Secluded - Jeffmads [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter One

James' back stung with tension as he walked the crowded and claustrophobia inducing school hallway. It was loud, the sounds of people chatting and shouting filled his ears as he tried his best to avoid eye-contact. This was a daily routine for the short boy, get to school, ignore everyone, leave school.

It certainly wasn't easy, with the high number of people filling the building, but James managed it. Well, at least he tried.

As the noise continued to ring in his ears he entered his math class, taking his usual seat in the back corner. No one seemed to want that seat, the light fixture above it was broken, and the school budget didn't seem to include everyday things such as a burnt out lightbulb. Now that may seem like the schools issue, but James found it to be an advantage. Less light equals less visibility, and the less visible you are the less likely the teacher is going to call on you. And with James' panic-induced stutter, he didn't need the embarrassment of getting called on and taking a whole minute to answer a simple question.

James kept his eyes fixed on the desk as students flooded the room. Whether their faces were smiling or sneering, James didn't like to look at them. The chance of locking eyes with someone was heightened if you happen to stare too long.

He picked at his fingernails, not bothering to pay attention as the teacher as she droned on about the morning announcements, her voice sounding tired. James could tell she wasn't fond of him, or the fact that he managed to pass with flying colors even though he payed little to no attention to what she had to say on a daily basis. Still, he kept his eyes down and his posture slouched, or rather hunched over, almost as if he was trying to curl himself in a ball while still remaining in a seated position.

"It's been five minutes, fifty five left," James mumbled to himself absentmindedly, eyeing the clock as if it was the one speaking, and not the teacher.

"Mr. Madison?" the teacher, James had long forgotten her name, asked, trying to grab the slouched boy's attention. It wasn't successful, James hadn't even noticed she had spoken in the slightest. "Mr. Madison," she repeated, a firmer, more assertive tone in her voice, cutting through the fog of James' absent mind, grabbing his focus.

"Y-Yes?" James stammered, feeling the sting of his classmates' snickers.

The woman huffed, rubbing her temples, obviously peeved by James' lack of interest in her class. Though lack of interest wasn't a strange thing for students to experience, especially when it was math, of all subjects. "Can you answer the question on the board for me?" she asked, gesturing to the equation scribbled across the black chalkboard. The quality of her handwriting almost would've gotten a laugh from James if the insurmountable weight placed in his shoulders wasn't so crushing.

"Well I-I... I um-" James felt his face flush, his hands feeling clammy as everyone's eyes burned holes into him. James knew the answer without giving the equation more than a second of thought, it was just the hurdle of saying the answer that he never seemed to find the ability to jump over.

"Do you know the answer or not, James?" she asked, her cold tone making it clear she had intended to humiliate her student. Though her motive was quite cruel, it provided an amusement to the rest of the class, all except one student. James didn't know him by name, but he saw that he was the only kid without a smirk plastered to his face. The expression on his face was one of concern and empathy, an expression James didn't see very often on his peers. "Well James? Do you?"

"Y-Yes but-"

"Then say it, wimp," a classmate mocked, an almost wicked belt of laughter coming from the boy seconds after the comment. He sat close to the concerned looking boy, James assumed they were friends.

"Cut it out, Reynolds," the empathetic one scolded, slapping the cruel one's arm.

"Why?" the cruel one asked, crossing his arms. "He's just some freak," James flinched at the word, feeling it hit a nerve. He stood up, much to the surprise of everyone in the classroom.

He picked up his books, looking around the room, tears burning at his eyes. "I am not a freak," he said simply, before bolting out of the room, baffling all the remaining students and the teacher, who James assumed would be pleased by the lack of his presence. James rushed to his only place of refuge in the spacious high school, the boy's bathroom. He locked himself in one of the stalls, setting his books down on the floor, not caring about the unsanitary effects it may have on them. Tears rolled down his face, his big brown eyes looking pitiful and sad. "I'm not a- I'm not a freak," he mumbled sadly, knowing he was lying to himself.

James was known as the freak. No, James was known as "freak". Nobody on the entire high school, except for the teachers, bothered to learn his name. He was just a quiet kid who sat in the back. The kid who was always sick and coughing, his coughing spells often interrupting, and annoying, the teacher. The day was just another shitty day for the boy, who just yearned for a mere hour of nothing going wrong.

But that was never going to happen, because well, James was a freak.

And freaks don't have good days.