Chapter Two Wilted

Sunder is starting anew in the school. Isn't that great? He's just all sunshine and rainbows! (Mostly.)

The barely painted over brick walls and tiled floors welcomed Sunder in. He was whistling happily and going to go to math class. He checked his schedule again. Yup. This is the class!

He went along his way, catching a few stares from other people. Sunder was used to this by now. He always gave off a radiant smile and a happy vibe, and grinned at people while he spoke to them. He’d hear some ‘weirdo’s and ‘freak’s here and there, but other than that, he was great!

Sunder checked around for the math class. Room 216. Might be on the second floor. He managed to find some stairs and took a mental map inside his head to check which turns he had taken to find these stairs. Man, they should give us some maps or something! Although, I did come in the year right after winter break…

The stairs were creaky and Sunder flinched at the creaks. He made a mental note about how creaky the stairs were and looked around, noticing the many windows that were open with fresh air blowing in and the elaborate designs on them. Some looked like mushrooms, others like flowers. It was kind of nice. The roof had a tile missing and another few tiles that looked like they were going to collapse at any given moment. He made a note about that, too. Avoid tiles. Got it.

After a bit of fumbling around, Sunder managed to find Room 216. After the stairs, he had taken a left, a right, forward until he got to the next crossroad, and turned right again and found Room 216 three doors away on his left. He studied the door. It was bright yellow with a poster saying, “Be a try-angle!” Sunder cringed at the poster. The handle was made of some kind of wood, most likely pine by how dark it was. There wasn’t a window, but instead, there were crayon drawings of… something. Probably drawn by the math teacher’s kids. Probably.

Right before he managed to open the door, though, another hand grabbed the handle. He jumped in surprise and saw another kid, most likely a year younger than him. Sunder looked at them in surprise. He couldn’t tell what gender the person was. The kid had tanned skin and blond hair with striking blue eyes like the ocean. They wore a black band t-shirt and black denim shorts, which he thought was a weird choice since it was still winter. Sure, winter break had passed, and the worst of it was gone, but still. It’s January.

The kid appeared to be as surprised as Sunder was. They cleared their throat awkwardly. “Uhm, hi,” they said.

“Yello,” Sunder replied.

“Could you, uhm, open the door, please?” They asked.

“Sure thing,” He said, realizing that their hands were still on the door handle together. He quickly removed his hand, and the person, realizing the same, pulled their hand back, too. Sunder kept a grin on his face so that they wouldn’t know what he felt. Embarrassed.

“Thanks. What’s your name?” The kid asked politely.

Sunder paused. He looked at the kid and his grin faltered. He hadn’t expected that question. “Uh… My name’s Sunder. You?”

Their look hardened. They pressed their lips in a thin line, but they didn’t look away from Sunder’s eyes. Their blue eyes stared back at him intensely. “...Redacted.”

Sunder started in surprise. Redacted? Really? Who names a kid that? Sensing his surprise, Redacted sighed. “Look, I don’t know what was going on in my mom’s head either. But that’s my name, and I’ll take it.”

“That’s… terrible.” Sunder tried to say sorry, but he stopped at the last moment. He knew that would only make things worse. Speaking from experience here.

“Yeah, well, it happens, I guess,” Redacted replied gruffly. They entered the math classroom, chatting and making small talk. Sunder learned that Redacted used xe/xem/xyr pronouns and that xe wasn’t really talkative. Actually, that was just a guess from how xe was acting. The classroom, like the halls outside, had tiled floors and brick walls. However, the purple paint actually stuck to the bricks, making it look way better than when Sunder first entered. The tables were arranged like a huge S. Weird choice, but pretty nice, too. Finally, after about three minutes, the teacher came in with a bright smile and chipper voice. She wore a white sweater under a brown vest and had a black skirt that went all the way down to her ankles. Sunder couldn’t tell what she was wearing for shoes, but from what he saw when she walked, it was probably some really high black heels.

“Who’s ready to learn our favorite subject, math?” She asked happily.

Everyone groaned.

The class went by smoothly. Redacted and Sunder sat together at the table in the back, which was the top of the S if you looked at it from above with the door at the bottom and the cabinets in the back. The cabinets in the back stored lots of books, presumably about math, and for some reason, there was a sink in the back with a full on water fountain. The math teacher, who Sunder learned was Ms. Tarn, was bright and chipper the entire period. He didn’t mind, since he usually gave off happy vibes anyway, and he actually kind of enjoyed the class.

