She, was a conundrum.
Or at least, that word sounded impressive to give some weight to the utter fascination and bafflement he had for her.
She wasn't like anyone else. Anyone and everyone else had amazement, awe, excitement around him. Sometimes, there was a bit of fear, but it never lasted long as he would do tricks to impress and use his abilities to help. Always helping out and doing right. Which people loved. If he ever made a mistake, he apologized, fixed it if he could or ask his parents. They were really good at smoothing things over if he had a bit of an accident. He worked hard to not have any, practicing at home were damage was easily and quickly fixed, one way or the other. And for the last couple years, he had not had any new abilities show up. So he had a pretty good handle on that. Therefore, was really good at entertaining people with them and helping out with very little issue.
So Wayne Scott had no idea why the girl who had the locker beside his, refused to return his greetings and when she did look his way, had such a strong look of dislike. Not amazement or awe. No excitement to the few tricks he tried. No fear at him having superhuman abilities. But stared at him in dislike before closing her locker next to his and leaving.
He didn't get it. Or understand it. He knew this was around the age his dad commented girls started getting weird, but still. Charlotte Kimble was the only person in the entire middle school who acted like that.
Well, her and her older brother in the seventh grade, Bailey. But from the short time Wayne had been at this new school and in meeting the older boy, Bailey was like that with everyone. Charlotte was not. Just with Wayne.
With everyone else, she had these soft little smiles, a warmth to her, zeal for telling and sharing stories. Downright cute. With her white slacks and pastel colored cozy sweaters. And him trying not to be spotted so he could hear her with others, with her friends, entertaining them all in her own way. No superhuman physical abilities to pull it off. Just her excitement on display, face alight and hands moving and words becoming more, enticing and sucking you into the story.
Wayne was caught every time. He kept reacting to her tales with gasps and questions and then embarrassingly called out on listening in. Her friends and others nearby would joke and tease Wayne, her as well, saying how he liked her liked her.
She would scowl and glare. And he would jolt and deny it. Loudly.
Except, he did. He liked her. A little. Just a little.
He wasn't going to say that. She clearly didn't like him. And he couldn't, for the life of him, figure out why.
The most he could think of was she was upset or mad at him was from the first time he'd stopped and listened to her telling a story to her friends Minnie and Jill. The first time he'd gotten caught and apologized for doing so and said he liked the story. Then Jill had giggled and said Wayne liked Charlotte. Those around had caught onto that and it became a whole thing.
Maybe she really liked someone else and didn't like the fact people kept bringing up him to her?
There was only so much Wayne could do about what anyone said. It wasn't his fault. He didn't tell them to do that. Even said he just liked her stories. Or that he just wanted to say hi, to be friends.
Nothing he did went over well for Charlotte.
"Hello," he half-heartedly attempted to her.
She opened her locker. Pulled out her backpack. Put in her math and English textbooks. Swung the backpack over her shoulder. Tugged out a cheerfully wrapped square present, covered in what looked to be cute little doodles done by hand in various sharpie colors. Blue balloons, red dragons, yellow lightning bolts, green gears, purple presents and bows.
That got Wayne's interest.
"Hey, who's birthday—"
The rest of the question lodged in Wayne's throat. Charlotte had closed the door and turned toward him. With not a look of dislike. A smile. A really large smile.
His heart hitched.
He smiled back.
And she sprinted past him.
"Charlie!"
"Meg! You're early!"
"Been brimming full of anticipation and excitement all day. Schedules mean nothing to me. Well, except yours because otherwise I'd be stuck pacing the hallway for the past forty-six minutes. Oh! It looks amazing! Did you make the lightning bolts into a face? You did! I love it!"
Wayne openly stared from his place at his locker. Both of them paid no mind to the late stragglers rushing off to the buses, their attention solely on each other. Not that Charlotte ever did otherwise from what Wayne had seen in watching her. But she wasn't unaware of others. She'd give a quick wave or hello to others—sans him—then right back to focusing on the person or people she had already been talking with. Except, with this other boy, she didn't look as though her attention would waver for anyone else.
Wayne's heart hitched. Again. But with more pain. He shook his head, trying to shake the feeling off.
It was the boy's birthday. She had given him a gift. Of course she was focused on him.
Impatient, Charlotte motioned, eyes sparkling. "Well open it!"
The boy pressed it close to his chest, gasping at her. "And not fully appreciate and take in the wrappings so carefully made for the occasion? Let me get my full share of admiring it first, Charlie."
Charlotte laughed, eyes going up, and shaking her head. "Fine, fine." Her eyes went back to the boy's face. "Jill says happy birthday and she got you a little something too. Here. Give me a second. Hey Freddie!"
"Hey."
