Octavia

Chapter 3 School

After her run in with the church, Octavia did visit it sparingly, though she grew close friends with Romano, the boy who had prayed with her so reverently.
She soon discovered that he actually lived in the church, in some sort of training to be a religious figure all his life, from childhood to adulthood.
His voice was so squeaky Octavia had once joked he should have been a nun.
He told her comments like that was why she was in a wheelchair.
It didn't get to her too much though, the two would often bicker and jab at each other like this.
She felt normal when she was picked on. Most people made a point to be extra nice to her through pity and she resented it. Why should she be treated any different for what she was now?
It was ridiculous really...
Just because her legs didn't work didn't mean her sense of humour didn't.
Being at school was a different matter though, as people seemed to treat her just a little too roughly there.

"Oi! Wheels! Want to try our new slope!" Some loudmouth called to her.
Roderich had moved onto secondary school whilst Octavia was finishing her last year of Primary school in the British Schooling System.
The loudmouth shouting the comment was none other than Alfred F. Jones, a hotshot who thought he was too good for everyone else.
His older brother Arthur was in Roderich's year, and didn't get along with him either, telling him to go back to his own country, shouting 'Nazi' at him in class and writing it on his locker and bag.
It wasn't Arthur's fault, it was his parents who had conditioned him to be like this.
Octavia wasn't inclined to be labeled a Nazi, instead subjected to Wheel's.
It was better she supposed.

The girl clicked on her wheel locks, staring dead-eyed at the American. If he was going to get her over there she could at least make it hard for him.
She didn't scream for help or cry as he began to tug her away, struggling as her wheels refused to move from their locks.
When he got her to the top of the large mound of mud that resembled a slope or hill, he didn't push her, knowing the wheels wouldn't go.
Instead, he tilted the wheelchair watching as she tumbled out and rolled down the hill, landing on her back at the bottom.
Octavia stared up at the sky, again not crying.
What a sicko, to take pleasure out of doing this to her.
She could hear him laughing his head off at the top of the slope, before he suddenly gasped.
"Leave her alone!" Another Germanic accent cried, and the American boy dashed for it.
Octavia propped herself up on her elbows, her legs lying limp as she turned to face her hero.
It was Ludwig, the new German exchange student who had replaced Matthew, Alfred and Arthur's younger brother, whilst his elder brother Gilbert had come in the place of Francis Bonnefoy in Roderich's year.
The young boy leant over her, scooping her up off the ground and placing her back in her wheelchair, brushing the dirt from her clothes.
"Thank you" Octavia murmured "But you didn't have to do that, the ground was comfy enough" she murmured sarcastically.
Ludwig gave a stern look, shaking his head "I'm going to tell my brother what he did to you, and he'll beat Arthur and Alfred up" he muttered "He can beat anyone!"
Octavia couldn't help laugh, smoothing back her dark hair "Go ahead, I'd like to see Alfred F Idiot's face ground up in the concrete, along with his disgusting brothers too!"
Ludwig laughed at the comment, and Octavia took off her wheel locks, allowing Ludwig to wheel her back to the playground.
Perhaps school wasn't as bad as she thought.