Turned To Stone

Chapter 3 - Zoe

"Zoe? Zoe. Zoe." Clawed fingers snapped in front of her face.

"Huh?" Zoe sat up a little straighter and looked at her friend.

Dyzie rolled her eyes and flicked her braid over her shoulder, giving it a bit of extra momentum to get over her wing. "Okay, so clearly you weren't listening."

"Sorry." Zoe sighed. "I'm just distracted."

"About...?" Dyzie asked, taking a bite of her sandwich.

Zoe glanced across the room at the gargoyle boy she had met in the hallway. The one who had been talking to Connor.

Dyzie and Gylie, the other harpy girl at the table, followed her gaze.

"The rock kid?" Gylie asked curiously.

Her sister snorted. "He's a gargoyle, Gyl."

"I know that, Dyz, shut up. I just think it's funnier calling him the rock kid."

"Why?" Dyzie giggled.

"I dunno!"

Zoe smiled absently as they bickered, her attention drifting over to Evan again. He was sitting with Jared Kleinman, who was yapping away about who knows what. The gargoyle boy was sitting quietly and nibbling on what looked like a small plastic bag of pebbles.

"Zoe." Gylie's tone was suddenly sharp. She turned to look at the harpy sisters and found them looking behind her... But not quite at anyone's eye level. Oh boy.

Zoe turned around slowly, keeping her eyes lower. Her brother's familiar beanie caught her attention first. Their grandmother, a drygon woman (their mother was adopted) had knitted it for him when his snakes first started growing. Apparently it was to keep the horrible little vermin 'cozy.' 

Connor's back was turned to her, and his head was down as he shuffled over to the lunch counter and picked up a can of Mountain Dew and an apple and slapped some money down on the counter.

"He never eats in here." Dyzie hissed. "Why is he now?"

"He probably got kicked out of wherever he used to eat." Gylie's tone matched her sister's. The harpies and other birdfolk at the school had a particularly strong hatred of Connor, mostly because of the whole snakes on the head thing. That had initially been one of the reasons that Zoe had started hanging out with them, Connor's snakes hated the smell of hawk.

The lunchroom became marginally quieter as Connor turned around to find a seat. Creatures on every side ducked their heads and looked away, making sure they weren't going to get frozen.

Zoe noticed that he seemed to tense up, but didn't put much thought into it once she heard a sweet voice from the other side of the room, that just barely rose over the general murmur of the room.

"Connor! Connor Murphy!"

Evan Hansen's voice was surprisingly gentle, considering it was coming from a being made completely of stone. The gargoyle waved his hand to get Connor's attention.

The murmuring in the room increased, people turning to look at the idiot who would make the foolish decision to attract the local freak's attention.

Zoe wondered if she had imagined the tiniest of smiles had flitted across Connor's face as he looked over to Evan. He walked over and plopped down next to the living stone, ignoring Jared as the four-eyed boy flinched away from him. Cracking open the Mountain Dew, he hunkered down and began to eat.

"What a freak." Dyzie turned up her nose. Gylie followed her action.

"It's too bad they didn't dump him some other disgusting lizard creature. He'd be much better off where no one has to look at him."

Some part of Zoe wished that she could get upset that they were making fun of her brother. They were related after all, she should feel some sort of emotional connection to him?

She didn't.

Maybe it was the hundreds of times she'd been pulled out of class because some poor teacher or other student had gotten on Connor's bad side.

Maybe it was the times he had pounded on her door, threatening to drag her out into the forest and petrify her where no one could find her.

Maybe it was his horrible, evil, downright aggressive attitude. Or the malicious behavior. Or this or that or every other little movement Connor had made towards her throughout their lives.

No. Zoe was not ashamed that she wasn't upset about her friends making fun of her brother. He had never, ever done any favors for her in her entire life.

She watched as Evan asked Connor a question. He shrugged, but the gargoyle persisted, tilting his head curiously. Finally Connor nodded and Evan grinned at him.

That's cute, Zoe thought absentmindedly. She shook her head, not even sure what she had been thinking about, and turned back to her food.