Reviews :
Firesong-Writes : Thank you so much! And, yes indeed :D Always an exciting time!
Burgie : He's a sweetie, but Academy does not come without drama, unfortunately.
Lyssdoodle : I think it's standard that everyone reading should come at new characters with a healthy dose of suspicion xD You neverrrr know who the imposter is...
Song Listened To :
Backseat Rider Sara Kays
*Chapter 50*
"Gideon, where's your sheet?" Chase wondered cutely, his slender, slithering self eased about Gideon's sitting figure in a looming kind of way.
"I turned it in," Gideon grunted as he bit the tip of his tongue, furrowed his brow tight and focused hard on what he was doing; with his whole class on a small break between subjects, he continued on with a building project the class was partaking in earlier in the day. Determined to finish it, his bigger hands suddenly fumbled with a jolt and the smaller, toy, mechanical pulley system, that he was building, haphazardly tinkered to the shared desk out before him. Gideon slumped his bigger hands to said desk and sagged his shoulders, his eyes loosened with the previous focus as he huffed an annoyed, exasperated chuckle, "Dangit."
"Gideon, your pieces got on my page!" A girl a few seats from him proclaimed in a sting of annoyed sorrow; a few rubber bands and sticks of Gideon's little project had unfortunately sagged into the glue of a beautiful little collage she was making, artwork Gideon knew to be precious alongside the idea of it being dear to him.
"Sorry, sorry," Gideon mumbled in a rush as he stood and did what he could to retrieve the pieces that went everywhere; Chase had slipped away to turn in his class work, and though Gideon felt secure with the camaraderie him and Chase had acquired, somehow now being briefly alone with the few other students at his higher table made his face flush white with terror.
"Must be hard to do much of anything with those, huh, Gideon," Another girl nearby chimed cutely, her name was Nemi; although her voice was delicate and sure, it still held a very nasty undertone of biting snide, something Gideon was oblivious to.
"I mean, yeah, sometimes," Gideon huffed a cute chuckle and bobbed a nod, he stood up straight and awkwardly cradled the pieces of his broken project tightly to his broad chest, "What's really hard is opening a can of soda. My dad says Arcade wasn't made for big dudes like us."
"Probably right," One of the guys muttered; a cool-guy kind of breed, dressed in grungy clothes and a smile that had all the girls swooning, he sat slumped, as if this was the last place he wanted to be.
"Don't be rude, Zee," Nemi hissed, and though Gideon nervously sat back down and tried to gently tidy the pieces out before him, so he could begin his little project one more time, Nemi scrunched her shoulders, covered her mouth and continued on to Zee in a much louder whisper, as if to insinuate she wanted everyone around her to hear, "You know what they say about guys with big hands and feet, anyways..."
"Whatever," Zee rolled his eyes, to which Nemi and a few of her girlfriends wildly began to giggle at Gideon's expense; he furrowed his eyebrows and grinned in continued obliviousness.
"What, that I don't wear shoes? I can't, really, neither can my dad or siblings," Gideon huffed a shaky chuckle and urgently eyed the crowd in a few darts of rising, sweet curiosity, though he flinched as everyone loudly erupted in laughter, furthering Gideon's confusion.
"Gullible Giddy," Nemi's friend chanted in mean-spirited sing song, it was here did Gideon feel as if the lovely sunlight, entering the class's windows, began to brighten with painful heat, as if his pupils were broadening in the spike of fight or flight.
"Giddy-two-shoes," One girl chimed meanly with a giggle.
"Giddy NO shoes," Zee blurt with a choke of a laugh that had everyone in stitches, everyone but Gideon.
"... What?" Gideon huffed with a nervous chuckle, he sagged into himself and twiddled his fingers, though before anyone could carry on, the bell sharply rang and everyone switched gears.
"Lunch! I'm starved," Chase stated as he happily stomped up to Gideon's now nervous figure as he brought himself to a stand from their shared, high-stooled desk station. Chase snapped his gummy fingers and looked off in contemplation, "Y'know, this is my second week here, but will be my first lunch with a friend."
"I-I didn't think everyone here would be so... Snooty," Gideon worried softly, his deep, crackly voice was hushed underneath the excitable murmur of his classmates rushing the classroom door in preparation for lunch.
