Behind The Mask

Chapter 8- Akari

"Do you get called a girl a lot?" the sad little girl in front of me inquired.

"Yes, why do you ask?" I replied.

"Because you kind of look like one, but I can just tell that you are a boy."

I gave her a smile, while trying to think of a way to comfort the child who was clearly in distress. I figured that the first thing to do would be to find the cause of her sadness, and what better way than to ask directly?

"Why are you crying?'

"Because my stepmother is making me wear this skirt to school, but I want to wear the pants. She hates me and thinks that I should be more 'girl-like' and shouldn't be riding skateboards." And she ranted on and on to me about what she was going through, even at a young age. I just sat there and listened, making sure to be as comforting as I could.

By the time she was done, she looked so tired, so I offered to let her sleep on my legs. She accepted and laid down with her head sitting on my lap. As she started to drift off into the world of dreams, I heard her quietly and almost hesitantly ask me: "Would you like to be my brother?" I felt my eyes start to tear up as I quietly responded with the only thing I could. "Yes. I would be happy to.' And with that, she smiled and settled into a peaceful slumber.

I looked around, seeing what my friends were doing. I saw Kian was still stuck dealing with the 'eshays' and heard him calling them many names. I learned in that moment that he was definitely not a child person, but he looked kind of adorable when dealing with them. I then decided to turn my attention to Kio and Akai who were interacting with these 2 other little girls that seemed younger than the rest. They were all sitting together, and I could see how cute they were together. I could definitely see them both having kids and loving every moment of it.

I noticed some kid walk in quickly and hand some note- which must have been a late pass- to the teacher before looking around and walking towards me. He looked worriedly at Alex before asking me if she was okay. "She's fine," I replied, "Just a bit emotional and tired: she's just taking a nap right now. What's your name?"

"I'm Hayate, Alex is my best friend and I just care so deeply about her. And I'm sorry, but what's your name miss?"

I was starting to get sick of going through this, but he was only a kid, I couldn't be mad at him. "I'm a boy, and my name's Akari."

Alex started stirring and opened up her eyes. Seeing Hayate standing next to us, she quickly got up and gave him the most powerful bear hug I had ever seen. "You're late, Hopper." She mumbled into his shoulder, still tired from her breakdown earlier. Just like I knew that Kio and Akai would become a couple in the future, I knew that the same fate was in store for these 2 as well. They just fit so well together, and I could tell that they had a good history with each other: they wouldn't find anyone better for each other, and I hoped they knew that as well.

I got up, planning on giving them some space and headed over to where Kian was standing. I started feeling little pokes around my legs and stomach height and looked down to see they boys who were crowding around him earlier poking me with these little foam swords while saying something about how they wouldn't let any girls near their 'hero'. I knew Kio had seen and heard it because I heard her trying to hold in a giggle. Unsuccessfully. I gave her a glare before turning my head towards Kian and giving him a look that said 'get these brats away from me. it's your fault, after all.'

His face was blank, but I could see in his eyes that he found my situation to be humorous. "OI! TWERPS! Back off, that's a boy you're 'stabbing'!" He proceeded to mumble something I couldn't hear but was apparently enough to make everyone who could hear him giggle and grin before glancing towards me. I finished my unnecessarily long journey to him before asking him if he was trying to raise his own personal army or something. He just groaned and rambled about how they just wouldn't leave him alone and he was sick and tired of them idolising him. I thought it was kind of cute.

At that moment we heard a growl coming from the side and turned to see Akai staring daggers into the back of Mr Wood. We distracted while the other kids while she grabbed him by the hair and dragged him outside. Even when she did that, we could hear her yelling at him about putting his phones camera up 8-year-old girls' skirts. We also heard the thuds of her kicking him in places us boys would prefer not to think about. When they came back in, I noticed our pervy teacher walking with a limp and his back hunched. It was time for us to go.

I noticed Alex starting to tear up ad tremble, so I walked over to her and asked her what's wrong. "I don't want my big brother to leave. What if I never see you again? I don't want you to go!" I kneeled down and pulled her into a hug.

"It's okay. I'm not going to be gone forever. I'll see you again in a week, and every week after that. I promise you that I won't abandon you. Ever. You are my little sister, and I will be there for you whenever you need me. I'll tell you what, here is my phone number. Anytime you feel like talking to me or you need to talk to someone, call me. I will be there for you no matter what." We sat there for what felt like an eternity, holding each other, knowing that we had just forged an unbreakable connection with each other. But I had to go.

We all piled onto the bus to head back to the school's campus. Us 4 were the last on the bus, so we all had the long back seats for the 45-minute trip. We all chat about the kids, with Kian talking about how annoying they were and Kio exclaiming how cute they all seemed. It was a good day overall.

When we got back to the campus, we had just enough time to get to our lockers before the end-of-school bell rang. We all grabbed our stuff and headed to the bus stop. When we hopped on the bus, we all decided to take the very back seats again. I was so tired that I couldn't stop myself from yawning. "You can lay your head on my lap and sleep on the way home, like what you did for that little girl if you want." Kian offered. I was too tired, because I responded with: "Yes please. Thank you so much. I love you." And blacked out, not able to see the shocked and almost happy face of the boy. Nor did I hear him respond with: "I love you too."