“Do you even have friends, Exploder? Or do you just sit around all day, by yourself?” The sneers got worse as the girl looked down, refusing to meet their eyes. Her hands hung limply at her sides, fists clenching inside of the over-sized sleeves before falling limp as she tried to block them out. Tears began to prick at the corners of her eyes.
“You’re useless, you know that? You’ll never be good at anything.” One of the voices called out again, but she couldn’t tell which. They all sounded the same. It didn’t matter who it was any more. More of her attackers began to talk, shouting out slurs and insults, but she finally blocked them out. Unfortunately, she couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks. This caused a roaring laugh to erupt among the others. She simply stood, head hanging, fists clenching and unclenching, and skewered her eyes shut.
With no warning, a silence fell. She didn’t dare look up, didn’t even hope they would’ve just left like that. The moment stretched on almost unbearably until the soft scuffle of footsteps were heard. Soon after, an equally quiet, but powerful, voice spoke out.
“Maps, Siri, Facetime…don’t you think you have something better to do than harass IE?”
Not one to let himself look like he was being bossed around, Maps muttered out, “Don’t you have better things to do than bother us?” with dislike evident in his voice. However, within a few seconds echoes of three pairs of steps were vaguely heard, until they drifted off. Shortly, the last one joined them, becoming more distant.
Internet Explorer opened her eyes slowly, looking up to see her rescuer retreating into the crowd without a second glance. His bright red hair stood out until he disappeared deeper within to the throng, but she knew who it was. She’d always know who it was. Firefox.
With a sigh, the girl let out the breath she’d been holding and reached up, wiping away her tears as best she could with the oversized navy jacket. Eyes still red and puffy, she wrapped her arms around herself tightly and sunk down, back leaning against one of the pillars holding up the courtyard cover. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she looked out at the wall of students in the yard, not one of them wasting a look in her direction. Slowly, the young browser’s expression grew blank and she let her head fall forward on to her knees, simply waiting, uncaring.
Slowly, the sounds in the courtyard began to mix together and blend into white noise. Time passed by at a crawl, approaching the first bell with reluctance. She was miserable, felt that it would never-
“Hey! IE!” Something was poking her shoulder. Something was poking her shoulder while she was brooding.
After making sure she’d waited an appropriately long time to show that she had, in fact, been doing something, Internet Explorer raised her head with a dour look, knowing just who would be bothering her. However, the expression disappeared quickly as the perky, white-haired girl smiled down at her broadly, spreading the infectious grin.
“Morning, Java.” She murmured as her friend grabbed her arms and pulled the other girl to her feet in a somewhat-rough manner, causing her hood to fall backwards. “Pah!” She shook her head quickly, trying to get the blue hair out of her face quickly, but to no avail. It was determined to stick until she could at least free her hands to fix it.
“Why so down?” With no hesitation, Java’s expression turned dark, dangerous. “What happened?”
The browser shrugged a shoulder, vainly trying to pull a hand away. “Nothing,” she lied. Suddenly the pressure around one of her wrists was gone. She seized the moment to reach up and clear the hair from her face, only to feel the other girl’s hand clasp under her chin, making Internet Explorer meet Java’s eyes.
“Were the Apples bothering you again?” She practically hissed.
“Nothing happened, Java,” she insisted, staring up at her friend with wide, pleading, eyes. This only earned her a scoff.
“Don’t daisy-eye me. I know something happened. Are you hurt?”
“Daisy-eye?” Explorer muttered, wiggling to try and pull away.
Java released her, gently – at least her hold on her face. She slid her hand down the other girl’s arm, locking hands with her. “Daisies are yellow, doll,” she crooned.
“Are you hurt?” A squeeze of the hand made Explorer focus.
“Ow! Now I am! Stop squeezing.” The pressure didn’t lessen. “No, they didn’t hurt me. They left.”
“They just left?” The pressure lightened.
The pause stretched between them, and just as Java opened her mouth to say something, the bell rang and the front doors were pushed open. Students began to file inside quickly, and Internet Explorer felt herself being tugged along by the hand. “Java,” she hissed between her teeth as a few of their schoolmates jeered at the hand-holding.
“What?” The program shot back. “We’re allowed to hold hands, we’re best friends. If they can’t handle it, they can shove it-“
“Java!” The program huffed.
“I’m just saying. It’s not like we’re doing anything wrong or even worth staring at. What if we were dating? So what.”
“I think Skype would be jealous,” IE muttered. Java began to laugh, slowing her pace as they neared Explorer’s first class.
“Skype would probably encourage it. You know how boys are.” Eyes forward, Java failed to notice as Explorer reached up with her free hand and pulled her hood over her head, then stuffed the hand into her pocket. When they reached the door, before her friend could say anything, IE pulled her arm away and darted inside, with only a muttered farewell as she did so. The program stood, watching the browser go, and then turned to head to her own class with a shake of her head.
As the bell rang to signal the start of class, Internet Explorer immediately withdrew. The teacher spared her a glance as he stepped up to the whiteboard, but nothing more. This was routine. This was normal. This was good. The class passed quickly, students around the room taking notes or not, talking or silently doing the examples.
With only a few minutes remaining, all around the room people began to pack up their bags. The young browser simply sat and waited, having never unpacked in the first place, staring off into space and waiting for the signal to leave.
A hand fell upon her shoulder.
Startled, she whipped around, coming face to face with a boy with silver hair and deep blue eyes. Confused, she stared at him, not recalling that being his normal seat. Finally, recognition kicked in.