Bitties! [Post for MoiyaHatake]

[snowintexasfrigginmelts]

Who: Leo Valdez and Sebastian Carter
When: Sixth grade >8D
What: Leo's the new kid, Sebastian's been bullied. Leo to the rescue?
Warnings: Course language, bullying?
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It was one of those schools.

Leo hadn't known what those schools were like until his mom died. In Houston? His school was kind of rough, but it was small, and he liked learning from his mom more anyway. He didn't have to put so much attention into the people, into fitting in, because he'd been there since the beginning. He had friends he'd invited to his birthday parties, and in return he'd go to theirs. All happy.

It wasn't like that anymore. Now, Leo had to pay attention to the people, because that's what kept him safe. If he got in with the right crowd, they wouldn't screw with him. Yeah, that meant bullies. That meant mean people, people who could take your head off. Leo had to get in right with them, smile and crack jokes and put up with the BS so he'd be safe. Anonymous in a good way.

These weren't those sorts of people, though. The school was kind of on the whitewashed side--not totally, but Leo didn't see many other hispanic or black kids. They weren't like his last school, either. When Leo raised his voice to (gasp) argue with the teacher? Everyone looked at him like he'd tried to shoot the guy or something.

Yeah, not one of those schools. Leo probably didn't help the situation in that math class by screwing with the projector when the teacher was answering a question (as usual, he ended up in the front and next to the teacher after he took one look at Leo's smile) to make have static in certain parts of the screen. Maybe into the shape of a smily-face with "x"s for eyes and stuff. Yup. Not a rough school.

It was weird having foster parents who actually could send him to an uppity school. It didn't really make much difference, and Leo was still bouncy in class, but still. It also meant he had a bunch of foster siblings though. And his foster parents had their own kids. Yeah, kind of really weird.

Leo grinned as he followed some of the other guys out to recess on his third day. They didn't let people go to recess as long here as they did at his last school.

Comments

[dulcet_cellist]

Sebastian, on the other hand, had been attending this school for a couple of years. He was used to the atmosphere. The teachers. The way things were suppose to be. Even the bullies and the teachers who turned a blind eye to the too emotional child who rarely spoke. The few times he had answered questions in class it was simply to avoid punishment.

Yeah. He knew the rules well.

Most of the time he could avoid the bullies by finding an out of the way place to hide during recess. Stick his nose in a book and wait. Sometimes they found him before he could escape quietly.

Today was one of those days. The book was snatched out of his fingers and a hard shove left a sharp sting on both knees and the palm of his right hand where he hit the cement.

"What are you reading today baby?"

"You do know girls wear dresses?"

"Is she crying yet?"

[snowintexasfrigginmelts]

Leo looked on, eyebrows raised. Right, like he could believe anything these idiots said, who didn't even laugh at his joke.

"Blind and a lawyer for a dad? Wow, I didn't think blind snakes could father kids. Or that your mom was into that sort of thing." Smiling, Leo listened to the chorus of ooooohs from the kids gathered around. HE completely ignored Sebastian, who was still prostrate on the ground. The kid with the lawyer for a father turned around, giving him a very dark look.

"What did you say about me?" Leo felt the air tense up.

"Oh, nothing that your daddy can't sue me for. Go on and tattle to him, go feel better, baby." While Leo was on the shorter side, at least among these kids, he was older than most of them. Not to mention, they were all rich white assholes. The kid turned an interesting shade of purple, made a rushed and rude gesture with a glance over his shoulder to make sure there wasn't a teacher watching, then kept going. Leo scoffed.

"Talk about a cry baby! Did you see the look on his face?" Leo directed this to the girls, pulling his best exaggerated copy of lawyer's brat. He was met with a few scattered laughs. "Too afraid to even tell me to fuck off!" That was met with a bunch of round eyes. Right. Eleven year olds who'd been sheltered under their parents. Leo glanced at Sebastian.

So what if he was gay? They all had their sins. Leo had burned his mother to death. They could piss on the bible and go to hell together.

[snowintexasfrigginmelts]

"Do what, tell a piece of shit like him off?" Leo snorted. "They had it coming. Up you go, man," Leo told him, offering Sebastian a hand. The kids dispersed, losing their interest, and the guy he'd walked in with gave him a wary look too before leaving to join another group.

"Your back okay? He has a mean throw.' Leo made a face. Baseball. That was one of the stupider sports he'd encountered.

[snowintexasfrigginmelts]

Leo stared at Sebastian. Damn. Boy was really sheltered, huh? "No, Valdez is. Where I come from, McShizzle is just a way of saying totally freaking awesome." Gullible kid was gullible. Leo wouldn't abuse it too much, really...

[snowintexasfrigginmelts]

"Hokori-Anderson--dude, what a mouthful..." Leo scrunched his nose up, and rolled his weight. "Right. Dude, you, go wash that in the bathroom or something, 'cuz I ain't cutting your hand off for you if that shit gets infected and rots." Like all the zombie shows!