Thank you for the reviews, my dear readers, and here's another chapter for you to enjoy!
"Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional."
Vale lay against the wall, using deep breaths to try calm his whirring emotions. Breaking a locker in an attempt to escape it (he had been lucky he hadn't burnt it) wasn't what he would call the best way to start.
"I'm fine." He whispered to himself, because that's what he always was. Fine.
Vale breathed. In, out. In, out.
He heard the teacher telling the others about him. As much as he didn't want to, he knew that was his clue to step inside. He tried to stay calm as he approached the door and opened it.
Vale was always sure that there was something novel about being the new kid. A new face, one of an almost infinite sea of new faces, like you could be a new person, confident, sporty, or cool and intelligent. He always sympathized when they weren't immediately popular, that one guy who came in halfway into the year so long ago? After the first week he had dissolved back into the multitude.
He could only hope that he ended up like that- being the new kid? Five seconds in and he was already wishing that he could disappear right out the door he came in.
Paranoia quickly set in- or he wished he could call it paranoia. It was more accurately the feeling of eyes leaving a physical touch on his skin, tangible in a way that made him shudder. The other kids made no attempt to hide the fact that their eyes were on him, how the front of the classroom's conversations dimmed as he passed, only to get louder once he had passed by.
There was only a single seat directly in the middle of the classroom, as much as he wanted a dark corner to hide in, the only place was directly in the middle right.
Just as he managed to pass by away from the whispers of "Orange" and "...Strange", shoulders hunching, inches from the relative safety of his seat, he heard the door softly close and soft footsteps come to the front of the classroom.
"Alright class. Everyone ready for a new day? Ready to practice some "Carpe Diem"?"
Many of the students let out a groan, obviously used to the spiel, causing her to laugh. "Oh don't whine, you know what I mean. But before we get back to the wonders of Latin- and Shakespeare everyone; you better have read the passages from 'Romeo and Juliet' or this chapter test won't be easy for you. I'm talking to you, that back corner of the room. You guys are like a black hole, everything goes in, and it must be sent to another dimension, because nothing comes out." A few laughs at that, directed at the same area.
She sent a bit of an embarrassed glance at Vale, it made him feel a bit relieved- that the pressure from all around him wasn't directed solely at him anymore. She continued." Like I was saying before that little tandem-Vocab word, everyone! We have a new student joining our class today."
And it was back on him again. Dang.
The woman scanned her list of students. "Now Duncan… do us all a favor and come up front and introduce yourself to the class, please."
Resisting the urge to correct her so she would use the name he was most comfortable with, he trudged up to the front of the classroom and he stood there awkwardly, arms crossed tightly over his chest, and he managed a strangled, "Valentine," mumbling out his last name.
From the students came a few huhs and whats, obviously not hearing him. Not that he wanted them to.
"A little louder please?"
"Ah… ah... I'm Valentine, Vale White."
"...anything else? Favorite color, hobbies?"
"...Not really."
She gave him another look, and he couldn't help that his cheeks managed to color, and she only sighed. Now Vale could hear another set of whispers 'White, he said?' 'That White?'
"Alright then, class, make sure to help Vale if he needs any help, and treat him as one of your own. Okay! On to those star-crossed lovers..."
"Hey Val," The voice made him look to his right in surprise. "Can't believe you didn't notice where you sat." Darren smiled at him.
"I don't like being stared at," Vale replied with a smile of his own, before noticing the ones who sat in front of him. "What are you two doing here?!"
"…we go to school here." Kenny answered, still not quite recovered from the unexpected surprise.
"I did say you knew him," Darren muttered distractedly as he took out his homework. Curious, Vale peered at it:
'Allow me to start by saying that I consider this homework to be an horrific waste of time, as well as a terrible blow to the dignity of every student in this class. We aren't five years old, you'd think we should be writing poems or a novel by now, but NO. It's almost as if I haven't been forced to write countless mind-bogglingly pointless essays every class since fourth grade. Aditionally, I find the instruction that we all waste our time introducing ourselves and our family to be the whole point of this essay because you, Mrs. Daniels, were too lazy to come up with a properly ice-breaking game for the first day utterly ridiculous…'
"You weren't in a good mood, were you?" Vale gave a low whistle.
"No surprises there." Isabel smirked. Vale raised an eyebrow, confused as to why the girl seemed to know that when he thought they had just met that day. Seeing his look, she explained. "Darren is legendary when it comes to his grades in all subjects involving words…except History for some reason…"
"Really?" Vale inquired as Kenny nodded in agreement.
"Yeah," Darren sighed. "Do you know the grades I have gotten thus far in English?"
Kenny beat him to it, the ghost of a smile on his features. "The binary code. Zero, one, one, zero, one, zero, zero, one…"
"Shut it." Darren growled.
