch of jackasses beat you up like ten minutes ago for being Mexi – I MEAN – for being Dominican?"
Magnet nodded.
"WHAT FUCKERS!" Squid exclaimed, with everyone else agreeing.
X-Ray then held out his arms to signal them to be quiet. "So what all happened?"
Magnet looked back down. "I had to go to the bathroom, okay? So I get up to go, and on the way back, these idiotas started dissin me, callin me a wetback and to go back to my country, and all…." He paused, and sniffed.
"…man, that's cold," whispered Armpit. Everyone nodded. "You don't say that kind of shit to people."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Well…that's all for now. This will be a 3 to 4 part fic. If you liked it, and you haven't check out my other Holes fic, try searching for it. It's called "Daunted" and it's by me, WheelerChick, obviously. Please leave a review, even if you didn't like this story (cause I don't think it's that great either, personally). I like flames, lol. They amuse me.