valentine gonzalez was an oddball in the eyes of very much everyone. he was not exactly the optimistic type and he hardly ever seemed excited or eager about anything. he had learned from a young age that it is best to be do the bare minimum than to...
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Valentine's eyes focused on his notebook, writing down one of the answers to his long list of math problems that his teacher had given the class. In the background, he could hear Demetri, Eli, and Miguel talking about what happened at the Halloween dance and what became of it.
"So, that's it?" Demetri asked. "No more karate?"
"I guess so," Miguel responded.
"Well, that's a good thing then," Valentine declared, his eyes remaining on his work. The Diaz boy's eyes fell on him in an annoyed manner, a deep breath escaped him. "Getting your ass kicked after weeks of training should give you a sign that it's not for you."
"What he means is..." Demetri trailed off, steering his eyes away from the Gonzalez boy to Miguel. "It's probably for the best. It was starting to boost your confidence."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Miguel inquired.
"No," Demetri responded as if it was a dumb question. "What has confidence ever gotten anybody except for a black eye and their backpack thrown in the trash?"
"Well... I thought it was kind of cool how you stood up to Kyler," Eli acknowledged.
"Are you insane?" Demetri voiced rather loudly, despite their setting in the school library. "Let me ask you. What is the best superpower anyone could have?"
"Super strength," Miguel answered.
"Wrong. Invisibility," Demetri proclaimed. "A distant second would be super speed, to run away fast."
"Run away from who?" Kyler asked, placing a hand on Eli's shoulder as he stopped at their table. For the first time, ever since they had arrived, Valentine's eyes left his paper to look at the bully with his arms crossed over his chest. Miguel let out a groan at his voice.
"Whom." Brucks corrected from his place beside his friend. "It's the object of preposition. Remember English class."
"We were just leaving," Miguel interrupted Brucks as he, Eli, and Demetri began to pack their stuff and stood up. Valentine did not budge, he thought that there was no need for him to. Or he had, until Kyler grabbed the back of Eli's neck, made him look at him, and then called him a freak. Brucks' wild laughter and Kyler's comment, "What kind of girl would ever kiss this shit?", was the last straw. His chair scraped against the tiled floor, causing everyone's attention to draw toward him.
"Is there a problem, Gonzalez?" Kyler asked with a smirk. He knew that Valentine would never do anything to him. A long time ago, they were friends once. A soft spot was formed in the boy where he could never harm or say anything to him.
"Leave him alone, Kyler," Miguel spoke. Kyler's eyes drifted away from the angered Gonzalez boy to the bruised boy who stood not far from him. The smirk on his lips disappeared as he shoved Eli's face away from him and made his way toward Miguel.
