Chapter 7
"Hey, loser!" Smack on the back. Ow.
"Hey, border-hopper!" Kick in the shin. Ow.
"Get outta my face!" Swear word, push. Ow.
It had been getting worse every day. Carlos would start getting picked on the moment his friends were out of sight. Every day, Carlos went home with bruises, some old and some fresh. They hurt a lot, too, but Carlos actually thought he was getting used to them by now. He sort of expected them, in a way.
Ever since that Monday, people had started spreading rumors about how Carlos Garcia was a loser, how he had no friends and how stupid he was. Carlos wanted to tell them that no, none of that was true, but he had started believing it himself.
He never told Kendall, James, or Logan about the bullying. He didn't want them to worry about him. He was a burden to all of them, and none of them wanted to care about his issues. They hated him, anyways, right?
And what would they think if Carlos ever told them? What if they realized that he was a loser after all and started picking on him, too? Carlos would rather have the whole school corner him and hit him with hockey sticks than to have Kendall, James, or Logan swinging a fist at him. It would hurt too much. He didn't think he could go on if his friends were in on the bullying, too.
Carlos tried to get himself out of school; he really did. He pretended to be sick the day before, but Mrs. Knight caught him. He did his best on his homework, but still, he failed almost everything. He didn't get why. When he stared at a bunch of words, they all started looking jumbled up and weird. He blamed it on his lack of attention. His stupid brain wasn't smart enough to focus on that many words.
It was in History when Carlos finally realized that his band mates hated him. The four of them were sitting in the back of the classroom as always, their voices blending in with the other twenty or so voices in the room. Carlos always loved History; it was the only place any of them would speak to hm.
The bell rang, and the teacher started passing out the test from two days ago. Carlos shifted nervously in his seat. He had studied really hard for this test. He'd been up until midnight for three whole days, looking over the material. He was almost sure he'd gotten at least an A.
But when the teacher handed back his test, a frown on his face, Carlos's heart dropped. D-. His score was 27 out of 50. He sighed as he flipped through all the huge red X's on his test, his heart falling after each one. Why was he such a failure?
Carlos barely paid attention when the teacher started going over the test. He didn't want to see how badly he screwed up, even though it was probably good for him to learn from his mistakes. His mind tuned back in, however, when the teacher said his name. He looked up.
"Number 12: when did the War of 1812 start? Carlos Garcia, why did you put the year 1281?" Carlos's face burned when the whole class started snickering, his face turning red.
But what hurt the most was when he turned to his friends for help, and saw them laughing, too. Carlos's heart tightened painfully. His friends were laughing at how stupid he was. His friends. They were laughing at him. Carlos didn't know what to do anymore. His friends hated him. They were just like everyone else now.
"Mr. Garcia, now why would you write such an insane answer?" The teacher asked, amusement twinkling in his eyes.
Carlos looked down at his hands. "I-I don't know, sir," he answered honestly. The number looked like 1281 to him. The numbers were all jumbled up when he started reading them. Carlos didn't know why everything looked like alphabet soup to him for some reason. It only happened periodically; but during the test, it had gotten really bad. He couldn't see any of the words clearly; it was like they were swimming around the paper or something.
"Well, going on…" Carlos, once again, tuned out to everything the teacher was saying. He glanced at his friends, who were still smiling after his stupid mistake. Carlos didn't understand why everything was falling apart around him. Why was he the one who had to be born a loser? Why was he the one suffering all the pain?
Carlos looked away from his friends every single time they stared at him the day after that. They never even asked what was wrong; they didn't care. He was just one more burden out of their life, right? He couldn't stand to look at them after how hard they laughed at him in History class. He knew from the point that his friends were no longer his friends anymore.
He needed to get them back. Somehow.
Line line line
Kendall Knight walked into hockey practice, feeling pumped as usual. Rehearsal had been horrible; Gustavo yelled at them to get better, and broke a few things. Nothing too serious, though. Hockey practice was like his sanctuary.
Kendall always felt different at school. It felt different in a good way, though. Now, instead of people looking up to him, he looked up to other people. He didn't have to make all the plans and try to stay calm during every dire situation. It made his life so much easier. Not having to worry about what to do if James's heart was broken by some snobby girl, or if Logan and Carlos were getting bullied, was really relaxing.
He knew it was sort of wrong to just watch as kids in school were getting picked on, but Kendall simply didn't want to care anymore. He was tired of stepping up all the time and having the stress all poured on him. For once in his life, he wasn't the man that had to take care of everything. He was a follower, and he liked that.
But one thing that had changed Kendall was his new friends. Kendall didn't notice how much those friends were changing him. They were molding him into a jock who didn't care for school, or anyone else other than the other jocks. Kendall just went along with it, for he never realized how different he now was.
When he saw Carlos being tripped in the hallway that day after science, he was really going to go up and help him. He really was. But just then, his friends called him over, and he trotted over to them and walked away, completely forgetting about Carlos. Leaving him behind.
For some reason, Carlos being tripped didn't really affected Kendall as much as it probably would have a month ago. Kendall kept telling himself that Carlos was 16 now, and he could handle things that were thrown his way. Literally or metaphorically. He could protect himself perfectly fine. And those thoughts were digging into Kendall's mind. They were digging and digging until finally, Kendall believed it.
Carlos didn't need his help. He was perfectly fine on his own. Kendall accepted this fact, and decided to throw Carlos out of his mind. He started hanging out with Jason and his friends more often, because he felt way more in common with them. They were so similar to himself, and Kendall really liked that.
James, Logan, and Carlos had always been so different from him. But somehow, Kendall had stuck with them, and they had all learned to love each other. But now, Kendall was finding himself separating and finding all of their differences. Good or bad differences. He was starting to realize that James was seriously too conceited; Logan was seriously too smart, and Carlos was seriously too annoying. How had he been best friends with these people before?
Kendall was snapped out of his thoughts when Jason came by and slapped him on the back. They greeted each other, and Kendall quickly walked away with Jason into their next class. He watched, an amused expression on his face, when Jason reached over and pushed one of the freshmen onto the ground. The two laughed, high fived each other, and walked away. Kendall didn't even notice how horrible he was becoming. His conscience had stopped functioning the way it used to. He didn't feel guilty anymore when he saw Jason bully people. He felt… powerful.
He had already completely tossed his BTR friends out of his mind. He no longer wanted to befriend them anymore. Jason was his friend now, and no one was ever going to change that.
Kendall Donald Knight was changing. Jason and his jock friends were molding and shaping him like clay. They kept on pressing on Kendall until finally, Kendall's heart was made out of stone.
A/N- So… how'd ya think? Horrible? Good? I kind of feel like this was a bit crappy, but whatever, right? ;) And you guys can probably tell that Carlos has this, um, problem (wink wink), and that Kendall's becoming more mean because of Jason and all the other jocks. This is getting insane, huh?
And I'm SO sorry for the slow updates…. I'm feeling a bit stressed lately, so just bear with me, alright? ;)
Please review? And make my day?
Peace, Love, and Giraffes,
Anonymous Skrtle
