Meet Charlie

(10) Wild Fire

:)

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Flora's POV

Did the news of Charlie Foster's tragic incident spread through Wolton School? Of course it did. It spread like a fricking wild fire. It even reached my group of friends and that usually doesn't happen. Gossip about things like other students are things we have to eavestrop about, but this time someone actually came up to us babbling about something along the lines of

"Did you hear about this kid Charlie Foster who got put on crutches by these group of drunkies?!"

I was amazed, but also slightly freaked out about how he actually knew about someone's incident in so much detail. Then again, Walton is probably the most rumour-spreading, gossip-sharing, blackmail-threatening school you could ever approach. Never mind attending and receiving your education from which frankly, I wonder how I even manage to cope with 5 days a week. Yes, we have the typical sport obsessed freaks who's body is 0.01% fat and the rest is muscle. Yes we have the typical cheerleading team with a strict ass coach who makes them spin and flip around all over the place so much, that I wonder how they're able to catwalk effortlessly down the hall swishing their ponytails without collapsing. Yes we have the geeks who are talking non stop about physics and equations with numbers AND letters in them until you are literally pulling your hair out and almost thankful that the jocks shut them up.

No, I'm not a bully but trust me, if you were in my kind of situation where you're next to two geeks chatting away at the latest scientific news, I'm certain that you would bow down to the mighty jocks for shutting them up with a single warning that would keep them from saying another unknown word.

Now I bet you're wondering where Charlie Foster fits into one of these social groups right? The thing is, he doesn't. I guess he has his own special group that consists of him and sometimes his friend, Ryan Hughes when he feels like tagging along. No, I am not a stalker. I just figure out things judged on what I see on a daily basis when I see him at school occasionally. Theres a difference.

It's been about 4 weeks since their first encounter on the roof and most of that time has been him in the hospital. I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested when the rumours went around about Charlie's incident. Because I can tell you now, I was. I wouldn't be lying however, if I said I was dreading the day when he would come back to school, most likely in crutches. Why? Everyone knows that as soon as you come into school with a noticeable injury like a cast or crutches, you immediately get put in the spotlight. Yep, those two stick things that help you hobble around when injured can really raise your reputation in the school. Such as giggling cheerleaders coming up to a boy to ask if they can sign his cast whilst acting as if she actually cares about what happened and if he was alright. Just. Stop.

Yeah I get that you got a broken leg or something, but that does not change who you are no matter how popular you get. You still look the same but just with a cast on your body and you might act differently, but hey, who doesn't when they're surrounded by pitiful people dying to know what happened and how they could possibly help. Point is, the people who you thought would actually stick by you just because you had an injury everyone felt sorry for, will probably just end up passing you down the hallway and pretending as if they never even spoke a word to you and the only reason they did was to get some ink on that material wrapped around a certain part of your body. Silly really, but true.

Now nobody knew who Charlie Foster was until the news got around about him being hospitalised by a couple of drunks. I bet you most of them didn't even know his name when they heard of the incident. They were probably just told about 'a kid' or 'this dude'. If you asked them who Charlie Foster was, they're brains would instantly be deserted. If you asked about 'the kid who got put in hospital by drunks' lightbulbs would be flashing above their heads almost blinding you. Even though many people in his class are forever witnessing him getting lectures from the teacher and using his name, they never bother to actually use the ears and pea-sized brain they were borned with to listen or even remember the constant bickering of the name Charlie Foster.