New Boy (A Javid Story)

Jail

That night, Medda Larkin found herself walking into the police station where they were holding the younger of her two sons. She never thought Crutchie would be the one she would bail out of jail, it was always Jack she had the bail fund for. A nice policeman led Medda to where they were keeping Crutchie. 

The blonde boy was standing in a concrete room, his eyes red from crying. He was staring at his feet and didn't hear his mother come in. He looked up, though, when he heard the clicking of high heels. 

"Hi, mom." He whispered. 

"Charlie." Medda ran over to him. "Are you alright?" 

"Yeah." Crutchie nodded. "I is okay." Jack quickly ran in, looking around frantically until his eyes landed on his brother.

"Crutch!" He ran over, practically jumping over the cell wall. "I'm sorry. If I had known that you wer-"

"Jack. It's okay." Crutchie reassured. "It wasn't your fault. You was being chased, there was no way you could have known." 

"But still..." Jack shook his head. "I'm sorry." 

"Ms. Larkin." A police officer came out. "Please come with me." 

"I'll be right back, boys." Medda told her sons. Jack nodded and turned back to Crutchie. 

"How are the rest of the boys. Everyone's doin' okay?" Crutchie asked eagerly. 

"Yeah, everyone is fine." Jack nodded. "Worried about you, but we is okay." 

"Les? He made it out alright?" Crutchie asked. 

"Everyone else did." Jack nodded. "Everyone except you, ya slow little-"

"Jack!" Crutchie laughed. Jack laughed as well, shaking his head. Then, Crutchie became serious again. "They'll let me out, won't they, Jack?" 

"Of course." Jack nodded. His heart broke when he heard the sadness and fear in his brother's voice. "They have to. They didn't even have a fair reason to put you in here." 

"But still, this is gonna follow me forever. I already had less of a chance of gettin' a job with this," Crutchie poked his crutch. "But a criminal record?" 

"This isn't serious enough to stop you from gettin' a job." Jack insisted. 

"Still! Employers can use it as an excuse cause legally they can't not hire me cause of a disability but they can s-"

"Cructhie! Calm down." Jack reassured, breathing in and out with his brother. "You is gonna be fine." Crutchie nodded and made his way over to the small bench on the wall of the cell. "Just keep breathin'. Okay?"

"You sound like that Ariana Grande song Race sings at three am." Crutchie laughed, causing Jack to chuckle and shake his head. 

"You is an idiot." Jack stuck his tongue out. 

"At least I don't drink my paint water." Crutchie accused. 

"I like the taste of purple." Jack shrugged. 

"Okay, you has been spendin' way too much time with Race an' Albert lately." Crutchie shook his head, laughing.  

"Speak for yourself. You an' Jojo has become good friends lately." Jack raised an eyebrow. 

"First of all, don' say it like that." Crutchie interjected. 

"Like what?" Jack asked.

"Like I have a crush on him. I don't. And besides, you know how I feel about relationships. And I'm spending time with Jojo cause he's nice." Crutchie explained. 

"Okay." Jack nodded. 

"Mr. Morris? You're free to go." A police man came in and opened the door. 

On the first day back at school, Race found himself sitting in a chair in Wiesel's classroom after class. He was twirling a pencil in his hand, reliving what had got him there. He was already in trouble for 'disturbing student's learning', as Pulitzer put it when he had called Race in that morning. But the reason he was in detention had happened at lunch. 

Everyone was sitting around the table, eating, when Morris and Oscar came up to them. 

"So, how'd that little 'protest' of yours go yesterday?" Oscar asked, putting air quotes around the word protest. 

"Obviously not that well, seeing as you're sitting here." Morris pointed out. 

"I heard the little crip went to jail." Oscar crossed his arms. 

"Shut up, Oscar." Race had mumbled under his breath. A warning. 

"A little criminal," Morris continued. "Just like your dad." 

"Shut up!" Race had yelled, and punched Morris in the face. Morris's hand moved up to his nose, and pulled it back to reveal the blood on his hand. Morris was about to punch back when a teacher had pulled the two apart. 

Race looked back at the pencil he was twirling between his fingers and sighed. Then, a smirk spread across his face as he thought of a song Albert had made him listen to. 

"Pop." He whispered. "Six. Squish. Uh-uh. Cicero."

"Quiet, Higgins." Weasel snapped. 

"Sorry Weasel." Race pretended to pout. 

"At least call me mister." Wiesel mumbled. 

"I'll call you sweetheart if you let me go early." Race smirked. 

"Please shut up." Wiesel groaned. 

"Well, whatever happened to romance?" Race bit back a laugh when he saw Weasel roll his eyes. The Italian looked around the room and spotted a seemingly nervous freshman in the back. "First time?" He asked. 

"What?" The freshman looked up, biting his lip. 

"First time in detention?" Race asked again. 

"Yeah." The boy nodded. 

"What do you think?" He motioned around the room. 

"It feels like jail." The freshman admitted. "It's worse than jail."

"Yeah, well, jail comes in many forms." Race said, pulling a lollipop out of his backpack and unwrapping it. 

"Hey!" Wiesel spoke up. "No food in here!" 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Race dismissed him. He held out a lollipop to the freshman. "Want one?" 

"What? No." The younger boy shook his head. "We're not allowed to eat in here." 

"Yeah, well, when you're in here every other week, you might as well have something to eat." Race shrugged. 

"Every other week?" The freshman asked, astonished. 

"Yep." Race nodded. "Probably more often than that." 

"I don't think I could live with myself if I were you." The freshman whispered. 

"Trust me, I can't stand it." Race admitted. 

"Then why are you in here so often?" 

"Cause this school has dumb rules." Race rolled his eyes. The freshman smiled. "So, you want this or not?" Race held out the lollipop. The freshman nodded and took it, and Race faced the front of the classroom again. 

(Hey guys! I just created a tumblr, so lmk if you'd want it! I'll probably post some small fics on there once I get used to it.)