New Teams, Old Problems

Chapter 8: Tyler Creed v. Barney Fife

It had taken more than a few weeks, but Tyler had finally gotten into a routine and was dealing with campus life. He was looking forward to Thanksgiving Break so that he could get away from all of the looks, though. He'd seen it before, of course. The other students that wouldn't sit anywhere near him. The kids who shouted "freak," "animal," "feral," and whatever else they could think of while he was walking between classes or going to the library. He was honestly pretty used to it. But it would really be nice to spend some time with his mom and Henry for the holidays without having to put up with that nonsense.

Before he got to the holiday break, he had to get through a pretty big microbiology exam, which meant he was in the library with a stack of notecards and his earbuds in to ignore the people around him. Normally, he'd have studied with Hisako, but she was actually in the middle of taking a test at the moment for a different class. And he was starting to feel the stares on the back of his neck even if he wasn't listening to them.

Hopefully the negative press thing would blow over soon, but in the meantime, he had studying to get done, and he wasn't going to let these people get in the way of him becoming a doctor.

It was a little later than usual when he finally left the library, his notecards in his bag and about a hundred different bacterial names and their related diseases running through his head. He was still running through them all as he wrapped his headphones around his iPod to put it back in his bag. Noh had given him a playlist of songs that he assured Tyler would help him to focus and concentrate, though Tyler had only made it through a couple songs before he defaulted back to his usual playlist.

He was halfway across campus when he spotted a group of kids loudly joking around and generally blowing off a little steam, so he skirted across the street to stay out of their way. But when they spotted him, they kicked themselves into motion to head toward him.

Tyler let out a sigh and tried to keep his head down, though he was familiar with the look they were giving him, and he figured he wasn't going to pass without some conflict.

"That's the most pathetic thing I ever saw," said one of the bigger guys with a sneer. "Feral thinks he's smart enough to be a college student. What, you think if you come on campus you'll learn by osmosis?"

Tyler rolled his eyes and tried to keep going past them, not in the mood to deal with their trash talk when he had more important things to do — and much more intelligent people to talk to.

But they didn't back off and instead kept pace with him as another one spoke up. "Aw, you confused him, Paul. Big words like 'osmosis' and 'campus' and 'think.'" He grinned at Tyler like he was sizing him up, and Tyler could see him quickly deciding the group of them was big enough to take him on.

"What's an animal like you doing here anyway? The bio lab run out of specimens?" one of the guys piped up.

Tyler actually had to half smirk at that one, because, well, he knew he'd seen this guy a few days before outside of the lab.

"Where you headed, feral? Back to the woods? Got a nice log to sleep under?"

"Nice of you to ask, but you're really not my type," Tyler replied finally. "Not interested."

The other guys let out a chorus of 'oohs' as the one who had tried to insult Tyler looked livid. "Paws off, freak," he managed at last with a look of pure disgust.

"Can't help that that's what's on his mind. Animal instincts," said another as the group as a whole snickered.

"Nah. Just proof you're not very intimidating," Tyler replied almost lazily.

The guys looked a bit annoyed for a second before they started in again. "Must think you're so big and bad, don't you, freak? Well, how big and bad're you gonna feel when we ship you off to Siberia, huh?"