Okie dokie! Here's another chapter of Broken Crayons for all you guys! Special shout outs to all of you who have been so kind to leave reviews and fuel my motivation to type so quickly! And of course, thanks and gratitude to all my favorites and followers and my anonymous readers too! :P Well, without further ado, I present chapter nine to you all!
~XChapter 9X~
October 26th; The day of the class field trip to the museum. While my classmates were buzzing with excitement for the get away from school, I couldn't be in more of a dreary mood. I had wanted to go on this field trip SO bad, but I didn't. I looked around the classroom while I rested my face in my arms, which were currently crossed and nestled on top of my school desk. The whiteboard was decorated in the writing of a purple marker, telling us to have a good field trip.
But for the kids that weren't going, -which was only myself and two others- We had to move over to another classroom so we weren't in here by ourselves, seeing how our teacher was one of the sponsors. That meant that he wouldn't be staying behind. The room itself was decorated in orange and black, seeing how Halloween was fast approaching and just right around the corner it seemed. Right now, even the thought of that wonderful holiday was not enough to bring me out of a 'not-going-on-a-fieldtrip-stupor'.
"Hey, Zack! Why do you look so down?" A voice called out to me.
I lifted my head from my arms to see one of my best friends standing in front of my desk. She had wavy copper red hair with bangs that draped her face. Her brown-gold eyes looked into mine and she offered me a soft smile. She was one of my only female friends in my class. Which I didn't have very many to begin with, just her and one other. She was dressed in black, per usual for her. She had in a simple black t-shirt with a red butterfly on it, and black denim shorts.
"Hey, Cissnei." I replied without much enthusiasm, not answering her question on why I looked so 'down', as she put it.
"Are you upset because you're one of the kids that can't go on the field trip?" She asked, reading how I felt like an open book. She was good at telling if something was the matter with me or not.
I responded only with the nod of my head, then I rested it back in my arms once more, glancing at my long sleeved shirt. The sleeves were black and had fire shooting up from the bottom and towards the neck. The rest of the shirt was a very dark grey and had a cute fireball on it with a devious smile. My pants were loose fitting jeans that had some old red and black checkered patches in the knees. At the bottom, they were frayed and looked a bit torn up.
Cissnei just lowered herself down to my level, resting on her knees as she propped her elbow up on my desk. She rested her face in her own hands, giving me a near sympathetic look, yet there was also a glaze of confusion glistening in her pretty eyes.
"I thought you said you could go? What changed? Did your mom not sign the paper?" She asked, hoping she would get a reason as to why I could not go.
"It's not that, she WAS going to sign it. But my little brother didn't want me to go." I responded.
Cissnei knew about my little brother, but I didn't ever tell her that he was a bit, slower, than other children. I didn't really want to tell anybody that. Because if people found out that he had a mental disability, then they might say things about him that I wouldn't want to hear. That happened in first grade. I had told an old "friend" that my brother was slow, and he laughed at that. Then he exclaimed to the whole class that I had a retarded brother, then teased me and asked if I was slow too. After that, I bit him and stopped being his friend.
"Well why not? That's pretty silly. Is he just a brat or something?" Cissnei asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.
"No, he's just...Worried about me." I told her, feeling a little grouchy at the 'brat' remark, but I knew she didn't mean any harm by it. So I kept myself collected, and just gave her a soft smile after speaking.
"Wow, you must really love him to give up going on a fun field trip." She said, a giggle following after she spoke. She took her face from her hands and removed her elbows from my desk.
"Yeah..." I responded softly, leaving out the whole 'My brother can see into the future and make stuff happen'.
It was silent between the two of us for a moment. While the rest of the class was in an excited uproar about the field trip, I started to wander back into my own thoughts again. What if Cloud happened to be wrong this time? Then I would have missed out on a super fun trip for nothing! But what if he was right? From what he said, I'd die if I were to go. But after all that he's been able to predict, I really didn't want to take any chances. Especially if they involved my safety.
My mother had already lost my father. I don't think she'd want to loose a son on top of all that.