"Bah, it's just Nemi," Chase ushered back to Gideon quietly, his vivid blue eyes dart about in search for her as him and Gideon leaned in to one another's bubbles, the top of Chase's head was level with Gideon's shoulders, "I think she likes Zee but doesn't have the guts to tell him."
"What does it mean to have big hands and feet?" Gideon innocently asked as he peered into Chase's eyes with full honesty, to which he confusedly furrowed his brow.
"You?" Chase prod.
"Yeah, they... They were like, 'oh, you know what THAT means,'" Gideon mocked in a high-pitched, snotty, girly-tone. Gideon huffed an exasperated chuckle and wildly gestured his hands outwards, "No! I have no clue what that means."
"You can't find shoes in your size, maybe?" Chase reached as he narrowed his gaze, Gideon blurt a laugh and gestured to his chest, he could feel the sting of being singled out want to hurt him for some time to come, though he did what he could to at least try to seem unfazed by it.
"I don't even own shoes, no one in my family does but my mom," Gideon and Chase erupted into cute laughter together, and as Gideon carefully piled his own project neatly in his desk area, to return to, both boys finally began to file out of the classroom with everyone, "They then called me gullible..."
"This all happened when I was turning in my paper?" Chase ogled.
"Rapid fire," Gideon muttered with a shrug, "Whatever... Guess I'll never know."
"Y'wanna find your older cousin and see if we can sit with him?" Chase innocently wondered, to which Gideon felt his pupils tighten.
"No, I... I don't think he'd want anything to do with me, to be honest," Gideon frowned, Chase sorrowfully peered up to Gideon as the two tailed the rest of their classmates in the direction of Pre-A's lunch area.
"What? Really?" Chase prod, to which Gideon nodded and shrugged.
"I mean, maybe I could try saying hi to him and see where that gets me, but... I think I annoy him," Gideon stated through a sigh, "We used to be best friends."
"What a jerk," Chase blurt courageously, to which Gideon perked up a bit and gave Chase a smile of near-mean, delighted surprise.
"Yeah, he is," Gideon chuffed, he bobbed a nod and bit his lip, suddenly someone was fervently on his side and affirming everything in his mind, a spark of wildfire that now flared in roaring bitterness Gideon was surprised to find he rather enjoyed, "Whatever... We see him, we see him. We don't? Well, his loss."
"Yeah," Chase encouraged with a nod, "What'd you do to annoy him so much?"
"User, I accidentally spoiled my big brother's birthday gift and he made it this huge deal in front of my whole family," Gideon grunted, the ability to rant to someone outside of his family unit felt like a release to his soul. He inhaled a fresh breath and shook his head as him and Chase caught eyes, "He half heartedly apologized for it, but... I don't know, he used to hang out with me all the time, and then the day he started to attend Pre-Academy, he just dropped me, acted like I was the most annoying person ever."
"And now you're BOTH here and aren't even friends anymore?" Chase mumbled, Gideon flung his arm out in exasperation.
"I'm saying!" Gideon urged, to which Chase tsked a noise of sweet dismay and shook his head.
"Whatever, we'll sit together and have a blast. Make him regret it!" Chase encouraged, to which Gideon couldn't let an excited, mischievous grin fly fast enough.
"You're speaking my language, dude," Gideon near-growled with a wider, excited smile as both boys happily chuckled with one another and filled the space with small shoves to each other's arms and shoulders.
"It might be a youngest thing," Chase continued as both boys began to file into the sunny, lovely, massive lunch room alongside everyone else in Pre-A, from eight to eleven months old, "I'm the youngest of six... All my older siblings think I know absolutely nothing, they ALL treat me like I'm just a baby."
"We're the same person, I think," Gideon joked as they both fumbled for a lunch tray each, a single file line that slowly moved.
"How many siblings do you have?" Chase wondered, Gideon heaved a tired sigh and eyed the multitudinous options of food available to them.
"I have three older siblings, but I also have like... A zillion aunts and uncles and neices and nephews," Gideon rolled his eyes and shook his head, "Each one of them are eons older than me and have their own lives and husbands and babies and... Bleh. Callum's the only one closest to my age, and, well..."
"Look how well that's going for yah," Chase teased, Gideon grinned and bobbed a nod.
"I'm glad I have someone who understands," Gideon urged as they both began to fill their trays with foods they wanted.
