Snippet Sunday: Leech Children
Who was this angry little boy standing between her and the other boys? This little angry boy with messy curls, beige olive skin, and a bleeding nose? Why had he jumped in between her and the gruff boys that had pushed her around? He was so small compared to them, a little twig in baggy patched clothing. Why had he fought them on her part, punching one in the face and another in the stomach? It didn’t do him any good. His nose was bleeding and broken, his knees were scraped, and his knuckles were raw.
The two larger boys were just staring at him, their faces beginning to bruise and on one of them, a bloodied lip that was beginning to scab. They didn’t raise their hands again or try to move closer to the little boy, they just kept staring.
The young boy sniffed and wiped a hand across his bloody mouth. Then, with little warning, he let out what sounded like a small dog’s growl.
“Leave her alone,” he snarled, clenching his fists and shifting his feet.
“Don’t tell me what to do, leech.” One of the boys responded, his position amongst the two clearly was one of power.
“Yeah!” The boy with the busted lip jeered. “Don’t tell us what to–“
His continued sniveling was halted as the young boy threw himself at the other boy, tackling him by his legs and slamming him into the composite flooring. His clenched fists rained down on the other boy with little thought or grace.
The sneering boy was crying out, shouting for his friend and at the young boy to stop. But the boy didn’t listen, and his hands continued to hail down for a few seconds more before he was yanked away, the other older boy having grabbed him by the arm and thrown him to the floor.
The young boy was quick to get up again, his fists raised in front of his face.
The older boy hoisted his friend from the ground and spun around, glaring at their small assailant. His face was red and she could see his jaw moving back and forth, his teeth griding against one another as he clenched his fists and slowly stepped forward.
“Grant! What are you doing!” A voice came from down the corridor, and Kimi turned to face its owner.
Stalking down the corridor with his shoulders pulled back and his face set in a hard glare was Mister Burke, an older man whom she recognized from the community ward. His eyes were stern behind a pair of thick square glasses. His forehead was wrinkled, his brows stiffly stuck at a hard diagonal that didn’t seem to go away even when he wasn’t glaring.
The young boy didn’t turn his gaze from her assailants, but his voice came out as a high-pitched growl, failingly deepened to sound more serious than his age would have implied.
“They started it! They were picking on Kimiko!”
Burke stopped before Grant, slapping a hand on his shoulder and wheeling the young boy around to face him, not even bothering to stoop down to properly look the boy in the eye.
“I don’t care what they did! Their parents are responsible for reprimanding and controlling them, not me!”
“But they were–“ Grant started/
“Don’t give a shit, Grant. They are not my responsibility, but you are! And you continuously test the limits of my patience!”
Grabbing grant by the arm, Burke pulled him along, forcefully leading the young boy down the corridor as the older boys snickered and whispered to each other.
“Mister Burke,” Kimi started, gathering the older man’s attention, “Please don’t punish him! He was only trying to do the right thing.”
Burke scoffed. “Violence isn’t ever the right thing; have you not been paying attention in your history classes?”
“But–“
“I don’t care what naïve ideas you have. I am the adult here and you will listen to me. Now go back to the community ward and don’t even think about trying to protect this – this little shit! Or I will have your luxuries seized for an entire month!”
Kimi clenched her fist and grit her teeth. “I don’t care about my luxuries! He didn’t do anything wrong! They did!” She swung her hand around and pointed at the other boys, their faces and snickering going still, awaiting Burke’s reaction.
Mister Burker glowered at her and reached into his pocket. Pulling out a communicator he spoken into it, his voice barely edging on a neutral tone.
“Missus Huang, please come collect Kimiko from the education ward. I will brief you later on her grievances.”