Wayne shifted his focus to look to the older boy, he'd come up behind the birthday one, stepping beside Bailey. Another older brother? They shared similarities so it seemed likely. Wayne's eyes went back to the boy admiring Charlotte's wrapping job, turning the gift to take in every side of it. He wasn't small or short, more what Wayne's mother would call slight, and was clearly their age. Which had Wayne wondering why this boy did not look familiar and why he'd not seen him before.
It's not like he was watching watching Charlotte. Not really. He just noticed her. She stood out. And her locker was right next to his. Of course he saw her.
Black Converse shoes, rather than the more popular Reebok or Nike. Dark, black and white, denim wash jeans, tightly rolled up at the bottom to show off the shoes. A yellow collared polo shirt, the collar sticking up, tucked into the pants which were held in place by blue suspenders and a blue belt at his waist with a yellow lightning bolt design for the buckle. Wayne almost didn't see the extra thing to hold up the boy's pants due to the overlarge coat tied, sliding down on the left side, around his middle. The denim backpack on his back was clearly very old, one strap stitched back on with thick blue thread and Wayne could spot at least two patches on it where he stood.
Why wouldn't he just buy a new one?
And while the coat tied around his middle did help point out how slight he was, his head certainly did. Large forehead and very closely cropped black hair. As in barely grown in hair. Like one of the sick kids from the big hospital fundraisers Wayne's parents went to.
"Here you go, Meg." Charlotte pulled out the item from her backpack, holding it out to the boy.
Meg?
As in Megan?
Wasn't that a girl's name?
"Ah-ha! Brilliant! It's even astronomically correct!"
With a quick flick of his hand to an arm, there was a sharp slap, startling Wayne a bit. The boy raised up the arm he struck and grinned brightly. A strap of black now wrapped around his wrist, little spots of white dotted onto it.
"I simply must create the perfect card of thanks for her on finding and acquiring this."
"Good idea," Minnie said. Charlotte's friend nodded, an approving smile on her face. And then froze. And Wayne froze. Light brown and icy blue eyes glued to the other. "Um… Guys?"
"What is it Min—"
There was a sharp intake of breath.
Not just Minnie's eyes were on Wayne now.
The birthday boy's eyes in particular were startlingly large and noticeable in their brilliant bright green. They stood out. Even against Charlotte's warm brown, narrowed upon him, much like Bailey's narrow brown glare. Minnie's head twisted back and forth, her light brown eyes appearing anxious and concerned. But Fred's brown seemed watchful. All brown eyes. And then the huge brilliant bright green gawking at Wayne.
"Hello," Wayne greeted. And waved, pulling his shoulders back as he did so, trying to look confident rather than caught watching in his curiosity about this boy Charlotte Kimble was so excited to see. "I'm Wayne S—"
A loud snort interrupted his introduction. Bailey. "Oh. We know who you are."
Wayne blinked. Tried to shrug that off. The older boy was just… Bailey was never known for… Except he had not come across this strong before. The older boy's tone and disdain struck him harder than he would have expected. No one… No one had ever straight up spoken and referred to him with blatant, straightforward hatred like that. Some dislike, but not like—
"Bailey," the oldest one intoned. Freddie. Huffing, Bailey rolled his eyes away and crossed his arms, hip jutting in the birthday boy's direction. "Apologies for him. Let's get going."
"Happy birthday!"
The words blurted out from Wayne. He drew his mouth up into a smile. Trying to fix the dislike aimed at him. Being caught watching and listening to Charlotte. Again. He had just been…curious. That was all. Besides, everyone liked birthday wishes. No one could dislike him for that.
The birthday boy peered with those brilliant bright green eyes from behind the moving group surrounding him.
"Happy birthday," Wayne repeated. "Meg, right? How old are you today? Twelve?"
If the boy was a year older, then that would explain why Wayne had never really seen him. He'd be in the next grade up. Except Freddie seemed to have come with him. And Freddie appeared both taller and older than Bailey. Who was in seventh grade. Maybe the birthday boy was older than he looked?
There was a bit of a pause, then the boy spoke, hands fidgeting with his lightning belt. "Meged. My name is Meged. Meged Lightning."
Wayne's eyebrows flew up at that. This was the lightning boy? Lightning Boy? The one Wayne had overheard a few comments about. The boy who, rather than entering middle school with the rest at this school district, got skipped completely past and into the high school? He'd thought lightning had been a nickname. But apparently it was the boy's last name.
"And I'm eleven," the boy tacked on. "Er, thank you?"
"Meg Meg!"
A small speedbullet of a child burst through the slowly dying down crowded hallway, leaping onto the birthday boy. Wayne blinked as he got a good look. Was that… How many Kimble siblings were there?
"Hey, little Yaya!"
The small boy, looking around perhaps five, beamed. "Happy one one! I made you a thing in class today! Here! It's a card!"
