Okay, I'm not too sure about why I'm doing this, but so many people have asked me to continue it, how could I disappoint them? This takes place two years after the events in chapter one. Warning, this contains bad language and racism.
Ray stumbled backwards as a muscular boy pushed him, hard.
"I am captain of the football team, not some scrawny little piece of shit like you! Got that?" Ray stared calmly back at the fuming boy, his golden eyes steady and unflinching.
"You must be some captain if a scrawny piece of shit can get on the team, huh?" he said quietly. He tasted blood as the boy's fist connected painfully with his jaw.
"Shut the fuck up, you stinking Chinky!" Ray sighed.
"Do you know how many times people've called me that? Come up with something original, why don't you? Surprise me." The boy stared at him, the combination of Ray's eerie calmness and his surprisingly adult vocabulary freaking him out more than a little. Covering up his momentary uncertainness, he charged at the twelve year-old, fist raised. Suddenly, it was caught in an iron grip and twisted agonisingly up his back.
"Now then, Jimmie-boy," a voice breathed next to his ear. "What did I tell you about your nasty little habit, huh?" The boy referred to as Jimmie-boy yelled in agony as his assailant jerked his arm up even further. The voice changed, vicious, menacing, a sibilant hiss of threat. "You leave Ray alone."
"Y-Yes, Kai!" Jim stammered, sweat running down his face in rivulets as he fought to keep from screaming with pain.
"Good boy." The pressure on his arm was released suddenly and he fell to the floor, cradling his injured arm. Kai snarled wordlessly at him and turned to Ray, staring defiantly at the small crowd that had gathered. "Come on, Ray. Let's go." He took Ray gently by the arm and pulled him away.
Once they were completely out of sight, Ray's calmness seemed to disintegrate. Clinging to Kai like a tiny child, he buried his face in the older boy's neck and fought down sobs. Kai rubbed his back soothingly.
"It's so stupid, Kai...why does everyone hate me?" Kai didn't respond, knowing that it was a rhetorical question and that Ray was just upset at the violence that had taken place.
"I'm sorry." he said quietly. "I over-reacted a little bit, didn't I?" Ray gave him a watery smile.
"I'm used to it." he said, with just the faintest trace of irony in his lilting voice. Kai scowled at him, but contradicted himself by tightening his grip on Ray ever so slightly.
"You okay now?" he asked. Ray nodded.
"Yeah, fine. How do I look?" Kai scrutinised him carefully.
"Your eyes are a bit red, but it's not really noticeable." With a grin, Ray stepped away from Kai's hold and started to drag him down the school corridor.
"Good, 'cause the bell rang ten minutes ago!" Swearing and laughing breathlessly, the two boys raced down the corridors, dashing to their respective lessons in the vain hope that their teachers hadn't noticed their absence yet.
Ray sat at his desk, his tongue stuck out in concentration as he struggled to work out the equation that they had all been setnearly an hour ago.
"Having trouble, Ray?" a cheerful voice asked him. He nodded, flushing slightly in embarrassment.
"Yeah…"
"No need to be embarrassed!" the teacher said brightly, crouching down beside him and taking a pencil from behind her ear. "Right then. So, x equals five, yes?" Ray nodded. "Okay, so we just need to rub out x and put five in its place. That's called substitution. Once we've done that, the rest should be easy! Two times five plus one, Ray?"
"Eleven?" Ray answered uncertainly. He wasn't used to getting answers right.
"Exactly right! Well done!" Ray grinned widely.
"Thanks, miss!"
"No problem, Ray. Now, do the remainder of question one before the end of the lesson, please." The teacher smiled at him and stood up. Feeling slightly more confident, Ray picked up his pencil and started working again. A few minutes later:
"Hey! Ray!" He swivelled round in his seat to face the whisperer.
"Yeah, Mariah?" The only Chinese girl in the school winked at him, flicking her dyed neon-pink hair in the direction of the teacher.
"Watch this!" She ripped a small piece out of her maths book, balled it up with saliva and flicked it expertly at the teacher. The woman carried on walking round the classroom, completely unaware of the paper ball that was now firmly lodged in her hair. The class erupted into stifled laughter. Mariah turned and grinned proudly at Ray. "Did you see that?" she asked, batting her long eyelashes flirtatiously.
"Yeah, I did." Ray said quickly and turned round again, feeling horribly awkward. It had been painfully obvious since the first day of secondary school that Mariah had a huge crush on Ray, and he wasn't sure how to respond. Saying that he wasn't interested seemed too harsh, but the more that he did nothing, the more convinced she became that he returned her interests. And to make things worse, her older brother, Lee, who was just a few months shy of Kai's age and in the same year, was - for want of a better word - a thug. He didn't want Mariah's infatuation to result in a fight between Lee and him, or worse, Lee and Kai. Kai was already treading on thin ice as it was with the senior staff. A fight might get him excluded or expelled.
