Rey listened to Whimsy babble on about the strangest things. She described it as if she lived a fairy tale her entire life up until this moment. Rey was endlessly fascinated and intrigued by her seamless storytelling and he smiled as she waved memories of living at a fortress.
Rey was, however, taken aback when he watched her take her hands through what could have been medium length hair, had she not have had a shaved head. Moments later he noticed her puffing the air around her thighs, as if she wore a tulle skirt.
"Raucous would dress me every morning. I had a room just for me. My room was secluded from the other children and had pillows attached to the wall and stacks of paperback dictionaries and encyclopedias in the corner next to a soft pillow mattress..."Whimsy explained to him.
He noticed how soft Whimsy was against the backdrops of places. He enjoyed how it seemed as if she belonged there but yet didn't, like a coffee stain in a still life. Her simplicity helped her to blend in. The shaved head, pale eyes, and grey jumper didn't make her look like the average sixteen year old girl, but it was New York after all, and stranger things could be seen everywhere.
The bus screeched to a stop and Rey took Whimsy's hand, leading her off the bus and through the gate of the school. He left her at the lobby of the administrative office with vague instructions: try to sign up for classes, somehow, any way she could think off. All Rey could really do beyond that was nothing; he needed to get to his classes because a peculiar girl he met at a bus stop was not a proper excuse for a tardy notice. He did however squeeze her shoulder as he was pulled away into the mass of students all bustling towards their classes.
The way Rey approached his locker was not gentle. He was slammed into it, and heard a familiar voice chuckle as a bruise began to form in his shoulder and he cried out in pain.
"Who's the girl, fag?!" Stephan laughed. They had known each other for longer than either could remember.
"Which one" Rey asked, squinting through the sudden dull pain and faced his peer who despite seeming to tower over him was looking him dead in the eyes.
"The supermodel," Rey sarcastically said, "The bald girl of course, who else would there be, it isn't like your mother ain't all the way across the country flirting with a mechanic in Washington" Stephan pouted his lips in a mock 'puppy face' appearance as he mentioned Rey's mother's current lifestyle.
"Whimsy isn't bald though, if you would like to properly describe it, it is close cut or shaved" Rey retorted, know-it-of-fact like, beginning to grow a bit defensive and curl his fists.
"Did you call her Whimsy?" Stephan laughed, "Either you cannot come up with good pet names or she just has a stupid name in general!"
"She told me her name is Whimsy Wobbly, I met her at a bus stop and she told me that she needed to sign up to go to school, so I paid her bus fare here, and that's all" Rey shook his head, and brushed his hand through his short, thick hair.
"That's all?" Stephan pursed his lips a little, circling around Rey.
Rey didn't want to fight. Not today. Not anymore. Not again. Rey was done with fighting; he'd rather surrender than fight again. He bit his tongue to stop from lashing out and held his shirt tightly in his sweaty fists.
"Yes," Rey hissed, "That's all. By chance, may I get back to preparing my stuff for my first couple of classes?" Rey asked seeing as he had two minutes to run to home room for the announcements, and he needed a binder, notebook, workbook, and textbook just for one of the two classes he had before his next locker break.
Stephan sneered and walked off. Rey dialed his combination and opened the locker, shoveling out the supplies he needed.
The entire outside of Rey's locker varied day to day because throughout the day something new would be etched on it, such as "Kill yourself" or just the number fifty-two. Rey sometimes laughed at the creativity of the comments, but this time, was not one of those moments. Precariously holding the mighty tome stack in from of him like a table, he rushed to class. Across the hallway the bitter Mrs. Jackson who taught civics and economics had started yelling and threatening detentions to the students loitering in the hall. He swung into his homeroom and sat down without a moment to lose.
The announcements, as usual, were dull, "Seniors have a guidance assembly during their classes about graduation requirements, talk to your English teacher for info regarding this. A pair of black metal rimmed glasses has been found, if they might belong to you, it is advised to go to the security desk to check. All classes in the southern wing of the school will be cancelled for the next week and rescheduled do to a district education conference..." The announcements continued but what little attention Rey had given it, had lost him.
Homeroom was released for the first class of the day. Rey made a way through the hallways, then gym, and finally a hallway beyond the gym towards a health classroom. The lesson did not pertain to the topic of health and was instead about budgeting, realizing that made Rey despise the existence of health classes, instead of "Health" is should instead be called "Whatever in God's name the P.E. Teachers think is a useful skill in life" Rey was sixteen for heaven's sake, why aren't they taking driver's education? Other than Rey criticizing these facts below his breath, it was rather uneventful. In Rey's mind he had wasted another hour of his life which always seemed to be ticking closer to when he wanted it over with anyway.
Rey then whisked himself through the torrents of students, the loud obnoxious hallways, and towards his French class. He immediately dreaded the imminent conjugation that awaited him. "Etre means to be. Je suis, Tu es, Il est, Elle est, On est, Nous sommes, Vous etes, Ils sont, Elles sont," The very thought of French verbs always gave him a headache. Madame Dupont had just scrawled the verb "Parler" onto the board before the class heard a few short knocks on the classroom door.
Madame crossed over to the door before opening it and letting the principal in. The principal was a portly fellow; he had the gut of an alcoholic and the reek of a chain smoker. Small square glasses magnified his small, dark, beady eyes. His grey hair was thinning and the lack of hair on his scalp has probably just migrated to his bushy grey beard. He wore a pinstripe suit as he did most days, and gold rings were one every one of his fat fingers.
Dr. Ramper's pinstripe suit wrinkled along the seams as he leaned over to whisper something in the ear of Madame Dupont. She responded back, also hushed, and they exchanged secret conversation for a moment. With a final word to the teacher Dr. Ramper's padded out the room, leaving a familiar small girl at the front of the classroom.
That moment all Rey could think was "Oh no, it worked, thank you, you succeeded," Rey then began to mouth the words verbatim as Madame introduced the girl:
"Class, please welcome our new students. Please introduce yourself to the class"
"Je m'appelle Whimsy Wobbly," Whimsy's voice was orotund. She looked over to Rey and smiled. Her smile was small but pleasant. It was then that the two new found friends were separated by the bell of changing classes.
"Finally something good happened on a Monday," Rey whispered to himself while parting from her.
The massive wave of students weaved back and forth between them and the day seemed to end quicker and more pleasantly than before.