Wayne watched as Meged took the folded piece of blue construction paper, covered in a giant sprinkle mess of two lines on the front, opening it to see a box drawn on the inside with various buttons glued inside. The birthday boy smiled. Those green eyes slid back to the younger boy clinging to his side.
"Nooo," Meged's voice came out teasing. "This can't be the inside of the cleaning bot Fred and I have been working on, can it?"
The small boy giggled at the tone, wiggling. "Yep! I got all the buttons where the bigger gears are at! Um, right?"
Meged smiled warmly. "It is perfection," he declared.
A feeling nagged at Wayne as he watched.
"Elijah. You were supposed to wait at the elementary with Delbert for us to come. Like usual."
The small boy turned to Fred, making a pouting face with large dark blue eyes. "But today is special. Bertie was right behind me. See? He's right there, see?"
Yet another one that was clearly a Kimble came from the same direction Elijah had come from. Delbert. Bertie.
It was that moment it sunk in and Wayne spun. "Wait a minute! You make things? Mechanical gadgets with gears and wires and stuff? Really? That's awesome!"
Meged jumped, eyes wide, a startled noise blurting out from him. "I, uh, well, I, yes, I create and invent, but you…awesome? You never thought I, er, um, hi?"
"Hey!" Charlotte placed herself in front of Meged. Between Wayne and him. Her eyes narrowed and Wayne froze, froze at the realization he had flown right at Meged in his excitement.
Another body came from the other side, hand shoving at Wayne's shoulder. "Back off," Bailey snarled. It didn't do much, but it did snap Wayne out of it. He hovered back a few inches, planting his feet back firmly onto the floor, and took a step back.
"You really make things? New things?"
The boy blinked at Wayne. "Yesss? Yes, I do. Fred does too."
"Awesome," Wayne breathed out. He turned to take in the oldest there, who was still watching them all. Then back to Meged. "What kinds of things? I tried making things myself a few times, but it's way harder than I thought it would be. My mother hired an old professor for science stuff to give a few lessons. Managed to do a couple of outlined little projects, but man! Super hard. Even with things already invented, which I thought would be easy since they're already a thing. Got pretty good at putting things I messed with back how I found them. Er, for the most part. Can I see? What have you made?"
Meged's jaw slowly hung farther and farther open as Wayne had gone on. His eyes were not the only wide ones staring. All the Kimbles were staring.
"So, Wayne," Freddie spoke up. Er, wait. Meged had called him simply Fred. Wayne put his focus onto the oldest Kimble, who seemed kind of amused. "You're into science and inventing?"
"That's Wayne?" Plastered to Meged's side still, Elijah turned his head to give Wayne a long studying look, eyebrows furrowed. "Wayne Scott?"
"Yes," Charlotte answered the youngest boy simply.
"Kind of? I found an appreciation for it? I can't do it, but…"
Wayne hesitated. Then went through with it. He went right into why he appreciated someone creating mechanical devices.
"There was this kid from my kindergarten class who made it look so easy. And after finding out he really was making metal things, I had to try and see for myself, but well. I'm much better welding metal things together. The things he made were impressive too. The old professor mother hired thought I imagined them all up. The kid was a bit of a liar about some stuff, but… But I don't think so. Not about making stuff. He was all brain and smarts. Read through every book there. Tinkered with things from his seat. Mother said no about any playdate or inviting him over though."
"You what?!"
Wayne blinked at Meged's shocked shout. "I what?"
"You invited over a boy you bullied?" Bailey scoffed. "A boy you physically ran down and led rounds of attacks against at school. And you wanted to have a playdate with him? Ha."
"I don't bully anyone! I didn't—"
"Yes, you did. I told you. We know you." Bailey sneered at Wayne again. "You're the boy with all the gold stars and showing off how great you are. Think you're all that too here, don't you? And you're right. He is impressive. Couldn't take the competition, could you? Or that you couldn't possibly match his brains? Outcasted him. Made him feel like less than a piece of—"
"Bailey!" Fred cut off his brother sharply. "Language."
"Well," spoke up Minnie in the silence. She toyed with the ends of her blonde hair. "You certainly did not make him feel welcome. Er, I mean, from all accounts we've heard."
Wayne felt very off center. It was true. He knew he hadn't been the best to the boy from the prison. It was not as though they had been friends or close. He'd been curious and thought it was best everyone get along and did try. But he'd been from the prison. A boy full of trouble. Full of lies. Of course Wayne had been upset and he didn't really run the boy down, but he did kind of, well… Storm up on the boy?
Wayne might be superhuman, but he knew who his parents were and they were not aliens and he was not an alien. Anyone would be upset by some stranger insisting elsewise. Again and again and again.
But…
"How…how do you… Accounts you've heard?"
The Kimble who'd yet to speak, Delbert or Bertie, piped up the answer for Wayne. "Our dad is the warden at the prison."
