The Beginning of the End (Newtmas)

Chapter 1

The young boy walked to school with his hands placed firmly in his pocket, and his backpack was balanced on his right shoulder, weighing him down. He looked towards the ground as he walked, his surroundings being mostly unknown to him as he had placed his navy blue earphones into his ear and turned up the sound to an agonizing volume for any other human being. He knew where he was going without having to glance up to read the road signs above, so he continued to walk the way he always did. He'd been walking down this same empty street since he was just a small child. He had always been independent, his mum hadn't left him much of a choice, he had come to realize that over the years.

Newt lifted the cigarette to his mouth to inhale another breath of the chemicals that he'd been warned about by any adult he'd come across. Newt thought that more than half of them were extremely hypocritical, because they smoked themselves. It doesn't matter anyway. He'd tell himself. I don't care. It was something he'd have himself say, as if telling himself so, convinced him that it was the truth. But Newt wasn't dumb, and he could see through his own lies perfectly. It did matter, and he was very capable of understanding that. Those rare days where his head was clearer, he would ask himself what am I doing? Only to come back and think oh. The answer would soon follow, and it wasn't a pleasant one that he liked to talk about. In fact, he didn't really talk at all. Sometimes, Newt would go so long without talking that he'd have to think for an excruciating long time to remember when he'd last uttered a word.

He threw the cigarette to the side, and contemplated on having another one, because he had another ten minutes to go before arriving to his destination. School. A real lovely place. He laughed at himself. He was too sarcastic for his own good sometimes, but it'd come in handy when he didn't want his mother around. Which in his case was a lot.

As Newt approached the school, his figure began to shake, and he bit his lip in anticipation as to what was to come. He wasn't waiting for something good. No, good things never happened in his life. It was rather an anticipation of what would happen to him today, and it wasn't the good kind. What would they do to him? There was always someone waiting to throw something at him, it was unavoidable. It could range from a simple comment about his dirty blonde hair and the way he had decided to present it, or it could also be a more hurtful comment, or a punch in the face. There were some comments that really did bother Newt, and they made him flinch. It was usually his limp. If someone commented something about it, he'd end up thinking of it in his seat all day. Newt would squirm in discomfort, bite his lip and look down, avoiding any eye contact from any other person in the room. Didn't know it was that noticeable anymore. Newt would think, however, it was noticeable if you looked for it and many people did look. His peers in school liked to joke with him about it, but he never found it funny. It physically hurt him when someone would say;

"Newt, your damn legs still fucked up? The hell happened?" and then he'd avoid eye contact with them for the rest of the day, maybe even a week if he could. Once he looked at them again, he'd earn a good punch in the face. Bloody deserved that one didn't I?

Newt had finally approached the school after a twenty minute walk, and the white marble stone on the outside reminded him of how modern this school really had become. It was recently renovated around a year ago during the holidays, and it really had made a difference. It still wasn't a good school but at least the exterior now made it look like one. As he walks past the sea of students, and up to his locker, he takes careful notice to the banners that have been hung on the walls around the lockers. As he was placing his textbook in his hand, he remembered. The game was this week, and he had no intention of going. He hated social places, he hated being social in general. Contact with people was something that he didn't want. It scared him actually, being around that many people. It wasn't something he particularly enjoyed. He was bad at talking to people, and he was bad around crowds. He didn't like it, and he wasn't planning to work on his "problem" anytime soon.