#switterone

[studiothrillers]

Where are all the hair-pulling fics that should be coming out of this?

[bluezey]

New Kid

Swon meets a new kid in school.  And it’s all downhill from there.

Rated PG

This fic exists because I’m a bitch.

He had yellow eyes, and sometimes his breath smelled like garbage.  He spent his recess in a corner scribbling random things in his coloring books.

The kids tease him, call him “Swan” and make duck quacking noises behind his back.  That doesn’t make any sense!

But Swon’s mom told him, “Fuck those kids.  They’re just jealous of your type of swag.  Don’t be afraid to be who you are, because everyone wants to be you.  Don’t deny the world that.”

Guess that’s how the shy kid in Thneedville Elementary School second grade became a bully to some and a friend to those he choose.  Who was still the strange kid with two daddies, one that he calls mom.

It was the end of afternoon recess, and the kids were filing up for their last class of the day.  Swon sighed, bored as hell as he stood in line, watching as the teacher counted him and checked him off on the attendance sheet.

The bell rang, releasing the afternoon kindergarten class early.  Those lucky little bastards.  Kindergarten only gets three hours a day in this school, AND they get to leave one hour early.  This must be the first step in how growing up sucks, Swon thought to himself as he picked the last chunk of lunch out from between his teeth.

Then he heard the all too familiar taunts coming from the bus corral.  It was a different verse, but the same damn song.  While the teacher’s back was turned, Swon quietly escorted himself out of line and out of the playground.

Swon kept a tight grip on the straps of his backpack as he wandered over to the buses.  There they were, tiny little kindergarteners making fun of their own.  They weren’t even trying to be clever, just making fun of the kid for being quiet and having two daddies.  Oh, Swon knew the feeling all too well.

He was the perfect person to stop this.

“Hey!”  Swon stormed up to the gaggle of kids and started barking at them.  “Shut it!”

“Or what?” one snarky kid replied.

“Or I’ll shut it for you!”

“Make us.”

“Oh, I will.”  Swon glared down at them with his amber eyes.  He slammed his fist into his own hand, echoing a loud smack.  It sounded like he could have hurt his own hand, but Swon didn’t even flinch.

“Break it up!  Break it up!”  A teacher was finally doing her job and approached the brewing feud.  “I want you kids on the bus, right now!  And you,” she told Swon, “you’re too old for kindergarten.  Get back to class!”

Swon rolled his eyes as he turned his back to the teacher.  “No shit I’m too old for kindergarten.”

“And watch your mouth or you’re getting detention!”

Swon took a few steps away from the bus corral, taking a few seconds to rub his sore hand.  He stopped and turned, noticing the little kid hasn’t boarded his bus yet.  He waited until the teacher was distracted again before intervening.  “Aren’t you going home, kid?”

The little child just looked down at his sneakers with his soft blue eyes.

“You talk?”

“My parents pick me up from school,” the child finally replied.

“Are they here?”

The kid looked around.  Then looked down, disappointed.

Swon huffed.  “Your parents fucking suck.  Not like my parents.  My parents let me do whatever the fuck I want.  I-“ Swon stopped, finally realizing that maybe going on about his awesome parents isn’t really the best idea.

The little kid began to cry, wiping the tears with the sleeve of his brown shirt.

“No, no, don’t cry.  Maybe they don’t suck SO bad and they’re just late.”  Swon cursed himself under his breath.  He adjusted the straps of his backpack, the light load suddenly feeling heavy on his shoulders.  “Come on, I’ll wait with you.”

Swon extended out his hand.  The child looked up, but stood straight with wide eyes like a deer.  Poor thing was that shy, huh?

In a pushy gesture of friendship, Swon placed his hand on the kid’s back and led him to the nearest brick wall of the school building.  “Dude, you need to find that voice.  I know it’s in there, you just used it a minute ago.”

The child smiled through his tears, and let the big kid lead the way.

At the brick wall, Swon slipped off the straps and let the backpack flop onto the sidewalk.  He and the kid sat down, ducking into what little shade they gained from the building blocking the sun.  Swon unzipped his backpack and pulled out a few coloring books, followed by a box of 120 crayons with built in sharpener.

Swon opened up the box and grabbed a handful of crayons for himself.  “Don’t break them,” Swon warned as he flipped open a book and went to coloring.

 The kindergartener reached for the coloring book on top, a dime store Little Mermaid themed book.  He opened to a random page, where the page on the left was still untouched.  The page on the right was half colored in, with the word ‘mom’ written across Ariel’s face and the word ‘me’ written across Flounder.

The child smiled.  He helped himself to some crayons and went to coloring the left page, which appeared to be a random assortment of background fishes from the Disney movie.

“You got a name kid?”

The child froze, accidentally raking the green out of the coral and over a seahorse.

“Well?”

The kid was still silent.  He shrugged hard, trying to hide his red face between his shoulders.

Swon groaned at the child’s shyness.  “Kid, you got to quit hiding out in the open like that.  Don’t be afraid of who you are.  You got your own swag.  Don’t deny the world that.”

