Again, I've been distracted. But now it's done(Sadly) and I can hopefully focus on my stories again.
Chapter 21
Late Saturday night, we arrived back at District 4. We drove to Lucy's house. We pulled into the driveway. Lucy pulled at the handle to allow herself out, "Lucy," I say over my shoulder. She gives me a kind of disgusted look, "You're not going to rat us out, are you?"
She slams the car door shut and I turn the car off and get out. I hand her the car keys. She takes them and sighs, she mumbles angrily, "Probably not, it was actually kind of fun."
She hits the button on the keys and the car chirps. I watch as Lucy walks up her front porch stairs and quietly shuts the front door behind her.
Prim is holding Thresh's sleeping body. We walk back to my house in the cool night air.
The rest of the weekend, all Thresh does is sleep and eat. He was pretty malnourished.
Monday came around and we had to leave early for school so we could stop by the middle school across the street. I watch as Thresh pulls his hand away from his sister's when we arrive at the school.
This was my old school, so I was able to lead them to the main office. It was January now, the beginning of a new semester. Because of this, Thresh was a lot easier enrolled than Prim was.
I showed Thresh where each of his classes was and how to put in his locker combination. The middle school starts at the same time as mine and Prim's, so we had to leave Thresh there on his own as he waited for the first bell to ring.
We walk across the street. Since it was Monday, we go to our lockers and drop off some of our books. We head to our first class. Prim holds my hand uncomfortably tight. I look at her, "What's wrong?"
"I'm worried Thresh won't fit in, or he'll forget where one of his classes is, or he'll have to eat lunch alone, or what if-"
I give her a light kiss to quiet her worries. I pull away gently, "He'll be fine, I promise."
She nods, mostly to herself, and the bell rings. We walk through the door. The day drags on slowly, Prim constantly asking if I think Thresh is okay.
We walk over and get Thresh, then we all walk home together, "So, how was school?" Prim asks.
Thresh opens the front door to my house, "It was fine," then he walks straight to my mom's room which he has claimed as his own and doesn't come out until dinner.
I make us all chicken alfredo. We sit around the table eating in silence. Thresh picks at his noodles, but hardly ever takes a bite. I notice Prim notices something's up just as much as I do. "Did anything interesting happen today?"
He pushes a piece of chicken across his plate with his fork, "No."
It is silent for a while longer, but then the nosy sister side of Prim comes out, "Are you ok, you seem upset."
"I'm fine."
"Did something bad happen?"
"No."
"Do you like your teachers?"
"They're fine."
"Were the kids nice to you?"
"Prim, it was fine! My day was fine!" He looks across to me, "Thank you for dinner." And he excuses himself from the table to go to his room until the morning.
When it's time to wake up, Prim gently shakes Thresh's bed, "Time to get ready for school, Com'n."
"I'm sick," he rolls over and pushes his head back into his pillow to go back to sleep.
Prim shakes his shoulders, "Come on, I know you're not sick."
"I can't go to school, ok?"
"THRESH, YOU"RE GOING TO SCHOOL!"
He grumpily gets out of bed and eats a little bit of the breakfast I made him. The rest of the day passes much like Monday's. Wednesday the same as Tuesday; Thresh claiming to be sick. But always after school, he goes to his room, comes out for dinner, then back to his room. Thursday starts off like normal, but when we pick up Thresh, he has a black eye.
"Thresh, what happened?"
"Nothing happened Prim," he pushes away her reaching hands.
"Well, something happened; you don't just get black eyes."
"I fell ok? I fell and, er, I hit the corner of the table."
"Thresh, I don't think you fell."
"Prim, would you please just leave me alone! I'm sorry I ever came here, to 4, ok? I just want to go back home to 12! I'm tired of you constantly nagging me about my day!"
At this point we've reached home and he shuts himself in his room. Prim sits down at the living room couch and rubs her temples, "I'm worried about him."
"I am too," I admit.
"How do you think he really got the black eye?"
I give her a look. She already knows the answer. She sighs and slumps down deep into the couch's cushions. "I'll go talk to him," I finally say.
I knock on the shut door. "Go away," is all I here from behind it. I ignore the request and open the door. Thresh takes in my face, "Oh, it's you. I thought it was Prim. I'm fine with you."
I walk in and sit down next to him. "Thresh, when I was in middle school, everybody hated me."
Thresh pulls his head out of a pillow with interest, "Really? Why did they hate you? What did you do?"
"Well, they thought I was weird. My mom had some problems and that kind of put me in a bad mood at school. I didn't want to talk to anybody, I didn't do well in classes, and sometimes I wouldn't go to school at all. I'd just walk around town until it got dark."
Thresh repositions himself so he's sitting up straighter.
"They called me an outcast. When I finally did get around to talking to people, they no longer wanted to listen. My chance was gone, they had already decided what I was and that could never change. I believed them for a while but when I turned twelve," I leave out the part that I had just met Prim on our first train ride, "Something inspired me to make a change. I started doing my school work and I actually pulled out some pretty good grades."
"Did you make friends after that?"
"No. After I started getting good grades, they called me a nerd. When I tried talking to people again, I got even less respect than before. But it didn't matter, because I knew who I was. Then there was Chad."
"Chad?"
"This was the kid who decided that he'd finally had enough of me being happy with who I am, even if was something no one else wanted to be. He would day in and day out taunt me. To him I was a loner, a geek, a kiss-up, the teacher's pet. I would take his insults in silence, so one day he threw a punch at me." I smile at the memory, "That's when I finally lost it. I beat the crap out of that kid."
"Then what, did it stop? He stopped bullying you huh?"
"Yeah he did. I was suspended for a week but when I came back, nobody teased me and all of the girls suddenly started paying a lot of attention to me."
"So you made friends and you're happy to this day."
"No. I never considered the girls my friends. I had no interest in them. Because the only one I really wanted wouldn't pay attention to me. Well, she did, just not the way I wanted. We hung out… every weekend," I guess that was true, "But she seemed to only want to be friends. It wasn't until just recently that she noticed she liked me and now we're dating and-"
"You came in here to tell me how much you like my sister?" He pretends to gag himself, "That's disgusting!"
"Hey, Prim is wonderful."
"What does this have to do with anything?"
I run my fingers over his bruise, "Do you need ice?"
"No, it doesn't hurt that bad."
"He's your Chad."
"What?"
"The guy who did this to you. He's your Chad."
"Are you suggesting I beat the crap out of him?"
"Of course not. That didn't fix anything when I did it. All I mean is, don't be afraid to send out a punch or two next time." I smile and give Thresh a wink.
I get up and am about to walk out of the room when Thresh calls out to me, "Nick," I stop and turn around, "I don't know how to punch someone."
I walk back over, "Stand up."
He obeys. I form his hand into a fist. I work him step by step through the movements, where the strength comes from, where the best place is to punch someone without getting yourself hurt. "There, now you know how to defend yourself."
I walk back to the door and am about to take a step outside, "Thanks Nick."
"No problem," I stop again and say over my shoulder, "Oh, and if you wouldn't mind, maybe you could be a little nicer to your sister, she's pretty upset."
He rolls his eyes, "Yeah, whatever."
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