The storm was awful. It made the windows rattle violently and tree branches scratched the house’s walls. Lightnings made the rooms light up and thunder made the whole house shake like a blender. If it would be any more windy, the house’s roof would probably fly off to the sky and far, far away.
Ronald Quinn lied in his bed and listened to the storm. It was worse than anything he had ever experienced before so he found it rather interesting... And a little bit scary, not that he would ever admit it to anyone. If he would be seven instead of seventeen he’d go to his parents’ room and ask if he could sleep between them. But he wasn’t seven. He was seventeen, a big boy already, and he needed to sleep in his own bed, no matter how much it rains. He was a big boy, god damn it.
Sure, he had Spider-Man sheets but nobody in school needed to know that. Or that he had Spider-Man night lamp. Nobody needed to know that either. He would get bullied so bad if people would find out all the geeky stuff he liked. It was better to be invisible, a wallflower, than in the centre of attention. That was his plan tomorrow, at least.
It would be the first day of school after summer break. He had been successfully invisible his whole life and he planned to continue on that road. He didn’t mind being invisible, Ronald had his best friend to company him. They were invisible together and it was fine by them. Being a simple, normal kid with boring life was more than fine.
When the midnight came, Ronald looked out of the window and the moon which was almost full but still not quite there. It needed a week, probably two, to become whole again. The moon disappeared behind the clouds and never came back. But the image of it had stayed in Ronald’s head. He liked it, it was beautiful and mysterious. Somehow magical. Not like superhero stuff magical but magical anyway. In some weird Harry Potter kind of way.
Speaking of Harry Potter, Ronald hadn’t voluntarily read and watched the Harry Potter books and movies, oh no, no. His mother was a huge Potter fan and it wasn’t hard to guess how Ronald got his name. He was forced to like Harry Potter franchise ever since he came out of the womb and quite frankly, that brainwashing had worked. Ronald was the biggest Harry Potter fan, right after his mother. That didn’t mean that he liked his name, though.
He soon closed his eyes, trying to empty his mind from thoughts and fell asleep. Maybe it was because he breathed slowly and emptied his mind or the fact that he was just simply tired but he slept like a baby and didn’t wake up until his alarm went off at six in the morning.
Ronald didn’t feel nearly as tired as he had thought he would feel. He got out of the bed after scrolling his phone for fifteen minutes, went to bathroom and returned fifteen minutes later, teeth brushed, hair brushed and bladder empty.
Ronald had light brown, kind of sandy and slightly curly hair which reached barely his shoulders. He was very pale and skinny. Not particularly tall nor muscly. He was like a Slender Man but only shorter and way less creepy. Now he had pushed his hair back and behind his ears so he could actually see something for a change.
“Honey, breakfast!” Mrs. Quinn yelled from downstairs. “Are you awake?”
“Yes, Mum!” Ronald yelled back and took his already packed school bag and walked downstairs. He stepped into the kitchen, looking at his mother and then the plate on the table. There were bacon, toast and eggs and juice.
“Do you expect me to eat all that?” Ronald asked.
“Of course, you’re way too skinny. You need more… mass.”
“Why, though?”
“So people won’t think we starve you.”
“Nobody thinks that, Mum”, Ronald said matter-of-factly.
Mrs. Quinn shrugged. “They might, Ron. They might.”
“Can’t you call me Ronald?” he asked, sighing.
“I call you Ronald sometimes”, Mrs. Quinn said defensively.
“Yeah, when you’re angry or about to start a lecture.”
“Hush now, dear, and eat your breakfast”, she said and gently guided Ronald towards the chair and made him sit down. “Your father had to go to work but he wished you the nicest first day back in school.”
“Sure he did”, Ronald muttered. His father could’ve texted him or leave a note, just to prove that he had thought about Ronald but no. Did Mrs. Quinn seriously believe that Ronald would believe that his father had told her to say that? Never in a million years.
“What was that, Ronald?”