The day passed quickly, with the four classmates chatting among listening to the teacher, Darren ignoring the questioning glances of Nick and company, who could be wondering why he wasn't sitting with them as usual.
"Hey lil' brother." Matt greeted him as he passed by, having just returned from P. E. if his short breaths were any indication. "How are you so far?"
"Pretty well," Vale answered. "I have one more class, luckily. What about you?"
"Just left P. E. and I'm heading home, Lea told me that she would wait for you. The new teacher's an asshole." He said bluntly. "How did you do in English, Darren?" the black-haired boy's voice took an amused quality. "Daydreamed again?"
"That's none of you business." The Kaiju answered in irritation, only for Isabel to shoot him a knowing glance.
Noticing he hadn't introduced everyone, Vale quickly said. "These are the ones I told you about, Isabel Vazques and Kenny Rogers." He said, the two in turn greeting his brother.
"Kenny Rogers, huh? Do you know when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em?"
"No. Not even a little." Kenny said, completely deadpan. They chatted for a while before Matt left. It was then that Vale glanced at a clock. "Shoot, we're late to class!" Turning to Isabel, he quickly glanced at the paper in his hand, he rushed out, "Quick please. Where's the gym?", his face showing how he was really close to freaking out over the fact that he was going to be late, so early into his first week. Isabel just gave him a relaxed grin, "Don't worry, Vale, ya' got new kid's privilege. They give you like an extra 15 minutes, cuz you don't know your way around yet."
He really didn't want to get in trouble.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, plus Mr. Phelps is a softy, he usually lets the nerds sit on the sidelines if they want. That way the only ones the jocks can wail on is each other. Saves on trips to the nurse." and then, added like an afterthought, "and complaints from parents."
"Oh. I really should get going anyway... or I really will be late for gym. Newbie privilege or no."
"Ah, I guess I gotta get going too, at this rate I might not even make it with my school wide sprint."
On their way out of the room, Darren and Kenny said their goodbyes, echoed by Isabel who was about ready to start jogging so she'd get to her class at the other end of the school on time. When he asked her why she didn't leave earlier, she'd just brushed him off, saying she did the same thing every day.
In a blast of air she was gone, leaving a questioning Vale, and the amused Darren and Kenny. His only explanation was, "She's been scouted for the track team because of this." and he left it at that.
In the end, he was still late for gym. Rather than laughter and shenanigans as he expected, he entered the gym to pure silence, emphasized by the sound of the slamming door, and the tail end of his group's conversation that echoed in the airy room, making him cringe in reaction. He practically ran to the locker room to change, glad that he was with Darren and Kenny- but making plans in the future to lay claim to one of the bathroom stalls. Or maybe he could coerce them into being his human shields, to block him from view. He knew better than to let the other kids get a good look at his body.
So upon exiting the locker room he gazed around the airy gym, looking for the nearest group of kids that he could possibly blend into, only to come to the conclusion that that'd be practically impossible. What with there being a musclebound back facing him, giving a- from what he can tell from the faces of the other students- was giving a rather impressive death glare. That kind of put a damper on things. But there was something about him... something about him that seemed familiar. Maybe it was the head, a severe hairstyle and white hair, or even the way he had his underlings (and the students were definitely in the area of underlings) cowering like they were less than the dirt beneath his combat boot. But it rang a bell.
So, there he was, tip-toeing his way to the seat at the farthest end of the bleachers, followed by another quiet set of footsteps, and Kenny's less subtle ones. They were attempting to be inconspicuous about it, only to have the teacher round on him just as he was about to take a seat.
"You!" Vale stood up immediately as alarms went off in his head immediately, heart rocketing so suddenly that he jumped.
"Yes sir!"
"You've got some kind of nerve, coming in here," stopping to look at his watch," ten minutes late! I don't have time for any kind of slackers here. You come late, you get an immediate fail."
"But sir..."
"No buts! Now get out!"
"I'm new."
"I don't care about your excuses. Got held behind in class, twisted your ankle, broke your arm, your mommy died. Whatever. Leave."
He couldn't help but shrink slightly under the tirade, trying time and time again to get a word in, only to be practically dragged by the arm towards the door.
"Wait!" That was Darren. Thank the gods for him. "Sir, we were late as well." Gesturing to himself and Kenny, 'You'll have to fail us as well."
The muscle-head only seemed to respond with a grunt of vague irritation. "Alright then. You guys fail too." Then he seemed to get a good look at Kenny, before glancing down at the kid he had his grip around, face turning speculative. He grinned.
"Sir!" A few of the students had come to the front of the bleachers, trembling in their sneakers, trying their best to valiantly help Vale out.
