It was cramped in the bathroom stall, but he could make due.
He always did.
Peeling off his sweaty clothes, part of Dash was glad to have only this shirt to wear, its dark concealing the wetness that had since erupted from his backside, and even luckier that it had done a fairly good job at soaking it up, angry cuts and gashes from just a short while ago still singing their agitation, their vitriol to the boy, but he didn't have time to waste.
He had to get out there.
And it wasn't as if they wouldn't heal.
They always did, and they would do so this time, too.
'Yeah, they'll go away.'
'Dad took it easy on you, but you definitely deserved more.'
Bending over the best way he could, using the stall door as a support, he picked up the shirt and shorts that laid at his feet, slipping the shirt over his cuts and bruises in a single breath, hoping to get the task over with if only to ago messing with them more. Outside of the locker room, he could hear them, the students, and Tetslaff voice as well, carried through the echo that bounced around the empty room and back to him, telling him that the game would be beginning terribly soon. Taking a slow breath, Dash sat down upon the toilet seat, sucking in another as the ache of his back side and buttocks grew much more, each bend to get his legs through the holes of his shorts causing him to wince, but he didn't make a sound.
Not a peep until they were put on, but he noticed something strange as he looked down at them.
They had become much looser than they had before.
Shouting from outside tore away his attention, trying his best to silence the voices, the voices that wouldn't stop.
'Damn you're fuckin' skinny.'
'Little twig, hee hee.'
'Why don't you eat more?'
He considered the voice for a moment, looking down at himself.
Even beneath the dark hoodie on his person, the baggy shorts and loose shirt only made him look even smaller than he felt.
Listlessly, he tried to imagine how he looked to others.
Probably ridiculous.
Picking up his things and pacing as fast as he could to his locker, the boy put in the combination, though it took several attempts as his thoughts felt fuzzier, more difficult form under the weight of their shouting, but after about four tries, he snatched it open and tossed his things in, though he left his hoodie and jacket on, through the aching of his arms from before, from the dark splotches that shouted at him.
Everything was shouting.
His legs, his back, his stomach, his thighs; nothing spared him their distaste, but he didn't have time to worry about it.
They would heal.
They always did.
Rushing to a stand, he broke out into a strange gait, rushing as fast as he could to the double doors that led to the main gym, trying to ignore the sudden wave of exhaustion that seemed to overtake him all at once.
He shook his head, once, twice, as if trying to wake himself up again.
Grasping his stomach, it growled, and it hurt.
It hurt really, really badly.
But it was nothing that he couldn't handle.
He was fine.
Fine.
...Fine.
There were dodge balls set upon a rack, and students had nearly collided with him as each of them went to grab the balls, but once one of them had taken notice of his arrival, all of them did at once, much in the same way a hive mind could perceive a threat in one fell swoop. It began with a voice, a younger student that had just taken notice of him, and pointed, then from her friend, to another, and another, still, it went on until he was given pause, trying his best to appear big even when other shoved past him, but not before recoiling, and he could see them covering their noses.
He suddenly didn't feel so big.
Made even worse when he recalled looking down at himself, something he did again. His shoes looked too big for his legs, his arms more...spindly then he remembered, his hands...bonier.
No.
That's wasn't important right now.
Tetslaff, however, the only one that openly acknowledged him, calling up from the front of the gym as the students began to get on their teams.
"Ah, Baxter! About time you showed up! Grab a ball and find a pair that'll take you in." With that, she began to coral the students into the playing area whilst Dash, nodding at her, though her attention had already refocused elsewhere, picking the ball he wanted and made his way as quickly as his battered body would allow his to over to the other students, and a quick scan led him to Paulina, Kwan, Star, and Dale, each paired with the other. None of them spared him a look, seemingly oblivious to the growing bustle of activity around his presence, and because of what, he could only guess with a shameful glower, happened just earlier that day, knowing full well that they would be talking about that...for a while.
Remarking the others with a glimmer of hope, choosing to focus on something else despite the flagrant pointing and whispering, he made it over to the four of them, smiling faintly beneath his hood, then tried his best to fix his voice to what he had before, that irritating, but familiar, voice that became what he wanted to hear. Louder, louder, just to overtake the noise in his head and around.
He had to focus on something.
"I guessing I'm pairin' with you guys, huh? Figured that would be the case. Mind if I get with you and Dale?" The youth regarded Kwan with a small smile, though he didn't look directly at him, trying his best to angle his face away from his view.
