The Ripple Effect | Volume I
Chapter 7: Mental Amends
(Nansei Junior High School – 5th Period/Science Class)
Drawsah sat with his head on his table. He looked lethargic.
The school day inched by slowly, where every second felt like a minute and every minute felt like an hour. There was another classroom which was assorted in the same manner that the math class was assembled in. The only difference between them was that the chairs they used were more backless metal lab stools instead of the regular wooden chairs they used in every other class.
Taiyo accompanied Drawsah and sat at the same table, in a seat right next to him. They were seated at the back of the classroom in laidback silence. Drawsah was wearing a hoodie with the wording 'Nansei Junior High' on the front of it. It was all red with white print. It was more comfortable to wear instead of the gakuran he had left on one of the buildings' roofs.
Drawsah observed sullen qualities. He buried his forehead on his crossed forearms.
I'm an idiot…
His mind was stuck on the events that occurred over the last hour. These thoughts were reimagined in dramatic fashion. The dozens of boys and girls stared at him with terrified eyes. Numerous onlookers would denote him by the titles of "monster" and "devil".
Maybe something's wrong with me…
"Never bump into me again! You're so annoying!" "You're never ending up on my team again." "Damn you!" "I gotta make sure this Brief kid doesn't try anything funny." "You're sick!" "Stop lookin' at me, twerp." "Screw you and your stupid family!"
Those comments he remembered quite well, although they were altered differently in his thoughts. Every emotion in reaction to him were all negative in some way, shape, or form. He imagined every bright reaction to his presence would eventually turn dark and the light smiles on their faces would turn to frowns. Cheri. Taiyo.
Every single interaction I've had…has been met with animosity. The whole school's gonna end up hating me.
Drawsah's mind focused on everything that had happened to him, and everything that he had done. He had selfishly ruined the fun of those who put their faith in him, even though that faith wasn't serious. He had gotten involved in a fight at school, although the altercation wasn't started by him, everyone was on the other party's side.
Kitsutsuki disliked him from the start and only put up with him because Cheri had asked her to. She railed at him from the start over something he believed was insignificant. Three classes later, she would throw him over her shoulder with the intent to severely injure him. If it wasn't for his unnatural biology, he'd be sent to the hospital, and he was sure Kitsutsuki knew it herself.
His meeting with Hiromi was by far one of the worst things to happen to him today. He was blackmailed unfairly but even though he was, the people didn't care. Those people were selfish and wanted to have access to something that would only hurt him and his family. He put his acquaintances into bigger trouble than they ever needed to be. He selfishly put them in harm's way.
Drawsah felt guilty about murdering those crooks he stumbled upon in the alleyway. They never needed to die, he could've ran away from them without dealing any harm—he was very capable of getting away from them easily. He never needed to hit that girl in the alleyway, she was already backing up from him and didn't want to fight Drawsah at all. But he still hit her because his emotions took over his actions.
The worst of all, he threatened Hiromi in a way that no child should have been threatened. He threatened her life. What was he doing? What was he thinking?
"I deserve it," the boy quietly mumbled to himself.
Drawsah buried his head in his arms on the table even further, slightly shaking his head in his deep thoughts. His eyes perked up for a moment when he felt something light hit him on the back of the head. Lightly lifting his head, he faintly glanced over to his right to find Taiyo sideways glancing right back at him. He leaned back on the countertop that spanned across the back wall of the classroom with a ball of paper in his hand.
"What…?" Drawsah asked in a whisper.
"What happened to you?" Taiyo answered with another question. He looked curious as his eyebrows furrowed at opposite angles.
Drawsah turned his head back to the front, "I shouldn't talk about it." He was oddly dismissive about the topic and Taiyo seemed to notice that pretty quickly.
Taiyo hummed, "You sure?"
He tossed another paper ball at Drawsah's head, and it bounced backed onto the counter. "This is when friends are needed y'know," Taiyo added, wearing a bright grin on his face.
…
Drawsah's expression remained unchanged. He sighed for a moment and closed his eyes, then reopened them. "I have a 'people problem,'" Drawsah started, "I make a lot of people angry and end up hurting them in the process."
