Thursday
The next day started out a little better. Otto's bruising wasn't as sensitive or noticeable. People didn't bother to ask him a lot of questions about the robbery. The story was old news. When Lancret offered her nose-button at the beginning of first period, Otto declined. "Thanks, Lancret, but I think today will be better." The optimism pleased her. She smiled brightly and then took her seat.
His optimism began to shift between first and second period. Before he stepped inside his second period class, a classmate grabbed his shoulder to get his attention. "Hey," he said, "What happened yesterday between you and Lancret?"
The sensation of falling ran through Otto. This was not a question he had anticipated—ever. "What do you mean?" he managed.
"I'm just wondering." The kid shrugged the conversation off as if he never cared to start it and headed into the classroom in front of Otto.
Inside was a pack of four boys talking about what had happened the music hall. They looked like sophomores and juniors. Otto couldn't identify them by name. They all looked at him when he walked in, but never addressed him directly.
Pushing other people's nose-buttons wasn't that unusual at school, but apparently Otto had made quite the scene doing it. Two of the boys were reenacting his performance—exaggerating his awkwardness for all it's worth. They used a plastic cup as a substitute for his nose casing.
The feeling of embarrassment that Otto felt was very familiar. It was like middle school all over again. And here he was getting ready to graduate into adulthood. Maybe he was bound to this treatment for the rest of his life. Otto sighed and slid into his desk. The jesters were no longer making jokes about him and Lancret. They were now passing the plastic cup around to make jokes about his breathing, his eating, and in general, him. They didn't stop when the late bell rang. It took the teacher's threats to silence them.
The same kids followed him to lunch. They were no longer teasing him, but began asking him questions about the nose casing. "When did you get it?" "How did you get it?" "When will it come off?" "Do you take it off to shower?" "Are you related to Daela Renoir?"
Otto hadn't had to deal with these questions in a long time. He had a series of tightly woven lies prepared for this situation. But this pack of boys was not worth his energy. Otto refused to say anything to them. At least not until one of them barred his way and said, "So what happens if I push it?"
This question terrified Otto. No one had ever asked that before. He was afraid that if his answer wasn't strong enough, he might try it out.
"It'll hurt like hell," he said.
That didn't seem to get the right response. The boys still looked at him too curiously, like they were thinking about trying it out.
"My doctor has warned me never to push it. It could prevent it from ever healing."
Still not strong enough of a reason.
"It's considered assault if you push it!" This had an effect.
"How is that assault?" Asked the boy standing in front of him.
"Because it hurts and can do serious damage! That's the definition of assault!" Otto was starting to feel cornered. The boys were standing very close to him. Everything seemed very close to him. Without another word, Otto pushed through the circle they were forming and walked as fast as he could to the cafeteria. He was shaky and breathing heavily when he got there.
"Woah, what happened? You look like you're going to pass out," Ruskin said when Otto met him at the door.
"Nothing. Let's just go." Otto grabbed Ruskin's arm and dragged him inside.
Otto ducked around school for the rest of the day. He never wanted to deal with that group of boys again, but he knew he would be seeing them the next day in 2nd period. Otto started to severely question the safety of being in school. He was contemplating asking his parents to pull him out. But then what would Mr. Monet do? Would he take this as proof that Otto couldn't handle the world? What would that mean? Otto wasn't even clear on what Mr. Monet had said to Clara or his foster mother. What was he planning on doing if Otto couldn't handle being in the world?
He managed to make it to the end of the day. The last bell sounded and he ran for Ruskin's car. The sooner he got off campus, the better. But Ruskin wasn't there yet, so he had to wait. Otto slunk down to the ground and leaned against the front tire. He closed his eyes for just a moment, but when he opened them again, he was surrounded by the pack that had been harassing him.
"We saw you running across campus and figured you were chasing after another girl," said the first boy. He wasn't too intimidating in stature, but he had an air of confidence about him that made Otto draw back. Perhaps his frivolous gray nose-button did something destructive like pour paint or shatter glass.
The other boys were about the same in size. They all looked rather tall to Otto who was still sitting on the ground and looking up at their faces. But they weren't particularly strong or gruff looking. If there had only been one of them, Otto wouldn't have been frightened. But together, they were definitely trouble—not the bruising kind of trouble, but the hold-you-down-and-push-your-nose-button kind. That was the worst kind of trouble.
Otto tried to think of something to say that would disarm the situation. But he had run out of ideas a long time ago. Something stung his eyes and Otto realized that he was about to cry.
The gang saw it too and began to laugh. Two of them reached down to grab Otto by the arms. He pulled away and kicked at them, tripping one and making the other jump. Then he lept up and tried to get away. A third boy grabbed his shoulder and pulled him backward. Otto hit the ground on his tail bone.
Then everything went black.
