Synch

by sunnypack

10 - Frenemy

I looked up from my introductory differential calculus textbook. Across from me stood a blond-haired, arrogant, condescending, muscly, aggressive annoyance. I would have narrowed my eyes but that would have only opened me up to racial insults.

He sneered at me as he swaggered toward my side of the table, nonchalantly kicking chairs out of the way. I gazed at him dispassionately in an aura of indifference. That was who I was back then, unthinking, unfeeling, the ultimate machine in every sense. He leaned over me and held his hand out, palm up.

Inwardly, I huffed a long-suffering sigh and stood up, pretending to reach into my pocket to draw out my wallet. This bully was new; he didn’t even see it coming. Without warning, I tried jabbing him in three nerve clusters located in his abdomen and then stepped back two paces to observe the results.

The bully’s eyes bulged comically and he gasped for air trying to formulate words. His expression pleasantly reminded me of a fish out of water.

I felt myself get grabbed from behind, and as the bully recovered, his face was adorned by a wicked grin. I just looked at him blankly and tightened my stomach muscles so it wouldn't do too much damage. The blond-hair wannabe whaled on me, landing blow after blow on my face, stomach and chest. He even threw a couple of kicks in.

Instead of getting angry, I just felt disinterested and wondered if that blond kid would get diarrhoea because I hit the wrong nerve cluster. I really should have paid more attention to my dad. Instead of being incapacitated, I felt the impacts leave brief but not lasting impressions on my emptiness.

I smiled at him as he kept going.

He spat on my face.

“Freak”, he growled, roughly grabbing my wallet, I only returned an absent smile. He took out five dollars, the sum total of my cash. I didn't even have my ID card in my wallet. He tossed it back to me and it landed on my head. Snorting, he turned and left, leaving me to my own devices and to lick my own wounds.

Of course I did nothing of the sort, I simply walked to the nearest stash I had and grabbed some decent money and strode into the nearest hardware store. Knowledge was indeed powerful.

The next day I heard nothing from them. They didn't want anything to do with me. Most students were whispering behind my back but I had little care for their concerns. I did tend to go a little overboard on ‘revenge’ but it was just merely something I did to make my life just a little less inconvenienced.

Dwayne, as I found out what blondie’s name was, suffered from burns from a minor chemical explosion, a severe but non-lethal electric shock and all his belongings within his locker had been mysteriously coated with a tar-like substance which was almost impossible to remove and smelt like death.

If it had came down to a war of attrition I would not lose, simply because I did not fear anything. Belongings I had were minimal and any injuries I received whether directly or indirectly were met with a wall of indifference and distant but frosty smiling.

The others also left me alone when they had seen the note: don't end up like him, posted in their mailboxes. I didn't feel a sense of triumph though for beating these simple-minded bullies and it just made me sink into a lower level of emptiness that I struggled to comprehend but gave up on since it meant I had to care.

Meanwhile I drifted, seeing things like an observer would but never really engaging, participating or interfering.

I saw the world explode in technology, smart phones were now so common that every kid and their dog had one, and I saw a few accidentally left behind on the train. I doubted the owners would even bother coming back for it. The world was bathed in glorious radiation, saturating the city of Sydney with low frequency pulses so that we were all connected to the Internet. They all talked of a change to the Internet and it would soon bring in phases of the extranet.

I still drifted. The bullying never became a problem after Dwayne and he came back after a couple of days in hospital. He had avoided me like the plague. His companions eventually dropped out, almost expelled a couple of days before their graduation for smoking weed near the school.

A month after I sent my clear message to Dwayne, I got slapped.

Instead of being shocked and indignant as she had expected, I simply stared at her and waited for her to say something. She faltered slightly but worked up a righteous rage again. She pushed her face close to mine, trying to make me feel uncomfortable.

“What’s wrong? Not going to do anything, stupid?” she demanded, hands on her hips.

I looked away and stared blankly into space, wishing for this annoyance to get bored and disappear.

“Aren't you going to apologise to Dwayne? Why would you hurt my brother like that?” she ground out through clenched teeth,

Surprised would have been an emotional state that was too strong for me to show but I did manage mild curiosity.