A short period of time passed where Taiyo stared at Drawsah with a puzzled expression. Drawsah glanced back at him for a moment and sighed again, reaffirming his statement from before. He laid his chin on his arms, "I knew I shouldn't have said anything…"
"Well… You didn't make me angry or hurt me in any way," Taiyo pointed out. He shrugged nonchalantly.
"You're one of the few that haven't just yet," Drawsah quickly responded. "That doesn't mean it won't happen in the future."
His expression grew gloomier by the second. It looked like his beliefs held more truth than he had at first thought. What could he be wrong about? He couldn't be wrong about anything. Right? This emotion out of Drawsah offput Taiyo greatly. The regularly gleeful boy felt at odds in trying to cheer his friend up.
"Look, man. Y'know you can't please everybody, right? You sound like a bad 'people pleaser,'" Taiyo commented. "That's your 'people problem.'"
Drawsah side-eye'd Taiyo for a moment, keeping his head still for the time being.
"Sometimes, you need to worry about yourself instead of others, y'know what I mean? It's something we all gotta live with. So don't feel bad about something you can't control," the blonde boy declared. "The best thing you can do is make up those mistakes in your own way a little bit later. You got me?"
…
The brooding kid lifted his head up a little and looked up in thought. He pondered over Taiyo's words for a moment and decided that what he said was substantial. It was the only sensical reasoning for everyone's animosity towards him, no matter how much he tried to solve the problems they had with him.
He faced Taiyo, "Yeah… Thanks."
Taiyo beamed back, "Don't mention it, buddy!"
Several minutes later, the bell rings and everyone exits the classroom in an orderly manner. It was about time that the kids in one of Drawsah's classes would mellow out and make it easier to leave for themselves and everyone else.
Drawsah and Taiyo walk out of the classroom and turn down the hallway, following in the fast-moving direction and flow of traffic. Drawsah still had his hoodie over his head but now that he had some time to think for himself, he pulled the hoodie down after a couple steps down the hallway.
Taiyo yawned.
"What class you got next?" Taiyo asked.
"Engineering," Drawsah quickly answered.
Taiyo's brow slightly raised, "That class, huh? I heard that class was the hardest class at school. They're letting a kid like you take one of the advanced classes?"
Drawsah fans his hand under his chin, "Nah, it shouldn't be that bad."
The blonde boy chuckled, "Guess you ain't a wiz for nothing."
After a couple more steps, they turn the corner into the main hallway. The main hallway was as busy as usual. This hallway was the hallway that connected nearly every hallway in the school, so everyone would have to come out onto this hallway at least once during every passing period. This is also the hallway that connected the exit towards the front of the school and the back of the school—it constantly caused traffic.
"What about you?" Drawsah questioned Taiyo.
Taiyo glanced at him, "What, my next class?"
"Yes…" Drawsah rolled his eyes. Taiyo was a great person and was always there when Drawsah truly needed him. But boy was he a dense kid.
"I got Basketball," Taiyo crossed his arms and held his head high. "We're finalizing positions today."
Drawsah's expression lightened, "Ah. You look pretty confident."
"Of course, I am! I'm the best point guard in my grade, y'know!" Taiyo exclaimed. "It's my second year and I've never felt better!"
"Well, that's good," Drawsah said.
He studied his surroundings. Kids were moving in large masses up and down the largest hallway in the school. Even though the main hallway was large in width, it still wasn't enough to give kids more space to walk. The hallways were as packed as the streets were in downtown Central City. Everyone moved in close quarters.
It'll be a while before I get used to this.
(Secondary Hallway)
Kitsutsuki Fujiwara walked down the hallway with her books resting in her hands. She wasn't as cool and collected as she usually looked when she was with her friend. As a matter of fact, she looked sullen. The girl was despondent for the first time.
She hung her head low in deep thought.
Drawsah jumped in front of her friend selflessly and took the blow for himself. Nobody asked him to do that, and she surely didn't expect him to do that.
"Why are you treating Drawsah like that?" "Why do you keep patronizing Drawsah?"
Kitsutsuki sighed heavily. Countless images of Drawsah's depressed face would appear in her mind. She called him annoying, a brat, and anything else possible to get him away from Cheri and herself. She assaulted him more than once, which was unnecessary. But he kept sticking around for some reason. Why did he keep hanging out with them? With her?