"What'd does the little Chihuahua pack have to say, huh?"
"He really is new, sir. He just started two days ago!"
"So what? Today's my fist day, and you don't see me late, No! I was early, and I'm going to hold all of you to the same standards, Now, as of right now, you are all on probationary warning. A single infraction, a single toe out of line, shoe untied. Mistimed breathe, and you are out of here with a failing grade."
"Now, orange kid, get your ass over there, and make nice with the bleachers. And you." He turned to Darren and Kenny, "Have only postponed the inevitable. I don't accept failures. Or outliers."
Now by this point, Vale was stuck between confusion, a hint of fear, and overall anger. A feeling that despite himself he wanted nothing more than to grip the arrogant man by the hand so hard it cracked- so he'd never be able to handle a gun again. And better yet, be able to prevent him from ever aiming a weapon at his friends again.
Barnes wouldn't be here for any other reason than looking for him. There was nothing outstanding, other than Darren, to make MEGTAF send an agent here.
Darren looked once again at the man who was their so-called teacher, and couldn't help grinning. There was something so inherently hilarious about a MEGTAF agent undercovering as a gym teacher.
Vale watched as Kenny's face fell when he was told that they would be running as a warm-up and then playing dodge ball. "I am Superman, the sports are my kryptonite and I'm gonna die tonight." Kenny sighed, while Vale stifled a laugh.
"Running, huh? Last time I checked, that was the one thing I couldn't beat you at. Wanna show me if that's still true?" Darren practically purred. The tone confused Vale, who spent trying to figure out what did he mean in the minutes they lined up.
In the meantime, Kenny amused himself by hearing the whispered competence of insults that had erupted between Darren and Troy. They seemed to have bad blood between them for some reason. "Call boy in training", "morbidly obese cow", there was even one jab aiming at Vale, no doubt with Troy hoping he would hear, "eating disorder poster child". Kenny couldn't hear what Darren replied to that, but it couldn't be anything good if the gasps were anything to go by. That's how it went, with the boys insulting each other's tastes, attractiveness, sexual proclivities, intelligence, ancestry, social standing and probable place of residence in the afterlife.
"And me without my popcorn." Vale chuckled beside Kenny.
"The popcorn isn't the half of it." Kenny played along. "We should be selling tickets. If push comes to shove, though, my money's on Troy."
Vale laughed. "I doubt you'd find many takers. That's a sucker bet if I ever heard one."
There they were, Kenny to Vale's left, Darren to his right grinning at him with sharp teeth. That scent settled in the air, hot and full of challenge.
Is he trying to provoke me?
"Go!"
As Darren practically flew off, Vale settled beside Kenny as they started a pace between a jog and a run.
"What is he doing?" Kenny muttered as he moved to give room to Darren, who a few seconds later was completing his first lap. Looking at his face as he rushed past, Kenny noted. "He's challenging you or something."
"Darren knows about what I am," Vale replied, as the pieces clicked.
Dominance play, he thought, showing he's willing to blow his cover to and lord himself over his peers... or just telling me he's the strongest here. If he's not stopped now, he will gain the upper hand in all power struggles until someone assets dominance directly over him.
When you go easy on the ones with just a bit of power, they give you more trouble than anybody else.
I don't know if he considers me a threat or… That scent again, and he could've sworn that he heard a quick 'Ha ha ha-ha ha," rushing past him as Darren flew past them.
"You do realize he's watching us, don't you?" Kenny whispered, nodding towards Barnes.
"I know," Vale growled, wondering why Darren had to choose this time for a race over all the others. He felt something foreign in the back of his mind and his body tensed, steeling itself in case of the fire that had existed in his bones days ago. It crept across his subconscious suddenly, starting to draw at his being once more as if claws were sinking into his skin and threatening to bring forth blood.
Except it wasn't fire this time. Nor it was painful, or ever remotely threatening.
Vale tried to focus on the heat of the air around him as the gentle brush of ice in the back of his mind grew slightly stronger. It had grown more persistent, as if he had just done something to amuse it and draw attention to himself. It lingered beneath his skin like a foreign infection and curled like smoke.
Woosh! Third lap of his grey-eyed friend, accompanied with a mocking smile and the ice in his mind a bit stronger. Vale nearly snarled aloud when he realized. "Oh, he has some nerve…" he muttered, at the limits of his control.
"Kenny, do you mind…?" Vale asked, his eyes never leaving the blurred shape.
"Sure, sure," Kenny shrugged, a bit surprised that he had actually taken the time to ask him.
Vale smirked in answer. "Thank you." If it's a challenge what he wants…then it's a challenge what he'll get! He thought viciously, and promptly sprinted away.
Let's see how intelligent you are!
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H. E. B.