Her expression darkened and she drew a breath for what would probably be a speech that would be for the histories. Fortunately for me her own brother interjected.

“Emilia, stop this”, he pleaded, trying to drag her away by the arm.

Emilia yanked back her limb and glared with a laser-like intensity into my own eyes.

“I can't let such injustice stand”, she announced, preparing to give what she thought would be the most righteous slap on the infidel Asian boy.

I sighed and angled my head so that the slap would only contact on her fingertips and thus cause less deep tissue damage.

Dwayne stopped Emilia before she even had a chance.

“Emilia it wasn't his fault… I-I was t-the one who h-had started it”, he stuttered.

I looked at him from the corner of my eyes. Why would he feel the need to defend me? After a while of consideration, I discarded the thought. I didn't care.

Emilia’s eyes narrowed dangerously and she pointed imperiously to me, clearly indicating I should sit in my chair and stay there to await judgement. Dwayne and Emilia whispered fervently whilst I took the opportunity to quietly slip away.

-----

After an indeterminate amount of time Emilia finally got the gist of the situation.

Shocked, Emilia turned back to apologise to me but I had already gone.

Guilt tore at Emilia, she wanted to make this right. Dwayne looked away ashamed, he never wanted to beat up the freak, he just wanted to fit in. Emilia didn't buy any of that and left Dwayne midway through his awkward excuses and explanations.

He called out to her one last time.

“He's bad news Em! He'll just mess you up, don't get involved!”

Emilia snorted. Unlike her brother, she was a firm believer in justice. She was going to go into criminal law when she graduated but right now she had to start from the basics.

I need to give him something to make up for what I did, she had thought furiously.

I will make this right!

She approached some guys huddled around a hand-held console.

“Hey”, she greeted, approaching them. “Do you know anything about what that Asian kid, whatsis name, from the library likes?”

They shook their head mutely and just continued with their game. Disgusted by their lack of motivation she walked away and asked another group of people. They all shrugged, some didn’t even know his name, and no one really knew anything about him. She went from group to group desperate to gain any information about the elusive boy. Eventually she wound up going back to the library where she first confronted him.

The librarian gave her a hawk-like stare and Emilia meekly apologised for the disturbance earlier, the librarian just shook her head gave her another warning glance and then waved her through.

She spotted him back in the library reading another thick book. All around him were casually chatting girls and boys discussing studies, relationships, the Internet and life. He sat there just passively reading, an island in the middle of an ocean of people.

Emilia got the sense that really, the kid was not really indifferent as she first thought but was just profoundly and truly alone.

Author's Note:

Okay a shorter chapter from last time but I just wanted to set a little of the background of my main character. He was a little different growing up and I wanted to flesh out his personality a little. How did he change? What impact had his past had on him? What will that mean for the future?

Other things I wanted to note was the pacing. Yes it is slow. Should I pick up the speed and get to the nitty gritty adventure/action? Do you want me to stage more back grounding?

Tell me in the comments!

Also I will hold off on publishing unless I have proofread my own story a couple of times, even then there will be grammatical mistakes, if anyone wants to help me get better, feel free to drop a line!

Just as a side note, bullying is not as prevalent in Australia as I have heard about in the rest of the world. It still exists but I don't think it really goes to the extremes you might see in this story.

Next chapter, more Luna and Celestia interaction and a chance for Luna to have her own segment of fun.

EDITED.

Comments

[RainbowDragon]

I think a balance of world building and action is needed for this story
P.S try and get your story added in some groups to gain more views

[sunnypack]

4778903 Thanks again for your comments, I love feedback. I'm not too sure what the process is for getting my story accepted into groups because I'm fairly new to whole fimfiction scene. I'm always happy just to let my story passively grow an audience and since this is my first I'll keep it on the down low until I feel confident with my writing to submit it in a more public forum.

Also I'll try and keep the world building and action in balance, after all that's what makes an adventure!

[Cavalorn]

Here is where Mary Sue starts. Nerve striking, no emotions interrupting anything. Wonder how you will get out of it or mabye dwelve deeper into it? On the other hand I liked this chapter quite much, good balance on action and dialogue. And that strike into reader feelings. That was good. All alone.