The Austin Family

Toilet Paper

Tommy's POV

It was another normal day at school and it was my lunch period. I was standing there, waiting at my locker for my buddies to meet up with me so we could get our lunch together. As I stood there, waiting, I noticed this one kid walking down the halls. His small stature, along with the child-like look in his eyes, made it pretty safe to assume that he was a freshman. And a nerdy one, too.

His hair was combed neatly, the blonde streaks rolling down opposite sides of his head. He had large glasses planted on his face, like the ones that the classic nerds always wear. He was wearing a white buttoned down dress shirt with a navy blue tie. He was also wearing khakis and black dress shoes. Why is this kid dressed like that? Does he want people making fun of him?

Just before the kid entered the bathroom, my buddies walked around the corner. Cole harshly shoved the kid against the wall as Dominic and Chris shouted, "Nerd alert!" In his face. After he was shoved, the kid fell down and was sitting there with a helpless look on his face. A sudden feeling of protectiveness overcame me. I wanted to tell them to cut it out. After all, they all do what I tell them to, but instead I just stood there, watching them as they approached me, laughing.

They stood by my locker, talking about some chick that Dom is interested in, but I wasn't paying much attention to them. All I could think of was that kid, and how he reminded me of someone that I would do anything to protect. The kid slowly got up from the ground, clutching his arm, and I hated them for doing that to him. He's just a kid, after all. Why should we beat down on people that we feel are part of a lower class than us just because we're seniors? I'd like to think that I'm better than that, and I hate that I may have been the one to do this to other kids. I sure hope I haven't stooped that low as a person.

When the kid enters the bathroom, I turn to my friends who are now talking about their favorite foods. My brother, Noah, always talk about his favorite, KFC. He loves the stuff. Whenever we have fried chicken for dinner, the kid gets crazy excited, as if he's won a billion dollars. I guess to him, though, getting his favorite food for dinner is equivalent, if not better than getting a billion dollars. That's one of the things that I love about Noah. He's too young and innocent to care about things like money, and the cruel world that we live in. All he knows is peace, and I want to keep it that way for him as long as possible.

"Tommy, you wanna head to lunch now?" Chris asks and I'm about to nod when the kid from before exits the bathroom. A few people start chuckling as he takes a few steps towards the cafeteria and I look around, wondering what they think is so funny. Chris, Dominic, and Cole all start laughing too. Unlike the other people, though, they are being really obvious about who they're laughing at. They are all pointing to his feet and when I look down to see what they're pointing at, I see toilet paper attached to his shoe. I roll my eyes at what I was seeing. Are these people really laughing at a kid with toilet paper stuck to his shoe? Pathetic.

Deciding that I've had enough of this, I walk over to the kid and when Cole asks me what I'm doing, I say, "Something that I should've done a long time ago."

I tap the kid on the shoulder and he freezes in his spot, turning around to look at me with a pure look of fear in his eyes. I frown at the look on his face when he sees me looking down at him, as if he's fearing that I'll knock him over like Cole did. I'm not like them, though. I realize, now, who this kid reminds me of. He's like Noah. No, it isn't the way he looks. Noah looks nothing like this guy, but they both have the same innocent look. This kid shouldn't be needing to deal with people like this yet, and letting them treat him the way they treat him would be like allowing someone to treat Noah this way. And something that my buddies have figured out a long time ago when they first met me is that they should never mess with my little brother. If anyone picks a fight with the kid, they're picking a fight with me too. And I don't lose fights.

"You have toilet paper stuck to your shoe." I say and his eyes widen, tearing the paper off and throwing it in the nearest trash bin, which is a decent distance away. This kid has a good arm.

"Thanks." He stutters, continuing to make his way to the cafeteria. I turn to the guys and wave my hand forward, signaling them that we're going in now. As I walk into the room full of students, I remember my ranking in the school. I'm the most popular guy in school and everyone fears me. Why, I have no clue, but that's the way things have always been for me. I never had to deal with being on the lower end of the food chain. I was always on the top.

After getting a hamburger, I sit down at our table and start eating, and all the guys do the same. As I'm about to take a third bite of my lunch, I look up and see the kid from earlier sitting a table all by himself. Nobody else is coming into the cafeteria, so there must not be any friends that he's still waiting for. Now that I thought about it, I don't think I had ever even seen this kid in the school before. Maybe he was new.

Deciding that I want to invite him to the table, I get up to ask him if he wants to join us. After hesitantly agreeing, he comes to the table with me and before he goes to sit in the seat next to mine, Cole stands up, saying, "Why is this nerd coming to sit at our table? Are you trying to downgrade us or something, Austin?" He asks, referring to me by my last name. I stand tall, looking down at him with a cold glare as I say, " He's cool, Cole. He's gonna be our new buddy from now on, and if y'all have any objections to him sittin' here and hangin' with us, then you can go ahead and find another person to hang with."

"Hey, I was jus' kiddin'. I know this kid is cool." He says, as we settle into our seats. "So, kid, what's your name?" Chris asks.

"I'm new here. The name's Will. Nice to meet you." Will says, with a smile on his face. Unlike the rest of us, he doesn't seem to have a southern accent. As we continue to get to know each other a bit, I find out that he used to go to a private school in Boston. He seems excited to be sitting with us and to have friends in this new school already.

"We're glad to have ya here, Will. May I call you Willy?" I ask, and he nods with a small chuckle, saying, "Yeah, sure." I smile at his response as we introduce ourselves to him, and they happily welcome Willy to our group. I think this kid is just who we needed in this place.