"Oh Floydd! You look so handsome!" Mrs. Waters cried, as he sat innocently at the table eating his cereal. It wasn't that Floydd looked particularly goodlooking that day, it was just that he was leaving for Lambryd that afternoon. She was trying to be nice of course, telling him he looked good in his new uniform.
Mrs.Waters hands shook with pent up energy as they combed back his dark hair. "Oh if only your father were here to see this," she exclaimed sighing," your father was a model of a man."
It was ironic. Alive, his father was only complained about, but dead, why, he was practically a saint. Finishing his cornflakes, Mrs. Water's kissed Floydd on the cheek. It felt dry and tasteless on his cheek. "You have fun at your last day of school now, honey. Say goodbye to all your little friends," his mother smiled at him, "I'll pack your things up while you're at school, now hurry before you're late."
At school, all the boys looked awkward, uncomfortable in their new, often oversized uniforms. Floydd felt weird about it, especially since the girls still remained in the old uniforms. He felt a little bummed knowing that they would be seperate now. To a certain extent Floydd really liked girls, they were often cute and bubbly, telling him how pretty his blue eyes were or how nice his skin was.
The teachers called them all up according to what school they were going to attend and announced it to the class in order from unheard of to most prestigious. Floydd was the last and only boy able to stand up when Lambryd's name was called. He felt embarassed, alone in his burgundy uniform. He could sense the eyes on him, questioning his validity.
The class' smartest kid in purple uniform glared at him from his seat. Since he was not particularly rich,artistic, or athletic, and only excelled in academia, he had been forced to take the 5th best school in the country. Only the most gifted in both academics and athletics were supposed to qualify for Lambryd. Floydd was neither. Floydd could hear the whispers, "Bet his families just rolling in the dough," "What? That little prick?" "Must've been a mix up."
This was the one thing that Floydd could not stand. He hated to be judged and watched by people. He didn't cry, but he sure did blush, and his pale skin made it plainly obvious to anyone around. He felt the pink begin to form on his cheeks, began to squirm under all the scrutiny. Finally, the teacher allowed him to go back to his seat and he ran back, face down, trying to hide his rosy cheeks. But even then, safe in his anonymity,lost in a sea of chairs, Floydd could still feel that uncomfortable sensation of so many eyes on his skin. Eyes that wanted to burn him and make him disappear.
Floydd grabbed his arms, pushed his nails into them, continued to stare at the front of the class, wait for the teacher to give directions. But inside, he was in turmoil, and truthfully he agreed with the other children, he wished he didn't exist too.
The bell rang for the morning recess and Floydd felt relieved. His friends rambled around him as they went outside to the blacktop. The sun shone down on them but the wind was blowing hard that day, so everybody hung close to the shelter of the building rather than running wildly around as per normal. It was at this point, that he realized he was not ready to leave for Lambryd. It wasn't that he wasn't ready to leave his mother, He had simply never kissed a girl.
For some reason this troubled him, it was his last day around girls for the next six years of his life, yet he hadn't taken the first part of his life to make any effort to kiss one. Suddenly he was calculating his chances, the shallow conversations of his friends and their plans for what they were doing at academy became unimportant. He walked away, and over to a girl named Vera. He'd talked to her before in class, she'd sat in the seat in front of him the year before and they'd gotten to know each other. He knew she liked him because she was a very outgoing girl and her friends would always broadcast the news of whoever she liked. At the beginning of the year it had been Brian Crodfield, but a few weeks into sitting next to Floydd it had changed and he hadn't heard anything past that.
Then again a lot of girl's liked Floydd, mainly because he was somewhat good looking but also because he wasn't immature like the other boys. The thing was he'd never been particularly interested in kissing a girl until now that he knew his chance to do so was being stolen from him. Vera was his first choice, she was pretty with her light blond hair in pig tails and the beginnings of what appeared to be cleavage. However, he had other girls he would resort to if things went wrong.
Her friend's giggled as Floydd made his way through the crowd to talk to her. "What would you like, Floydd" Vera flipped her hair and said his name with a little giggle.
"Yeah Floydd, what do you want?" her friends were excited, eager, knowing what was happening.
Floydd just smiled pleasantly and made sure to keep his eyes wide. Vera had a thing about his eyes, she'd started the whole concession that Floydd was the boy with the prettiest eyes in the class. Floydd personally thought it was stupid since she had blue eyes too, but he wanted to humor her so he made sure to show them off as he spoke to her. " I just came to ask you if you would speak to me in private."
"About whaaat?" Vera was staring at him her mouth open and twirling her hair, in what he considered a dumb fashion, but he tried not to think about how desperate she looked as he continued.
" Something really important to me," he looked down for impact as though ashamed and then flicked his eyes back up to her, knitting his eyebrows just a tad, "and maybe you, I hope."
Her friends chattered excitedly around them, chirruping and squealing while Vera just blushed, looking away and trying to play hard to get. "Maybe during lunch, I'm busy now" She flipped her hair again, a satisfied smile on her face.
Floydd smiled back at her," I'll be seeing you then."
He turned away, went back to his friends who were still discussing stupid plans.
"Hey Floydd where you been?" the first one asked.
"You saw him he was talking to Vera."the second one replied.
