He always kept his things stacked and ready one second before the bell. Every route to his next class was burned into his memory with the fires of teenage angst. He cut off every corner to make it there unseen.
As soon as the bell sounded, he jumped up with his materials quickly in his bag and was halfway down the hall before anyone else had left their seats.
His heart raced while he bolted through the courtyard. Make it to class, avoid being seen. Cut past the café, avoid being seen. Vault the stairwell-
“Agh! Watch where you’re going, T-Gay!”
TJ Reese stared at Amanda Jones like a deer in the headlights. More like criminal under a flashing siren. He got on his hands and knees to gather the binders he’d knocked from Queen Bee’s arms. Amanda thought “Queen Bee” meant that she was head of the student body. TJ knew that “Bee” was really “B” and stood for something much less complimentary.
TJ handed Queen Bee her materials and turned to bolt to class. However, Queen Bee had other plans.
“Stop!” she said in an authoritative tone.
TJ controlled his anger and faced her. His face showed no emotion but his shoulders were tense.
Queen Bee tucked a strand of sleek blonde hair behind her ear and stepped up to him. He stared into her crystal eyes. He saw ice; cold glee at the thought of tearing him down.
“Don’t you know to apologize to a lady?” Queen Bee spoke like she was speaking to an especially slow five-year-old. TJ’s grip tightened on his backpack strap. Not a flicker of life crossed his face but his white knuckled fists were a clue to his mounting rage.
Queen Bee flipped her hair over her shoulder while tossing an annoyed look at the ‘princesses.’ She pointed at TJ with a perfectly manicured red painted finger. “I said, T-Gay, don’t you know to apologize to a lady!?” She poked him hard in the chest and he suddenly saw white. He struck out blindly to get her away from him, panic flaring.
His vision cleared but what he saw was polar opposite of what had been happening. Queen Bee stepped back wearing a look of horrified disgust. “Don’t touch me, you creep!” she screamed. Her princesses swarmed up to her and began fussing over her distressed figure. The late bell resounded though the stairwell and TJ turned tail to bolt to class.
His two toned half shaggy hair whipped his face as he ran and his bag pounded against his back. When he crossed the threshold of his last class, TJ snapped to a halt as the class stared with those wide and prying eyes. He walked past every person to get to his desk in the very back corner. “Late, Mr. Reese,” his History teacher droned. “Detention until four thirty tonight in the middle school cafeteria.”
TJ nodded with a genuinely solemn look in his eyes. “Yes, sir.” His outward appearance was that of someone who didn’t truly care that he’d received a two hour detention for first offense. However, he was absolutely seething on the inside. He got a detention while Queen Bee surely just batted her eyelashes and gave a ‘sincere’ apology before sitting down happily to a cheery warning.
TJ could barely contain his anger and he soon gave up on writing notes. His continually broke the lead in his mechanical pencil leaving unsightly sprays of grey over his thing spidery writing. He allowed his hair to fall over his closing eyes and pretended to pay attention. In reality, he couldn’t truly not pay attention.
Every piece of information seemed to be an echo to him. Like something he already knew and was just getting a refresher. It was something he couldn’t explain but it placed him in multiple honors courses. For a tenth grader, he was pretty sharp. The bell rang and TJ actually took his time putting away his things. He would wait until the mob that is weekend bound high schoolers filed outside to the buses. He never rode the bus because there weren’t enough seats for singles. He would’ve gotten one anyhow.
He slung his bag over his shoulder and walked slowly out the door. Anyone who saw him always revealed to him one of two reactions. They either backed away with a look of fear and wariness or shoved him around and tried to break his mask. The mix of reception to his presence never failed to make him tighten the grip on his strap and walk faster.
He opened his locker and got the appropriate binders for the night’s work. He ran his fingers through his jet black bangs back to his snowy layers. A common jibe at him was about his hair colour or his tendency to wear blacks and greys.
His locker slammed shut, narrowly missing his hand.
“How’s it going, emo kid?” a cruel voice sneered. TJ leaned down and picked up his bag without even looking at the instigator. It was wrenched from his grasp and tossed down the empty hall. “Won’t be needing that for a while.”
TJ began walking to pick up his bag but his sweatshirt was grabbed and the attacker slammed him against the lockers. He was looking into the face of Brett Hockes, football captain and resident jerk of Valley Side High.
Brett spoke right in TJ’s face. “My girlfriend says you jumped her on the stairs. Then you wouldn’t say sorry and tried to hit her!” If Brett was dating Queen Bee, that made him a royal pain in the-
Brett gave TJ a shake by his shirt collar. “You don’t hit girls and you apologize when you upset them!”
TJ blinked, the edges of his vision crowding with white. He spoke with his eerily quiet and shy voice that somehow never failed to give people chills. “I’m sorry I upset you, Brett, but I don’t think I’ve ever hit you.”
Brett scowled in confusion before the jibe pierced through his thick skull. He pulled back his fist; he was ready to deck TJ over the weekend and into first period on Monday. It was then that the scene smeared together in a fog. TJ ducked when the punch came, knowing that it was there but unable to see. He heard Brett cuss as his fist connected to the locker door. TJ took this opportunity to grab his bag and run.
His heart pounded as he raced out the door dodging lingering students to make it to the middle school building. His vision slowly returned while he neared the door. The building loomed out of a fog that TJ blinked away in an instant. TJ walked in calmly and found the cafeteria. Bouts of lost vision were becoming increasingly frequent during confrontation.
Quietly, he sat at an unoccupied table in the back, pulling out a book and plugging in his iPod with the intention of zoning out.
That is, until two hands slammed on the end of the table.
TJ looked up, expressionless, into the eager gleaming eyes of…some kid.
Silence.
TJ took off his headphones and blinked. “May I help you?”
The kid’s arm sprung up in, pointing straight in between TJ's eyes. His face split into a wide dimpled grin and he sucked in a deep breathe. “You're TJ Reese!”