“Nothing”, he said quickly and stuffed his mouth full of bacon and eggs. His mother narrowed her eyes at him but eventually went back to cleaning the kitchen while Ronald ate.
“You should hurry if you don’t want to be late”, Ronald said, motioning towards the clock on the wall. “I’ll be fine on my own.”
“You sure you don’t want me to drop you off to school on my way to work?” Mrs. Quinn asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure”, he said quickly.
“Ronald Quinn, are you ashamed of me?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips, tilting her head and pouted.
“No! Of course not, Mum. How can you even suggest that me, the light of your life, would be ashamed of you and your ridiculously awesome horse jumper? Pfft, no way. Never in a million years. It’s absurd to even think–“
“I got it”, she interrupted, “you sarcastic little–“
“Careful now, Mum. I’m still a minor and my innocent ears don’t want you to finish that sentence”, Ronald grinned. His mother gently slapped him in the head before she started to gather her stuff and pull on her jacket.
“Remember to leave early. You don’t want to be late”, she reminded him.
“Sure, sure. Bye, Mum!”
“Bye, honey, have a nice school day!”
When she was gone, Ronald finished his breakfast and put the dishes away. He stood in front of the mirror for a moment, checking his outfit. It was pretty normal. Jeans, sneakers, grey t-shirt and black hoodie. Totally normal, totally boring. He would blend in perfectly.
He got a text message from his best friend saying that they should meet in front of the school’s main doors at precisely ten minutes before the classes would start. That meant Ronald had to leave immediately if he wanted to be on time.
He pulled on his jacket and checked that he had his keys and phone, then he took his school bag and swung it up and on his shoulders. He turned off the lights and stepped outside, locked the door and started walking. It wasn’t exactly bright, but it wasn’t completely dark either. He lifted his hood up to cover his head and ears. It was still windy. Not as bad as last night but windy anyway. The ground was wet and there were puddles everywhere. Ronald accidentally stepped into one and then his right sneaker and sock got soaked.
It took him twenty minutes to walk to school but he didn’t mind the walking. It gave him a chance to wake up properly before the classes. He saw lots of students walking around on the school yard and in and out of the doors. Soon enough he spotted his best friend’s dark hair. Lucas Boyd waved at him and Ronald waved back, closing the distance between them and then fist bumping with Lucas.
“Man, you look even paler than normally. Did you go out at all during the summer break?” Lucas, who had spend the summer break abroad with his family, asked laughing.
“Not everyone is blessed with a skin like yours”, Ronald said.
“You can say that again”, Lucas said. “One pair we are. The whitest white man you can possibly find and the only black man in the whole school.”
“And still no one pays any attention to us”, Ronald commented. “They’re truly missing out our awesomeness.”
“Truly”, Lucas laughed. “God, we are lame.”
“So lame”, Ronald agreed and they started walking inside the school. “How was your summer break? You haven’t really called or texted me. Not details, anyway.”
“Oh it was, you know, same as usual when I go somewhere with my parents and little sister”, Lucas said.
“So Emily got everything she wanted, your parents fought all the time and you were an outsider?”
“That pretty much sums it up, yeah.”
“Cool.”
“How about your summer?” Lucas asked, clearly more interested to talk about Ronald than himself.
“Ah, you know, just… chilling...”, Ronald said vaguely.
Lucas raised an eyebrow.
“You stayed inside playing Spider-Man all summer, didn’t you?” he asked.
“No! Maybe… Yeah.”
“Pathetic”, Lucas said.
“Thanks, bro”, Ronald said dryly.
“Anytime”, Lucas smiled.
The bell rang, informing them that the first classes would be starting.
The best part of the day was mathematics which Ronald and Lucas had together. But that wasn’t the reason why it was the best part of the day. No, the reason why it was the best part of the day was because Farrah Livingstone was in that same class.
