Disclaimer: I mess around with the characters on my own free will, but I fail to actually own these characters. Please thank PBS Kids and Nashville Public Television.Except Jandro. I unfortunately own that jerk.
Tobey noticed something peculiar on his way to class. His rival Becky is holding her arms and shaking feverishly. As he hides from her view, he also notices Becky's throbbing shiner and cut lip. She turns her attention to several eighth graders and shutters. The large jock of the group catches her gaze. He grins wickedly with overdramatic goo-goo eyes. Becky runs in the opposite direction.
Tobey's POV
This causes my blood to boil. I caught my dad assaulting my mom once when I was three. When he stopped by my bedroom door later, I could tell he was planning to attack me. I unleashed a built-up unholy vengeance. Mom saved him from me, as if I were a rabid bear and he were a fluffy rabbit. She called an ambulance and child therapeutic sessions.
Back to present time, I shrug this off, leaving my fists in intense strained fists of rage. I walk to class, taking my place beside Becky. In the middle of our lesson, I catch the goon. He is making Becky incredibly uncomfortable. Something breaks up inside of me. Fire burns in my eyes and scorches my throat. I abruptly stand, making my way to the door.
"Sit down. We're in the middle of a lesson. Where do you think you're going?" Miss Davis demands an answer.
"Someone needs to be taught a different type of lesson." I grumble, desperately holding back a throaty cackle.
Becky and Victoria watch as I leave. Maybe others, I don't know. I find my victim easily. Jandro Alestin. I shove a picture of Becky in his face, never mind how I got it.
"Why?" I ask him, angry but weak.
He laughs at my nerve, especially with my being two feet shorter. He shoves me into a locker then returns to his conversation with his friend. I straighten myself up and hold the picture firmly. I clear my throat and ask again in a grim tone.
"Why?"
He is a bit taken aback by my sudden voice change, particularly the loss of my accent. Still, he covers this with a scoff, chortling about how she was stubborn and deserved it. Deserved it? Deserved a black eye? Deserved a cut lip? Deserved to be abused? No. I launch myself at him. I yank his hair to my level, only to slam his face into a locker. His friend races down the hall chanting Fight! Fight! Fight! Jandro claws at me but I don't care. I throw my punches until my knuckles are steadily bleeding. Still I continue. My breath fades in and out as I remove my robot remote from my back pocket. Building robots builds up your strength. And your stamina. Instead of locating my metallic creations, I utilize my remote by dislocating my victim's knuckles so he can no longer fight back. He cries a sharp pain that I suppose gathers the teachers' attention. I can already feel the presence of a hefty crowd growing larger. I hardly notice as, for the moment, I am only focused on inflicting pain.
However, I do notice when my fists are suddenly restrained. I cannot tell if it is a student or a teacher, but I allow one arm to go limp in order to snag something, anything sharp. I snatch someone's keys and shove them into Jandro's eye socket. I don't know which one. Suddenly, arms take hold of me. I am strapped onto some sort of makeshift gurney.
I supposed I had been knocked out. Maybe I passed out. I am at the hospital, in a bed. Mom is by my side, sleeping in a chair. I wake her up by sitting up, as it sets off a few currents from the strange medical things on my head. Her regular worry is obviously seen on her face. Although, this time, I also notice absolute fright.
The next school day, after the weekend for recovery, I come to understand I have sent Jandro Alestin to extensive intensive care. Walking down the hall, it seems as though the entire school is terrified of me. Becky keeps stealing glances at me during class. I stop doing my assignment and, as planned, Miss Davis calls me on it. This time, much more hesitantly. I decide to make the most of the unstable fear to my advantage. I grab my textbook and launch it at her head. I scream in a threatening voice.
"This is pointless! You expect me to learn? Yeah, right! The only way I'm passing is because of what went down with Alestin!" I turn on Becky, leaning over her desk. "This is your fault, Botsford! If you would just…" My voice drops below a whisper. "Abandoned Old Playground. Ten minutes." I jump away, screaming in hatred. "So mind your own business!"
I leave, slamming the door shut. It echoes in the hall as I stalk toward the gymnasium exit. I notice the idiot who went around the school chanting about the other day's brawl. He is giving an oral report in his class. He catches my terminal glare and stumbles in his speech. Satisfied, I walk beyond the school and field, to an ancient rusted playground located by our even older decomposed physical education building. I sit on one of the only two ground-supported swings and wait.
