Hey, everyone! This fic isn't dead, I promise. I've just been editing this chapter forever, and it still didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.
~o~o~o~
The more time Feliks spent in the school, the more he wondered what kind of a place he had been plunged into. Even after months, he knew no one, the school was terrible, his classmates were terrible, the people in his church were even more nosy than back in Poland, he didn't know the city, he didn't even speak the language.
Luckily for him, he easily found out how to at least avoid being the doormat in his class: Rule over the weak and flatter the big boys. Or big boy, in this case. Yes, there were more figures to stay friendly to, but Ivan was the one he was most concerned about. Even so, it was kind of easy not to get his wrath waltzing over your head.
Just by knowing when to keep his mouth shut, Feliks had managed to get a little higher on Ivan's list. He was now sort of the middle between Ivan plus his little creepy sister right below him and the Trembling Trio. In a few weeks, he'd even gotten so far he was ruling over those three. Although that wasn't anything to speak of. When Ivan or his little 'spy' Natalia were around, he hardly even existed.
Still, when they weren't around, Feliks was a leader figure, and he liked that. It was so much fun to be the boss in a group. It was a very welcome change to being the odd one out as he was used to. Eduard, Raivis and Toris were always around, so Feliks wasn't alone anymore.
Berwald and Tino had tried to befriend the Trembling Trio, but who would want to be friends with a freak like that? Tino wasn't all that scary, but Berwald...yuck. Not as scary as Ivan, but damn close. Not that Feliks would ever let anyone know he thought that. Nuh-uh. No way. In the end, the creeper had half gotten his way when the Trio decided they didn't mind being friends with him too. (Although it had to be said they were, how surprisingly, trembling like a leaf when saying it.)
If he had to, Feliks could run to Elizabetha, who was sort of mothering over the stick-up-the-ass autist. It wasn't surprising that people thought they'd make a cute couple. Roderich was actually quite a wuss and Elizabetha was such a tomboy. That'd be so cute.
But Roderich himself wasn't all that cute. No. He was downright posh and very well aware of his social rank.
He and that Serbian guy, Stanoje Vulović got along like…fire and ice. Stanoje was fire there, whereas Roderich was seriously cold as ice. Then again, many people disliked Roderich. He was bossy, strict and ugh, so annoying.
"Could you please be so kind to refrain from making such distasteful comments?" Roderich asked again.
"Geez, someone can't take a joke." Stanoje rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair while saying this. "I'm just saying it, you two make the weirdest couple in the world. "
Still, they were always at the same table during lunch breaks, and neither of them got the brilliant idea of just leaving or ignoring the other.
"Cut it with the couple-jokes!" Elizabetha demanded, slamming her fist into the table.
"Take a joke, Lizzy. Geez, someone's on her period." Was the response.
Stupid pride.
Not that Feliks himself had any room to talk on that point.
"What?!" Elizabetha shrieked and jumped up from her chair like she was ready to strangle him.
Stanoje followed her example.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Arthur stepped in between them, holding the both of them back. "Cool it. Both of you."
That seemed to help somewhat. The two kept their foulest glares focussed on each other as they sat down. The group held their breath until the two were actually seated and they were out of the danger zone.
Also Arthur sat down again and there was a dead silence, until Stanoje huffed.
"Just saying it because your love-baby would be just about the weirdest monstrosity in history. Are you even sure you're not a scissor sister?" He joked. He couldn't leave it, could he?
"Now you're dead." Elizabetha spat but was held back by Arthur and Francis just in time before she could punch him straight in the face.
Ivan was in between the two in between the girl and Stanoje, in case she managed to force out of the hold the other two had on her. For once, Ivan was not smiling but had the freakiest psycho glare on his face since Freddy Kreuger.
It made a cold shiver run up and down Feliks' sine multiple times. Yuck, that guy was creepy.
The bell rang. Just in time. They had to get back to class.
One of the groups, that being Stanoje's, went off to class already. The tension was gone for the time being. And Feliks finally realised he'd been keeping his breath all this time.
Luckily, it was possible to avoid them on the way to class. Feliks wasn't the type to fight. On top of that, it also seemed that when push came to shove, the Trembling Trio rather followed Ivan than him.
Surprise.
Because who would be more terrifying: The creepy tall Russian guy with huge shoulders, or the skinny, tiny Polish kid with a squeaky voice who talked a bit like a Valley Girl? If you picked the second, you were a massive idiot.
Bottom line: Toris was an idiot. At least half an idiot.
Said skinny tiny Polish kid sat through the hour, trying to ignore how everyone was keeping an eye on everyone. Yes, even Feliks himself was constantly looking around if there was anyone trying something. Terrible. He'd almost tremble as much as Eduard, Raivis and Toris did. The hour after that wasn't much better.
"Ludwig. Psst, Ludwig." He asked over his shoulder during maths. It was only five minutes before class was over.
"Yes?"
"Are Roderich and Stanoje still, like, spitting fire at each other?"
