notepad ; malum

02

"Who wants to go first for show and tell?" Mrs. Campbell asked from the front of the classroom. 

Calum's hand shot up in the air, an excited smile gracing his face. He loved Mrs. Campbell. She was always really nice to him and when he was having a bad day, she'd give him a sticker to make him feel better. 

Mrs. Campbell pointed to Calum and the little seven year old jumped up from his seat, grabbing a plastic bag his mum had sent to school with him. He bounded to the front of the classroom, then faced the class, not a hint of nervous or shyness tracing his face. 

Michael was sat in a desk close to the front, so he smiled at Calum as the class fell silent for Calum. 

"This weekend, me, my parents and my sister all went to a carnival and they had a crane game!" Calum told them happily, pulling out a stuffed penguin from the plastic bag. "His n- n-.." He stopped talking and frowned. He'd never stuttered before in his life. 

Clearing his throat, Calum set down the bag and wrapped his arms around the penguin. "H- H- His n- na- name.." He attempted to say, but once again, the stutter was preventing him from speaking properly. 

He took a deep breath, then tried again. The only problem was this time when he tried, nothing came out. He stood there with his mouth open but not a sound leaving it. He tried talking but his mouth would just move without any noises leaving it. 

A couple of the students started to snicker softly because they thought that Calum was playing a joke on the teacher. They didn't realize it was serious. 

Calum turned to Mrs. Campbell, his eyes wide and filled with pure horror. He began to frantically point to his throat, in his mouth, anything that could possibly convince Mrs. Campbell he wasn't joking. 

"What are you doing?" She asked him, watching the seven year old carefully. "Continue with your show and tell, Mr. Hood.." 

Calum shook his head as fast as he could and continued to point to his throat. Nobody believed him, they were all laughing. He tried to scream for help, but he couldn't. His mouth opened but his cries were muted. 

He started to cry and that's when Mrs. Campbell started to really believe he wasn't joking. He pressed his back against the wall behind him and slid down it, curling into a ball on the floor before letting out silent sobs.

"Michael, go get the nurse or the principal or just a staff member!" Mrs. Campbell ordered as she rushed to Calum's aid. 

Michael quickly obeyed, jumping from his seat and rushing out of the classroom to look for some help. 

The class watched in terror as Calum cried and shook like a leaf in heavy wind. 

Calum was taken to the hospital as soon as possible after that. He had x-rays taken on him, the doctors checked his throat and he was taken under surgery to see what was going on. 

That day, it was concluded that something had gone wrong in his vocal chords and the chances of it being fixed was one in a million. 

Calum Hood was mute and there was nothing him, or anyone, could do about it. 

+

 "Cal, are you ok?" Michael asked quietly as the two strolled down the hallway of the school together. "You seem a bit off today."

Calum just nodded, though he really wasn't ok. He hated it when he dreamt about... the day. It was a frequent dream, too. He'd told Michael he had it once and he'd made a deal out of it, so he restrained from telling him now.

Michael gave Calum a sad smile just as they reached Michael's locker. As Michael began to open and retrieve things from his locker, a familiar brown haired boy came up behind him and sneaked his arms around Michael's thin waist.

"Boo." He whispered and Michael let out a soft giggle, while on the other hand Calum had the same feeling he got every single time Michael and Jace were together. A feeling he couldn't describe and a feeling he didn't recognize.

Jace was Michael's boyfriend of three years now. He use to also hang out with Michael, Calum, Luke and Ashton, but once he started dating Michael, he'd started hanging out with the school assholes (as Calum referred to them as). The kids who caused mischief in class and skipped school for the hell of it. Calum found it quite weird because you'd imagine that Jace would hang out with them more once he started dating Michael.

Michael turned in Jace's arms, pressing his lips against his boyfriends. "G'morning." He muffled against them, smiling in between their lips. Jace returned the smile, so they were practically just pressing their smiles together and Calum felt uncomfortable.

Calum coughed awkwardly to catch their attention and Michael pulled away from Jace bashfully, but Jace just grinned devilishly.

"Sorry.." Michael mumbled, scratching the back of his neck. They all stood in an unsettling silence for a bit before Jace spoke up.

"Well, class is going to start soon," He announced, then his eyes landed on Calum in a cold stare. "So, you should get going, so me and Mikey can walk to class together."

Calum scrunched up in his nose in annoyance. Yeah, he didn't have homeroom with Jace and Michael, but he knew Jace continuously reminded him of it to push his buttons.

Nonetheless, Calum waved goodbye to Michael and headed off in the other direction.

God damn, he hated Jace.

+

Calum was sat in his desk for his second period, which was English. He tapped his fingers along his English textbook, practically seething with anger. Jace put him in a bad mood, like every other day. His hatred for the shit haired boy was indescribable.

"Dude." A voice said from beside him. Calum looked over and Luke was sitting next to him. He hadn't notice Luke sit down. To be fair, he didn't even remember Luke was also in this class.

Calum's eyebrow shot up as if to reply to Luke with a sassy 'What?'.

Luke rolled his eyes, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. "Jeez, tone it down, mate. There's literally steam coming out of your ears." He joked.

Even though Calum knew Luke was joking, he still felt the need to feel his ears which made Luke laugh.

"Seriously, though. What's wrong?" Luke asked, his crinkled up laughing face softening into a concerned look. He could guess what was wrong, but he asked anyways.

Calum just shrugged, looking down at his fingers that were still tapping away on his textbook.

"Jace?" Luke asked, his voice slightly quieter.

Calum looked over at Luke, staring for a while before slowly nodding with a sad smile. Luke knew Calum hated Jace. He'd never given a reason why, but Luke had come up with a reason that he convinced himself was true.

Luke, being the hopeless romantic he was, had convinced himself that it was because Calum was secretly gay, but only for Michael, and the reason he hated Jace was because he got extremely jealous everytime Michael was with him. Luke swooned at the idea. He thought Michael and Calum would be the cutest couple.

Luke patted Calum's shoulder in an attempt to comfort him just as the English teacher came in and shouted at the class to take their seats.

Calum doodled on his notepad the whole time the teacher rambled on about herself. She hardly taught. She mostly just told stories about what happened to her cat last night while they were watching soap operas together.

He liked it because it got them out of work and when asked who's fault it was, it was the teachers. But he didn't really care about what the teacher had to say. Though, if you asked, he could probably tell you the name of 4/7 of his teachers cats.