Hello there! Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. This has been the last week before finals, so it's been hectic. Finals actually start tomorrow, and I should be studying… Oh well. Oh yes, and thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far, it makes me happy. Now on with the story.
Disclaimer: Don't own +anima, even though it totally seems like I do.
Chapter 4
Husky was anxious. He didn't know why, he didn't have anything he had to do, but he was just so fidgety. After he had put the little fish on his shelf, he started some of his math homework. It took him twice as long as it normally would, he just couldn't concentrate. The silver haired boy kept stopping, spinning in his rolly chair, tapping his pencil and doodling on the margins of the paper.
Even once he was finished, he couldn't relax. He'd had this problem before, but it hadn't really been this bad in a long time. He began to wish that he could go back home, but quickly pushed the thought out of his head. This was his home now and there wasn't anything he could do to change it.
Sighing, the silver boy stood up and put on a light grey hoodie. Going down the stairs, he made his way to the front door as fast as he could, only to be stopped by a strict voice.
"Where are you going, Myrrah?" his step-mother, Dylana, asked, coming into the room. Her red hair was in a high ponytail and her eyes were fixed in the same glare she had been giving him for as long as he'd known her.
"Out," Husky answered in a monotone voice. He didn't like being near Dylana, never did. He didn't mind Keane too much anymore, at least he'd been making an attempt at being hospitable since Husky had arrived. In fact, he was almost sure that the ginger didn't hate his guts completely, although the same thing could not be said for his mother, not in the slightest.
"Out where?" She asked him in a clipped voice. Husky knew she was going to ask this, but truthfully, he didn't know the answer himself yet.
"I don't know, just out. I already did my homework, I'll be back before dark. No thanks, bye" Husky said, cutting Dylana off every time she opened her mouth and headed out the door without a single glance back.
Husky wasn't sure where he was heading, not that he knew many places in the town to begin with. Keane had offered to show him around multiple times when he had first moved in, but Husky had declined each time, hanging out with Keane was still too weird. Heading down a random street, he decided that he didn't care where he was going as long as he was able to get back all right.
After a few blocks the silver haired boy stopped at what appeared to be a park. There was playground equipment and picnic benches and a path that led into a surprisingly large woods.
Sitting down on one of the benches Husky tried to imagine the way back, making sure he could remember the way. He could, and decided not to head any farther in order to prevent getting lost. At least for today, anyway.
Husky just sat there for several minutes, not doing much of anything. The walk had calmed him down, like he had hope. Closing his ocean eyes he sat quietly, just enjoying the fresh air for a bit, the sounds of yelling children growing fainter as the day got later.
"Watch out!" the two words were screeched, pulling the young boy out of his meditation quite quickly, although not quick enough. Before he could defend himself in any way a volleyball blasted towards him and hit him square in the face.
"Ouch! Whad the…" Husky yelled as he stood up, holding his nose where it had already begun to bleed.
"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" A girl around his age asked, running up to him. She had long, light brown hair, only slightly obscured by a flower decorated hat. The skirt she wore also had flowers on it, but that's not what Husky noticed. No, what he noticed was the volleyball in her hands. The volleyball that had very recently sunk his face in.
"Oh yeah, I'm jusds peachy! Whad's it look wike to you? Stupid gurl," Husky shot at the girl, his speech slightly slurred by the bloody nose.
"Well, sorry, I didn't mean to hit you in the face with a volleyball, maybe if you weren't sleeping you would have noticed," The girl snapped back, now equally as angry as Husky was.
"I wasn'd sleeping, I was, urg, neber mind. I don' need to tawk to you," The silver boy growled, although the angry effect was pretty much ruined by his pronunciation. Another girl had come up to the two, but wasn't able to say anything before the angry brunette pushed the volleyball into her hands and began following Husky away.
"Don't need to talk to me? I'll decide that. If you weren't sleeping then what were you doing? Because it sure looked like sleeping to me," The girl asked, making it very clear that she was not going to leave Husky alone until she saw fit.
"Minding my own business, until some stupid girl decided to give me a bloody nose!" Husky yelled, glad that the blood had begun to stop it's flow, and he could talk a bit more clearly. He really wished this girl would just leave, he didn't like girls to begin with, and this one was really starting to grate on his nerves.
