Transfer Student (01)

Thanks to his sickness, Kyle is going to school late in the year.

Today I transfer to a new school. My family and I have traveled halfway across the globe to get to this point. However, I can't help but wish to return home. My father had a job transfer, and he is pissed. Not because the company forced us to move from our comfy living in Australia to the new world also known as the United States, but because my older brother just made an unexpected confession.

As strange as it may be, our mother didn't have a problem. Once dad found out he was ready to punch out our wall. Perhaps I should explain this. For you see, about six months ago....

“WHAT THE HELL!” dad screamed. Throwing his bowl of spaghetti at the wall, it shattered. My sister sat there with her mouth wide open. Wide enough for a bird to fly in. Fortunately, I had my chance to freak out about this when I caught him. In my room of all places.

Our mother set down her silverware and smiled. “Great for you sweetie” she said. With that same sweet expression she had when one of us made a huge mistake. Although, this woman shared her expression for everything. Truly happy or sad or angry, they were all the same.

“Hey, how can you say that with a straight face!” dad demanded. Watching them fight was funny, dad always lost.

Come to think of it. No one ever won against mom in a real fight. With or without a weapon this woman always won. A truly scary person. “Now dear, what could be possibly done to change his mind?” she asked. Dad went silent. Would he dare go against her?

I set my silverware down and looked at him, glaring. “Why did you have to reveal that while I’m eating?”

My brother gave me a soundless expression of forgiveness and went back to eating. “That’s a good point. Why the hell now of all times?” dad demanded.

Mom held onto his arm and stood up. One of her speech stands. “Now then, we are leaving for the united states in a few days” she chanted, with her obviously fake American accent. “We must put this aside. For he is still our son” she glared at our father. Then turned to us “and he is still your brother” she reminded.

Abigail, my older sister, and I sat quietly. I raised my hand in a confession of my own. “I already knew he was gay. I have actually known for a little over two months now” I put my hand down.

Dad opened his mouth in astonishment. “Equally as guilty” he declared, pointing his spoon at me in threat.

Beside him, mom sat down. In her hand armed with a chef's knife she slammed it down. All of us jumped up. “Now than. He is still my son” she said in a sweet voice, a sweet smile. “So shut up and eat your dinner” her expression changed, no longer did she have that sweet expression. It looked horrifying. We all obeyed and ate our noodles in absolute silence.

And so, that was about six months ago. I fell with some illness upon coming here. So, my siblings took the first expedition into the American school system. I sat at home, bleeding my stomach out.

Now, about a quarter into the school year, I will be enrolling as a new student. Still a little sick from that stupid parasite I staggered out of my bed. Finally, I had my own room. Because I was sick when we got here, my brother put away all of my things. Some of my other stuff was still in boxes. Outside of random things I had, my clothes were neatly placed in my dresser.

Matt, my older brother, was very cheering this morning. Just the sight of him made me sick. For me, I was a slightly against gays. It didn’t make sense to me. But, I had never been in actually love before.

One time I thought I was. A really cute girl gave me flowers. She was so shy I couldn’t help but feel attracted to her face. Later, I even ended up dating her. That ended real quick though when she tried to kiss me and I reacted terribly. I smacked her, never saw her since. Her friends guarded her, she never answered my texts. It was a very informal breakup, but I screwed up when I smack her.

As soon as I finished slipping my shirt over my head I looked into my mirror. I hadn’t cut my hair for a few months. Dad insisted I cut it when I got to America, but it took six months to get here. On top of that I was sick for a whole school quarter. My hair had grown down to my shoulders. I’d have to get it cut by the end of school, or later this week.

I walked down stairs, dad sat at the table reading his paper. Matt was making breakfast and smiled when he saw me. “How do you feel today?” dad asked, putting his paper down.

“Like the rear-end of a pig” I sat down in the living room, laying down and holding onto my stomach tightly. Abigail sat in the chair watching me as she frantically got her papers in order.

Dad folded the paper up and looked at Matt. “Get out the juice” he said. Matt did as he was told. Dad poured a glass and gave it to me. “You need to go to school today. If you feel sick again go to the health room”

I sat up and drank the juice, which to me, tasted like blood. Mom joined them for breakfast, while I stayed in the living room away from the smell and sight of food. “Oh, the bus will be here soon” mom stood up, put away the plates and gave Matt and Abigail a bag lunch. “I packed you one too, but if you don't want it don't eat it” she said to me as I passed her. The lunch was already in my bag.

Matt led the way to the bus, he already had a new boyfriend and so did Abigail. We entered the bus; they sat next to their friends while I sat alone. It was a fairly cramped bus; the seniors threw garbage around and laughed about girls breasts. Our ride didn’t last long; we were at the school within ten minutes and about eight other stops.

I followed the others off of the bus, and into the school. Once inside I got out my schedule and decided to head to first hour. It only took about nine familiar hallways to find.

This class was English, which at first confused me. I introduced myself to the teacher. A nice man of the name Adam Ruthless. An interesting name. “Is this your first time in America?” he asked. I glanced over at his work. All of it was done, he must be bored.

I adjusted myself in the chair. “Yeah, I moved here at the beginning of school. I had some weird illness so my siblings went without me”

“I see, so you are a bit far behind on school work” he smiled “I actually knew about all of that stuff, I had one of my students take notes for you. All that lazy kid did though was make his own notes and use the school copier”

I laughed a little to myself. Mr. Ruthless returned it with a smile.

“But that kid takes incredible notes. Since you just got here you don't have many friends do you?” he asked.

I shook my head, no.

“Would you mind befriending him? As it stands I’m the only person in this whole school he hangs out with”

I thought it over for a while. Then had my answer “I don't see why not. I don't have anyone but you to talk to either” we laughed and chatted some more before the school bell rang. All the students made their way to their classes and I stood up from the desk.

