8 The Quiet Kid

Now it's time for my rebellious teenage years. (Wait, all this happened in one month?) Hm? Oh yeah, all in July. (The explosion in Central Park, that was you?) Yep, like I said, new power. (Crenshaw's nonsense about a child reaper, also you?) Yep. (Wow, a 9 year old, wrecking this much havoc.) Yeah, I'm surprised *you guys* are just now finding me. (Well let's continue.) Yeah, let's.

1998, It was the beginning of my 7th grade year. I'm 13 years old and I've gotten used to my powers. Soul Sight was the hardest to get used too, because by then, I could see ghosts.

Well the technical term for them were "Grounded Souls" or "Lost Souls", but I still call them ghosts. They were pretty annoying at the beginning, but I learned how to tune them out. I even had a friend, her name was Kimberly.

Kimberly was a teacher who had recently died that year, she died in a traffic accident on her way home. She tutored me a lot, most of things I know now, I learned from her. I guess she took the place of Tommy, we split up after we left Brooklyn Elementary. He also moved to California a few weeks later. Wonder what he's been up to... Anyway, back to middle school.

There was a certain incident that gave me a nickname in school. They called me, The Quiet Kid. "Be careful around The Quiet Kid, he'll kill you..." they said. I was the kid everyone was afraid of, but I wasn't completely alone, Kimberly was always with me. it was actually the day of the incident that I met Kimberly.

Tuesday, September 8th. It was a steady school day. I was in 4th period, ELA. We were Beginning to reading Number The Stars by Lois Lowry. After the events with my late father, I stopped talking to people. So after a while, it was hard for me to talk to people, even if I wanted to. On that day, everyone had to read a paragraph from the book aloud.

Luckily there were 6 other kids who had to read before me, so I could practice my paragraph. 1 by 1, kids were blowing through their paragraphs until, "Okay Michael, it's your turn to read." said Mrs. Daxter.

I stood up. I was so nervous, I could barely hold the book. "G-go! s-shouted a-a-annemarie..." I stuttered. "T-t-today junior!" shouted Gregory Thomas. Another school bully no one likes. He's been bullying me since 6th grade, I was getting tired. "You should go back to Elementary school if you can't read!" He shouted again. I've had enough.

I sighed, gently placed the book on my desk , smiled and turned to him. "Boy, I know what you're going to do, and it's not a good idea. Stand Down." Valixus said in my head. "I'm not gonna do anything, I'm just gonna talk to him." I said aloud. Everyone looked at me confused, they wondered whom I was talking to.

"Ok Mr. Alvin you can sit down now, we can skip you." Mrs. Daxter Interrupted. I ignored her and began to walk towards Greg. All eyes were glued to me. I stood in front of Greg's desk. He scoffed, "What do you want, loser?" Greg asked. I leaned into his face and said "Get. The Fuck. Up." with a smile.

My eyes were red with anger. "Pfft! What? You want to start somthin with me?" He mocked. "Alright, pipsqueak, I'll humor you." He stood up as well. "Alright, I'm up, watcha gonna d-" I punched him.

He went soaring across the classroom. He was knocked out, but not from the landing. Gregory was knocked out from the impact of my punch hitting his face. But the more I remember it, it wasn't my punch that hit him, it was Valixus's punch. When I went punch Greg's face, my fist got covered by a big red. It disappeared after I hit him.

I unlocked a new power that day, as well as a new name. Everyone knew after that day to "Never mess with The Quiet Kid." I got suspended for fighting as well. A week of suspension and 3 weeks detention.