Oh, wasn't life just great? At least he had Art next. He brightened at the thought. They were doing observational drawings today, which basically meant drawing whatever the teacher put in front of you and trying to make it as accurate as possible. That was fun. What did he have after that?
"Ray? Since the ceiling appears to hold your attention far better than I do, could you please tell me the answer to question 1b?" Ray snapped back into reality, colour flooding his face as he frantically scanned his maths book.
"Um…um…seven?" he asked, trying to ignore the giggles that were spreading around the classroom. The rest of the class quietened as the teacher gave them a scorching look.
"Very good, Ray. Adam! As you found that so hilarious, let's hear your answer for 1c." Ray couldn't suppress a grin as Adam read out the wrong answer and made the mistake of insulting the teacher under his breath. "What was that, Adam?" Ray put a hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud at the rebellious look on the boy's face.
"N-Nothing, miss…"
"Good boy. Make sure it stays that way." The bell rang for the end of class. Instantly, everyone began to reach under their desks for the their bags and coats. "7TJR! Where do you think you're going?"
"Art, miss." Ray said promptly, deliberately keeping his face perfectly serious. The class murmured in approval.
"Not just yet, you're not! Logbooks out!" There was a unanimous sigh as thirty-two logbooks were removed from bags and opened to the correct page. "Your homework tonight is page 32 in your workbooks, questions three, four and seven. Due in Friday." she added. "All right, then! Off you go!" Ray, closest to the door, was the first one out. He set off down the steps, already imagining his pencil running over the one remaining clean page in his Art book.
"Excellent work, Ray!" the Art teacher complimented, causing the boy to grin like a Cheshire cat. He continued working with renewed vigour.
After the lesson finished, Ray was one of the last to leave. He jumped violently as the teacher put her hand on his shoulder, still averse to being touched by people he didn't trust.
"Sorry to startle you, Ray, but I was just wondering if I could talk to you for a minute?" Ray shrugged, forcing himself to calm down.
"Okay." He followed the teacher over to her desk, where she sat down and started rummaging through the mass of paper covering it.
"Ray, as you must know, your work is far and away the best in the class. If I may venture to say so, it is even the best in the year." Ray shuffled his feet and looked at the floor. "There's a big competition coming up soon. I send the best piece of work from each year in, and if you win, you go into the next round, competing against schools in the county, then the whole country. I'd like you to enter. What do you think?" Ray bit his lip, thinking. It sounded brilliant, he had to admit.
"Will it cost anything?" he asked.
"No, the school pays for everything." He continued to chew his lip.
"I don't know…what if I'm not good enough?" he ventured, voicing his worst fear.
"Trust me, Ray, you're good enough." He looked at her, startled. She smiled at him. "I've been doing this quite a few years now, and if you don't get to the county heats at least, I'll eat my hat!" Ray silently processed this, ignoring the "eat my hat" saying that he didn't recognise.
"Um…okay…" he said eventually.
"Brilliant! I have to send the work off in about four months, so see if you can come up with something original in that time. If not, I'll just pick the best of your class work. You can use anything, paint, chalk, pastels, coloured pencils, charcoal, or just a simple line and tone drawing, it's up to you!" Ray nodded, inwardly relieved. Four months was a long time. He would have plenty of time to think of what he wanted to do.
"Okay. Thanks, miss."
"Think nothing of it, Ray. I want to have a winner in my class for once!" So, no pressure, huh? Ray thought dryly, chuckling to himself as he swung his bag over his shoulder and left the room.
He sat back in his chair, bored. The teacher had gone out of the room to fetch a couple of new kids, so he was stuck. He scanned what he had written so far and let out a cry of frustration. This was the kind of things four year-olds got right!
The tac tas no eht tam.
With a growl, he ripped the piece of paper up and flung it into a corner.
An achievement!" he mumbled bitterly. "I spelt the first word the right way round!" He tried again, his natural stubbornness refusing to let it rest.
tam eht no tas tac ehT
"Oh, great!" Swearing at the top of his voice, he ripped the second piece into tiny fragments and dropped them onto the desk. Kicking the chair leg moodily, he folded his arms and stared angrily at the wall. "Success Maker, huh? More like Hell." he mumbled. He was jolted out of his sulk when the teacher returned with the two new boys.
