Chapter 3, 'The scent of dandelions'
-tape is shattering until it zooms at orphanage's dining room-
Bryan was sitting in the room before long table alongside other kids around his age. Some of them were yawning, some were laughing and some were chatting about dreams they had the recent night. Usual stuff according to the young boy. He wasn't a part of them. He just sat there and was lost in his thoughts.
'Do you wanna get stronger?'
Hikari's voice rung in his head. Then he saw her gentle yet confident smiling face. Her offer of making him stronger by teaching him kickboxing couldn't let go from his head.
'Stronger, huh..? Will I be able to protect the ones I care about?', he whispered to himself being sure nobody would pay attention to him anyway.
Then he let his eye lids get down a bit more while looking at his opened palm. Sighing he finally closed his eyes, being ready to eat the breakfast. Before he managed to grab the teapot to get something warm to drink, someone placed hands on his eyes so he couldn't see a single thing. That caught Bryan completely off guard.
'Wha-?', the boy tried to break free from someone's hands but again it was too late.
The hands escaped from his eyes so in the end and his ones met the air. When he looked behind him he noticed a girl with freckles and long ginger hair. Bryan could tell that her eyes were laughing aloud though her lips were sealed in a long smile.
'Yahoo, mister nosebreaker.', she grinned even more and moved one of her hands to wave at him.
'Eh-? Molly-?', he blinked a bit not being sure what's going on.
Molly was always shy and wouldn't do something like this. That's what Bryan thought. The girl glomped on him and squeezed a lot.
'Thanks for savin' my sister, I owe you one!', she announced while hugging him.
Now that made Bryan even more confused. A girl hugged him? What's more – she basically lunged at him to do so. And who's the sister she speaks of?
'S-Sister?', Bryan stammered while trying to get over the whole situation.
When he peeked behind her he noticed the Molly he met before. She has her hair combed into two small ponytails at the bottom of her head with some loose hair band on the sides of her face. With glasses resting on her nose, there was no mistake. She's the real Molly.
'Mandy, I told you not to play any stupid games, you probably confused him.', she stated while walking to them.
'He doesn't mind that, right Bry-Bry?', the other girl looked at him sweetly while letting him go.
'Whatever.', he started to rub his pained from sudden hug neck, 'So you two are… twins?'
'Bingo!', Mandy snapped fingers at Bryan's deduction in approval.
'So here's my older sister Mandy and my name is Molly. We're Adams twins.', the younger sibling slightly bowed in politeness.
'The name's Bryan. Bryan Fury. Written with y.', the boy scratched his head.
'Woah, so cool! I've never heard of such last name before!', the older sibling almost jumped from excitement and clapped her hands.
Molly just sighed quietly and patted her sister's shoulder.
'We should take a sit at our table now. They're serving fudge.', she begged.
'They are-? Fine, let's go then. See you around Bryan.', the older girl grinned once again and waved at the boy 'good bye' gesture.
'Yeah, uhm, bye.', Bryan murmured still being slightly confused at the whole fuss.
'What a weird girl-', the thought, 'That Mandy.'
Then he decided to finally start eating his breakfast. Even getting beaten at school the other day didn't prevent him from going to school today. But as soon as he finishes the day, here will come a weekend so he could finally practice kickboxing with Hikari. Slightly nodding to himself he let himself enjoy the meal.
His school day passed really fast despite counting off hours and then minutes to the end of every classes. He didn't remember the last time he was that excited before. Even last Christmas wasn't as fascinating as kickboxing lesson. His happy training scenario obviously has left a wide smile on his face since he entered the school. And it was too unusual for Mr. Suarez to see a kid being happy at classes without any known for him reason.
'What's so gracioso this time, chico? Mi Dio, don't say you're planning to do another awkward thing like breaking someone's nose!', the man grunted while looking slightly scared at the smiling boy.
He was dying to tell him that he was beaten way more by Milton's friends but he bit the tongue before letting go some of the bitter words.
'Who knows…', though Bryan decided to torment the teacher a tiny bit.
