It was the evening nobody was looking forward to.
Awkwardly huddled in the canteen were a bunch of random students with their parents, all consulting the crudely written timetables to see which teachers they'd be seeing next.
Pat was leaning against one of the display boards as he waited for his parents to order some coffee from the kitchen. Pat let out a wry smile. They'd be needing that extra dose of caffeine for when they'd be meeting with his gym teacher later.
Letting out a quiet sigh, Pat rested his head against the board and watched as the other students wandered about the canteen, dragging their parents towards the different classrooms. He spotted Thomas from across the room and on making eye contact, waved at the uptight boy, who was looking unusually on edge. Thomas shot him a small smile before retreating through the double doors, his parents following him.
"Patrick!" his father barked, causing the shorter boy to tense up. He approached his father and stood to attention.
"Y-Yes sir?"
"Where is your gym room located? We're due there next."
Pat's heart sank. "Uh, well, we're not actually going into the gym, but my teacher is in Room 36."
"Take us there at once."
Pat nodded and led his parents down the main corridor to his doom.
As he shuffled along, he saw Robin skipping cheerily; his parents in tow. The three greeted Pat warmly as they passed and he smiled back. After they'd gone, his mother sniffed indignantly.
"Some people just haven't got a clue, have they?"
Pat bit his tongue, deciding not to say anything. His mother could be so judgemental at times.
They reached the bottom of the corridor and turned into the stairwell, Pat holding the door open for his parents to walk through. He then followed them up the stairs and guided them towards the room in question - which was blocked off by a queue of students with their parents awaiting their turn. Already in the queue was Fanny. She gave Pat a small smile.
"H-Hello, Fanny." Pat greeted shyly, feeling particularly intimidated by his parents' sturdy gaze as he spoke to his friend.
"Patrick." Fanny acknowledged stiffly, trying not to break her rigid posture.
"How... are you?" he asked, trying to sound normal even though he felt like hyperventilating.
"Just fine." she replied under the scrutiny of her own parents.
The two teenagers stood silently in the queue, waiting to be called.
After a few minutes of waiting, Pat's father exhaled in annoyance, turning to the twitching teenager. "I thought you said our appointment was at half seven!"
"I-It is! Coach must be backlogged."
His mother folded her arms. "Well I'm not waiting in this. Take us to another one of your appointments instead."
Pat fumbled with his timetable. "Um, we could go to Science. T-That's next."
"Lead the way."
Pat waved Fanny goodbye. Turning back on himself, he hurried along and took his parents downstairs. On the way to the back of the school, Pat passed Julian, who had his hands stuffed in his pockets. Julian acknowledged Pat with a nod as he headed towards the art classroom, his parents behind him arguing loudly.
Julian let out a small sigh. It was the first time his parents had actually turned up to one of his parents evenings and now they were embarrassing him by airing each other's dirty laundry.
"I knew you were seeing Cassandra, I just knew it!"
"Oh shut up! What about you and Wayne, huh? When the cat's away the mice will play, right?"
"You can bloody talk!"
Julian shrugged off Pat's look of sympathy and rolled his eyes as his parents continued accusing one another of cheating.
Across the school, inside the history classroom, Cap was taughtly sitting on a plastic chair squeezed in-between his parents as they sat opposite the teacher's ancient desk. He zoned out while his teacher blared on and on about how interested Cap was in the World Wars and his excellent grades pertaining to those topics.
As much as Cap enjoyed the compliments, he was too busy staring at a poster pinned up on the display board which had been made by someone he wished would saving him from this boring lecture.
"Are you listening, Cap?"
Cap's cheeks flushed scarlet and his eyes drifted back to his father. "Uh, yes, sorry."
"That brings us neatly onto one problem I have found with your son." the teacher started. "Sometimes he can be easily distracted, which hinders his ability to work."
"I see..." his mother rubbed her chin.
Cap pulled at the collar of his shirt. He glanced out of the window to see Humphrey being pushed around by his parents as they headed towards the music room.
Humphrey couldn't help but roll his eyes as his parents lectured him about the 'desperate need to keep his grades up' and 'how he needed to study harder'. He was still reeling from the fact they'd asked Mrs Cooper to give him more homework!
The dark haired teenager led them down to the outside school music block, where the bright classroom lights illuminated the dark playground through its open door.
As he was pushed inside, he bumped into Mary, who was just leaving.
"Hi Humphrey." Mary squeaked.
"Mary." he nodded. "How are things going?" he whispered.
Mary shrugged, turning back to her mother who was just thanking the teacher. "Not bad. Are you okay?"
"Humphrey! Get a move on!"
Humphrey bit his tongue and quietly apologized to his friend for being so hasty. She smiled and walked past him, her mother following.
Once outside, Mary took in a deep breath of the tepid air. She shivered and looked over at her mother, who was glancing down at her timetable, deep in thought. As Mary waited for her mother to finish, she looked up to see a solemn figure sitting on the courtyard steps.
Deciding her mother would probably end up following her wherever she set off to anyway, Mary trundled over to the steps to see a trembling Kitty sitting on the wall. "Kitty?"
Kitty beamed on seeing her friend. "Hello Mary! How are things going?"
"Erm, fine, I guess..." she tilted her head, "What are you doing out here alone?"
"Oh, my parents are seeing all of my sister's teachers first. They told me to wait here."
Mary's brow furrowed, "They told you to wait... here?"
Kitty smiled, "So I wouldn't get in the way inside the school. It's rather busy so they told me to wait outside here, where nobody would be."
Mary turned to see her mother approaching, then turned back to her friend. She took Kitty's hand and gently helped her off the wall. "Come inside with me, out of the cold."
"Oh, okay! Are you sure it will be alright?" Kitty asked as Mary led her towards the school entrance doors.
Mary smiled. "Stick with me and you'll be fine."
The two girls giggled and waited for Mary's mother to catch up, then entered the school doors which led to another staircase. The loud sounds of shouting could be heard and the two girls cringed, discreetly walking underneath the stairs and back into the corridor.
The source of the shouting was located up the top of the stairs, where Pat was being violently reprimanded by his parents.
"And you just let them take the ball? What's wrong with you? Are you a man or a mouse?"
Pat stared into the floor.
"Apparently he's a mouse." his mother hissed, flicking her hair back. "I don't know why we bother, honestly! All that training your father put you through and you don't even have the balls to tackle your own classmates?"
Bullies. They were his BULLIES.
"We told you to put one hundred percent effort into your sports! You need to prove to everyone you're worthy of being a Butcher!"
"Besides that, it'll help you get the exercise you need. You're still too fat."
Pat hung his head even lower.
"Your coach was right. You do need extra training if you're going to become as elite as your father was."
"I don't want to." Pat suddenly forced out. He momentarily blanked out in shock. He looked up at his parents, fury now lacing their features. "W-What I mean to say is-"
A slap.
"Don't you EVER talk back to us." his father finished, quickly turning on his heel and storming downstairs to get away from his son. His mother followed him, leaving Pat completely alone.
Pat stared blankly into the wall, his defenses crumbling. He'd been so strong all evening, trying to keep his emotions in check, but now...
He couldn't do this anymore.
His hands shot to his eyes and he started bawling.