His immediate thought was that both of them looked too young to be in secondary school. There was a boy with thick navy hair, clearly dyed, you could faintly see the dark-brown roots, and matching navy eyes, and a smaller, slighter blond with startlingly bright blue eyes. They were looking uncertainly round, the blond boy trying to hide behind his friend. With a teasing nudge, the navy-haired boy moved aside.
"Ray, these two are Tyson Granger," The older boy grinned and waved enthusiastically, calling out a loud:
"Hiya!"
"and Max Tate." The blond stared fixedly at the floor, muttering a greeting so softly as to be inaudible. Ray nodded in response.
"Hi. Hey, aren't you two a bit too young to be here?"
"Our school couldn't cope with us!" Tyson said with a boastful grin.
"That's nothing to be proud of, Tyson!" the teacher told him sternly. Tyson mumbled a grudging apology under his breath, giving her an irritated glare behind her back. Ray's attention was drawn to Max, who had visibly flinched backwards as the teacher walked near him, and was now determinedly staring at the floor again.
"Come sit over here." he suggested. Without waiting for anyone else's opinion on the matter, Tyson dashed over and sat down in the desk next to Ray. Max followed like a well-behaved shadow, his half-lidded blue eyes tracking Tyson more effectively than radar. "So, why're you both here, then?" Ray asked. "Just tell me if you want me to shut up, I'm used to it." He couldn't help a slightly bitter chuckle.
"It's kinda simple, really." Tyson shrugged, giving the Chinese boy an affable grin. "I talk too much, and Maxie here doesn't talk enough. School got fed up of us, and this place was the only one with any kind of 'facilities'." He snorted in distaste. "What about you?" Wordlessly, Ray pointed towards the scrunched-up ball of paper. Surprisingly, it was Max who stood up and retrieved the discarded work. He handed it to Tyson, who grinned and patted him on the shoulder in thanks. Max gave him a tiny smile in return and averted his eyes politely as Tyson scanned the chaotic scrawl, his mouth slowly forming the words as he read. Ray suddenly remembered the state of his handwriting.
"Sorry, it's really messy." he apologised.
"It's almost as bad as his, he'll be able to understand it no problem!" a tiny, husky voice said, laughing slightly. Ray looked curiously up at Max, who had blushed a deep crimson at his boldness in actually speaking. Finally, Tyson put the paper down.
"Dyslexic, huh?" Ray nodded glumly, flinching involuntarily as Tyson clapped him reassuringly on the back.
"Yep. Very." he replied unhappily.
"Bad luck. I'm a bit like that, too." Tyson said easily. "Bummer, isn't it?"
"Dead right."
"Hey, you're a Chink, aren't you?" Ray, already irritated and always sensitive to that particular word, couldn't help his gaze suddenly sharpening into a furious glare and pinning itself to Max's frightened face. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean…" Max's quivering voice trailed off into a soundless whisper as he slowly backed away. Noticing that Tyson's gaze was no longer quite so friendly, Ray made a heroic effort and calmed himself down.
"I'm sorry, Max." he said after a minute of inwardly fuming. "It's not exactly a complimentary expression, and I'm fed up of people using it as a way to take the piss." Max giggled nervously at the swearword and gradually returned to his normal position beside Tyson.
"It's okay. I'm really sorry, I didn't know that's what it was-"
"It's fine, Max." Ray assured him. He held out a hand. "Friends?" Giggling with awkwardness, Max gingerly took Ray's tanned hand in his own, cream-coloured one and shook it, looking as though he was wondering quite what was possessing him. Smiling encouragingly at him, Ray turned to Tyson, still with his hand held out. Tyson grinned widely and shook it, hard.
"Friends." the two younger boys said in unison.
Ray jogged alongside Kai, who was walking home much faster than usual.
"You heard about the two new L. S boys?" he asked breathlessly.
"No." Kai said flatly, not even looking at him. Ray stared up at him, suddenly worried.
"What's up?"
"Nothing."
"Kai-"
"I said nothing!" Ray reeled back, both hands pressed to his throbbing cheekbone, his mind numb with shock. Kai glared wildly at him, one hand clenched into a tight, shaking fist. Abruptly, he swung away, running in a completely different direction. "Tell Jonathon and Rachael I'm going to the park!" he yelled behind him, almost as an afterthought. Ray stared after his retreating figure, feeling panic make an entrance in the pit of his stomach, activating an ache that he hadn't felt for two years. Slowly, he swivelled to face the long walk home. Suddenly, it seemed twice the distance. Three times.
Kai hit me… A tear welled up in his eye and stayed there, frozen by the shock spreading through his body.
