(A/N: I'm not really sure how this makes me sound, but I get the feeling that I'm probably the only one who likes this story. I know it's not true and people do like this just as much as I do, it's a feeling that I get sometimes.
I know that just because a story doesn't get a lot of views, favorites, followers, or reviews doesn't mean it's not good. And it is. This story is good and it's going to be around for a long time.)
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Lunchtime came by relatively quickly for the students, perhaps it had something to do with it being a Monday. They all ran out of their classrooms to be first in line to get food.
RY-N searched around for Smokey to apologize like he 'promised' his sister, but couldn't find him. Instead, he went searching for his two best friends, ZK and SK8-R. He found ZK right away, he was standing next to a table where some of his classmates sat and ate their lunch.
"Hey, man," he smiled when he came to a stop right next to him.
"Hey, how's today been so far?" he asked.
"Boring, same as always," he shrugged. "You?"
"We had a test today and we have to write two paragraphs by Wednesday," he replied with a groan.
"Oh, yeah, my class did something like that a week ago," he told him, nodding his head slightly.
"So, did you apologize to that Citrakayah yet?" he asked.
He grumbled, "No. I tried looking for him, but I can't find him anywhere."
"Well, did he say anything last night about where he might be?" he asked.
"I think he said that he likes to be by the swings," he answered.
"I think SK8-R said that he would be down by the field," he told him.
"Why?" he asked.
He shrugged, "I don't know. So, do you want to go get lunch or do you want to go find him?"
He thought about it for a second, "Let's go find SK8-R, then we'll look for Smokey and get this apology thing over with."
They took off in the direction of the field, which was right next to the playground. The field itself was quite large, it was roughly the size of a soccer field with a track field that wraps around it.
On the track were four Kinecelerans, one of which was their friend. SK8-R saw them and he went off track and stopped right in front of them, the other three followed him.
"What's the big deal, SK8?" one of them asked.
"I saw my friends," he replied, then turned to them. "What's up guys?"
"We thought we'd find you and get this apology over with," he told him.
His expression went bitter, "You're seriously going to apologize to that Smokey kid? You should be the one that gets one."
"Smokey?" another asked. "I know that guy. We have the same class."
"Really? What's he usually like?" RY-N asked.
"He's usually pretty quiet, the kind of guy that gets all of his work done in class," he said. "Doesn't have too many friends either. The only person he really talks to is the teacher and our new classmate Jet."
"Well, we better get going," the last one said. "See ya later, SK8-R." All three took off and went back to the track.
"Alright, let's hurry up and find him," RY-N stated.
A loud growl coming from ZK's stomach changed that plan. "Sorry, I'm hungry."
He sighed, "Fine, we'll get lunch, then we'll look for him."
"Sounds like a plan to me!" ZK took off without them.
They were just about to follow him when RY-N saw something on SK8-R's forearm. It caught his attention because Kinecelerans heal very quickly and there are only a handful of species in the entire universe that can harm them.
"What's with that scratch on your arm?" he asked.
He looked at it, "Huh, I'm not sure. Come on. ZK's probably waiting for us."
Both went to the cafeteria and got their food. When they walked into the lunch area they saw their friend holding a food tray, waiting for them.
"What took so long?" he asked as they looked for a table to sit at.
"RY-N asked about a scratch on my arm," SK8-R answered, holding out his arm.
He took a look at it, "Ouch. Want my Dad to look at it? He is a doctor."
"Nah, I'm good," he waved him off.
They looked around for a table to sit at, but there was only one space left for them. They went over to that table and saw that it was right next to where the person RY-N had been looking for was sitting at.
"Hey, that's the guy I've been looking for," he pointed out.
He tapped him on the shoulder, he flinched and whipped his head around. He sighed in relief when he saw that it was just RY-N, but when his eyes landed on SK8-R, he thought he was going to have a heart attack.
"What do you want?" he asked, he tried to sound calm, but the shakiness in his voice was clear.
SK8-R narrowed his white eyes at him, but then noticed the Aerophibian sitting next to him. Given what he did to him earlier, he had a feeling that this was his way of taking an extra precaution.
'Pathetic,' he mentally scoffed.
"I just wanted to say sorry for losing my temper last night," he told him.
He nodded, "Alright, I'm sorry, too. Sorry I made you upset."
He gave him a small smile and waved it off, "It's cool. Is your brother making you apologize too?"
He didn't smile back, but he did nod, "Yeah, he got more than a little angry with me. My Mom is putting me in charge of changing my sister's diaper for the next month. Wait, is NTL-E making you apologize?"
"Yeah, if I don't she'll turn me into mush," he chuckled.
He cracked a small smile of his own, "Sounds like her. You should see how she gets with my brother. I think he went blind in one eye because she punched him too hard."
He nodded, "Yup, that's definitely my sister."
"You guys wanna sit down?" Jet offered.
Before he or ZK could say anything, SK8-R answered, "No, we're fine." Much to the confusion of his friends.
They sat down at the table behind them and ate their food. Smokey glared at SK8-R's back and turned around with a sad face. Jet saw this and put a hand on his shoulder, turning his head back to look at them before looking back at his classmate.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yeah," he responded quietly. "I guess I kinda hoped that I could possibly get over my hatred for them and maybe let my guard down for a second." He looked over at them and narrowed his eyes, "I guess not."
RY-N and ZK couldn't understand why their friend would be so quick to decline something before they could all come to some kind of agreement. Also, it almost looked like he was quick to get away from Smokey.
"What's your problem, man?" ZK asked SK8-R.
"Yeah, he was being cool and he apologized too," RY-N pointed out, bewildered.
