Olli was exhausted. It was now lunch time, but before that had been four classes, and four teachers making him stand in front of the whole class to introduce himself to everyone. He was tired of all the stares, because it usually meant people were judging him. White hair, pale skin, no gills? Ew. Olli was convinced that everyone thought of him this way.
He was too busy looking down to notice the interest on most students’ faces, some students not even paying attention to him. If he had looked up, he might have noticed many of them were even chatting excitedly, focusing only on the fact that he was a new student and not his appearance at all.
He had been afraid they would ridicule him, but Olli hadn’t gotten a single nasty comment all so far. Now he was just confused. Maybe it was because he was next to Vynsan the whole time? He was friendly towards Olli, and really tall, so maybe the bullies didn’t want to pick a fight with him around.
Olli was sure this was the only possibility, so he was extremely worried when, all of a sudden, Vynsan was nowhere to be seen. He glanced around, but the hallways were nearly empty, with no sign of Vynsan anywhere.
Where did Vynsan go? Maybe… he went downstairs with his friends to eat lunch? Yeah... he probably didn’t notice that he left me behind, so I should hurry and catch up to them.
Olli walked quickly to the end of the hall and pushed open the door to the stairwell, a metal kachink echoing through the air. He paused as he laid eyes upon a group of boys lounging at the bottom, chatting noisily and sharing food with each other. One of them turned to look up at Olli as he made his way down the stairs, heart pounding in his chest.
He was about to slip by when one of the boys shifted, tripping him on the last step. His textbook and pencil case clattered to the floor as he reached out to break his fall.
“Wahh-!”
“Oi! That hurt, watch where yer goin’ eh?!” the one who had tripped Olli held his shoulder, feigning an injury.
“Haha! Dude, he didn’t even touch you there, you were the one who tripped him.” The other boys laughed, shoving him as they called out his lies.
“Ehhh?! I didn’t do nothing. What y’all talkin’ ‘bout…” he looked back towards Olli, who was scrambling to collect his things, then glanced off to the side guiltily.
Olli looked down with tears in his eyes and turned to leave, burning palms pulling open the door just wide enough for him to slip out and rush down the hall towards the nearest bathroom.
“Hey dude, I’m so- eh? He’s gone!” the one sitting on the stairs jumped up, looking out the door before giving up and returning back to his friends. It had been an accident and he was joking around, but maybe the scrawny pale kid was actually hurt! It was too late now though, he had run off before he could even get an apology out.
Olli wiped his eyes as he jogged down the hallway and rounded the corner. His vision was blurry from the tears and it didn’t help that he was looking down, so he jumped when all of a sudden there was a huge figure looming over him.
“Oh! Olifar, I was just coming back to look for y- what happened?!” Vynsan gently laid his hand on Olli’s shoulder as he looked up tearfully.
“I-I-I w-was com- hic -ing down the s-stairs a-a-and I f-fell…” Olli took a few deep breaths as Vynsan listened worriedly, “I’m f-fine now, sorry f-for bothering you.” He looked down and couldn’t stop his hands from fidgeting. Vynsan didn’t need to know what really happened, he probably wouldn’t care anyways…
Olli winced as he curled his fingers in, both his palms were aching and his fidgeting wasn’t helping them feel any better. Vynsan noticed and quickly grabbed his wrist.
“That must have been a pretty hard fall, do your hands hurt? I can take you to the nurses office for some ice if you want.” He said as he gently examined Olli’s right hand.
He hesitated. Wouldn’t Olli just be a nuisance by making Vynsan bring him all the way to the nurses office, during his lunch time, just to get ice for his barely injured hands? ...Well… he did offer first, so…
“Ok… if that’s alright with you.” Olli looked down, snowy eyelashes fluttering against rose-tinted cheeks as he accepted Vynsan’s offer.
Vynsan grinned, leading Olli through the empty halls, still gently holding his wrist as if he were afraid they would be separated again.
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