You're My Brother

New Year, New Problems

   So many months had gone by. So many terrible fosters, terrible meals, terrible days. It was just overall a terrible past few years. Keith had lost track of how long he had been in the home. Too many days. If counted, it was just under five.
   In those years, he had made no friends, met no nice people and went through a total of twenty-four awful foster homes.
   He learned a lot of things in the process about many different topics. Dogs are better than cats, never drink three cups of apple juice or you'll get the runs. Don't mention your birthday in school, and never go out for dinner on your birthday either.
   One of the biggest issues he faced with one of his fosters was beliefs. They had ideals that were very different from his own, and was actually sent back to The Home for voicing his own opinions. He had been sitting on the couch with his foster parents when somehow they began talking about gays. Keith had barely just come across this term in his own way and decided to join the conversation. However, when he mentioned that he thought it was right to support them, he had just single handedly landed himself back in The Home.
   Although he had been with many different families, none of them met his expectations. That being said, his expectations were his own father. Even if the foster parent or parents were somewhat kind, not one of the homes felt natural. Some lasted a month, others three, but in the case of that one home, it was less than two weeks. Keith often thought he should've brought up the gay thing sooner just to get out of that house.
   That happened last week. Just three days before school started again.
   Now, Keith was in sixth grade, ready to spend another year with the snobby, parent-having boys and girls.
   To his surprise, he was allowed to continue to attend his schooling at Darter before moving into Plaht City Middle School this year.
Today was the sixth full day of school and Keith, well he was already done with all of the bull crap that was planned for the year. The stupid partner work, the boring research projects, the lame educational videos and the terrible day in general.
But to make everything worse, he had been stuck in the same class as this James Griffin boy since third grade. That same kid who brought up his dead parent during the stupid tour. The same kid who told his friend that Keith lived in an orphanage.
It was not going to be a good year. It never could be if you were in the same class as honor roll Griffin. The perfect child. He dressed as if he had a millionaire's job, talked as if he was meeting the president, and walked like he was some celebrity.
Every single one of the staff members loved James. He was the perfect student and the golden example. He was like Jesus Christ, except as a modern day popular kid.
Maybe Keith was just jealous of James.
In comparison, Keith was everything James wasn't.
Keith slacked off, dressed messily, was never on the honor roll, and was basically the worst kid in the school.
The teachers hated Keith. Each one had their own reasons and distorted stories about his backstory. All of which somehow made it into the students' heads. Which doesn't make any sense since you're not supposed to gossip about your students! But... Somehow it had happened. He was the most disliked student in school.
All of the students hated him. All of the teachers looked down on him, but James Griffin. James was a prodigy. He was the best student ever.
He was placed on the same likeness of some other student, Matthew Holt who was famed for being the most intelligent child of his generation.
Whoever the heck this Matthew was didn't matter to Keith. All that mattered to him was somehow finding a way to get through this terrible year.
He sat in the far left corner, one seat from the back, right next to the window. The perfect spot to let your mind wander.
James, of course, was at the very front, middle row, right in the center of the teacher's vision.
'Stupid teacher's pet...!'
Keith hated every ounce of James. He was a total jerk to Keith, but not one person seemed to care. Because of how 'perfect' he was with the teachers, his behavior towards Keith was just somehow overlooked.
The only reason Keith hadn't taken the seat in the very back was because it had been taken by the time he got to class. Taken by a small, shy, blond haired girl. Her name, Ina.
The freckled girl who is Jame's best friend.
At this point, Keith gets so worked up about the other annoying students around him that he shuts everything else out. The fact that everyone dislikes him angers him so much, that he has trouble remembering what matters. He knows he has to do well in school, and he tries, but when everyone around you looks down on you, it's almost impossible to keep up.
"Keith!" His teacher called out in an angered tone.
"What...?" He turned his head from the window to look at her. The hair on the back of his neck stood right up. She was standing directly in front of him.
"Stop daydreaming and pay attention!"
"I am paying attention." He snapped.
His teacher raised an eyebrow, questioning his answer. "Then answer my question on the board. We just went over this. You would know if you had—"
"Pangea." Keith cut her off. "The answer is Pangea. That's the name of the supercontinent."
She seemed upset that he knew the answer, annoyed by the fact that she could no longer punish him.
'Yeah! I know what you're talking about! Now leave me alone.'
Returning to the front of the class, she asked another question, "Judging by the position of the land mass here, what modern day continent is this here?"
Jame's hand shot straight up.
With no surprise, she chose him.
"I'm going to say Asia."
"Correct!"
'Why is she so happy...? He literally just answered a question... I don't understand...'
After a few moments of explanation, she asked for another student to come up and point to the remaining continents. Keith had a heart attack when she looked directly at him. "Ina, why don't you come up and try"
Keith felt his soul return to his body as he began to breathe again. 'Thank goodness...'
He watched as Ina, the shy, socially awkward, blond girl made her way to the front. "North America, South American, Africa, Europe, Australia, Antarctica." She said in one whole breath without pausing.
'So she does have a brain after all...' Keith thought.
   He didn't mean it in a rude way. It was only because she had never made a sound until now.
Keith rolled his eyes when he saw James congratulate her. 'It's just continents. What's the big deal.'
Maybe he was more than a little but jealous of James. He was annoyed by how nice he was to everyone. Everyone but him. Everyone followed what he did. If James had an idea, the rest of the class went along. Until he showed any compassion to Keith, none of the other students would.
Sure, they weren't being rude, but they weren't being nice either.
Judging by last year's events, Keith would be alone again.
His eight year old self was right. He was destined to be alone.