Freaks: Year Two

What Happened

Descriptions of child abuse.

It had been a relatively normal day.

Toby had woken up early and made breakfast for Ethan, Francis and Edgar. He then woke them and made sure they got ready for school and ate their toast. Toby ensured that each of his siblings had gotten their homework done from the night before and helped put Francis' hearing aids in and while the younger three ate breakfast, he made lunch.

"Toby, you should eat," Edgar finally spoke up when he had finished his own toast and saw that Toby was busy working at a piece of paper at the counter, his own breakfast not even made.

"I will eat something on the way, don't worry Ed."

Edgar looked at his brother, who still had his back turned and Edgar wondered if Toby even had the intention to eat breakfast. He had soon realised that whenever Toby said he would do something for himself, it was usually a lie. Maybe he didn't think that he was noticing, but Edgar was.

Edgar wondered if the other two had noticed too and he sadly looked over to his other two brothers who were still eating, Ethan leaving the crusts on his own plate. After another minute of silence, Edgar got out of his seat and grabbed another piece of bread from the loaf and he was about to grab the knife when Toby, who had noticed what he was doing, pulled it away.

"If you want another piece of toast, you can ask," Toby said. "You shouldn't use a knife. You're too young."

"It's a butter knife," Edgar said.

"It's still a knife so no, you're not touching it."

"Can you eat with us now?" Edgar asked.

"I told you," Toby said, putting the knife in the sink. "I will eat on the way to school, now if you really are done, please go wash your face and brush your teeth."

"You should eat," Francis spoke up and Edgar looked back, glad he was getting some sort of backup and he turned back to Toby.

"Guys, later. Please."

Edgar sighed and he looked back to Francis who gave a sad shrug.

Soon, after they were all finished getting ready, they were out the door for school, Toby not having breakfast on the way like he had said he would. Edgar felt frustrated that he had lied so asked him about it.

"Don't worry," Toby said with a sigh. "It's fine. I have lunch. Don't worry. You're fed, Francis and Ethan are, that's what is important."

"You're important too, idiot," Ethan said, making a face.

Toby just rolled his eyes. His brothers needed to let this topic go. He had a lunch, he would be fine and at least his siblings were fed. During breakfast time he actually had the time to do his homework so now he could finally hand in an assignment and Mr. Smith would not have an excuse to complain.

When they had made their way to school, Toby had told all of them to behave. He especially spoke to Edgar about this as he had been causing some mischief and problems lately. "Just behave. Alright?"

Edgar nodded but he couldn't help but feel nervous. "Okay."

They started to go to their classes, Edgar trying to keep his emotions under control as he went down the corridors. He always felt like one of the odd ones out at school. He was the labelled troublemaker of his class and because of that, the kids wouldn't play with him. He would usually spend his play times with Francis and Mary and that was fun, but he wished he was able to play with his own classmates, he wished they didn't think he was weird, he wished he wasn't such a freak.