"Alright class! It's time to go! All of you with signed permission slips, line up at the classroom door!" My teacher called to the class. He was really nice and funny, but just knowing that I couldn't go just made me angry at him for some reason. Misdirected rage.
One by one, the other children began to scoot their chairs out from their desk, push them back in, and hurry towards the door. Some children playfully shoved the others as the assembled by the door. The laughter increased, and Cissnei left from her spot in front of my desk to head for the door. Before walking off, she did tell me bye. When Mr. Czech made his way behind the eager children, they set off out of the room and into the hallway. Before fully leaving though, he did tell us three to report to Mrs. Greenwood's room. It was just down the hall from this classroom.
With that, he disappeared around the bend of the hallway. I craned my neck out and watched the others laughing and hollering as they nudged each other in the halls and jumped around. I was really jealous all of a sudden. A little snort left from my nose harshly, and I pulled my head back and slammed it against my crossed arms, a scowl forming on my face. Out of all the things I had to miss out on, it had to be a field trip! I was so annoyed and there was nothing I could do about it.
I heard the other two children fidget in their seats, not really wanting to leave the comfort of the empty classroom to go into a fuller one. I dropped the pout and looked at both of them. The first one was two rows and a desk to the left of mine, in the front row closest to the board. He was twiddling his fingers on his desk, looking down at them with a slouched back. To be honest, I never really saw him before. Even though I had been in school for two months, he did not look familiar to me.
I looked behind me, towards the back row closest to the front door. He was two seats to the left of my own desk. He was looking at the shiny bat and black cat decorations strewn across the walls and cork boards to the right of him. When his eyes trailed over to me, we stared at one another before I broke the contact, looking down at my lap and feeling a bit embarrassed all of a sudden. I had never noticed that boy either. It was funny because I knew almost everyone in my class. Except these two apparently.
I looked back to the boy in the front row. He was no longer slouched in his plastic chair, but now he had pivoted his body and was now looking at me. I took a quick glance behind me to see that the other boy was staring at me too! Jeeze! What was with those looks in their eyes? They made me feel a little nervous, like I should know who they are or something. Without a word or hardly a sound, the boy in the back stood up from his chair, not bothering to push it back in.
He walked around the desks towards my row, then eventually towards me. When he was only a few feet away from me, he stopped and smiled at me. Well, at least he wasn't giving me a look that made me feel guilty for nothing. I took a minute to look at him. He had off black hair that was spiked almost like mine, except his was messier in the back, but his bangs we parted at the right and side-swept over to the left, masking his left eye. His visible eye was a dark navy blue.
He had a few light colored freckles across the bridge of his nose and right under his eyes. Those ones were slightly smaller and comfortably nestled on his cheek bone. He had on a grey shirt with black short sleeves. His pants were a dark grey that looked nearly black, and they looked to be about a size too big on him. His shoes were scuffed and dirty, needing as if they needed to be replaced. Those were skater shoes.
"Hey, Zack, right?" He asked, still smiling at me as he took a seat at the desk on my left side.
"Uh-huh." I responded, not really sure what to say to him.
"Why are you here? You're the most popular kid in class, I thought for sure you would have been going on the field trip today." The boy spoke, placing his hands in his lap as he comfortably slouched his back in the chair.
"Popular? I don't know about that-..." I bashfully spoke, looking away from him for a second. But I looked at him again to answer his question. "-I was going to go, but my little brother didn't want me too." I finished quietly.
"Really? You skipped out for your brother? Never heard that one before!" The boy joked, laughing after he had spoken.
"Yeah. So, why are you here? Also, you look new to me. Can't recall your name." I said, hoping I could at least hear his name so I wouldn't keep referring him as 'Boy in the back row' in my head.
"Oh, my bad! I'm Sebastian. Yeah, I'm never here much because of my health, so it's no wonder you don't know who I am." The ravenette boy spoke up with a soft laugh. But when he mentioned his health, his eyes drooped ever so slightly. It made me feel bad, like I should comfort him.
"If you don't mind me asking, is it serious?" I asked, lightly arching my right eyebrow as a wave of concern washed over me.
