A/N: (Possible trigger warning.) There are scenes of bullying in this chapter and in the next. I apologize if I offend anyone. But it serves a story purpose.
Before Noah knew it, his alarm was blaring, his mother was calling for him to "Wake up!", and Noah was rubbing his tired dark brown eyes and pulling himself out of bed. The mornings for Noah were very simple. With Carly Beth away at Eda Grove University, Noah didn't have to race to the bathroom, or race to the breakfast table before Carly Beth could grab all of the bacon. For any other child in his mind, they would have it made. But Noah dreaded the mornings, because he would have to go...there.
As usual, Noah was first to the bathroom and table. For the day, Noah put on a red t-shirt with faded blue jeans and brand new red and white high-top Converse All-Star shoes. As he gingerly sit down, he forced a smile and a prompt "Good morning!" and began to eat his breakfast.
"Mmm, this is so good Mom." he said while he ate his pancakes, and strangely feeling much better. Noah had to admit, something about his mother made things and life a little easier to deal with.
Mrs. Caldwell joined him at the table and smiled. "Anything for my little Noah." she cooed.
Noah rolled his eyes and groaned. "Mooooooom!"
Mrs. Caldwell laughed. "Plus you need your strength today. You're showing around a new student!"
Noah dropped his fork, and in exasperation slapped his forehead. "Oh I forgot!"
"Sheesh, Noah." remarked Mrs. Caldwell. "You're more forgetful than your dad sometimes."
He thought to himself as he continued to eat. "Maybe they'll leave me alone while I show the new student around. Maybe I can avoid them."
As he continued to eat breakfast, he was hopeful that this plan would work. But he couldn't help but have a feeling of dread inside as he ate, nervously.
The walk to school was always peaceful for Noah. He could have time to think to himself and not have to worry about receiving the wrong type of attention. And with his good friend normally being driven to school, he had peace and quiet. Soon enough Noah reached Walnut Avenue Middle School. And the feeling of peace was washed away with feelings of dread. He looked around him and saw happy and cheery faces of those ecstatic about the school day. He saw friends walking in together, a boy and girl holding hands, two boys laughing together, a group of girls, a group of three boys laughing together - at that, Noah thought it would be best to enter the school quickly and head to the office.
Noah entered the office and stopped at the school secretary's desk. The friendly and elderly woman ushered him past her desk into Mrs. Armbruster's office where she sat at her desk going through various files. While another student sitting in the chair across from the principal's desk. Noah studied the girl. The girl was skinny like Noah, and had long frizzy red hair with freckles on her face. She was wearing a white shirt with red shorts and shoes that were similar to Noah's. Her's were the opposite color scheme of his, however. Her's were more predominantly white with red.
When she looked up and saw Noah, she smiled. Which caused for Noah to look back at her green eyes and friendly face with an easy smile of his own.
"Ah, Mr. Caldwell!" Mrs. Armbruster chirped when she realized Noah was in the office.
"Hi, Mrs. Armbruster." he replied back, trying to sound friendly.
"Thanks for being our new student tour guide while Sophia is out with the flu." said the principal happily. She then continued, "You'll be showing our new friend around the school today and helping her get from class to class, okay?"
Mrs. Armbruster's phone began to ring and ring. "I wish I could fill you in on more, but I have a conference call now. Good luck!". The two left the office. A strange feeling came over Noah, for once he was happy to actually be at school. He had an opportunity to make friends with a new student. As he and the new student walked out, she was the first one to speak.
"Hi, I'm Samantha. Samantha Bergman." she said with a smile and holding her hand out for Noah to shake. He was very much caught off-guard and feeling a bit nervous as he nearly forgot he had a task for the day and how exactly he was going to do it, but he quickly replied back to her and shook her hand.
"I'm Noel-er-Noah." he spluttered. That caused a slight chuckle from Samantha as the two shook hands. "So did Mrs. Armbruster give you your schedule?"
"Yeah." she replied. "Right here.". To Noah's dismay as he checked the schedule, it was the opposite of his so his day would be tougher. But the busier he was, he thought the less chance he would have to run into them and the more he could have time to make a new friend.
"Oh, you have Mr. Myron first for home room! He's the Computer Skills teacher!" Noah remarked excitedly. "Lucky!"
"Awesome! That was my fave class at my old school!" she said happily.
"Well, I guess I need to hurry up and get you there." joked Noah. "Follow me."
Noah and Samantha began to walk through the long hallways on their way to the Computer Lab. He made sure to point out and explain which classes to go to next and the quickest ways to get there. There was a different feeling in Noah as he escorted her to her class and did his job for the day. For once, he felt...happy and even a little proud that he was there. He saw glances of his fellow classmates wondering who he was escorting to her class, even some peers being envious of who he was escorting.
At last, Noah had escorted Samantha to her first class of the day.
"If you need help getting anywhere else, just let me know. My locker is No.11 where the big blue lockers we passed were." he told her.
"Okay. No problem Noah." she replied sounding very appreciative of his help. "You're a cool guy."
With a wave and a smile she went to class and spoke to the teacher inside, as a happy Noah went to his locker to get his books for the days. Once he got there he looked around quickly for them. He felt comfortable with grabbing his books for the day.
"Hey Noah!" called a voice.
Noah jumped quickly and looked around. And noticed a shorter kid with tan skin and scruffy-black hair coming towards him happy to see him. It was his friend, Ryan. But he slowly looked more annoyed as he got closer to Noah.
"Aw man!" groaned Ryan. "People are gonna think we're trying to match today!" Ryan too was wearing a red shirt and jeans. But his shirt was a polo shirt.
Noah sighed and rolled his eyes. "Ah, who cares. We're like brothers anyway."
