Lights Up

Crutchie Makes an Entrance

"I'm Claudia. Dia. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Charles. Most of my friends call me Crutchie though, for obvious reasons." He laughs, gesturing to the silver crutch behind him.

"Can I ask why? Not to be rude, it's just-"

"No, not people ask out front. I was born with my left leg not working. I've had a few surgeries trying to fix it, but it's only helped a little. One of my friends came up with the nickname in like second grade. We weren't the most creative, and it kinda stuck."

After that slightly awkward exchange, the conversation shifted. As students began to trickle in, we eventually landed on the topic of Hogwarts houses.

"I'm a Ravenclaw, all the way. How about you?"

"I'm a Hufflepuff, and my boyfriend Jack is a Gryffindor. It's-"

Crutchie paused, suddenly seeming unsure.

"You-you're not homophobic, are you?"

"NO, not at all!"

"Ok, good. Cause you're really cool, and if you don't want to be friends cause I have a boyfriend, then that would be really sad, and-"

"Crutchie, chill." The whole situation makes me laugh a little. "I don't care at all that you have a boyfriend. In fact, good for you. That's better than I can do."

Crutchie seems to relax after that, and the conversation continues until another boy walks up. This one is tall, with red hair and a scowl on his face. He looks like his face should be in the dictionary next to the word jerk. The boy is walking down the aisle between desks, where Crutchie has his feet in the path. He's struggling to get his bad foot out of the aisle cause his shoelace is caught on the desk. That's when jerk-boy reaches us.

"Hey, get out of my way crip." He kicks Crutchie's bad foot, causing him to wince in pain. And then I just can't help myself from intervening.

"Watch it. You know you could walk around the desks instead of making Crutchie move."

This apparently does not make jerk-boy happy.

"I wasn't talking to you, immigrant. Do you want to get deported?"

"I'm not an immigrant, you ignorant muggle! Now why don't you do us all a favor and leave, cause your idiocy is suffocating me."

He just look confused, then angry, and walked off muttering to himself. Ha.
Dia:1 Jerk-boy:0.

"Thanks, Dia." Crutchie finally got his shoelace unstuck, and was looking a lot less nervous now that jerk-boy was gone.

"I know! You should sit with me and my friends at lunch. They'd love you. Unless, you already have someone to sit with, which is ok."

Cool. Lunch offer. And if the rest of his group is anything like Crutchie, they're better than most of the kids at this school.
Crutchie pull his phone out and turns it so I can see the screen, then clicks on a groupchat labeled "The Freakshow".
"I'll ask them. But if they say no you can come anyway."

AlmightyCrutchie: Guys I made a friend. Can she sit with us at lunch?

BetterThanU: Sure, we need more girls. Too much testosterone

Area51Janis: I'm with Frances. We need more girls.

I❤️DannyDevito: how do we know she's wOrThY

AlmightyCrutchie: she called George Eacker an ignorant muggle

I❤️DannyDevito: ok she's automatically in

Cowboi: I trust Crutchie's judgement ❤️

AlmightyCrutchie: thx Jacky ❤️

Conman: NO PDA IN THE GROUPCHAT

BetterThanU: u hypocrite u flirt with Evan nonstop

ISpeak4TheTrees: she's not wrong Connor, you do

PipThePoet: this is entertaining 🍿

AlmightyCrutchie: back on topic. Can Dia come eat lunch with us?

BetterThanU: 👍

PipThePoet: yep

Cowboi: sure

ISpeak4TheTrees: alright

Conman: yeah sure

I❤️DannyDevito: okey doke

Area51Janis: whyyy Damien? Also, 👍

PipThePoet: we'll be at the table...

Area51Janis: furthest away from the Plastics...

Conman: like always

AlmightyCrutchie: thx guys

AlmightyCrutchie has left the chat

"Ok, you're good. Sorry about them."

"It's alright, they seem fun."

That's when Mr. Lee finally decided to show up, just as the bell rang. He had black hair that he had slicked back with hair gel. It had the unintended affect of making him look like Severus Snape with a mullet. He took attendance, pronounced my name wrong, got mad when I corrected him, then proceeded to rant for the whole class period about how he is in control and all of his instructions should be followed immediately and correctly. Then he let us play on our phones for the rest of the class period while he got on Tinder. About halfway through class, Crutchie went up to the desk to ask a question. Halfway to the front of the class, jerk-boy (who I now know is named George Eacker) stuck his foot out and tripped him. Apparently Mr. Lee saw Crutchie falling but not Eacker tripping him, I don't know.

"Mr. Morris, please refrain from disrupting my class. Your ...condition... is not an excuse to be distracting others."

I saw Crutchie mumble an apology, and continue to the desk. After a short, quiet conversation, he returned to his seat.

"Hey, you ok?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm used to it at this point. Hey, you want to leave class early? I have a pass to leave five minutes early so I don't get trampled during the passing period. I'm allowed to pick a buddy to help carry my stuff or open doors or push elevator buttons or whatever. You want to?"

I quickly agreed, and when Mr. Lee said it was five minutes to the bell, we headed out the door. Crutchie has bio next period, and I had Geometry, which was in the same direction. We made it to the science hall, and stopped for a second.

" I'll see you at lunch, ok? I'll wave or something so you can see me."

"Alright, see you at lunch." I walked down the hall to my math class as the bell rang. First one there. More importantly, the last item on my mental checklist from this morning. Make a friend, check. I sat down in my seat as students filed into the classroom. Two more classes, then lunch. Four classes after that, and home. I can do this.

Ok, that was chapter 2. We've gotten to school, and through first period. And we met Crutchie! Here's the promised key for the group chat names if you couldn't figure some of them out.

AlmightyCrutchie- Crutchie Morris
BetterThanU- Frances Laurens
Area51Janis- Janis Sarkisian
I❤️DannyDevito- Damien Hubbard
Cowboi- Jack Kelly
Conman- Connor Murphy
ISpeak4TheTrees- Evan Hansen
PipThePoet- Philip Hamilton

Anyway, I need a screen name for Dia when she gets added, so if you have any suggestions please comment with them (preferably if it's an In The Heights reference). Hope everyone's staying safe through all this wackiness. Don't forget to keep on smiling and keep on surviving. Do not throw away your shot!

Peace Out ✌️
Author

1665 words