He blinked. Their dad was… "Oh."
"Yes," Bailey snarked up again. "That's right. Oh. We know who you are and we don't like you."
"But I—"
Wayne cut himself off and shook his head. Bailey's words echoed in his head. Repeating.
'We know who you are and we don't like you.'
'And we don't like you.'
'We don't like you.'
'Don't like you.'
'Don't like you.'
'Don't like you.'
"I didn't," Wayne tried starting up again. "I never… Everyone got a gold star from the teacher if they did something good. And I don't show off, I mean, I guess I do, but people like seeing me do stuff and, well, most people do and are impressed, because it's what makes me superhuman and…"
He trailed off again. Most people were impressed. Until he enrolled at this middle school that is and meet Charlotte. Bailey. The Kimble siblings. Meged Lightning. Who he and Fred made stuff. Which Wayne really wanted to see. But…
'We don't like you.'
"He was impressive. And interesting. I never, I never bullied him. I don't bully people. I didn't like when he lied and told him so. He did lie. About me not being superhuman, but an alien, which I'm not. And he made mistakes with his created machine things, I could tell on his face even if I didn't believe him then that he made them. I swear, I just… I just…"
Wayne trailed off from his rapid burst of words.
Glanced to Charlotte. Her warm brown eyes weren't nearly as fierce, more confused, yet still narrowed at him. Wayne swallowed, checking for the reactions to the rest. Then looked specifically to the eldest Kimble and Meged.
"I…I really would like to see or even hear about things either of you two have made. I wasn't… I'm not… Look, I'm not great at it, it takes a lot for me to wrap my head on reading to understanding science and math, much less doing something with it. I've only gotten not awful about putting already made stuff back together. So I really do think anyone who's invented and created something, well, they're kind of awe inspiring!"
Fred blinked in surprise, but Meged squeaked with his. Green eyes extremely large. His hands fidgeted, pulling the present Charlotte had given him close.
"Of course they are!" The youngest one piped up in the silence. "You should see the stuff Meg Meg and Freddie have made! Like Bertie's favorite toaster ever! It does everything! There's this nob on it that—"
"Don't tell him!" Bailey snapped harshly.
Undeterred, Elijah continued on. "—and it also can be used for eggs too, because there's this thing inside of it that—"
"Cake! You want cake, right?"
This from Bailey grabbed attention.
"Birthday cake! And the star balloons Mom got! Oooh!" The kid's head swiveled around to look straight up Meged's body, bouncing. "Can I pop them, can I, can I Meg Meg? Pretty please?"
Forcing his eyes away from Wayne, Meged looked down to Elijah with a smile. "Of course you can, little Yaya."
"Yay! Let's go, let's go!"
With that, Wayne watched as the whole group left. Led by Elijah tugging Meged along, then the older elementary school one (Bertie? Delbert?) following. Charlotte and Minnie quickly caught up. Bailey shot a glare and then a smug look back at Wayne before turning away. The oldest Kimble lingered for a time though.
"Well, that was interesting. You having an appreciation for inventors," Fred clarified. "Thanks. But we were both skipped up to the high school. Not much chance for us meeting. Unless times like this. Still… I can't accommodate your appreciation. Not without Meg finding it permissible."
Wayne blinked. "Permissible?"
"Permissible. Meaning with Meg's approval."
He'd figured it meant something like that. Wayne's shoulders drooped at hearing the explanation, the faint hope of it meaning something else disappearing. But…
"So…" Wayne's head jerked back up to Fred. "If I get his approval, then…?"
One shoulder shrugged up on the older boy. "Sure."
And waving one hand up, Fred left, jogging to catch up with the rest.
Hope refiled up Wayne's chest. This was his chance. To see and hear about inventions. After all this time. There had been brief meetings with a few adults invited to his parents' functions. But brief. They always left. And Wayne had been told no on the first inventor he'd ever meet. So to discover this grade skipping boy, Lightning Boy, friend to Charlotte was an inventor… And the oldest Kimble too?
There was no reason the fact they both were close to Charlotte had anything to do with Wayne's excitement about trying to befriend either one. No. Not at all.
AN:
It continues! And, the change of perspective called to me? A little less...tugging at the heart sad with Blue's whole childhood situation, even though this kind of started to give him other people in his life and happiness. Wayne is...well, yeah. As well as a time skip. Went from little youngsters to preteens. Well, Blue and Charlotte and Wayne all are. Not that Blue is in this chapter at all. Nooo. He definitely isn't allowed and attending a school, much less with his favorite batch of visitors. And this Meged Lightning boy definitely didn't show off an old nervous habit that Blue used with clutching Minion's globe close to his chest. Wayne having a bit of a preteen awkward crush on Charlotte wasn't quite planned, but his interest and notice would be piqued at her standing out from the rest in how she behaves near/around him.