Chapter 2

People liked Susie. Like, "like liked". If she smiled at a girl, several more popped up to tried to talk to her. If she talked to a guy, the very same guy would be chased after by everyone else just to ask what she said, and a simple answer to a math problem would get twisted into an invitation to a party. Susie sighed, exacerbated by the endless amount of glorification that was being done to her, but she knew she had some part of it as well.

On her very first day back home, she had unpacked, met Calvin, and had repacked for school. The first day of school, however, was much more hectic than the day before, if not as emotionally rewarding. Walking to school, she had insisted Calvin to wait at the front gates so she could have someone guide her through the school. She had in fact already memorized the school layout, but Susie had to two goals- to find where Calvin frequented and why, and to find where Calvin didn't, and why. But the chance to be with him brought a little heat to her face. Lightly slapping her cheeks, Susie closed her eyes and kept walking.

Walking right into the school gate.

As she hit the gate and fell, the bell rang, and Susie, rubbing her eyes, didn't find Calvin anywhere. A boy walked up to her from the moving pack, and lent her a hand.

"You alright, I don't recog-"

He ran off. Susie got up and her eyes widened as he brought a pack of guys straight at her. The boys all asked who she was, and before she could respond, asked her for her number, invited her to several parties, and found her on social media within seconds. Unaccustomed to the large and sudden crowd, Susie backed away, but they grabbed her hands and tried to bring her to another group of friends. Trying to speak and walk to her first class, Susie suddenly stopped being dragged, and her hand was let go in return for another.

It was Calvin.

And he looked just as shy as he did frightened, based on the red tinge from his cheeks and ears.

The boys recognized Calvin and all began laughing and pointing at Susie as they walked away, each of them nudging Calvin a bit or smacking his back. The boy who had initially helped her up came back to her and spoke three unwarranted words-

"Didn't know you were friends with the tiger weirdo."

Susie burned with anger. Calvin was not someone to be treated lightly, and he need to be respected. It was because of him she had learnt to be more friendly, be more relaxed, and have fun with anything in front of her. Reluctantly, Susie simply turned to walk with Calvin, who had his head down, whispering to his backpack, and the boy walked away in the other direction. But instantly, she turned, and poked the boy's shoulder. She would have to make an exception, she supposed. He turned around.

And Susie slapped him right back around.

"Never. Ever. Mistreat. Him. Again."

Susie looked around, and saw perhaps every girl run at her. Shit, she was gonna be swamped again and harassed. But instead they all cheered her, praised her actions, and several girls hugged her and took her schedule and guided her away from Calvin and into her next class. Susie surrendered, not because she wanted the crowd, but because she was about to be late for her first class. From the middle of the blob, Susie yelled-

"Meet me at our lockers during passing period!"

Calvin nodded, then looked at her in confusion.

Right, she hadn't told him she had her locker next to his.

And she hadn't told him that she knew her way around already. She laughed, realizing how confused Calvin was feeling, and began to talk to each girl that had surrounded her and taken her to her next class. She found in the group some of her old classmates, who fawned over her looks and asked what she had been up to the the last several years. After walking and sitting in her first class, English, she asked if she could talk to them later. They all giggled and laughed, confusing Susie.

"Is there something wrong?"

A girl name Clara replied-

"You still are a total nerd, aren't you Susie?"

Opening her folder, and talking our her pencil and notebook, Susie simply smiled.

That was something that would never change about her.

Mr. Doyle delivered in monotone basic concepts in Algebra II, Susie jotted down notes, and opened her textbook to complete her assignment. She quickly skimmed through the examples and completed most of her problems before the period was up. Arriving at the final problem, Susie stared at it, confused. It wasn't covered in the chapter, let alone the book. As the period came down to its final minutes, Susie hurried to complete the assignment so she could begin entering clubs after school, and politely tapped Mr. Doyle's shoulder to ask for help.

"Ah, yes, Ms. Derkins, how may I assist you? Directions to your next class, or perhaps a question regarding the homework?"

"A question. I don't think this question is covered in the book. I believe it's a Calculus problem."

"Oh, I see, I must have accidentally added it to the homework. I don't think many students will attempt it, but thank you for bringing this issues to my attention."

"Uh, Mr. Doyle, would it be alright if I showed Susie how to do the problem?"

Turning around, the voice came from a boy of average height, with a buzz-cut hairdo, athletic shorts, and dark black eyes to complement his hair. He looked like one of the boys who had almost dragged her, but he wasn't. It was almost as if she knew who she was, but Susie couldn't quite put her finger on who he was.

The boy explained to her the problem, which was relatively simple once he showed her the equation, but Susie struggled to recognize his face. It was almost as he was invisible, and he was certainly fairy mysterious. If Calvin was here, his photogenic memory that he revealed to her could solve the mystery in front of her, but he was in Gym at the moment.

"Do you get what I did?"

"Yah, thanks for the help."

"Don't mention it, has helped me improve my math skills the last few years, so thank him instead of me."

"Speaking of which, who are you? I never actually got your name."

