Chapter Text
Brooklyn Valley Secondary School.
Wow, the more I think the name, the shittier it sounds.
Marvin shook off the thought, feeling his feet drag him along the way. He never even really focused on the route from his house to school. It was pointless. His feet brought him there anyways automatically. He glanced up, his shoulders sagging gently at the sight of the school. The dreary-brown brick walls and white concrete pillars of Brooklyn Valley didn’t make him any more enthusiastic to go inside. But, alas, Marvin had to. Learning and all, it was necessary.
Marvin felt his backpack sling off his shoulders slightly as he gathered the courage to even walk in. No one really enjoyed his presence. It was…difficult to deal with. He huffed under his breath, a little sigh escaping his nose before he walked through the threshold of the school’s entrance. Just as usual, students littered the foyer. Though no one was specifically looking, Marvin slipped back into his hoodie – school-marked with the white, yellow and green logo – a little more and moved his hands to shove into his pockets, the fabric rubbing up against his skin.
Walking to his locker, he let out another little sigh. As he passed, a girl from his class – his Biology class – walked by. She was in uniform, the girl’s one. A cotton flared white skirt and long cotton socks. And the basic dark green shirt to accompany it. Her name? Trina. She talked with Marvin occasionally, barely at all. But she loved him. She loved waving at him. He could tell. Marvin gave a small, polite wave, trying to be nice. He swore he saw a hint of a blush on her face as she waved back excitedly, a giddy glint in her eyes before she walked around a corner.
Marvin paused at his locker, blinking in slight surprise at Trina’s reaction to the wave before shaking it off. He unlocked his locker with the code, the lock clinking gently as it opened, swinging the door open with one fell swoop. He ignored his own swirling thoughts, grabbing his books to go to his first class. He just needed to get through today. Just another day. Just today.
—
And he did. He got through the day fine, or…well, as good as Marvin could. Mainly all he was looking forward to was just getting home and actually being able to be himself for once instead of hiding behind the facade of indifferent looks and flippant comments.
And just as 8th period ended, an announcement came over the P.A. in a grainy, slightly crackly voice.
“Attention students of Brooklyn Valley. Just a short reminder for any tenth graders who wanted to join our school’s new program for racquetball, first practice is after school today until six. Please be sure to attend if you’d like. Thank you.”
Marvin paused from shoving his binder into his backpack. Racquetball? Weird. Maybe he should check it out, though. He wasn’t one for sports, not at all. But Marvin had made his new school year resolution to join a couple more clubs and teams. Racquetball couldn’t be that hard, right?
So, when the bell rang, he dashed out towards the gym, where he assumed the meeting for the practice would be. Marvin pushed through the wooden gym doors, sort of stiffening up gently under his hoodie. Inside, there were a bunch of kids his age. 10th graders, all kids he knew. Little assholes, if he had to name them. God, this was embarrassing. Marvin shook off the feeling of regret of coming here, but that little confidence boost only lasted about five seconds.
One of the little bastards came up to him. Anthony. A pretty burly kid, for starters. But his breath always smelled sort of weird. He huffed under his breath, speaking to Marvin up close. “Little ass decided to play racquetball? Shocker.”
Marvin cocked an eyebrow sharply, not even bothering to hide his disdain. “Excuse me,” he started in a snarky tone, getting up close and physical. He was always one to have just…slight anger issues. “Get over yourself, retard. So what, I’m signing up for racquetball?”
Anthony seemed slightly irked at the shorter kid’s attitude, rolling his eyes harshly. “Shut up, kid.” he grumbled, gesturing to the other kids signing up for racquetball. Most of them were guys, but there were a handful of girls in one corner giggling. But then Anthony spoke again, mainly to his friends. But it was clear he was keeping his tone intentionally loud so Marvin would hear. “Yo, he’s probably gonna turn into a faggot for the new kid, you think?”
Marvin felt his left eye twitch slightly as he stalked off half-way through the sentence. But then he stopped. New kid? He turned back, running a hand through his hair slightly with a half vexed, half confused expression. “What new kid?”
Anthony just shot a glare back, rolling his eyes with a dramatically over the top sigh. “God, aren’t you stupid? Look, he’s right there. You’ve never seen that kid?” He pointed shamelessly in one direction of the gym. In one corner, with the girls, was someone new. Marvin had never seen him before. He was tall, pretty tall compared to Marvin, his hair was styled neatly, with a slight wave. It appeared to be around a shade of medium brown with a slight sheen, giving it a well-groomed look. Like there was gel in it, or something.
Marvin blinked over at the new stranger, tilting his head slightly. Why was he talking with all the girls? Usually the girls stuck by each other and the boys roughhoused alone with their own gender. God, that’s weird.
Marvin shook off the shock, shooting Anthony another glare for the comment before stalking off to this ‘new kid’. He approached, trying to keep his expression intense but confident enough that he still looked friendly, if that was even a look he could make to begin with.
“Hey. New kid,” He started, beckoning the stranger over. The kid looked up, blinking in slight surprise and shock before walking over and speaking to Marvin, hands shoved into the pockets of his school uniform shorts.
“Yeah?”