'I can't let them see my face, but I can at least play it up. I know how this works...,' Discreetly, he fanned a bit of greasy hair into his face, covering his bulging left eye the best way he could as he waited for their response, but when he was only met with silence, eery, stunning silence as they gave him...odd expressions, ones he just couldn't decipher (...anger?...repulsion?...he really couldn't make sense of them at all), Dash opted to just...hang around them, keeping close, but not pushing the issue.
Maybe that meant yes?
Yeah, that had to be it, and they were just really focused on something else.
'Wow, you really are dense, aren't you?'
'Can't you see that you're bothering them, you fuckin' retard.'
'They can't stand being around you, but you knew that, didn't you?'
"No, I-," Looking to his left where they stood, he quickly closed his mouth.
He really needed to stop doing that.
Before they really start to...never mind.
He pressed his lips together tightly, and turned to face Tetslaff, her face upturned into a wiley smile as she gripped her own dodge ball, clapping it between her own hands.
"Alright, you guys! Today, we play a good, old fashioned game of dodge ball. You all haven't how to play, have 'ya?" No one said anything, but a few students shook their heads, though some were still looking in Dash's direction, a fact that he tried to ignore, but found himself looking in their direction as well, checking even as the woman went on to explain the rules.
"The rules are simple: each on of you are on a team of two, and that's important. You'll be covering each other as the two of you try to eliminate each team member on each team. With the addition of trying to eliminate the other teams, you'll need to keep an eye out for each other as well." Dash eyed Dale and Kwan with a uncertain eye, noticing with a shimmer of fear that they felt so far away, but he shook it away, figuring he would be fine.
Yeah, he would be fine.
One of the students, a boy with strawberry blonde hair and freckled skin, spoke up, though Dash couldn't quite place his name.
For a split second, he shot a glance back at Dash, but it was so quick, he didn't have the chance to respond to it, but chose to stand up straighter, at least, he would have, had his back not protested with a sense of indignation. Tetslaff looked and noticed the student, picking him from the crowd.
"Question?" The boy didn't speak for a moment, and though Dash couldn't see his face from his back, he could see his cheeks fill out, as if he had begun to smirk, and he spoke, loud enough that his voice echoed with an odd intensity that filled the gym.
"But what about the teams with extra...additions? Why do they get another teammate and the rest of us don't? I don't think that's very fair." Looking at Dash specifically, Tetslaff sighed, holding up her hand as she watched the former chuckle, a few other students pitching in with agreement at the student's point.
Dash wavered a bit as few looked him as well, smirking at him...laughing at him.
"Alright, alright. Now, I know that it might seem a little unfair, but there aren't any more pairs and-," It was Kwan that spoke up this time, his voice even, even flat, but Dash still looked up, his eyes glittering with hope and relief.
He would clear this up, his mind, his thoughts reasoned.
He'd say, 'No, he is on our team. He's on our team, so you guys just deal with it.'
That's what he would have liked to have happened.
But that wasn't what happened at all.
"Ah, actually, it's just Dale and I. We wouldn't think it's fair to have another player between the two of us." He didn't look at Dash, choosing instead to focus his teal eyes ahead of him, as if Dash weren't there at all.
Not there at all, his mind echoed.
"Well, it would seem a bit unfair to have him be one his own, wouldn't it?" The older woman offered with a degree of surprise in her voice, looking at Kwan with a quizzical eye, placing her own dodgeball beneath her arm. A few of the other students seemed to be more interested in what Kwan had to say, the same student, the one with strawberry blonde hair, Jackson, Dash thought his name was, spoke up again, pointing to the former himself.
"He has a point. Besides, isn't Dash the captain of basically every sports team in Casper? If anyone has a chance of winning, partnered up or not, it would probably be him, right?" There were whispers amongst the students, but most of them didn't object. They looked to him, too, most with amused looks on their faces as Tetslaff seemed to deliberate over this, and many of the other students, too, most coming forward to express their agreement with what both Kwan and Jackson had said.
Jackson himself looked back at Dash, his face looking much more like a cat that had ensnared its prey than a human, freckled face upturned in a grin that made Dash want to tear it off his face.
Of course, the boy came to realize as he gripped his ball as tightly as he could, scowling furiously at the other.
He was trying to make him out to be a coward, to humiliate him.
All of them were.
He wasn't asking this because he really cared about him being on someone else's team.
