Returning To School
The next day, it was gray and cloudy outside in the morning. Just as Phesx Caolia was enjoying the day, sleeping even after 7 am, his door opened, welcoming the sight of schoolgirl Lorena. She looked at his sleeping self and pouted, shaking her head in disappointment. Walking to his bed, she kicked the mattress before placing her fists on her hips.
“Tsk, tsk. Seriously. If it’s sunny, it’s too bad of a weather, and you rather stay here until late. But if it’s cloudy or raining, you rather enjoy it here until late. Sigh,” Lorena knew he was awake and commented. Phesx Caolia opened his eyes and stared at her cute little thighs.
“Mmm, chicken?” He mumbled, making Lorena stare ahead with her spirits gone. She flicked his forehead before turning around and leaving, at least knowing boys would notice the change in her clothing. With contented steps, she left his bed, and soon, the mansion.
Phesx Caolia smiled, rubbing his face left and right as he continued to take naps, waking up to look at the sky, and then continue resting. He was unstoppable. However, his day was ruined when his last nap was welcomed by a light, sunny day.
He was already 16, and after reading Victor’s collection for a few months, everything except math was well-known to Phesx Caolia, but only to the level of a student his age. With Marisela advising him to consider, he would soon enter a school. What’s more, it would be the same Lorena attends. If anything, that’ll become another source of good points for him in the future, protecting Lorena from up close.
It was no longer a secret that he was actually in the military, at least to the Ruvas, also becoming something only Phesx Caolia had the right to speak about himself if he wanted. Today, he would just go to the first visit with his allocated psychiatrist.
After checking his phone and playing a few entertained little games, the young boy stood up and wore the same clothes he went to sleep with, not pajamas, before going downstairs. By now, it had been 2 hours since Lorena left in her new tights.
Phesx Caolia had breakfast as the workers of the mansion cleaned worked around the mansion. It would be the last day for the week, so they were more at ease and less serious than the rest of the weekdays. The adults worked around the buildings and on their rooftops, while their kids helped clean around.
Phesx Caolia was just putting some books in a backpack, an ordinary one that any student would wear, when he heard things from the outside. It came from the workers’ children cleaning some leaves, branches, and junk that comes into the mansion by rain or wind.
“Did you see her today? Whistle, she wore new white ones. Tighter and showy, heh heh heh.” One of the kids said to the rest, including the girls around. They were around Lorena’s age. The only reason they were here during the morning and not at school like Lorena might be they’re homeschooling or receiving lessons via the internet.
Any of those options are cheaper and more feasible for managing their time. In this case, they worked during the first hours of the sunlight, while studying during the evening and night, perhaps.
“Hey, don’t speak of her like that.” Another kid said, wearing a sleeveless gray shirt, showing his thin brown arms and fragile figure. At least it looked that way in Phesx Caolia’s eyes, as he drank a bit of hot chocolate inside the house.
“Or what? Ey, are you gonna keep rising your chin for a chick who doesn’t even respect you?” The previous one nudged his head upwards, provoking the other kid. The latter shook his head before turning his head.
Just then, the provoking kid added with a snarky smirk from corner to corner of his mouth. “Not like you wouldn’t grab her if we lend her to you when we get to fuck her.”
“Ergrrr!” The other kid turned around, scrunched his face in anger, and rushed at the provoking fella. He tackled the latter down, punching his face twice before changing to slaps. The other kids stepped back quickly, stretching their necks before finally trying to stop them, with their words.
“Don’t hit him!” - “Fight back!” - “What are you doing? Oh my heavens!” - “Stop it! Someone’s looking at us!”
The provoking kid was on the ground, with his face bruised and his tears spilling everywhere. The other kid straddling him stopped, lifting his right hand but didn’t lower it again. He stood up, getting off the crying kid before turning around, where the others were looking.
Calmly stepping out of the main building, Phesx Caolia checked the sides, where some adults looked at this scene, stopping their work. A pair looked at this with utmost complication. They were clearly the 2 kids’ dads. The father of the provoking kid seemed about to come down the roof and start reprimanding the other kid, whichever way that might be.
Phesx Caolia ignored the sight of the fathers, cleaning his front teeth and placing his mug on the grass before arriving in front of the other kid. The crying kid was encircled by some of the other kids, looking at the gray shirt-kid’s back with hatred.
“That’s not the proper way to defend someone. You don’t just wait and let something happen again and again. Lorena is no princess, but seeing her parents’ money allows you to eat some candy you like or buy different things, a little respect is only fitting.” Phesx Caolia said, looking at the kid before him and the others before resting his eyes on the former again, “And you.”
