Chapter Six: Five Years Later

(Hey. Ark here. This is a trigger warning. Slurs were used in this chapter.)

It's a bit after seven in the morning. Mrs. Sawyer is defrosting at the dining table, groaning with her head on the table.

"After all these years, you're still not fit for the sunrise," Mr. Sawyers teases. He hands her a cup of coffee and set the table. Breakfast is simple; eggs, sausage, beans, bacon and toast. Two coffees and a glass of orange juice.

Mrs. Sawyer turns around to peek at the stairs. Lucas isn't in sight. Good. Mrs. Sawyer turns back around and flips off her husband as she sips her coffee.

"Real mature," Mr. Sawyer comments. He laughs at his wife's antics and kisses her forehead. He sits down at the table. He drinks from his mug of coffee, he looks at the stairway. Once his lips are removed from his mug, he says. "I worry about the lad."

"Me too. But the therapist said to give him time," Mrs. Sawyer sighs. "Wish he'd open up to us. Poor thing. The way he freaked out...we just have to keep him from mirrors."

"Aye. That breakdown is still seared into my brain, that was two years ago."

"He was declining ever since his friend, Ridley, and his mother disappeared."

Mr. Sawyer kisses his teeth. "They moved luv. They didn't disappear. She was never the same when Lucas went missing."

"No one saw them leave. All the stuff in their home disappeared overnight. Anyway, agree to disagree. Shortly after that, Lucas stabbed a kid in the eye."

Mr. Sawyer chuckles. "Almost gouged the kid eye out."

Mrs. Sawyer glares at her husband.

"...I mean the horror."

"That situation wasn't funny. Their parents were going to sue."

"Yeah. They were adamant about it too." Mr. Sawyer scratches his beard. "Wondered why they suddenly changed their minds. Also, the lad was just defending the honor of his friend. The other kid was talking shit about Ridley and his folks."

"Doesn't mean you stab someone in the eye!" Mrs. Sawyer slams the table.

Mr. Sawyer sighs. "Yeah. You're right."

Lucas descends the stairs. A dark-skinned baby with emerald eyes in his arms, the baby girl is pulling at one of his dreads. Lucas isn't bothered by the act. Lucas on a facial scale mirrored his father, his real father. An expressionless face, a canvas void of any color.

"Ruby is awake," he announces at the base of the staircase. Even his voice is monotone.

"Morning sweetie," Mrs. Sawyer greets Lucas. "Haha, your little sister loves playing with your hair. Bring her over."

"Morning Lucky bring Charms to ya mother," Mr. Sawyer follows up.

Lucas hands Ruby to their mother. Lucas takes his large backpack off, resting it at his feet as he sits down.

"Thanks for breakfast," Lucas says before digging into his meal.

Mrs. Sawyer begins to breastfeed Ruby. "How's school? Tenth grade treating you good?"

"School is good. Tenth grade is just another conquest."

"Yeah. Your grades are stellar. Keep it up."

"How's therapy?" Mr. Sawyer questions.

"Krayyy," Mrs. Sawyer says in a low warning tone.

Mr. Sawyer shrugs. "Luv, it's just a question."

Lucas drinks a cup of his orange juice. "It's a process. Mr. Kingsman go out of their way to make me comfortable. It's wearing me down. Maybe I'll talk to them soon."

"Love to hear it," Mr. Sawyer says. "Need a ride to school?"

Lucas plate is bare and his glass empty. "Nah. I'll skate to school. Though, thank you for the offer."

"Anytime Lucky. I'll be away from home for a few days because of deliveries. Make sure Mother Gold here doesn't burn the house down." Mr. Sawyer picks up a large backpack, suited for hiking, from the foot of his seat.

"I can only defend the home when I'm home. I may fail my mission because I spend several hours at school." Lucas rises from his seat, picking up his backpack as well.

"Then we're doomed," Mr. Sawyer says, cracking up before bursting into all out laughter. Lucas lips form a small smile.

