summary: logan feels alienated by his family, maybe there will be a light through the darkness by the name of patton
word count: 1628
cheaper by the dozen makes me sad, but it's such a great movie (that one and yours mine ours)
tw/cw// roman and remus are jerks (they get a small redemption but still), sad logan, small mentions of food, roman and remus beat someone up :)
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Logan grabbed his pet frog right as Remus was about to stomp on it. "Could you two be idiots elsewhere?" Roman rolled his eyes. "It's not our fault that you let your freaky pet run around the house, Fed-Ex." Logan stared down at his frog with a sad expression. "I told you to stop calling me that." "We'll stop calling you that when you're normal." Remus scoffed. Logan sulked back into his room without another word.
"It's not my fault, Ruth," Logan mumbled to his frog once he closed his bedroom door. "They make fun of me for something I can't control. If I could make myself less boring and give myself red hair and green eyes, and freckles, I would do it in a heartbeat. If I could make myself have a constant stream of stories and artistic ideas running through my head, I would do it. I'd do anything." Logan sighed and placed Ruth in her tank, closing the lid. "Anything to make me lovable."
Logan crawled into bed and shut his eyes. It was barely 7 pm, his parents had yet to finish dinner, and it was the last day of summer. If Logan were a normal kid, he'd be staying up as long as possible before school started. If Logan were a normal kid, he'd be eager to eat his parents' cooking and talk for hours before bedtime. But Logan wasn't a normal kid; Remus and Roman made sure to remind him of that any time he forgot.
But Logan was attending a new school tomorrow; maybe, just maybe, Logan could pretend to be someone worthwhile. 'I can do this.'
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'I can't do this.' Logan thought with a queasy stomach. Remus and Roman were screaming about something; whether it was a Disney song or just a typical argument, Logan wasn't sure. All Logan could focus on was the idea of a new school. Time and time again, it's been proven that no matter how hard Logan tried to be like his brothers, he still wasn't well-liked. He was still too weird. Why did he think this time would be any different?
"See you after school, boys." Roman and Remus ran out of the car while Logan calmly exited.
Everyone gave him strange looks, most likely because Logan was wearing a bowtie. He said it was to make himself look professional, which was partially true, but it was mainly there to help ground him when his anxiety or restlessness got too high. "I know Mom told us to look after you, but you'd make us look like losers, so you'll be fine by yourself, right?" Remus whispered. Logan nodded and watched Roman and Remus walk away.
Not even two minutes after the twins left Logan alone, Logan found himself struggling to escape the highly unsanitary dumpster that some older students had thrown him in. He tried to use his go-to excuse, "My brothers are two years older than me, and they're gonna beat you up." But no such luck.
Logan flinched as something banged against the dumpster, then it hit again and again. 'What are they doing?' Logan thought to himself. Finally, the banging stopped, and the lid to the dumpster swung open to reveal a young boy around his age. "Hey, are you okay?" Logan quickly crawled out of the dumpster, not wanting to spend another second in there. He brushed himself off, desperately trying to take off any trash stuck to himself. "How did you know someone was in there?" The boy shrugged. "The dumpster's never usually locked because Bertha and the girls need it open so they can throw out their trash."
Logan furrowed his eyebrows, and he looked up at the boy. "'Bertha and the girls'?" The boy nodded with a smile. "They work in the cafeteria. Super sweet ladies, I spend every morning with them." Logan sighed, "Right. Look, I'm pretty sure I'm late for class, and I don't want that to be my first impression-" "Nonsense! You can't go to class like this. We need to take you to my mom; she'll know what to do."
Logan let the boy drag him around the school hallways to wherever he was going. "Wait, who's your mom?" The boy finally stopped in front of a door with a grin. "The nurse. Now come on." Logan reluctantly followed the kid into the office and wrapped his arms around himself self-consciously. "Mama! We need a change of clothes!" The nurse poked her head out from the closet. "Ooh, okay, what size, dear?" "Um, a medium is fine." Logan mumbled. She nodded and grabbed a random box of spirit shirts.
"Okay, there are sports spirit shirts, school spirit shirts, even some shirts specific to teachers here; what do you think?" "Wearing a school shirt is your best bet, then you won't get asked a ton of questions about sports or what classes you're taking." The boy winked at Logan. Logan nodded and grabbed a school shirt, going into the nurse's bathroom to change.
