2 : BlindSighted
Scilius hated waking up in the morning. He turned over to silence some incessant beeps that were radiating from his alarm clock. For a second a thought bounced in his mind, what day is it? As he sobered from his sleep he had been able to answer that question. He groaned and writhed in his bed, placing his feet onto the floor. Last night was Sunday... so now it's Monday, and he would have to go to school.
He threw on a white buttoned shirt, leaving the two highest buttons undone, and pinned on a black name tag, S. Montag - Sophomore. All the name tags given by Blue-Wing High School only showed the first letter of the first name, unfortunately. So, it became customary to call most furs by their last name, unless you were their friend. As he was sliding a pair of navy blue pants onto his legs, his mother called from outside his room, "Sceely!"
He spat back quickly, "I'm up!" loud enough for his mom to hear. She herself was getting ready to leave, and as she always did, was making sure that her son was ready for school before she left. He finished tying his shoes last, having to feel his way around the strings, almost ready to go out the door of his room, when he caught a look of himself in his mirror.
He could see the color patterns of his skin vaguely, noting specifically the patches of his arms that had become a paler shade of green, which had leaned towards yellow, and the one patch of nearly red skin that he had kept scratching. Other than that, he wasn't able to actually see what stood in front of his eyes: everything was too blurry. As much as he tried, he couldn't focus enough to recognize even his own snout in the mirror; it was just a greenish blob to him, with two citrus orbs within it.
"Lame," he groaned, rubbing his claws under his eyes, trying to wake himself up. He hurried to the front door as quickly as possible hoping to avoid anymore confrontation with his mom, but failed. She grabbed his shoulder when he tried to open the door, turning him around and hugging him, with a kiss on his left cheek.
"Love you," she said. He sighed the same thing to her, not actually hugging her back. "Try to have at least a decent time today," and he saw her give him what he thought was an apologetic smile; if it was, then he wasn't sure if it was real.
He wanted to complain and ask to stay home, but he was certain it would get him nowhere, it'd only make him late for school, and he was startled into passivity by his mother's affection.
"Alright," his scaly cheeks turned red, "I'm going," and he rushed out the door after getting away from her grasp, hiding from the lovey-dovey feeling his mom had forced into him.
I'm almost sixteen, he thought to himself, she still does that every day. He was rubbing under his eyes again, more frustratedly.
Walking to school was rather awkward, not being able to see his surroundings very well. He was only able to guess at what the street signs might say; he usually ignored them anyway. So, he had to rely only on his memory gained from walking to school every day for three months. Go two corners this way, then one corner that way...
The air was rather cold, the sun only just rising over the horizon. The temperature couldn't have been lower than 60 degrees, but it still nipped at his skin. The weather was the first thing he started to despise since he came to this city. It's always freezing! His stomach was starting to cramp from cold chills. He could still, barely, remember the bakingly warm air he used to have the pleasure of breathing. The sun never did seem to set back in Arizona, he smiled nostalgically.
Once the large grey school building had come into his line of sight, his thoughts broke, and he began to fear what this day would have in store. This wasn't the first time he went to school blind, it had happened before. It must have only been the three weeks into the school year, last time, and his classmates had been eagerly waiting for the next one. Scilius couldn't think of any experience that was worse than that. Blind Man's Bluff must have been a fun game for everyone else. If someone notices, he'd spend the next week suffering.
He fiddled with his locker for a few minutes, trying dearly to get the tumblers to set. To hell with it, he elbowed his locker and walked away from it indignantly, trying to hide the fact that he felt defeated, and that his arm hurt. It's not like books would do any good in this school, he though in silent criticism of his school as students wantonly stumbled through the crowded main hallway, some spewing vulgarities.