After an evening that would have been pleasant if he hadn't been torn in two by his battling emotions about his foster brother and best friend, Ray went to his bedroom. Not to bed, just to the one room in the house that he had been careful to set out as his own from day one. His private space. Not even Kai came in without knocking. Kai…
Distractedly, he got out a pencil and paper and began doodling idly. He didn't realise that someone was knocking until a soft voice called "Ray?" He turned sharply to the door, silently reassuring himself that it was still securely locked.
"Coming, Rachael," he called, sliding back the bolt. Pulling the door open, he raised an inquiring eyebrow. "Are you busy?" Ray shook his head. "Could we talk a bit?"
"Yeah, okay." His foster mother followed him into his bedroom and sat down next to him on his bed. Ray looked moodily at the floor. "What is it?" he asked eventually.
"I was hoping you'd tell me that." Rachael said quietly. Ray didn't say anything, silently hoping that she'd just give up and go away. "What happened between you and Kai today, Ray? Did he get into another fight with a bully again?" Ray stayed silent. "Come on, Ray. You can tell me, can't you?" Ray shook his head. With a quick, gasping inhalation, he turned and buried his head in her soft chest, feeling her arms close around him comfortingly. "It's okay, Ray darling, it's okay," she murmured, rocking him as if he was a much younger child. Suddenly reminded of his near-teenage staus, Ray pulled away, mumbling apologies. Rachael smiled, her brown eyes amused. "I understand. You're too cool for hugs now."
"Yep." Ray replied matter-of-factly, smiling wanly at her. She kisssed him lightly on the forehead and stood up.
"Al right, I'll leave you in peace, shall I? Jonathon's gone to find Kai, so don't worry about him." Ray nodded. His chest felt suddenly heavy.
"Ray?" The insistent whisper roused Ray from his restless doze.
"Whazzit?" he mumbled thickly, sitting upright and rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Can I come in?"
"Hm...what? Yeah, whatever..." Ray yawned until his jaw cracked and rubbed his eyes again, stumbling over to the door and opening it. He backed away a few steps as the door swung open to reveal a battered-looking Kai leaning on the doorframe. "Kai." He turned away, fighting to keep himself under control.
"Ray..." He heard Kai's step forward, so took one himself, keeping the distance at one that he felt at least partially comfortable with. "Ray, I'm so, so sorry...I can't believe I...did that to you."
"Say it." Ray ordered tonelessly. "You hit me. Deliberately."
"I...I-I hit you. Oh my god, I-"
"You took your feelings out on me, in a way that you know I can't take!" Ray spun on his heel, staring at Kai angrily. "You know how I feel about being hit, Kai! Especially by people who I think I can trust..." His voice lowered. Trembling with anger and...dare he say it...fear, he sat down, gazing blindly at the floor. "I don't want to be scared of you, Kai." he whispered. "I don't want to jerk away every time you come near me. I don't want to feel like I don't trust you anymore. You're my best friend, my brother."
"I know, Ray. Please, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't even have thought it... Will you forgive me?" Ray looked up into Kai's pleading, damp eyes. Eventually, he sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, I forgive you. But, please Kai, please, never do that to me again." Never make me relive...Him again. I do it enough without your help.
"Never." Kai breathed, closing his eyes and slumping against the doorframe. Alarmed, Ray ran to him, shaking his shoulder frantically. Kai's eyes flickered open and the ghost of a smile crept across his lips. "Easy, Ray. I'm just tired, that's all." he murmured. "Been a...bad day."
"What was wrong this afternoon?" Ray asked tentatively. Kai's face hardened.
"Nothing for you to concern yourself about." he said quietly. With an obvious effort, he pulled himself upright. Ruffling Ray's hair affectionately, he walked into his bedroom. Ray watched him walk away, then, shivering in the cool night-time temperatures, went back to his bed and crawled under the covers.
Right, some clarification.
Success Maker is a thing in my school for people who need help with subjects like Maths and English.
Ray's school day is based pretty much entirely on my school's timetable, and as I'm British,I apologise to pretty much everyone else who doesn't understand it! Just ask me in your review, and I'll do my best to explain whatever is confusing you.
This story may have a lot of racist undertones in it, butI assure you,I am not racist, nor am I trying to disrespect people of other cultures and religions in my writing.
The same goes for the sexual and child abuse storylines. They are a plot-line, nothing more, and I apologise if anyone finds them offensive.
Back to more frivolious subjects! For a change, I might switch the focus of the story in the next chapter, ie focus more on Kai, or Tyson, or Max, opinions needed on that subject. On the other hand, if you all have changed your minds and decided that this story is best as a one-shot, kindly tell me so that I can delete this chapter!
Please point out any spelling mistakes in your reviews. (hint hint, nudge nudge...)