Kid in a Locker (REWRITING)

2. Freaks

"So, what's the deets?" Peter slams his cafeteria tray down on the table. I jump and scowl while Romul smacks him in the back of the head.

"Don't talk like that." He scowls.

"Sorry." Peter rubs at the back of his head. "I've been stuffed in a English class with a bunch of VSCO wannabes for the past two hours. It makes me want to gag."

"And so you start talking like them?" Romul continues to build his burger, the task he was doing before his brother got him sidetracked. It was coming together nicely, a colorful pile of lettuce, tomato, onion, and mustard.

"They're rubbing off on me." He rolls up the sleeves on his black sweater and prepares his plate of mini corndogs for devouring. The tray will be empty within five minutes and he would be going back for more. At every school we've been to, by the time we left for the next town the lunch ladies knew and loved my youngest brother. He would always get free cookies, ones that he would slip to us so we could have them to eat in later classes.

I shake my head. "So, what's the word?"

"I'd say seven out of ten." Peter exclaims.

"Seven?"

"It's a nice school." Romul agrees. "Seven seems solid."

"Except it has a bunch of weirdos in it." I proceed to tell them about the locker incident this morning. They have the same reaction I did, laughing when I tell them that the kid chased after me. "He wanted me to know that the guy specifically meant no harm. It's like he thought I would tattle or something."

"Maybe it's a kink." Romul shrugs, biting into his burger.

"A locker kink?" I laugh, finding the idea preposterous.

"You may never know."

"I thought the kid kicking the ceiling in my class was bad. Maybe it's something in the water here." Peter eyes his cup suspiciously, the water sloshing around the white plastic as he spins it in a circle. Of all the things in the school he could buy, which had the rare diet sodas that were allowed in public schools, he chose water out of a faucet. He had always been like that; eating for six hundred and trying to countetact it with healthy drinks. He only had water now because the school didn't supply him with smoothies.

"I hope so." Romul says. We both give him a confused look. "It'll make these next few months interesting."

"You think we'll only stay here for a few months?"

I look at Peter in pity. Out of all of us he was the one to get most attached. Every time we moved or left the city we were living in, we had to drive him over to his numerous friends houses so that he could say goodbye.

Romul and I weren't like that. Sure, we were friendly enough with a few people so that we would be invited out on weekends with them, but other than that our contacts were bare.

It became clear to us early on that moving around would result in a small inner circle. Our siblings became our best friends, or at least they were to Romul and I. Peter took moving around in stride and insisted that he needed to experience everything he could while in each new city. We didn't have the hearts to break it to him that these ties he made with people were what's weighing him down.

"Most likely." Romul states. "I already heard Mom and Dad talking about the next school we'll be going to. I wouldn't be getting too attached."

~~~~~~~~~~~

As I walk from the school building to the station wagon, I look around the parking lot at the vehicles. Teens hang from windows or sit on the tailgates of many of the jacked-up trucks, and girls crowd inside Nissan's and talk about plans after school.