Blondie

Adrian

I drop the kids off at their respective places, then head off to school myself. I see the cutie walking around with wet hair, a mask on, headphones in, and a “I’m gay, and its contagious” sign on him. I walk over to him and take it off him, then put it on his stuff. Dumbass. I go to my locker and grab my things then head off to my first class. I  actually got to work this time instead of gossiping with the football team. I even answered some of the questions and didn't have to get the nerd for the answers. I shocked everyone due to the looks I kept getting from everyone, even the teacher. After that class, I head over to the second period and get to work on illustrations for the fictional story. It wasn’t till halfway through the class that I noticed the sweet dumbass wasn’t in class. I raise my hand for the teacher and he quietly says to me, “Lucas had a doctor’s appointment so he got picked up right before this class. Now stop doodling and get to work Mr.Vincent.”
    Which I whisper back, “Lucas has our papers, he wanted to work on them at home, and these are illustrations for the story.” He nods but hands me some lined paper and tells me to get to real work. That dumbass could’ve informed me of this before I got stuck with trying to write some more ideas for the stupid story. I start working on a battle scene since that's all I can come up with right now. I go through the rest of the class writing it, then head off to my next class where I work as hard as I can. I need that dumbass’s number so we can talk about him being a dumbass. Definitely not for me to flirt. I don’t see him until lunch and that is only because he’s at the river again, feeding the ducks with the stupid mask on still. Has he been here instead of school this entire fucking time!? “YO! Dumbass!” He flips around in fear, then flips back to the ducks to finish the piece of bread as I storm over to him. As I get closer, I notice one of my siblings asleep against him with his sister asleep on his lap. I just sit down with them and steal a piece of bread to eat. “Why haven’t you been in class?”
    “I had to come to pick up my little sister for PDA with your little sister. It wasn’t anything serious, just the teacher overreacting to a good friendship. I didn’t want them to interrupt your classes so I picked them both up and waited here for you. Sorry.” He looks like he's been here for a while, but I notice a red mark that starts under his eye and leads under his mask, so I tear the mask off him to see a slap mark.
    “Are you trying to hide the fact that you got in a fight? You some wimp?” He just slides the mask back on. Not gonna answer? Fine, but who did that to you handsome? “So what happened for them to be qualified for PDA?” Please answer that at least.
    “Lily tried to pull Lizzy up but just got pulled down on top of Lizzy when the teacher came. Now can I see the new drawings for the story?” I hand him the drawings and the part I wrote, which he reads through. “You write pretty good fight scenes. And sorry again for not saying anything to you.”  I nod and take my sister and hold her.
    “Who hit you? Did you hit back? Are they the reason you’re more of a mess and quiet today?” He looks at me confused, then ignores my questions as he keeps feeding the ducks. Guess someone close to him, great. Wait, why am I worrying about this nerd so much? I really hope Lizzy knows that she needs to behave in my school. “Have you eaten lunch yet?” He shakes his head no. “Let’s go get lunch then, and can you buy lunch for Lizzy?”
    “I’m gonna take a guess that you think I brought my money, which I did. The lunch is for Lizzy, not you. You can get a school lunch.” We get up and head to a deli, where he buys the four of us food. Liar. We started walking back to the school after he handed Lizzy and I food, then he went to the office to check in with his now awake sister on his back, eating. Lizzy and I just eat up on the roof, then I go to the office with her to make sure it’s ok with the office when I see the nerd getting scolded by what I can guess is his dad but no sister in view.
    “Lucas, you dropped the assignment, I was lucky the janitor didn’t pick it up. Where is Lily?” His dad grabs the assignment from me. His dad was the one to answer me.
    “She’s in the car so she can go home. Why is your little sister with you instead of at home? Are you the football player my ste- my son is working with?” Stepson? You’re the nerd’s stepdad. Why the hell is this dumbass scolding the cinnamon roll in such a public place?
    “My little sister can’t be home alone so I have to keep her with me at school. And yes I am, why sir?” The look of disgust for me started to grow on his face, then it was the same for my sister and I could only guess what that meant. Means the picture came out.
    “Your the fag who shoved that disgusting picture in my son’s bag, then you’re fag of a sister pulled my daughter down on top of her.” I’m gonna kill this guy if he thinks that my sister is disgusting for being nice. The staff luckily stepped in before I could say anything or even hit him and Lucas rushed off to class but his sandwiches were broken so he shoves them at us as he walks by. That asshole must’ve broken them. I head to the gym after getting the ok on having Lizzy in class with me. I needed to quit football quickly so I could earn more money to take care of these kids. Lizzy seems upset that I'm quitting something I like for everyone. What she doesn’t know is those assholes have been terrorizing me. I head to class once I’m done and I get right to working on schoolwork while Lizzy colors at an empty desk. That’s how the rest of my class go, then I pick up all the kids and take them home. I then head off to work after making sure they all know what they should be doing to help out. I get my hours changed and get right to work but I don't see the cutie here, is his step-dad keeping him home? I guess I have to take over for him today.
After a little over 2 hours into the shift, he comes rushing in. "Sorry I'm late." He gets right to work but has a mask with a poorly drawn on smile. He's gonna get into trouble for that, that's not for me to interfere with though. Just as I guessed, he gets called into the office and gets into trouble for the mask after about an hour. He comes out with the mask still on and gets right back to work, guess the boss doesn't want customers to ask questions about his personal life or think he hits employees. Not too long after that, his mom and sister come in and his mom looks upset. She sets Lily at a corner booth and looks at me, silently telling me to keep away from her, then heads to the back office. The dumbass goes over, after finishing up with his customer, and sits with Lily, where he seems like a happy big brother with her. I take over for him since there aren't many people here yet. People could hear yelling coming from the office and things breaking, which seems to be scaring Lucas a good bit. I walk over to them to give Lily a hot cocoa and the dumbass a green tea as their mom storms out and over to the table.

1 December, 2022