eunoia ; malum

08

WHEN CALUM SAW MICHAEL NEXT, THE REDHEAD WAS ANGRY. He walked straight up to Calum and pushed him against the lockers. Calum furrowed his eyebrows, wincing at how much pressure the pale boy was putting on him.

"I don't know what your fucking power is, and right now, I'm not afraid of it. What the fuck did you guys do?"

Calum smirked, pretending to know what he was talking and thinking about as he raised his eyebrows. "You're afraid of my powers?" in response, he got shoved harder, and if Michael was Ashton, Calum would be dead from his super-strength. "Dude, what are you even talking about?"

"You know – you and your fuckin' diploid buddies thought'd be funny, right? 'Let's play a trick on the hunter', right?"

Calum opened his mouth to say something, but Ashton had thrown Michael into some lockers across the room, yelling at him. "You touch him again, and it'll be worse." The redhead walked away, more hurt than he was letting on, considering all of his thoughts were about how in pain he was.

The musclier one straightened Calum up, smiling small before walking away. He had to meet up with Luke before the bell went. Calum didn't mind. He knew Ashton was in love with the boy, and they were in the honey-moon stage (still).

The bell rung about five seconds later, and they all hurried into class. Calum and Ashton had PE, which meant Michael would be there. Great.

The guys and girls had cardio. Fucking cardio. Michael and Ashton didn't know what cardio was, but when the circuits started and they had to do squats and star-jumps and these weird things called burpees, they hated it.

Luckily, someone came in to get them.

His name was Ed. He was in charge of Special Ed. He liked to tell the kids that he was named after it, and then would always laugh about it. He was twenty-eight, and already had his dad jokes on point.

First, he sat them down in empty room and said he was going to 'test their abilities' which meant he was going to see how dumb they really were. Calum could read three sentences without failing, and Ashton couldn't even read three words.

"Okay, well, I'm going to go get Ruth – she's another Special Ed. teacher, and she'll teach Ashton – "

"You're going to split us up?"

They were both paranoid. In their heads, humans were bad, which was why some of them became hunters. There was no such thing as being too safe for them. They were better together than apart.

Seeing the fear in their eyes, Ed furrowed his eyebrows. "You'll still be in the same room, if you really want."

They both nodded, and Ed left to go find the other teacher. Ashton and Calum sat in silence, even though Ashton's thoughts were buzzing around everywhere. He was thinking about Luke and Special Ed.

"Do you think they think we're weird?" Ashton asked, referring to Ed and Ruth, who were close to entering the doorway.

"I know they think we're weird."

*

The two came out of Special Ed. with a headache. They'd just spent an entire double trying to look at the words 'cat' 'dog' 'the' and 'tree', and it was made their heads hurt. Calum kind of got it, and tried to be patient, but Ashton just got angry because he was upset, which caused him to threaten to punch Ed in the face.

"You shouldn't threaten people who are trying to help you, Ashton." Calum scolded, but Ashton just waved him off, going over to Luke.

Calum scoffed, going to his locker and getting something to eat. He chewed on his apple as he looked around. He wasn't sure where to go. He didn't want to go and third-wheel with Luke, but he didn't have any other friends.

He decided to have a go at the game 'handball', but he wasn't good at it and got out straight away. He sighed, pacing where his homeroom's lockers were ten times.

He decided to text Stacey.

Calum: can I hang out with you? ashton ditched me. fuckin bitchatcho

Stacey: um do you even know who I hang out with?

Calum: Girls? I don't see the problem?

Stacey: fineee

He walked out of his homeroom and out to the lunchtable near the canteen where Stacey and her friends sat. Stacey called him over so he wouldn't look weird.

"Hey, Stace."

The blond half-smiled. We're on nickname-basis? "Hey, Cal."

She introduced her friends to him. The first (Lilly Lesbo, as Stacey liked to call her) was small and cute, a button nose and dimples. She had dimple piercings and they made conversation over that. The second was a quiet girl of Indian ethnicity named Asha, head stuck in a book.

"So, you're bi? That's, like, cool. So much variety, you know?" Lilly said, adjusting her glasses.

Asha looked up, closing her book. "I don't think that being told you are just a slut that can't decide is very 'cool', Lilly."

Calum widened his eyes. Judging by her thoughts, she really didn't like Lilly. And he'd never been called a slut before. He knew it was bad to be called that, though. He saw a girl cry over it once.

"I-I haven't been called a slut before." The Maori said.

"We weren't even talking about the shitty parts of bisexuality, why you gotta bring me down?" Lilly groaned.

"I think I'm gonna go . . ."

Calum went in the other direction quickly, wanting to avoid conflict. He didn't want to stand around and watch a couple of girls fight over the disadvantages of his sexuality. He wasn't in the mood.

Suddenly, somebody's thoughts were loud and clear in his head. Why won't this kid fucking tell me anything? I just want to know what they did to me. He knew those thoughts. Michael's. Judging by other thoughts, it was JJ he was talking to.

He walked around as the thoughts got louder, finding them where near the front office.

"We didn't do anything to you! Why would we? We'd make sure it'd kill you if we did."

Calum rolled his eyes at JJ's fake-toughness and decided to step in. He slung his arm around Michael, smirking as the boy thought about killing him. "Something bad must've happened for him to be asking every diploid he knows."

Oh, fuck. They don't know, do they? Oh, fuck -

"So, mind telling us what you're freaking out over?"

Michael pushed himself out of Calum's grip, shaking his head. "When I figure out how to fix this; you're fucked."

Calum didn't take it to heart a lot. Only a little.

Michael's problems stayed in his head when he walked home. He went straight up to his room, seeing there were some clothes folded on the bed. He didn't ask about it. He changed into them and threw them at Jack when he said it was washing day.

"Calum," Jack groaned, holding up the boy's shirt. "In what subject did the collar of your shirt get burnt?"

Burnt?