Otto thought he had passed out. He couldn't see anything. But everything felt the same. The asphalt was still hot and hard. His hands hurt from trying to break his fall. And when he reached out to feel around him, his hand hit the car to his right and a leg to his left.
The gang of boys seemed to be experiencing the same thing. "What the hell?" one of them asked. His voice came from above Otto, but Otto couldn't see him at all. He could see nothing but blackness.
"What's going on?" asked another boy who must have been standing behind the first. His voice was further away.
"I don't know, I can't see anything," said the one that Otto had tripped. His voice was down near Otto's head.
Otto pulled himself onto his knees. Then he began crawling forward, groping his way across the asphalt and onto the school's front lawn. The voices of the boys were left behind him. Other voices joined them. Otto could hear several students crying out in surprise and confusion. He heard the campus law-enforcer jog down to somewhere near him.
"Reinhardt?" The law-enforcer called out. "Reinhardt, where are you?"
No one responded.
Otto heard footsteps coming near him. "Don't step on me!" he called out.
"I wont; I can see you." It was Reinhardt. He spoke in a quiet voice, just above a whisper. He sat down next to Otto in the pitch blackness.
"Did you do this?" Otto asked.
"Yeah. It looked like you needed some help getting away from those guys."
"You're gonna get in huge trouble!"
"Nah, not really. There's no physical threat and I'm under 18. They'll just give me a slap on the wrist."
"Oh. Well... then thank you."
"You're welcome."
The two sat quietly in the darkness, listening to the fear and confusion around them. The law-enforcer had heard them talking, but couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. He shuffled blindly around them before turning the wrong direction and wandering away.
"So how long does this last?" Otto asked when he heard the officer moving far away.
"Don't know. It's different every time." Reinhardt pulled out a candy bar from his pocket and started eating.
"It's kind of nice," Otto said. He was beginning to relax and feel safe. The voices of others trapped in the darkness were far away from him. All the dangers and fears that he had been faced with had disappeared.
"Yeah. It's pretty cool. Too bad I'll be forbidden to use it in another two years."
"Completely?"
"Pretty much. Unless I join law-enforcement."
"Are you thinking about it?"
There was a pause. "I don't know. They've tried recruiting me. I said 'no,' but I'm not looking forward to a life of never pressing my button."
"Tell me about it," Otto said sympathetically.
"Will you ever be able to press yours?"
"No," Otto said, a little too honestly.
"You know, I've never heard of a broken nose-button before."
Otto looked over at him instinctively. He couldn't see Reinhardt at all, but it seemed that Reinhardt could see him, so he made sure his face didn't give anything away. "It's a rare thing. There was a case of it about sixty years ago in South America. This guy got his face smashed under the wheel of a truck. He lived, but his nose-button was permanently broken."
"Ugh. That sounds sick. But nothing like that happened with you. Your face isn't smashed."
"No. I was just a baby when it happened, so it didn't take much."
"Has anyone ever pushed it?"
Otto didn't know how to answer this. He could lie and say "yes," or tell the truth and say "no." But in either event, he would have to make up a story that he had never planned out before. And lying without first preparing and practicing the lie was a very dangerous thing. He could end up talking himself into some logical error, or contradict facts or previous lies. In these cases, vagueness was key.
Otto shrugged, hoping that Reinhardt really could see him, and said, "Not that I can remember." He was expecting a follow up question to pin him into a more obvious answer, but there was none.
Reinhardt and Otto sat in silence for another five minutes before the blackness began to fade into a thick gray fog. Silhouettes of people became visible around them. Then colors returned and the brightness of the sun cut the haze into disintegrating pieces.
The law-enforcement officer gave Reinhardt a threatening look from 10 yards away. Then walked authoritatively over, grabbed Reinhardt by the arm and pulled him up to his feet. "To the office. Now!" He spat as he dragged him across the front lawn.
Reinhardt didn't seem perturbed by this at all. He allowed the officer to pull him along as if he didn't care what was going on.
Otto looked around him at the mass of students who had been caught in the blackness. There were also those that had walked into it out of curiosity and the ones that had gathered to look at it from the outside. All of them had their mouths hanging open. And all of them were looking at Otto who had been sitting with the one responsible for it all.
Great. Another cause for unwanted attention. But Otto couldn't hold anything against Reinhardt. He had saved him from the gang—the gang that was now staring, open-mouthed, at Otto from the space next to Ruskin's car. They were looking at him with a mix of astonishment and fear of the unknown.
Otto decided to take advantage of this moment. He leveled his gaze with them and narrowed his eyes in intimidation. Then he picked himself up with a well feigned sense of confidence and started looking around for Ruskin.
Friday
Otto had never kept anything from his foster parents. Nothing like this, anyway. But with his foster father as tightly wound up as he was, Otto didn't want to say anything about what had happened at school. The stress of it all continued to tear at him. And adding the pressure of keeping this secret from his foster parents wasn't helping. He wanted desperately to tell his foster mother and get her advice or help or even to ask to be taken out of school. But then, of course, she'd tell her husband and then who knows where Otto would be.