The child smiled, seeming to understand what Swon was saying.  He began to open his lips.  “ S-SHIT!” he suddenly screamed as he pointed at a cricket on his coloring book.

“I got it!” Swon pulled a notebook out of his backpack and smacked it down on the insect.  He took his notebook back, revealing a bloodied stain on the page.

The almost snowflake shape of the bloodied stain left a giggling smile on the kindergartener’s face.

“Oh, you like that?” Swon asked.  Suddenly, he’s shoveled his books and crayons back into his backpack.  “Come on, there’s a web full of caterpillars on a fence on the edge of the playground.  Let’s squish em!”

“All of them?” the child asked with wide eyes.

Swon sighed.  “Fine, you little shit, not ALL of them.” 

Swon ran off, then stopped as he realized the kid wasn’t following.  He turned to see the little thing quietly looking down at his shoes with the frowniest of frowns.

“I’m sorry I called you a little shit,” Swon half-apologized.  “Maybe if you’d tell me your name, I won’t call you that.”

The large frown turned into a small smile.

“Now let’s go squish some bugs!”

The two kids ran off into the far side of the playground, where thick silk webbing hung from a thicket of trees.  Swon grabbed a stick and ran towards it, while the child watched from about two feet away.  He watched as Swon smacked the nest with the stick, breaking it in half and releasing a shower of fuzzy white caterpillars upon him.

“Gah!  They’re in my hair!  Fuck!  They’re in my hair!” Swon began to brush and smack wildly, trying to get the bugs off of his person.

The child watched as he busted out in laughter.

“You think that’s fucking funny?” Swon was too busy flicking the squirming pests off his arms to pout about it.  Instead, after getting the last one out from under his shirt, Swon reached into his backpack and pulled out a notebook.  He opened it up to a blank page, slowly approached a caterpillar wriggling from a loose thread, and slammed the book shut on the little thing.  He ripped the page out of the book and gave it to the kid.  “Here you go, kiddo!  You tell the kids it’s from Swon, you will be so cool for knowing me.”

The kindergartener took the page and made a face at first, the bloodied stain and crushed bug looked more grotesque than beautiful.  But he did like the fuzziness of the bug, so at least he got to keep that. 

“Thanks,” the kid whispered.

“Louder,” Swon encouraged.  “No one can hear you if you’re quiet.”

“THANKS!!” the child screamed.

Swon quickly clasped his hands over his ears.  “AH!  Shit!  Not THAT loud!”

The child looked back to the school, as he heard someone calling a name.  “Dad?”  A large bright smile finally broke out from that face.  “It’s my dad!” he exclaimed, jumping up and down before running off.

“Hey, wait for me you little shit!” Swon ran off after his friend, not really catching the name, whatever it was.  What was it?  Sweater?  What a weird name!  No wonder kids were making fun of him!

The kindergartener ran behind the building and into the second grade playground.  Swon raced behind him, finally catching up to hear the kid call out “Daddy!” to the tall man in the dark green suit. 

“There you are!”  The man had bags under his eyes, but was happy to see his child as he scooped him up into his arms.  “We told you to wait in front of the school with the teacher.  Where the hell did you go?”

“I met a new friend!” the child replied, suddenly dropping his shy barriers in front of his parents.  He held up the paper with the squished bug with such joy.  “He made me this.  Mom, see?  Did you see?”

Swon looked in confused shock at the kid’s mom… that all too familiar… “Mom?”

Swag was frozen stiff as he stood next to Bitter, who was still holding the suddenly quiet Switter in his arms.  He took off his sunglasses, making doubly sure that Swon wasn’t standing before them.  Shit, he’s still there. “Bitter?” Swag quietly murmured, as if only they could hear.  “Why is Swon here?”

Bitter grimaced, showing truth to his name.  “Because I told you we couldn’t hide Switter.  Especially if they’re both going to the same fucking school!”

“But they’re in different grades!” Swag barked.  “How the fuck were they supposed to meet?”

“All six grades are under the same fucking building, you idiot!” Bitter snapped.

Switter buried his face into Bitter’s chest, trying to hide from the loud screaming.  Swon was too busy standing there in disbelief.  Staring up at his mom.  Or… he’s Switter’s mom too?

“Now what the fuck are we supposed to do?” Bitter yelled at Swag.

“We can handle this,” Swag told Bitter, but mostly to himself.  “We can handle this.  It’ll be fine.  I’m sure we can explain this to Swon.”

“Yes.  Please.  Explain.”

All four looked up to see One-ler standing behind Swon.  Immedately seeing his daddy, Swon ran and clung tightly to One-ler’s leg, and looked back at Swag, his confusion sinking deeper into shock and disbelief.

One-ler stood tall, with arms crossed, his amber eyes glaring deep into Swag.  “Start explaining from the beginning… about five years ago… when you went on that ten month ‘business trip.’”

 Swag was silent.  He stared at One-ler and Swon.  Then at Bitter and Switter.  Then back at Swon in particular.

A frustrated Swag raised his hand and planted it over his straining eyes as a small hiss escaped his lips.  “sssssssssshit.”