Only Colours

Chapter 4

When the bell rang to signal the end of the school day, they left the nurse's office and Jude allowed Mikey to lead him to the spot outside where Mikey's mum was supposed to meet him. When they got there, she was already waiting for him.

Jude hung back, so Mikey's mum didn't realise he was with Mikey at first. She frowned when she saw Mikey. He wasn't sure if it was the dirt on his clothes and the marks on his arms or just the way his eyes refused to meet hers, but she immediately knew something was wrong.

She ruffled a hand over Mikey's hair. "What happened, sweetheart?"

Mikey ducked his head away. He couldn't explain it without breaking his rules. "Nothing."

"Um..." Jude said as he stepped forward, up to Mikey's side. "Maybe I can explain?"

Mikey automatically leant his body towards Jude so that their shoulders touched. Jude shot Mikey a look of annoyance as he took a step away to reassert his personal space, but his colours showed he didn't really mind as much as he was pretending.

"You can see him?" Mikey's mum asked, surprise and happiness bursting into her colours to compete with the worry that had already been there.

Mikey nodded. "His name's Jude." He couldn't think of anything else to say. He hadn't yet secured Jude as a friend.

Mikey was still clearly unsettled, though, so she let that point go for the moment and asked Jude what had happened. The story he told her was pretty much what he'd told the nurse, but when he came to the end he added something he hadn't last time.

"I told everyone to give us some room, and— Well, Mikey was kinda close, I guess he gets clingy when he's upset? More clingy... Anyway, his PE teacher suggested that we, uh, get a room."

That explained why Jude had reacted how he had at that point in the day's events.

Mikey had his eyes on the ground, but he heard his mum make a sound of displeasure. "That's a terrible thing to say."

"Guy's a dick," Jude said. "But anyway, if I were you, I'd want something done about this, and I'd maybe think about bringing that bit up along with everything else. When I was in his class in grade eight, there was a boy who was kinda girly who that teacher called names. I know that was reported, so he has at least one count of homophobia on his record."

"Thank you, Jude, I'll definitely keep that in mind." Mikey still wasn't looking at either of them, but he could hear in her voice that she was looking forward to doing whatever she could to make sure Mikey's PE teacher was punished. "Would you be willing to repeat all this for the principal if necessary?"

"Yeah. I can also find you a couple of other witnesses for the later parts of what happened. You'll have to get someone from his class if you want to confirm how it started, though."

"I'm sure my darling son won't be saying anything in his own defence," Mikey's mum said as she gave the back of Mikey's head an affectionate stroke. "Now, I have a problem. I don't really want to leave Mikey to walk home on his own, but I'm worried the staff will go home if I don't deal with this right away. I'd just bring him in with me, but he hates conflict and he's been through more than enough of it for one day."

"You want me to walk him home?" Jude asked. Mikey glanced up to assess Jude's colours and was pleased to see they were as free of irritation as his voice.

"If you can. If you have to get home, you could take him with you if your parents wouldn't mind."

Jude's colours shifted to displeasure at the latter suggestion, though his facial expression and tone were unaffected. "Nah, I'll walk him home for you."