TRIGGER WARNING: faint bullying, a gay slur, insults(?), ONE bad word

(I'm sorry for the bad word!)

Word Count: 1727

(Patton's Point of View)

Today is another boring day of school.

I sighed to myself as I walked down the streets of my 'neighborhood' towards my school, knowing full well today would be uneventful.

'Or... maybe not..' I thought as I walked through the schools entrance.

Immediately after I set one foot into the building, something didn't sit right with me. Like something was out of place. Or... maybe something bad happened.

'Why..' I pondered, pausing as I looked around at everyone, 'Why is everyone staring at me?'

As soon as I thought that, some kid- Roman, I believe his name is, jogged up to me and said, "Uhm... Patton, someone vandalized your locker."

My eyes widened at that, although not surprised that he knew my name.

"Wait, what?" I asked.

"Yeah, this morning! They spray painted stuff on your locker!" He exclaimed.

"Oh, geez... Thanks for telling me.. uh... Roman I believe your name is?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's me." He said.

"Okay, well bye Roman." I waved, already walking away.

"Bye." I heard him say.

As I walked further down hallway, I realized how crowded it was getting the closer I got to my locker.

At last, I pushed through the crowd and stumbled to my locker.

What I saw shocked me.

"Homeless" painted in red letters.

"Fat" painted in orange letters.

"Faggøt" in yellow letters.

"Pathetic" in green letters.

"Loser" in blue.

"Crybaby" in purple.

I stared at the words in shock. Although, there was one word that sent terror down my entire body. "Homeless".

Who found out? How did they find out? The only people that know are the staff! And they act like it is confidential information!

I watched in shock as the rainbow colored paint left trails of color down my locker, leaving a little puddle on the floor. The red paint left trails of red down the middle of the next word. All the others did the same, except with their assigned colors.

I snapped out of my trance. I didn't want everyone to know how this was effecting me, so I just opened my locker and took my supplies out for my first class.

Ignoring the little pride flag sticker that's in my locker- which I usually stare at for a while to reassure myself in the morning, I shut my locker and pushed my way through the crowd, trying to blink away my tears.

"Patton! Do you just not care?" One kid asked.
"Patton! Are you really homeless?"
"Patton!"
"Patton!"

My name was being called this way and that, just about everyone was screaming questions at me.

I rushed down the hallway, towards my class, the crowd following me, watching my every step.

Then, I bumped into someone.

"Ah! I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed, looking up only to be face to face with the hottest guy on planet Earth. My face heated up immediately.

"It's quite alright." He responded, his voice monotone.

"Oh, uhm.. okay." I said, suddenly hyperaware of the crowd, eyeing me.

He looked down at me, then up at the crowd.

He then rolled his eyes and yelled, "All of you, go to your classes!"

"But-" One kid began to protest, but he interrupted them with a snap of his fingers. "Now." He commanded, standing completely stalwart before the crowd.

Everyone grumbled, but otherwise obeyed.

I looked back up at him, shocked at how easily he got them to leave.

"How did you do that??" I asked.

"The faculty gave me permission to tell students to go to their class whenever they 'goof off'." He answered.

"That's cool!" I said with enthusiasm.

"'Cool', indeed." He said.

Then the bell rang.

"Darn," he said. "I was hoping to use the restroom before class. Now we're late."

"What a shame. We better get going." I said.

"Yes, we do." He agreed, turning around and walking alongside me.

"..Do we have the same class?" I asked.

"Mathematics?" He enquired.

"Yep!" I answered.

"Then yes." He said.

When we walked into class, the teacher immediately asked us, "Logan! Patton! Why are you two late?"

I was about to answer, but he quickly cut in and said, "This young fellow was being harassed, so I took it upon myself to tell the students to 'get lost.'" He explained.

"Oh, okay!" She said, with a smile. "You two sit down, now."

As I sat down, I realized she had called him "Logan." So, that's his name. Nice!

I snuck a glance over to him, only to find him also looking at me.

We both quickly looked away.

After morning announcements and standing up to do the Pledge of Allegiance, our teacher started class.

She was writing stuff down on the board, and talking, but I was only half paying attention.

I glanced at Logan again. He was paying every bit of his attention to the teacher.

I looked back at the board. I read everything on it and wrote it down in my notebook, not wanting to be noteless for our upcoming test.

As I wrote, my mind went back to his name.
Logan.
Logan.
Logan.