He just didn't like him.
A lot of the students didn't, he realized as he gritted his teeth. Looking to Kwan once more, he could see his teal eyes watching him, and just as quickly they fell away, gazing anywhere but where Dash stood just a few feet away. No, his mind thought with a quick reprieve, Kwan wasn't like them. He just wanted to play the game fairly, it was Jackson that put him on the spot and made him choose. Kwan had a tough choice to make, it was only fair.
'If that's what you think...'
'Shut up. You don't know anything. I know Kwan. He's my best friend.' The boy bit back the fear.
He was right, and the voice was wrong.
It was just that simple.
But he wouldn't let them see him falter.
He was THE Dash Baxter.
He could manage a little game of dodge ball, couldn't he?
"You know what?", He began with a confident step, ignoring the subtle wobble that caused him to stiffen a bit, feeling a bit of his muscles protest after having stood still for so long, "You guys are right! I can take all of you on my own, so I'll be fine, Tetslaff. I've got this." He felt precisely like his didn't have anything, but he had to believe he did.
He had to.
The older woman pulling at he short ponytail a bit before shrugging, clasping her ball in her powerful fists.
"Well, suit yourself, Baxter. Alright, all pairs, line up along the lines with your other team. Dash, you can pick the team you want to be on. Blue or red?" He'd forgotten that aspect of the game. Along with pairs, there were also teams, with each side bearing four pairs of two students. On the side of the line that he was on, he was definitely on the blue team, his friends' team.
He stayed on the blue side, and Tetslaff nodded, taking her whistle in hand.
"Alright! Remember, when both team mates are hit, that means a game over for that pair, and when all pairs on a team are hit, the team with any players left standing wins." Looking at her watch, she mouthed a few things to herself before looking back up.
"This round will last for five minutes! There will be three rounds each, so get ready to do some sweating! After that, we'll head out to the track to do some laps. Now, on your mark, get ready..."And with a great inhale, her whistle blew and the chaos began.
Immediately most students turned their attention to him, Dash, in a bid to throw their balls at him first, the boy just narrowly dodging a few that seemed aimed at his head, little in the way of subtlety as Tetslaff had to chime in from the sidelines.
"No targeting certain players, people. Play fair!" Of course, they didn't listen to her immediately, but little by little, the focus began to spread, and now Dash had a bit of time to breathe, and it was a good thing he did, feeling his breath coming in short spurts as his body began to buckle under the stress and strain. Tossing his ball at a pair of smaller students, from what he could tell as identical twins as they looked exactly align, he struck the one with glass square in the stomach, though he hadn't accounted for how tired he would be after than, the triumph of having felled an opponent overshadowed by the ever-present hunger pains that riddled his body more intensely then before. It was like claws, terrible claws, were trying to carve his insides out, twisting and prying until paused for a breath, holding his stomach all the while.
However, he would be staying still for long, another student, a familiar face amongst the crowd that Dash hadn't seen before, seemed to put everything he had into throwing the ball, and directly at Dash's face no less. The shorter boy was a good arm and an even better aim, just barely missing his face as the former ducked out of the way just in time, but it wasn't without him stretching just a bit too much, the wounds on his back screaming, screaming with indignation as he abruptly froze, biting his lip to silence himself.
'Just breathe. I have to breathe. I'll be fine.' Going just a bit further down to grab another ball, he winced as they stretched, the wounds, and Dash could feel a bit of warmth beneath his shirt, jersey, and jacket, but he had already grabbed the ball, gripping it as tightly as he could as if holding onto a lifeline of his own, when at the same time, the hunger pains reminded him of their presence, the boy just barely resisting the urge to double over in pain as his stomach seemed to eat itself and his head began to grow fuzzy.
'You're bleeding, you know.'
'Ugh, you're going to mess up your clothes!'
'Someone will definitely notice, dimwit.'
'It's just a little bit longer, then I can go to the locker room for a bit too, um, I don't know. I'll, uh, figure it out...' All the while, Dash tried choosing his next target, and his eyes fell on a weaselly student, a bit on the plump side, and he threw the ball, though it didn't make it nearly far enough as it tumbled sadly from his hands and into the middle of the court, the youth stepping back dizzily.
Had everything always been this...fuzzy?