Becky's POV
Earlier, a horrible eighth-grader named Jandro Alestin was bullying me. Tobey, Victoria and I are the smartest kids in the sixth grade. Tobey and I actually scored over the eighth-graders on some algebraic composition exam. Tobey scored highest on the arithmetic section and pretty good on the lettering part. I scored highest on the writing segment and marginally well on the math. Together, we made far above the average grammar school level. Because of my smarts and the fact that I'm a girl, he's decided against me. I said something I now realize was incredibly unintelligent. I said if he got a tutor, he could maybe make the same grades.
He slugged me. In my eye. A few of his friends shielded view from the many crowded eighth-and-seventh-grade witnesses, not to mention the teachers standing at attention for outbursts. I tried to defend myself without delving into any superhuman instincts. It was tough to suppress them. He hit me again. His ring snagged my lip, leaving it cut. His overexcited friend Jimmy was watching every move in sheer joy. Jandro told me he liked me but I had to learn a lesson and Jimmy laughed hysterically.
His eyes followed me as I made my way to class. I was careful not to let many people notice. As soon as I made it to class, I rushed to my desk and borrowed a pair of sunglasses from Victoria's open backpack. She noticed and grabbed them back. Seeing my predicament, she let me borrow them for real.
"Who was it?" She whispers.
"Doesn't matter." I answer.
She shrugs but Scoops and Violet walk in, each taking an interest. They sit at their respected desks and ask.
"It's nothing." I assure them.
Tobey walks in. He looks over at me, in an almost consoling look, as if he already knows. When class begins, Miss Davis makes me remove my glasses by silently eying me and pointing first to her own glasses, then to mine. I hand them back to Victoria and Miss Davis gives me a look. I give her one back, as if to say please don't make it a big deal. I suppose she understands, because we start our lesson. Violet and Scoops are already busy with their worksheets, so thankfully, they fail to notice. Tobey notices, but he doesn't say anything, either. In fact, he takes a great interest, looking extraordinarily mad. Mad at who did this to me?
Speaking of him… Jandro walks by and stares at me through the window on the door. He made a variety of faces at me. Faces signaling he wasn't through with me. Faces determined to give surety that he still likes me. I turn away as he leaves. I feel really uncomfortable and uneasily squirm. Tobey stands. He just stops doing his work and walks to the door. He and the teacher have a short tête-à-tête about lessons.
Not long after, I hear Jimmy. He is running down the halls shouting Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Naturally, most of my classmates – myself included – rush to the doorway to see what is causing the commotion. I maneuver through the multitude. I stand in shock. Tobey is over Jandro with a bloodied growl and deeply bruised knuckles. Jandro is exceedingly beaten up. The only things broken on Tobey are his glasses and ripped sleeve and bowtie. The shrieking eighth-grader has a room key gouged in his left eye. A few teachers take hold of Tobey and he is strapped onto an audio-visual cart with a thud. He is out cold. Both of them are rushed to the hospital.
A while later, although I know it isn't true, I inform the principal that Tobey was merely standing up for me. I explain what Jandro did to me, overly exaggerating on some bits. Due to Tobey's destructive manner – he would probably sic an army of robots at the school if word got out that he were suspended for merely defending a friend, really a rival and classmate, – plus my record (and my promise to drop out… can you imagine the school's test scores dropping so severely?), the principal takes my answer for truth and will allow Tobey to return when he is released. I visit Tobey in the hospital the next day. He is asleep and I don't stay long. I hide in a darkened corridor when I notice Scoops and Mrs. McCallister enter the room.
Tobey is back on Monday. It is an eerie day. Everyone avoids him to the fullest extent, even our teacher. We start working on our lesson from Friday. Tobey stands again in a huff. Miss Davis says something softly but Tobey quickly cuts her off by hurling his book at her. She ducks and he starts yelling in a blur.
"… all your fault!" He screeches to me, quieting long enough to whisper a location and time for us to meet. "So mind your own business!"
So he doesn't hate me. That fight might really have been about me. Err, for me. I consider several thoughts for the next eight minutes, hardly even glancing at my work. I start crying as if just letting his words sink in. Bob sits in back, confused and worried for me. I ask to be excused. Successfully, Miss Davis nods and I head out to the play area in the back woods. I find Tobey somberly swinging on one of the only two secure swings. I join, sitting on the other.
OMNISCIENT
"I hate Jandro." Tobey speaks first in anger.
"Why?"
"He hurt you."
It is silent for a while. The kids just barely swing, both staring at the ground. Becky still has a shiner and there is a scar over her lip. Tobey is wearing protective casts over the palms of his hands. There is an unseen stitched scar on the area between his head and the back of his neck. The sun hides behind the clouds, and Tobey sighs, ready to initiate conversation again. This time, strangely, his voice comes out in his actual American tone of voice.
