...
He wasn't sure what actions he'd thought were a good idea that led him to this particular moment, but watching Rodrick clobber a man with a lead pipe to the face was the first sign that it was probably all a bad idea.
It didn't help that his partner in all of this was Fingers of all idiots.
...
He watched ahead of him with a keen eye, his hand hovering over the pocket that held one of his few possessions.
An item that dictated he controlled the flow of the fight going on. That controlled the fates of all ten others before him, and the emotions of the three that stood to the side.
When his gaze narrowed as he caught an indiscretion- A foul of the beautiful game, he reached into his pocket and drew out the weapon of mass alienation and blew on it.
The sound of the whistle ground the game to a halt- Or rather ground the emotions of the offending striker to a halt. The younger, by a year, boy is affectionately known as Fingers by his fellow residents for his rampant and uncanny ability to take someone's belongings.
Said boy had quite just tackled another player.
Walking up to the two on the floor, the vastly irritated victim, known as only Blunt for his uncanny ability not to keep his thoughts to himself, while Fingers simply turned a very innocent look towards him.
"I didn't do nothin' wrong!" The boy immediately started as he got up to his face. "He just had the ball and I wanted it!" The boy deadpanned.
Letting out a sigh, he pocketed his whistle and drew a dusty old yellow card.
Needless to say, half the field immediately got up to his face, all screaming about unfairness and whatnot- While the other half was busy laughing at the ordeal.
Even Blunt seemed to be in a joyful mood- Mostly because he had a terrible left foot when it came to shooting and knew he was never scoring that goal with three defenders stood before him and the goal. The out of embarrassment was probably refreshing for the idiot.
Needless to say, a few moments after the arguments settled down- Arguments he didn't pay any attention, he simply waved ahead for the game to continue as he walked a few spaces back, his head shaking in amusement as he watched the offending team prepare for a free-kick.
Needless to say, Fingers immediately broke another rule as he simply caught the sudden shot ball with both hands, and proceeded to run through the quickly confused team as if it were a game of rugby.
Letting out a sigh, he reached into his pocket once more and quickly twitched as he found he was missing his whistle.
Fingers, in turn, had reached the other side of the shoddy field and barged past the goal posts.
"Ha! I told you idiots I could score!" The boy crowed out before he was physically bombarded by the enemy team, which was rather fair.
He had clearly wanted a rugby match after all.
With the game unequivocally broken up as it was- With two strikers injured, and the rest of the younger years now taking turns stealing the ball from the other side, football utterly out of their minds, Felix, known as Ferus to his friends, made to walk up towards the gaggle of idiots bodily hiding his whistle before everyone practically froze the moment they heard the tell-tale signs of the gated entrance to their home open up.
Walking through slowly, his gaze focused on the book held before him, while his other arm carried what looked like a trunk, was Rodrick.
Once known as the Freak by everyone in the orphanage. The name was given to him for... A multitude of stupid reasons.
A name that filled him and anyone else that knew him, what with a third of the kids openly gawking been new residents, with shame.
Fingers was the first to walk up towards him, a frown on his face, with Tiff, short for Tiffany because they were evident geniuses at nicknaming, being the second.
The other two had been around almost as long as he was, which was why they'd helped him with his coming plan.
That was of course the moment Fluffs, a nine-year-old bundle of sheer energy who had joined their institute over a year ago, proceeded to walk up to the boy directly.
"Hey, Rodrick!" The girl called out enthusiastically, or as close to a forced attempt at any rate.
Late joiner she was... It hadn't taken much for them to get her to draw sides.
"How was boarding school?" She questioned cheerfully as she locked her arms behind her, standing right in front of him.
Needless to say, the boy simply walked past her, not so much as paying her any attention.
Which was the moment Donut- A ten-year-old boy nicknamed for his love of running- seemed to take that as an offense to his 'girlfriend' as he proceeded to run up and grab the other by the sleeve.
His breath for a moment stopped at that as his eyes widened the slightest bit in... He wasn't entirely sure. What he was sure of was that Rodrick wasn't going to take it well given his boundary issues.
Rodrick's gaze swiveled from his book as his feet stopped and landed on a boy who'd joined after he'd left for his boarding school year. With a shrug of his hand, he got free of the hold and pointedly stared the younger boy down.
"You're new." The boy remarked easily.
"Y-yeah and!?" Donut remarked, puffing up his chest.
"Here's some advice if you wanna fit in with them," Rodrick remarked sending ice down his own spine. "I'd keep your distance from me." That was all he said as he twisted back on his feet and kept on walking towards the building they all called home.
Fluffs thankfully stopped Donut from trying anything else as he let go of his own breath.
"Well." Finger's remarked. "Guess it takes more than a year away to let go of seven years of bullshit."
"Gee, ya think?" Tiff deadpanned beside him, rolling her eyes in the process.
...
At first... It had been the favoritism. He hadn't been old enough to remember when the boy had been a baby dropped off at their orphanage- What he could remember however was at four-year-olds when a two-year-old had been given his own room, while every other kid was forced to share.
At the time he'd thought it because Rodrick had been too young, but when he'd kept that room going on to three, four, five, and so on, he'd realized it was a special case.
Then it was the... Special treatment by Miss Wools. Letting him eat in his own room when everyone else was forced to eat together. Letting him watch the telly on his own, even when there was only one channel available. Letting him play outside whenever they were all forced in.
There was the belongings that always seemed to be replaced- The exact same items searched for and bought time and time again by the caretaker, every time one of them disappeared, was stolen, was burnt, was ripped to pieces, was flushed down a toilet- Hell, one time a knitted sweater had been cut up to thousands of pieces and the caretaker had gone out of her way to find someone to knit Rodrick an exact replica- When everyone else barely got secondhand items given to them.
