S20... find the class, damn it.
Getting lost around the school, and finding every other room except the one he was looking for, Johnny had enough. He managed to stumble upon the cafeteria, and took a seat at one of the tables in the back. Why would he ever agree to going to such a filthy school! There was food scattered across the tables, and the unclean floor was vomit-inducing.
His eyes scanned the room again, this time noticing the people. Most of the girls looked exactly alike --straight, blonde hair, and a miniskirt, even though it was around Christmastime and snow had started to fall a month ago. The guys all had the Abercrombie t-shirts with insults on them. Whether the outfits were a uniform or not, you would never be able to tell.
"Ah, look, it's the living dead sitting at our table!" a familiar voice sneered. "God, Nny, you're spreading your DEAD germs all over."
Robert, that jerk.
"I'm sitting here, thank you. There's a table right next to this one that you can sit at," Johnny replied.
"The dead kid speaks!" a guy in Robert's posse laughed.
"Shut up, Mike, you're not funny. Just shut up," Rob stared coldly into the kid's eyes. "Anyway, Johnathan, you should move if you know what's good for you. This is our table."
One of the boys pushed Johnny out of his chair, and he fell onto the cold, linoleum flooring. It was uncomfortable, but something told Johnny he would be better off staying there. Because once he was kneeling to stand, another boy shoved into the back of his head with the leg of a chair, knocking him flat on his face. Some girls from a couple tables over stood up to see the spectacle, laughing and flipping their hair.
"Gah, I hate you, Nny," Robert snorted, and sat down. "There's a table right across the cafeteria that you can sit at! Get out."
Johnny didn't reply. He didn't feel bad for himself as much as he felt bad for Robert, who would someday wind up getting stabbed to death by someone who knew how to give him what he deserved.
Still, It was the last time Johnny ever went into that terrible cafeteria.
-----
Johnny hopped off the bus, hoping it was the right stop. From what he could remember, there was a park by Frank's house...
...Or maybe not. His eyes shifted from left to right, looking at the different houses. They all looked the same, which wasn't the case with Frank's street. He looked back at the park, and began to walk towards it. Something about the snow falling on the dead trees made it look.. like something pretty. And something pretty was something Johnny hadn't seen in a long time.
Halfway into his stroll, he came across something that looked like a half-dead blue jay. Someone was cruel enough to step on it, and hurt its wing. Johnny knelt down to touch the creature, and see if there was any life still in it. Once he had nudged it with his knuckles a few times, it began to chirp. Thankfully, it was still alive.
Thankfully, or unfortunately? Johnny always thought that he would rather be dead than be alive and not be able to move. Should I leave it here to suffer? Yes, it's important to be alive, but if you're alive and your quality of life is zero, what's the point?...
But it was wrong to kill an animal. It was wrong to kill anything. Johnny looked down into the bird's helpless eyes. The bird's color was so magnificent, his lavender-blue feathers contrasted with the white snow. He propped the bird up so that it wasn't laying on its bad wing, and began to unwind the bandages from his own hand. He ripped off a strip with his teeth, and wrapped it around the bird's injury.
Johnny sighed with satisfaction. The bird was able to waltz freely into the snow, and chirped happiness. For once, he felt needed.
That Robert. His friends pushed Johnny around so badly during the course of the day, and the scene in the cafeteria was most likely not the last time he would have an awkward encounter with them. For Robert, Johnny was just another being to torture into depression. This poor blue jay, though, needed him. Johnny could have easily kicked him around for fun, but instead, he takes a bandage off his own wound and gives it to a creature who will, almost positively, never return a favor.
It was then that the bird (slowly but surely) began to flap into the air, and propelled itself into the sky.
Behind the gray mask that had overcast the city, there were a few large clouds that could be seen. There was a reason for birds to put themselves through such torture and stay in freezing weather, when they could easily fly to a tropical place and take margarita birdbaths.
The city needed the blue jays and the other birds to anchor the remaining fluffy clouds down, so that if there were ever a sunny day in this place, there would be enough feathery white puffs in the air to remind the people that this dreary time of the year would soon be over.