"Yes, and Elizabetha said she wanted to 'wipe that damn grin off his face' if he or anyone in that group tried anything funny." Ludwig informed him.
"Let's hope nothing 'funny' happens. That'd totally get out of hand. Like, totally." Feliks' hopes were definitely sinking to the soles of his shoes.
"Probably."
"Boys!" Their teacher warned. "Work for yourself."
The two went back to their work. Feliks tried to comfort himself with the thought that as long as there was a teacher, no one would have the guts to beat the shit out of each other.
The teacher grabbed his stuff together. "I've got to go to the exam hall now. You guys stay here until the bell goes. And behave."
Fuck. Feliks dreaded the moment the bell would go. Could the universe read his mind just to screw him over or something? Without their teacher around, this could get nasty.
In the corner off his eye, Feliks saw a note fly through the air, right onto Elizabetha's table. She opened it, her expression turned furious, and she shot a glare over her shoulder at Stanoje. He flashed her a grin, which wasn't appreciated. Elizabetha crushed the note in her hand, just when the bell went. She jumped up from her seat, and so did Stanoje. Before he could do anything, she grabbed him by the arm and hurled him out of the classroom, into the corridor.
"You are so dead." She doomed. Not a second had passed before the two were at each other's throats.
"Hey, don't touch me, bitch." Stanoje shouted when he barely dodged a fist to the face.
"You're a fucking bitch yourself." She punched him for real this time.
Oh, god. The bomb had burst.
The entire class rushed out the door. Some just to see the action, and others ran away as quickly as possible. Not because they were scared, but because they knew the stupidity of it all.
Some also joined in to defend their friends, which was were things got out of hand. Elizabetha could count on instant help from Ludwig, so he was in. Unfortunately, Judithe and Francis teamed up against him. They basically did as much as they could to stand in his way and irritate the fuck out of him. And he didn't take that too well. Especially not when he got yet another one of his classmates suddenly standing in his way. He was going to kick Francis out of his way, but he hit a solid torso instead. Ivan.
"Oh, you joining in too?" Ivan asked, suddenly sounding many times darker than his usual light and childish voice.
"You bet." Was the response. Quite a brave move, seeing that Ivan was at least a head taller and obviously much heavier.
"Hm. That's a bit annoying." Ivan directed one of his big fists straight for the shorter boy's face, but the punch got redirected at the last moment. Luckily, otherwise he certainly would have lost a few teeth.
"Huh? And who are you?" Ivan asked.
"Gilbert's the name, better remember, and that's my bro you're trying to punch there." Tje guy spat, finally letting go of Ivan's wrist. Sharp loud voice, slender thing, but damn, did he have balls. Or was he just bluffing? He was a second year, supposed to be in third year, but even he was shorter than Ivan.
"What about we turn this guy into Beef Stroganov?" He asked his brother and chuckled in quite a creepy manner. He sounded a bit like a very poisonous snake.
Ugh, cliché. Seriously, this guy couldn't come up with anything better? For real?
"You can try." Natalia threatened him immediately. "I'll cut out each of your red eyes if you touch my brother."
"I'd like to see you try, princess. What are you, his sniper?" Gilbert tried her. And then he had to dodge a rather long pair of scissors she held like a knife. Holy shit! She was even scarier than her brother! Why did she even know how to use a pair of scissors as a weapon?! She was seriously nuts as fuck!
"Wow, careful with that dagger, Chelsea." Gilbert said, trying to sound jokingly, but not able to hide the fact he was scared as hell to get stabbed. Ivan had his hands full of Gilbert now, having taken over for his sister.
The situation quickly escalated from simple pushing and name-calling into an actual group-fistfight, in which Feliks got caught up as well. He got along with Ludwig, so it was only normal to defend him against, well, Natalia. And others, but Feliks took the responsibility of trying to distract the knife-nut. He didn't exactly land a punch, but he took a lot. As he stepped back every time to avoid being cut in the face, he got right into the line of fire between Ivan and Gilbert. And Ivan was so kind to grab him by the shoulders and hurl him aside. Unfortunately, not before using him as a shield for one of Gilbert's fists.
Even with the light nearly knocked out of him, he would have been able to keep his balance, hadn't he tripped over Toris. He couldn't react anymore, and fell back against the wall so hard he saw stars. He had the metalic smell and taste of blood in his nose, and on his lips. So gross.
By now, nearly everyone had joined in. Sadiq, Kiku and the Trembling Trio were suddenly all up on their feet, the Bulgarian kid, the two Italian brothers…It was too much of a mess to keep up with. The vampire-ish kid, Andrei, who rushed in to help too, got elbowed in the face by Elizabetha, and got to his knees clutching his hand over his mouth.
In the corner of his eye, Feliks saw something else that made him cringe: Matthew getting a punch straight in the stomach, so hard he folded over. This wasn't quite appreciated by Alfred, Carlos and even Yao. They joined in as well. Nearly the entire class was kicking the crap out of each other by now.
