I See Emeralds

Chapter Sixteen (Berwald's POV)

"You're going to be fine, honey. I've heard that there's kids your age in the new neighborhood. And public school is much better than being stuck with me and Pa every day!" Ma tries to sound reassuring. "Pa's already set up a lot of stuff at the new house. He's there right now."

I've been homeschooled my whole life. Not only are we moving to a new neighborhood, but I'm being switched to a public school. Mondo High School, I think. Something like that. I'm not happy about it.

I don't reply, I only look out the car window. I don't want to speak as the familiar surroundings disappear and we enter the town of Mondo. I don't want to speak as we get out of the car and enter the new house. I don't want to speak as I go to my new room and lock myself inside it.

This is going to be awful.

Sure, we have a pretty nice new place. It's a little bigger than our old house. But it's not our house. It's just a foreign one we're supposed to call home. Ma and Pa seem to respect my obvious desire to be alone for a few hours. I sit on my bed with my laptop, which I'm thankful I brought with me in my purple backpack. I love purple.

After a while, Ma decides to interrupt my process of tuning out the world. She knocks on my door and I force myself to open it. She's smiling, which lets me know it's not good. Whenever she smiles I usually have to do stuff I don't want to do.

"Berwald, I noticed that the neighbors from across the street have a son. He looks to be around your age. Why don't you introduce yourself to him?" she suggests. I know there's no way out of this. Suggesting something is equal to saying that I have to do it.

I don't reply. I'm not a fan of talking. I prefer being in my own thoughts. Apparently that makes people think that I'm mean or scary. I'm really not, though. It's cold outside. Dumb winter. I'm glad my purple jacket is so warm.

I cross the street and see a boy kicking around a soccer ball on his lawn. He's kicking it with such force that I assume he's angry. Or maybe he's just really strong. Maybe both? "It's about time you came to apologize, Mathias! How could you worry me like that?" he turns to me and exclaims. He freezes when he sees me. "Oh...my goodness." I know why he's so startled.

Not only am I not whoever this Mathias guy is, but...my neighbor has purple eyes.

(Sorry to the people who came here for SuFin! I know it took a while to get to Berwald.)