A/N: My version of King0Mik's fanfic, 'Scorched'. The idea of William's POV is entirely hers.
Claimer: I may own some things, but "All Summer in a Day" is not among them.
The whole trouble started when Margot had come to Venus five years ago from Earth. Everyone had focused their attentions on her…and William was left to the shadows.
"Well, class, we've got a new friend joining us today!" the teacher announced, beaming happily. She turned to a girl of average height, with paler-than-normal skin, pale blue, almost lifeless eyes, and white-blond hair. In fact, everything about her seemed pale, and fragile, William noted from his perch on his chair near the back of the room, as he scanned the new girl's alarmingly thin limbs.
"Why don't you tell us about yourself, Margot?" The teacher gave the aforementioned girl a friendly smile and waited, her green eyes boring expectantly into the too-pale girl.
…
Silence. The girl, now known as Margot, simply closed her eyes and said nothing.
William looked at her scornfully. Was she so stupid, so weak, that she couldn't even say anything?
"Sorry, class," the green-eyed woman apologized, when it was clear Margot wasn't going to say anything, "but it seems that Margot is just shy. Please make her feel welcome anyway, okay?"
"Alright!" the class chorused together, smiling curiously at the newcomer. Even the boys he had been close to agreed, their eyes shining happily.
Not likely, William thought, annoyed by the class and his friends' easy acceptance of Margot. Couldn't they see what an idiot, what a freak she was? She'd never fit in, he knew, and he'd be there, laughing when everyone realized this, and abandoned her to fall, fall down into the deep darkness…
It would be a while until everyone left her to rot, William realized with irritation. Although it was clear from the start that Margot was different, everyone in their class seemed intent on getting through to her, and becoming her friend. It was rather bothersome.
What could he do…? William thought hard, his mind still spinning with half-formed ideas when class started.
-----
William smirked darkly. Turns out he didn't have to do anything at all. Margot had handed him the way to yank her metaphorical feet out from under her and leave her alienated. The shower incident was a perfect stepping stone…
-----
"NO! THE WATER MUSN'T TOUCH MY HEAD!"
Everyone covered their ears and looked, baffled, towards the girls' locker room, wondering what all the fuss was about. The voice that had shouted just now sounded distressed, terrified—all the synonyms for 'scared' in the world could not describe the magnitude of sorrow it had on everyone's souls…except for William's.
Inside the locker room, a pale, pale girl was screaming the seven words that would change her life for the worse…not that Margot knew it at the time…
A girl approached her quivering form in the shower as she protectively shielded her head from the drops of water spraying from the shower, her eyes concerned.
"Are you okay?" she asked, flinching when Margot's eyes came up to her level.
The strange girl's eyes looked past her, blank and somehow horrible.
"The water…" she whispered quietly.
The girl watched with a slow, dazed horror, as Margot slowly toppled forward, her eyes rolling back in her head. Then, she glanced up, her eyes hardening, at the crowd of girls that had gathered to watch, curious.
"Get the nurse!" she snapped angrily.
After a few startled moments, a couple of girls broke away, headed for the nurse's office.
-----
Yes, William was a very satisfied boy at this moment.
It was the day the scientists had predicted the sun would emerge from the persistent covering of clouds, and William couldn't have been more annoyed.
Today was the day that would make Margot happier than ever, with her precious sun coming out. And she seemed even more cheerful recently, even greeting William with a slight smile. Her eyes sparkled.
In class, she was suddenly full of information about the sun. And she had been only four when she had seen it on Earth.
Moodily, William had snapped at, and made fun of her even more than usual. But even this didn't diminish her overjoyed (for her, anyway…) mood.
Worse, after seeing the sun, the freak whom he had hated since four would probably become popular, since pretty much everyone would probably decide ''she's not as bad as she seems!'' and renew their attempts to become her friend (after stopping more than two years prior). He scowled angrily at this thought.
"Speak of the devil and she shall appear," he mused aloud, a sullen expression adorning his face as he eyed the default happy expression that Margot wore as she told a couple of students that "The sun will come out today!"
Everyone looked happy as they nodded and asked her questions about the sun.
This was not good. Only he was allowed to have that adoring look aimed at him. Not Margot, the weirdo he had hated for ages.
He sped up his steps and stopped right next to the group, and opened his mouth, giving a disdainful look to Margot.
At that moment, the rain slowed, not stopping, but gradually becoming lighter.
One of the boys in the audience Margot had gathered looked towards the sky, his facial expression one of pure, unadulterated joy.
"It's stopping, it's stopping!"
"Yes, yes!" agreed a girl from the same group, her expression mirroring the boy's.
However, as William stared hard at the rain shower outside, it didn't change.
"Don't be stupid," he told them disdainfully. "It's not stopping, and nothing's happening today, is it?"
"But – but…" the boy from before stammered, torn between his fear of William that everyone (except for perhaps Margot; who knew what went on inside her head?) had, and his belief in the scientists.