He didn't notice the sweat on Mr. Suarez's forehead as it slid down to his bushy eyebrows. Nervously rubbing it off, the man gestured hands about, getting red all over his face.
'Tu diablo!Do you want me to get a heart attack? Don't you dare do that!'
'Yes yes…'
Bryan perfectly avoided upcoming chalk flying right at him. After that he only heard some Spanish blabbering that his teacher spoke to himself to calm down. Though the boy could have swore he heard some profanities addressed at him. Molly sighed quietly to herself while shrugging. Mandy smiled widely at the boy and showed him a thumb-up when he peeked at her. Other kids were sharing looks and whispers at the same time. Without a doubt, Bryan was an infamous star to the most of them. None orphan had picked bone with Milton by breaking his nose. Though they knew that bruises and plasters on the boy's face had something to do with him. They wondered if it'll end only at this one time or Bryan will also get bullied.
The class went smoothly after that and at the sound of the school ring, Bryan nearly jumped from his sit just to clutter his notepad and pencil case into the rucksack.
'Fury! Sit down, the class is not over yet!', Mr. Suarez thundered all over the room so even the rest of kids caught their sits or desks because of the impact.
The boy sat down politely never letting go of eye contact with the man.
'Before you'll leave, I'll announce a pequeño homework.'
The kids let go of a hearable groan. They had better idea for spending their weekend rather than just sitting over textbooks solving stupid formulas.
'You need to solve every exercise from the page 38 and be prepared for a small examen after weekend. Now you can dismiss. I hope you'll all have a bueno weekend.', after that Mr Suarez coughed to his fist and began to wipe off the blackboard.
'Holy crap, it's 10 exercises with many sub tasks in total!', one kid whined aloud.
'Just great.', Bryan thought to himself and clutched his belonging to the rucksack with a pure disgust written on his face.
He heard other kids complaining as well because of the massive homework they were given. He wanted to practice kickboxing for the rest of the week and now he'll also have to pay attention to something else. Because he wasn't paying attention to the past class he barely understood most of things the teacher spoke about. Which made it obvious he'll have to sit before the textbook way longer than in any other case. Sighing to himself and while tightening the eyelids he pushed chair towards his desk right after he stood up. To add it up, he was also nudged by Chen and Eloy before he managed to get out from the class. They were grinning and chuckling like idiots. Well, like annoying idiots. Bryan winced a bit because they hit one of his bruises on his left arm. Speaking of bruises, those hurt like hell. It seemed that he wasn't their first prey because they knew exactly where to kick to make it hurt the most. He didn't say a word. The faster he'll leave the school building the better.
He lined up with other kids from the orphanage at the yard and then marched geese style right after their guardian. It was a woman in her early 30thies with short brown hair. She seemed like a person that you can't depend on. From time to time she stopped from leading kids just to see if no one's missing again. Occasionally glancing at Bryan as well. Last time she forgot to check if he was in the group or not. Just to spare another awkward moment of being scolded by Hikari, she decided to be super-cautious just in case.
The boy glared at her wanting the woman stop peeking at him like this. Luckily his cold stare was enough to knock her guard off. She immediately turned her head away and silently lead the kids.
'Finally.', Bryan thought and smiled to himself.
It was really getting in his nerves. Then he felt someone patting his shoulder. When he turned around he noticed grinned Mandy and then Molly who just caught up with her older sister.
'Hola!Estás bien?'
'Oh jeez Mandy. Spare me this torture.'
She giggled while her sister slightly sighed and tilted the head down.
'Sorry Bryney.', the girl waved hand about and looked at him, 'Saaay…'
She prolonged the word on purpose.
'Yeah?'
'You wanna get some help with the math, right?'
Bryan turned his head at her again, being slightly surprised.
'How did you-'
'No biggie, I just saw you looking quite down when Mr. Suarez announced the homework. So I was thinking that you might need some help.', Mandy smiles widely once again, making freckles on her cheeks more visible .
'You're right but are you really that good at math? You seemed to be daydreaming at his class today.', the boy raised one of his eyebrows in surprise.
'Me? Nope, but my sis is.', she cheerfully squeezed Molly's hand and dragged her before them.