"Mom says you visited me."
"Well, I… Where's your accent?"
"Fake as Vanilli and Billy." He shrugs as if it were no big thing. "You visited me?"
"Yeah, well… Scoops did too."
"Irritating as well as understandable. We are family. I presume he felt it an obligation."
"What?" Becky gasps. "You and Scoops?"
"He and I are cousins." He doesn't comprehend what makes this so unbelievable.
"I didn't know that. You always seem to detest him or something."
"I do, but I digress." He groans. "Sooner or later, we'll all be related."
"All?"
"Scoops and Violet will eventually marry, then both of the absent-minded fools – no offense – will be my cousins."
Becky starts to retaliate about the fools comment, but at the no offense, she changes her question. "And me?"
"We could always get married." He nods sideways.
"I thought you hated me." Here lately, that has been shown less and less true.
"Hate, never." He answers ghastly. He changes his tone to continue. "I rival you, Becky. I like you. I might… more than like you."
She blushes. "What about Wordgirl?"
"I like her too." He answers. "But I like Becky more."
She gasps. He keeps going.
"I'm still building robots, but I've decided to stop using them to terrorize. That was mostly a ploy to flirt with Wordgirl."
"Really?" Her blush increases. "You were doing all that just to flirt with me—me favorite superhero?"
He takes her hand and whispers slowly. "I promise I will never tell anyone who you are if you never tell anyone about me."
"You?"
"A few years ago, I wanted to be loved like Wordgirl. I went to extremes and injected myself with a Lexiconian compound."
"Where did you get that?" She is shocked but doesn't let go.
He slightly bows his head at her response. "I… found the ship."
She lets go, getting up to pace. She allows her mind to wander through all the new information just unloaded onto her. She watches as he gets up also. He stands still, giving her the space she needs. A few minutes later, Becky sits on a stump behind a shrub. Tobey joins her. She has a question.
"… So, you have superpowers?"
"Nowhere like yours." He nods. "Just the hearing. And quicker reflexes. Oh, and something that just recently started…"
"What?" She asks, considerably concerned about his response.
There is a rustling in the bushes and Tobey closes his eyes to self-meditate. Becky had been so engrossed in what she was learning, she hadn't been paying any attention to the outside noises. Bob appears, staring between Tobey and Becky.
Why are you way back here? With this dimwit? Bob angrily chirps. Miss Davis is worried about you! She's worried Tobey did something to you!
Becky opens her mouth to respond, but Tobey beats her to it, towering over the chimp. "I am far from a dimwit, Chimp! Besides the Doctor, I am usually the only person who can tell you're not an 'aardvark in tights' or whatever crazy rubbish they come up with!" Calming down, he maintains his confession. "She is here because I asked her to! I like Becky and Wordgirl. I won't tell anybody, Captain Huggyface. You have my word."
Like her? You know my na—wait. Are you talking to me? I thought all you ever heard was chirping!
Becky's mouth is agape. Tobey shrugs again.
"Delayed side effect. Understanding you is something I've only been able to do for the past five months, Bob. And stop calling me chubby."
Sorry. Lexiconian?
"Lexiconian compound injection." He re-explains the situation sheepishly for the monkey's benefit. "I honestly don't want to be a villain anymore. But I'm keeping Brutus."
"Brutus?" Becky and Bob are bewildered at the new name.
Tobey removes a small remote from his back pocket and presses a button. He summons an average – in his standards – robot made from a different type of metal.
"What is… Brutus made from?"
"An old, expensive, pretty rare car."
A rare car?
"Only three were made." Tobey replies smugly.
So why destroy it…
"And turn it into a robot?" Becky finishes Bob's thought.
"A, I was five when I built him."
Impressive. Bob interjects.
Irritably but vaguely flattered, Tobey keeps going. "And B, as a car, he was my father's prized possession. He got what he deserved. Now, for four-and-a-half years, Brutus has been my best friend."
You're nine? He feels the need to ask.
"No, I'm ten." He pouts. "I just found a new best friend in an adoptive alien."
"I'm your best friend?" She smiles.
"Yeah." Tobey smiles genuinely. "You're my best friend."
"Tobey?"
"Yeah?"
She kisses his cheek, making him blush. "You're my best friend, too."
I have no idea where this came from. I saw a fight break out at Wal-Mart by the school supplies and I sat down on a bench and typed this thing out (up to omniscient) on my phone. When I got home, I uploaded it to the computer and wrote the rest. Inspiration can come from the strangest of places. C(::)(::)KIES for reviewers!