First Day of School (Pt. 1)

--- Jon ---

“So, no training today?” He couldn’t help but ask with a touch of suspicion as he put another egg on a plate.

“Nah, figured you could do with a bit of extra time to try and sort out whatever you need for school today.” His ma explained as he set her plate in front of her.

“All I need to do is grab a schedule and show up to class.” He told her, making his own plate. “Nothing special about any of that.”

“I suppose.” His ma agreed in a noncommittal way. “You going to be okay making your way there, or do you want a lift?”

“I can make it there easily enough.” He assured her. “Honestly given the time I’ll probably just walk there. Won’t be able to sit through the day if I don’t go for a run or something at the very least.”

That was something he’d learned after his first couple of summers at camp. If he didn’t do a minimum amount of moving in a day, he’d get more and more antsy until he had to move.

“Yeah, I get like that every so often to.” His ma admitted, before giving a snort of amusement. “Trust me once you hit a certain age, that’ll start to burn off. Hell, you might even miss it some days.”

“The joys of growing old?” He asked wryly.

“Something like that.” His ma chuckled as she sipped at her coffee.

---

Once he and his ma had finished their breakfast, he made his way back to his room, where he found his backpack and zipped it shut as he slipped it on, making sure to put an arm through each strap –(for good back posture)- before taking a look around the room.

“Pix?” He called, waiting a moment as he tried to find any sign of the little fairy, only to find none.

Eventually he shook his head with a sigh.

(Guess she doesn’t want to talk to me since I’m not letting her go with me…) He figured, remembering that no matter how much she liked him, the little fairy was still a fairy, a race rather infamous for holding a grudge and getting even with people.

(Nothing to it.) He decided, knowing Pix wouldn’t forgive him until she was either even or sufficiently bribed. (I’ll just have to remember to bake her something sweet when I get out of school later.)

Shaking his head, he made his way out of the apartment and down to street level where he ran into Mr. Petrovitch with his two grandkids trailing just behind him.

“Privyet young Whitaker!” The older man greeted. “Off to school?”

“Yeah,” He nodded, “you three going to school too?”

“Da, little Natalia starts her third year and young Sergey begins middle school today!” Mr. Petrovitch proclaimed proudly, even as his granddaughter hid behind his leg shyly.

“Oh, that’s very impressive.” He told the children, “Those are very big years, takes a lot of work to get that far.”

Sergey didn’t look like he really believed him, but Natalia ducked further behind her grandfather at his compliment.

“You’re in high school this year, da?” Mr. Petrovitch asked as Jon held the door open for the family.

“Yeah, same as last year.” He nodded.

“And don’t you go to school with George’s daughter, Aliyah?” Mr. Petrovitch asked. “Why aren’t you two going together?”

“Oh, uh, Mr. Jefferson drops all of his kids off at school, so I don’t really walk with her all that often.” He tried explaining, knowing how Mr. Petrovitch could be. “That said, I was going to go for a bit of a run before school, so…”

“Ah, yes, don’t let us slow you down. A young lad like you needs to keep in shape and put some meat on those bones.” Mr. Petrovitch laughed, patting Jon’s back with a little more force than most could handle.

“Yeah, heh, I’ll do that…” He agreed, his own laugh more awkward since he didn’t want to offend the man for being perfectly nice on a morning he wasn’t quite feeling it.

(After all you should treat people how you want to be treated, and Mr. Petrovitch is a perfectly good guy.)

---

The trip to his school was relatively quick, even if on foot, though that might’ve just been that he’d become fairly quick footed when running from the Corrupted back in the Blackwell forests. (After all, just because they’ll pursue you until you’re dead, doesn’t mean you can’t move to better ground.)

He was actually kind of thankful for the concrete under his feet, it had a completely different feel from the forest dirt and foliage, (just enough to keep from triggering an episode.)

Realizing that, he couldn’t quite keep the grin off of his face.

“You know what, so what if I’m feeling a little… off. I can still have a good day. I just got to keep up a can-do attitude.” He told himself cheerily.

(And hope I don’t accidentally shiv anyone.) A stray thought popped out as someone bumped into him from behind while murmuring ‘freak’. (Like that guy.)

“Nope. Can-do attitude.” He repeated sternly, being sure to remove his knife and stuff it into his backpack before he could make that mistake.

As he walked past the metal school gates, he took a look around the yard of his standard brickwork school. Taking note of the fact that a number of teens had shown up early and were already gathering into little groups in front of the school, several he couldn’t help but notice were wearing gang colors or markings, and several who –(thankfully)- weren’t.

And upon noticing this groups he found his attention drifting as an almost hopeful part of him began looking for Aliyah Jefferson, a shy bookish girl who was both Mr. Jefferson’s daughter and one of the few people at his school Jon could tentatively call 'friend'.