100 Ways To Say I Love You Writing Challenge - Sanders Sides Oneshots

[5] - Analogical - Imbecile

Prompt 5: "I'll walk you home."

Warnings: bullies, threats, middle school?, they're like 11, mentioned enby teacher roman, use of the word infinitesimal

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Logan put his math textbook in his backpack together with this week's homework and the three books he had borrowed from the school's library. He was going to go straight home instead of staying at school.

He had just gotten his own pair of keys home, so he wouldn't have to wait until his parents came and picked him up, and his parents trusted him to cross the big roads safely. Which was about time! He was eleven, he definitely knew about looking both ways before crossing the street. His best friend had had his own keys since he was nine!

And this meant he could do his homework before Remus got home from daycare. He was so loud and annoying. He loved his little brother, but he was in the way and always bothering him.

He grabbed the handle at the top of his backpack, carrying it out into the hallway where he put his jacket (it was dark blue and had stars on it, maybe it was a bit silly, but Logan really liked it). Then he put his backpack on, turning around towards where everyone's shoes were.

"Virgil?" It slipped from him as soon as he saw his friend sit on the bench by the shoes, already wearing everything. His friend looked up, giving him a small smile that didn't seem very happy.

"I thought you had gone home already." Logan said, wondering what Virgil was still doing at school. Classes had actually ended almost twenty minutes ago according to Logan's wristwatch, and he had thought he was the last one left who hadn't gone to the schoolyard to play until their parents came and picked them up.

"Hi Logan. And no... still here. Thought you had left already though. Aren't you, like, super excited to try your new key?" Virgil wondered, kicking his heels against the rubber mat by the shoe racks.

"I stayed a while to ask Mx. Prince about the English homework." He said. He hated English homework, it was the worst. Math and Science were much easier, made much more sense.

"That's our easiest homework." Virgil said, just because he was really good in English class.

"It is not!" Logan walked past Virgil, beginning to put his shoes on. "But why haven't you gone home yet? You love not being in school."

"Mhm." Virgil said, staring down at the floor and kicking a shoe that someone had left in the middle of the mat.

"I asked mom if she could pick me up but she won't be off work until four, so I have to wait." He then said, sighing and looking up again. Logan paused in the middle of tying his shoes, standing up.

"Why do you need your mom to pick you up? You haven't waited for your mom to pick you up since we were in elementary school, so why now? It doesn't make sense, and you never forget your keys." Logan pointed out, maybe unnecessarily confused about such a small thing, but Virgil never stayed longer than needed at school. He would walk home in pouring rain rather than wait for his parents to get off work.

"Um, it's dumb." Virgil muttered, pulling a face.

"You can tell me anyway. You're my best friend, I want to know and I won't think it's stupid. I promise." Logan said, doing his best to look completely serious to show Virgil that he could trust him.

"Well, alright. Stupid Kevin said he was going to wait for me when I was going home, and he's going to beat me up for telling Mx. Prince when he made fun of my hair." Virgil finally said.

"Oh..." Everything made sense now. Kevin was a huge bully towards almost everyone, especially towards Virgil, for whatever reason, and he had been making fun of Virgil for dying his hair purple this weekend all day.

"Yeah... I don't want to walk home alone if he's serious." Virgil said with a scowl, and Logan felt bad. He was the one who had convinced Virgil to tell the teachers.

Grown up's always said to tell them if anyone was being mean or making threats, but they never actually made the person stop. Maybe telling the teacher had just made everything worse and it was all Logan's fault. Kevin had always been mean to Virgil and nothing they had done had helped yet, it was no wonder that Virgil never wanted to stay after school.

He really didn't want anyone to hurt Virgil. Partly because no one else really liked him, but mostly because the thought of Virgil being hurt just made his stomach twist.

"I'll walk you home." He offered immediately after the idea had popped into his head.

"Really?" Virgil sounded really hopeful, which made Logan feel even more that he couldn't leave Virgil.

"Yeah, Kevin is an imbecile, if he's waiting we can outsmart him." Logan said, sure that Kevin wasn't dumb enough to try to fight both of them. He certainly hoped so, he wasn't very good in a fight and he wasn't a fast runner.

"What does imbecile mean?" Virgil said, standing up and watching as Logan bent down to finish tying his shoes.

"It means he's stupid and a moron. I think, I read it in a book and the character who was called it was definitely dumb." Logan held the door to the schoolyard open for Virgil, then followed him outside.

"Oh, okay, he's definitely an imbecile." Virgil agreed, smiling and reaching out for Logan's hand, something he kept doing even if it made Kevin and his friends yell mean stuff after them every time they saw it.

"Do you want to stay at my place? I can help you with the English homework and you can help me with the math, and then we can play Minecraft together." Virgil suggested and Logan took Virgil's hand, considering his options.

"Okay, I'd like that." He said, deciding that doing his homework with Virgil sounded like more fun than doing it alone at home, even if no annoying brother was going to bother him. And he really wanted to keep playing on his and Virgil's Minecraft world they had together, their village they were building was starting to look really good.

"Great! And thanks. For walking with me." Virgil said, staring ahead, maybe looking out for bullies luring behind trees or corners of buildings.

"Of course." Logan swung their hands slightly as they walked, wondering if Virgil realized that he would rather do anything than let Virgil be hurt.

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Written: 19th October 2021
Published: 28th October 2021
Words: 1097

God I love writing these