Farrah Livingstone was a beautiful, strong willed latino who didn’t know that Ronald even existed. But Ronald knew her. Or, to be completely honest, Ronald didn’t know anything else about her besides her name and that the girl was good in school, actually the best and had strong opinions. He didn’t know anything about the girl’s family or what she liked, what were her passions or dislikes. And how would he? He had never talked to Farrah. He was too pussy for that. Every time he tried, he would get sweaty palms, butterflies in the stomach and blushed cheeks and then he would chicken out.
Lucas had called him a little girl with a crush and Ronald had punched him in the shoulder, getting detention from his teacher for using violence. They had tried to explain that it was just a joke but the teacher had gotten even more mad about that.
“If Mr. Quinn would pay attention to my class, that would be nice”, the math teacher, Mrs. McCarthy said and Ronald blinked, looking away from Farrah and blushed a bit.
“Sorry, ma’am”, Ronald muttered with red cheeks and kept now his eyes on his text book. Mrs. McCarthy went back to teaching and Ronald found it difficult to not zone out again.
Mrs. McCarthy was something between forty and death and she talked like a robot. It was boring when her voice didn’t change its tone at all and Ronald felt that sudden need to close his eyes and fall asleep.
But he couldn’t, because Lucas kept poking his finger between Ronald’s ribs, trying to be a good best friend and keep him awake. He knew Ronald sucked at mathematics and needed all the teaching he could get.
When the class ended Ronald was last ones to leave the classroom and Mrs. McCarthy said to him as he walked past the teacher’s desk, “Try pay attention next time or you won’t pass this course. You need to keep your head in the game because this course is the hardest you will ever have.”
Ronald just nodded and walked out of the classroom, jogging to catch up with Lucas. He reached his best friend and they walked to their lockers.
“You were drooling over Farrah again”, Lucas said.
“I was not!”
“Was too!”
“Uh, don’t start that, we are not five!” Ronald groaned and Lucas laughed, starting to chant ‘Ronald and Farrah sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I–‘. He quieted down when Ronald threw his math book at Lucas’s head.
The first school day after the summer break was over almost as fast as what it had came. It felt like the summer had lasted two days and then the school was already starting. But it wasn’t that bad. The day went by fast and the teachers were in a good mood, thus they let the classes leave earlier than what they were supposed to.
“Spider-Man?” Ronald asked, trying not to sound too excited or geeky.
“Yeah. Sure. Why not?” Lucas replied, shrugging. He had always been way cooler than Ronald who was just a small skinny geek who didn’t know how to communicate with actual human beings to save his life.
They walked from the school to Ronald’s home. The house was empty so they took the opportunity to throw their school bags on the floor and start playing video games before doing their homework.
“Do you think you will be able to talk to Farrah next time you have a chance? Or will you always just choke and chicken out?” Lucas asked after playing silently for twenty minutes.
“Oh, fuck you”, Ronald said. “I don’t choke, I just...I–“
“You choke”, Lucas said. “That’s the truth.”
“It’s not my fault she’s so beautiful I lose my words!” Ronald defended.
“You talk like a girl.”
“Who are you to judge me, anyways?” Ronald asked. “I have never seen you talking to a girl and we have known each other for ten years. Why is that, huh?”
“That’s because–“
“Ron, I’m home!”
Ronald’s eyes widened and he looked at Lucas. “Shit, she wasn’t supposed to come home this early.”
They quickly shut down the game console and pulled their school bags closer, basically ripped them open and got out the first books they could get.
When Mrs. Quinn stepped inside the room they pretended to be reading the books.
“Hi, Ron. And Lucas, so nice to see you!” Mrs. Quinn said and patted Lucas’s head. “Are you boys studying?”
“Sure are!” they replied.
“Lovely. Lucas, you are staying for dinner right?” Lucas nodded at her. “Great. I would love to hear everything about your summer break.” She turned around to leave and then stopped by the door and said, “Ron, honey, by the way.”
“Yes, Mum?” Ronald said sweetly, looking at his mother from behind the book.