"You've got a lot to learn about Middle School, buddy." laughed Ryan. "Smooth move on the phone by the way." Noah looked guilty, he knew what he had to say next to his friend.
"Sorry about that." he apologized, looking down. "I just had a bad day."
Ryan put his hand on Noah's shoulder. "It's okay. You could stand to be a bit more convincing though. It's Ryan Ross you're talking to after all."
Noah looked up and grinned. "Then I'll just have to try harder next time."
"Whatever man." chuckled Ryan. "If you don't want to talk about Owen, it's fine."
Noah's mood faltered a bit at the mention of Owen. But he quickly rebounded. "Thanks man."
"At least Friday is Halloween and then the weekend right?" Ryan reminded his friend. "He'll be out of your hair."
"But he'll still be in my hair on the third." Noah groaned in thought. But he only nodded to Ryan and they quickly left for Mr. Smythe's science class.
As they walked a worried Ryan stopped Noah, he looked discouragingly at his friend.
"Noah, you're my friend. Let me go to Mrs. Armbruster. I'll tell her about Owen." Ryan pleaded.
Noah looked annoyed. "They won't stop just because she suspends them, or because you helped me. And look at my face!". And he pointed to his bruised cheek.
"And that was Owen in a good mood." he growled.
"Noah I-"
He could see that Ryan was very concerned and looked sad. "Let it go, man." He said to him calmly. "Just let me handle it. Trust me. Plus they might even start coming after you."
Ryan then frowned. "Noah, they don't come after me. Because I don't let them treat me the way they do to you."
Now Noah looked sad. "Not cool, man."
Ryan shook his head. "I'm sorry man, let's just drop it and get to Smythe's before he gives us both tardy passes."
The two continued on to class. Once they got there they took their usual seats in the back of the class.
Ryan smiled at his friend. "So I heard you played tour guide for a girl. And I heard she's cute."
That made Noah smile, trying not to blush.
"Yeah, she was. She told me she thought I was the coolest guy." he said slyly.
"That's because she hasn't met me yet." quipped Ryan.
Noah looked around to see if Mr. Smythe was looking at them - he was still standing at his door greeting students who entered. Noah reached in his pocket and quickly threw his pink eraser at Ryan's forehead, which prompted laughter from both friends.
"You're the worst brother EVER." laughed Noah.
Ryan shrugged. "I know."
The rest of the day was going surprisingly well for Noah. He didn't run into 'Owen' and managed to have a peaceful lunch period with Ryan. It was fifth period now, and he was alone at his locker getting his art supplies for class.
Suddenly, he felt a strong hand on his shoulder force him around and push him back against the locker. It was Owen - much to Noah's fright and chagrin. The day was almost perfect, and it was going so well for poor Noah.
Owen was tall like him, but bulky and large. He had short blonde hair that was buzz cut. His face always was in a sneer as if he was always disgusted at someone's sight. This time it was Noah. Owen had two friends with him. A skinny kid with brown curly hair, and another tall kid with black hair in braids.
"Yo, look here guys!" demanded Owen to his cronies in a condescending tone, pointing down at Noah's shoes. "Our guy got some new shoes!"
Noah only looked away, knowing what was going to happen. He was also hoping Samantha wouldn't see.
"He's got on the Chucks!" remarked the curly haired crony.
"They're even the red ones, man!" the other crony remarked too.
Owen looked at Noah. His cold gray eyes locked on Noah's. Noah felt scared of what would happen next. He couldn't speak. Owen frowned and shoved against the locker again. No teachers were in sight to help. Noah was on his own.
"When people compliment you, you say thank you." grunted Owen. He cronies sniggered.
He looked up. "Th-th-thank you." Noah spluttered in a low tone. Owen then yanked Noah's shirt.
"Thank you, sir." Owen said correcting Noah.
Noah groaned, and felt like the whole school was laughing at him. "Thank you, sir." He felt humiliated and very small. Owen let go and he and his cronies howled with laughter. Causing other kids who had heard what was going on to laugh too.
Owen stopped laughing (causing his cronies to stop) and focused his attention back to Noah's shoes. "I like these shoes." he drawled looking down at them. "Give them to me."
Noah looked indignant. "I can't do that, and you know it Owen."
Owen frowned. "I said give them to me." he growled.
"I can't do that!" Noah said, almost wailing. "I don't have any other shoes!"
"I guess you just haven't learned yet." Owen sneered. "Let's go."
Noah's locker was near a boys bathroom. Poor Noah knew what was coming next. Before he knew it, he was being ushered into the bathroom by Owen's cronies. Noah was relieved and sad that the bathroom was empty. No one could see what was about to happen to him, but no one could help him either.
Noah then found himself being held tightly by Owen's friends as he tried to wriggle free and run.
"Do it, Owen!" the curly haired crony cried. The bully gladly obliged and swiftly, Owen drove his fist right into Noah's stomach.
"Oooooh!" groaned Noah. The cronies let him go and he kneeled over holding his stomach, coughing and gasping from what happened.
Owen and his cronies once again howled with laughter and ran out leaving Noah there. Noah slowly began to stand up and then began to seethe in anger. He began to feel that feeling he felt so long ago when he last wore his sister's mask - but he stopped again. And shook the feelings off and away.
"Is that all you got?" thought Noah. But he didn't think it would be tactful to say it louder and to possibly provoke Owen who could be near still.
Still holding his stomach Noah gingerly made his way out of the bathroom back to his locker, still clutching his stomach. To his surprise, Samantha was waiting there. Noah blushed and started to feel upset. Surely she knew what happened. It didn't help either when she started laughing.
Noah only sighed in embarrassment.
A/N: Whether you're a visitor or follower, I hope you enjoy the story. Any and all criticism is welcomed!