"I'm not falling for it," he scoffed then continued pointedly, "he's a jerk to you, he lied about me. He's just acting to make us think he's a nice guy. In reality, he's probably worse than the Vreedles."
To say they were surprised to hear a statement like that from their friend is an understatement. SK8-R was usually very friendly with everyone, Kineceleran or not, but he was obviously hostile towards him, which was very uncharacteristic.
Although, this sudden change in character could be caused by a number of things. It could even have something to do with the allegations made against him. If they were even simply allegations at all.
For some reason, ZK felt the need to glance at the scratch on SK8-R's arm again and something just didn't sit right with him. His father wasn't just any other doctor, he was a trained pathologist and he taught him how to distinguish certain injuries.
According to him, accidental injuries will appear on the skin in a random pattern, but defensive and offensive injuries will appear in a uniform pattern. The scratch on his arm was too straight and too deep to be caused by simply brushing up against a door frame.
Then again, what does he know? He's only ten! He doesn't know anything about medicine or diseases or injuries. For all he knew, he could have scratched himself because he felt an itch on his arm.
Still, it looked really strange to him and the fact that Kinecelerans rarely receive serious injuries from anyone or anything is really suspicious. Especially considering that they generally begin to rapidly heal themselves just milliseconds after receiving an injury.
Then, he remembered something, he remembered his father mentioning something about the arm and leg blades of a Citrakayah. The blades of a Citrakayah are powerful enough to cut into solid concrete. Does the idea that the injury could have been caused by a Citrakayah hold water? No, not enough proof. Could it have been? Absolutely.
They finished their food and SK8-R said that he was going to go back to the field. ZK told RY-N that he was going up to the front office to see if he could make a quick phone call. That left RY-N without anyone to talk to for the remaining duration of their lunch break.
He looked up at a clock attached to the wall near the table he sat at. There was only about five minutes left before classes would restart. With nothing to lose, he decided to go to the playground for the remainder of the break.
He looked around for something to do for these remaining few minutes, but nothing seemed interesting. Things always seem to be a bit more interesting when his friends were around.
Then, he spotted someone familiar by the swings. It was Smokey and he looked sad or distraught. He was sitting on a swing and was moving back and forth slowly, much slower than the normal speed for a Kineceleran or a Citrakayah. He was alone, his Aerophibian friend was nowhere in sight.
They may not be friends or on the best of turns, but he still wondered why he looked so upset. He went over to the swings to see what was wrong with him.
He sat down in the swing next to him and asked, "Hey, Smokey, what's wrong?"
He turned his head away from him, "Nothing." His voice was low and flat and almost scathing, but the sadness in his voice could clearly be heard.
He rolled his eyes, 'Oh, man! Not this again.'
As if he knew what he was thinking, he blurted out, "I'm not mad at you. I'm more or less mad at myself."
"Why?" he asked, confused and curious.
He looked at the ground and closed his eyes and sighed, "I- I'm not sure. I guess I just want friends."
"Friends? What about the Aerophibian?" he questioned.
It took a moment, but he finally responded, "I guess I could call Jet my friend, we haven't known each other for very long, but he's the only one I talk to and I just feel like he understands me."
He wasn't exactly sure what to make of this. It almost sounded like he was confessing something to him, it made him feel like a police officer.
When they met the night before, he got the impression that he was the type that hated all Kinecelerans, period. Now, after hearing this, his impression of him was solemn to say the least. Comparing the two, he wasn't sure how to think of him.
He continued, "Jet and I couldn't be more different, but I still feel like we have this connection. It's something that I can't really explain because it's something that I only feel with the ones closest to me."
Before he could say anything, flashes suddenly encircled around Smokey and threw him to the ground. He got up from the swing and was about to help him up then SK8-R came over and put his arm around him.
"Hey, RY, what are you doing around here?" he asked casually.
"I was just talking to him to pass the time," he replied quickly.
They began to stroll away along with SK8-R's friends as he scoffed and laughed, "Who would want to hang out with that loser?"
They left the area and left him on the ground alone. He sat there with his head hung and his eyes glued to the ground, close to tears.
Jet soared over to him and helped him stand as he asked, "What happened to you?"
"Nothing. Just the usual," he answered quietly.
He looked in the direction where they headed and narrowed his eyes. His eyes glowed vividly, indicating that he was about to fire his neuroshock blasts at them.
Smokey saw this and covered his eyes, "No, don't! Shooting at them won't solve a thing!"
He sighed, "Fine." The bell rang, echoing throughout the whole school. "Let's go to class."
Meanwhile in the front office, ZK was on the phone with his father, telling him about his suspicions. As much as he hated talking about one of his closest friends behind their back, he just couldn't get his suspicions out of his head.
"Dad, all I'm saying is that it's just a little weird," he told him.
"I get that, son, I understand why you're suspicious," he replied.
"You're the one who told me that our species doesn't get hurt very easily," he pointed out, "and he had a deep scratch on his arm."
"A deep scratch? On a young Kineceleran?" he questioned, now understanding why his son was so suspicious. "Okay, I'll look into it." And with that he hung up.
The bell rang, he put the phone down and thanked the secretary, "Thanks." He left and went straight to class.
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(A/N: Sorry if it's a little too short, I really did my best. I know it probably doesn't seem like it, but I did actually try really hard and I did give it my best.
I recently published a new story called "Unknown Life", it has to do with a couple of villains linked to one person. That's I'm gonna say here, if you want to know more about it you'll have to read it. It's not much now, but it will shortly.
Before I forget, I'd like to thank Snowflake Canary for reviewing my stories. Thank you so very much!)