Mrs. Quinn raised an eyebrow at his son. “Your book is upside down.”
Ronald Quinn lied in his bed and listened to the storm. It was worse than anything he had ever experienced before so he found it rather interesting... And a little bit scary, not that he would ever admit it to anyone. If he would be seven instead of seventeen he’d go to his parents’ room and ask if he could sleep between them. But he wasn’t seven. He was seventeen, a big boy already, and he needed to sleep in his own bed, no matter how much it rains. He was a big boy, god damn it.
Sure, he had Spider-Man sheets but nobody in school needed to know that. Or that he had Spider-Man night lamp. Nobody needed to know that either. He would get bullied so bad if people would find out all the geeky stuff he liked. It was better to be invisible, a wallflower, than in the centre of attention. That was his plan tomorrow, at least.
It would be the first day of school after summer break. He had been successfully invisible his whole life and he planned to continue on that road. He didn’t mind being invisible, Ronald had his best friend to company him. They were invisible together and it was fine by them. Being a simple, normal kid with boring life was more than fine.
When the midnight came, Ronald looked out of the window and the moon which was almost full but still not quite there. It needed a week, probably two, to become whole again. The moon disappeared behind the clouds and never came back. But the image of it had stayed in Ronald’s head. He liked it, it was beautiful and mysterious. Somehow magical. Not like superhero stuff magical but magical anyway. In some weird Harry Potter kind of way.
Speaking of Harry Potter, Ronald hadn’t voluntarily read and watched the Harry Potter books and movies, oh no, no. His mother was a huge Potter fan and it wasn’t hard to guess how Ronald got his name. He was forced to like Harry Potter franchise ever since he came out of the womb and quite frankly, that brainwashing had worked. Ronald was the biggest Harry Potter fan, right after his mother. That didn’t mean that he liked his name, though.
He soon closed his eyes, trying to empty his mind from thoughts and fell asleep. Maybe it was because he breathed slowly and emptied his mind or the fact that he was just simply tired but he slept like a baby and didn’t wake up until his alarm went off at six in the morning.
Ronald didn’t feel nearly as tired as he had thought he would feel. He got out of the bed after scrolling his phone for fifteen minutes, went to bathroom and returned fifteen minutes later, teeth brushed, hair brushed and bladder empty.
Ronald had light brown, kind of sandy and slightly curly hair which reached barely his shoulders. He was very pale and skinny. Not particularly tall nor muscly. He was like a Slender Man but only shorter and way less creepy. Now he had pushed his hair back and behind his ears so he could actually see something for a change.
“Honey, breakfast!” Mrs. Quinn yelled from downstairs. “Are you awake?”
“Yes, Mum!” Ronald yelled back and took his already packed school bag and walked downstairs. He stepped into the kitchen, looking at his mother and then the plate on the table. There were bacon, toast and eggs and juice.
“Do you expect me to eat all that?” Ronald asked.
“Of course, you’re way too skinny. You need more… mass.”
“Why, though?”
“So people won’t think we starve you.”
“Nobody thinks that, Mum”, Ronald said matter-of-factly.
Mrs. Quinn shrugged. “They might, Ron. They might.”
“Can’t you call me Ronald?” he asked, sighing.
“I call you Ronald sometimes”, Mrs. Quinn said defensively.
“Yeah, when you’re angry or about to start a lecture.”
“Hush now, dear, and eat your breakfast”, she said and gently guided Ronald towards the chair and made him sit down. “Your father had to go to work but he wished you the nicest first day back in school.”
“Sure he did”, Ronald muttered. His father could’ve texted him or leave a note, just to prove that he had thought about Ronald but no. Did Mrs. Quinn seriously believe that Ronald would believe that his father had told her to say that? Never in a million years.
“What was that, Ronald?”
“Nothing”, he said quickly and stuffed his mouth full of bacon and eggs. His mother narrowed her eyes at him but eventually went back to cleaning the kitchen while Ronald ate.