He pretended to walk properly, carefully stepping up the stairs, tripping only two times. After bustling past a busy hallway, getting run over by many other furs, having his tail stepped on, and stepping into three wrong classrooms, he found himself finally in his proper class. He sat in the middle of the room, his usual spot, exhausted from running through the hallway, and trying to wipe what he hoped was just dirt off his throbbing tail. With a morning prayer and a pledge of allegiance, both of which he just gave monotonous mumbles, the school day had started, and with none other than his favorite teacher: Mr. Schrodinger.
Algebra II was Scilius' favorite class, above all others, and the only class taught by a reptilian teacher. In fact, he only ever saw one other reptilian faculty member, although he didn't know that scale's name, but he worked in the office. Schrodinger paced around the board, his tan colored tail waving, already plastering new problems there less than five seconds after the bell. Schrodinger had such enthusiasm for what he taught, although the same couldn't be said for his students, most of whom already had their attention taken by something else. Some were talking to their neighbors, others were on their phones, and most of them had bad grades for the last quarter.
"Most of you," he said as he wrote, "got problems like these wrong." He pointed to a few of the scribbles he had just made. "Let's go over them..."
Scilius knew he couldn't pay attention properly, since he couldn't even see the board, but he wasn't worried; he had a perfect exam grade, he was chapters ahead in the textbook, and he remembered Schrodinger letting him off the hook the last time that he had been shedding. Besides, Schrodinger never had to worry about him paying attention in class. Once he could see again, he'd only need a quick review of the textbook, and he'd be good to go. It was just factoring, anyway, he could do that in his sleep, and sometimes, when he'd wake in the morning, he thought he had.
"And the solution set to this equation would be..." Schrodinger scanned across the classroom looking for someone to call upon, "Scilius?"
He had been taken off-guard by the question since he had put his head down. He looked up, unable to decipher the blurred scribbles on the board. He couldn't even tell which set of scribbles he was supposed to be looking at; Schrodinger had at least three other problems on the board.
"I don't know," he spouted out, stupidly. One or two furs turned their heads. Scilius didn't get questions wrong often.
Schrodinger gave him what he assumed was a questioning look. "Right, so we set the equation equal to zero, factor, and solve, and then we will know." Scilius still had no idea where he was even supposed to be looking.
"Umm, s - seven?" he said just to fill the silence. A few more muzzles turned to him, some of the students that were paying a little attention laughed.
Schrodinger looked at the board, "seven squared minus four is equal to twelve?" Schrodinger sounded concerned, but Scilius was relieved. It's x squared minus four is equal to twelve, he saw the numbers in his head.
"Oh, I mean, it's four and negative four," he didn't have to think much to solve it; he always thought difference of squares was the easiest thing to factor. Schrodinger was looking at him, curiously, but then stopped, and moved on with class.
"I guess Mr. Scilius might have to play things by ear for a while." He said it lightly before going on, and Scilius thought this might have been a stroke of good luck. And, aside from a few laughs, none of the furs seemed to notice him. Maybe, he thought pleasantly to himself, this might not be too bad, he sat back, claws resting behind his head with his eyes closed. Having a reptilian teacher is awesome. Having a real math teacher is awesome.
Scilius, only for a moment, was relieved of his fear of his surrounding classmates, who so far seemed none the wiser. They still annoyed him though; he could hear their constant talking and bickering around him, drowning out Schrodinger's lecture. Please, shut up, for fifty fucking minutes, just shut up. Schrodinger was far too deaf to notice the light rumble invading Scilius' ears: his hearing-aid might have been off. He knew it could have been worse, though, No one seems to have figured it out, at least.
Scilius only thought no one had learned the truth about his shedding from his conversation with Schrodinger. There was, However, one person who had noticed Scilius' affliction. Daniel, a large jock-like canine beast, had heard everything very well with his sensitive ears. He was what Scilius would call a bully, in simplest terms, perhaps he'd prefer to say "bane of his existence." There was no other fur that was more determined to make his life hell for him. Almost every rumor and joke he had the displeasure to hear had originated from Daniel himself. Every insult was harshest when coming from Daniel. And, worst of all, when he shed it was always Daniel who started the hordes of torment.