The same could not be said for Redacted, though. Xe hummed a song that Sunder couldn’t identify, xe tapped xyr fingers along the edge of the table, xe looked anywhere but the teacher, and xe didn’t even open xyr book.

“Hey,” Sunder said quietly one time during the period. “What are you doing?”

Redacted, who was currently on xyr computer (with Ms. Tarn not even noticing), replied without looking at Sunder, “Playing on Chess.com.”

“Do you even know what she’s talking about?” He whispered back. What is xe thinking?! Xyr grade might be dropped!

“Sure.” Redacted stopped talking with him and continued looking at the screen, eventually winning after only three moves. Sunder groaned inwardly in frustration at Redacted’s distant attitude. How does xe not care about this that much?

The bell rang. Redacted immediately shot up out of xyr desk, shoving xyr computer back into xyr bag and throwing it over xyr shoulders. Sunder got up dazedly. He had taken a short nap during the period. I need more sleep. I can’t do that again. He got up and placed the math book that Ms. Tarn had given him with a “Have this, dear. It has all the wonders of 10th grade math!” inside his bag. (He didn’t have the heart to tell her that it was an already filled out book with wrong answers. Sunder would have to copy the problems down and put the answers on a piece of binder paper and turn it in the next day.)

Sunder got up more slowly than Redacted did, taking his time a bit to put away his pencil case into his bag. He looked up and saw Redacted standing there awkwardly, tapping xyr foot impatiently. He smiled at xem and xe noticed, giving Sunder an awkward smile back.

He finished packing up his bag and stood up, walking with Redacted to the door and looking around. Sunder checked his schedule and Redacted peered over his shoulders, curious.

“You have Mr. Moss? He’s pretty cool,” Redacted remarked. Sunder jumped a bit. He was so lost in his own little world that he forgot that Redacted was there, too. He pointed at the location column on the piece of paper.

“You know where Mr. Moss is?” He asked.

Redacted smiled. “Yup. He’s at Building A, first floor and on the left hall. I actually have him for the second period, too. He’s fun with science. Lots of fun games and he lets us do random stuff on our computers, and he still gets the job done.”

Sunder shot him a finger gun. Redacted looked away, suddenly a bit embarrassed about how much he actually said to Sunder. Xe still had this smile on xyr face, but xyr face looked a bit warm.

“Also, this is Building A.” Xe cleared xyr throat. “Let’s go down the stairs.” Xe pointed at the stairs that Sunder had taken to get up to the second floor. Good thing that he wandered straight into the right class, or else he’d never have made it to math. He didn’t really like the creaky stairs, but he’ll use them anyway. Sunder’s not about to ask Redacted for any other staircases. That would be weird and inefficient.

They walked together down the stairs, Sunder wincing at every little creak the stairs made as they stepped down a step. Every. Single. One. Man, I have to stop doing that. I’m too sensitive to sound. Ugh, whatever. I’ll power through it. He kind of doubted that. Don’t tell him, though. He doesn’t want to think about it.

Finally, they reached the bottom of the stairs. He was met with the tiled floors and the windowless brick walls. Sunder missed the elaborately designed windows. They were nice and he liked looking at them. It was a bit weird to miss some windows, but he was just like that. It’s the little things that make him appreciate life. Kind of. Redacted and he walked to the left hall, Sunder looking around and seeing windows on the left side and doors to classrooms on the right and Redacted striding down the halls confidently. Quite a few people looked their way, and Sunder returned their looks with a flashing grin, but most didn’t seem to notice. In fact, most of them had sneers and smug faces on and were pointing and giggling at them. He didn’t know what he had done, but these people did not seem friendly.

Eh, Sunder thought. They’ll get over it. After all, Redacted seems fine. Redacted did seem fine, xe was still striding confidently and xyr posture was straight. Xe didn’t look as if xe was bothered by all the negative attention from the laughing students. They finally reached the right classroom, which was Mr. Moss’s science classroom. This door was also a bright yellow, but this one had a window, and Sunder peered in and saw Mr. Moss. The door also had a poster, but it was less cheesy and way better than Ms. Tarn’s poster. It was a fun looking poster of the periodic table. Chemistry. Ugh, I hate chemistry. I’m terrible at it. He looked at Redacted curiously. Xe was calm as xe knocked on the door instead of opening it like Sunder did with Ms. Tarn’s door. Does Mr. Moss prefer people knocking instead of just entering?