“You should hurry if you don’t want to be late”, Ronald said, motioning towards the clock on the wall. “I’ll be fine on my own.”
“You sure you don’t want me to drop you off to school on my way to work?” Mrs. Quinn asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure”, he said quickly.
“Ronald Quinn, are you ashamed of me?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips, tilting her head and pouted.
“No! Of course not, Mum. How can you even suggest that me, the light of your life, would be ashamed of you and your ridiculously awesome horse jumper? Pfft, no way. Never in a million years. It’s absurd to even think–“
“I got it”, she interrupted, “you sarcastic little–“
“Careful now, Mum. I’m still a minor and my innocent ears don’t want you to finish that sentence”, Ronald grinned. His mother gently slapped him in the head before she started to gather her stuff and pull on her jacket.
“Remember to leave early. You don’t want to be late”, she reminded him.
“Sure, sure. Bye, Mum!”
“Bye, honey, have a nice school day!”
When she was gone, Ronald finished his breakfast and put the dishes away. He stood in front of the mirror for a moment, checking his outfit. It was pretty normal. Jeans, sneakers, grey t-shirt and black hoodie. Totally normal, totally boring. He would blend in perfectly.
He got a text message from his best friend saying that they should meet in front of the school’s main doors at precisely ten minutes before the classes would start. That meant Ronald had to leave immediately if he wanted to be on time.
He pulled on his jacket and checked that he had his keys and phone, then he took his school bag and swung it up and on his shoulders. He turned off the lights and stepped outside, locked the door and started walking. It wasn’t exactly bright, but it wasn’t completely dark either. He lifted his hood up to cover his head and ears. It was still windy. Not as bad as last night but windy anyway. The ground was wet and there were puddles everywhere. Ronald accidentally stepped into one and then his right sneaker and sock got soaked.
It took him twenty minutes to walk to school but he didn’t mind the walking. It gave him a chance to wake up properly before the classes. He saw lots of students walking around on the school yard and in and out of the doors. Soon enough he spotted his best friend’s dark hair. Lucas Boyd waved at him and Ronald waved back, closing the distance between them and then fist bumping with Lucas.
“Man, you look even paler than normally. Did you go out at all during the summer break?” Lucas, who had spend the summer break abroad with his family, asked laughing.
“Not everyone is blessed with a skin like yours”, Ronald said.
“You can say that again”, Lucas said. “One pair we are. The whitest white man you can possibly find and the only black man in the whole school.”
“And still no one pays any attention to us”, Ronald commented. “They’re truly missing out our awesomeness.”
“Truly”, Lucas laughed. “God, we are lame.”
“So lame”, Ronald agreed and they started walking inside the school. “How was your summer break? You haven’t really called or texted me. Not details, anyway.”
“Oh it was, you know, same as usual when I go somewhere with my parents and little sister”, Lucas said.
“So Emily got everything she wanted, your parents fought all the time and you were an outsider?”
“That pretty much sums it up, yeah.”
“Cool.”
“How about your summer?” Lucas asked, clearly more interested to talk about Ronald than himself.
“Ah, you know, just… chilling...”, Ronald said vaguely.
Lucas raised an eyebrow.
“You stayed inside playing Spider-Man all summer, didn’t you?” he asked.
“No! Maybe… Yeah.”
“Pathetic”, Lucas said.
“Thanks, bro”, Ronald said dryly.
“Anytime”, Lucas smiled.
The bell rang, informing them that the first classes would be starting.
The best part of the day was mathematics which Ronald and Lucas had together. But that wasn’t the reason why it was the best part of the day. No, the reason why it was the best part of the day was because Farrah Livingstone was in that same class.
