I Wish

Chapter 5

TW mentioned death, self depreciating, swearing,
Please let me know if I missed any

Third person

"Why do you always leave class early?" Phil inquired.

Tommy shrugged, "So I don't get trampled." It has been a week since Tommy got the letter, two since he met Phil.

In that time he has managed to lose Phil several times.

And he enjoys it every time.

He doesn't think of himself as a bad kid, he just wasn't good.

And he liked to cause a ruckus.

And he constantly gets in fights.

And he got detention at least once a week.

And he has gotten suspended several times.

And everyone hates him.

Okay, maybe he was a bad kid.

He just wishes he would at least be acknowledged.

Even if it was to scold him for being bad, it would mean they would have to look at him, and talk to him.

Is that too much to ask?

But he was stuck with Phil.

Phil is a nice man, but Tommy knows that's his job. It's his job to work with "troubled kids" like him. Phil's entire job is to gain the kid's trust, only to dump them back into the system once they were no longer bad.

As nice as Phil is, it's all fake, a facade meant to trick kids into trusting him. A facade of pretending to see the kids as kids and not statistics.

Tommy knows all too well what he is seen as; a statistic, a trouble maker, a problem, a challenge.

A mistake.

The school must know by now that behavioral tutors don't do shit for Tommy. He's had 9 of them in his 8 years of school.

So why send another one.

He has made professional tutors cry.

Why care about him.

Not even his parents care.

Phil always had a smile for Tommy.

Every. Damn. Day.

Doesn't this man get tired of seeing him?

Doesn't he look at his address like every other tutor and think, hm, this kid is a lost cause.

It's almost like he actually ca-

No. Adults only see him as a statistic, they don't think of him as a kid, he is just another number.

"Did you get the letter?" Phil piped up.

"Yeah."

"What do you think?"

"It's very nondescriptive." I deadpanned.

Phil chuckled, "Yeah, I guess it was."

I took this as an amazing opportunity to run off.

"Hey! Tommy, come back!"

_____________________________________

Tommy is a problem child, but all he wants is someone to see him.

Have an amazing day/night my friends!