Slap. After unceremoniously slapping the kid, Phesx Caolia nudged his chin upwards and shamelessly said, “You either do it well or not at all. And procure not being seen when causing trouble like this.”
With that, Phesx turned around to leave. His slap wasn’t ruthless, but neither was he lenient. The kid was stunned, but yelled after touching his left cheek and seeing his aggressor walk away. “I did not cause trouble!”
“But you just did?” Phesx Caolia looked back and said, not stopping, before proceeding to ignore him and return to the house. Marisela was in the kitchen, preparing a soup with rich aroma coming from a stewpot, with Rubena at the side, giving some indications in her wheelchair.
“Ah… I didn’t intend to-” Phesx Caolia halted and said, trying to excuse himself, but Marisela looked at him with gentle eyes before speaking, “Hush. If there’s one thing I know is that I cannot handle such fine details when managing people. My father was different. If he hadn’t slapped sense into me when I was younger, I might’ve never met Victor.”
“As a matter of fact, my father didn’t discipline me enough and still nearly missed my life with Victor. But you’re a kid still. Even if you wanted to bully those younger kids, I trust you’ll find your way of living slowly, and not through rash, inconsiderate actions.” Marisela stopped before smirking a little, “What if he becomes Lore’s husband in the future? He’ll get you back for this.”
“Well, he does want to enter the military, it seems.” Phesx Caolia relaxed, tilted his head and looked in the upper right corner of his eyes before saying. Marisela looked at him, perplexed, before laughing a bit. “Oh, so you had plans in mind? Wanting to recruit him with a hard hand?”
“Young kids these days,” Marisela stopped teasing the young boy and said, returning to the soup. Phesx Caolia picked his backpack from the kitchen table before heading outside. He bid farewell to her, “I’m returning later, then.”
“To your mother, too.” Marisela suddenly said while cutting some carrots and looking down. Phesx Caolia stopped for a couple of seconds before systematically saying without looking back. “I’m returning later, mom.”
With direct steps, he went out of the mansion and left the 2 mothers alone in the kitchen. The tone Phesx Caolia spoke with kept the kitchen and adjacent living room silent before Marisela softly voiced, “Maybe it’s best to not force him.”
“Haha, right?” Rubena said lightly before coughing a few times.
… Phesx Caolia took his bike and went into the streets. He had a little garage built next to the others, even the one made for the Lorena from the future. Wearing his helmet, Phesx went into the streets, this time farther than Victor has helped him practice around, towards the city center.
Phesx Caolia never missed the occasional smell from the sea, nor the hotness it would sometimes bring further inland. Choosing Sargonde was enough. He didn’t need to live in Lýmoca’s east to… let go of whatever he should let go.
Biking to the center of the city, Phesx Caolia showed his refugee and permit to drive at such a young age to some state police officers twice. Those from the post offices and arm bureaus didn’t bother with him, being more humane than the bored ones from the police departments.
Arriving to a wide plaza, with a tall front structure with an equally large digital screen high up, Phesx Caolia parked his bike in a lower demotion parking zone, where he could lock his bike just under the ground level. Taking his helmet off, he looked at the digital screen, wearing obscure green sunglasses that covered his eyes from the sides, not losing comfort.
There was a news anchor program of an old man talking about something to others in a round table. 3 women and 5 men, with subtitles on the lower end of the screen. It would be comically disordering if there was volume so that everyone could hear. It read as follows:
“Yes, indeed. And the president has done things targeting the poor of Lýmoca. We’re just 3 short years away from the next elections, and he’s doing just what he did in his previous last 3 years, but in 6 now. Appealing to the most needed, saying he is doing all of this for them, but just goes after his interests!”
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“Ah, ah. And how is that so? Can you tell us?” - “Well, you see. It’s very simple… He’s ‘bribing’ them! That’s illegal. I’m telling you, he’ll run for president again, that’s what he’s going to do! The greed… his nature is like that, hidden from view! Nobody sees it yet, they’re all blind.”
“When you think of the previous president, he only had 31% points, just a few percentages more than second place. That is not normal. But now, this Luis Heartez has gained more than 50% two times in a row? He even surpassed it, achieving nearly 52% last elections. We’ve been conned!”
“He has taken more than 510 million credits for the last nearly 10 years in power, and this is just for himself. Who knows what he does ‘for’ his family. Besides his daughter, he has an aunt living in Omecó, another in Lydwe, many cousins in Pretetl and Lyekes. Everyone from the south, and they are involved, too! Does everyone really believe he’s supporting the south because ‘they are needy’? No! He’s afraid of ANS finding him out. Billions are going to his clan as we speak!”
