3 : BlindSighted
Scilius woke up again, but this time, a thousand times less reluctant. He eagerly threw his clothing on, and, although he couldn't see for sure, tried to make sure that he looked sharp. He threw his backpack on his shoulder and hugged his mom before she could do so herself.
"Thanks, for making me go to school this week." His mom was shocked, completely taken off guard.
"You're welcome, Sceely." She was speaking very warmly. "I love you."
"You too," and he rushed out the door, before she could question him.
He didn't bother with his locker today; he walked right upstairs instead, gliding softly enough this time not to be trampled by other furs. The smile wouldn't be wiped off his snout.
Scilius sat down in his usual spot in class, while Schrodinger was in the front of the class, marker ready to fill the board. He was just staring into the blurry space around him, biding his time until lunch. That lunch period would be the light at the end of a dark tunnel of classes and his obnoxious classmates. He put his head down and closed his eyes, hearing her voice falsely echoing from memory in his ears. I'll just have to wait; it'll be soon enough for sure.
He received a poke to his arm. Not again. Ignoring the pokes, he tried to focus on something else. The finger didn't relent, though, jabbing into his left shoulder repeatedly against the sleeve of his shirt, making his slightly raw scales start to itch. They're still trying to mess with me, haven't they had enough? After a minute of the tapping, he gave in, turning finally to the perpetrator, who obviously wanted a reaction. I'll do anything to make the poking stop, he thought.
A pair of blurry yellow eyes surrounded by silver was staring back at him. His mouth was ajar, revealing a set of sharp white teeth.
"Elliot?" he mumbled.
"What's up, Scilly," she said, using a new nickname that might have just been made up on the spot. Scilius didn't seem to mind - better than "Seven" - and still half astonished by her presence.
"Where'd you come from," he said, looking around the blurry classroom and quickly thinking he had chosen the absolute worst words possible.
Elliot, thankfully, laughed at his ill-chosen question, "I usually sit in the back, but now I guess I'll sit by you, I mean, if that's fine with you." She said confidently and indignantly but with a mild hint of tenacity. He smiled, becoming drunk with her voice and understanding what he thought was the deeper meaning in what she had just said. She wants to sit by me.
"Absolutely," he said, remembering his resolution to find this girl again, and the feeling within his chest; that was easier than I thought.
He thought hard, had she really been in this class the whole time? He felt embarrassed for never noticing her, now that he had developed such a strong infatuation with her. Could such an amazing girl have been sitting only a few feet away from him every day for half a semester? He was sure, however, that he had already known all of the girls in this class, having already met each one, either through awkward attempts at a chat and from stray and insulting comments directed at him, and so he wasn't too eager to hang around any of them. He must have not noticed her somehow, but he couldn't think of exactly how.
The bell rang, interrupting his thoughts, and Schrodinger began to ramble on, marker harshly hitting the board as he went. Scilius had developed a new appreciation for this class, even greater than before, now that she was here. He watched her, motionless in her desk, while he listened to the dispersed words of his teacher. He noticed that she was staring off into space, her reptilian head resting upon her extended claw, just like he was.
She doesn't take notes? Disappointment had formed within him. She doesn't like Math. And, she probably doesn't like any other classes. He hadn't considered the fact that Elliot could have despised academics, like the other furs. He might have been too hopeful. What would she think of a nerd like him?
He slid his tail across the distance between them and tapped her own tail in order to get her attention. Then, not wanting to talk out loud, silently pretended to write and shrugged at her, hoping she'd understand what he was trying to ask. I don't actually know sign language. He was nervously awaiting her answer.
"I'm three chapters ahead," she smiled, having understood him, with a well-executed whisper in her lovely voice. He almost couldn't keep himself from bragging to her, broad smile on his snout.
"I'm four chapters ahead."
"I'll catch up, Mr. Blindy."
They both giggled, and a couple of furs scoffed. Did that actually happen? He had never dreamed of being able to say something like that to someone else, without being ridiculed, that is. He kept his fuzzy orange eyes pointed in her direction, for almost the entire class, staring at the blurred image of her tail waving side to side ever so slightly. She was sitting very still, only moving every so often to swat at the paws of the conventional furs trying to steal things from his schoolbag.
"Thanks," he would whisper to his fellow dissident friend as she did so.
Schrodinger had ended his lecture a few minutes shy of the bell, instructing the class to use the time to work on their assigned homework. Scilius, since Schrodinger had already known about his dermic situation, ignored his homework and remained in a trance while staring at his companion. He was only brought back to his senses after hearing his name being called.