The door swung open and Sunder was greeted with the sight of Mr. Moss, with his cool looking goggles, long black lab coat, red turtleneck and gray pants as well as black boots. He was considerably handsome and young looking for a teacher, with his ginger hair that was up in a small ponytail and bright brown eyes. Sunder felt himself staring a bit before shaking his head and flashing a smile at Mr. Moss, who grinned back at him. Redacted smiled to xyrself and Sunder caught it, not saying anything about it and noting it down.

“Hey, student. You new here?” Mr. Moss asked. He ushered them in and Redacted’s smile grew bigger. “Oh, and hello, Redacted. Love that band t-shirt you got there. Pretty cool, I’d say so myself.”

“You think everything’s cool,” Redacted replied jokingly. Mr. Moss placed his hand on his chest in mock hurt.

“Redacted, I personally think that history is totally not cool,” He said dramatically. Sunder snickered.

“I second that,” Sunder said. Redacted laughed at that. “Also, my name’s Sunder. Came from Wisconsin.” Mr. Moss looked at him curiously.

“That far away? From Wisconsin all the way to California? Dang, dude!” Mr. Moss replied. He glanced at Sunder. “You look awfully young for a 10th grader. Did you skip some grades like Redacted here?”

“Yup.” Sunder puffed out his chest a little. “Skipped two grades.”

“Well, I skipped three,” Redacted cut in, still smiling.

Mr. Moss laughed. “Yeah, Redacted is a pretty smart kid. Xe’s cool.” The bell rang and he cursed under his breath. “Shoot. Go to your seats, kids. Hey students!” He called to the class. “New seating chart! Sunder, go sit at that table. Redacted, I would make a last minute change with you next to Sunder to help him orientate, but I can’t do that. Go to the front. Also, Terry, go help Sunder with his stuff! He needs to get comfortable here or I’m never going to stop hearing his complaints!” Sunder smiled a bit wider. Redacted was right. He really is fun.

Once everyone got into their correct seats, Sunder looked around. The tables were in a U shape with another table in the front. Redacted was right at the front in the middle seat with four other kids. One had dark brown hair in a braid and emerald green eyes. She was picking her nails and had nothing out except for a beige journal. She sat at the left end of the table. The kid to the left of Redacted had blonde hair that went down to her thighs. He couldn’t see her eyes, but the two girls were chatting and the blonde girl actually had a chemistry book out. The chemistry book, which he was just about to get, was titled Chemistry: All You Need to Know and was somewhat thick. She also had a black notebook out.

To the right of Redacted was an Asian boy who seemed a bit shy and had glasses that covered his eyes from where Sunder was looking. He wore a huge oversized black hoodie and also had the chemistry book out, but instead of a notebook, he had sticky notes instead. Man, I love sticky notes. They’re great. Until they stop sticking, that is. And finally, on the right end of the table, was an Indian boy that was rambling about something to the Asian boy, who seemed to somewhat enjoy what he was saying. He wore red and white headphones around his neck and had a tight red long-sleeve shirt on and baggy black pants.

Sunder’s table only had three people. One of them was absent. His table was on the left of the U, and the people there were Terry (who was a chocolate brown haired kid with blue eyes), a girl (who Terry was flirting with), and Sunder. Terry, who hadn’t seemed to be listening to Mr. Moss, was now talking about some game that he was playing the other day and how he “wrecked those toddler’s bases, dude” and “totally knocked them out cold as ice”. Sunder was barely listening to them, and the girl constantly giggled at what Terry had to say.

“Alright, class. Open up your textbooks.” Mr. Moss instructed, setting up the projector and putting on a video of the periodic table. Everyone did so (even Terry, the girl he was flirting with, and the girl with only a journal, who had just gotten her textbook out from her bag) and Sunder looked around desperately for a textbook. Mr. Moss noticed and frowned a tiny bit.

“Terry, didn’t I tell you to help Sunder? Go show him the textbook shelf,” Mr. Moss said, staring at Terry sternly. He muttered a ‘sorry’ and got up with Sunder, not even talking to him before walking to the textbook shelf.

