Wake Up Δ Walker

chapter eleven

"No Attenborough today?" Stella asks as they walk to school.

"If they walk 16% slower, the Walker siblings may be able to skip first period as a whole." August says in a British accent.

"I know." Stella says.

"I don't mind that idea." Janie comments.

"I can't handle having to explain to people again why they should feel sorry for us. Not when the last thing I want them to actually be is sorry. No one's gonna get it except you two and me. But... if you two ever want to talk..."

"I don't." August states.

"I never do." Janie says.

"But, hey, on the bright side, uh, at least being invisible to the entire school will finally work to my advantage." August says.

They walk up to the school and are immediately greeted by two girls.

"Stella, oh my God! Tell us everything." The blonde girl says.

"You poor thing. I can't believe you're back in school already." The other girl says.

"Yeah, shocker." Janie quietly mutters sarcastically.

"Augie, how are you?" Ruby asks.

"August." A blonde girl says, standing next to Ruby. She gives Ruby a look and the girl backs off. "You're so brave. Do you need anything?"

"You know my name?" August asks.

"Of course I do." The blonde says. The bell rings. "Maybe I'll find you after class." The three girls walk off, leaving the siblings.

"Suddenly I'm brave." August says, but sees his sisters' looks. "Oh, come on, it's better than "oh, his mom died" or "it's that quiet AV guy we keep on referring to as 'Arlo' for whatever reason.""

"Hey, not everybody calls you Arlo." Stella says.

"Look, our life has screwed us up so many times, all right? Why not take advantage of just one tragic thing?" August asks. The bell rings and he leaves.

"Because trauma isn't fun, August." Janie argues to his retreating figure. "You know, I'm both relieved and offended nobody came up to me."

Stella rolls her eyes, grabbing her younger sister's wrist, and dragging her into the building.

+++

Janie is at her locker and slightly flinches when somebody slams their locker too loudly. She sighs, calming down, reminding herself that she's okay. That's ruined when somebody touches her shoulder. The girl jumps, quickly turning around and swatting at the person's hand.

"Ow." She looks up to see Flynn.

"Oh. Hey, Flynn." Janie greets, going through her hair out of stress. "Sorry about the, uh, karate chop."

"It's all right. Um... I heard what happened. How you holding up?" Flynn asks.

"I'm... I'm good." Janie nods. "You know, just another thing to add to the list of bad memories." She humorlessly chuckles.