Those Who Whisper, Become the Subject of Whispers

1: The Prodigy

I have never been one to stare, not even at the women who pass me by, yet, I stare at him. His small figure and blocky face echo in my mind after every gaze I take. He is the worst thing I ever had a chance to look at.

"Larry?"

I fucking hate Caden Lloyd.

"Earth to Larry."

I hear Eli, probably one of my best friends ever, beg for my attention and all I mutter out is "Wussup." Eli has a relieved expression now that I've spoken, thank fucking god. "Did you hear about that tornado drill they got us doing, fucking insane bro," Eli says as he lets out exactly 4 blinks and a wide toothed grin. "Oh yeah.." I look back at Eli as I take off my hat and take a graze through my short brunette hair, just to put on the hat once again. "What is with you man? You seem so off lately." Eli says as he furrows his brows and gives me a look that invokes a sense of belittlement upon me. "It's nothing, just focusing on football and all that," I don't want to worry him or anyone for that sake. The lunch bell rings and I grab my backpack and throw away my tray. I spill some fruit juice on my new purple shirt embroidered with our school's mascot, the bobcat, and then gladly walk to my 3rd period English class.

My arrival is met with stares, as per usual, but these ones felt targeted, like they knew something about me that not even I knew. I sit in my desk in the back row and immediately see my sworn enemy, Caden, stumble into class. He's wearing teal shorts and a black shirt with some fishing competition plastered on it, really ugly if you ask me. He sits in his seat in the front diagonal to me in the front row as the teacher starts passing out worksheets. The worksheet is something about a man being hunted, would probably know if I actually paid attention but I literally cannot. "Everybody needs to be writing," Mrs. McEntire says as she most definitely stares at me. One stare won't make me suddenly want to work but it will build up the knot in my chest that has been building up since school started.

I hear a word in the distant echoes of Mrs. McEntire's rambling. A word so familiar it builds a residence on the tip of your tongue. The word is prodigy, seems normal right? Wrong. All my life I have been a prodigy, always the best, which has been a blessing and a horrible curse. I love to win but I hate when my family makes me work all the time. I love football except not when it's all I can do. I love attention from the girls except when I can't talk to them without feeling strange. For every single positive there is a negative. I am the face of HHS which makes me a mold of what they want to the point that I don't know who I am anymore. To be perfect is to be scrutinized, to be imperfect is to be overlooked.

I try to talk to my only friend in class, Parker, as to escape my thoughts. "Mikayla's ass is so fat, right bro?" Parker says staring at Mikayla, the prettiest girl at school, but all I notice is she is sitting right next to Caden. "Nah, for real" I say with a big ass grin on my face. Why the fuck am I grinning? "You should try to hit that blud." Parker says imitating my big ass grin. "Boys, stop talking during my lesson!" Mrs. McEntire says with yet another stare.

I end my conversation and lay down my head, my eyes landing right on Caden for some reason. He keeps looking back at me, why the hell is he looking at me? Is it because I'm looking at him? Is it because he thinks I'm weird? Well obviously he does because he literally said "Please let me leave," the first time we spoke but I just hate the way he looks at me. I don't if I'm a reject or a loser because his posse of baseball boys aren't the only ones who stare. I just wish I could read minds, especially Caden's.

A/N:
I promise Caden and Larry have a real interaction soon.