"I'm right here," Mrs. Sawyer reminds them. "Menaces to woman-kind you two are." She kisses her husband on the lips and her son on the forehead.

Lucas heads for the door. On his way out he grabs his skateboard and puts on his helmet. One of the best parts about being a skater and living on a hill is speed. Lucas skates down the hill, the wind roars in his ear. Lucas blitz in front of a red car. It honks at him. He turns back, he doesn't recognize the vehicle. It's a shiny sportscar. There's a woman yelling at him, but it's hard to hear her voice because he's moving down the road like a complete speed demon.

Lucas avoids obstacles and arrives to school, One Way High. He kicks his skateboard board beneath his arm. He heads inside. through double doors and make his way to his locker. The other lockers are designed, from simply being painted over to top-tier graphic designs. His locker however is bland, silver just the way he got it. He's a simple adolescent, his skateboard is basic merely the color black. He secures his skateboard into his locker.

He heads to homeroom. Other students are chatting, the homeroom teacher has not arrive yet. Lucas sinks into his seat in the back. He throws the hood of his hoodie over his head and sighs.

The homeroom teacher, Miss. Peterson, enters the room. "Mr. Sawyer, hoodie off of your head."

Lucas complies but keeps his head buried on his desk.

"Okay. Today we're welcoming a new student. Come inside."

A red-head—the hair style: two curly pigtails—with freckles enters the class. There's eyeliner around their eyes. She's wearing a black dress, with a white floral pattern heading downward to the skirt, and a Peter Pan collar. The skirt is barely by her knees but the tights beneath make the distance.

"This is Ms..." Miss. Peterson pauses and goes to open her registry.

"Ms. Murphy," the girl adds, her voice is silvery. "Sam Murphy."

Miss. Peterson halts, no longer opening the registry. "Thank you."

The class begin to talk among themselves.

"She's pretty."

"Well, I've found my wife."

"I can't wait to be her friend."

Lucas groans to himself. He decides to look at his new classmate and when he does...he's utterly confused.

"Hmm...reminds me of Mr. Meleno." Lucas rests his head on his desk, looking out the window.

"Sweetie find a seat," Miss. Peterson instructs. "Time to take the registry," Miss. Peterson announces once Sam is seated. Miss. Peterson calls names off of the registry. At a point, she pauses. Her eyes wide, she's in complete utter shock. She ganders at Sam then back at the registry.

"S-s-sam Murphy," Miss. Peterson croaks out.

"Present," she respectively replies.

Miss. Peterson finishes attendance but she's still bothered by something. The bell rings and the students head out to their schedule classes. Lucas drifts through his classes, each one he was instructed to take his hood off. A request he never fought against. However, this lead to the teachers picking on him to answer questions for the rest of the class.

"One more class before lunch," Lucas thinks to himself. That class being PE. As Lucas enters the changing room he's greeted with a violent scene.

"Fucking sissy!" Jackal, the big bad wolf of the tenth grade, exclaims. He's shoving Sam into a locker.

Someone tries to intercept. "Hey! Stop pushing her."

Jackal shoves the interceptor away. "This isn't a fucking girl. It's just a weird fucking crossdresser. A goddamn faggot."

Tears flow down Sam's face. They try to run away but Jackal pins them to the locker.

"I'm not done with you, freak! Bet you don't have a father. He saw how much of a freak you were and ran. Know what," Jackal chuckles, "since you like dressing like a pussy so much. Why don't yo—"

"That's gay," Lucas comments.

The locker room falls silent.

Jackal surveys the room, he sees everyone looking at him. "I ain't no faggot." Jackal releases Sam.

Sam runs off, brushing pass Lucas, out of the room. Lucas closes the door to the locker room and goes to change. Jackal approaches him.

"Two dudes in one day? Jackal, that's questionable," Lucas says as he changes into his PE uniform.

"I see you freaks stand together. Lucas, watch yourself." Jackal walks away.