William gave him the evil eye, which, combined with his dark hair and eyes, was especially intimidating.
"Is it?" he repeated, swiveling his head around to look at everyone in the group.
"No, no!" the boy agreed, eager to assert his inferiority to William. He was shortly echoed by everyone else, as they laughed nervously. "Nothing at all!"
The dark-eyed boy nodded, satisfied with their responses, and turned to Margot, who interrupted the talking down he was about to give to her.
"…Oh, no…" she replied faintly, "…the scientists say it will be today…" She trailed off into silence, looking at him fearfully.
William bared his teeth at her in a grin. "All just a joke!" he replied gleefully, his spirits increasing as Margot shrank back slightly. He leaned in closer to her, and called out to the group,
"Hey everybody! Let's put her in a closet before teacher comes!"
William straightened up, feeling his chest ripple with an unfamiliar, but pleasant emotion, as his classmates around him called assent with one voice.
Margot's eyes widened, and she shrank back even further, trying to get away from the mass of students billowing around her, lifting her up, and carrying her into a closet. She frantically shook her head, and screamed, "No, no, no!"
But she was drowned out in the joyful, cheery atmosphere, as the children relished in yet another prank on the odd Margot.
William puffed out his chest in triumph, marching in the middle of the throng of students, as he savored the look on Margot's face as she was picked up and tossed into a closet…far, far away from her beloved sun.
And he especially delighted in the frantic bangs on the closet door, as she attempted to get out, and the feeling of pure power he felt, as he led his peers to get rid of Margot, even if it was only for a little while. This would definitely teach her to stop being so weird, and to never steal his spotlight. Ever. No one, no one messed with William B. And if they did, there would be…consequences, like with Margot. Yes. No one would dare mess with him after this.
Their teacher, Mrs. A, arrived soon after they returned to take them to the sun. Her roll call, as usual, was careless, and William was grateful for this, for if she actually bothered to check whether they were lying or not, she would've discovered Margot in the closet, and everyone, especially William, would've been in big trouble.
"Ready, children?" Her lazy brown eyes wandered to her watch.
"Yes!" everyone called back merrily.
"Are we all here?" she asked.
"Yes!" everyone replied cheerily.
And with that, they waited.
The rain that slowed earlier, slackened even more, and as the pressure on the roof faded, the sky cleared up entirely. As the children stared in amazement, the sun meandered out from the regular cloud coverage that had always been Venus' one constant, and the clouds themselves ambled away, leaving the blue sky clear, and the bright bronze sun shining.
Some of the children gasped in amazement, and others looked towards the forest. The jungle had always been off-limits, but no one wanted to go there anyway, because it had been…dead, like everything else on the wet planet. Now, it blazed with color. The trees were splashed with dark brown for the trunk, and a light green for the leaves. The grass was colored a slightly darker green, and looked as soft as blankets.
Vines a shade of green in between the grass and leaves wound themselves all over the forest.
It was a combination of all these that made the woods a dream playground for the children that had been inside all their lives.
Now, as they charged out the door, somewhat ahead of their teacher that was supposed to be leading them, intent on enjoying themselves, they forgot all about Margot.
Under the teacher's watchful eye, they made their way towards the forest, barely conscious of her warning of "Don't go too far! You wouldn't want to get lost and left behind when the rain comes!"
"Oh, this is better than the sun lamps, isn't it?" one girl asked.
"Much, much better!" Another agreed.
For the next hour, they frolicked, played, and just generally expressed themselves, in the wild paradise that had been laid out before them, in ways they could not in the controlled and small rooms in the underground. As for William, it was a time for him to stop thinking about how annoying and stupid Margot was, and just be another kid enjoying himself in the light of the sun.
After the rain had started again, the children returned to the schoolhouse, now somber and calm.
"Will it be another seven years?" asked a boy quietly.
"Yes, seven," answered the teacher calmly.
Abruptly, one of the girls gave a start. "Margot!"
"Huh?"
The girl's eyes filled with tears. "She's still in that closet we locked her in!"
William smiled a secretive little smile. Good. Now if only she could stay there…
No one noticed this, except for another boy, as they all murmured Margot's name guiltily.
"We should…" began the girl, "…go get her…"
She muttered the last part under her breath, full of shame.
So the children, with William in the middle, of course, walked slowly to the closet, as if hoping to diminish their culpability and involvement by doing so.
They slowly opened the closet door…and gasped.
The being which had once been Margot…was now a mangled parody of the quiet girl. Even William felt a twinge of remorse…but quickly blocked it out by pondering on all the wrongs he felt she did to him.
William was a fire, burning down all in his path—a raging wildfire that heedlessly destroyed everything. But this fateful day is the one that will scar her for life.
A/N: Yes, it's quite different from the story. I took…liberties with this, and I hope it was written okay. Thanks for reading!