Daniel was functional enough to infer about Scilius' shedding from the conversation, and he had confirmed it when he looked at Scilus, whose left arm had a pink-ish red patch on it in addition to the slight pale rashy haze covering the rest of his scales. He took a deep breath and prepared to speak loud enough for the whole class, except for schrodinger, to hear.
"Montag has Polio, look at his skin, everyone run!" Every fur in the class, not very alarmed, turned towards him and the giggling wolf. Scilius had just lifted his head from his desk when Daniel spoke again.
"Nevermind, it's alright guys, he's not contagious, he's just shedding," Daniel pretended to be relieved. All eyes were focused towards Scilius, who had just lifted his head from his desk. The wave began to roll across the room. The word "shedding" mumbled throughout at a constant rate.
Before he could protest, a balled up piece of paper had hit him on the nose, which he hadn't even seen coming. Others followed and another paper ball was thrown, and more after that. Stopping only when Schrodinger turned his head, not noticing the papers strewn across the floor, then starting again when he turned back around. The fur behind him kept putting things down Scilius' shirt collar, and the furs to his left kept grabbing at his schoolbag.
Schrodinger was pacing in front of the classroom, ignorant of his students' lack of attention. He couldn't hear any of the room's silent jeers and antics, and defenseless, Scilius just put his head down, frustrated, wishing he could sleep through the entire week and wishing his mom would have just let him stay home. This class, they had to ruin even this class. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shut himself up from the aggressive world around him.
Scilius sat outside in the courtyard for his lunch period. He usually had a group of furs to sit with, just so he'd have somewhere with a table to eat, but, given his shedding, those friends are too dangerous to be around. They're some of the nicer animals in this school, but even they would love to jump on any opportunity to annoy him.
He hadn't cared that much about their company anyway. He'd just eat alone for a week, without a table or chair, not a big deal. He always preferred to be a loner, anyway; it was a lot easier that way, and it was a little warmer outside now, with the sky so clear.
He sat legs crossed in a patch of slightly damp grass under a tree whose leaves had already departed it. While continuing to take bites from his Turkey and Pepperoni sandwich, he had almost settled down from his paranoid state. But, it wouldn't last long.
A heavy backpack had been dropped onto the ground behind him, creating a large thud and invoking a flinch from the blind Scilius. Then, a student dropped down next to him.
"You're in our-" the figure paused, looking at the empty space at its side, "-my spot," the unfamiliar classmate said to him.
Scilius turned to look at the stranger. Through his blurry gaze he was able to classify the student, who he could tell was a reptile, like him. He could see the slender silver body and tail in a tight uniform; the face was blurred but was noticeably thin. And, he noticed the voice, obviously reptilian, with a feminine touch to it, one that was incredibly sweet despite its hiss. Who is she?
"Sorry," he mumbled, almost getting ready to go somewhere else.
"Whatever, you can stay. I need someone to talk to, anyway." She pulled something from her own bag to eat. It looked like a plastic bowl full of something green. Scilius didn't say anything, surprised to be welcome, and resumed his relaxed position. He didn't say anything, though; he was just staring off into what he though was empty space.
"Why are you looking at me like that," she said, startling Scilius, and almost laughing with her earthly voice.
"Wait!" she shouted, and suddenly her blurry snout, bordered by yellow globes, flew right in front of his, before he could react. She pulled away from Scilius, who had barely had time to flinch.
"Ohh! You're the scale that's shedding." She must have seen the haze over his eyes.
"Y- Yeah," Scilius said, still dumbstruck. To his surprise, she grabbed his left arm, raw with scratches, and examined it. He didn't resist her.
"Your skin doesn't look that bad," she said dismissively, "This one time when I was shedding, my skin had looked wicked. I mean it, the itchiest parts had turned blue." He saw the blur of her silver claw pointing at her blurry forearm. Her bragging put a smile on his snout.
"So why are you actually at school today, you don't take off when you shed?"
