Hey look I made it to chapter 7! Hoorays! Now, I have no idea how this story is going to end. Seriously I don't know if it'll all be A-Okay and sunshine and happiness again, or if it just goes off the edge. Probably not, but um, it most likely will get worse before it gets better. (That seems to always be the case, doesn't it?)
TJ was being to rethink the value of friendship. It wasn't that he did like them; it was just that the ones he had were starting to get on his nerves.
They were good kids, yes, but now they were asking questions he didn't want them to ask and it was becoming a problem he'd rather not deal with, and usually problems like that were few and far between. It's not like he lied to them, he just didn't tell them to begin with. And he had a reason.
Was it a good reason? Yes. Was he going to tell them? Not a chance.
But still, he thought like any other time they should've just taken his word and left it at that. He thought that after five years they would. He thought he had the whole situation under control, at least on his side. Like right now. He had to come to school a little earlier than usual for another talk. After the first couple months of going into that office he learned how to zone out. And it helped. A lot. So instead of being in the room his mind was on another planet and he could put together what had happened later, though he was aware of a few things.
Even though in his head he was playing sidekick for Senor Fusion, he knew a couple things. Like right now how he was lying face down on the floor with a very sharp pain going up his back. What it was, he didn't know, but he knew that he'd figure it out later.
Now his mind drifted to what happened yesterday. Why couldn't they leave him alone about the whole issue? Or at least wait until tomorrow? Ugh, a better question would be, where did they learn to keep asking questions?
'Oh, right," He thought. 'From me.'
The he remembered that he had pushed and punched someone. Who was it? Oh, right, Spinelli.
'I punched a girl? Spinelli?' He asked himself. 'I must be going crazy. But she was gonna tell! And I couldn't let her do that. Man, that sounds like a really bad excuse…' The first time he hit her though, after she had the nerve to say that he actually liked going through it; she crossed the line then. She crossed it with an army tank ready to fire. But he still was a boy and she still was a girl, and no boy should hit a girl; he knew that much. 'I'll apologize later.'
After a while he was standing up again and heading out of the Principals office, still zoned out. Looking at the clock he saw that class would start in a few minutes and decided to go, although he was tempted to skip school just to avoid his friends. Bu then he'll get in trouble, and sent to the Principals office…
So he walked to class, with a limp he didn't have before, as he started to stop zoning out and figuring out what exactly happened back in the office. After he did, instead of looking at his friends who he knew were looking at him, he sat his head on the desk and waited for the bell to ring. Today was going to be a very long day.
To try to make it shorter he made it a goal to avoid his friends at all costs. HE figured that could either lead to something good, like him getting a moment of peace, or something bad, like one of them snitching. But right now, he'd take his chances. Thinking that the old abandoned playground would be a good idea he decided to hide out there. They might look for him there at some time, but that time wouldn't come for a while. He yawned, they had gotten him all riled up yesterday and he could barely get any sleep. Thinking that now would probably be the only time he could possible get any sleep for a while he laid down next to a tree a drifted off to sleep.
Unbeknownst to him that day the rest of the group decided to take a break from each other, being together made them worry, and that worry usually ended like yesterday had. And they didn't want that to happen again. Gus however was a little more willing to take that risk
He set out to look for TJ who basically ran out the classroom as soon as the bell rang. Probably to avoid them, no doubt. He'd been looking for ten minutes and came to one conclusion; he was really good at hiding. But he found himself just waling aimlessly around and before he knew it he ended in the abandoned playground and decided to look there.
'It's not like there is anywhere else to look,' He thought. It only took a turn to find him lying next to a tree, sleeping away. He walked over, debating whether or not to wake him up; he was sleeping quite peacefully after all. But before he finished that little argument in his head a voice spoke up.
"What do you want, Gus?"
"Oh, you're awake…."
"I wasn't until you came through here. Are you here to yell at me?"
"No, I just wanna talk," He said calmly. While he sat down, TJ stretched and sat up against the tree. He just couldn't get a moment of peace, at least in his mind.
"Well? What do you wanna talk about?"
"You really don't want us to tell?"
"Nope."
"Really?
"Really." One of those awkward moments of silence came, before leaving again.
"But if it was one of us, wouldn't you tell?" Gus asked him
"Yeah, but that's different."
"How?"
"Because, Prickly wouldn't do this to you guys," He said.
"But he does it to you…"
"That's because," He stopped himself before he gave out too much information. "Look, he just wouldn't. I know more about this whole thing than you all do. And there is A LOT more going on here than you think."
"Like what?"
"I can't tell you, Gus." He said.
"Oh, okay…"
"Okay? You're okay with that?"
"Yeah. I mean, you don't seem like you're gonna tell us anything anytime soon..." Said Gus. "But can I ask you one more thing?"
"You can ask but I probably won't answer…"
"Why were you limping this morning?" Gus asked. That question caused TJ to flashback to earlier in the office. Even though he was zoned out after that stop he knew exactly what had happened. Suddenly all 20 minutes of his own personal hell flashed before him in 20 seconds. It was particularly scary considering Prickly had never gone that far. He was only brought out of it by Gus trying to get his attention.
"TJ?" Gus said tapping him on the shoulder.
"Huh?"
"I said why were you limping this morning?" Part of Gus knew he wasn't going to get an answer, but he thought he'd still give it a try. But he soon found at that he would be right.
"The bell is gonna ring any minute Gus," He said, standing up. "We should start heading back to the playground before we're late." Not waiting for Gus to answer, TJ started to walk away.
Weird, this one took only 90 minutes to write. I thought we all needed to see TJ's point of view a little bit. Try to make him look less like a kid gone crazy. Does he still seem like one? Perhaps. But I hope you all understand where he's coming from a bit. So tell me whatsha think! Maybe what should happen next if you'd like. Please review! Those make me so happy…