Floydd scratched his nose absentmindedly, as if he didn't care. "Just taking care of some things before I leave."
"Damn Floyd, you and your... bloody hell Floyd how do you always get the best of everything?" the first one expressed his frustration.
Floydd smirked but the second friend cut in before he could give a smart arse reply. "Ah settle down, he gets the best of everything just 'cause he acts like he deserves the best of everything! He's so convincing, thats why they took him at Lambryd, thats why Vera took him."
Floydd's eyes widened as his friend poked him in the chest snarling at him. "Theres nothing in the least special about you Floydd, but you just give off a sorta aura that theres something amazing about you, and everyone eats it up."
Floydd was blushing again. He'd never thought of things that way. This whole time he had believed that his friends had thought he was somewhat smart or handsome or something. But now hearing how they didn't respect or like him in the least, Floydd laughed. He laughed hysterically. He laughed so hard that he started to cough spastically and couldn't breath.
And then he punched his friend square in the face.
"Twat."
His friend held his face, his eyes huge green saucers, his face unusually pale against the red emerging from his broken nose. For that brief second after he punched his friend, the playground was completely silent. And then they came forward in a roar, shouting.
"Fight! Fight"
Floydd looked self assured, his black hair shining, blowing in the wind. He looked down with unpitying electric blue eyes at his friend already bleeding on the ground. "Well are you going to fight me. Theres nothing special about me after all."
Suddenly his friend was crying, his eyes were closed tightly trying to hold in the tears, but they flowed in rivulets down his face, their currents unchecked by the mere barrier of eyelids. He sobbed and everyone was quiet again, uncomfortable with this display of emotion. There was whispering rather than chatter. Nobody knew what to do. Floydd turned and walked away back to the classroom.
"Thats what I thought."
The teacher jumped up, hitting her knees on the edge of her desk as Floydd walked in. She looked at him, dislike staining her voice." Whats wrong, Floydd?"
She said his name as though it were toxic, poison on her tongue.
"Samuel... injured himself." Floydd's reply sounded robotic, formulated even to his own ears.
"How did he do tha-" her voice caught in her throat as she noticed the flecks of blood on Floydd's sweater, all over his pale skinned hands. She rushed outside. Floydd collapsed into his desk and stretched his neck over the back of the chair, throwing his head back to look at the white ceiling. He felt empty inside.
Nobody outside would tell the teacher who had broken Samuel's nose, how or why it had happened. They simply whispered about it amongst themselves for the remaining class period. Everybody tried not to glance at Floydd who still sat staring blankly at the ceiling. The air inside the classroom felt tense as the teacher repeated to them the train schedule, letting each student know the time the train to take them to each academy would arrive and leave. 2:45 2:45 That was the time Lambryd's train would arrive. 2:50 2:50 The time of its departure. Floydd repeated them to himself and counted the number of spots on the ceiling.15-16-17-18 He looked over to his right to catch Vera looking at him, her eyes full of something close to hunger, biting her lip. He shuddered and turned quickly back to the ceiling. 19-20-21
The bell rang for lunch and Floydd hurried back outside into the sun. Vera trailed after him, grabbing the back of his sweater before he got too far. "What did you want to talk to me about? You know how you hit Samuel earlier? That was pretty cool Floydd. I didnt' know you had guts like that. What'd he say to make you do that?"
The sun shone a sickly color off of her platinum blond hair and Floydd swallowed down the bile forming in the back of his throat. This was his last chance. He had to do this now or it'd be years before he got another opportunity."Lets go talk somewhere quieter."
Rather than following the rest of the class out onto the playground, they walked back into the deserted hallways, between two classrooms. "I wanted to tell you that I'm in love with you."
Vera's reply was short and breathy, "What really?" she flipped her hair.
Floydd felt sickened, realizing the shallowness of this situation. Her stunned reaction was such an obvious act but he kept on with the show, "Yup. I've loved you since the first day we sat next to each other class."
"Well, I dunno.... you're leaving tomorrow." She was having a ball, shaking things up a little, playing with him in his vulnerability.
"But thats exactly why Vera! This is the last time I'll see you before I come back from Academy. This is my last chance, " his voice sounded desperate and passionate but inside he loathed her for making him feel so uncertain, "to ever kiss you."
She blushed deeply, turning away meekly but he could see that strange hunger in her eyes, "Well, I don't know, you're leaving tomorrow."
The last lie slid off Floydd's tongue with satisfied ease, "I promise to write you everyday from academy." He hadn't meant a single word of what he had told Vera, but she took it as truth in her shallow self certainty.
"Oh. Okay then." She puckered her lips slightly and closed her eyes waiting. The kiss was light and dry, a brief exilheration in victory. But like the whole affair it was shallow and Floydd felt nothing as he took it from her. Only, resounding in his head, "how peculiar the power of a lie."
Once again, Floydd was the first to return to the classroom. Vera had run off giggling after kissing him. The teacher sprang out of her seat again, her voice fearful. "What happened this time Floydd?"
Floydd paused in the doorway, looked at her before replying quietly. "Nothing."
She rushed out of the room and Floydd sat down slowly at his desk. He wanted to dash out his brains and watch them drip down the legs of the desk like his father's.