"Andrea, Michael, Scilius, Cecil, and Elliot," Schrodinger called out loud, reading from a list as if he had rehearsed it, "Come up here for a second." Scilius stood from his desk mindlessly, only to see Elliot, having been called later in the list, already walking to the teacher's desk, finally standing close to a fox who must have been called up too. He followed behind her and stopped in front of the wide wooden table.
"You five have the highest averages in this class," he said while handing each of them a stack of paper with an extraordinarily golden smile across his snout. Scilius could see it through his blinded eyes. "I believe you can do well, so I'd like to see you in the Math club meeting next Monday."
Schrodinger was quick to introduce this to them, and they were all confused by the packets he had handed to them: On the front, Greek letters spelling "Math," and in the other pages, actual Math problems. This might as well have been a research paper on epicurean beliefs, because Scilius wouldn't know the difference as he was trying to decipher what the packet said. Mayonnaise?
"If you plan on coming, try to bring these back to me by Friday at the latest." Two of the other furs, who Scilius didn't actually know, didn't seem to be very pleased by this, almost disgusted by it: Extra Homework? However; Elliot's eyes had lit up, the fox had opened the packet, and Scilius, still trying to decipher the first page of the packet, had his interest peaked too.
The bell rung while they were still gathered around the desk and Schrodinger shooed them off with a heartwarming valediction. Scilius followed Elliot as she walked off, noticing that they were going to the same class again.
"Mu Alpha Theta," she was telling him before the next class period started, "I wanted to do it last year, but freshmen weren't able to join."
Scilius listened, but looked disappointedly at the packet he had been given. It's an evaluation, he reasoned, I can't do jack-shit like this. He was still looking at the alien letters on the top of the packet, made more indecipherable by his blindness. She grabbed the paper from his desk.
"I'll help you do it, okay, get that look off your snout." Scilius did, and replaced it with a grin.
"But, don't just give me the answers."
"You abandoned me," a slightly unfamiliar voice interrupted them. It came from a mildly taller and slimmer figure than Scilius with red fur. It's that fox again.
"Did not," Elliot said casually and with humor.
"Did too! I turned my head for three seconds and you jump two desks ahead, and then Daniel-Mc-Shit-Head takes your spot in front of me. I was about to strangle him."
Scilius almost asked why he didn't, but he was too lost in the sudden introduction of this fox. Where'd he come from. Is this one of her friends?
"Oh yah. But, you abandoned me for like, seven hours yesterday. That's seven times worse than what I did."
"I was sick, that doesn't count."
Yesterday, he thought. Then, he remembered one of the first things she had said to him. "You're in our - my spot." He wanted to call it a Freudian slip, but he wasn't sure if he'd be using that term right. So he was supposed to be there yesterday, not me. Another thought made him disappointed_: they had a 'spot' together?_
"Sick with Pussy-Itis. I would have been Completely alone if it weren't for Scilly."
For the first time, the fox noticed the scale. Scilius barely noticed that he had become part of the conversation, but did notice how vulgar Elliot could be. "Oh, sorry, hey. My name's Ce-"
"Fuzzles! His name is Fuzzles." Elliot had interrupted.
"Hey... Fuzzles?" Scilius shook his paw. Because he has fur?
"Cecil, Cecil Edwards, Elliot's just doing that thing again." Scilius was a little disappointed. He felt so special to have one of her nicknames, but since Cecil had one too, it lost a little novelty. "You're name isn't actually 'silly' I assume."
"No, his name's Scilly, with an 'sc.'"
"No," he laughed at both of them, "my name's Scilius, Scilius Montag."
"Burn any books recently," Cecil sounded serious.
"I - uh, what? No..." Scilius was exceptionally confused.
"Just joking, dude."
"Oh, his nickname should be Guy, that'd be perfect."
Scilius felt like he was in a nuthouse, before Cecil spoke, "It's Fahrenheit 451, remember, from last year." Oh, a book reference.
"He just came here, this year." Elliot explained.
"Oh. Well, welcome, Scilius."
"Call him Guy, or Scilly."
"Yes, maybe, or maybe we could both just be called Scilius and Cecil, like we're supposed to be, right Scilius?"
"Oh, uh, sure."
"Not much of a talker, are you?"
"No."
"Reader?" Cecil sounded like he wasn't expecting a yes.
"No," he couldn't remember the last time he optionally picked up a book that wasn't a math textbook. He probably read the equivalent girth of information on the internet, though, or listened to it from science programs. "I'd play video games, but with my eyes..."
"Eyes?" He looked closer at his face. "Oh, okay. Yeh, video games are cool, I guess, if you're a nerd."
"Leave him alone," Elliot spoke before Scilius could. "It's the nerdy ones that are cute."
