fleets: So, yeah, decided to write this one before TU this week because I'm not feeling so great. I'd need to write TU when I'm in a more uplifted mood because TU is becoming more serious in the next bits. I'm in a semi-down mood, so I stuck with TH because this story is light-hearted (for now).

Chapter 4: Detention

When Ms. Tutari strode into the classroom the next morning and took a glance at him that was one second too long, Vaati knew that something was up. The glance had conveyed worry, sympathy, pity, and agitation all in one, and it was enough to shake away the confidence Vaati had prepared for his second day of school. The young teacher fiddled with the hem of her leafy poncho, took her third look at the attendance sheet, and tapped the tip of her quilt pen in a rhythmical flustered beat.

The class recognized that there was something wrong as well, and not a single child dared to speak above a whisper. Everyone sat stiff in their seats when Ms. Tutari gave them a sweeping glance.

"School," she began, "is a place to learn and grow. But I want everyone here to remember that the learning you do here is not just about spelling and addition."

The kids could tell by the tone of her voice that she wasn't happy about something. Vaati began to suspect that whatever it was, it probably had something to do with him. He already wanted to slide down from his seat and hide under his desk.

"School is where you make friends and learn about other people. You learn how to listen, how to be patient, and most importantly how to be kind." Her voice became stern, and several students began to shift in their seats uncomfortably. "I'm not going to name names, but I heard that some of you in this room did things yesterday that were hurtful to others. I'm disappointed and saddened that you would make a wonderful place like school unwelcome and unkind. Does anyone here want school to be unwelcome and unkind?"

There were several murmurs of "no" and a shaking of heads. By this point, many students were giving what they thought were discreet and curious looks in Vaati's direction. Vaati was beginning to feel embarrassed again. Glen I can't believe you told Ms. Tutari…He held his face in his hands. Now it looks likes I went whining to the teacher!

Ms. Tutari leaned over and for a few minutes she was invisible behind her desk. Then, she came back up from behind the neatly stacked papers holding a red cloth back. She shook it and the sound of paper was heard crackling around the bag. "I think it'll do us good to get to know each other even better than before. When you really get to know someone, you realize that they're not so different from you after all. Remember that everyone has the potential to be an amazing friend if you let yourself get to know them."

Yeah right, Vaati thought, shooting a resentful scowl at Delta who was absentmindedly carving his name into his desk.

"I decided to begin the class today by letting you do an exercise with a partner. I'm going to randomly assign you with someone so you won't go pairing up with friends you already know well. The purpose of this exercise is to get to know someone new."

Hey, this doesn't sound too bad. Vaati leaned forward in his chair, his earlier embarrassment leaving him. He felt a little thankful for Ms. Tutari and Glen, as he realized that this was mostly an effort on their behalf to earn him some friends. Maybe today was going to be an amazing day where he would make his first friend. Coming to school had been a good idea after all.

"I'm going to pick names out of a hat to pair you up. There will be no swapping partners, and there will be no exceptions. The first pair will be," Ms. Tutari picked out two pieces of paper from the bag, "Fretta and Kotari."

Vaati looked around the classroom hopefully. He was somewhat excited and nervous at the same time. He wondered who was going to be his partner, what they would talk about, and how they might react to him. He was desperate to prove to someone in school that he was really a nice kid to get to know, that he wasn't at all as strange as Delta had made him out to be, that he wasn't boring, and that he really wanted to be friends. He took another peek at Delta. Well…he would be happy to be a partner with anyone but Delta.

"Jestari and Bentari."

Vaati took a quick count of the number of students in the class. There were eighteen kids. Vaati let himself relax. There're 18 students. What are the chances of me being paired with Delta?

"Lestari and Ria."

Vaati waited patiently for his name to be called. With each name called that wasn't his, his heart sank. He also became slightly more nervous when the number of students who weren't paired yet decreased, leaving only a few more students along with Vaati and Delta.

"Vaati and…"

The pale skinned boy perked up. Finally! His eyes were glued to the bag hopefully. He would be absolutely happy to be partners with anyone as long as it wasn't Delta.

