Evil Is Pink (bxb)

Chapter 7

Since then, Sticks could feel that something has changed between him and his cellmate. Though he hardly looked any nicer, Tendril at least did not look like he wanted to punch his nose every time they locked eyes. More than that, it felt like there was finally some kind of...common ground for them to stand on. Like two strangers with the same goal.

Then, that day after breakfast, Tendril made sure to catch him before they made their way to class. He nudged him with his elbow.

"In class, don't talk back. Answer every question with: 'Yes sir.'"

It worked too. When he came back to class that day, Mr. Quinn, along with the rest of his classmates, regarded him with a look of absolute shock. He might as well have been the second coming of Jesus given how they received him.

"Oh my—? You're alive!" Mr. Quinn took a second to stare at him, his surprise soon twisting into a sweet smile. He cleared his throat. "Well— Did you have a good time?"

Sticks gulped and lowered his head. "Yes sir..."

"Have you learnt your manners?"

"Yes sir..."

"Are you ready to learn?"

"Yes sir."

Mr. Quinn seemed pleased.

When he got to his seat, the middle seat squashed between two other desks, the shabby girl on his left next to him looked at him with blank, dead eyes. Her skin was paler than the moon. She was smiling, despite her cadaverous appearance.

"Uu...welcome back..." her voice was like a whispering corpse. Everything about her was like a corpse really.

Sticks nodded. "T-Thank you." He could see that there was a cockroach crawling in her big, black bushy hair. Some people might have found that to be horribly off-putting, but not Sticks. Instead, smiled at the sight of the bug, something that the girl seemed to notice.

"Not scared...?"

Sticks blinked in confusion. "No?"

Why would he be? If anything, it reminded him of how Chunky the rat used to sit on his head. He felt a soft pang of pain in his chest at the memory.

Then he felt something else. Something...not so pleasant. He turned and saw that, on the other side of his desk, the spiky, bleached blond boy was grinning at him. Last week, the boy didn't acknowledge his existence. Today...he seemed all too eager to make sure Sticks knew he was watching him. Plus, it was not a very nice smile he was giving him. If that smile was a dinosaur, it would be a T-Rex. It made Sticks squirm—prickling the small of his back with fear.

"Rackus." Mr. Quinn called on him, gesturing to the papers. "Hand these out."

"Yes right away sir!" The big blond stood up. He was a meaty boy, and Sticks was reminded of those farmer boys in the picture books as he watched Rackus follow his orders, handing the papers out to the rest of the class. Sticks took the time and opportunity to study the rest of his classmates.

Directly behind him was a girl with the craziest hair he had ever seen. Like someone took a lawnmower and went wild on her straight black hair. Her eyes seemed even crazier. She stuck her tongue out at him. A brown tongue, browner than her skin.

On one side of the wild girl was Tendril, who ignored him. On the other was a spectacularly normal looking boy with a drooping, sad face that seemed like he was permanently in mourning. He had square glasses and a square, bowl-cut-ish hair cut. They made eye contact.

"Face the front please."

Sticks spun around, "Yes sir, sorry sir."

He only got a glance at the rest of his classmates, but they stuck out immensely to him. One of them literally had the head and face of an owl. Another one was a literal baby?!