"I already said that I didn't mean it! And I have a name and it's not 'Stupid Girl'" She yelled back, starting to follow him out of the park.
"Don't care," was all Husky said. The girl didn't say anything after that, she just kept on chasing after him. Finally the silver haired boy couldn't take it anymore. "What do you want? Gonna stalk me all the way home, stupide femme?" Husky yelled, finally turning around to face her.
"For you to accept my apology," the girl said, crossing her arms. Her angry face wasn't quite perfect though, as she was trying to figure out exactly the boy had called her.
"What?" Husky asked, blinking a few times, the anger in his voice now completely changed over to confusion.
"You heard me," The girl said, arms still crossed. Husky simply turned back around and kept walking. "Hey!" The brunette yelled, beginning to run after him again.
"Not gonna happen," Husky said without turning around. Finally he reached his house. The girl followed him all the way up to the door, only to have Husky turn around to her once he was halfway through it. "Bye now, stupid girl," Husky said, closing the door before she could start yelling at him again. Peeking out the window he waited until he saw she actually left the yard. He didn't want her to start knocking and have Keane or Dylana let her inside. Once she was gone the silver boy turned to wash off his face, hoping he'd be able to before anyone saw the blood.
"Whoa, Husky, what happened?" Of course he wouldn't be able to, though, that would be against the will of the universe for him to actually have some good luck.
"Got hit in the face by some stupid girl with a volleyball," Husky explained, walking past Keane and into the bathroom.
The ginger followed and watched him wipe the dried blood off from the doorway. "Must of hit pretty hard, did you know her?" Keane asked as Husky dried his face off.
"Nope, and don't want to. She then had the nerve to chase me all the way home and demand that I accept her apology," Husky snorted and headed towards his room.
"Sounds like fun, she's not still out there, is she?" Keane asked, sounding slightly worried.
"No. I'm gonna get some rest, my stupid face hurts. Tell me when dinners done," Husky grumbled, sitting down on his bed. Keane nodded, still standing in the doorway. Did he ever come past the doorway?
"Will do," The ginger said before leaving, and closed the door behind him.
Husky awoke to the sound of his alarm clock, highly disoriented. "Urg, what the? What time?" Husky grumbled, rubbing his eyes and reaching for the clock. 7:20 am, Keane hadn't waken him for dinner. Speaking of the devil, the red head had poked his head into the door at just that moment.
"Sorry Husky, tried to wake you last night, but you were out cold," Keane explained. Husky just nodded, still not fully awake. The red head then left, allowing Husky to change into some new clothes. He still had on his ones from yesterday.
Heading downstairs the silver haired boy went straight towards the table, hungry from missing dinner. Soon the two were on their way to school, managing to leave a bit earlier than the day before.
Walking along Husky made sure his landmarks were still there. The park, the 7-11, and the church. As Husky looked up at the church he caught eyes with a rather familiar black haired figure.
"Husky! I didn't know you walked to school this way!" Cooro said, smiling happily. The smile faded rather quickly, though. "What happened? Did you get hit?" Cooro asked, obviously growing concerned.
Husky's hand when up to his face, right around his nose where the volleyball had hit. Ouch. Definitely sore, and apparently, definitely bruised. "S'nothing, some girl hit me in the face with a volleyball yesterday, it's fine," Husky explained, yet again.
"Oh, alright, hope it gets better!" Cooro said, smiling once again. Keane, who had been staring at Cooro, turned to Husky.
"Who's this? Friend of yours?" He asked, looking back over at Cooro.
"I guess, he's the kid that gave me the fish," Husky said, shrugging. Keane just nodded and Cooro smiled, not that he had stopped, but glad none the less that Husky hadn't said that they weren't friends or anything.
Finally the three boys reached the school. Keane gave them a quick goodbye as he left to head over to the middle school section of the building. "So, who was that, anyway? You're brother?" Cooro asked. Husky nodded.
"Yeah, well, half-brother, but you know," Husky said, trying to maneuver though the crowd of students. Even though they looked nothing alike, people could usually tell they were related. Attempting to avoid a crowd of older kids, Husky ended up tripping into someone, knocking them over. "Oh, sorry about that, You!" Husky yelled, glaring at the girl on the hallway floor.