But probably, the kids wouldn't bother him anymore. Not after what Reinhardt had done and the way that they looked at Otto afterward. Maybe his association with Reinhardt would be enough to keep them off. It was all Otto could hope for.
He only had to last through six more months of school and be done with the whole place. Then he could live as a hermit, he decided. No one would even have to know where he was to bother him. That didn't seem like such a bad plan, really. He didn't much care for people anyway. Who would he miss? Ruskin? His fake parents? The nurse that stole him? Maybe Lancret. He had decided he liked having her around. And Reinhardt turned out to be an okay guy. But nothing was worth sticking around for. Six more months and he could be done with the world.
Otto learned in first period that Reinhardt was suspended for a week. Knowing that Reinhardt wouldn't be around put Otto on edge. He was dreading walking into his second period class and seeing his assailants.
They were there. All four of them looked up when he walked in the door, but that was all. Otto held his head up and forced himself to walk to his desk. Once in his desk, he felt safer. The teacher was nearby, sorting through papers at her desk. Other students hurried in and took their seats. The late bell rang and class started without incident.
Otto relaxed a bit. For the first time since the coffee shop robbery, class was proceeding in a familiar fashion. And then he sneezed. It was a violent sneeze. His face hit his desk in an uncontrollable lurch forward—reminding him that he still had bruises. The class gasped and turned to see what happened. Otto's face was red. His casing was splattered with snot, but it was in one piece. A couple of students snickered. A girl called out, "Eww!" from across the room.
"May I go to the bathroom?" Otto asked.
"Yes," the teacher said.
Otto got up quickly and ran to the bathroom to clean his face and nose casing. He took off the casing carefully and placed it on the edge of the sink while he wiped his face clean—carefully. Then he began rinsing out his casing. He checked the mirror and looked over his shoulder nervously for any signs of boys in the stalls that might come bouncing out and hit his nose-button before he had time to cover it.
An unfamiliar boy walked into the bathroom. He didn't look like he really needed to go. He looked like he was just wanting out of class. Otto watched him in the mirror as the boy walked towards the stalls. Then he glanced down at his casing to ensure cleanliness before turning the water off. In that preoccupied moment there was a loud bang. Any shred of peace that Otto had had was blown apart by shock. With a high pitched scream, Otto fell to the floor.
A few students and even some teachers poked their heads out of their classes to see what was happening. Otto didn't stop screaming. He curled his body up, held his head in his hands and screamed with whatever breath he could get. The peeking heads disappeared. Someone (or several someones) called the office who then called the on-campus law-enforcement officer. Otto was left screaming on the floor of the bathroom with a panicking freshman who had been practicing his martial arts a moment earlier on a stall door.
The on-campus law-enforcer came running into the bathroom. He looked over Otto and tried to question the other kid, but couldn't hear him over Otto's screaming. Not knowing what to do, the law-enforcer called for off campus law-enforcement to take over.
It took law-enforcement nearly 20 minutes to arrive, assess the situation, and dare to touch Otto, still lying screaming on the floor. The school nurse was present to make sure that Otto wasn't injured. And just in case, they also had a medic team on their way.
"I just came into the bathroom to do my business and he starts screaming at me like that for no reason. It's like he just snapped!" the boy told law-enforcement. They rubbed their chins thoughtfully.
After law-enforcement picked Otto off the floor, they weren't quite sure what to do with him. He didn't fight them or struggle, but he wouldn't stop screaming either. They helped him replace his nose casing, but that didn't console him. They tried talking to him; had the school counselor talk to him; had Ruskin talk to him; called in his foster parents and had them talk to him. Nothing worked.
They sent him to the hospital for evaluation. The hospital promptly sent him to the psych ward. And the psych ward—after careful evaluation of his screaming pitch—sent him to a softly padded room with sound tight walls. Otto screamed himself to sleep.
Saturday
The next day, a nurse came in and woke Otto up to secure him in a straitjacket. "Why?" He asked sleepily. Aside from being exhausted from screaming, he felt much better.
The nurses didn't say anything.
After she secured the straitjacket, she escorted Otto to a law-enforcement van. Chief Detective Escher Koi waited outside the van, her partner at her side. She held Otto's elbow as he stepped up into the back of the van. Then she and her partner climbed in and sat across from him.
"Otto Monet? My name is Detective Koi. I'm here to ask you a few questions."
"Why?"Otto asked, still confused.
"Because you're a rogue anomaly, Otto."
"What would make you think that?"
In response, Detective Koi reached into her pocket and pulled out a compact mirror. She held it up to Otto's face so that he could see a flake of green paint peeling on his nose-button revealing his natural white color underneath.