“I see. That makes sense when thinking about it. The country has seen nothing, no improvement after almost a decade. Even with our inflation slightly decreasing, everything keeps rising…”
“…” Phesx Caolia wasn’t the only one looking at the screen, but this was the first time he had contact with the politics of any nation; of the world. He couldn’t form much of a thought with just this, but he did have an impression, ‘So it’s like that everywhere, huh?’
Not wanting to think of Preut anymore, Phesx Caolia left the demotion parking zone and headed into the plaza’s giant structure. A hospital was just inside. The palace was enormous, and many people walked in, out, and around it every hour, let alone the entire day.
10 minutes later, he sat in a hall, waiting for his turn while listening to some music with earphones. He read a book whose cover was hidden in his backpack. His head slightly tilted to the left and right as he looked ahead, seemingly not noticing a cutie blondie similar to his age smiling at him.
When the blondie became tired of trying to be seen by him, and an interested young boy walked to her out of boredom from his seat, the receptionist called Phesx Caolia’s name. Despite having loud volume and closed eyes, Phesx Caolia immediately stood up and walked to the door.
The female receptionist tried to warn him of something, appearing worried, but he neared the door when it just opened, nearly kissing another person who was just coming out. The latter was a tall young boy, who frowned and walked away, his smile erased. Phesx Caolia innocently blinked before looking into the room, where the psychiatrist looked at him, startled.
With a gesture to come in, Phesx Caolia stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He heard the psychiatrist’s muffled voice, a woman’s, before pulling his earphones off. “Oh, thank you for closing the door. So, you’re Phesx, right?”
“Mhm,” Phesx Caolia sat down and exclaimed. The woman had curly hair, creamy brown skin, and thick, curly chestnut hair. She wore large glasses and looked at a load of documents, commenting before initiating his first visit. “You don’t want others to hear your voice? It’s okay, you can speak up. It's soundproof.”
‘It is… unusually soundproof. But she’s still here. Can’t she notice?’ Phesx Caolia thought, looking around. Not even the soundproof rooms in the Ruvas’ mansion are this good. How could a government worker as psychiatrist manage this?
“Well, it’s fine. I heard from your voluntary foster care guardians that you don’t like crowded spaces and being social,” the woman started the session. However, Phesx Caolia had other thoughts as she went on, ‘No. They clearly have said I don’t feel well in broad spaces with multitudes of people, and that I am an introvert. I only speak with others when they talk to me.’
“Oh, sorry. Do you mind taking your glasses off? I’d like taking a look at your eyes for a better, honest communication.” The psychiatrist said after looking at Phesx Caolia, pausing her words. Phesx Caolia waited for a moment before taking his sunglasses off.
“Very well,” the woman nodded before starting to ask him many things. Half the interview was about his thoughts on his current days in comparison to when he was in Preut, but it was put much more softly in the well-worded questions she made him. The other half was about his current lifestyle in Lýmoca’s society.
At last, about to wrap up, the woman showed thin hints of getting boring through her words’ vibrations in the air and her every detailed body movement before Phesx Caolia’s eyes. Hers were also a little more static, relying on moving her head to look around her. Phesx Caolia blinked before she voiced, “Now, there’s just one more thing we have to clear up, alright?”
“What is it?” Without changing his semi-broken, soft voice, Phesx Caolia spoke with a polite tone, appearing as young as he looked, and as he is.
“I’m only going to ask you a question. All I want you to know is that… if you need more to talk about, someone else, or think that it would be unfitting to tell me, you can just reply with a vague answer. The important thing is you do what’s best for you. You know this, right?” The woman tilted her head and slid her hands through the desk towards him.
‘What a… strange question.’ Phesx Caolia’s mind intensified a little before coughing to the side, making her hands stop from growing near to his and retract. He accommodated his butt on the chair and nodded at her, “Okay.”
“Very well. So, tell me,” the woman’s eyes slightly watered without crying. Phesx Caolia’s light black eyes looked at them, showing nothing in them. She continued, “Do you feel anything else? A thought others can’t see through? Something you feel inside your heart? A need to do something you don’t want to? Whether you know it’s good or bad? Do you need more help, Phesx?”
“…” Phesx Caolia’s head rumbled a bit, like a quake remaining light and soothed, only increasing in its volume as floods of images, sounds, and sensations went back to him from the past. It wasn’t haunting, nor chasing him through time, it was a reaction to the thought of need; he wanted more. He…
‘I really didn’t like hearing my name like this… I really… hate my name.’ Phesx Caolia’s fingers caved in, twisting and pressing on his thighs, just above his knees, under the table and far from the woman’s eyes. Then, his mind reset. The rumbling stopped, the noise went away, but everyone around him in the dark corners and walls watched.
‘I’m growing bored.’