Ms. Tutari reached into the bag and pulled out the second slip. She carefully opened it and…

Vaati caught his breath. She had hesitated. His anxiety increased with each painful second that passed where Ms. Tutari's dainty face twisted into what he imagined was alarm.

"…Delta."

Vaati could swear his heart had stopped. He wanted to scream but he had no breath to scream with. It seemed Fate wanted to punish him for some reason to want to pair him up with the one person who had antagonized him the most on his first day of school. Delta himself looked horrified by the outcome, abandoning his name-carving project to gape at Ms. Tutari in disbelief. The two boys glowered at each other in mutual dislike: if they were together on anything, it was the fact that they hated each other.

Vaati pleaded with his eyes in silent prayer to Ms. Tutari to redraw the names. However, with a small shake of her head, Vaati knew that she wouldn't do it. Ms. Tutari couldn't go back on her earlier declaration that there were no exceptions to swapping partners.

He sighed. Why me?

XXXXXXXX

Delta and Vaati sat in the far corner of the classroom, each staring resentfully at the activity sheet Ms. Tutari had given them. Initially they had sat silently without saying even one word to each other until Ms. Tutari had walked over and told them they had to participate. There were several conversation starters on the sheet that asked a question for each partner that they had to answer and talk about, but neither of them was enthusiastic about it. Vaati scuffed his feet on the floor in jealous frustration of the other kids who actually seemed to be having rather friendly and interesting conversations with their partners. Vaati skimmed the questions on the activity sheet again. Oh what the heck.

"What's your favorite dessert?" Vaati read out loud stiffly. Delta frowned.

"Did you say something weirdo?"

Vaati glared. "I sure did. You obviously have hearing problems." He continued. "By the way, my favorite dessert is apple pie."

Delta faltered, taken aback by the other boy's unexpected comeback. Delta growled. "Well you have the retard sickness. Don't get near me – I don't want to turn into a retard like you."

"Oops, too late, I guess you've already caught it," Vaati sneered. He was thoroughly upset from what had happened yesterday, and at this moment he didn't really care about being the nice guy anymore. "And since you caught it from me, I'm cured and you're the one who's as dumb as cow turd. What is your favorite subject in school and why?"

Delta's nose twitched. He angrily scowled at the activity sheet. "Whatever subject you don't like you moron. What is your most important accomplishment? Ha, I bet you don't have any you nobody."

"Actually, it's to not be an idiot like you. It wasn't very difficult to do though so it might not count as an accomplishment."

"Are you calling me stupid?"

"Yeah I am!" Vaati let his built up anger free itself. He was standing now and attracting stares but he didn't care. He hated Delta for picking on him yesterday and he hated Delta now. He was going to give him a piece of his mind; after all, he'd been determined to show Delta that he wasn't scared of him. "I won't believe that you're not stupid until you say it to me ten times in a row. Oh wait, I forgot you're so stupid you can't count that high."

"Yeah? Well you're so stupid you circled 'boy' when the school asked you what gender you were!"

"You're so stupid you have to be careful your tiny brain doesn't fall out of your ear!"

"Dim-wit!"

"Moron!"

"Idiot!"

"Pinhead!"

"Nincompoop!"

"Ninny!"

"Simpleto – "

"VAATI AND DELTA!" Ms. Tutari's voice boomed. The two boys winced and they both sat back down into their seats, avoiding Ms. Tutari's thin-lipped frown of disapproval. "I don't think any of the questions on the activity sheet required you to start name calling." She quieted them down when both of them began to protest and claim it was the other person's fault for starting it. "Delta, you have not been very nice to Vaati from day one. Haven't I told you that you should treat others the way you'd want to be treated? Vaati, you too." She put her hands on her hips and sighed, causing Vaati's victorious smirk to disappear in an instant. "You are just at fault for name calling. Two wrongs do not make a right."

