Red Room

12

The first day of school followed. Agnes offered Joakim to drive Kataleya to school, since she was taking Moloch anyway. He gladly accepted. That could be an opportunity for the teens to get to know each other better.

Kataleya woke up pretty late, so she didn't really have time to pick up a fancier outfit for the festivity. She didn't mind that though, because she couldn't care less about the impression she made with her clothes. They wouldn't like her regardless of how she looked on the first day.

A few minutes later, she was standing in front of the mirror, examining her plain black outfit. Nothing to attract attention. Good. All that was left to do was to tie her dreadlocks. Should be enough to blend in with the crowd.

"Kata!", Joakim called from downstairs, "Agnes is in front of the house! Why are you taking so long?!"

So long? Seriously? She got dressed in about 5 minutes, including the search for clothes! Whatever. At least he didn't call her Katarina again.

Using the short form of a name to get it right. Clever. So, Grandpa was a clever guy, wasn't he?

Kataleya grabbed her backpack and ran down the stairs. One moment later, she slammed the door shut. No good-bye, nothing.

"Have a nice first day at school, I guess.", Joakim sighed.

He really wondered what kind of people this kid liked to be around. Or if she liked the company of other humans at all. How bad has the bullying got to have been so as to strengthen the repulsion in her so much?

In the car, the girl greeted Moloch and Agnes and that was about the whole conversation. Moloch seemed to be just fine with a silent ride, but the woman was curious about their new neighbor.

She'd expected something completely different. From the boy's description, that tiny, innocent-looking dreadhead could have been the real-life version of Gunleg from Planet Terror*. However, the woman's first impression of Kataleya was that she was quite the opposite. But of course, he could be right. After all, the proverb 'never judge a book by its cover' had a point.

"So, you're Mr. Ek's granddaughter?", Agnes tried to start a conversation.

The girl nodded. She didn't seem so happy about it.

"What's he like? Outside of the job, I mean."

"Don't know. Never met him before.", that sounded very much like a reproach.

Agnes was dumbfolded, "What do you mean?"

The fuck could I possibly mean?! Kataleya was slightly annoyed by that questions. In fact, any kind of stupid enquires rubbed her the wrong way.

"That we never met before I came here? Like he never visited us, or invited us over or shit like that. I remember Mom used to throw tantrums at him over the phone because he doesn't really give a fuck about us."

Well, that was unexpected. Joakim seemed to engaged in everything he was doing. But then again, the young woman didn't know the side of him which he didn't show at work. It could be that his job didn't leave him any time with to spend with his family. Speaking about family, what about his wife? She'd never heard anything about her. And his daughter? What was she doing?

Agnes couldn't ask the girl so many things. It was impolite to stick your nose in other people's lives like that.

They arrived to school. Moloch and Kataleya grabbed their backpacks and headed for the building.

A short speech from the principal followed. For the boy, it was something brand new, while the dreadhead was so sick and tired of new school year speeches that she didn't even listen to it.

When it was over, the two followed their class mates to the rooms. They'd been told in which class they were submitted and got photos of their headmasters before the beginning of the year. In that way, the possibility of getting lost was avoided.

Whereas Kataleya shamelessly entered the group of teens she now belonged to, Moloch tried to keep a little distance from the others. He didn't feel very welcome, especially after being eyed by a few fellows.

Being a part of such a big colective of people was new to him. He didn't think that his colleagues stared at him simply because he was new. It was plain curiosity, which he interpreted as disgust.

Kataleya, on the other hand, didn't look anybody in the eye. She didn't want to give them the satisfaction of letting them know she cared about them.

It was her who attracted negativity from the others rather than Moloch. Most of the pupils thought she ignored them because she didn't want to lower herself to their level or something. They were thinking, "Who does this one believe she is?".

Eventually, each of them entered their new classroom for the first time. As always, the teachers asked them to come in front of the class and introduce themselves.

"Tell us your name, where you come from and maybe something you like so we can get to know you."

Moloch's looked at everything but his class mates. He felt really weird standing in front of them, talking about himself. Although he'd spent his childhood surrounded by kids, he had never been the master of socializing.

Finally, his eyes were fixed on his feet and started to stammer, "I'm M-moloch... and... I uh... c-come from... uh..."

He didn't want to tell them about the orphanage or about the insane asylum because he feared they'd make fun of him. But, being isolated from people for so long, he hadn't learnt that people make fun of you regardless of what you say.

"Use words, dude!", a boy suddenly advised him.

The rest of the colleagues burst out into laughter. He panicked and suddenly speaking became much more complicated.

The teacher, seeing the newcomer not wanting to speak anymore, spoke, "Please, calm down! You should make Moloch feel welcome!"

In contrast, Kataleya had no problems of that kind. She casually presented herself, "Name's Kataleya, I come from Ystad and I don't know what else to say. I'm not an interesting person."

Her new headmaster praised her, "You know, I find it really brave of you to have the down syndrome and choose to attend a normal school. This must be very challanging for you."

The girl rose an eyebrow, "But I don't have the down syndrome. My face just looks like this."

Everybody began to laugh hysterically. The lady instantly turned red in embarrassment.

"Oh my God! I'm really, really sorry! Please don't feel offended, I honestly didn't mean to..."

"Nah, don't worry about it. I've heard this assumption so often I'm used to it."