“Phesx?” The woman’s gentle words and another tilt to the left grabbed Phesx Caolia from everything. He felt like he just left a pool of lukewarm water and felt the humid temperature hug him in comfort.
“No, miss.” Phesx Caolia answered.
“Well then, that’ll be it. You have nothing to worry about. It seems that your guardians have been very efficient. Most kids are burdened by what they lived. You can go, Phesx. If you want to come again, just make an appointment, and you can also choose from someone who has already worked with you. Just saying. Go on, you’re free.” The woman said, storing some documents in a thick portfolio.
“Thank you,” Phesx Caolia nodded before standing up. Although it was all over, according to her words, she seemed a little… disappointed? Either way, Phesx Caolia opened the door. It looked like someone either didn’t pay attention before, or wanted to copy him, as a cute blondie stood in front of the door.
“Oh! Sorry~,” she stepped in as soon as she saw it was Phesx Caolia. In his eyes, she reacted very slow. Almost like she wanted to be punched four times in a row. Phesx Caolia’s muscles tensed, and her little ‘accidental’ bump didn’t help. But he kept his reaction steady and looked like a teenager finding love, baffled.
“It’s okay…” Phesx Caolia voiced, about to walk away, when the girl softly placed her left hand fingers on his right wrist and said, “Where were you from? I was from Prona-”
But Phesx Caolia immediately jerked his forearm away, almost like he was burnt. Then, he walked away, putting his sunglasses on. He heard the girl stomp into the room, with a strong emotion of humiliation at… being rejected? Phesx Caolia wanted to lie and just relax.
Walking to the exit, the young boy who chatted that blondie before looked disheartened, but he still gave Phesx Caolia a loathing stare. Once again, Phesx Caolia felt like just stopping moving and refuse to move until his body trembled out of hunger. How could he have time for teenage drama?
Returning to his bike, he rapidly unlocked the demotion parking lock and sped away. He was stopped another 3 times, one by the same state cops, in which he was all silent and just showed them his permit and refugee ID. He had to return home and lie on something to do nothing.
. . .
Next week, just 3 days later. Phesx Caolia walked into the Ojazul school.
This is Lorena’s school, which she has attended since this year. Simply put, she has been here for 2 months and some weeks, while Phesx Caolia had just started his scholarly life. He was a little late, but it would be fine.
It was how he entered the school that was problematic. To imagine the youngest little darling holding the arm of an older boy, looking all meek and affectionate after dedicating many thoughts about life was heart crushing. Many younger boys gave Phesx Caolia bad, evil, cannibal glares, wanting to punch his face and grab the beauty.
Meanwhile, as Phesx Caolia felt his right arm hostage, he talked to the bubble gum coiling around him. “Where’s yours?”
“Oh, it's 2 hallways down that way. Pick me up. I want to ride with you, okay?” Lorena looked up at him and buried her chin on his arm. She wanted to threaten him with pain, but Phesx Caolia barely felt anything. He only felt she was really cute, and for whatever reasoning, he softened up.
“Sigh. Sure,” Phesx Caolia showed an annoyed appearance when attending one of the school princesses, while the princess in question smiled and rubbed her face on his arm. Death loomed over them, teenage, milk-smelling, toy death.
“Well, you’re in the ‘latecomers’ classes, so you’ll have intense lectures for the first few days to catch up, but you’ll actually be less time in the school. Don’t go around with some beauties, at least let me help you build a pre-story to attract the real ones with jealousy, kay?” Lorena babbled on.
Nodding his head, Phesx Caolia rolled his eyes and walked until arriving at his classroom. He didn’t know where it was, and if he did, he didn’t know how to look for it. When they finally arrived, they walked for nearly 7 minutes. Of course, Lore took a few long, touristic view routes, but the school was really big.
It was also half an hour away through the main roads, which allowed a lot of speed and safety to the city and the surroundings. That meant it was a bit faraway, from 50 minutes to an hour and a half away from the mansion outside that main road.
“Okay, we’ve arrived. Please behave and don’t slap anyone, okay? It might be too much at the beginning. You’re 2 years late, after all, but make an effort.” Lorena said, disarranging his clothes and making his already strange hair have a worse appearance.
“Yeah, yeah. What are you doing still here? Piss off, you little fly,” Phesx Caolia pinched her nose several times as she stuck her tongue out before hearing footsteps heading his way. Looking back, he saw a professor who looked a lot like the one his schedule illustrated. He slapped her bum, making Lorena blush crimson without anyone noticing before entering the classroom.
Lorena walked away with her arms backwards and blushing face staring at the floor. The professor shook his head as he passed by, not knowing what happened exactly, but having an inkling. ‘Ah, young love. So disgusting.’
…