"Oh, yah, my name is-"

The bell rang at the worst moment possible. The boy apologized, racing out of the door and into the open traffic of the corridor. She supposed she would find out eventually, but Susie felt she knew who he was, just as he left her. Walking out of the door and into the same traffic, Susie found a slightly smelly and woozy Calvin, surrounded by almost no student, and walked with him into their first of two shared classes-English. She could wait on confirmation on the identity of the black haired boy, but Calvin needed someone to talk with in high school.

Susie would not only talk with him, but vowed to force that ugly frown of his into a sly grin, even if it meant she had to take rather aggressive actions. Perhaps a snowball to the head, similar to the old days would do. Except she would make sure to throw it. God knows how many times she had suffered through his mischievous acts of long gone. It was her turn now.

Susie was a girl.

That was pretty obvious at this point.

Emphasis on the word pretty, in general.

The shoes, the dresses, the jackets, the shirts, the skirts, they all fit her just like pieces of a puzzle. They made her look even better than she already was, and that was a testament to her creativity and ever-growing looks. Walking down a hallway with a girl as pretty as Susie was scary enough, and that alone made Calvin so nervous that if he could, he would run away from the school. In his current situation, however, he couldn't. The dropping jaws that followed Susie and the clenched jaws given away for Calvin were both comical and frightening. Mostly frightening. It wasn't that Susie was walking through the hall and Calvin was close behind her. No, it was much worse.

Susie was holding hands with him.

Calvin's only problem before Susie re-entered his life had been his fear of receiving constant apologies from his former tormentors. He couldn't speak to them, and he tried everything he could to avoid people. Never did the idea that a girl would become his biggest problem ever occur to him.

But that's why it was alright.

Susie was that girl everyone stopped to glance at, the one all the smartest kids couldn't even hope to reach in terms of IQ points, the one that had reinvigorated a school just by her participating in the school life there. She was sweet and kind, thoughtful and charming, and everyone couldn't help but fall in love with the girl everyone once thought was just an egoistic, above-average-intelligence girl. Back in elementary school, she was a girl with her own group, and the one Calvin constantly bothered. A few years had changed how Susie looked dramatically, but it had also changed how she was seen by and with every person, and now she had won over everyone. Including Calvin.

Calvin couldn't admit it. But he already knew it. Ever since Susie re-entered Calvin's life, his behavior, emotions, grades, EVERYTHING had changed, and only for the better. On her first day in school, she walked around and people were attracted to her like iron files to a magnet. This cheered Calvin up, as even less people paid attention to him. But Susie refused to let other people come in her way of helping Calvin, the kid who had that stuffed tiger sticking out of that weird bag. Susie helped Calvin earn the praise of his teachers, who had all forgotten about him, especially his English Literature and Physical Education teachers. The boy who couldn't express anything in fear of his own insecurity was in fact a poetic genius who could make any girl swoon with just a few, stylistic words. He was that good. The boy who crawled at a snail's pace behind the class in every mile run now was attempting to break several school and state records. Calvin was also off of his medications on the insistence of Susie that she would help, a secret he had hidden from his parents, and he was managing well enough. No longer did he look tired and strained from stress, now he looked fresh and alive, and little by little, the color and luster began to appear once again on Calvin's face. People also began to notice how handsome and comical Calvin really was, especially the girls. The prankster was gone, but the shy, awkward boy some girls dreamed of was there. Emphasis on some. Though not as well received as Susie, Calvin had slowly carved his own place in school.

As the jokes and the smirks began coming more and more often like a GIF file on Calvin's face, on repeat over and over again, the simple problems began to fade away, exposing more painful problems still remained. That was the reason for Susie insisting on staying as close to Calvin as she could. Calvin's refusal didn't sit well with her, but Susie gave him some space, which in turn allowed him to "discover" a friend, rather than "make" a friend. Several weeks after Susie's return, and still dealing with his problems, Calvin had been called to Principal Spittle's office. Spittle had been promoted to the high school Calvin attended, and had managed to steadily fix problems that affected the school, such as grades, violence, etc. Susie's return and the effect it was having on the school only ensured his continued tenure. There were some people who still caused trouble, especially the kids with connections to drug pins. They often hit and run, trying to force a kid into using a drug, or simply harm the kids with homemade weapons. The incidents were very present, but many students stayed in groups, discouraging the few kids that attempted any attacks to stay away. The problem for Calvin was the fact that he still had no friends other than Hobbes and Susie, and more importantly, that he couldn't fight. He no longer had an edge, he no longer had aggression.

He only had fear, and people often choose to stalk the weak.

Calvin was walking down the hall, smiling as he realized it would be the first time he was going to Spittle's office without any trouble connected to him. Rather, Spittle had called him in to congratulate him on his dramatic turnaround. That was when he was shoved into a wall, held by the throat, with no gap for a chance for air. Struggling to free himself, he saw through squinted eyes a boy with the look of a madman, preparing a syringe. He bit, and screamed, trashed around violently.

"Get the fuck off of me!"

"Sorry, but this is something I want to do. Kick and scream, but what will that do?"