...And then it was the sheer bad luck they'd all experienced every time someone came to try and adopt them- All of them, for whatever reason completely changing their minds the moment they got into a room with the caretaker and Rodrick- As if one meeting with him, showed how much worthless the rest of them were. While the anger at not getting to adopt him because he was clearly the caretaker's favorite and so wasn't allowed to leave, was immediately showered onto them.
And the final nail in the coffin was when he, out of everyone else that had been here, had been chosen for a special sponsorship by the caretaker herself for him to go to a boarding school.
And it was when he'd left that things had finally changed.
It was when he'd left that the eldest- Been his own group of friends, and a vast majority of the rest, had realized how much time of their days they'd spent trying to torment one of their own. It was only then they'd learned the main reason, according to the caretaker anyway, that they hadn't been adopted was due to their own bad behavior and personalities- The number of adoptions practically skyrocketed in the year that had passed with more than half the children finding parents. Parents that had even tried beforehand to no avail, returning once again for some unknown reason.
It was only then he'd realized he'd tormented a fellow orphan for near on eight years... Out of spite. Out of his own failings. Out of his...
He let out a sigh.
There was no point in remembering the past really. Only what he could do now.
He'd had a few chances himself at adoption- Somewhat. Yet, leaving everyone behind left a bad taste in his mouth, but the worst part was knowing that putting a false front to prospective parents just... Felt wrong.
Which was he was always honest with them about what kind of person he was.
And truthfully he was somewhat glad of it, as it gave him a chance at righting a wrong he'd been a part of. A wrong he'd actively showed support for. A wrong he'd eventually started leading.
...
He was feeling nervous if he was honest with himself.
"Oi, Fingers where's the blasted cupcake!" Tiff hissed behind him, the words earning a sigh out of him as he immediately went into his own pocket to bring out the backup one.
"Wools ate it."
"Wools only eats wine! Not sweets!"
"Then the dog did it!"
"We don't have a fracking dog!"
"Rodrick did it then!"
"Oh for the love of- Were here to stop that saying you idiot!"
He let out a sigh, his other hand digging into the postcards everyone else had signed with a message as he took in a deep breath and knocked on the boy's door.
Needless to say, every memory came rushing back the moment it was opened as he stared at the indifferent boy that stood on the other side.
Fingers' stomach rumbling didn't help the situation at all, nor did Tiff's strained smile.
"...Uhh, hello.." He blurted out as he raised both the signs of what he hoped would be a clean slate before him, the boy's gaze lowering towards them for a moment before rising back up to meet his. The stare practically ripped through him. "So, uh, me and the others wanted to-" He coughed into his hand, uneasy. "Um apologize?" It was telling that the words earned a pair of raised eyebrows from the other, which in itself was a good sign really- "For, you know," He held in the urge to scratch at the back of his head and fill it with a cupcake. "Everything..."
Rodrick just blinked at him, unnervingly so, causing him to lose the rest of his words, though thankfully Tiff continued it for him.
"Yeah, umm, we were thinking we could maybe try and start off on a new page, you know?" The girl batted her eyes at the boy, a somewhat sincere smile gracing her face-
"Yeah, what these two said!" Fingers joined in with a grin.
Needless to say, derisive laughter wasn't at all what they expected as a response.
"Bugger off," The boy remarked and promptly closed the door on their faces.
With a frown, he promptly knocked on the door again, while Fingers and Tiff shared a look between themselves.
The door opened up again, this time an irritated Rodrick staring at them- Looking at them as if... As if they were dog-shit one might've stepped on.
A look that had literally silenced whatever words he'd tried to bring up.
"Look what you said to Donuts wasn't cool alright?" Tiff quickly took control of the conversation. "Like we're not joking about apologizing and all- There's a lot of new kids here and were trying to lead them right and..." The girl frowned. "We'd be hypocrites if we-"
"I am just gonna stop you right there." The boy deadpanned. "Let me make this as clear and concise as possible for you." He smiled at them. "Take that cupcake, take that postcard or whatever, take your offer of friendship, clean slate, apologies, or whatever have you, and throw it all away." A single beat passed. "I don't care if you're genuine about it or not. I don't care if you think you've got some sort of high ground in this situation and I certainly don't care about whatever human decency's made it into your rotten souls."
The boy leaned in, as Fingers' earlier grin turned into a heavy frown, while Tiff's face turned angrier by the second.
He himself just stood there, watching it all unfold, without a word to come to mind on it.
"Friends? Forgiveness? You seem to be under the impression I care about those things coming from you." The words hit him, every letter sending a jolt through him as he listened. "I don't." The boy finished. "Matter of fact, as far as good impressions go, why don't you turn around and go teach those kids what you're actually good at and show 'em how to ignore the freak."
He flinched at the word.
"You don't need to worry about me ruining it for you-"
The boy smiled at them, all teeth.
"As far as I am concerned, much like you all used to pretend, ya'll don't really exist in my world."
And with that, he shut the door on them once again.
"Well. That could've gone better." Fingers stated. "Guess the boat's sunk further than we thought, huh?"
"...I am gonna set his pillow on fire again," Tiff remarked, genuine hurt in her voice. "And I won't even feel bad about it this time." She crossed her arms.
He shook his head.
"It's only his third day back... We have three months or something to work this out before he goes back to that school of his right?" He shrugged weakly. "We'll just keep trying until then."
Which was how he and Fingers had found themselves following the boy the next day.
...
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