Except for Ivan. He left the rest behind and let them do as they liked. That sneaky bastard.
And much to Feliks' surprise, Matthew jumped up again quite quickly after that punch and hurled his attacker to the floor. Just grabbed him by the back of his collar and yanked his head straight down to the ground.
Oh, god, if that wasn't painful, Feliks had no idea what was.
"Hey!"A deep voice suddenly boomed over the group.
Everyone stopped dead in their tracks and looked up.
It was Mr. Anderson, a teacher they'd had a few times as a replacement, who was now looking at them as though they'd all lost their minds. "Cut that out immediately! Ivan! Get back over here. Into the classroom with you. Have you all gone barking mad?!" He shouted.
Feliks crawled up again, but had to hold a hand against the wall for support. His head was spinning and throbbing and felt like it was about to burst. Boys and girls got up, throats were released and slowly, everyone parted.
Feliks' fingers hit something wet on the wall. He looked up to see...blood. There was a smear of blood on the wall.
Blood! Disgusting! And there was more of it. There were more of those stains on the walls, there was a small pool on the floor somewhere, Judithe had a stream running out of her nose, Arthur had a cut on his forehead, Gilbert was stuck with bruised and scratched knuckles and more than that and Ludwig had a black eye and some cuts.
Suddenly, Feliks felt sick, but he was dragged into the classroom by his arm and thrown into a chair by Mr. Anderson.
~o~
They were released after an hour of being shouted at. Damn, that Anderson was good at ramming you into the ground until there was nothing left of you.
Apparently, the teachers had noticed a long time ago that there were certain tensions between certain students. Strangely enough, they hadn't done anything about it. Wasn't that their job or something?
For some strange reason, basically everyone either pointed the accusing finger at Ludwig and Gilbert or did nothing. Strange? Okay, they were the hardest fighters, but still. They hadn't actually started the entire shit.
The decision after a discussion that dragged on and on and on, Anderson's solution was that the people who didn't like each other should just stay away from each other. When someone you didn't like was somewhere you were, you left. That was the idea.
Feliks rolled his eyes. Couldn't they just go home already?
And Anderson wanted to have a chat with a few of the students. Feliks was glad he wasn't one of them, because he, just like everyone, was wrecked. Feliks didn't know how quickly he had to get his arse out of there. He wanted to go home, lie in his bed and do nothing.
When he passed the toilets later, he saw Andrei looking into the mirror, poking carefully as his chipped tooth and cringing. That was from Elizabetha's elbow no doubt. With a sharp pointy fang like that, he looked even more like a vampire than usual.
Feliks grumbled and stroked the back of his head. He carefully felt the crust that was forming on top of the bump under his hair. He hoped that there wasn't enough blood for people to see.
"Stupid Toris. He sooo made me trip on purpose. Ouch!"
And speak of the devil, there was the guy!
"What is it? Bumped your head?" Toris asked mockingly.
"Since when do you have a tongue? I thought you couldn't talk? All you ever do is, like, tremble." Feliks retorted. There was something in Toris' tone he didn't like. At all. Usually, the guy never spoke and did whatever he was told to like a lapdog.
"I can take care of myself, I don't need someone like you to command me."
"What, you think tripping people is a way to take care of yourself?"
"You just tripped over me. That was your own stupid fault."
"Hello. You were the one down on the floor!"
"Oh, you should have seen how pathetic you were against Natalia! You shrieked like a little pig!" Toris reminded him.
"You were flat on your ass already! Hello! Who's pathetic now?"
"Piss off." Toris said calmly.
"And-" Feliks fell silent. "Eh, what?"
"I want you to stay away from me. Leave me alone. I don't want to have anything to do with you. You're a jerk."
He said it in such a friendly way, but that made it sting even harder. If only he had shouted it straight into his face, Feliks would just have shouted back without a second thought. But this soft-spoken voice, which was Toris knowing perfectly what he was saying, made it impossible to let his rage continue.
"Fine." Feliks hissed and passed him, bumping against his shoulder and stomped through the double doors to his locker.
There, he rammed his fist hard against the metal doors.
"Shit!" He shouted. "Fuck it all!"
So altogether, he had been thrown and kicked around, been humiliated, lost his friends and his status and he'd be a dead man walking if his parents were to find out.
But it surprised him how little he cared about that right now. For a long time, he had believed that he finally had friends, while they were just puppets. Nothing but marionettes that were just moved by their strings as they were pulled by the ones above them.
Not that he was any better. He was just that too, now that he thought about it.
He was done with that. He was done listening to whoever was trying to order him around. This was school, not the military. It was time to stop pretending for the sake of fitting in. Because what did it even matter? What profit did he gain from fitting in if no one actually wanted to be around him?
He envied Elizabetha and Roderich. They were actually friends. They actually liked each other. They had each other to rely on.
Feliks had, other than you'd say, no one.
~o~o~o~
How nice kids can be to each other, right?
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