Fallout and Future

Chapter 11: Dealing the Cards

A/N: Beta read by UdonPuddle.

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School life went about as well as Basil could expect. He got up, went to his classes, sat with Kel and Aubrey at lunch, and went home with them. At first, people tried to pick on him. He was still a very easy target, and he'd rather they bully him instead of people who deserved it less, anyway.

Kel and Aubrey... disagreed. Within a few weeks, they, their other friends and the hooligans made that known to everyone around school, and people were suddenly far more friendly to him. Basil wouldn't pretend he wasn't grateful.

So, Basil settled into a comfortable routine. He had a future now (not that he really knew what that future was...), so he cared more about his grades, and reestablished himself as a teacher's favorite. He didn't have much natural talent, but hard work and studying got him fairly far.

Basil spent his time away from school showing Polly the (metaphorical!) ropes of gardening,

Apprehension still occupied Basil's mind the most, though. More-so than usual, in fact. There was still the business with Hero, wondering about whether Kel and Aubrey were actually his friends because they were a minute late, and, of course, being kept up by extraordinarily gay thoughts about his ex-best friend.

Finally, it was almost October. The recital month.

Although the first day of October was on the weekend, so at least Basil could spend it with his friends. That was what he'd thought, at least.

Basil raised his hand, barely catching the baseball with his mitt. "Wow, Kel, you're good at this!" He exclaimed, tossing it back. The two of them were in the middle of the park, surrounded by trees. The leaves had already begun to brown and fall somewhat, even if it wasn't full autumn yet. An orange early morning sun splayed out against a cloudless pinkening sky, but did little to dispel the chill. At the very least, there weren't any other people in the park besides him, Kel, and Aubrey, the latter of which was sitting at a picnic bench, watching their game with amusement.

"I do more than just play basketball!" Kel replied, throwing the baseball at Basil again. They'd been playing for a while now. The friends had hoped to make use of the little time they had left before the weather got truly cold.

Basil caught the ball again. He lowered his arm to his side, breathing a little heavily and wiping the sweat from his brow. In spite of how cool it was outside and his choice of dress, a t-shirt, sports could still tire him out with ease. "Alright... can we take a break now, Kel?"

"Sure!" Kel removed his baseball mitt and slung an arm around his friend's shoulder, walking the two of them over to Aubrey. "'Kay, Aubs, you wanna play a game?" Basil flopped onto the bench beside her. He looked like a starfish.

"Oh, why not?" Aubrey stood, setting her baseball bat down and spitting her bubble gum into a nearby trash can. Basil noted the faint blush on her cheeks as she accepted. He doubted it was from the cold, but he knew to let little things like this build up before going in for one really good tease. Mari had taught him that.

The thought of Mari put a slight damper on Basil's good mood. He visited her often to water the flowers, but never really talked to her the way he knew Aubrey did, save for a few times where he snuck into the graveyard to make tearful apologies to her tombstone, as though that would fix what he did.

That became morbid rather quickly, eh?

The sarcastic inner monologue did little to alleviate Basil's apprehension. A proper, full apology for everything he'd done was more than in order. Desecrating her corpse, making her brother help him, refusing to believe Sunny had killed her - okay, he had a lot to apologize for.