Shazam! Season of the Witch

Chapter 2: A Delayed Apology Part One Side B

Freddy felt the tears stinging his eyes as he fought the urge to give into them. Heroes didn't let petty annoyances break them, so why should he? This whole thing was his fault anyway. He pinned his high hopes on the wrong person, and, as expected, it blew up in his face. Again.
His shoulders slumped and a wave of embarrassment swept through him; Billy was a no show, but Brett and Burke had kept their word. They hung him up by his boxers from the locker door, swinging him back and forth like a piñata.

His biology teacher stumbled his way over, haphazardly trying to extract him from the bland locker without causing any damage.

Freddy eyed his teacher, leaning on the locker for balance. Mr. Geckle personified the stereotype of a nerdy scientist: perfectly ironed button-down shirt with black-rimmed glasses and all. Despite his appearance, he really was an amazing teacher. He handed him his forearm crutch with a smile.

"Wait here. I'm going to make a quick call," Mr. Geckle said over his shoulder as he slunk away. As if there was a chance he'd stick around in the hallway while others stared at him like he was some kind of freak.
Pinching his eyes shut, he made a plan. Freddy had to find a place to hide - Nurse Emerson had never liked him much, and besides his siblings in Fawcett Central there wasn't anyone else he could turn to. Lucky for him, foster care had him braced for the worst.

He paused to take a deep, steadying breath before entering the nurse's office. He pushed it open, only to find...nothing? No sign of the feared nurse; she must have been out for lunch. His eyes darted to Emerson's desk and with a smirk on his face, he made his way over. His fingers nimbly moved through the papers on the clipboard.

"Somebody in here?" he whispered, half-heartedly looking around just in case someone might have seen him snooping.

" Just me."

Freddy whipped around, his heart stuttering. That voice belonged to one person- Nadia. He'd never forget the sound of it, it was like cotton candy, sugary and light-- the kind of sound that you'd think could never bring someone down.

He crept closer to the cots, his fingers tugging on the ratty cotton curtain, yanking it aside. And there she was, her back turned from him. She seemed so small and fragile. It was like she was steering clear of him, kind of like how he'd been keeping his distance from her.

He tried to bite back a smile as he noticed that her hair had grown even longer, reaching past her shoulders in glossy curls. His gaze moved lower, landing on the brace around her knee. He paused for a beat before asking, trying to sound more aloof than he felt. "What are you doing here?"

She clung onto her thoughts, tight-lipped as ever. He let out an exasperated breath, feeling his eyes roll at her stubbornness. He had been here for far too long already, his body was starting to hurt in places he hadn't known existed before. Freddy scoped out the room, hunting for a chair. A smirk tugged at his lips as he spotted it- perfect. With a monumental effort, he dragged Emerson's chair across the room, the screeching of it making his ears ring in protest. If he was going to be kept waiting for an answer, then at least he could sit down while doing it.

He started drumming his fingers on the armrest of the chair. "Your knee?" he asked.

Seven words from him was all it took for her to start talking. It was enough to make them finally have the long overdue conversation they both wanted. He could feel the heaviness of his own emotions, which had been pushed deep down inside of him for months now. Taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth and let the words flow out of him.

"I need to know why you just shrugged me off."

Nadia's voice was barely above a whisper, "I-I don't know," Freddy felt like the Breyer's truck had just backed over him again. Couldn't she give him anything else to go off of? It was the first time he had felt his blood boil since that time Darla's classmate made her cry.