Day 1 12:17
Barrett looked down at Presley, the crying kid balled up in the corner with a mix of pity and annoyance. Presley was clearly in one of his panic attacks face buried into his knees and arms wrap over his head as he desperately tried to block out the noise that came from being in a room with so many people.
Presley was not Barrett’s friend, but Barrett was Presley’s, probably his only one in the entire school. No one actually liked Presley not even Barrett. He had interesting hobbies but would talk about them so much everyone in his classes had given up on trying to listen to what he said and just waited for him to stop so they could continue the conversation he interrupted. If someone liked trains that was cool, if someone liked trains so much that they interrupted the teacher’s lesson to lecture the class about random train trivia then it got annoying.
Still, Barrett didn’t despise him like so many others and was as nice as possible to the struggling kid. Mostly because Barrett himself would probably be the same as Presley if his parents hadn’t been as involved as they had.
The entire world had flipped upside down in the last five minutes and they were now trapped with no way out. Barrett was glad he had moved past his phase where he would cry in stressful situations but being crammed in here with thousands of others was starting to freak him out. Now wasn’t the time to break down though, according to the timer on the strange device something was about to happen.
He needed to focus if he was going to make it out of whatever this was. Looking down at Presley again Barrett realized that the poor kid wouldn’t be able to do anything so it was going to be up to him to take care of him. Barrett squatted down to Presley’s level. It was probably pointless but, if he could calm Presley down even a little bit before whatever this orientation thing it would make a world of difference.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Okay, Presley I know this is hard but you need to calm down,” Barrett spoke in the most soothing f voice he could manage. “Just listen to my voice, ignore everyone else just listen to me.” To his surprise, it worked and Presley looked up out of his lap and looked a Barrett with his puffy red eyes. ” You don’t need to talk just nod your head so I know you can hear me.”
Presley nodded in reply, that was good it meant he understood.
“Okay, the timer little black timer on our wrists says something is going to happen in a little bit.” As he spoke Barrett lifted his own arm to show what he was talking about.
Presley took one of his right hand off his head to look at it then nodded back. Barrett was surprised by how much was getting through, in the past he had seen Presley break down because a teacher refused to change the formatting of a test to one question per page which would be more readable to his mentally divergent brain. Unsurprisingly Presley was failing that class and most of his other classes including PE.
“It’s okay that your upset but I need you to be ready for whatever it is that’s gonna happen. Do you think you can stand up?” It really wasn’t okay but now wasn’t the time, Barrett needed Presley somewhat prepared for whatever happened next.
Presley shook his head back and forward giving a pretty definitive no. Well, that was a pain but Barrett knew he was lucky to get this far. Barrett had acted the same way in elementary and middle school, and probably still would if his dad hadn’t verbally bitch slapped him into growing up. Barrett was grateful though, and would choose those harsh words again a thousand times if it meant he wasn’t a crying baby like the one before him.
Life was hitting both of them like a tsunami and Barrett was glad he was a sturdy rock and not the crying toddle like Presley before him. Still, Barrett has going to do the best could to Shelter Presley from the oncoming wave, it was the right thing to do.