Farrah Livingstone was a beautiful, strong willed latino who didn’t know that Ronald even existed. But Ronald knew her. Or, to be completely honest, Ronald didn’t know anything else about her besides her name and that the girl was good in school, actually the best and had strong opinions. He didn’t know anything about the girl’s family or what she liked, what were her passions or dislikes. And how would he? He had never talked to Farrah. He was too pussy for that. Every time he tried, he would get sweaty palms, butterflies in the stomach and blushed cheeks and then he would chicken out.
Lucas had called him a little girl with a crush and Ronald had punched him in the shoulder, getting detention from his teacher for using violence. They had tried to explain that it was just a joke but the teacher had gotten even more mad about that.
“If Mr. Quinn would pay attention to my class, that would be nice”, the math teacher, Mrs. McCarthy said and Ronald blinked, looking away from Farrah and blushed a bit.
“Sorry, ma’am”, Ronald muttered with red cheeks and kept now his eyes on his text book. Mrs. McCarthy went back to teaching and Ronald found it difficult to not zone out again.
Mrs. McCarthy was something between forty and death and she talked like a robot. It was boring when her voice didn’t change its tone at all and Ronald felt that sudden need to close his eyes and fall asleep.
But he couldn’t, because Lucas kept poking his finger between Ronald’s ribs, trying to be a good best friend and keep him awake. He knew Ronald sucked at mathematics and needed all the teaching he could get.
When the class ended Ronald was last ones to leave the classroom and Mrs. McCarthy said to him as he walked past the teacher’s desk, “Try pay attention next time or you won’t pass this course. You need to keep your head in the game because this course is the hardest you will ever have.”
Ronald just nodded and walked out of the classroom, jogging to catch up with Lucas. He reached his best friend and they walked to their lockers.
“You were drooling over Farrah again”, Lucas said.
“I was not!”
“Was too!”
“Uh, don’t start that, we are not five!” Ronald groaned and Lucas laughed, starting to chant ‘Ronald and Farrah sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I–‘. He quieted down when Ronald threw his math book at Lucas’s head.
The first school day after the summer break was over almost as fast as what it had came. It felt like the summer had lasted two days and then the school was already starting. But it wasn’t that bad. The day went by fast and the teachers were in a good mood, thus they let the classes leave earlier than what they were supposed to.
“Spider-Man?” Ronald asked, trying not to sound too excited or geeky.
“Yeah. Sure. Why not?” Lucas replied, shrugging. He had always been way cooler than Ronald who was just a small skinny geek who didn’t know how to communicate with actual human beings to save his life.
They walked from the school to Ronald’s home. The house was empty so they took the opportunity to throw their school bags on the floor and start playing video games before doing their homework.
“Do you think you will be able to talk to Farrah next time you have a chance? Or will you always just choke and chicken out?” Lucas asked after playing silently for twenty minutes.
“Oh, fuck you”, Ronald said. “I don’t choke, I just...I–“
“You choke”, Lucas said. “That’s the truth.”
“It’s not my fault she’s so beautiful I lose my words!” Ronald defended.
“You talk like a girl.”
“Who are you to judge me, anyways?” Ronald asked. “I have never seen you talking to a girl and we have known each other for ten years. Why is that, huh?”
“That’s because–“
“Ron, I’m home!”
Ronald’s eyes widened and he looked at Lucas. “Shit, she wasn’t supposed to come home this early.”
They quickly shut down the game console and pulled their school bags closer, basically ripped them open and got out the first books they could get.
When Mrs. Quinn stepped inside the room they pretended to be reading the books.
“Hi, Ron. And Lucas, so nice to see you!” Mrs. Quinn said and patted Lucas’s head. “Are you boys studying?”
“Sure are!” they replied.
“Lovely. Lucas, you are staying for dinner right?” Lucas nodded at her. “Great. I would love to hear everything about your summer break.” She turned around to leave and then stopped by the door and said, “Ron, honey, by the way.”
“Yes, Mum?” Ronald said sweetly, looking at his mother from behind the book.
Mrs. Quinn raised an eyebrow at his son. “Your book is upside down.”