Mad Hatter

Little Jack Laurens

I AM SO SORRY!! I'm really really sorry for not updating I just really had this very bad writer's block for this chapter, but it's finally here! It's very shitty, but here!

Also, WARNING: There is a lot of triggering stuff here, I don't want to go into specifics but there is emotional, physical, and sexual harassment. Beware!

He scribbled the paper vigorously with his black color pencil, accidentally slightly crumbling the page. He frowned with concentration, the drawing had to be perfect, after all, it was a gift for his best friend. The knuckles on his small hand were already turning pale from gripping at the pencil so strongly, but he felt no pain. Just numb. Always numb.

He heard footsteps from behind him and he knew the teacher was coming his way. He smiled. Kinda smiled? Sort of smiled. He was excited that the teacher was going to see the drawing he put so much effort on. He pretended to not hear her until she was standing right next to him, and when she was he still wouldn't take his eyes from the drawing. It had to be perfect.

"Hey, Jack" Ms. Monroe smiled at him. "What are you drawing?" She said curiously as a teacher would do.

"It's my best friend" He sort of smiled, showing the drawing to her, whose expression turned inexplicably surprised and pale. Is that how people react to something cool? Probably. The teacher started to sweat a little.

"He's your best friend?" He nodded. "What's, um, what's his name?"

"I call 'im Mr. Gun, get it? Cause he has a gun pointed to his head!" The teacher didn't laugh, but that was okay, people normally wouldn't laugh near him.

"That's an, um, a lovely drawing, John. Hey, do you think I can talk with your parents after school? It's just adult stuff"

—~•~—

"Families are weird" John said to what it looked like an empty wall to everyone else. "Like, in the TV they always seem fun an' stuff, but mine is borin'. They don' even talk to me!"

He glanced behind him, his family speaking animatedly with each other. Smiling. They never smiled with John. Mom, Dad, Sister, Little Sister, and Little Brother barely even spoke to him unless it was absolutely necessary. Were his jokes really that bad? He could swear the one with the guy that killed his cat was hilarious, but they didn't laugh. They just glanced at him, blank expressions on their black faces. Brows slightly furrowed and lips slightly pursed. Then they looked away, John didn't talk to them for the rest of the week.

"Y'know, sometimes I think my family doesn't like me" He told the wall. "Is it only me? Why does that never happen in the TV? Why me? Why only me?"

The shadow of a man stared back at him, what seemed like an arm holding a gun toward his head. Just a shadow. He didn't say anything, but at least he listened, that's more than anyone ever does.

"Thanks for listening Mr. Gun, now I gotta go, I saw this bug on my backyard and I really want to throw boiling water at it to see what happens!"

—~•~—

In the movies that John saw, the bullied kid would always find cool friends to hang out with, so why didn't John have any cool friends? He would get shoved around the halls, mocked inside of class, and insulted when sitting in the cafeteria, but no friend would come. His drawings would get trashed, ripped away from his sketchbook, crumpled, stomped on, destroyed, but no one helped him pick up the pieces afterwards.