village idiots irl

one betd??????????????

The school trip to Cleveland was less than ideal. The sweltering heat plastered hair to the foreheads of the unlucky children being forced into the expedition. One such child was Fred Figglehorn, a plucky young man who for once in his life, was not so excited to be away from home. he huffed as he trudged out of the humid bus, lugging along a large and unnecessary hiking bag. 

"gammit, this sucks!" he exclaims to nobody in particular, probably God if we are being honest with ourselves here. 

"Figglehorn, language!" shouts the ragged, old woman at the front of the crowd. 

Fred sank his head low. He was put into an even worse mood than he already was. 

"Now," the teacher continued, "we are heading to our first stop, please get ready!"

the mood of the crowd visibly brightened. 

The next stop was a bus stop. Fred sat on a bench, quietly waiting for the bus to arrive. after a minute or two of sitting, a shadow approached his vision, and loomed over him. The source of said shadow: Kevin, the boy who had been making Fred's life a living hell for YEARS. This boy was a constant bully and bother to Fred almost every day, as the two are neighbors. 

"Hey Figglehorn!" the boy shouted, the force of his yell blew the other's long bangs to the side. "What are you waiting for, huh? The GAY bus? For whiny little babies???" He gave a rough shove to the other's arm that would definitely bruise later. 

"stop, Kevin! I'm waiting for the same bus as everyone else!" Fred whined. 

Kevin laughed and shoved Fred again, this time almost knocking him off of the flimsy bench. He walked off, still cackling to himself. Fred sat up and sulked until the bus came to pick his class up.

After a long day of hopping from one bus stop and train station to another, as there is literally fucking nothing to do in Ohio, the children were understandably beat (tired, not physically). 

The same humid bus with the same creepy driver brought them to the front doors of a large building. The Marriott loomed over Fred's head like a beacon of light to a departing angel. Rest at last. 

The elevator ride up to his room felt like minutes longer than it should be because of his desperation for respite.  The door plate with the bright gold "145" on it looked like treasure, and the door knob looked like salvation. with a violent push, he opens the door and throws himself through the threshold. He lifts his head, and is greeted with a horrific scene. 

Kevin sits in the middle of the small room, on noticeably the ONLY bed to be seen.  

Fred's wide eyes met Kevin's, the other boy's orbs were almost obstructed by the backwards, red baseball cap that reached down to his brows. 

"Figglehorn?!" Jevin's rough voice filled the empty air space, startling the other. "What the hell are you doing here?!" 

"This is MY room, Kevin! Get out!" Fred let out in a shrill voice almost before Kevin had finished what he was saying. 

"Piss off dude this is MY room!"

Fred grabbed the keycard out of his shirt pocket, where he had placed it earlier, shoving it in the taller boy's face. Kevin instinctively shoved his hand out of the way. His brows furrowed as he pulled out his own card, holding it next to Fred's own, the two almost touching. Two identical and bold numbers presented themselves. 

"WHAT?" the two yelled unanimously, dropping everything and running into the hallway. Their teacher, waiting outside, was met with the shreaks of two middle school boys as they spoke in an unintelligible mess. 

"There had to have been a mistake, PLEASE i can't live with this madman this is ABUSE" Fred screamed. 

"Fred, it's only for one night" his teacher responded in a tired voice. "you'll live."

"Please you don't understand this man is insane!" Kevin interrupted.

"Look, boys. You already know what i'm about to say. It's too late to make room changes, id have to fill out so much paperwork and move so many other kids around, and I honestly don't care enough about you two to do that." 

The two boys, heads held low, snaked off to their room. 

upon entering, they began  unpacking their things in opposite corners of the small box they call a room. Silence permeated the space, broken only occasionally by a snide remark from Kevin about an item in Fred's bag. His comments were met, however, with silence from the normally boisterous boy .

By the time they had finished, the room was far cleaner and more organized than one would expect a room done by teenage boys to be. They had spent so much time stalling this inevitable conversation, that extra time was spent wiping down surfaces and adjusting pillows. There was nothing left to do, and as the sun set, the boys were left to confront the elephant in the room.

"There's no way in hell i'm letting you take that bed, Figglehorn! I was here first!" Kevin snapped.

Fred parted his lips to protest, but not before Kevin made a punching motion into his open palm. 

Settling down to sleep was a difficult and uncomfortable endeavor. Fred managed to negotiate one pillow away from Kevin, and he carefully rested it on the floor against the bedside table and laid his head down. He was without a blanket, and the carpet was thin, leaving cold concrete barely an inch from his body.  

Kevin was quick to slumber, and his light snores filled the eerie silence. Fred was left to seethe on his own, being forced to listen to his mortal enemy innocently rest mere feet from him. Sleepp eventually came to him, but not without unimaginable discomfort. 

Despite the trouble, Fred's dreams weren't necessarily scary, just unpleasant. He found himself at the summit of a frozen peak, wearing nothing but his regular school clothes. His breath puffed and rose in front of his pink cheeks. He could feel his individual digits freezing in the sharp breeze. The boy wandered the mountain for any sign of salvation. The wind roared in his ears, and the sky was a dark grey, the sun shielded by thick clouds. 

After what felt like hours of searching, Fred spots a warm yellow light in the distance, not far down the mountain peak. 

The hike to the light was painful. He could feel his body ache and his arms struggle to climb him over tricky slopes. Eventually, however, he came upon an isolated-yet-welcoming cabin. The lights inside were gentle as candlelight bounced off the wooden walls and furniture. However, there was no other sign of human activity in the cabin. Fred cautiously opened the door and stepped inside. he made his way over the creaky floor and up the wooden stairs, worn by the heavy fall of shoes against the planks over the years. He came upon a room that had a warm glow coming from it. Opening the door, he came across a welcoming bed lit by the candles next to it. The boy felt drawn in by the promised warmth, and carefully crawled on top, not even bothering to take off his suspenders and tuck himself in. He fell into a dreamless sleep.

The morning light shown harshly in his eyes, waking the young man up. As he came into awareness of his surroundings, he felt a pressure under him. His eyes groggily opened, and he saw a figure next to him, of which his arm was gently resting upon. Fully coming to consciousness, he sees the figure is actually kevin, and the ensuing scene is chaos.

Fred lets out  a shout, and pulls his hand away with enough force to wake the other boy. Kevin goes through the same sequence of events, realizing the person who had been cuddling him in his sleep was his least favorite person at the moment. 

"HOLY SHIT, Figglehorn! What the hell are you doing get out!" kevin shouted.

Fred's face heats up to an immense blush, and he quickly throws himself off the bed, landing in a mess of his own limbs.

This was the beginning of the end of Fred's life as he knew it.