"Boy do I," Chase garbled in annoyance, "I think Flint would, too... I've had a week of counseling with him and he told me he's the youngest of his siblings, too. You should really talk to him about all of this, he'd DEFINITELY be on our side."
"Youngest unite," Gideon muttered half-heartedly as both boys erupted in sweet laughter, an intertwine of camaraderie Gideon was eternally grateful was all his.
As the two happily melted into their own little routines of chatter and quick lunch, Gideon was always doing his best to keep his eyes peeled for Callum and his posse. Although Chase was a wonderful distraction, a solid soul that rapidly was morphing into Gideon's first, official, non-familial best friend, Gideon couldn't help but let frustration and anxiety rise within him. Nervous, golden eyes drifted about the vast, sunny cafeteria, any peak of blonde hair would have his heart squeeze in spikes of tension, and though he was well aware finding Callum would resolve literally nothing, there was a piece of him that was desperate for his imaginings to unfold to his liking. Wishful thinking of having Callum stroll up and kindly offer to include Gideon and even Chase, a proper brotherhood the two could morph into, once again, as aging kids to adults, Gideon squeezed his eyes shut and shooed the thought away.
With lunch hour that came and went, with no signs of Callum, Gideon and Chase met up with Flint in the massive corridor that lead from the courtyard and cafeteria to their wing of classrooms, dedicated to the lot of eight months. Falling into new routines, Flint chose to spend one on one time with Gideon first today, as a part of Gideon's and Chase's counseling for early admittance to Pre-A. Gideon shyly walked with Flint on glossy grey tiles, quiet halls were only scarcely littered with students and faculty making their way to their classrooms and dedicated offices, ones of which happily and excitedly greeted Flint as they passed. A wily, excitable character, Flint seemed as if he knew practically everyone. A sociable, loving individual full of wise cracks and sharp, witty retorts, Gideon fell into step with Flint and felt as if the adoring twinkle in his eye was due to blinding someone, eventually. Eager to fall into a mentorship with such a sunny soul, Gideon proudly strut with Flint and was floored he got to have Flint's whole attention, every single day, for an hour. Gideon twiddled his fingers a little and reminded himself to thank Tessa, once again, for setting all of this up for him.
"Alright, my guy, Mr. Gideon FOX," Flint choked excitedly with a cute little snicker of further elatedness as the two pressed into Flint's lovely office, just off of Pre-A's massive, gorgeous courtyard. Flint's little office was cozy and ladened with all sorts of knick knacks. Shelves of decor, statues of infamous gamers, awards, potted plants, the works. Gideon's handsome eyes excitedly splayed the whole of Flint's warm office as he stumbled to sit down on the cozy brown chair before his much bigger, heftier desk. Flint grunted a sigh as he plopped to his desk chair, and as he began to organize a few papers on his desk, he flattened his ears, pointed a claw at Gideon and froze with a sneaky little smile, "You and I are buds, now, we got namesakes involved, thick as thieves... You down?"
"Who're we robbing?" Gideon wondered playfully as he shook his head in cute dismissal towards Flint; he bared his fangs and barked a laugh.
"That's the spirit," Flint choked a laugh and, through a heavy, raspy sigh, he put on a pair of round, delicate reading glasses and began to scan some of the paper work before him. Gideon rubbed his hands together, rested his elbows on his knees and was eager to dive into solid friendship with this incredible being, though he softened as Flint's huge, lovely ears sagged in tender confusion, "Hmm, says here... Wow, this is concerning."
"What's wrong?" Gideon staggered.
"It says here that... You're a seven month," Flint frowned, to which Gideon felt his face turn sheet white, that is until Flint's ears perked a sneaky smile sprawled his face once more, "I didn't know you were still an itty bitty little baby, Gideon, aww."
"You KNEW I was seven months old," Gideon guffawed as he firmly shook his head, grinned with much welcomed relief and readjusted his sitting position. His deepening, crackly voice reverberated over the gloss of Flint's mahogany desk, "I'm not a baby..."
"I know you're not, I'm only playing," Flint methodically assured with a wall of love and warmth in his whole demeanor; he cleared his throat and set the papers down, "Tell me a little more about yourself, Gideon, you're the youngest of three?"
