“It’s just a new school. You’ll be fine.” He was a father, holding his son’s hand on the first day of a new school. “You’ll make tons of new friends. It will be a lot more fun then being homeschooled, you’ll see.”
The younger child pulled his hand away from his father. His hair was very light blond and was covered with an oversized beanie-hat. “I want to go home. Why did we have to leave?” The child had a heavy accent of South African origin.
The father stopped and knelt down and cupped his child’s cheek with one hand, his other hand holding some papers and a backpack. “We’ve been through this, kiddo. I don’t think it’s something we want to think about this early in the morning.”
The child nodded, bringing his own hand up to his face, picking at a spot of hardened skin. It was red in color, but not a natural red. It was much brighter. The father put down the papers and bag on the floor and reached in his pocket, pulling out a band-aid. “Is it still bothering you?” He asked, opening the sterile packaging. “It’s rainbow. Your favorite.” He smiled, putting the rainbow zebra-striped band-aid on the bridge of his son’s nose. “There. All gone.” He kissed the spot and grabbed the papers and bag once more, standing up and grabbing his son’s hand, taking him to a classroom, kissing his head and spoke to the teacher for a moment before leaving.
He waved, clutching his bag in his other hand and chose an empty seat to sit in. When the bell rang, the teacher settled the playing children and started the class with an introduction of their new student. “This is Rave Flavian.” She said, putting her hand on the child’s shoulder. “Why don’t you tell us a little about yourself? Where are you from and why did you come here?”
“Uhm, well.” He was shy and nervous, “We move here from South Africa. Uhm, for dad’s work.” He said, taking a small step backwards.
“Isn’t that just swell! I’m sure you’ll make some friends fast. You sit down and we can get started.” She said. “And you’re not allowed to wear hats in class. Why don’t you put it in your bag?” She told him, nudging him gently towards his seat.
He nodded but didn’t like the idea of taking off his hat. He did, though, showing off a set of long, pointed ears. He felt the other kids staring as he walked back to his seat. He didn’t put his hat away like he was told, instead he held onto it, gripping it. Waiting for the day to pass. He looked around the room, trying to get to know everyone’s face. The most memorable, though, and the only one he noticed didn’t seem to notice his ears was another strange looking boy. His hair was white, though that was all he was able to see. An aid was sitting beside him, blocking Rave’s view.
There were lessons and a lunch, but another bell rang indicating the day was half over. The children were let out of their seats after eating at their desks – the cafeteria was under construction – and were allowed a half hour to play with board games or toys in the classroom. An indoor recess because of rain.
The aid walked over to Rave, who didn’t leave his seat, and sat the white haired boy down. “Can Xelor hang out with you for a little bit?” She asked him. Rave nodded, realizing he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. You didn’t just say no to something like that.
When he looked at the other kid, he noticed his eyes first. They were white, completely. Under his eye were red marks. The designs were different, though; one had three square-ike shapes under it, looking like the edge of a gear, while the design on the other eye was similar but sharper. His eyes were so unlike anything he had seen before, he almost didn’t notice his ears which, though more human-sized, were also slightly pointed at the tip.
“So what’s the lady for?” Rave asked.
“I’m kind of blind.”
“Oh that sucks.”
“I guess.”
“Why don’t you get one of those dogs?”
“My parents can’t afford one.”
“Oh. That sucks too.”
“Yah.”
“Kind of blind?”
“I see things but doctors insist that they’re just my mind filling in blank spaces. My mom thinks that I have some kind of special ability, though. We dunno what it could be.”
“Power? That’s cool. What do you see?”
“It’s kind of hard to explain. Kind of like other universes. It’s exactly like here, but if something else happened. Like, I saw when you were up infront of the class. You wanted to tell us about why you were really here, but you were told you had to say it was your father’s work. I’m sorry to hear about your mom and that her side of the family doesn’t like your dad.”
“Woah. I think your mom might be onto something.”
The white-haired boy shrugged. “It doesn’t help me see where I’m walking, though. Do you have any kind of ability?”
“Not that I know of. Dad says I’ll grow into it, though. I don’t want one. I want to be normal. Your eyes make me thing of clocks.”
And with that, a childhood friendship was born.
