Chapter 2
The weekend was over and Flash was happy with what he got done.
Which wasn't much. All he did was some homework studying for his Spanish test and working more on his painting. Most of the food was ordered fast food and he only left the house to get some groceries that would hopefully still be there by next weekend.
But in terms of any other day Flash thinks he was rather productive these last two days.
But now he was standing in a crowded sweaty subway station because after homecoming his Father has banned Flash from using his car. So every Monday he has to take public transport. And he hates public transport.
Holding onto one of the hanging handles Flash had basically curled into himself. Staying away from anything and anybody because everything here was fucking filthy.
Finally there was the familiar noise of the stop and Flash pushed his way out of there immediately, ignoring the complaints of others. Speed-walking his way out the station.
The streets were busy. New York streets always seemed to be busy. From people making their commutes to work or just doing errands the streets were almost always bustling with life.
Turning the high school came in view, also bustling with the amount of life high school students can muster at 7am in the morning.
Pushing his way through students (it wasn't really crowded they were just in his way) making his way to his locker, looking around it didn't seem like his friends were here just yet.
Pushing the duffle bag in the locker, Flash went to search through the small stack of papers that Flash called his notes until he found some more spanish notes. He probably wouldn’t need these since Flash was actually decent in this class. But he needs to ace the test and that meant he needed all the notes he could get.
“Flash!”
Flinching at the sudden loudness Flash slammed his locker shut and turned to stare at Damien.
Mentally groaning Flash leaned side against his locker whilst Damien had his hand propped near Flash’s shoulder propping him up.
Damien wasn’t too bad. He was an idiot. An annoying one at that, but he wasn't excessively mean or outright infuriating. Just dumb and kinda hard to deal with at any and all times.
“Hey Damien.” Flash drawled, keeping his body somewhat pushed away from the other.
Damien gave a brief smile before looking down at the cards in Flash’s hand.
“What are those for?”
Rolling his eyes, Flash let out a huff, “There for my Spanish test.”
“Oh”
He made a face as if he was thinking of something, “I don't have that class… but I bet you’d do great without the notes. Your pretty smart” he beamed
Idiot.
“Do you know where the others are?” Damien asked looking around
“No. Either they haven’t showed up yet or they’re somewhere else in the school.”
“Oh well, good luck on your test I bet you’ll do great.” And with the brief goodbye Damien left.
Clicking his tounge on his mouth Flash looked at the messily written notes. Of course he needed notes, Damien was just to dumb to understand that.
Walking through the halls Flash read over all his notes quietly whispering each word in Spanish until he reached the classroom.
“Good morning Ms. Tag” Flash greeted
Looking up from her desk she smiled at him.
Ms. Tag (or Tagliavento) was pretty nice of a teacher. She was a sweet lady who enjoyed teaching, and as much as Flash didn't like this class she was okay.
“Good morning Eugene you're early today” She had a thick accent and it kinda reminded Flash of his grandmother.
“You ready for the test today?” She asked
He didn't answer. Not really in the mood for conversation, and just sat down at the seat off by the bookshelf. It's been his self assigned seat for a good two months now and the teacher didn't seem to mind him sitting there.
He also had easy access to books. Which helped when he could actually properly read them without a big headache.
Stretching out onto the desk Flash watched as kids slowly entered the class. It was a small one. Maybe like fifteen students or so.
Once the bell rang and all students were sat, Ms. Tag did roll call and then handed out white papers to everyone.
“We are taking a test today so please take out a pen or pencil and when everyone's ready you can start”
Flash let out a somewhat audible groan as he stared at the small text in the book he was reading.
He was behind in the class book so whilst the other kids were taking a small quiz on the past few chapters they just read his teacher Mrs. Jenna had him in the library catching up.
Why he wasn't doing this in the classroom was a mystery to Flash; he didn't ask any questions.
It was dumb. Him being in here. It wasn't Flash’s first time being sent to the library to read. Maybe like a month or so into school Mrs. Jenna had started pulling him out after class to talk about his reading. It reminded Flash a lot of his old teacher back in middle school.
It was dumb. He should be good at this. It's just reading. Not like math or science which arguably could be harder (not saying it was) but all this was, was reading words on a paper. Which should be easy.
But no. He was sitting in this stupid library reading. He wasn't even in the classroom. Which made no sense. He could easily read in the classroom. He could read at home. But instead he was reading in this stupid library and it made no sense.
Pounding his forehead against the bookshelf he let out another loud groan.
The school bell rang and he was almost happy for lunch.
Peeling himself off the floor Flash pulled his backpack on and left the library to the cafeteria. He didn't know what was for lunch today he just hoped it was somewhat good cause he skipped breakfast and was starving.
Sitting at his usual table, food tray in hand. Damien, Jax, and Quin were already sitting at the table and talking about whether Coke or Pepsi was better.
“I enjoy Diet Coke” Damien butted in
“Bro nobody likes Diet Coke” that was Jax who responded
“Oh, hey Flash”
The others looked up at him as his arrival was announced.
“Sup Flash” Quin said, taking a bite of his sandwich.
“Bro why does Mrs. Jenna take you out of the class so much?” Jax asked
They had the same class as each other. Actually the only classes he didn't have with anybody here was Quin and Tanner.
“Oh she just had some other assignment she wanted me to do.” Flash waved off biting into an apple
“Your smart I would expect you to be in an advanced class at this point” Damien pointed out
“What kind of assignments does she want you to do?” Quin asked
“Not allowed to say”
Another pair of footsteps approached and Flash saw Tanner coming over.
“Well now I'm intrigued, why you not allowed to talk about it?” Jax pushed
“What are we not allowed to talk about?” Tanner asked sliding next to Quin
“Just some assignments Mrs. Jenna wants me to do.”
“Imagine being fuckng smart, couldn’t be me” Tanner scoffed
“Speaking of smart people” Quin smirked
Past them walked Peter and Ned, and honestly Flash was in no mood to make fun of him at the moment but it seemed his friends had some energy cause they started throwing names and lame insults. He put on a smile and laughed tightly at the jokes.
None of the insults were actually good, just your generic bully type shit that at this point wasn't even insulting.
Peter rolled his eyes and they walked past and Flash was glad decathlon practice was tomorrow and not today. He thankfully had no clubs today and was able to go home right after school. And hopefully Mother was in a good mood or just out for the night. Maybe she would be gone for a couple of days in her normal fashion and he wouldn’t have to worry about her for most of the week. It was wishful thinking and he could only hope.
At some point in his life Flash had started hoping for his parents to be gone on long “business trips” rather than hoping for them to be home. When they were home, home wasn’t nice anymore.
He wouldn’t be able to work on his painting at home. Not until he knew she wouldn’t be there for good.
She always hated the fact that he had been put in Art.
And she tried to get the school to take him out of the class, even bribing them with a good amount of money.
It didn't work.
So he never brought up art in school conversations (which at this point were the only conversations that had) and if he was caught working on any art assignment Flash can only bet she would get mad and tell him to do something more productive.
So keeping his art bag in the locker, Flash shut it and pushed his way out the school.
He did not want to take public transport again, if he had a choice he would never take it ever again. But he couldn't make that choice. So he just took it as little as possible.
He would call an uber to pick him up, but in all honesty he kinda wanted to prolong the time until he got home.
So he walked home.