Reality Check

The Boy

Every Breath You Take (by The Police)

"Every smile you fake, every step you take, I'll be watching you . . ."

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Kiel was in gym class when he first saw the boy. The class was doing several laps around the gym before the gym teacher blew a whistle, signaling for everyone to come over. Panting and sweaty, the kids made their way over to their teacher.

"Alright!" the gym teacher said, putting her hands on her hips. "Today we're going to switch things up. We're going to play a friendly game of dodgeball. That means no aggressiveness, no injuring each other and no hitting each other in the head. This could cause a concussion, which is something that nobody wants."

Half of the class looked excited, while the other half just looked tired. Kiel observed everyone's reactions with curiosity. Whatever dodgeball was, he hoped it was dangerous. With all the structure that took place at this school, it was a miracle he hadn't gone completely and irrevocably stir-crazy. Really, he could use an extra dose of fun. Relied on it, even, since he was stuck in a building for eight hours each day.

"I'm going to pick team captains," the gym teacher continued. "Nate and John, you're the team captains for today."

Two boys weaved out of the group, moving to stand next to their teacher. She instructed John to pick his team members first. The boy on the right nodded, his eyes scanning across the group. They landed on Kiel for a few seconds, as if sizing him up. "I'll take the German boy."

Completely forgetting about his facade, Kiel didn't move. Then, someone lightly pushed him and he regained his senses, exclaiming, "Oh, right! That's me."

Laughter carried through the air— not that Kiel had tried to be intentionally funny. Sometimes, he mused, he was just naturally funny even without trying.

John waved him over, so Kiel went to stand beside him. The boy leaned in. "Yo, Kiel, who should we add next?" He snickered. "We can leave the weak and skinny ones to the other team."

Kiel frowned. He didn't like the idea of judging someone based on looks. While he prided himself on his looks, he didn't judge others for theirs just because they looked a certain way. "Why shouldn't we take the weak and skinny ones? I'm just as skinny as any of them."

John looked annoyed that he was even disagreeing with him. "You're different from them. We need you on our team, not them."

But as they went through the process of picking teammates, Kiel noticed that John only picked a specific type of person. The loud ones, he realized. The muscular ones. The good-looking ones. He noticed that the other team captain, Nate, did this as well, until there were only a handful of kids left. The kids that were left were obviously not in the same social group as the others. They were picked one by one until there was only one boy left, with round, thin-framed glasses and curls of strawberry-blonde hair.

"Wait, what's this boy's name?" John asked, turning to the gym teacher.

"His name is Oliver Bines," she replied. "He's a new student."

"Okay, Oliver. We'll take you."

Without even a smile, Oliver walked over to their group. His eyes drifted from person to person, then landed on Kiel. His expression changed, his eyes narrowing. The gym teacher started explaining the rules of how to play dodgeball, so Kiel turned his attention to that, excited to learn how to play.

He was too preoccupied in the rules of dodgeball to properly notice the look on Oliver Bines' face. Maybe if he had, he'd be able to prevent all the awful events that were about to unfold within the many weeks that he'd spend in the nonfictional world.