I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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The Years in the Past

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Eleven Years Ago:

"I'd like all of you to say hello to your new classmate, Michael," the teacher says.

Nobody says hi. I'm not surprised. This is a school for special kids, and special kids don't say hi to new students. They don't say hi to anybody, actually.

My name is Michael, and I've been transferred to a new school in the middle of sixth grade. I'm going to spend the rest of middle school and all of high school here.

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I'm playing on my GameBoy during lunch break. It's Pokémon Gold. Duh duh duh daaah, doo duh duh dah dah daaah... Duh duh duh daaah, doo dah duh daaah...

"Stop singing along with your GameBoy," someone says.

I close my mouth.

Somebody's playing a card game on the next table. I take a look. Oh, that guy there has a game too. Is it Pokémon? No, it's not. I go back to my corner. There's too many people. Stop looking at me everyone.

"Let me see that."

Before I can answer, somebody snatches the GameBoy out of my hands. I look around. There are lots of kids in the cafeteria. I can't tell who took it.

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It's lunch time of the next day.

"I think this is yours?" a guy says.

I look up, but not at his face. I can't look at faces. "What's mine?"

A green box is put on the table in front of me. It's my GameBoy.

"Thank you," I mutter while I pick it up.

"My name's Frank," says the kid.

I look up for a tiny bit. He has very short brown hair. "Michael." I look back at my GameBoy and turn it on. I press a few buttons. Wait, I know I had more badges than that. I open the saved game. I'm back at the beginning. I don't even have a Pokémon yet. My character's name is also a bad word now. I'd spent so long on that game, and now it's gone...

Frank covers his mouth and snorts.

I mutter, "What's so funny?"

"I wasn't laughing, I was coughing," Frank says. Then he leaves.

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I've been at this school a couple weeks now.

"Hey, Michael," Frank tells me in computer class, "there's a cool website I want to show you."

I take my hands off the keyboard. Frank types something in the white bar at the top of the Internet window. Some pictures pop up on my screen. It's a bunch of naked women.

I click the close button on the window. "Mom says not to look at pictures like that."

"Oh," Frank says. "Well, you better not let your mom know that you were looking at them. You'll get in trouuuble."

Oh no, is he right? I look around, scared. I hope nobody saw me looking at those pictures.

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I'm in seventh grade now.

"Ow!" I hop around on one leg, holding the other in my hands. "Frank! Why'd you kick me?"

"I didn't kick you," Frank says.

"You're the only one in here!" I accuse.

Frank folds his arms. "You mean you didn't see the other guy?"

"What other guy?" I ask.

"The other guy!" Frank points at the door. "He kicked you and ran out the door!"

"I didn't hear the door open," I say.

Frank sniffs. "That's because you were too busy saying that I kicked you." He starts to cry.

I feel awful. "I'm sorry."

"I don't believe you," Frank wails. "If you're really sorry, you'll get me an ice cream for lunch."

"Okay, okay," I say, panicked. "I'll get you an ice cream!"

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"Ha ha," Frank laughs as he looks over my shoulder. "I can't believe you got that one wrong."

I turn my paper so the blank side is facing up. "It's the only one that's wrong, Frank."

"But you got that one wrong!" Frank teases. "Man, you're so dumb."

"What did you get?" I ask, frowning.

Frank grins. "I got them all right. It was eeeasy."

"Can I see your paper?" I ask.

Frank's jaw drops. "Are you saying I'm lying to you?"

"No," I mutter, shrinking in my seat.

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It's my first year of high school. It's still in the same building, but still, it's high school. That means we're all big kids now.

I'm sitting next to a short kid with black hair and large glasses. "My name's Michael," I say.

"Chris," the kid says.

We start talking to each other. Chris really likes space travel, and he wants to live in space one day.

Frank walks up behind Chris and grabs his glasses. "Hey!" Chris says as he jumps up. "Give them back!"