Scilius blushed when she said it, and Elliot almost seemed like she wanted to redact it. But, Scilius noticed Cecil's constant peaceful tone change just slightly after she had said it.
"Keep it down with that." Cecil whispered to her.
"No one's gon'na care," she whispered back.
"They will, and..." both of them started to argue too low for Scilius to hear.
Scilius couldn't help but feel a little out of the loop. These two, he surmised, must have been friends since freshman year. He looked mournfully at Elliot. Cecil has a whole year of experience dealing with her, knowing her feelings, that he didn't have. It was also a whole year for Cecil to have asked her out before him. Has he already done it?
They bicker, he thought, watching them continue on in their little argument, like an old married couple. Definitely like a couple in general. Elliot seemed to lean towards Cecil, very closely, as the two of them talked.
Cecil had sat behind Elliot, and Elliot was to Scilius' left side. So for the entire class, Scilius couldn't interject himself between them, not for a constant time, anyway: there was too much distance. His droning English teacher wasn't enough of a distraction, though. He could hear the two of them talking, with complete comfort.
Of course they're a couple, he mourned to himself. If she knew this tall and probably easy on the eyes fur, one that reads books, for a year, it's no doubt that they'd be together. A fresh-shedding-flabby lizard wouldn't have any chance. Why couldn't he still be sick.
Lunch was in the same place today, except with an extra fur involved, and with colder weather. Cecil, of course, decided to place himself obstructively between Scilius and Elliot. Maybe Elliot just isn't a middle person, he thought, trying to avoid passing judgement. Elliot had a pencil and pad out, barely looking at it, with her claw moving slightly while she talked.
"It's freezing cold." She started.
"Yeah," Scilius agreed.
"No, this is like, normal weather." Both Elliot and Scilius looked at Cecil.
"'Cause you have fur." Elliot argued.
"Fur's great. It's soft."
"Scales are smoother."
"At least fur doesn't do that." Cecil pointed at Scilius, who was busy scratching at his arm. He had almost broken through into the new layer of fresh scales.
"Price you pay," he said, mindlessly, "for sexy scales." He wasn't usually such a sly talker, but Elliot was just a few feet away from him.
"Yeah! And," she reached over and poked Scilius on the snout, pushing his head back, "it's a chance to mess with him." Scilius brought his head back, surprised.
"That's not an upside," Cecil almost growled.
"It is if you're in to that." Scilius saw her yellow eyes pointed at him as she spoke, and he blushed, although the scales over his cheeks were already red from shedding.
"Weirdos." He brushed off the conversation.
"So what are you gon'na study in college, Scilius?" He looked up from his freshly unwrapped sandwich.
"I was thinking about studying Insapients." He watched a small Gecko climbing the bricks of the school building, almost a mirror of himself, except that Scilius had small dorsal horns, and intelligence.
"Like a vet?" Cecil sounded unimpressed.
"Nah, like stuff Darwin would have done, maybe."
"You're not gon'na get far sleeping through Biology."
"When did I do that?"
"Last period," Elliot jumped it.
"Doesn't count this week." Scilius pointed at the red patch of skin on his forearm.
"Darwin was a scale, right? I don't think he skipped out on his voyage during his shedding weeks." Cecil didn't have the friendliest tone.
"He did, that's why his voyage lasted three extra years." Elliot tried to throw in a joke.
"I doubt it," Scilius said kindly to her. He was starting to not like Cecil's criticism. He was bubbling with kindness two periods ago. What's he being so aggressive for now? Then Scilius noticed how Cecil had sat between him and Elliot.
"What are you gon'na study, Elliot." He changed the subject before he might have said something stupid to the fox.
She lifted up the pad in her claws, holding it up for him to see. It was a pencil sketch of an eye, with a slit pupil, but with hair on the lids. "This. Art school or something." He couldn't help but notice how well of a sketch it had been, better than he would've been capable of. Although, he almost felt disappointed to see that it was almost modeled after Cecil's eye.
"That's beautiful." He said encouragingly.
"Nice," Cecil said, pretending Scilius didn't exist.
"Thanks," Elliot looked at Cecil, and he rolled his eyes.
Cecil wasn't going to say anything, and Scilius definitely wasn't going to ask, so Elliot forced him by asking:
"You wanted to study medicine, right?"
"Yeah, med-school and stuff." He said lazily but proudly. "Real biology." He added, looking at Scilius.
"Enjoy your debt." Scilius jabbed, with a smile.
"Enjoy your four-figure income." He jabbed back less lightly.
"I'll see you in fourteen years when you're done your internship." Scilius had accidentally put a slight nip in his voice.
