When Toby got to his house, he saw that his dad’s car was in the driveway.

     Great, he’s home.

     Toby sighed. He was hoping to be able to avoid his father today. He just wanted to go upstairs, turn his computer on, and waste away in front of it, listening to music and reading webcomics, or watching anime.

     He opened the front door quietly, hoping to avoid drawing his father’s attention. Unfortunately, his father was in the living room, meditating. His arms were around Toby’s shoulders in an instant, embracing him in a large hug.

     “Toby, my son! How was school? What did you learn? Did you eat the lunch I packed you?” His father asked, now holding him at arms length and getting a good look at him. “What happened to your face? And your arm is bleeding too?”

     Toby instinctually moved a hand up to his face, feeling crusty dried blood on his cheek, and the tender flesh underneath. He must have gotten cut there, or accidentally rubbed blood from his arm onto his face. Toby chose not to answer, as he knows his father already knows about the bullying that goes on at his school. Unfortunately, every time his father as brought it up to the school, the school denies that there are any problems, and that if there were anyy they would act accordingly.

     They just stood there awkwardly, as he didn’t want to answer his father, and his father wasn’t going to move until he got an answer. Toby was literally saved by the bell though as the doorbell range behind him. As his dad moved to answer it, Toby took this opportunity to run upstairs to his room.

     Throwing his bag on the floor and removing his sweatshirt, he finally got a chance to look over the cut on his arm. The blood had formed a scab, and it didn’t look too bad. He went to his bathroom, and grabbed a washcloth.

     As he wiped the blood off his arm, he thought back to the kid that saved him. He felt like the kid was familiar, but he can’t recall ever seeing him in any of the classes he had. Maybe he saw the kid in the hallway and that’s why he looked familiar?

     But why did he save me? Toby thought to himself. He had never had someone come to his rescue like that before. To his knowledge, most kids would rather just not get involved with the creepy weirdo that was himself. And the bullies were the type to go after anybody that they pleased, so standing up for him meant that kid would now be one of their targets. It didn’t make any sense to Toby why the kid would throw himself under the bus to protect him when they didn’t even know each other.

     When he finished wiping the blood off his arm, he took his shirt off and looked over the bruises on his torso, avoiding looking at himself in the mirror as much as possible. There was a huge, dark purple bruise forming on his stomach, and a bruise that he got from the same two bullies last week that was turning a nasty yellow color. He was starting to look like a really weird painting with all the bruises in various stages of healing that he had. Toby decided that a shower was probably the best thing he could do for his body right now, so he finished undressing and turned the shower on, anticipating the sting of the water as it hit his newly acquired injuries.

     As the water ran over his body, he just stood in the warm water. Deciding it wasn’t hot enough, he turned the knob until the water was hot enough to almost not be tolerable. Once he had relaxed enough, and his bruises didn’t hurt as much, he sat down and just let the water run off his body. He sat like that until the water began to run cold. He quickly stood up and washed his hair and ran some body wash carefully over himself. Once he was rinsed off he quickly turned the shower off and got out. Wiping away the fog that had built up on the mirror, he finally looked over his face. A bruise was beginning to form on his cheek, but there was no cut to be seen.

Guess the blood was from my arm then.

     He put some antiseptic ointment on his fresh cuts, then went into his room, where he threw on a pair of boxers and a baggy shirt.

     I should go to eat dinner, but I don’t really feel hungry. He debated with himself for a few minutes, before giving up and crawling under his covers, wrapping himself up in multiple blankets. Toby knew his dad was worried about him not eating, as this was becoming more common for him, but sleep just seemed so much more appealing then food. He was losing weight, but he didn’t care. Maybe if he lost enough, he’d just disappear.

     When his alarm went off the next morning, Toby groaned. He still had a few more days to go until it was the weekend and he could sleep in and not worry about anything. He slowly got up, got dressed and went downstairs. As always, his father had prepared him breakfast. When Toby sat down, he saw that there was a little note next to his plate that read: Have a great day at school today Son :).

     After finishing breakfast, he grabbed his bag and slowly walked towards his school. If he wanted to, he could ditch today. His father would be disappointed in him, but would probably understand. But he didn’t really want to deal with all the questions about why he ditched, so onwards he walked, towards his own personal hell.

     He wasn’t sure why, but Toby found himself looking for that kid all day. He had made it all the way to lunch time, and didn’t see anybody that looked remotely similar to the kid. When the bell rang at the end of the lunch period, He decided he wasn't going to look anymore, figuring that the other student probably had a completely different schedule then he did.

     He walked into his english class and sat down at his desk, pulling out his binder and his pencil. Just before the bell rang, a student came in to the classroom, which wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Most kids waited until the last second to get to their classes. But this kid wasn’t in this class. Or at least, Toby didn’t recognize the kid as having been in the class. His suspicions were correct when he saw the student hand a piece of paper to the teacher, and the teacher looked up, pointing to a desk on the opposite side of the room from where Toby sat.

     As Toby watched the new student cross the room, a flash of color caught his eye. Orange? He looked a little closer. This student looked somewhat similar to the student that saved him yesterday, but their mannerisms were totally different. The student yesterday was bold, and stood tall, but this student seemed more held back and withdrawn. Friendly with the students around her, but not as outgoing. The kid from yesterday was also a guy, and this kid clearly wasn’t.

     Maybe they're siblings? Toby thought to himself. As he was starting to get lost in his thoughts, the student caught him staring in her direction, and smiled at him, shooting a small wave in his direction. Blushing from embarrassment at having been caught staring, Toby quickly looked down at his desk, not looking up for the rest of the class.

     After the bell rang, Toby quickly packed up, hoping to exit the room fast. Just as he zipped up his backpack though, he saw a pair of shoes appear in front of him. He looked up to see the face of the new student, and inwardly groaned.

     Great. I probably made her mad when I was staring at her. Maybe if I just start walking, she'll leave me alone.

     "Hi!"

     No such luck. She was standing in his way, so he couldn't just stand up and start walking. He looked up at her, then turned around in his seat and stood up on the opposite side. As he started to walk, he noticed she fell instep next to him.

     "My brother mentioned you were shy."

     ".... brother?" Toby reluctantly asked, looking at her with a confused look.

     "Yeah, Marc! He saw you go into the classroom ahead of me and told me he met you yesterday after school. Said you were shy and I should probably introduce myself. I'm Marcy, by the way."

     At this point they had stopped, and Toby finally looked up at her. Not knowing what to say, he looked at her and said "...Hair?"

     Marcy looked confused for a moment, before realizing what Toby meant. "Oh, the orange? Yeah, Marc thought it would look cool, while also making our parents mad. He convinced me to do it too. Isn't it awesome?"

     "I guess." Satisfied that she gave him an answer, Toby kept walking towards his least favorite class: pe.

     "Ah, my class is that way, but before I go, Marc wanted me to tell you to meet him after school, same place as yesterday."

     "Why?"

     "Hmm, I'm not sure? You'll have to see for yourself! See you later!" And with that, she turned and went in the direction of her class.

     Toby stared after her, his confusion clear on his face. He spent all of PE debating on if he should meet up with Marc or not. The kid did help him yesterday, but Toby has also been set up so many times by other students that he wasn’t sure he trusted Marc. By the time the teacher let all the students return to the locker room to change, his head hurt from the debate he was having with himself. He also still hadn’t decided if he was going to meet Marc, and he was out of time.