The poor girl moaned as Mandy did that and then moved her glasses back into fitting position on her nose.
'Yeah, I'm not an ace but I've never failed any exam before in my life.'
'Word! She's like a computer! You can totally count on her!', the older twin embraced the other girl and rested head on her shoulder.
Bryan moved his sight at the twins and examined Molly's face. She was blushing though he couldn't tell whether she was doing it because she was embarrassed or happy.
'Is that okay with you?', he asked.
'Sure, I wanted to pay you back for helping me with Milton yesterday so it's okay.', she smiled calmly.
'See? Everything'sbueno, no need to be worried.', the older sibling replied.
'Fine, but if you dare do use any more Spanish I'll smack you!'
It was over dinner time in the orphanage. Some of the kids were eating sweets they were given when the main dish was served and some were saving them for later. Because it was Friday night they could stay one hour longer and play as much as they like. That's why most of the boys in various ages were playing soccer at the yard and girls were playing with a huge collection of dolls, stuffed animals and such in the playing room.
Every half of a year the orphanage was donated with new toys and books to play with. Also about every 3-4 months the kids there also were provided with new or 2nd hand clothes. When the day as coming, the children were given an inquiry which asked them what clothes they were needing so every kid got the right piece of the wardrobe. Bryan could tell the time for that was close because he heard shreds of words like 'clothes', 'soon', 'new', 'that paper'. He tried his best not to think too much about his current situation and his future. Especially if it was tied with the orphanage. He barely got over his mother's death and something new like filling the paper to get right clothing pieces was something really new to him. Usually it was his mom who picked up some clothes for him or his neighbors that were kind enough to hand over some that were slightly used by them.
The boy stood up from his chair and decided to move somewhere else to free his mind of this thoughts. Then he remembered that he should find Hikari. Slightly smiling he ran through the orphanage dark hall in order to get at the higher level. Then when he was upstairs he realized that he have no idea where she might me. He was cold to her for all the time so he didn't even get a chance to let her say where's her room or where she can be found. He was about to heavily smack his forehead with his opened hand but then he noticed a black woman who appeared to be a maid here. She seemed to be in her late 40thies. Also she wasn't slim. Not wasting any time he walked to her hoping she won't ignore him.
'Excuse me miss-'
'Yes?', the woman turned her head at him and smiled.
Bryan sighed out a sign of relief in his thoughts and smiled back politely at her.
'Do you know where I can find miss Hikari? I wanted to ask her something', he asked.
The woman furrowed for a second and then eased her expression.
'I think I saw her downstairs using an orphanage's payphone. But hey I haven't seen you before, you're new here, kid?'
The boy slightly nodded.
'I see, so you probably don't know where's the payphone, right? Getcha downstairs and turn right and then left. It's around headmaster's office. You'll know it's his door once you get there so ain't you worry sweetie.', then she gently patted his head.
'Uhuh, thank you miss uh…', then he kinda scratched his head upon realizing he doesn't know her name either.
'Call me Berta, Berta Burns. Everybody here calls me just by name, no need for formalities.', she chuckled.
'Okay then, thanks Berta, see you later.', the boy bowed his head as a sign of gratitude and ran down.
'Hey what's your name?', she shouted to make sure he'll hear her.
'Bryan, thanks again!', he shouted back nearly tripping at some point.
The woman sighed and shook her head while getting back on her duty.
Just like Berta said, he was managed to find Hikari using the payphone. It might seem funny but he wasn't surprised that she's still talking on the phone. What made him cautious and curious was what she said.
'I'll see if I can come over there before this month. … No, no… I can't spend Christmas with you, I have a work to do here. I'm sorry-'
His mind raced.
'She has someone with who she can spend Christmas?'
Then the woman glanced at him, noticing his presence. The boy gulped and swiftly hid behind the corner.
'Hey I gotta finish now, I'll call you sometime later, okay? Bye.'
Bryan wondered why is he actually hiding. It's ridiculous. When he was about to peek behind the corner he gasped as he saw Hikari standing right before him. At first her expression seemed serious as she had a stern looking face but then it slowly turned into a wide grin.
