(This is the day after chapter 1)
“Are you sure you even SLEPT last night?” Riptide asked while kicking a rock between her feet.
“I’m sure I slept, how much is what I am unsure of,” Tsunamii replied rubbing their eyes, trying to get the sleepiness to go away.
“If you’re sure, then I’m willing to believe you,” Riptide replied, eyeing under their eyes, which were red-pink at this point.
“I’m sure,” Tsunamii snapped, a little too easily.
When the bus got there, Tsunamii was already falling asleep. They were awoken a bit more, more or less snapped back to reality, when Riptide put a hand on their shoulder.
“Come on, Tsunamii,” Tsunamii could hear the concern in her voice.
“I know,” Tsunamii looked Riptide in the eyes and quietly whispered “I’m okay.”
Riptide nods her head and pushes Tsunamii gently into the bus and to their shared seat. Tsunamii wishes that the bus took an hour sometimes so that way they could sleep, but it never did. It took 30 minutes max. Tsunamii suddenly remembered Thunder and how he told them he would get his schedule today.
In Tsuanmii’s Science class
The class was in chaos and the teacher had only been gone for 4 minutes. Although, it was still technically a passing period. Tsunamii was looking around but mainly was watching the door. A paper airplane flew into their head and a few people snickered. Tsunamii was about to throw it back when they saw writing on it.
It wants me to read the inside of it? Tsunamii thought.
They were confused, no one had ever tried to pass notes to them at all. Tsunamii opened it and inside it had a bunch of names like “Freak” and “Short wave”. Tsunamii was fine with short wave, but freak was just rude and out there. They were normal enough, right? They took notice that each name that was written on there had a name of everyone in the class. The WHOLE class took part in this.
Tsunamii just stared. They stared for what felt like hours. Then the paper was yanked out of their hands by someone who was above them. Tsunamii looked up to see Thunder reading the entire paper with a disgusted frowned look. His eyebrow was furrowed and he looked more angry than anything. They then saw him crumple it into a ball and throw it at someone who had called Tsunamii a “Red-eyed Freak!” It hit that person in the eye.
“How did you know who that was?” Tsunamii asked him quietly as he sat down next to him.
“She’s in my Math class, we sit across from each other,” Thunder responded, glaring back at the person who threw the airplane at Tsunamii in the first place.
“Thanks for doing that,” Tsunamii looked down at the desk, which had their sketchbook on it.
“Thanks for doing what? Trying to protect you from bullying?” Thunder looked at them with a soft confused expression on his face.
Tsunamii didn’t respond as the teacher just walked in and started lecturing the class on behavior even when he wasn’t there.
On the bus with Riptide
“What’s up with you, Mr. Depressed?” Riptide asked, seemingly forgetting what happened this morning.
“I’ll explain… at home,” Tsunamii said, trying to forget whatever had happened in Science.
“Alright?” Riptide replied, a little confused.
At home
Tsunamii quickly put their stuff down and darted upstairs to their shared room with Riptide. Or maybe it was to the calm room, Riptide couldn’t tell. Tsunamii actually went to the quiet space that they never told anyone about except for Luna.
“What happened?” Luna asked as Tsunamii pulled themself up to the attic.
Where did Tsunamii even begin? The way Thunder helped them? The airplane with all the names in it? The way they just don’t want to remember it?
“I- I don’t know where to start,” Tsunamii felt tears welling up in their eyes, which still had eyebags under them.
“You can tell me where it happened first, then you can tell me who did it, and then what happened overall,” Luna replied, looking up from the book they were writing in.
This is why Tsunamii liked to talk to Luna, out of everyone. They were a great listener and they could always find a way to help you if you needed it. They found ways to make you comfortable and made sure they weren’t pushing you too much out of your comfort zone or crossing any boundaries.
“Well… it was in my Science class, and those popular kids, you remember me saying stuff about them right?” Tsunamii took a seat on the bean bag with Luna, who had scooted over to make room.
“Mhm,” Luna said, putting their book down and grabbing a small stress ball instead.
“Well, those kids got everyone in the class, well close to everyone,” Tsunamii stopped to take a breathe since they were talking so fast that they just couldn’t breathe, “They got most of the class to sign a paper that had a bunch of names like ‘Freak’ and ‘Short wave’ on it.”
Luna looked at them and then gently asked, “But that’s not everything that happened is it?”
Tsunamii stayed silent for a while, then replied “No, not really.”
“Then what else?” Luna asked, trying to gently nudge Tsunamii into telling them a bit more, not enough to make them uncomfortable though.
“Well… “ Tsunamii struggled to find a way to describe how they felt about Thunder, “There’s a new kid named Thunder who seems to want to be friends with me, but I’m not sure.”
“And, what happened with Thunder?” Luna asked gently.
“Well after Thunder came in and looked at the note over my shoulder, and then took it out of my hand,” Tsunamii paused, “He wadded it up into a ball and threw it at someone who called me a ‘Red-eyed Freak!’ I’m not sure why.”
“Alright, thank you for telling me,” Luna gently hugged them before letting them go.