"There are four of us," Gideon gently corrected with a nod, he heaved a long sigh and looked off, "I have a big sister, Koko. She's cool. Her hair literally looks like waves of chocolate, it's wild."
"Aptly named, it seems," Flint sneered cutely.
"I have a big brother, Oliver," Gideon furrowed his brow and felt a weird sting of confusion fall over him. The urge to roll his eyes sat in the base of his skull, and though he usually resisted the expression of bitterness towards his immediate family, he felt safe with Flint, and thus let said eye roll fly free, "He... He got a replica of my dad's game shirt, for his birthday... I wish I got one."
"Well, you haven't HAD a birthday yet, my friend," Flint gently reminded, "Who knows what you'll get when you turn one, it's usually a very special occasion."
"Yeah, if I'm remembered," Gideon muttered, and though Flint furrowed his eyebrows in tender confusion and opened his mouth to cautiously inquire about all the sudden stings of bitterness, Gideon strangely perked up and carried on, "Then there's Tessa, my oldest sister. She's the Queen of our game... She's awesome."
"She's a professor on Academy side, correct?" Flint wondered, Gideon nodded as Flint took his readers off and tidied the little whiskers on the end of his snout, "Well, you guys do anything as a family? Vacations? I heard, through the grape vine, that your niece is Berri of Archived Chaos... Is that true?"
"Yeah, with Turbo, Wren and my nephew Theo," Gideon's deeper voice grumbled, he heaved a raspy sigh and shook his head, "They all do their own thing and go on their own vacations and... I'm not really included."
"Pretty crappy feeling, huh," Flint mumbled gently, to which Gideon bobbed a nervous nod and felt the urge to cry brim at the back of his throat; anytime understanding was so lovingly lofted his way, he knew to treat it like gold. He desperately concealed the urge to cry as Flint carried on, "Well, I'm glad you're here at Pre-A. I see this a lot with youngsters that have older family members. The closest person to your age, in your family, is Callum, isn't it."
"Yep," Gideon meeped as he looked down to his hands, his elbows still rested on his strong knees.
"You have a solid thing going with Chase, it seems. He's a great kid, I think you should stick with him and you'll be just fine," Flint assured with a nod, "If I'm not mistaken, I was told you have a... A dragon?"
"Novus," Gideon smiled with cute relief, a warm embrace to his heart, "Yeah, Novus... He's one of eight dragons on palace grounds. He's my flyer, he's my best friend, but... I mean, he's a dragon, he has his own routines with his pack. We hang out all the time, but..."
"He's a totally different creature with different living habits, I understand," Flint assured with a nod, he opened his drawer slowly and pulled out a bowl of caramel candies; Gideon's eyes lit up as Flint tossed a candy Gideon's way without question, as he, too, opened the wrapper to one and began to eat one, himself. He continued on with said candy clacking between his sharp fangs, "You know, Gideon, sometimes having a smaller circle of loved ones is better, it's easier to manage. You have a tight knit support group and less drama. You know how much drama Berri and crew probably go through? You know how many people Archived Chaos probably hangs out with?"
"Her ex boyfriend is involved too, I don't know much about it, but..." Gideon shook his head and rolled his eyes, "They all talk about marriage and babies and code swapping and... Bleh. It's so annoying."
"Baw, Gideon," Flint blurt a chuckle and shook his head, "Yeah, that stuff is uninteresting right now, huh. It's okay, that's normal. I'm sorry no one really tries to level with you. Not even your parents? Tessa? Anyone?"
"My parents do their best, I think the only person who really TRIES to get me is... Tessa," Gideon eased patiently as his eyes scanned the floor, "She gave me a WHOLE slab of her palace walls to paint on... I-I know it can easily be deleted in the code room, but, still."
"Yeah, that's huge," Flint flattened his big ears in cute delight, "Especially if that palace is all under her rule, and she's dedicated a whole wall to you? That's cool. Tessa teaches grid physics here, in Arcadia, yeah?"
"I think so, but she wants to introduce core coding," Gideon explained with great zest, "I've only ever watched core coding alignments, but... Turbo seems like he really knows what he's doing. Tessa wants to teach it to everyone, I think it's cool."
"Turbo," Flint bugged his eyes and playfully pantomimed a large shiver going down his spine; Gideon erupted into a laughing fit.
"What was that for!" Gideon playfully wondered, to which Flint narrowed his gaze amidst a cheeky smile and shook his head.
