Old Habits Die Hard

4

"Come on, Barry, let's go." Mr. Schuester told him, opening the door for him.

Barry stood up, keeping his arms by his side, he quickly left the classroom being followed by Mr. Schuester who shut the door behind him.

"Sorry, hang on a second." he said, opening the class door only to reveal the classroom screaming at each other. Everyone quickly went silent. "That's what I thought." He shut the door again. "Alright, let's go now" He said with a smile.

Barry couldn't help but snicker as the two began walking. "So, what exactly did you mean by, it's normal?" Mr. Schuster asked him. "If you don't mind answering, of course." He added.

Barry just shrugged. "It's just a habit, I guess, scratching my arms," he said. "If I get nervous or just lost in thought, it's been happening for a couple of years, some days I just don't realize I'm doing it and this happens. It's not really a big deal anymore."

"That's gotta hurt though," Mr. Schuester said.

"I don't really notice it," Barry said. "I didn't even realize I was bleeding until I saw it."

"Have you ever tried to stop?" Mr. Schuester asked.

"It never worked," Barry answered. "Nothing we tried ever worked."

"I see," Mr. Schuester said. "Did a certain stressor cause it to start?" He asked.

Barry thought back on everything that had happened to him. "Well, uh, it's possible..." he said, scratching his arms again but he noticed this time and stopped rather quickly. "I've had a few things happen to me that could cause it. They also all could have caused it." He added before going full nerd mode for a few minutes.

Once he realized what he was doing, he apologized. "Sorry about that. That happens a lot."

Mr. Schuester couldn't help but chuckle, "it's alright." He told him. "I'm sorry about how Sam treated you this morning, I think he reminded you of someone. If he bothers you again, let me know and I'll take care of it."

"Thanks," Barry said.

"This is the nurse's office," Mr. Schuester said, pointing to a door to their right. "Don't worry about coming back to class."

"By the time I'd find it again it'll be halfway into next period," Barry said.

"See you in class tomorrow, hopefully on time," Mr. Schuester said. Barry nodded and walked into the nurse's office. The nurse looked up at the sound of the doors opening.

"Uh, do you have a bandaid?" he asked awkwardly.

"I think you need more than a bandaid," the nurse said, eying his bloody sleeves. "Take a seat."

He sat down and pulled his sleeves up, avoiding looking at the damage that he caused and the scars from previous damage. He tried to ignore the looks she was giving him as she applied disinfectant to the open wounds, which were followed by bandages.

"There you go," she said. "You might want to get a shirt from the lost and found."

Barry nodded. "Thanks," he said awkwardly before leaving.

Barry now had his next mission. Find the Lost and Found bin. Well, this would be fun. He quickly began looking for it. It took him about ten minutes to find. He quickly looked through the clothes and chose a random hoodie. He put it over the shirt he already had one because finding the bathrooms would probably take him an hour. He let out a sigh and he looked through his schedule for his next class. It was Gym. Or if you prefer it, physical education. Barry hated PE with a passion but nevertheless he began looking for the class.

He ended up finding the class right when it started. Considering it was one of the biggest rooms there it wasn't that hard. "Thank God.." He muttered as he walked into the boys locker room. Barry wasn't thankful much longer when he spotted Sam in the locker room. He had good luck this morning at not having Sam in his classes, but this was two in a row.

Barry changed into his gym clothes, and damn it, his bandages were on wide display. Not that half the school wouldn't hear about him scratching his arms open in Spanish class by the end of the day anyway. He was among one of the last few to exit the locker room, and he spotted the teacher standing with a megaphone.

"Hurry it up, my dead grandma can move faster than you!"

Barry was definitely confused as he moved faster to join the rest of them. "I don't care if it's the first day, we're skipping all the stupid rules and hand holding every other teacher does. This is physical education and you're not gonna waste a single second of it sitting on your sorry asses. You're going to play badminton to start off today." A couple of people groaned. "If you don't like it, do a five minute mile and pass out on the bleachers from heat exhaustion, I don't care."

Barry's face slowly morphed to further show his confusion. What the hell?

"Great, now that we've done that I'm going to read off who you're playing with. Any complaints can be filed in my trash can. Now...pansy-ass idiot and Buttmunch...Dicknose and Assmonkey...Fish lips and new kid..."

He knew he was probably new kid, but who...

He caught Sam's gaze, and of course, that would be his luck, wouldn't it?

Once she had finished reading off the list, she instructed them to get their rackets and birdies, then to find their practice locations.

"So, Barry," Sam said in a tone that made him feel uneasy. "What's with the name?"

"What, Bartholomew?" Barry asked, wondering how Sam had even learned his entire first name. "I was named after my great-grandfather."

"You know what I mean," Sam said.

"Look, if this is about this morning, I told you," Barry said. "I'm not whoever you think I am."

"Less chatter, more swinging," the teacher yelled through her megaphone. Sam cast her an annoyed glance, but served the birdie.

"Yeah, okay," he said. Barry sighed in annoyance at his dismissive tone. "What's with your arms?"

"I don't think that's your business," Barry said, mildly annoyed.

"It was just a question, jeez," Sam said.

"Nothing has been just a question," Barry muttered. Sam rolled his eyes a little.

"What made you transfer here?" Sam asked. "McKinley of all places?"

"My cousin," Barry said. "I'm staying with her for the semester."

"That pretty girl you hang with?" Sam asked. Barry glared at him a little. "She's not my type, but I have eyes."

"Whatever," Barry muttered. Sam opened his mouth to ask Barry more questions that he didn't want to answer, but was interrupted by the teacher and her megaphone.

"Hey, bandages, get over here!"

Barry wasn't quite sure if he'd rather let Sam continue to interrogate him, but nevertheless, he hit the birdie back at Sam one last time and crossed the gym. "You're wanted in the guidance counselor's office."

"Why?" Barry asked.

"Don't know, don't care," was the response.

"Uh...okay," Barry said. He returned the racket to where it belonged and retreated to the locker room to put his normal clothes back on. 

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Apologies, we may have a gap again cause I'm at camp till August, and won't have much time to write~ Alex