"It could call the fucking staff, who I promise will trash you piece of shit and end any of your chances in life!"

"But look at you, you're the kid who's always been bullied. You don't have anything in you to fight back, do you? If you desperately wanted to, you would fight, not squirm and make excuses."

"Shut up, you bitch, bastard, dickhead, you fucker! I will beat the shit out of you. I will fu-"

And then Calvin broke.

He wanted to fight, but his brain broke down. He couldn't fight. He couldn't register what a fight was. He couldn't understand the meaning, he couldn't take in the details, and he simply couldn't fight. He still was damaged, and the emotional scars on Calvin reopened. Giving up, he was punched and kicked, and through slowly closing eyes, he saw a needle close in on him. Calvin was about to pass out when the arm suddenly slackened. Falling down, Calvin could see a boy, big, but not much more than an average high school kid, help him up gently. If he could, he would have slapped himself silly right there, but Calvin couldn't. All he could do was widen his eyes as he realized who had saved him.

It was Moe.

The childhood bully that Calvin had never been able to successfully counter with a sly remark. The bully who had punched him across the hall anytime Calvin couldn't pay him. Heck, Calvin figured Moe's intelligence at that point was no higher than a mushroom's. Recalling his near black-out, Calvin had a moment of realization. Back then, the difference was Calvin could fight. He had no advantages, but rather, he had the heart and will to stand up for himself, even as foolish as it was. But there was Moe, the number one enemy, cradling Calvin as if he were a wounded, dying soldier. The syringe-wielding kid was knocked out cold, and students and teachers came scrambling into the hall. Moe explained the situation of events to them, and then lifting Calvin onto his feet, a surprisingly smooth, intelligent voice came out of his mouth.

"Calvin, are you all right! We need to get you to the nurse's office right now! Do you have a concussion? How many fingers do I have up! Get on my back!"

"What do you mean, I'm fine now, thanks for the save-"

That's when the red flooded Calvin's vision.

Hours later, and in the E.R. at the local hospital, Calvin came out of the feeling of numbness coupled with sleep to a crying Susie on his chest, a smiling and surprisingly sane Moe, who was doing homework (homework!), a shocked Principal Spittle, and his worried parents. The doctor explained that tests had concluded that he had just chipped his skull, and would be fine is a few days, but he had lost enough blood to require him to stay in the hospital during that time period. Once the doctor left, Susie promised to never leave him alone (and threatened, for good measure), Spittle promised to have at least once school officer on campus at all times, and Moe explained that he had brought Calvin to the hospital as fast as he could in his car because the blood kept on pouring out.

Moe had also began his own tale, fighting against the fate that kept him pinned. Moe was just like Calvin-actually, he had become just like him, to be more accurate. He too became weak as others rivaled and soon grew stronger and bigger than him. Through his own fears and peer pressures, Moe began cutting himself, picking fights which he always lost, smoking and experimenting with various drugs, and he struggled throughout middle school with his apparent losses. Two people found him at his lowest point, a terrible time that he would never forget. The two people were Miss Wormwood and Principal Spittle, and through their advice, tutelage, healing, and rehabilitation, he had raised his grades to heights that rivaled even those of Susie's, and had become a state champion in martial arts. As his grades went up, Moe's personality became much more friendly and outgoing, as he vowed to step away from his abusive and self-harming past.

No longer was Moe a bully, he was a kid. A good kid who had just happened to be in the same hallway as Calvin at the right time. A kid with good grades, a kind heart, and the mental strength to solve his problems.

But Moe wasn't just that to Calvin. He would be a friend. A friend of Calvin's, just like Susie. A friend that had experienced lows that rivaled those of Calvin's, but had fought with every tooth and nail to reach the heights he had. A friend who would make fun and games, but was dead serious on matters such as education and sports. A friend that was no longer an enemy, rather, an ally.

Moe smiled, opened the door, and walked out. Leaning against the wall, he continued to hear Susie's sobs, her intermediate threats, and her fears for Calvin. She obviously had a thing for him, and Calvin was too dim-witted to even notice. Well, maybe he did, but just a little. Moe sighed, unwrapping the bloodied martial arts tape around his fingers. Calvin would have to know eventually, but his scars were in serious need of repair. Well, Susie could help with that. And as for the more important matter, it could wait. Moe knew Calvin needed to be positively changed before the plan would take place, and Calvin needed to unveil his biggest secret for it to actually happen.

There was actually a third person, who, more recently, had helped him. And this man needed Moe to fulfill his part in completely healing and delivering Calvin. But Moe had time on his side for that. Get Calvin ready by graduation, and the action would follow almost immediately. The door unlocked, and Calvin, with Susie forcibly holding his hand, walked out.

Walking down the hall towards the bathroom with Susie very strongly clutching his hand, Calvin noticed Moe chuckling at him. In the past, the scene may have been his worst and most realistic childhood nightmare he could ever think of, but starting today, it was a promise. A promise of fate, from two people who promised to help Calvin. Eventually, he promised that he would help them too.

But a boy and a yellow bear had other plans.