"You!" she yelled back, dusting herself off and quickly standing up. Husky glared at the girl, and she glared back, until Cooro finally came, and just looked on, confused, between the two.
"Come on Cooro, let's go!," Husky yelled, and began to walk away. Cooro followed, although so did the girl.
"Oh no, not this again, apologize for knocking me down!" The girl demanded. Cooro saw that for whatever reason, this girl seemed to disliked Husky just as much as he seemed to disliked her.
"Well, I was going to, but then I saw who it was, so… No." Husky said, still not slowing down.
"Um, Husky? Who's this?" Cooro asked, sounding slightly confused.
"Don't know, don't care," Husky grumbled, looking down the hallway and trying to remember if his class was to the right or left.
"My name is Nana! And I said I was sorry for hitting you in the face!" Nana yelled, obviously exasperated.
Oh, so that's who she is, Cooro thought, struggling to keep up with the two angry children.
"Once again, I don't care," Husky said, starting to turn right.
"Um, Husky, our class is this way," Cooro said, gesturing towards the left. Dang it! Husky thought, turning around and heading towards the indicated direction. Nana kept on following the two boys, much to Husky's annoyance.
"Don't you gotta get to class?" Husky growled, spinning around to face the brunette. Cooro had to backtrack a few steps, having walked past the two, not expecting the sudden stop. Nana puffed out her cheeks and spun around on her heels, heading towards her classroom and away from the two. "Finally," Husky mumbled, starting to walk back down the hallway again.
"Well, she seemed nice," Cooro commented, not a hint of sarcasms in his voice. Husky simply stared at the slightly older boy, a look of disbelief on his face.
"You've got to be kidding me," Husky finally managed to say, obviously not agreeing with Cooro in the least.
"No, she does, you two are just really alike, so you naturally clash. Plus, she hit you in the face with a volleyball, which looks like it probably hurt," Cooro explained nonchalantly. Husky stopped dead in his tracks, causing Cooro to have to backtrack yet again. He had an incredulous look on his face, which only caused Cooro to be even more confused.
"What?" the black haired boy asked, truly bewildered, but people tended to get like this around him a little bit. Apparently Cooro didn't appear as perceptive as he really was.
"N-nothing! I'm nothing like that stupid girl! Come on, we're gonna be late for class," Husky stuttered, beginning to walk down the hallway.
"Okay!" Cooro said brightly, following Husky yet again. Well, he did until Husky tried to make another wrong turn and was forced to correct him and lead the way.
Class passed rather quickly, the two boys able to get inside just before the bell rang, not that Ms. Brighton would of noticed if they were late anyway. She'd lost her whistle again.
Husky sat with Cooro at lunch. He found it strange that they were once again alone and that, even more so, he had apparently made a friend of some sort. It definitely wasn't a department he was very experienced in.
"I wonder where Nana's sitting," Cooro said, looking around the cafeteria curiously. Husky bit into his tuna sandwich angrily. Cooro didn't know why but he had giggled when he saw what the silver boy had for lunch. Probably because of his strange association of Husky with fish. He was just really… shinny.
"Why would you care?" Husky grumbled once he had swallowed.
"I already told you, she seems nice," Cooro said, but stopped looking around all the same.
Afternoon classes passed as quickly as morning had, surprisingly. Soon the bell was ringing, cutting Ms. Brighton off in the middle of her sentence yet again. Husky wondered if that happened everyday, or if the past two were just unlucky for her.
"Do you and your brother walk home the same way you come to school?" Cooro asked, to which Husky nodded. "Cool, can I walk with you then?"
"Sure," the silver boy answered, spotting Keane in the crowd. The three boys walked along the sidewalk, Keane introducing himself formally to Cooro and vice-versa. Once they reached the church the black haired boy said goodbye and ran inside.
"Does he live there? I mean, he came out of it this morning too," Keane asked, starting to walk towards their home.
"Donno," Husky mumbled, glancing back at the church absently. He made a mental note to make sure to ask Cooro about that, if it ever came up.
Yay! Longest chapter so far, I think anyway. Hopefully that makes up for the long wait. Oh, and for those of you who are wondering, Husky called Nana a stupid girl in French. He's so original : ) Well, please review while I go and have a panic attack about my visual arts final.