"A bit. I'm prone to seizures. Been that way since I was a baby, don't know why though." Sebastian spoke, his right arm going to rub his left arm as his eyes looked at the desk below him.
"Sorry about that. So you can't ever go on field trips?" I asked, almost bewildered.
"That's right. I only can if my mom is there, but she works during the day." The boy said with a soft chuckle.
His eyes broke away from me and towards the boy in the front row. I looked as well. The nameless boy had been looking at us, but when our eyes met with his, he quickly looked back at his desk, slouching again to hide from view. Me and Sebastian both looked at one another, then, as if reading the other's thoughts, we stood up and made out way towards the unknown boy. I sat in the desk towards the left of him, and Sebastian sat in the one on the right.
The boy looked at me, then at the other ravenette next to him. He seemed to shrink back in his chair, looking at his hands. Which were currently nestled in his lap. He had red-orange hair atop his head. It was shaped like a bowl-cut, except his bangs were parted down the middle and longer than the rest of his hair. He had a single strand at the top of his head stick up and curl at the end. It looked like a reddish antenna. He had eyes of jade green, with a lime green burst around his pupil. He lacked any freckles or other facial markings.
He was currently clothed in a white shirt with red embroiderment on the edges of the sleeves and neck. On the chest of the shirt, there was a cute red dragon holding a green crystal ball. His pants were off black denim and they had a hole in the right knee. He did a double take on me and Sebastian, his pale face flushed pink in bashfulness.
"Hi! I'm Sebastian." The other black haired boy greeted, smiling at him.
"Hello." Came a coy response, then the boy looked towards me. His eyes silently asking for my name next.
"My name's Zack, how about yours?" I greeted and asked, smiling just like the boy on the right of this one.
"Me? o-Oh, I'm Essai." The red head stammered, a pink blush flustering into more of a rosy red by this point.
"So, Essai, why are you here?" Sebastian asked, letting his head rest against the cool desk as he continued to look at the boy towards the left of him.
"Oh, well. I uh- lost my permission slip. I was too afraid to ask for another." The red head admitted, his voice held one of shame.
"That's gotta' suck." I commented blatantly as I crossed my arms on the desk and lowered my head into them.
"A bit, but that's alright. I don't do well in big groups anyways." Essai said, a weak grin pulling at the corners of his lips as that pink blush began to vanish from his face.
So for the next ten minutes, the three of us spent some time getting to know one another, asking about out parents and any siblings. We even talked about our plans for Halloween and what we were going to dress up as. I told them that I was going to go as a fearsome vampire, and I boasted quite a bit about how awesome I was going to look. Sebastian said he was going to go as some kind of demonic butler that used plastic knives as weapons. I thought that was really cool, his name sounded like a butler name anyhow.
Essai said he didn't know what he was going to go as, but thought our ideas were really neat. So we started throwing suggestions at him left and right. Soon, we were alight in laughter and we had all became fast friends in just fifteen minutes. Then I realized that we had to report to Mrs. Greenwood's room, otherwise we might get into trouble! Realizing that, we booked it out of our class and towards the correct room, the last one on the left side of the hall.
When we entered the room, we were all surprised to find only six other kids there, and there were fun games and activities set up for us. Mrs. Greenwood was really nice too, she even gave us some candy from a little glass jar on her big desk. She said it was to get us all in the trick-or-treating spirit. We all had a blast playing together for hours! Even if I didn't get to go on the field trip, I wasn't so bummed about it anymore, and was enjoying myself and the company of my brand new friends!
I was in a pretty good mood when I returned home from school. At the end of the day, me, Sebastian, and Essai all traded home phone numbers so we could call and talk to each other whenever we wanted. A light cool breeze swiftly swept past through the sky and ruffled my clothes and hair. I shivered slightly, but the coolness of the wind felt great on my face. I had just gotten off the bus and was walking towards my house, which was only three houses away from the bus stop.
