The Blazing Rebellion

Chapter 1

John POV

Even after a month, the students of Wellston hadn't forgotten what John had done in the slightest. As he opened the doors of the school for his second day back, multiple students yelped in fear and jumped to the sides of the hallway. When he stepped inside he was greeted with submissive bows. John opened his mouth to ask them to get up but his heart had dropped in his chest. If I try to be different, will anyone even notice? He closed his mouth again with a sigh and began to walk through the now nearly empty hallway.
John had always wanted things to be like this before... he'd wanted to be ignored and simply live his life with Sera by his side. Now that it was finally this way, however, John felt a pang of loneliness. It wouldn't have been bad to have friends. He wondered momentarily what things would've been like if he'd gone back to school in New Boston, if he hadn't been expelled. Would everyone have fearfully avoided him like this too? He bit his lip. It would've been worse than that, because he knew Claire and Adrion wouldn't have been there for him after what he'd done, not like Sera had been. He didn't blame them. A tiny part of him still believed he deserved this, deserved to be alone. Even after a full month of fighting back the belief that he was a monster, the words had been permanently scarred into his mind.
Suddenly John didn't want to be alone anymore. He only had these bad kind of thoughts when he felt like this, in a hall full of people and yet so separate from all of them. He turned a corner to go to the roof. Maybe Sera will be there. I hope she doesn't skip class again... It's easier when she's there and if I skip much more I'll have to repeat. Lifted by the idea of seeing his best friend, John hurried forwards.
BANG! Someone crashed into him as he turned. John took only instants to steady himself (he had really good balance after the fighting he'd practiced so much), but the other person wasn't so lucky. They fell backwards, papers flying everywhere. John was reminded for a second of himself. That used to happen to me back when I didn't have a binder... His gaze hardened as he remembered the tall blond who'd given him one. Even though John was moving on with his life there was one person he still hated with all of his soul: Arlo.
"Eep!" A voice broke through John's thoughts. He looked down. A small girl was on the floor before him, pausing in her scramble to grab her papers as she stared, terrified, into his face.  She started to cry as she noticed him looking at her. "Please don't kill me, I'm so sorry, I'll do anything, please King John please!"
The girl fell forwards, clutching her hands together and sobbing harder. John was at a loss for words. Am I really that scary? He glanced around the hallway, causing several other students to gasp and jump away. Others had began whispering, no doubt things he didn't want to hear. John realized with a start that he was still glaring. He'd done that so much in the past year that it started easily and sometimes he didn't notice he was doing it.
As John turned back to the front of the hallway he was greeted by a familiar face. Of course I have to run into one of THEM. The pink-haired girl glared at him as she spotted the sobbing girl in front of him. John tried not to glare back. Instead, he focused on the other girl in front of him. She was still apologizing profusely.
"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm-" he cut her off.
"It's fine." Leaning down, John handed her one of the papers. She looked up, her eyes wide and mouth gaping. As his hand drew nearer to her she winced as if expecting him to hit her, but reluctantly took the paper from him. John bit his lip. This is going to be very, very hard to fix. Sighing at the murmurs from the crowd around him, he hurried down the hallway. He could feel Remi's red eyes staring at him, judging him, and sped up as she left to help the girl pick up her stuff. John hated that he still had to see the Royals; it brought back bad memories, and they were always glaring at him or questioning his every move. He could tell that he'd confused Remi with his reaction to being bumped into, but he doubted she'd do anything. None of them had treated him any differently.
A part of John wanted to do something big to show them all he was different, but for now all he could do was find Sera to feel less alone...