"Oh, wrong guy? I don't know if there's more than one Turbo in Arcade, or not," Flint garbled as he flagged his hand in dismissal, "Well, how's your first day going? Surely you're enjoying class? Eight month curriculum isn't anything strenuous... Kind of introductory to what you'll be easing into. Nine months is when you start working on harder hitting assignments. Ten months is when you get to practice traveling from class to class, like they do on Academy side."
"Will... Chase be in my classes?" Gideon suddenly worried, though with the serious way Flint sagged, Gideon felt a wash of worry come rushing back to him.
"Well? He very well might be in a few!" Flint encouraged, it felt empty however, to which Gideon further sagged and felt cold with nervousness, "You'll have eight classes to practice traveling to and from, like they do in Academy... Eight different subjects. I mean, that's eight classes you could very easily HAVE with Chase. Who knows. Once you actually attend Academy, you'll be able to have a heavier hand in picking what classes to take and better coordinate with Chase. Surely Tessa could help you out there, too."
"Hopefully," Gideon mumbled, he furrowed his brow and fervently reminded himself to have this talk with Tessa once they got home.
"Well, c'mon, no sadness... Tell me a little bit about your classes today, you and Chase seem to be getting along great," Flint happily encouraged, he lifted the spirits of the room with great ease.
"It's good, I'm having fun, though..." Gideon wrinkled his nose in tender confusion and innocently peered into Flint's eyes, "What does it mean that I have big hands and feet?"
"What, that you're Wreck-It Ralph's son? I mean that's a given, I don't think THOSE traits would just skip right on by," Flint loudly laughed and shook his head, to which Gideon grinned and scrunched his face in desperate back-tracking.
"No, no, I mean like... I was sitting at my group table today, and... One of the girls noticed I was having a hard time piecing together my project, because my hands are so big," Gideon mumbled as he opened his larger palms, a sheepish look of confusion crossed his face, "She loudly whispered to everyone, 'you know what they say about guys that have big hands and feet'..."
"Ohhh," Flint drawled, though he covered his eyes and erupted with laughter. He finally grinned and tried to control his chuckling as he peered to Gideon, "Well, bud, I don't think I'm qualified to have that conversation with you. I think you should ask your parents that one, okay?"
"O-Okay," Gideon staggered with a nervous laughter; although he didn't allude to suddenly feeling plucked, he could feel his face turn beet red with a hot slap of realization. He felt a breath catch in the back of his throat as whole embarrassment cloaked him. He wondered how he could be so incredibly naive, how could he miss something like that, how could he let higher-knowledged kids pull the rug out from under him like such? Gideon sat back and began to mentally drown himself in self-loathing, he nervously continued to fidget with his fingers as Flint cutely carried on.
"Damn, kids these days," Flint hissed with further chuckling as he shook his head and began to jot down a few things on Gideon's files, before him, "I'll tell yah, I'm not a self-programmed gamer, but I can't imagine NOT being already programmed with code and sexual education, it's wild seeing you guys have to LEARN about it, how to navigate those conversations as adolescents..."
"I couldn't tell if they were making fun of me, or not," Gideon stated sorrowfully, he could feel his eyes well with tears, tears of which he desperately kept under control.
"Aw, bud, no... I think they're just trying to get used to having a new person in class," Flint encouraged lovingly, "Perhaps they're jealous, maybe they're intimidated. You're a pretty big, awesome dude, I'm sure they saw that Chase snatched up your friendship and didn't know how to get their insecurities under control."
"I don't have to JUST be friends with Chase, I want more friends," Gideon gently complained, to which Flint gently held up his paw.
"Relax, Gid, it's day one, okay?" Flint warmly encouraged, "Give Pre-A a few weeks... You're making awesome progress, okay? Just stick to Chase, both you boys got me in your corner. Capisce?"
"Aye, captain," Gideon mumbled as he did whatever he could to not give himself a hug of self soothe; somehow coming to Pre-A had simultaneously solved his problems and swiftly created new ones, something of which Gideon was desperate to properly navigate.
A/N : CHAPTER 50 GUYS! Drop your drawing requests in a review on THIS chapter! I can't believe this came so quickly... It was JUST yesterday I was starting my 2nd semester of college and launching this book. We're already 50 in? WILD.
