Forward. Upward. Onward: A Bluey Story.

The Days After

A/N: Flashback within a flashback? yes please.

Two days later;

Mackenzie had now finally come back to school after missing the previous day. He walked into Calypso's class. She looked at him and quickly clicked together what had happened. He dragged himself brutally, his ears were down, blending into the rest of his fur, his feet skipping and his eyes as if they lacked any sort of light behind.

He tapped Calypso's hand and handed her a small device. It was a hearing aid. She knew Mackenzie couldn't quite hear from his floppy ear so he needed aids, but wasn't sure why he was giving it to her.

He waited for a bit before taking it and popping off a small cap in it. There was no battery in it. His parents had taken the battery as a punishment.

"Do you need a battery?"

"...yes"

"I don't know if I have any for these, do you know what kind they use?"

He could barely make out what she was saying.

"...huh?"

Calypso quickly caught on. She took a piece of paper and wrote down what she said. She handed it to him alongside a crayon. He wrote down: 'no'

Calypso sighed and wrote down: 'Go sit down. I will see what i can do."

He read it and nodded before going to the yard. Afterwards, Calypso went outside towards the other side of the roundabout, where Ms. Retriever's class was.

– – –

"Uhm, Margie?"

"Oh Calypso! I didn't know you were there!" Margie -Bingo's teacher- realised this was a serious matter. "What's wrong?"

"Do you know what kind of battery this thing uses?"

"Oh! Is this Mackenzie's?"

"Yes, i'm afraid."

"Did he take it out?"

"His parents took it as punishment."

Margie's slight smile vanished.

"Again?!"

"What do you mean again?"

"They did it once when he forgot to bring his lunch. The poor kid tried to cut his neck with origami folders because the ringing was too loud..."

"Why would he do that?"

There was a brief silence. "He's always had stuff to deal with at home. His parents didn't plan on having him and so they took out their rage onto him. Starving himself, cutting with the safety scissors, drinking whatever chemical he could find. It's all because, according to himself, everything is his fault."

She went on. "His mum seems to be a normal person, but still enabler of his dad's attitudes, which means he doesn't quite trust her. I remember him telling me he would be dead already, but that he didn't do it-"

Tears started to flow out of her eyes. "B-because he didn't want Bluey to cr-cry..."

~~~

4 years prior;

"Mackenzie?"

Bluey found him sitting on the seesaw, staring at a small bottle of bleach.

"What is that?"

"My mum uses it to clean. She says it could kill you if you drink it."

"Ooh, then why do you have it?"