Why is that name so good?!

Maybe it's not the name. Maybe it's the person who possesses the name. He possesses the name.

He is just so hot!

I don't usually think this way about people, but with this kid, da-ang.

"Alright, Class!" Mrs. Stone exclaimed with a clap of her hand, jolting me out of my thoughts.

"Today, we will do something new! We will be partnering up with someone to do these math problems!" She exclaimed.

A series of yay's rang throughout the class, except I didn't cheer. Despite the fact that I'm nice to everyone, no one ever wants to partner with me in group projects. Everyone else has a friend, but not me. I always work alone.

"Okay, pair me, everyone!"

Everyone immediately flung themselves out of their desks towards their partners.

I just sat there, patiently waiting for my teacher to pass out the paper with the math problems.

Then, Logan sat next to me, after he pulled up a desk.

"Oh, hi!" I exclaimed.

"Hello, would you like to work together?" He asked.

"Sure!" I said, surprised that he actually wants to work together.

After the teacher passed out the paper, we immediately got to work.

Basically how we were doing it was we would both solve the problem, then we'd tell each other the answer we got.

If we both got the same answer, then huzzah! It must be correct!

If we got different answers, we would both solve it again to see if one of us missed a step.

So, yeah! An easy was to make sure you pass!

"3,869!" I said, and a split second later, he said the same.

We both smiled at each other. "I must say, Patton, you are quite intelligent." He complimented me.

I blushed a little, "Awh, thank you! You are too!"

He smiled a bit as a response, then we went back to work.

I really like working with him! I can't believe I've never talked to him before! He literally sits only a few seats away from me.

I smiled as we got the same answer on the next problem.

_________________

After we finished and turned in the math papers, Mrs. Stone let us sit together until everyone else finished.

"The answer is 69!" One kid- Remus, screeched.

His partner, Janus, sighed and said, "No, Remus, it's 68."

"I don't care if the real answer is 68, I wanna put 69!" Remus exclaimed.

"Fine! You can put 69, but I'll put 68!" Janus said.

"Cool beans!" Remus yelled.

I just sighed and shook my head.

"Those two are crazy." Logan said seriously.

"Crazy for each other!" I exclaimed with a wink.

He didn't react.

I winked again.

Nothing.

Wink.
Wink.
Wink.
Wink.
Wink-

"Please stop winking at me." He said, trying to act almost angry, but I could tell he was going to laugh.

"Okay, only for you Logie!" I laughed.

"Logie?" He asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Oh, uhm... just a nickname... I hope it's okay.." I said self- consciously.

He pondered it for a moment. "It is adequate." He decided.

"Yay!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms around him in a hug.

'Nooo! Why did you just hug him?! You probably smell so bad right now!' I scolded myself in my head.

"Alright, class! Everyone back to your seats!" Mrs. Stone said, as the last paper was turned in.

"C'ya later, Logie!" I exclaimed.

"See you later, Patton." He said, then he walked back to his seat.

__________________

At the end of the day, I managed to find Logan just before he left.

"Heya, Logie!" I exclaimed, running up to him.

"Salutations, Patton."

"Sooo, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime! Since we're friends and all now!" I said hopefully.

"Yeah, of course. Where would you like to hang out?" He asked with a soft smile. I felt my heart flutter.

OMG, his beautiful smile. I could watch him do that all day...

"Uhm, would your house be okay?" I asked.

"Unfortunately, no, my mother doesn't like me having friends over, and apparently, her vote rules out the rest." He explained.

"What a shame!" I exclaimed. "Well, we can't go to my house because.. my parents aren't home, and they don't want people over unless they are there."

I can't believe I pulled off that lie so well!

"Oh, uhh.. I have a little shop not too far from here that we could hang out in." He suggested.

"A shop?" I asked.

"More like a small bakery." He elucidated.

I nodded in understanding. "Okay! I have work until 8 p.m., but maybe if I beg, they'll let me out early." I joked.

"Okay," he laughed. "So, see you at.. say, 6 p.m. today?"

"Sure!" I responded happily.

"Okay, then. Bye." He said.

"Byee!" I said, skipping away.

I finally have a friend!
I better not mess this up..
But omg, this'll be so fun!
I hope they let me out of work..

A/n:

Because I'm such a lazy sloth, it took me about a month to type all this out 😂

Sorry for keeping y'all waiting so long

Bye my lovely little ducklings 🐥