“Here’s the textbooks. Go grab one or whatever.” Terry immediately left after that and grinned at the girl, who was fluttering her eyelashes at him. Sunder gagged at the sight and got out a textbook. He realized that Terry didn’t tell him which textbook to get, but he decided it had to be Chemistry: All You Need to Know because everyone else seemed to have that one. He ignored the biology, astronomy, Earth science and physics books and grabbed the chemistry textbook, which was hardcover and felt cool in his hand. It looked a bit cheesy on the front (if textbooks could even look cheesy) but otherwise, he thought it was cool.

The class went on. Terry wasn’t all that helpful, but Sunder learned that there was no computer use in this class (and Redacted was fiddling around with the Asian boy’s sticky notes. The Asian boy didn’t seem to mind, thought). Most of what they did was look at the text on Mr. Moss’s projector and scribble down some notes, sometimes reading aloud to the class the textbook.

At the end of class, Sunder was feeling pretty great. He murmured a song to himself and walked over to Redacted, which got him a few weird looks from people, including Terry. The Asian boy was the only one who didn’t seem to care. He still looked shy, but was talking timidly with the Indian boy.

For some reason, he didn’t get any comments on how young he looked. Sunder expected a few “How old are you?” questions but he hadn’t had one except for Mr. Moss, which didn’t really count because he was a teacher. Teachers asked those kinds of questions.

Redacted said, “Hey, Sunder! Are you coming?”

Sunder, suddenly pulled out of his thoughts, replied, “Yup! What’s your third period? I have photography class with Mrs. Bunto.” Xe groaned.

“We have different classes. I have Honors Sophomore English with Mrs. Killtone.” Redacted sighed. “Also, Mrs. Bunto is nice but really chatty. She will chatter your ears off. Beware.” Xe said the last part jokingly. Sunder thinks.

“Got it. You know where her classroom is, though?” He asked. Redacted was about to answer then thought better about it.

“You can always ask a teacher for a map. I’d recommend Mr. Moss, he’s nice about it.” Redacted turned away and walked off into the right hall, right across from the left, and disappeared. The writing above the hall said “Building B”, and Sunder realized that he was in Building A and that if he had walked farther into the hall, he would’ve walked into a big garden (which he presumed was the lunch area, or one of them) and into Building C. Sunder slowly turned around and jumped when he realized Mr. Moss was standing right there.

“Hey, kid. How did you do in class? Everything alright?” He asked. Sunder calmed down a bit and nervously smiled at him. It was barely a smile but it somehow seemed convincing enough to Mr. Moss.

“I did alright, thank you.” Sunder didn’t mention how Terry was basically just talking with this one girl the entire time instead of helping him around. He frowned. Wow, so much for a convincing smile. “I need a map. My next class is in…” Sunder checked the piece of paper that was ripped at one corner. Somehow. “Building C? Mrs. Bunto’s class?” Mr. Moss nodded thoughtfully.

“Mrs. Bunto? I don’t know her too well, but she’s always been a chatterbox. I always zoned out when she talked at meetings. Well, she’s on the first floor of Building C, over in that hall.” He pointed at the end of the hall, where the doors to the garden were. Mr. Moss then handed him a map. He placed his finger on a tiny box in Building C labelled as Room 132. Not too far.

“Thank you, Mr. Moss,” Sunder thanked him. He chuckled.

“No problem, kid. Also, you should start running. The bell’s about to ring any second now and you’re going to be late. Mrs. Bunto rarely allows any exceptions about that, too, from what my students say.” Sunder widened his eyes and immediately started booking it to the end of the hall, pushing open the doors and shoving people in his way. There were lots of “Hey! Cut that out!” and “Man, what are you doing?” remarks from the students as a result, but he didn’t care. Sunder was not about to be late in any of his classes, no thank you.

Sunder rushed through the halls, grunting softly when he tripped over some kid’s foot and briefly fell down a bit. He grumbled and got up, going at a speed that was only a little bit lower than before. At least my foot won’t bruise. It’ll just be sore for a bit. Hopefully. He checked his class schedule and he saw P.E. on there, mocking him and just existing on the piece of paper.

F**k you, P.E., Sunder thought irritably. The sore foot hurt a bit and the pain would jolt up his leg, but he didn’t mind all that much. In fact, he kind of liked the pain that was caused by the foot. It would serve as a good distraction in all the boring classes before P.E., which was right after lunch, which was right after Jazz Band, which he auditioned for the moment Sunder moved here. He passed by all the other rooms in a hasty blur and nearly crashed into the doors. Sunder frantically opened them and raced across the garden, checking the map with his hands and slowing down a bit. He saw that Room 132 was the second room to the left once he would get in.