I'm a jerk… Cheri's never been more right about me.
Despite her animosity towards him, he kept a smile, regardless of whether or not it was a genuine smile. He was trying to fit in with them.
"I'm glad I ran into people like you."
Drawsah's words repeated in her mind a few times before she shook them out of her head. Kitsutsuki frowned despondently.
…
That was a genuine smile…
Kitsutsuki continued walking down the hallway and after a moment, she found Cheri. She was standing outside her sixth period classroom waiting for something or somebody—but it's obvious who she was expecting to see.
Cheri beamed at her friend brightly who she found walking towards her down the hallway. Kitsutsuki's lips curled into a slight smile she managed to force, but her eyes remained the same.
"Yoo-hoo~!" Cheri exclaimed, waving at Kitsutsuki. "You sure took your sweet time!"
Kitsutsuki looked a little weary, "Sorry about that."
"How was sixth period—" Cheri did a double take when she noticed Kitsutsuki's face was showing more emotion than usual. What the… "You don't look so good. Are you okay?" she asked her friend. Cheri looked concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Kitsutsuki responded. Her face didn't change though.
Cheri frowned at her answer and didn't buy what she was saying at all. She knew her friend better than anyone and what she was showing now wasn't normal. Kitsutsuki always had a cool, nonchalant, and somewhat lazy attitude towards everything. But now, she was acting like something terrible had happened and she was trying to hide it.
"No, you're not! You were never good at hiding your emotions…" Cheri exclaimed, crossing her arms. "Now spill it!"
Kitsutsuki dropped the fake smile and opened her eyes. But she lost eye contact. "I was wrong, you were right… Happy now?" Kitsutsuki expressed dismissively. She started down the hallway on her own.
Cheri looked at walk away for a moment puzzlingly. She didn't know why Kitsutsuki was acting like this but the worst thing she could do in this situation would be leaving Kitsutsuki by herself. She immediately followed her down the hallway.
"Tori!" Cheri shouted to her friend. She ran behind her and quickly caught up with Kitsutsuki, following her pace. "Is it about Drawsah or something? You're still angry at him?"
Hearing Cheri bring up Drawsah this soon made Kitsutsuki's face grow with more guilt. She realized Cheri believed that Drawsah was the focal point of her negative emotions. Kitsutsuki didn't expect to be that open of a book.
"Fine!" Cheri exclaimed and crossed her arms. She looked defeated. "I won't talk to him if you don't want me to… I hope that makes you happy…!" Cheri looked into her friend's eyes to see if that would make her friend happy. But she was still offput by her stale reaction.
Kitsutsuki's eyes were shadowed, and her face remained unchanged.
…
"You were…r-right about him…" Kitsutsuki slowly uttered in a low voice.
"Huh?"
Kitsutsuki's cheeks flushed a little red and she continued to avert her eyes. "Y-You were right about Brief…okay?"
Cheri's face turned blank for a moment, "…That's…it?"
Her friend sighed, "I just feel bad for…the way I treated him. I thought he was just like the other ones—putting up an act." Kitsutsuki parted her bangs away from her eyes. "I just didn't want you to be hurt by somebody like that again."
"Aw~w… You're a great friend, Tori!" Cheri hugged Kitsutsuki from the back which was barely reciprocated. Kitsutsuki still felt guilty. It wasn't Cheri that she wronged; it was Drawsah. And sooner or later, she'd have to pay him back for everything that she did to him and everything she's done for Cheri.
A few minutes passed by. Kitsutsuki had her backpack on her back alongside Cheri who had hers on as well. Cheri wore a bright smiling face and indulged in conversation with Kitsutsuki, who was still gloomy.
"It's a little weird that Drawsah managed to get there so fast, wasn't it? Maybe he took a shortcut we didn't know about?" Cheri commented.
Kitsutsuki pondered on her words and realized that there was immediate truth to them. Her sullen face disappeared, and her eyes narrowed in thought.
"That's a good point," Kitsutsuki stated. "How did he get to the end of the block so fast?"
That's impossible. We ran out to the other street which went straight up to the expressway, didn't we? It's a straight line there. Even if both roads were parallel, you couldn't walk alongside the expressway.