Scilius put his head back, "My mom wouldn't let me," in a mocking tone. She giggled and Scilius felt something in his chest.
"Ha-ha, Mommy's breathing down your neck?"
"Yeah, sort of. Yours doesn't?" Scilius saw her think for a few seconds.
"Not really, not as much as she probably could. She's embarrassing though." Scilius didn't say anything, but looked at her direction with an expectant smile, waiting for her to go on.
"Fine," she finally said, "so, back at middle school, she'd always kiss me before dropping me off, on my snout, and everyone would see." Scilius was suppressing a chuckle, trying to imagine what her mom might look like, even though he wasn't even certain what the other scale looked like.
"And I was too nice to tell her not to do it. All my friends teased me and - Oh be quiet!" she slapped him on the arm for laughing, but he could only suppress it to a giggle. He didn't mind being touched, even if it was a slap.
"And I thought my mom's breathing down my neck?" he laughed again, and she slapped him, again. He couldn't help but think about his own mom hugging him that morning. He decided not to say anything about it, no need to embarrass myself. "Did she say 'I love you' when she did it?"
"Yes! Really loudly, too!" They both shared a laugh.
She started to go on further, ranting about more experiences with her mother, and touching again on one instance of her shedding. Scilius didn't say much to add to the conversation, not being an avid talker. He only said a bit about his own mom, not about being kissed that morning, and dodged a question about his dad, thankfully she didn't pry.
"So, you didn't go here last year?"
He shook his head, "I moved here over the Summer."
She looked interested. "From where?" She asked a little too eagerly.
"Arizona. The weather's a lot better," he said the first thing that was on his mind.
"A lot warmer there, right," she folder her arms and pretended to shiver, "and more dry."
"Yeah," he nodded, feeling the air getting a little colder, "and a lot more reptiles."
"You get lot more furs in the wetter places. It's not too bad if you don't have allergies," she said as a joke.
"Allergies to ass-holes," he was speaking a little less lightly, then realized that he'd also cursed in front of her. She didn't seem to mind the vulgarity, but looked down for a second.
"They're not all bad," she sounded a little hurt. Scilius noticed her tone.
"No, of course not." He thought about his last class with Daniel, "but some can get on my nerves." He wasn't sure what had upset her.
"Agreed," she said, like she knew exactly who he was thinking of.
She changed the subject and kept the conversation rolling. He tried to stay quiet, so he could listen to her more intently. Her voice was deep, like most reptiles, but it still sang to him. Then, he became entranced with her steady flow of words. She was so buoyant and funny, going off onto long tangents talking about this and that. Before much time had passed, he felt his heart throb within him, beating to the rhythm of her speech.
And finally, just in time to ruin everything, the bell had rung. The mystical lunch was over, and this mystery girl, whom he thought he had never seen is his classes before, was now going. She stopped talking almost abruptly with the bell's tone and began to pick up her schoolbag. He felt his heart drop as, without another word from her, she stood up from her place on the ground next to him.
"OH," he stands up to follow her, "What's your name?" She stops and looks back at him.
"It's Elliot." She walks off as she speaks. "Goodbye Scilius, or, maybe I can call you 'Seven'" she said, giggling, before he could say anything else. She went on her way to class while he was stunned thinking about her pretty name: Elliot.
"She knew my first name." He thought about it to himself for a few minutes, walking to class in the same direction she had. "Seven?"
Scilius walked back into his house, still shivering from walking home in the cold weather, which had quickly became miserably chilling after lunch, lost deeply in his own thoughts. His mother wasn't home yet, so he walked straight into his room. He peeled off his shoes and threw his shirt on the floor, revealing patches of molting scales covering a slim green body, a few horns running down the length of his back, before falling into his bed, reaching onto the side to turn on the heating pad within it. He had no memories of the classes after lunch; he had almost slept through every minute of them. No, not slept, meditated.
