Two of Me

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

I was walking -- no, being pushed -- down the hall on my way to "Rainbow School: For the Special Kids." Josh's friend, Daryl, wheeled me in, and sat me beside Courtney, the girl who couldn't do anything but make gurgling sounds and blink. I always felt so bad for her. Daryl left to go to whatever his first period class was.

"Hi," I said to Courtney.

She gurgled at me. We think that when she does that she's trying to say something positive. I smiled, and she gurgled a happier sound. The first class at the Rainbow Room went pretty normal. Mrs. Kilton taught us how to add and subtract numbers for the fifty-third time and gave us lollipops like she always did. I learned never to eat the lollipops because one time a kid came and threw mine on the ground; Josh came over and forced him to eat it. I saved the lollipops and ate them at home from that day on.

After class Josh came in and pushed me into the hall like he always did at break. He parked me right outside the door of the Rainbow Room and went to get a drink from the water fountain. Dana Pickett came over to me and smirked, Pom Poms and all. "Oh wow! Look who decided to come out of the Rainbow Unicorn Room," she mocked me.

"Please go away, Dana," I said, barely understandable.

Dana laughed. "Oh how sad! You can't talk either. That means I won't have to listen to you go to the teacher when I say things like this: You will never amount to anything, you stupid little--"

A figure backed her up against the wall. Just in time, I thought.

"Never, repeat NEVER, mess with my sister!" Josh shouted at her. Daryl and Josh's other friend Craig stood behind him, their arms crossed. They were like brothers to me, too.

"Remember this Josh: I have a lot of power at this school. You want to be unpopular, Josh? Well, too bad, 'cause you just signed yourself up!" Dana diva-turned, slinging her pompoms over her shoulder and walked away.

Josh walked over to me. "Don't listen to her, Ken. She's a jerk." And with that, he wheeled me back into the Rainbow Room for second period: English.

Well, simply put, we learned how to spell farm animals all class long. The school day went mostly normal. Josh drove me home afterward. He pushed me inside to find our parents shouting at each other. Josh cleared his throat, an obvious sign to remind them not to fight in front of me.

The both instantly put on smiles. "Kennie! How was school today?" Mom asked with fake enthusiasm.

"It went okay," I told her. That was the thing, I never told my parents about what went on at school with the other kids. I didn't want to give them another thing to fight over. They fought a lot, and most of the time, I was their topic.