Stuck In The Box: A New Normal

Chapter 7: I Don't Mind

Roger woke up surrounded by the Wild Boys, with the exception of Curt, John and Andy to prevent the spread of germs. "Guys, what are you doing here? It's not 3 pm," Roger asked, sleepily. "We were dismissed early, someone got expelled," Martin said. "Who?" Roger asked. "Emily and Kodilea, they've been talking crap about every Year 12 student and they were only in Year 10. They're being sent back to Mablethorpe and Bradford respectively," Dave said. "If you wanna know what they've said to us, I have a note of it which was crumpled and thrown at Curt," Simon said, taking out a piece of paper that was thrown at Curt. Roger took it and tried to read it only to realise, he was dyslexic and mixed up whatever the heck Emily or Kodilea wrote.

"Can't read, I'm dyslexic," Roger said. "Wait really?" Chris asked. "Yeah, I can only read and spell because my powers help me make out what these words are," Roger said. "Mind if I read them out for you?" Chris asked. Roger nodded as Chris took the piece of paper and read it to him. "Dear Wild Brats, all Kodilea and I wanna say is, okay that's a swear word over there," Chris said, after seeing a swear word written on the paper. "What's the swear word?" Roger asked. "The f word," Chris said. "Those Year 10s must be bad mouths, can you continue reading it?" Simon asked. Chris nodded and continued reading. "All you guys did was make a few of your members fake illnesses, you persuaded Curt and John to smoke so that they could end up with pulmonary fibrosis while you forced Andy to lose a ton of weight so that he could have an eating disorder and now you've faked Roger's mitochondrial disorder that doesn't even exist," Chris said.

"That's really messed up, they don't even know what we went through," Roger said. "And they don't even dare to care about how Curt, Andy and John ended up that way too," Jim said. "Those girls are just self-entitled 15-year-old brats from small towns, they don't know better," Bryan said. "Yeah, they're even dumb enough to think that mito doesn't exist," Maddy said. "If mito didn't exist, then how did we end up with powers, crazy illnesses and crazy adventures?" Roger asked. "If mito didn't exist and our parents were healthy, we wouldn't be here with powers right now," Jim said. "Can you continue reading that?" Roger asked. Chris nodded and continued reading. "So I don't really understand why everyone got away with it, is it because you're poor and from small towns? You know not everyone can sympathise with you all the time, no wait, who's sympathising with you?" Chris read out.

"Okay, we never asked for other people's sympathy or living in small towns to begin with," Martin said. "We actually don't want people to sympathise with us, not even John or Andy likes that," Jim said. "Or Curt because he's more of a badass," Roland said. "What else did she write?" Roger asked. "If you're thinking about finishing upper sixth, go ahead, I feel like you'll drop out the minute you join like losers, from Emily and Kodilea," Chris read out, finishing the entire message. "Those girls are in Year 10, they think they know everything when in reality, they don't. They don't even know my family owns a toy store," Nick said. "I mean, you've been hanging out with us middle and working class teens so nobody could tell," Roland said. "I don't want anyone to know that I'm wealthy anyway, I just want to be simple instead of those self-entitled Kemps," Nick said.

"I feel you, bud, but my parents are diplomats," Bryan said as Nick nodded. "Does anyone know anyone in Year 10? Maybe we could talk to them about Emily and Kodilea, I need answers to why they act this way," Martin said, changing the topic. "My brother's in Year 10 right now but he's back in Bath," Roland said. "I have no siblings," Nick said. "My sisters are older than me and they're in college right now," George said. "My half brother attends here but he's in Year 8," Dave said. "My half sisters are still in primary school so no," Martin said. "My brothers are older than me," Kate said. "My brother's in Year 10 and he studies here as well," Bryan spoke up. "Wait really? What's his name?" Jon asked. "Bruce, Bruce Adams," Bryan said. "I thought he was from another family," Fletch said.