Once he exited, he quietly thank the nurse and her son. "Don't mention it, hun. Now, what is your first period?" Logan reached into his backpack, which he'd forgotten he still had on, and handed the nurse his schedule. "Oh, perfect! You have courtesy with Patton in here. Nothing much happens in first period, so you can talk, do homework, whatever you need to do."
Patton grinned excitedly and pulled Logan to the couch. "So, you're new here, right?" Logan slowly nodded. "Cool. So, what are you interested in? Like any hobbies, things you're passionate about?" "Nothing interesting. I enjoy wildlife and science, but it's dumb." Patton gasped happily, "That is so cool! So you like animals and stuff? Do you know a bunch of stuff about them?" Logan looked at Patton strangely. "I-I suppose. Why do you think it's cool, though?"
Patton shrugged. "Animals are too precious for this world. I would love to learn more about them, but I can never understand all that science stuff. Now I can live through you." He giggled. Logan thought Patton was a strange kid, but he's the only person to stick around for this long. A small flicker of hope ignited inside Logan as Patton listened to different animal facts in awe.
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After two months of knowing Patton, Logan finally invited him over to his house. Well, Patton mainly invited himself, but Logan didn't mind. Logan listened nervously as Patton had a conversation with Remus and Roman as Logan's mother listened idly from the front seat. Logan hoped they wouldn't say anything too embarrassing. "If you aren't careful, Fed-Ex might try to rant about his frog." Roman joked. 'There it is.' Logan thought bitterly. "Ooh, I love frogs! If I could hug all of the froggies in the world, I would." Patton giggled, unphased by Roman's mocking tone.
"What do you think, Fed-Ex? Are you gonna bore Patton to death today?" Remus poked Logan repeatedly as he spoke. Logan swatted his hand away. "I told you to stop calling me that." Logan's mother pulled to a stop, and all four of the boys exited the car. Logan dragged Patton along as he made a bee-line for his bedroom. Once they were in, Patton stared at Logan curiously. "If you don't mind me asking, why do they call you that?"
Logan sighed and walked to Ruth's tank, feeling Patton staring at him from behind. "You mean Fed-Ex?" Logan pulled the frog from the tank and held her gently. "It's because they say the mailman dropped me off, that I'm not biologically part of this family." "Logan..." Logan could hear the sadness in his voice. "It's okay, really. Even though I am their biological brother, they refuse to acknowledge that. There's nothing I can do; I just...don't belong."
Patton placed a hand on Logan's shoulder; the latter looked up to see Patton's sympathetic smile. "It'll get better, I promise. Besides, there's no reason for you to be exactly like them. I like you the way that you are. You're amazing. Do you think I'd be friends with someone who wasn't fun?" Logan shrugged, a small smile now forming on his face. "I am only friends with the best people ever, and you are one of those people. Now, I believe I said I'd love to hear all about this sweet girl here."
Logan looked down at Ruth happily and chuckled. "Okay, are you familiar with Ruth Bader Ginsburg?"
~~(also bonus scene bc i cannot stand allowing roman and remus being heartless brats)~~
Contrary to popular belief, Roman and Remus worried about Logan deep down, very deep down. Of course they picked on him; that's what siblings do (at least, that's what Roman and Remus do). But that never meant it would be okay for anyone else to mess with their baby brother.
Remus accidentally let Logan's nickname slip out at school, which some jerk caught on to and tried to make fun of Logan for. The twins watched angrily from their side of the cafeteria as the kid picked on Logan. "Can we kill him?" "Not in public." Roman replied.
Once the bell rang, Remus dragged the bully to the back of the school forcefully and shoved him into the wall. "You messing with our brother?" The bully scoffed. "The dork is your brother? Dude, sucks to be you guys." Roman grabbed his shirt. "Listen, Remus isn't as patient as me, and he's this close to knocking your teeth in. I'm only going to tell you this once and hope that it gets through your head for your sake; stay away from Logan."
The bully shoved Roman off. "You think I'm scared of you?" Roman stared at the bully with an empty smile. "Remus?" "On it."
Three minutes later, the bully definitely wasn't bothering Logan again.
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i wrote this instead of doing my art project bc i enjoy writing about logicality as kids :) anywho, hope you all enjoyed, love you all, stay safe, buh bye!!
3/9/21