Gym Buddies

pt. 15 - "The Museum Chapter"

[yes, yes, that is infact my meme. Feel free to steal it though]

The rest of the class arrived just a little later, and we all met up. Once the headcount was complete, all the children were given lanyards. All of them but... Metal. I waved down Tenten to ask her.

"Why didn't Metal get one?" I asked politely. She smiled, and crouched down to Metal to poke his forehead.

"Lanyards are only for the kids who take the bus. And, we're one short. So even if I wanted to give him one, I couldn't," she said, obviously trying to make Metal feel bad about not going with everyone else. Metal looked to the ground, tears in his eyes. "He doesn't get one."

"Yeah, sure," I grunted. Tenten stood up, still holding a fake smile. I looked over at Lee, who was doing his best not to yell at Tenten. She walked away triumphantly to the head of the class.

Metal began to shake from
holding back his tears. Lee was suppressing the urge to call Tenten out in front of the entire class, but he knew it wasn't the right time. I bent down to Metal, and placed my hands on his shoulders. He looked up at me, still crying.

"W-why is she so mean to me?"

I instantly wrapped my arms around him, and rubbed his back. "I don't know, bud. I'm sorry." He stood there as I held him close. Lee took a knee too, putting his arms around both of us. I could feel Tenten glaring at us from across the room.

"We will get you something even better for you at the gift shop, okay? So no more tears," Lee let go, noticing that the other parents were staring. He stared right back, possibly trying to intimidate them. I looked at Metal, who had stopped crying at this point, and wiped away the last few tears on his face

Lee let go of us and stood up, offering his hand to me. I took it, and stood, still holding Metal's hand. We followed along in the back for the tour, and when the exhibit was too low for Metal to see, Lee would pick him up and put him on his shoulders so he could have a clear view.

The museum wasn't anything special, it was just a natural history museum. Of course, it was interesting to all the little kids, they got to push buttons and look at bright colorful screens, so I suppose it was probably interesting to them.

Later into the trip, people seemed to notice that Metal was still holding our hands, and it bothered them. They never said anything, but just stared at us. Metal subconsciously let go of our hands. Lee and I looked at each other, a little confused.

"Metal?" Lee asked, placing his hand on Metal's head.

"They were staring, I do not want you to be embarrassed of me..."

"Metal we aren't embarrassed of you. You're still a kid, it's perfectly normal to hold hands," I explained, reaching out for him. He shook his head no with a frown.

"Aww look at that!" One of the other boys in his class called out in a mocking tone. "Eyebrows still holds his daddy's hand! And I thought you didn't have a mom, dummy!" He shouted. All the other kids began laughing, Metal closed himself off and hid behind Lee's Leg. "What are you going to do about it? Cry? You cry baby!" Tenten just watched with a small grin, that woman is pure evil. And none of the other parents even care. What the hell?

I heard muffled sobs come from Metal, and spoke up. "Excuse me, ms. Tenten," I called, absolutely fed up. Everyone was staring at us. Lee was on his knees, trying to calm Metal down and comfort him, so I took the rest of the situation into my own hands.

"What?"

"Are you really going to let one of your students treat a fellow classmate like that? Does this school really invite such toxic behavior in its students?"