The Damien High Devils

Sticks and Stones

Kyle's math class was a perfect time for him to do all his other class' homework. Every class he had was a wonderful homework opportunity. Being the smartest kid in the school, he had realized this within the first ten minutes of the new year. That was six months ago. Now, it didn't seem abnormal to just zone out to the teacher and the freedom had lost it's appeal. Kyle longed to learn something new, something that his mind hadn't already worked out how to do before he knew what he was thinking about.

His latest subject of thought was people. What made them do what they did? What made a sane man into a serial killer? Kyle's mind was running a mile a minute, pulling up an assortment of cases, from bank accountants (how do they sit there all day?) to lawyers (how do they know that they're not trying too hard to protect the wrong people) to street beggars (how to they have the courage to keep living all day?). He started to get dizzy just thinking about too many ideas at once.

His attention was suddenly jerked back to his boring class. It seemed as if the entire class were watching him. Kyle looked up through his lashes and caught a couple of the giggles that were aimed at him.

"What are they laughing at?" Kyle asked his table partner, Cass.

Cass just shook her head. "Pull your head out of the clouds once in awhile, nerd, and you'll find out." She turned back to her friend, Angie, and started whispering once again, shooting glanced at Kyle.

The class didn't stop giggling for the rest of the period.

At lunch, Kyle couldn't stop thinking about the incident. His friends, Piper, Lance, Will, Harry, and Jessica barely noticed. Kyle tortured himself for a couple more minutes before he made up an excuse about a group project and left the table quickly.

Kyle's biology teacher, Mr. Pierce, was pretty surprised to see him. The teacher himself was pretty cool, but his classes were filled with so many uninterested and uneducated students that he had no choice but to teach at a snail's pace.

"Hello, Mr. Kade. This is an unexpected visit. What brings you here today?"

"Hi, Mr. Pierce. I'm sorry to bother you," Kyle replied. "And it's nothing important. Can I stay here for the rest of the lunch period, please? I'm in your next class anyways."

"It's no problem. Feel free to stay. Remember, if there's ever anything you need to talk about, you can talk to me."

The rest of Kyle's school day was filled with giggles, snickers, and every other sound of laughter. Unfortunately, Kyle wasn't in on the joke.

Kyle decided to call Harry on the way home, and tell him about the accident at school- on bluetooth of course.

"Well, Kyle, I don't know either." Harry answered, and Kyle sighed.

"However! Bro, I will go hunting around for the answer! Don't you worry I got you! Detective Harry is on the case." This made Kyle laugh, before ending the call and pulling into the driveway.

John, Kyle's brother, got home before Kyle did. John's deceivingly angelic looks were the only innocent thing about him.

"Not staying at school with the losers today?"

"They're actually really cool people," Kyle answered mildly.

"If you say so," John answered dubiously.

"I'm going to go make bouncy egg balls," Kyle said offhandedly.

"Bye."

Kyle ambled to the kitchen, remembering a time when his brother and he had had fun making bouncy egg balls and shooting at a plastic cup when they were done. John had once been the brightest student in his grade. However, sometime in his junior year, some of John's new friends had started a new type of drug, falling deeper into the void of addiction and dragging John down with them. John's standing in the academic competition had fallen faster than seemingly possible. His family believed him to be a completely new man, and not in a good way. John stopped doing anything that he deemed "hard," including spending time with his younger brother and respecting his parents.