If We Were Heroes | ONC2022

chapter nine

chapter nine: I hate it here and want to go back

I figured I still hated family dinners, even after six years. It was different at school, where most people were around my age, and didn't bother with small talk. To make matters worse, my dad had come back in time, adding to the tension.

I swallowed a mouthful of food. 'You never sent me Happy.'

My mom had the right to look slightly ashamed. 'Oh, honey. I wasn't sure if you were serious.' I knew she was lying.

'Oliver,' my dad interrupted. 'Are the gloves... strictly necessary?'

I gave him a hard stare. 'Unless you want to die at my touch, then yes.'

Aunt Carla waved her fork around, a mouthful of food distorting her words. 'I thought the school was supposed help you.'

'The school is a full time babysitting booth for lazy parents,' I said. No one corrected me. No one dared.

'Now why couldn't you be more like Miles?' Carla muttered. 'That would have been so much easier.'

Miles looked up and I caught his eye. I knew he didn't have anything to do with it, so I sent him a reassuring smile.

Even he could see it was false.

/

School on Monday was hell.

It had taken years for me to finally memorise my timetable and where each class was, only to have to learn it again.

Damn Holden and his stupid ideals.

Once again, I found myself in a room of strangers, standing somehow at the front of the class. I gazed over the faces looking for something familiar, but found nothing, unsure why I was disappointed. I never used to socialise anyway.

'Settle down,' the teacher was saying, with little effect on the rumpus. 'This is Oliver, and he'll be joining our class this year.'

I didn't make a sound, hoping he'd leave me alone.

'So Oliver,' they continued, 'do you want to introduce yourself.'

No. 'Sure. I'm Olive, he and him, and I'm seventeen in April.'

There was no reaction, so I took my cue and sat down, sadly not by a window that I could look out of.

Still, I had mastered the act of looking vaguely interested while not listening at all, so that is how I personally spent three out of the six hours of hell.

It wasn't like I was going to learn anything useful anyway.

I was fiddling with my locker at lunchtime, finding out that no matter how many times I put in the code, it refused to open. I'd have to message Sebastian later. We didn't exactly have these kinds of lockers at boarding school.

'Oh. My. Gosh. Olive? Olive Rodrigues?'

I searched the crowd for the voice, landing on a girl bouncing up to me, thrusting her arms around my waist. I tried my hardest not to flinch, failing terribly.

'Hi Mia,' I said, taking a step back to examine her.

'I knew it was you as soon as Josie Patel began describing you.' she babbled, 'Six years, huh? You've aged well.'

I shot her a look. 'I look exactly the same.'

'Sure sure.' Whatever the hell that was supposed to mean.

'I can't get the locker open,' I said, to which she laughed, making me involuntarily smile.

'Waverley lockers are known for their bad quality. You have to prise them open with a ruler.'

'I'll make a note of it.'

Mia took my hand, dragging me across the hall. 'Come on. You're sitting with me at lunch.'

/

Maybe the reason why I hated family dinners so much was the fact that I really, really hated being stared at.

Pretty much everybody's eyes were on Mia and me as we walked in, ten minutes late, and plonked ourselves at an empty table.

Their hushed whispers and careful glances didn't escape me, but I longed to know what they were saying. First impressions were important, and I didn't want to be known as the kid who just spent ten minutes trying to open a locker.

'How much longer?' I sighed, holding my head in my hands, not daring to look at the clock. I swear it froze whenever I looked at it.

Mia gave me a look. 'Olive. It's the first day of school.'

'Already marking down the days until Thanksgiving.'

'Already marking down the days until summer break. Seriously. I literally have a countdown.'

She took out her phone, showing me her LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!! countdown. Exclamation marks and everything.

I looked past her, then looked again, feeling my heart flip-flop as someone walked in, beach blond, with a very particular shade of green eyes.

Mia rolled her eyes. 'Ugh. Ethan's here. He's become an actual dickhead.'

'Miles said he was cool,' I said, air quoting it.

'All dickheads are cool,' Mia snorted, not needing to repeat my air quotes to prove her point. You could hear her disapproval from a mile away.

I nodded, my gaze still fixed on Ethan.

'Does he still talk to you?' I asked, forcing myself to look away, and go back to picking at my food.

Mia shook her head. 'He doesn't talk to anyone who isn't in his little group of friends. Which, spoiler alert, to be on, you have to be either hot, rich, or on the football team.'

Sighing, I watched them all squeeze around a little table, laughing and talking, so much better than everyone else, smiling with their too white teeth. Ugh.

'They're not worth the trouble,' Mia said, following my gaze. 'Believe me. I wasn't even that close to Ethan, and he still went crazily out of his way to publicly humiliate me.'

I looked back at her. 'What did he do?'

'That's none of your business,' she snapped, the issue obviously still bothering her. 'The issue is that he had no right to interfere with my private life, and he still did.'

'I'm sorry.'

Mia looked at me. 'What for? You didn't do anything. Ethan should be sorry. I mean, I know you two were pretty close. Even if you did hide from him at his birthday party.'

'Hey!' I said. 'There were way too many people there.'

'True true,' she agreed, nodding. 'We should throw a birthday party. Saturday. Just you and me.'

'It's not your birthday.'

Laughing, Mia got up, stacking my tray on top of hers. 'It's someone's birthday out there. And besides, it'll be fun, I promise.'

'Do I need to buy you a present?'

'Duh. But I'll buy you one as well.
Coming?' She stuck out her pinky, ready for a pinky promise.

'Definitely.' I locked my finger with hers, careful to not let the curse overflow.

word count: 1103
total words: 11, 396
date: 5th April 2022