Delta rolled his eyes from the excessive clichéd statements while Vaati lowered his head in shame. Vaati realized he had stooped to the same level of Delta by returning his own insults; his goal had been to ignore his foe, not turn into him! He'd utterly failed…

"I want both of you to think about what the purpose of this activity is and start again. If you can't cooperate, both of you will stay an hour after school today. Do you understand me you two?"

They nodded reluctantly. Delta glared at some of the kids who were giggling at him from behind the teacher's back.

"Ok everyone, continue what you were doing. In ten minutes we'll share what we learned about our partners."

The two boys stared at their questions again. Amongst the ambient chatter of amiable conversation throughout the room, the desks of Vaati and Delta created an island of fuming quiet. At the end of the ten minutes, neither of them had spoken a word.

The chatter stopped when Ms. Tutari clapped her hands together. "That's it everyone! I hope you were able to make a new friend today and learn something new about the other students in the class. We'll go around and share what we talked about. Vaati and Delta, will you two go first? Vaati, what did you learn about Delta?"

Vaati avoided the teacher's expectant gaze. He put his hands thoughtfully on his chin, trying to recall something from the short conversation they had had. "Delta doesn't like to learn subjects that I don't like…so that means he doesn't like to learn at all because I like learning about everything. He also has hearing problems."

"Now Vaati, that's not – " Ms. Tutari began. She was interrupted by Delta jumping out of his seat with his hands raised.

"I learned that Vaati's accomplishment is to try to not be stupid. He says he still hasn't succeeded."

"Delta, really – "

"I never said that you liar! I said I didn't want to be stupid like you!"

"ENOUGH! Detention for you both!" Ms. Tutari shouted above the class that was now roaring in laughter. The rather frazzled teacher had trouble calming the amused class, and she had to separate the two boys to opposite corners of the room so they would stop disrupting the rest of the period. She shook her head tiredly once the class was in control again. "Where were we? Mita and Pari, could you share what you learned? And please, be nice to each other."

XXXXXXXXX

This is so not fair. Vaati picked at the corner of a dead leaf and crumpled it up in a ball. He wasn't happy at all. First, he comes to school thinking he'd make a friend. Then, Delta ruins it by being assigned as his partner. After that, he makes a fool of himself by joining an insult fest that Delta had provoked.

Now he had to go to detention with, oh joy, Delta.

It was recess right now, and just like yesterday he was standing in the shade by himself. He knew no one would want to approach him because his face was stuck in a scowl from his frustration, but in all honesty he didn't feel like talking to anyone today. The other kids probably thought he had anger problems by now after his outburst at Delta earlier. But it wasn't like it was my fault. Delta started it. He looked over his shoulder. Where is that loser now anyway? Gathering his cronies so he can go pick on me again?

He finally found the bully sitting alone reading a book on a rock. Like Vaati, he appeared to be upset, and he had his feet crossed in front of him making him look unapproachable. Several kids passed by and tried to make conversation, but Delta waved them away and pointed his finger at his book. It seemed Delta didn't want to talk to anybody either.

That's strange. Vaati was surprised. From the jerk's usually confident attitude, Vaati had assumed that he would be the type to always be surrounded by henchmen and sadistic idolizers. Delta's solidarity was out of character.

Vaati shrugged the thought aside and checked the time from the clock hanging above the school's doors. Three more hours and I can go home. Oh wait, he thought sarcastically, make that FOUR more hours. Boy, I'm going to have so much fun staying after school while everyone else goes home. Aren't I lucky?

It was his second day of school ever and he'd already received detention. He must've made a record for fastest time ever to earn a detention.

fleets: Seems Vaati had that caustic edge even before he became evil sorcerer. ;)

Shadow Rukario: I'm not surprised. I'm trying to steer clear of the common story ideas so I can really claim this as my own. Thank you for the support!

Astral S. Kepeire: Thanks! Ooooh, we haven't met Ezlo yet either. That's when it'll really start going. :D

H-bomber: Thank you XD

Darkwind: It's sad, really (hence Tragedy). And Vaati did say who he had once been is dead...he's lost all association with his Minish version...:( Poor guy needs hugs (gets turned to stone).