A Series of "No"s

Ian had never been one for the dramatic, but he had noticed over the span of his lifetime that his life had been a series of "no"s.

He had never really addressed it before, but the thought of it all now was becoming unbearable.

Ever since he was a little boy, when he was first learning to talk, he was constantly bombarded by the single syllable. He had never wanted to feel so saddened by one single word in his entire life, but ever since the first time, he had heard that word too much.

Ian had never thought that one syllable would make him feel so shitty and worthless, but there it was, lingering in the air around him, in every song he heard, looping constantly in his ears. That one word was all it took to ruin a day for him, or to make him start hating a person.

But that was all it took.

By the time that Ian had gotten to sixth grade, when his mom had told him that they were moving (again), he didn't even care anymore. Maybe in his new school, he'd find some more people that didn't tell him no, and cared about him enough to never say the word again (or at least around him or to his face).

When he found out that he had gotten to join the class on a group project day, Ian was even MORE thrilled. How fun would it be to be the last person picked as a partner?

But he wasn't last. Which was surprising, at least to him. What did this weird Anthony kid even see in him that he would choose to be his partner for this dumb project? Ian shrugged it off. Whatever, he probably wouldn't even get along with this guy anyway. Maybe if he was lucky, he would be able to get Anthony to wave at him once or twice in the span of the next 6 years of their school lives.

Ian moved his desk over next to Anthony's and said, "Thanks, I guess. I'm Ian."

Anthony scoffed before replying, "Yeah, stupid, the teacher told us before you showed up. I'm Anthony. And the only reason I picked you is because none of my other friends are in the same class as I am."

Great. Another one of THOSE kids. Ian rolled his eyes and said, "Whatever, let's just start working on this project so we can get done with it and not talk to each other."

Anthony nodded in agreement. He fished around inside his desk for a notebook and pencil and then began writing something in weird, almost intangible letters on the top of the first page. "Anthony and Ian's Super Awesome Landfill Project of Amazingness."

He looked up at Ian and asked, "Well? Do you like the name or what?"

Ian nodded, smiling. Nobody he had ever been friends with in his other schools had ever actually named their science project something weird like that. And Anthony's pencil didn't have an eraser, so unless he asked Ian for one, that was what they were turning in. "Yep, that's perfect," Ian answered, honestly.

Anthony smiled, grabbing his pencil again and beginning to draw. Ian couldn't see what he was drawing exactly, but he could have a general idea in his head. By the way things were looking right then, Ian could imagine Anthony drawing lots of poop and flies, due to the project being about landfills. He could see it then.

When Anthony finally stopped drawing to show the page to Ian, it was exactly as he had hoped it was. But with not NEARLY enough flies. Sure, Anthony's poop doodles were pretty good, but his flies were ATROCIOUS.

But he had to admit, for a weird kid, Anthony's art wasn't terrible.

"Uh... can I add some stuff to it?" Ian asked, feeling a slight sense of rebellion by actually wanting to turn in the drawing as their project.

He braced himself for the terrible, horrible "no" that was coming.

"Sure," Anthony said, setting the paper on Ian's desk, handing his pencil to him.