I cut across our lawn, which was starting to grow a yellow brown color for the coming winter. Even the leaves on the trees were either mostly gone, or all red and brown. They decorated the grass below in a hue of fiery colors that reminded me of Thanksgiving for some reason. Some leaves crunched under my tennis shoes when I walked over them, and a slight wind picked some up and let them float away into the street, a soft scraping sound echoing from them as they slid across the asphalt. It certainly felt like the autumn season alright!
As I strode up to our white painted front door, I could hear little brother crying on the inside. I tested the knob to see if the door was locked or not. The knob turned clockwise when I twisted my hand, and the front door opened up with a quick swing. Cloud's cries had intensified since there was no longer a thick barrier to muffle them. They seemed to be coming from the living room. I heard Mom trying to calm him down as well.
I quickly set my backpack down by the front door, then shut the door softly. I made my way towards the living room in the back of the house, past the maroon colored stairs. When I entered the spacious room, I saw Mom standing up, pacing slowly as she bounced my little brother in her arms. She was shushing him softly.
I took notice that the TV was on, and a news broadcast had interrupted whatever program was one beforehand for a late breaking story. It made me feel uneasy when I saw a school bus knocked into a large tree, and a few branches had impaled the windows in to the inside. I don't know why it made me feel so antsy all of a sudden. I quickly shook off the foreboding feeling and approached my mother and brother.
"Hi Mom, I'm home." I greeted as I looked up at her with my blue eyes.
She looked down at me and gave me a quick smile. At the sound of my voice, Cloud stopped crying and looked down as well. When he saw me, his little hands reached out towards me and groped the empty air in the space between us. He said my name with sudden urgency and desperation and he started to squirm in Mom's delicate hold. So I reached up and took him into my own arms. He clung to me tightly and would not let me go.
"What's wrong with him?" I asked when my eyes broke away from my little brother to look at my mother. She looked just as distraught as he did.
Suddenly, she bent down and wrapped her arms around me, being careful not to hug me too tight or squeeze the living daylights out of Cloud. I felt her shake slightly, and if I didn't know better, I would have guessed that she was about to start crying as well. I was puzzled. First little brother was in tears and screaming, and now Mom seemed just as distressed. Was it something I did? Was it bad, whatever it was that I did? Before I had a chance to speak, she beat me to it.
"Thank goodness you didn't go on that field trip!" She exclaimed with sudden passion. Her hold on me tightened for just a second before she let me go.
"What do you mean, Mom? I'm confused..." I admitted, looking at her as I cocked my head to the right ever so slightly.
"The school bus going to the museum took a turn too sharply, so all the weight on the right side caused it to swerve into a big tree. There were some thick branches that crashed through the windows on the right side. It was the second seat from the front, the seat you usually sit on whenever you get on a bus. If you were to have gone...You would have been killed." Mom explained.
At that, my eyes bulged out from my head. (Or, at least it felt like they did) Then I looked down at Cloud. He still had tears swimming in his eyes as he still refused to let me go. He was right once again.
"After I saw that on the news, I knew why Cloud had been crying all day. He thought you mght end up going anyways." She added on, running both of her hands through my hair, and little brother's as well.
Knowing that, I hugged my little brother a little tighter. How could he keep predicting things that haven't even happened yet? At my actions, a giggle came from his voice and he snuggled his face into the crook of my neck, his tears from earlier vanishing as if they had never been cried. Was this something that just developed over time? Perhaps he was born with it? If that was the case...
Then that explains why he had been screaming without reason on the date of Dad's death when he wasn't even a year old...
A/N: And that's a wrap! :D So, what did you guys think of the chapter? Good, I hope? :p Also! Did you guys get the refrence I made with who Sebastion was going to be for Halloween? I'll give you a hint, it's an anime :3 And For Sebastion and Essai, they are not OC's! Any of you that have played Crisis Core enough times to see those small videos during a DMW spin will know, I just had to use my imagination for their appearance! XD
And how 'bout them apples? XD You know, Cloud callin' something else yet again! He even predicted that his own father was going to die! Dun-dun-duuunnn! O0O So now you guys know that he's always had this strange ability! Hmmm, I wonder what this means? C: Guess you'll just have to stick with me to find out!
Until the next chapter my good readers! And as always...
Toodles!
~Zimithrus1
