The Delancey Brothers

Chapter 3: School

Good morning writers! It's 8:40 am. On the same day, I wrote the first two chapters. So I ended up sleeping from 3:30 to 7 giving me 3 and a half hours of sleep. So I'm good. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

The next morning the Delancey brothers woke to a beautiful pinkish purple and coral sunrise. It was a brand new day. Maybe father will apologize for what he said and did yesterday, thought Morris hopefully. Oscar awoke with a headache and blurry memory of what happened.

"What happened?"

"Father told us that we never should've been born, didn't feed us, and beat us. You passed out, so I carried you in here."

"Father did that? Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, but I'm hoping what he did was just cause he was in a bad mood from work and will apologize."

"So what are we gonna do for now?"

"Leave early for school."

"What do we do once we get there?"

"Fake it til we make it. Act like everything's fine. No one needs to know what happened."

"Ok."

They gathered their stuff together and walked the half mile to school. When they got there, no one except teachers and themselves was there. So they sat on a bench until more kids started arriving.

"Oh look it's the kids whose parents abandoned them." The other kids laughed.

"Imagine having a dead mom and a dad who doesn't care for you," A girl said with fake sympathy.

"Yeah and imagine abandoning your friends because you're jealous that they have parents who care for them," One of their ex-friends commented. Morris had enough but didn't know what to do, so he went to class.

"Ooh look at him run."

Oscar didn't know what to do either, he had tears in his eyes, but was trying to stop the. He followed his older brother inside.

"Morris...?"

He didn't answer, so they sat in comforting silence until class started. It was a good distraction. The boys have always liked learning. They knew they were lucky that they had this opportunity too. They saw kids on the street working every day. Their parents had tried to help the kids when they were younger by buying newspapers from them or letting the kids shine their shoes. Not only that, but the kids' shining shoes didn't have any for themselves. So after each shoe shone their parents went to buy a new pair and would donate to the poor shoeless kids. That was back when their mom was alive. Today they were starting with math, Morris' favorite subject, but Oscar's worst. Morris could count to twenty already while most kids their age could only count to ten or fifteen. Oscar could go to ten, but Morris was helping him get to fifteen.

"Okay, class. Raise your hand if you can count to at least five."

Every student raised their hands.

"Ten."

Most students raised their hands.

"Fifteen?"

Half the students raised their hands.

"Twenty?"

Only Morris and David raised their hands.

"Morris is a nerd while David is just plain smart," A kid whispered loud enough that the brothers could hear but hopefully the teacher wouldn't.

The other kids laughed.

David took it as a compliment while it was an insult to Morris, but he ignored them.

"You do realize that I can hear whispers right?" The teacher said. "Robert come up here."

There were 'ooooh's' echoing throughout the room.

"shush! Robert, would you like to demonstrate what happens when you are disruptive?"

"No," Robert said scared.

"Too bad you're getting it anyways."

This time the room was completely silent. The teacher grabbed a stick, similar to the one Delancey's father had used on them the day before. The teacher struck Robert three times and each time he cried out. This wasn't the first time he'd misbehaved, just the first time he'd gotten this particular punishment. The first time was a warning, the second missing recess and or lunch, sometimes that was also the third punishment. Usually, their teacher switched to using the stick the third or fourth time. The fifth was getting struck and telling the parents. This was Robert's fourth punishment, but the first time he'd been struck by a teacher.

"Now, Robert count to thirty."

"I can only go to fifteen!"

"Too bad! Try!" The teacher said striking him again."

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. That's all I know!"

"You better keep going until you reach twenty!" Robert got struck again.

"Ok ok! Fifteen, seventeen, sixteen, nineteen, eighteen, twenty."

"Wrong! Right numbers, wrong order. You will be skipping recess for some math tutoring today. Now we will be moving on to history."

During recess, Robert was getting tutored. Morris and Oscar just sat on a bench eating their snack, while the boys chased each other in tag and the girls played Ring Around The Rosie.

The bell rang and the students rushed to class.

"Ok. I think Mr. Robert can count to thirty now."

He looked scared. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty."

"Very good. This Friday you have a math quiz. You need to know how to count to twenty, or thirty for the bonus. If you need tutoring I'm available during recess, lunch, and after school. Also, I'm sure David, Morris, and Robert would be happy to help. Let's move on to science."

Math quiz at the end of the week thought Oscar. Count to twenty, thirty for the bonus. I can't do this! I can hardly go up to fifteen, let alone, twenty! I'm gonna fail this! I can't fail or my grades will go down and my father will beat me again. He was on the verge of tears and panic. He was zoned out for the entire science lesson trying not to cry or have a panic attack.

Hello, fansies! I hope you enjoyed another chapter! Do I have you crying yet? Anyways, I have finally decided on a pan name! I will be going by Marla Matson, but you can call me just Marla. See you next chapter!

- Authoress Marla Matson out!