By the time the bell rang again everyone was in their seats, whispering about their new transfer student from Australia. Mr. Ruthless stood up and made his way to the front of the class room. “Our new student from Australia has come today, his name is Kyle Reiter” he gestured over to me. I waved to the students that marveled.

Mr. Ruthless got back their attention and ordered them to get back to their project. He walked back over to me. “They are currently working on a project; luckily we just started it yesterday. Reilly, come here for a moment”

Just then, the most feminine guy I had ever seen stood up. He walked over to us. This is Reilly, I assumed. He was small, very small to be a sophomore in high school and had the frame of a middle school girl. His long hair didn’t help that either, it wasnt very long, probably as long as mine. If I didn’t know any better, I would have though he was cute.

“Yes, Mr. Ruthless” he asked. Even his voice was high like a girl. I ended up blushing a little, which he took a moment to look at.

Mr. Ruthless took out a sheet of paper and a pen. He wrote down something on a list and smiled with his satisfaction. “Reilly, since you do not have a partner on this how about partnering with Kyle? Oh, and those notes please”

Reilly opened a folder in his hand and pulled out the notes. He handed them to Mr. Ruthless, who in turn handed them to me. “Now, I do hope you two come to be good friends” he smiled again.

I walked away after being dismissed, following Reilly back to his desk. He pulled out his computer and opened a file. “What are you guys doing?” I asked. He jumped. Why do I find this guy adorable?

“Um” he shuddered. Then I remembered Mr. Ruthless saying he didn’t have any friends and only hung out with the English teacher. So, I decided to be nice. “It’s an advertisement using persuasion”

I lend over him to see what he had already had. It was a blank report. “Didn’t you have yesterday to do this?”

“We did. But I don't know where to start” he moved a little ways away from me.

Another student lend over in my direction. A blonde with a super stupid smile on his face. “Too bad you got to work with the loser on your first day” he teased.

The girl next to him looked unhappy, pitiful for me. “I know right. I feel so bad for you” she reached out her hand onto mine. I pulled away. “I'm sorry, you just don't know him yet” she looked back over at Reilly who was desperately trying to avoid them.

Some of the blonde’s friends stood up and walked over to me too. I noticed that Mr. Ruthless kept a close watch on them. Reilly went back to work, leaving me on my own.

“Hey, my names Henry. Should be a junior but got held back. You know how it is” he laughed, then high fived his friend, the blonde. “So this project is stupid isn't it?”

“Come on, I like Mr. Ruthless’s projects. They’re a lot of fun” the girl said. They had joined together and formed a group. And I, for some reason, was a part of it.

The blonde joined in on the conversation. “Bailey, his projects suck”

“Oh right. You just can't do em that’s why you hate em” Henry boasted.

The blonde retaliated, but with a gentle smile. “Ya like you're one to talk” they laughed. Then they turned over to me. “Sorry, my name is Edward. This is Henry, Bailey and that guy over there is Seth” Edward pointed to the silent one with the hoody playing a Nintendo.

Henry looked at me sympathetically. “Sorry, are we going to fast?” he asked. The others shared him sympathy.

I looked at them confused. “Huh?”

“People in Australia speak English you idiot” Reilly said, tilting his head up.

Henry and the others quickly grew angry. Mr. Ruthless prepared to get up. “Who the hell was asking you?” Seth demanded, getting up a bit from his seat. Reilly quickly went back to work. They seemed like they were ready to bash him in.

“Hahaha” I said. They changed their attention to me.

“What?” they asked. Reilly raised his head, watching me. The other students did the same.

I couldn’t figure out what to say. I was still a little sick from my illness so I didn’t want to get bashed in myself. But I didn’t want them to hit Reilly either and he had a great point. We did speak English, although it wasnt the same as American English.

Finally, something came to me. They had been waiting for my answer for only a few seconds when I opened my mouth to speak. “Maybe that’s why you got held back” I looked straight at Henry who looked like he was about to blow up.

Mr. Ruthless, out of the corner of my eye, began to laugh. The others in the class began to laugh along. Bailey spoke up next. “Well, obviously we would assume, you don't speak English your from Australia”

“People in England speak English too. English is the most commonly used worldwide language. Of course my English is Australian English” I spoke, my accent stronger than before. The entire time I had been hiding it by using an American accent. Although I was the best one in our family to mimic the American accent. This drove my mother insane.

Henry glared at me, he turned around and the others followed him. I sighed out the terror I had been desperately hiding and turned back to Reilly. Who was still giggling to himself. “Hey, you need to focus” I said. Tapping him on the shoulder.

We got back to work, I ended up reviewing the notes he wrote for me more than the actual project. By the time lunch came, I went off to the health, or at least I had planned to. I looked down at Reilly, who was very short, and at his teary eyes. “What is it?”

“The idiots in lunch. I hate them” as I tried to pull away he griped on harder to me. I could feel myself getting sick again, not because of him but I wasnt quite over my sickness yet.

I held onto his hand, and gently pulled it away. My face burned with a sick crawl in my stomach. “Just go, I really need to go. Ok?” he pulled me back towards him. And before I could fully pull away, he reached up to my height to kiss me. His lips touched mine; I felt a strong burn in my stomach and suddenly the acid in my stomach to my throat.

Before I could pull him away, I threw up in his direction. Reilly moved quickly, pushing me back and we both hit the floor. I looked up at him; he was covered in my throw up. Which at first glance was gross and mildly funny. Yet, I didn’t find it funny. I could only feel sorry, embarrassed and angry with myself.

He sat there, crying silently to himself. Then, began to sob.

Author's Note

I am very new to writing, so my grammar is probably really terrible. Let me know what you think.