"Give what back?" Frank asks with his hands behind his back.

"His glasses," I say, also standing up.

Frank takes his empty hands out from behind his back. "What glasses? I didn't take any glasses."

What? I could have sworn... "Sorry," I mutter. Frank starts to walk away.

Chris turns to me. "Michael, he tucked them in the back of his pants."

I look at Frank. There are glasses there! I grab them.

"Teacher!" Frank yells. "Michael touched my butt!"

"Wh-what?" I stammer. "No!"

"He was getting my glasses back!" Chris yells. "Frank stuffed them down his pants."

Frank throws himself to the ground and kicks his arms and legs around like a much younger kid would. "They're saying it 'cause they don't like meeeee!"

Chris and I got detention.

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"Frank told me that you're picking on him because he's shorter than you," one of the teachers tell me.

"What?" I shake my head. "I don't pick on Frank. He picks on me!"

The teacher shakes his head. "A lot of kids told me you were picking on Frank, too. I need you to leave Frank alone."

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Chris and I are hanging out with a new friend of mine, Brett. Brett likes animals a lot. His favorite animal is the monkey.

"Why don't you hang out with me anymore?" Frank asks.

I ignore Frank. Brett, Chris and I continue to look at cat videos on the Internet.

Frank flicks Chris in the back of the head. "Hey!" Chris stands up and tries to punch Frank.

"Chris is fighting in claaass!" Frank calls out as he runs out of the classroom.

I've had enough. "Sit down," I mutter to Chris.

"But he flicked me!" Chris says indignantly.

I look at Chris in the eyes. I've never looked him in the eyes before. "Sit down," I repeat.

Chris sits down.

The teacher walks into the classroom with Frank. "Chris, come with me to the front desk."

I turn around in my chair. "Are you taking him to the nurse?"

The teacher blinks. "To the principal."

I make myself look distraught. "But I think he needs the nurse. Frank kept hitting him in the head and said he wouldn't stop unless Chris fought him."

Frank looks stunned. The teacher turns to him. "Frank?"

"I... wha... but..." Frank can't put two words together. He looks incredibly guilty.

The teacher shakes his head. "You're coming with me to the front desk. Chris, are you hurt?"

Chris rubs the back of his head. "Not that much."

Frank shots me a dirty look as the teacher leads him out of the class.

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It's senior year. Brett, Chris and I could almost be mistaken for teens who attend a normal high school now, rather than one for developmentally challenged people. Almost, until we open our mouths. Brett and I talk about Pokémon all the time, even though it's not cool anymore. Chris and I are always having discussions about, believe it or not, whether Earth should be blown up or not.

"Then we could all live in space!" Chris says excitedly.

"Where would our food come from, then?" I ask.

"Greenhouse stations?" Chris suggests.

Brett nudges me without looking up from his GameBoy Advance. "Can you trade me your Kyogre for a moment? He's the only guy I don't have on my Pokédex."

"I need Groudon on mine," I say, digging in my backpack. "Oh, I don't have my link cable."

"Tomorrow, then," Brett says. "And Chris, if you blew up the Earth, you'd have to leave Michael there to blow up with it. He's too tall to go into a space shuttle."

"Oh," Chris says, looking concerned. "Right, make space shuttles for people taller than six feet, then blow up the Earth."

Brett and I roll our eyes.

"Did you hear about Frank?" Brett asks after a while.

"No," I say. "He wasn't in class today, though."

"He brought a bunch of knives to school on Friday," Brett says.

Chris's eyes go wide. "Really?"

My eyes are probably just as wide. "That's nuts!"

"One for each person he didn't like, that's what he said," Brett says. He's looking directly at me, and he's never had a more serious look on his face. "He's not coming back here ever again."

I feel shivers go down my back. "Why didn't you say this sooner?"

"I forgot," Brett said.

"Of course you did," I sigh. "Happy graduation, Frank... or not."

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Up next: The Bitter Reunion

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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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