Boring Reality

Many times, Gregory Buckland had wished for a superhero to save him. Like after his parents' divorce, when he had been forced to move into the states. Like when his grandmother on his mother's side had been seriously ill. Definitely now, as he fixed his eyes to the ground and shuffled out of the class.

He should have stuck to his rule. Not asked questions. Not done anything that made him noticeable.

Better not make eye-contact. Then he could pretend his classmates weren't whispering about him. A few of them bumped him on the way to the lunch room, but he didn't react. Everyone would soon forget about him.

The lunchroom was already crowded when he reached, and the bigger tables taken by large groups of friends. He grabbed a lunch tray and took his place in the queue which was as huge as always. Gregory peered over the heads before him to count the number of students. To stop himself from being bored, he liked to think that he had a superpower which allowed him to read other people's minds… and pretended to use his "power" on those around him.

Like he could guess what the lunch lady was thinking. She must be bored with her job and thinking of the number of students she still had to serve.

The person before him was talking about the newly released cell phone… so he was wishing that he could get one. Many people were surely thinking about the new superhero movie that would be released in town. Two girls were watching a video of a cat which had made friends with a chicken. For some reason.

And Ben was looking around to decide who his next victim should be.

Ben.

Ben wasn't a regular bully. He didn't hit people, but his words did… Ben had to be the winner, in sports, studies and even the selection for class monitor. And if you were better than him? Good luck surviving school.

Gregory wasn't exceptional in anything so (fortunately?) he had never been Ben's victim. It definitely helped that he kept a low profile.

But Ben didn't seem to be in the mood for bullying today. Gregory watched him plop down at a table heavily and dig into his lunch.

"Move over, boy," the lunch lady growled. "We don't have all day."

Gregory took his lunch tray to the farthest, most unnoticed table and plopped down. Though he sat alone, he liked to watch other kids mingling among themselves. He grinned as one of the boys in his class – Ray, his name was – sat down at a nearby table.

One of his friends – also from his class, Garby – raised his eyebrows. "Wow… didn't you say you like plant-eating animals more than meat-eaters? And you still have chicken on your plate?"

Another boy intervened before Garby could answer. "He says he likes plant-eaters more… because they mind their own business while meat-eaters just go on to annoy the plant-eaters. Sort of how you annoy us."

"Well, that makes you a hypocrite, right… because…"

"No, it doesn't," Ray replied with a grin. "It just means that I like what I like."

Someone called out. "Using big words won't get you a girlfriend, Garby."

Garby narrowed his eyes. "I don't need one."

"Oh really… because your face turns red every time Leally passes by… speaking of which, there she is…"

Garby's eyes widened and he ducked below the table, hitting his head with a loud "Uff". Everybody else at the table doubled up in laughter. Gregory grinned, imagining himself as a part of that group…

A loud crash broke into his thoughts.

One of the tables had fallen to the floor, and Ben slowly emerged from behind it. There was a cut on his cheek but he was grinning.

He had found his victim.

"You just proved my point," sniggered Ben. "You are just an oaf whose main power lies in his fists."

"Stop," growled Casey. Gregory remembered him from Mr Mantell's class… but the whole school knew him as the new star athlete of the soccer team. Naturally, he was Ben's new favourite person to pick on.

"I cannot control myself."

"Of course! You need brains for that."

Casey growled again and swung a fist at Ben's head, but he ducked. At this point, more people had started gathering, and… Gregory realized with dismay that most of them were surrounding Casey. That was the problem; an enemy of Ben made you the enemy of the school. No one dared offend the most popular guy at school.

If his Aunt Unara was here, she would have done something about it. He had often heard stories from his mother, of how she had been the upholder of justice in her school days and had a habit of rescuing victims from bullies, and since most bullies were stronger than her, a habit of getting beaten up. But Aunt Unara hadn't seemed to care, as long as she stopped the fight. She was a true hero.

Unlike Gregory, who only wanted to be a superhero but never seemed to muster the courage to stop bullies from bullying.

He winced every time Casey managed to score a hit. But Ben didn't seem to mind. He danced out of the way as Casey's fist smashed into the wall… he yowled in pain. Casey turned, panting, as Ben called him more names.

"Stop… this…"

He raised his fist for another punch when a hand grabbed his wrist mid-air.

The lunchroom fell silent. The tall, imposing figure of Mr Mantell stepped into the room. He frowned, looking all around before his eyes returned to Casey.

"What is this all about?" he asked, and Casey sputtered.

"He started it, sir… he called me names…"

"Those were just jokes, sir!" Ben made wide, innocent eyes at Mr Mantell. "I was just messing with ya, man…"

"They might have been jokes, Ben," said Mr Mantell, his voice low. "But I am absolutely serious when I say that, you will be removed from the school soccer team if I see you fighting… both of you." He pointed a finger at Casey, who tried to protest.

"But sir, that's not fair…"

"It is if you think about it. How are you supposed to play together on the field when you fight between yourselves? Your field trip is just in two days… if you injure yourselves, how can you go?"

There was a chorus of groans and an equal number of cheers at the mention of the field trip. Gregory wanted to cheer but his mother never let him go on field trips, so he might just as well groan.

But this year… she just might?

His thoughts were interrupted as the students were shooed outside the building. Casey and Ben had made a mess of the lunch room, and it would take time to clean... Gregory stared across the playground where a group of boys were kicking a ball here. He felt even more out of place here.

Until a flash of blue caught his eye.

He blinked and turned towards it, but found nothing. He started to turn away, when… there!

Nestled amidst the tall grass was a bird. It was about the size of a crow but with bright blue feathers… he had seen nothing like it before. Before the divorce, he used to go on bird-watching trips with his father and some of that old excitement crept back into his bones.

He started edging towards the bird. It was facing away from him. Birds could sense the shadow of someone falling on them… also hear if you made a loud sound… so he had to be careful. There were just a dozen feet between them… now ten… then eight… six… four…

"Uff!"

The wind was knocked out of him. The next moment, Gregory found himself on the ground, clutching his belly. A soccer ball rolled on the ground a few feet away.

"I am so sorry!"

The speaker was a tall, lanky boy with messy hair and serious eyes. He raised a hand to let him up. "Are you hurt?"

Gregory wasn't. But the bird was nowhere to be seen… disappointment welled up inside him, which he dismissed with a sigh.

"I am really sorry…" continued the lanky boy. " I didn't mean to… if you want…"

"It's cool, man."

Forcing a grin at the boy, he limped back towards the building. At the entrance, he turned once… but the bird wasn't back. The boys' toilet directly overlooked the playground, so he took several bathroom breaks for the rest of the day.

But the bird didn't turn up.

Disappointing, really, because there had been something strange about the bird which he hadn't been able to place… none of the other students had seen it either.