"Get out here!" the PE teacher, Mr. Jank, yells out. "Give me my laps!"

The class funnels out of the locker room and head straight to the track to do their laps and exercises. Lucas performance on the track is mediocre, he isn't dead last but his placement isn't anything to talk about. Lucas form for the exercises are pristine but the pacing poor.

Lucas in his dedication to normalcy holds back during physical activities. This also stands for his academics, his grades bouncing between the positives and negatives of the B-spectrum.

After doing the required physical activities of the day, Mr. Jank allows students to wind down. Some students break off into their friend circles and relax on the field.

"Hmm," Lucas hums to himself as he watches his peers flock the field.

"Not going to join them?" Mr. Jank queries.

"Nah. Don't have any friends."

"Kid, you have two and a half years in this shithole. Friends make the time here more bearable. Find a group to join or make one. The older you get the more unification declines. Soon everyone is busy. And a simple bar meet up with friends gets cancelled because one of them is in a whipped relationship, the othered stabbed someone because they were high off crack, and the other couldn't make it because they were sick but later that night post photos of themselves at a club."

Lucas shares eye contact with Mr. Jank. The two fall silent for a good moment.

"You want to talk about it?" Lucas offers.

"...No." Mr. Jank walks away.

At the end of class the children change back into their clothes and head to the cafeteria. Lucas heads to the science lab, snacking on a granola bar.

"Hey Mrs. J," Lucas greets the science teacher.

"Hey, Lucas. Stepping out to the staff room. Here's the money, not sure I'll be back in time." Mrs. J hands Lucas $5 and leaves the lab.

Lucas removes a putty knife from his bag. He grabs the classroom's small trash can. He scrapes dried gum from beneath the desks of the classroom. He visits two other classes. He scraps the gum from beneath the desks then receive his payment of $5 from the teachers.

When lunch is on the verge of ending, Lucas destination is the west-side boy's restroom on the second floor. The west side of the school has a bad stigma. Most of the school's violent fights happen on the west-side of the school. The average student steers clear of it unless they have classes in the area.

When Lucas arrives there's a line outside of the restroom. He enters the restroom, the line of people follow him. Lucas eyes wander to one of the stalls, he thinks he heard something; but there's no visible feet. On the bathroom stalls is graffiti. The restroom mirror is broken, though, the shards are nowhere to be found. The sinks are oddly clean unlike the floor. Lucas sets down a black box and packs of gum.

Students start exchanging money for the gum; $0.50 for a single sheet. Lucas opens the black box, it's a cash box with sections for bills and coins. Whenever someone has whole bills, Lucas changes it for them. This transaction carries on until the ringing of the bell, at this point all 100 sheets of gum is sold out. Students flock out of the restroom. Lucas starts counting and organizing his cash box.

Jackal enters the restroom, two people tailing him. "Hey, Lucas. Remember when I told you to watch your back?"

Lucas briefly stops counting his money to look at Jackal and his crew. "41, 42, 43, 44," Lucas returns to counting, ignoring them.

"Bro. Let this dead," one of Jackal goons says. "It's not worth it."

"Tee. Just because this freak almost stabbed you in the eye in primary school doesn't mean you have to be a pussy right now."

Lucas stops counting. "I didn't try to stab him in the eye. I did stab him in the eye." Lucas returns to counting his money.

"Jackal. Lucas may be short, but he isn't anything to laugh at. Bro, my parents were going to sue. He visited our home and had a private chat with my parents. Suddenly, they didn't feel like suing anymore. My mom had me giving him chicken casserole, bi-weekly, until we graduated primary school. They were scared shitless of him."

Jackal shakes his head. "Bitch runs in your genetics then. Lucas I'm going to take your money."

Lucas sighs. He puts his money into the box and closes it. In a swift motion, Lucas takes a switchblade out of his pocket and extends the blade. Lucas follows this up with a question. "Easy way or the hard way?"