He had spent his evening classes pondering about Elliot. He couldn't seem to keep his mind off her. Fruitlessly, he had tried to change the subject of his thoughts, but he kept coming back to the feeling within himself that he had for her. He hadn't even been able to see her properly, only able to perceive that she was a silver lizard, but her beautifully rough voice was still ringing in his head. The conversation he had and the laughs that have originated from it were amazing.
He knew the other female furs in his school, and they were intolerable. None of them resonated with him. Needless to say, he never found himself fond of any of them, but Elliot seemed so different, much different. He felt as if he had found a diamond in the rough, something perfect beyond all comparison. He could feel his attraction to her within the deepest part of his chest, radiating to the rest of his body, making it feel warm. I'm just being silly, he thought, it's just the heating pad, right?
He looked around him, at the blue walls and white ceiling. His room was so boring. It was unbearably quiet. If only she were here, then I could listen to her. He imagined how her voice would feel against his ears. He hugged his arms around his pillow, feeling himself getting heated by the bed. He wished that he could be holding her like this, having her ethereal body within his grasp. He'd believed that he would be willing to die for it. Wait, I've only just met her, I'm being a nut-job.
He felt his phone in his pocket, between him and the mattress. If I only got her number, maybe I could hear her voice, why didn't I ask. He started cursing himself for being so foolish, and then began to mourn every other mistake he thought he had made. Why was I so quiet, why didn't laugh more, why didn't I tell her about my mom, why did I say that all furs were ass-holes, why didn't I puff my chest out... Why... do I care so much?
He turned over onto his other side, giving him a brief break from his thoughts. When he did, a new thought had occurred to him. Do I really have a crush on her? It was a valid question for him. He though lustful thoughts before - well - often, but this was new. He'd just spent a few hours obsessing over her voice alone, which he thought was abnormal even for him; is that what people who have a crush do? He had no idea. He was accustomed to dwell on things a lot, but he was certainly more pensive than normal. What am I supposed to do now? Ignore it? No. I - don't want to do that.
He wasn't used to affection or emotion. He avoided it at all costs, but this time was different. He had felt the energy he had drain from his body when she walked away, robbing him of a sweeter version of that lovey-dovey feeling. He wanted to feel it again. But how?
I'll just see her again tomorrow, then I'll feel it, and figure everything else out later. He believed that would make him feel better for sure and hopefully clear his mind. The thought itself of being alone with her again brought a smile to his face. And then I'll... lascivious thoughts flashed within his mind, giving him an even broader grin and a tight sensation in his lower body.
He realized how far his thoughts had gotten him when he realized that his claw was wandering, inside his belt-less pants. No, he stopped himself, not about someone I actually know. Maybe that's a little too far ahead, anyway, he finally thought, but I can start with hearing her voice more, he resolved to himself, eagerly.
Then, his thoughts had brought him a frown. I saw her at lunch. He didn't know exactly where he was supposed to find her. He had never seen her before in his class, was she even a sophomore? Where would he see her? No. He heard her voice in his head again, "Goodbye, Scilius." His patchy green snout curved. We'll meet again, for sure.
He thought for a few seconds. Then he laughed, out loud alone in his empty room. Damn it mom. You might have been right. He almost felt guilty about complaining so much. If I skipped this week, would I have ever met her. He was almost wanting to apologize to her. That didn't stop him from hiding from her within his room for the rest of the night, though.
He was back in that bustling mall. Noise flooding into his ears, reverberating off the walls and growing stronger. He didn't hesitate to run this time, into his lone and abandoned alley, safe from the noises. Everything was calm and quiet, to his delight, but something out of the ordinary. He felt like he wasn't alone, and when he looked to his other side, he found that he was right. The familiar grey blur sat against the wall of the alley, like him.
"Hey, Seven." He wasn't alone like the last time he had fled here. He had company, but it was different: it was still quiet. Everything was still peaceful in his alley, and he could still smile. He looked at his new companion. It's even more peaceful now, he thought to himself.