"Thirty seconds! I repeat, thirty seconds left in this round!" Dash would have cheered if he hadn't felt so...tired. Through his hazy eyes, he picked up on Kwan, Dale, and the others, each still with their respective teammates, though he noticed two of the students, on from each of the other pairs, had been benched, forgetting all about the other players on the team seeing as he was preoccupied himself.
Preoccupied, now, with not falling over as he began to feel faint, really faint, actually.
So faint that he felt his knees begin to buckle, but he stood upright.
As straight as he could, anyway.
It was beginning to become hard to tell just where he was as the whistle sounded, ending the first round.
"Alright! Blue team makes it out with three pairs, and red with two and a half! Good job, let's take a five to regroup in the locker rooms; get a drink or something like that." The older woman, however, noticed something odd.
Really odd.
She had the entire time, watching him from the sidelines.
Dash had since confined himself to the bleachers, slinking down until he felt his bottom touch the seat, wavering slightly before his eyelids began to become heavy.
So heavy...
"Baxter, you good there?" The boy slowly cracked open his eyes to meet her in front of him, towering over him, but he couldn't see her face that well. He couldn't tell what she was thinking at all, but still, he tried to push himself up from the seat, making his arms as still as possible even when he felt as though he would collapse back onto the plastic seating. Dash smiled up at her the best way he could.
"Oh, T-Tetslaff. Hey! Yeah, I'm just catching my breath, you know? But I feel great. Why do you ask?" He tried his best to keep up his smile, to watch her though he didn't look into her eyes. She didn't notice it, but sat down beside him.
"No real reason, kiddo. Just...you just look a little worn out. Do you want to sit these next rounds out? I won't mark you grade or anything. I just want to make sure you're okay?" She spoke in a really low voice, her breath smelling faintly off coffee as she eyed him softly, the boy being forced to turn his head away, fearing she would see his face. The sweat that had accumulated on his face would make it harder for the makeup to hold, he knew, but the locker rooms was so far away. He could only hope that it would hold just a little bit longer.
However, the question seemed ridiculous to him.
Sit out?
Who did she think he was?
He was just fine.
Couldn't she see that?
"N-no-" His vision had gone a little dark again, but he straightened up with the help of Tetslaff, who had just caught him, and he sighed, recoiling away from her touch when he had gathered enough strength to sit up again.
The woman looked concerned.
He didn't want her to be concerned.
"Listen, kiddo. I can tell you're feeling a little under the weather. I'm sure you want to show up the rest of these guys, but here," Reaching into her fanny pack, she pulled out a small oat granola bar, not missing the way that his eyes seemed to focus solely on that as she handed it to him, patting his hands as she went to stand,"...try giving that a nibble to see how you feel afterward, okay? Sit out round two, and if you feel up to in round three, then I might let you back in, but the last thing I want to see is you get hurt." With that, she stood up, leaving him to his thoughts as he opened his mouth to call her back, but she had already begun speaking to the others.
She wouldn't hear him now.
Looking down at the granola bar, Dash tried to focus on that instead of the eyes that laid glued to him as he was sure that they would be looking at him, wondering why he wasn't playing.
'They'll think that you're a wimp, a loser who can't stand up to them.'
'Can't you see how they're looking at you? They're definitely laughing at you.'
'She definitely looks down on you. Why else would she tell you to not play? She doesn't think you're capable.'
'No, I am capable. I am! I could...could go back to the game anytime I want to! And she doesn't think that. She told me so!' Gripping the granola bar lightly, he looked at as hard as he could before using his teeth to tear open the wrapping, but then he paused.
'You know that she's just trying to trick you, right?'
'Oh, she definitely poisoned it. She wants to kill you.'
'She's going to do it because she knows that you'll just get in the way.'
His mouth hung open just a bit as his body fought to consume it, but...
Something like apprehension gripped him, with gentle hands as it pulled the granola bar away from his mouth, inspecting it closely. In his mind, he knew that it couldn't be true, that she wouldn't do something like that to a student, but...
Then why did he feel afraid?
'She wouldn't do that. She's really nice to me. She doesn't poison people.' But did he know that?
No, he meant, did he know her that well? What if she did, and he just didn't know it yet?
Maybe, his mind began to ponder, when he caught himself mid-thought, smacking his head with his own hand once or twice before looking at it again, the granola bar in his hand practically begging to be eaten.
It looked normal enough, so why, then, did he think that?
He had no reason to.
Or maybe he did?
He wasn't sure.
But he took a small bite out of the granola as he watched the new round start.