Marvin kept a steady look, asking a question rather casually as he too also shoved his hands into his pant pockets, as if subconsciously trying to replicate everything this new kid did. “What’s your name?”
“Whizzer.” The stranger replied, his tone wary but also somehow not. He sounded like he was intentionally keeping his guard up everywhere. Or…maybe just around Marvin. That was more likely, yeah.
“Uh…Cool. Name’s Marvin. I haven’t…seen you around before.” Marvin mumbled, extending a hand in a slightly awkward fashion as Whizzer shook it. God, his hands were big for a fifteen year old boy. Marvin shook that off.
“I’m just new. That’s it.” Whizzer shrugged, pulling his hand out of Marvin’s handshake before shoving it back in his pocket. “Have you ever played racquetball before?”
“Uhm…” Marvin hesitated. Should he lie? Or…actually be genuine? This kid was new. Maybe he should spare him from the sarcasm and the lies that everyone else would definitely do to him, and even still to Marvin himself after a full year at this school. “No. No, I haven’t. You?”
“Huh. I have. Why’d you try out?”
Marvin shrugged, still slightly hesitant but lowering his guard gently. “Depends, are you gonna make fun of me if I tell you why?” He asked. Hell, he didn’t know this kid.
“Why would I? I barely know you.” Whizzer cocked an eyebrow slightly, a bit baffled by the questioning. Marvin didn’t blame him – the question had been slightly stupid for him to ask.
Marvin just shrugged gently, his tone a little sheepish. “It’s stupid. I dunno. Just wanted to…join new clubs. Make new friends. Be a little more social, I guess.” It was a stupid reason, it was. A shitty reason, at most. Whizzer didn’t even know Marvin. Why was he even bothering to explain? Marvin had no clue.
“Huh. Almost the same here, honestly.” Whizzer hummed slightly, leaning up against the white brick gym wall with dark green patterns. He practically blended in, with his nearly full-white racquetball attire. “My parents sent me here to make friends. To racquetball, I mean, not to this school.”
Marvin looked over a bit and tilted his head with a slight scoff. “Seriously? I wouldn’t tolerate my parents saying I have to go to clubs and sports.” It was true, after all. He probably would have made a big fat fuss if his parents forced him into sports.
Whizzer just shrugged against the wall, his shirt rubbing up against the brick and making a slight swishing noise as his shoulders went up. “Well…I don’t really care all that much. At least I get to talk to the girls here.”
Marvin halted a bit at those words. He had seen Whizzer with the group of girls trying out for racquetball as well, but he didn’t expect him to outright bring it up and prefer it over the boys. “What? Why?”
Whizzer glanced down, his dark brown eyes shimmering slightly in the fluorescent lights of the gym that beat down on the both of them like the sun’s rays, but a thousand times worse. Marvin hated those goddamn lights. But back to Whizzer, he spoke again. “What, ‘what’? There’s nothing wrong with…well, being with the girls. I guess.”
Marvin honestly didn’t believe what he was hearing from Whizzer. But before he could speak against the previous statement from the taller boy, another kid from their grade came up to Whizzer with a slight shuffle in his step. Marvin recognized him, his name was Brian. He was in his English, History and Gym classes respectively.
“Hey, Whiz. The practice is starting. Are you coming?” Brian asked, running a hand through his short curly hair.
Marvin watched as Whizzer nodded, turning to Brian and flashing him a slight smile, almost like he was flirting. But he couldn't have been. Right?
Either way, he replied to Brian quickly. “Yeah, yeah. I'll be there in a second. Hey, have you ever met Marvin?”
Brian turned his head to glance at Marvin, a slightly puzzled look on his face. “Uh…no. Is he your friend? Or…something?”
Whizzer shrugged, nudging Marvin’s side a bit with his shoulder. At the touch, Marvin shuffled away by a step or two, regaining his breath after it had been knocked out of him from the nudge. He was lanky, any nudge delivered from anyone just knocked the breath from his lungs without hesitation. He hated it.
Whizzer smiled a bit, his expression naturally charismatic and confident. “Yeah, yeah. A friend.”
Brian nodded a bit, gesturing Marvin over. “Well. C’mon, you two. Let's go play some racquetball.”
Marvin watched the interaction, utterly shocked at Brian's sudden enthusiasm directed at him. No one had ever really paid that much attention to him, but now that he was with Whizzer? It was like he was as popular as him. Marvin followed after Whizzer as he got up from the wall and started walking, muttering out a quiet whisper to him. “How’d you do that?”
Whizzer looked down at Marvin, who was walking on his left side. He shrugged yet again, a subconscious habit he seemed to like doing. “What? Get someone else to talk to you?”
“...yeah. How’d you do that?”
Whizzer hummed a bit and flashed a slight smile to Marvin, speeding up his walking pace just slightly. “Oh, honey. I'm popular. Stick with me, and you can get everyone talking to you.”
Marvin just practically marveled at Whizzer's confidence in himself, following him like a lost puppy who kept tripping over his ears.
Was he serious? Whizzer could make him as popular as he wanted to be, just…by sticking around him? Marvin doubted it, hard, but maybe it was worth a shot to try? After all, one of the things he wanted most of all was to be recognized for …something. Anything important.
“...Okay.”