Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, events, and other stuff from Homestuck. Hussie does. I just write about it.
The game is never played in your favor, but for the future.
Easier said than done, especially for you. Nevertheless, you want to try to do this yourself. Using your arms, you lift yourself out of the chair. There. Now, where is that wheelchair…
"Travis, what are you doing?" Romeo asks, coming over to you with the wheelchair. Your older brother looks at you with playful confusion.
"Oh, eh, I'm…" you look guiltily downwards and laugh nervously.
"You're trying to get into your wheelchair yourself, aren't you? You know you can't. Here." Romeo picks you up with ease and sets you into the wheelchair. It's not so much that he's really strong, it's just that you are that small.
"I'm going to have to learn how to do that myself, you know," you say.
"But not today. We all have a lot on our minds right now. We don't need a trip to the hospital along with that."
"I doubt it would be that bad," you say, starting to wheel yourself around.
"I'm just saying the worst case scenario." Romeo grabs the wheelchair.
You look down at your useless pair of legs. Sometimes you wonder why your dad insists on you keeping them. They don't do anything, except dangle there and be useless. For most of your life, they have been like that. You got polio when you were a kid. You got out alive, but your legs didn't.
Romeo starts pushing the wheelchair up to the apartment complex when someone comes running outside holding a cell phone up in the air. He heads halfway up the street shouting, "Kane! Get back over here! Dad's going to kill you!" Eventually he stops and starts walking back to the apartment building. He glances up at you and your brother and walks over to you two.
"You didn't by chance see someone come out of the building before me, did you?"
You shake your head. Romeo says, "No, sorry, just you."
"Damn it." The kid looks down the street and exhales annoyed. "At least it's not my fault if Dad gets mad," he mutters to himself. He looks back at you and your brother. "I'm Kyle, by the way," he says as an afterthought.
"I'm Romeo and this is Travis."
Kyle nods in acknowledgement. "Yeah…"
"You live in the apartment, I take it," Romeo says.
"Yeah, just moved in a week ago."
"We're moving today."
"Into this building?"
Romeo nods.
"Oh, so you must be the late people."
"The what?" you ask, confused.
"It's just that we've been waiting for you guys for a while."
"A few things came up. Out of our control."
"Like the wheelchair?" Kyle asks, pointing at you.
"Oh, it's a permanent thing."
Kyle's eyes widen a bit. "I'm sorry."
"Nnno. It's nothing new, so it's fine. I'm used to it." Lie. Yes, you are used to it by now and yes it is nothing new. It's not fine though. This condition of yours... well, needless to say, you stand out pretty sorely with it. You hate it, but you have been told to always look on the bright side of things. So you always give people your best outlook and nothing less.
Kyle's face says otherwise, but you don't continue on the subject.
"Do you mind showing us around, seeing as you've been here longer than we have." Romeo asks, breaking the silence.
"Unless you want to get terribly lost and confused about where anything is, no."
Romeo lets out a laugh. "Alright then, we can discover it all later then."
Your dad comes into view. "The truck should be coming soon. Oh, hello."
Kyle looks at your dad. Most people look at your dad with a bit of a weird eye, mainly because his clothing makes him look like a safari guide, which was his job when he was younger. Now... well he was working at a zoo in your old town, but now, he has to find a new job. He said something about working at a shelter, but nothing is definite. But Kyle doesn't give him a weird face or anything, he just asks, "Where's the hat?"
Your dad laughs, "In the car. I can't drive with it on. I'm too tall."
Kyle looks a bit peeved at the tall remark, no doubt because he is so short. Shorter than you even, if you were actually able to stand. "I guess I'll see you around," Kyle says and heads back into the apartment building.
"Now, I just hope that truck gets here soon," your dad remarks. "Why don't you two explore a little bit? I think there is a park nearby. Just don't go too far. I'll need your help with unpacking, alright?"
You nod and the two of you head off to the forest behind the apartment building. There was a little park there, but it was small and needed repair. The swing was rusty, the jungle gym had bars missing, and the see-saw had one side broken off.
You look at the forest around you. It's deep, you can tell that much for certain. But there is a relatively clear path leading in there. You start to go down it. You can hear your brother follow closely behind.
"Where do you think it leads?" he asks.
"Dunno, but some place used a lot."
The path ends at an archway. There is nothing else beside it. The archway itself has carvings all over it, something that reminds you of Gaelic or an ancient language similar to it. You touch the archway. The stone is cool.
"That's weird. Why would this be kept?" your brother asks aloud.
You don't say anything because you don't have the answer to it. A strong breeze passes through and you swear you can hear a voice say "guardian."
You shake your head. "Let's head back, there doesn't seem to be anything else here." That and you are hearing things, but you don't need your brother worrying about you even more than he usually does. It's probably nothing anyway.
"Fine by me. Doesn't seem the path goes any farther." True, but you can't seem to shake the feeling that there is something strange here.
You two go back to the apartment building, where your dad is waiting outside. You notice he looks sad; he always has that look on when he thinks you aren't looking. You know it's because of your mom. She was never really at home and one day, she never came back. It took a few days for you to notice and the dead give away was this look on your dad's face.
He see you two and puts on a cheery face. You still wonder how he does it. "Well, how was it?"
"A bit rundown, but it's adventurous," Romeo says.
"No doubt. From what I've heard, this area has been renovated recently. I guess they haven't started with that forest yet. Come on, the movers are here."
You glance back to the forest, having this strange feeling that the playground isn't going to get renovated anytime soon.
88888
You wheel around the apartment, just to get a feel of the place. It's spacious. No doubt that's why dad got the place. Plenty of room for you to maneuver around. You look out the kitchen window at the street in front of the building and watch the world pass by, a sight you are used to seeing. Romeo and your dad have gone out, leaving you here. Well, it was more of you opted to stay at home, knowing you would just get in the way.
A knock comes to the door. You wheel around and head up to the door. You open it cautiously and realize it's that kid form earlier, Kyle along with someone else.
"Hey, um... Travis. Can we come in?" Kyle asks.
"S...sure," you say, opening the door to let them in. The other kid is in a black and yellow patterned shirt. His eyes were two different colors as well: blue and red.
"Are you alone?" Kyle asks.
"Yeah. Dad and Romeo went out. Um..."
"Sol," the other says, outstretching a hand, "We figured we'd come over and see how you were doing."
"Thanks, um..." You close the door. "I can't really get you guys anything..."
"Don't worry about it. I'm not staying long. I don't know about Kyle here. I just wanted to know if you were interested in physical therapy."
"For what?"
Sol nods at your legs.
"They... they're a lost cause."
"If you say so. There's a person in town who deals with these kinds of cases. I only know about it because I know a person, similar case, and the therapist was able to get them back to normal. I'll just leave this here, if you want to read it." Sol left off a pamphlet and left the apartment.
Kyle sits down on one of the chairs, which you roll up to. He has a movie in his hands, one that you've never seen before. He holds it up and asks, "Do you want to watch a movie together? This one is one of my favorites."
You smile and nod.
Please comment, it helps with my writing. Next chapter will be up in a week.