Nepeta began walking through the halls, her fingers running through her ponytailed hair and her eyes pointed to the tile floors, darting from tile to tile with each step. She averted contact with everyone else by holding herself tightly together and staying against the wall instead of directly in the middle. She didn't know anyone aside from the boy from that morning and she was nervous to even talk to him. He seemed so grouchy and cranky in the mornings so she decided it would be best to avoid him at almost every costs. Her eye darted around noticing all of the people's feet. They all looked so nice and their shoes looked new. She couldn't remember the last time she wore something new or shiny. She pulled at her long pony tail and it felt matted and greasy. She needed to wash it soon. She didn't smell bad, thankfully.
She did however make a few heads turn, such as a dark haired girl with blue tinted ends and glasses. Her jacket was ripped on the right side and she wore an eye patch over her right eye. Her blue eye dug viciously into the young girls back, making the younger of the two feel oppressed. Nepeta continued walking, picking up her pace, her initial fear confirmed and held her head low, rushing to the secondary class. In the process of her half-run, half-jog to class she collided with a scrawny brown boy, their heads bashing together as they fell to the floor. A haze of laughter surrounded them as the tall girl pointed at them. "Look! I guess Peter Pan isn't so nimble on his feel after all!" Her passé began cackling like hyenas and the two looked embarrassingly at her, though she didn't quite understand the Peter Pan reference. The boy on the other hand, had his already tan skin turn slightly redder. He kept quiet as the bell rang, signaling their next class.
As the halls filed out, the two of them had to pick up their books and such. Nepeta let out a somber apology and the boy smiled and waved his hand. "It's fine. Happens all the time," his voice was feminine and queerish. It didn't waver her feeling of guilt. She handed him some homework papers. How does one communicate with other humans?! She continued to roll over possibilities in her mind and found introducing herself might be best. "My name is Nepeta." Her voice cracked halfway through her introduction. Her face burst a sharp and vibrant pink. The boy didn't seem to notice at all.
"I'm, uh... I'm Tavros." He smiled fondly at her. She was the first one to speak to him today, aside from Mrs. Maryam who was the schools part-time counselor and the girl from before who had remarked about his role as Peter Pan. The boy collected the remainder of his things and stood up, handing her a notebook and pencils she herself had dropped. "Thanks for, uh, picking my things up. I really appreciate it," he cooed happily. Nepeta nodded and returned the smile "No problem, I wasn't just going to leave you to pick these up yourself."
His grin widened as the pink drained from his ears. No one had been this kind to him for a while.
As he stood back up, a glimmer of silver could be seen by Nepeta in the place his ankle should be located. Though she didn't question she kept it in the back of her mind as the two separated and went to their classrooms on opposite ends of the hall.
Tavros stepped late into his geometry class, hanging his head low and seating himself away from the mean girl with the ripped jacket. Instead he sat beside a kid with tinted shades and bleach blonde hair. He was sitting back in his chair, feet on the desk, with a shirt that said "You Can't Handle My Sick Fires" and red jeans. He's pretty sure those are made for girls but he actually pulls them off really well.
He blows a pink wad of gum into a large rotund bubble and opens his mouth, letting the air reenter his mouth so he can chew it again. The cool kid smirks at Tavros and lowers his feet from the desk to see him better. "So where's you're chair, wheels?" Tavros snuffs and folds his arms over his chest, trying to be assertive and confident. "I-I, uh, I don't need it!" The second boy nodded and gave a sarcastic "Uh-huh..." Before kicking his leg slightly, the prosthetic coming out of place and clanking against the floor.
Tavros felt every pair of eyes dart straight towards him in a matter of milliseconds as he arched over to pick up the leg shaped plastic. Quickly sitting back up as it slipped on, he glared the boy down "Why are you so mean, Dave?" He growled with malice. The second boy, Dave, just shrugged and pointed towards the front of the room. "I'm not mean, I'm just toughening you up. You're kind of a pussy."
As the teacher lectured, Tavros thought over what Dave had said. It was kind of true. He didn't really have too much confidence to stand up for himself, nor did he really know how to have confidence. With his tinkerbell pen, he jotted down all the notes he could as quick as possible in the 50 minutes of class they had. Dave didn't take any, occassionally peering over at Tavros's to keep in the back of his head for further notice.
When second period is dismissed a few minutes before the bell, Tavros wobbles on his prosthetic limbs as he tries to obtain balance once more. His eyes went dark for a moment, a few dark colors masking some of his vision until it all receded back into a small dot in the center of his eyes. His body balanced and he was off to his locker.
As he pulled open the metallic blue door, and put away his books and such for his sophomore success period, he gazed at the pictures inside his locker. Most were from the hospital he was an intern at. The ones the two kids from the cancer ward had drawn. The younger of the two, Calliope, gave him beautifully detailed pictures of him, her and her cousin who she called her "brother". The other pictures from her cousin, Caliborn, we're just scribbles with sentences explaining "THIS IS YOu AND THIS IS ME FuCKING KILLING YOu" Tavros smiled at them fondly, despite the death threats from Caliborn.
The rest of the pictures were taken at his role playing and theatre club, mainly of him in the school production of Peter Pan. He thought he looked pretty good in tights, but people had laughed when he came out, causing his speech impediment to worsen. He already said "uh" and "um" a lot more than most people, but he remembered, every 5th word ended with another "uh" or "um" . Without a second thought, he closed his locker and began walking to his classroom.