Sunder slowed down a bit when he got nearer to the doors. He looked around in wonder and noticed the glass roof with a hexagon cut out from the top of the glass dome. There was a beehive (with an adult and a kid, probably an 11th grader) and bees, flowers (with violets, which Sunder enjoyed) and tall grass that was almost as tall as Sunder was. Redacted could probably hide in the grass, too, since xe was a really short kid for a 10th grader. Although, xe did skip three grades like Mr. Moss said. That must be nice. Except you’d have to leave behind your friends.

I wish Redacted was here. Then xe could show me the rest of the school and I’d still make it on time. I should also remember to take a photo of this place. It would make such a nice shot, and maybe I can add it to my album for the end of the year. Sunder pushed away his thoughts and opened the doors to Building C and walked towards the second door to the left of him and grinned widely (and forcefully).

The door was blue instead of yellow. It kind of burned Sunder’s eyes with how bright it was. In fact, all of Building C’s doors seemed to be bright blue, and all of Building A’s doors seemed to be equally bright yellow. Sunder would have to wear sunglasses just in case. This door didn’t have a poster on, but once he opened the door, he realized that the reason why the door didn’t have a poster on is because all the posters were mostly likely used up in the photography room. There were cheesy posters, dark posters, equality posters, and photos of sad animals with the caption “Save the animals! Donate here:” and a link or phone number right after. There weren’t any desks and there weren’t any windows, just a poster covered room and a table in the corner, presumably for Mrs. Bunto.

Right after he stepped in, the bell rang. Sunder sighed in relief. He had made it to class on time! He looked around. There were around ten kids in the class. He made a mental tally and saw a pair of twins that kept moving around and gave up on trying to find out whether there were ten kids or eleven. Or twelve, or nine, or seven. What was going on? Was it triplets or twins? Maybe quadruplets? Dang, they all look identical!

“Why, hello there!” A high, squeaky voice said. Sunder jumped and turned around, raising his fists out of instinct. It sounded too much like the creaks of the stairs, that’s how high and squeaky their voice was.

The voice came from a woman, probably in her mid 30s, with bright eyes (but the colors of which he couldn’t tell, since she wore huge red sunglasses) and black hair that shone blue in the sunlight. She had a computer with lots of stickers and photos on it in her right hand and was shifting it around with both her hands. She wore a black leather jacket and a black crop top underneath. She also had a white skirt with various flowers on it and a pair of very high stilettos, which even Sunder (who liked wearing heels here and there) wouldn’t want to wear. Anytime.

“I’m Mrs. Bunto! Usually, we go outside in the garden to take lessons on photography. Do you already have a camera?” Mrs. Bunto asked casually. Sunder gave her an awkward smile.

“Yes, I do,” Sunder replied nervously, his grin falling apart. She was giving him the heebie-jeebies and he didn’t know why. He tried for a polite smile and succeeded. He thinks. Mrs. Bunto nods at his reply enthusiastically and turns to the class.

“Hello, class! Today we have a new student called- hm, let me check my attendance sheet… ah, yes, Sunder. Say your hellos to Sunder, class!” Mrs. Bunto said to the class with her computer in her hands, shifting from left to right, right to left, pausing for a bit, and settling in the left hand for a bit before going back to the right hand. Sunder was a little bit dizzy from all that movement.

There was a chorus of ‘hello’s and ‘hi’s and even ‘greetings’ from one of the twins/triplets/quadruplets. Sunder got a little bit more dizzy from all the moving kids that looked identical. How could anyone tell them apart?

The kids that looked identical all had a dirty blond wolf cut with a small ponytail and brown eyes with tanned skin. He finally noticed that one of the kids had some vitiligo on their neck, and he decided to call that kid “Pattern” for that reason. Sunder noticed that another kid had a cut on their ear. He called that one “Pierce” for that. He still couldn’t figure out if the kids were twins, triplets or quadruplets.

Mrs. Bunto hustled them all up, some of them groaning a bit and others just continued doing what they were doing before like they weren’t about to go to the garden. Sunder was excited. Somewhat. He could take a picture of part of the school for the album he wanted to make! Wasn’t that great?