'Don't you know that eavesdropping is rude?', she pressed a fist against his head and rubbed a tiny bit making sure he'd feel it but it wouldn't cause him too much pain.
The boy yelped upon the tease and moved out of her range, still facing her directly.
'I wasn't ! I was looking for you and then I spotted you talking on the phone so I didn't wanna interfere.', glaring he started rubbing the pained spot on his head to cease the stinking.
'Is that so?', she made a surprised expression.
'Yeah, why I would wanna eavesdrop you?', he blinked a few times and stopped moving his hand.
'Beats me.', she shrugged but then asked, 'Why you were looking for me?'
'You promised me that you'll teach me kickboxing.'
'Oh sure, so you what… You wanna start today?'
'I can't waste time on doing nothing, I must get stronger!', Bryan took one step forward and closed his hands into fists.
Hikari looked at him for a bit and couldn't help but to smile slightly in spite of herself.
'I see.', she closed her eyes and put hands on her hips.
'So?'
'So do you have any homework to do?', she gave him one of the stares that told him there's no use of lying to her about that.
He sighed and paused for a bit, turning his gaze away.
'Yeah… Math. We're having a test soon.', he answered still not looking back at her.
'Mr. Suarez is your math teacher, right?'
He nodded.
'Then you've gotta do your best at your homework and later at the test. We won't start until you're done at least with studying.'
Bryan immediately turned his head in her direction.
'But I have the whole weekend for that! Please let me train with you today-'
'If you manage to finish your homework today we will. But not sooner.', she cut him at the end while passing by him.
The boy looked down and bit his lower lip.
'You just wait.', he whispered and ran away.
She only managed to look at the direction where he left and sighed once again and then shook head.
'Molly please, can you help me with homework? I need to finish it today at any costs!'
Bryan managed to find the twins in the study room where the younger girl was the only studying person at the time. Mandy was literally just hanging on the char, slightly swinging besides her sister .
'Well okay, I was about to start doing it myself anyway.', she blinked a bit and adjusted glasses on her nose.
The boy smiled and nodded happily.
'So I'll bring here my notepad and by that time you'll get prepared, okay?'
'Deal.', the girl smiled back and closed the book she was reading.
Not wasting any time Bryan rushed to his room for the studying supplies. Mandy stopped swinging on the chair and looked at her sister.
'Seems like our infamous hero has something up in his mind again.'
'I hope it's nothing bad though.', the other girl opened the textbook and looked for the exercises.
'This gonna be fun.', she grinned and decided to see what happens now.
Just when the boy got back to the studying room, Molly had prepared everything they might need. What's more, she started solving one problem with an ease. Bryan only sit next to her peeking at the notepad where she was writing. He was really impressed with the speed of solving them. Of course she was taking small breaks from them just to make the boy understand the whole analyzing and such. She was really patient and didn't seem to mind repeating some things all over again just to help Bryan.
'Do you understand now?', she glanced at him.
He was busy re-writing everything to his own notepad, occasionally peeking at the girls. The intense of her stare made him pause just to look back. Making a dumb expression he slightly nodded.
Molly couldn't help but to sigh and smack palm against her forehead. Mandy giggled at their action.
'Hey quit giggling, you're actually doing nothing useful here.', Bryan sent her a killing cold stare.
'I don't have to, it was you who asked for help, not me.', she leaned backward on the chair so she was able to see the setting sun behind the window.
'Still I don't see a reason why would you just sit here not doing anything. You also gotta pass this test, right?'
She didn't say anything.
'Bryan, it's okay, just concentrate on the task. You wanna finish it today, right?', Molly gently pulled his sleeve.
'Yeah right.', he looked once again at Mandy's face before forcing himself to switch into studying mode.
The contour of her face was gently defined by the warm light beaming right on her side-face. Her ginger hair seemed to be burning this way and nearly blending with the light itself. Before he moved his eyes from her, he noticed the sad expression on her face.
It was so unlike her.
-tape shatters and goes blank after zooming at Mandy's face-