"Stop!" Elliot finally got between them, looking scornfully at Cecil, and giving Scilius a less than happy look. "Are you five?"
"No." Scilius and Cecil both groaned. They hadn't been saying very harsh things. They were definitely words that could've been said between friends, lightly. Elliot had heard their sharpening tone, though, and ended the conversation.
Why does Cecil have such a chip on his shoulder? He thought back for a second, and Elliot's voice rang in her head again. "It's the nerdy ones that are cute." This seemed to answer his question. If they are dating, yeah, I guess that'd piss him off.
"Why aren't you eating your bread?" Elliot changed the subject to fill an awkward silence. He had taken apart his sandwich, only eating the turkey and peperoni. Scilius had heard before that cutting carbs was a quick way to lose weight.
"Don't like wheat." he lied, eating claw-fulls of sliced meat, looking at Cecil and the lack of a bulge in his waist, and feeling a little inadequate.
"Wheat is the best kind." She said.
"Nah, white bread is better."
"Makes you sleepy though, I just eat salad because of that. I got hooked on them a while ago."
Salad, he thought. That'd work a lot better. "I sleep all the time, anyway."
"Slacker." Cecil mumbled.
"So are you." She poked him, not about to let him start another argument. "Remember when we were watching that lame horror movie over the summer and you fell asleep on my shou-"
"No," he interrupted. He wasn't trying to deny it as much as he was trying to tell her to stop talking. Scilius didn't like the image in his head: they watch movies together too?
"No fair," she teased, "you never let me sleep on your shoulder." Never? She's tried before? She attempted to lean her head on his, but he shrugged her off, scooting away. "Ugh, you're a meanie."
"Fuzzles the Meanie." Scilius played along. She's really joyous. And, is that really how he behaves with her? Scilius felt content with trying to mess with Cecil now.
"Yeah, can I sleep on your shoulder, since F the M won't let me?" She said extremely sweetly.
Scilius shrugged, more nicely than Cecil had. He partially wanted to just to annoy Cecil for being rude. He mostly wanted to because he really wanted her to sit close to him.
"Doesn't bother me." I'd love to. Please put your head on my shoulder! He was forcing his thoughts to stay in his head. He didn't want to seem desperate.
She lifted herself up from her spot in order to sit next to Scilius instead, while Cecil shook his head. However, before she could let her head down, the bell rang, again, ending their lunch period. Cecil looked relieved. So close, he mourned to himself.
"Shiiit," she groaned. "I'm not up for French right now."
"Come on," Cecil got up and lead the way, quietly, and Elliot got up to follow.
"You coming, Scilly?"
"I got another class." I should've taken French instead of Latin.
"Alright, see you later."
Scilius smiled as he waved goodbye. How could he not grin hearing her voice like that, but he couldn't help but notice her still rubbing shoulders with Cecil as she walked away. Make up your mind. He though frustratedly. He couldn't tell exactly what the relationship status between them seemed to be.
Scilius got into the shower the first minute he got home. The hot water ran down his scales and numbed the itching that had gotten stronger as the day had went on. He jumped in from the cold weather that was tearing through his jacket. He had only stood for a few minutes, then sat on the porcelain, tail curved around his leg, thinking. What am I supposed to do now? The same thought kept bouncing around his head.
Half the time it seemed like she was interested in him, then the other half, she's almost tethered to that fox. Maybe they are a couple, but she likes me more. Scilius liked this theory, but it made a roadblock for him. He wouldn't want to fight someone for this girl, although I'd be willing. It would definitely be easier for him if they weren't. But he didn't know.
I can just ask her, right? Why didn't just ask her today? He remembered the two periods after Latin where she sat just a tail's tap away. No, I can't now. I forgot to ask for her fucking number again. He started deriding himself again. He felt his ears ringing, from spending too much time not hearing her voice.
It seemed to him that she must have liked him, well, from what he could tell. A girl who didn't like him wouldn't approach him out of nowhere. Well, I guess I approached her. I did invade their - her - spot. Maybe she just wants to be friends. Did it take me all of five minutes to be friend-zoned?
But she had been eager to lay her head on his shoulder, and on Cecil's shoulder. Did she know that he'd say no? He reflected more. Maybe she just wants him to be jealous. An entire scenario flashed before his head, involving Cecil being negligent and many intricate details before Scilius thought he was being ridiculous. There's just so much evidence for him to be her boyfriend. And so much of her being two-sided. She's no obvious girl.
Maybe she really was dating Cecil. Whatever. He would just ask her tomorrow, and then promptly proceed to win her feelings regardless. He began to exult within his thoughts.