Her head scrambled for solutions to the puzzle that seemed impossible. She was aware that the alleyway had a one-way entrance and exit. The road Drawsah had run out to turned to the east after three buildings and after a while, the road would eventually run along the backside of the school. That's one of the main reasons why she believed Drawsah wouldn't be there to help them out. It was practically impossible from the direction he was running.
It doesn't make sense…
Cheri watched as Kitsutsuki moved her hand under her chin. Her sullen expression had faded which made her smile. She hummed, "You're trying to figure it out?"
"Yeah…but nothing's adding up," Kitsutsuki slowly responded.
"Well… Don't push yourself…" the shorter girl told Kitsutsuki. She didn't stray from her train of thought.
No more than ten minutes later, Kitsutsuki and Cheri sat together in their seventh period class. There were twenty-five kids in seats that were arranged in a five-by-five grid. The two girls sat relatively in the middle of the classroom.
Cheri leaned on her arm which lay on the desk in front of her. She looked a little drowsy. Understandably, she was worn out by the long and bizarre school day and was ready to go home to the comfort of her room and bed. Kitsutsuki on the other hand looked deep in thought as she was ten minutes ago prior.
Making sense of Drawsah occupied her thoughts up until now.
If I asked Drawsah myself, he'd just dodge the question. He already showed me how good he is at that in the alleyway.
The image of him fighting against those upperclassmen reappeared in her mind. But this time instead of just being amazed by his level of movement, she remembered the details of his stamina as well.
His movements were sharp. He made it all look effortless. He didn't try. Any world-class athlete could do that, but they'd at least be out of breath afterwards… Drawsah didn't even break a sweat…
Her face tenses as she reevaluated the boy's unnatural athleticism and attitude. At first Drawsah was extremely robotic, as if he learned how to interact with other people on the internet. Artificial intelligence programs would've put up a better act than he was doing now but after a couple of classes, the way he spoke completely changed.
From the outside, his appearance gave off somebody that was scrawny and weak. But unlike his exterior, Drawsah never carried himself that way. He didn't carry himself in high regard either, despite his status in the social world. That's what made him so different from everyone else. That's why people aren't aware of who he is because he blends in with his peers, whether this was intentional or not. His attitude towards other people made him socially different from everyone else as well.
Every time he's attacked by someone. He'd never hit back. Not even somebody stupid like me.
Drawsah's physiology didn't add up either. Someone that small with that little muscle mass couldn't physically move the way he did or maintain stamina at the level he did. It went against all the laws of human biology and physics. If your muscles weren't trained to do these tasks and didn't look capable enough, it would be impossible to force.
When Kitsutsuki threw Drawsah over her shoulder, he felt light, and she had expected that much. But when he hit the ground and heard the crack that occurred on impact, she thought that it was her strength that made that happen. But obviously that wasn't the case; she wasn't that powerful. Drawsah barely gave off any indication of severe pain. If anyone took that blow, they'd be hospitalized without question.
He could've easily countered us, but he didn't… It's like he's afraid to fight back in general.
Once Drawsah fell over her shoulder, his body landed heavier than she had at first felt. That's why the crack in the ground occurred. And that's probably why he seemingly took no damage from that altercation altogether.
When she bashed on him relentlessly in the food court building, he refused to fight back there too. He kept his hands in front of her and shortly after getting back up, she realized hitting him felt like she was punching something way harder than just flesh and bones. It wasn't something normal. Then a lightbulb flashed in her head.
It may be farfetched, but…maybe that Drawsah kid was modified in some way…
But after hearing that relay in her head, she lowered her head in absurdity. That's such a stupid idea… Even I can't believe that. Unless…
End of Chapter Seven.
A/N:
Well, it's been a long week and that's the reason why the chapter took so long to come out. I can't put the blame on procrastination because this is what I do when I procrastinate lol.
Just a lot of end-of-the-semester work that needed to be done. I have one more week of finals left this week and then afterwards, I'll have a lot more free time on my hands. (at least that's what I think)
I just won't be having to do something every day of the week. I'll get some rest in between.
Besides all that, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and hope I'll see you back for the next update!
