Ring, ring, ring-
The ringing, signal of it being time for the changing of classes at any given high school. In this instance, a rather small school in the middle of scenic nowhere, South Dakota, USA. Doors quickly opened with students pouring out into the hallways chatting among themselves as lockers could be heard opening and closing with loud laughter and the occasional yelling.
Overall, the average of three hundred here, it would appear to be the norm for everyone though for some at this establishment, being here would be considered hell. Take pace, to one of brown hair and amber eyes, sluggishly moving to the right of everyone against the wall carrying his backpack, glancing to the right, avoiding eye contact.
This boy is Dustin Johnsen, one of both Japanese and American parents or simply, Asian. With a harsh father, uncaring mother, and pitiful school & social life, he simply put hates life. All he desires, for the assholes to leave him alone and to perhaps find a friend who will never hurt him, something quite difficult in this community for him however…
-
A hand rested upon his shoulder, going from resting to grabbing in mere seconds, “Heh, what’s the hurry Jap boy?” A turn of the head a slight bit right and eyes gazing back, locking with those of Mark, the neighborhood school bully, a racist kid, and definitely stronger than those he picks on.
“I have a class to get to Mark, can we do this later?”
“Oh really now you slant eye bastard? Haha! Class is canceled for you you fucking chink!” he barks and in the blink of an eye, a bang fills the hallway as Dustin finds himself from the right side of the hallway slammed into a locker on the left, a hand into his back and the back of his head, followed by chuckling as people begin to watch in content.
Pain spread through his face, Mark pushing harder with a wide grin, now moving from the back to the left arm’s wrist, gripping tight, pulling and pressing it to his back and also twisting it, “You fucking chink, you’re no better than a fucking black person and they’re filthy as it is.”
The secondary bell went off signaling it as time to move on to class, at which point Mark let go laughing, everyone walking away as Dustin just collapsed onto the floor with both hands, breathing tiredly, “Bastard...” he grumbled, this not being the first time today though also not the last. Picking himself up, he moved onward himself to his next class, or rather, his next period as it was time for study hall.
Running through his mind, thoughts of negativity; thoughts of how no one would do anything, how all of them find amusement in his pain, the mere thought sickening to stomach as his expression went from plain to darker, beginning to hate more and more.
Despite being just sixteen, Dustin has already seen far more than his fair share of bullying at the hands of Mark and so many others. Ever since starting at this school in the third grade, it has been nothing but a living hell, every single day. Facing being alone, facing the bullies, facing his family, facing the world, every day as he faces off he just hates…
-
The third bell began to ring just as Dustin closed the door, moving along the left wall slowly as all of the kids were BS-ing with one another, some talking about football against another district coming up soon, others talking basketball, some their after school plans such as going to the big city of Sioux Falls a few hours over East, though none of that for Dustin as he just scurried left and then at the end taking a right till he got to the other end of the room from the door, an empty table where he pulled back a chair and sat alone.
It was here where he sat alone every day, away from the others to mind his own business. Placing his bag down, he pulled up his laptop from the bag and placed it down, a Dell laptop that looked a big old and junkie though surprisingly modified. He had his means as he opened up his internet to facebook and then a group chat titled Mephisto.
Occupants of the chat included: Zero, Sujit, Unmei, David, Elliot, Audrey, Autumn, and a few others as titled by facebook due to it being flooded with people. He had Zero to thank for the computer, as it was Zero who gave it to him since Dustin’s father broke the last one while trying to fix it, a nice gift, especially when Zero restored Dustin’s documents.
As the messages loaded up, he clicked and launched a few documents, one titled Dawn of the Fed Book 1. Next to it, he opened up an image in his GIMP program to draw. It was thanks to Unmei and Elliot for his interest in drawing, Unmei of which was a manga artist… and then Zero for the interest in writing as he was a published author.
Sixty-eight pages away from finishing his book, he prepared to get back to work on his play of a fan edit of Dawn of the Dead except with fat people eating everyone, when-
“Everyone, your attention please!” came the bark of the teacher in charge of this study hall. Dustin casually looked up as everyone else stopped chattering to pay attention themselves.
Standing at the front of the classroom, the old teacher a bit on the pudgy side with a balding head and thick glasses which seemed to be not see through in the light as his eyes were hidden; beside him a girl though Dustin paid no mind as the messages loaded up with Sujit and Zero arguing about something as usual.
The instructor spoke again, “Everyone, this is Ellie,” he said pointing to the girl who wore a simple white skirt and white shirt with leggings and normal looking tennis shoes, literal tennis shoes for playing tennis, and a fake looking purple flower in her hair. With her, a brown burlap bag of books, folders, and papers. Overall she looked moderately calm despite it being obvious to Dustin on that first glance that she was nervous though no one else seemed to notice.
“This is the new girl you’ve probably heard about today. I know how you shits act so if I catch you being that way to her I’ll write you up for a week’s worth of detention, got that!?”
It was not uncommon for Mr. Burns to write boys up for being mean to the girls in the class, he being of an era where such was unacceptable though if you were a boy being picked on, good luck.
“Ellie, find a seat among the vermin and good luck to you,” he muttered sitting back at his desk with a news paper up. Ellie nodded as everyone went back to chattering immediately with her gaze craning around the room. She walked over to the middle left of the room to another empty table in the room and sat down, pulling out some books as she placed the bag down and of course taking out some homework, getting to work.
Dustin, again, paid it no mind as he looked back to his laptop to see Sujit and Zero still going at it.
‘Zero, shut the fuck up, there’s no way that Bill Cipher could beat Aizen’ was the argument from Sujit, at which point as Dustin read Zero replied, ‘stfu Sujit, Bill is a magical being from another dimension that can just rearrange his organs and zap him into the sun probably. Back me up here Unmei!!’
A typical argument though this time, Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls against Sosuke Aizen of Bleach. It didn’t surprise Dustin in the slightest, [“Ugh… why do those two always have to go at it,”] he thought to himself.
‘Sujit, just give it up, Zero’s right man, telling you.’
‘just for that i might bring in a new villain to blow your Mugen Multiverse to shit.’
[“Pft...”] Dustin thought as he began to type, ‘I await the challenge. Order my character to do whatever you want man, i’ll slap Sujit’s shit for you.’
That said, Dustin minimized the browser, pulling up the files again to begin work once more on his small project. Zero had once told him that before he can write a serious project, he must do something smaller to get an initial feel. At this point, Zero was much like a mentor to him and an actual friend like the rest of them, both in writing and dealing with his struggle.
-
“If you want to deal with humanity’s problems, take it one step at a time. My hope in writing is that I can gain enough following and influence to start by changing things. The world is filled with darkness and bullshit and honestly, I think a lot of the population could drop dead but hey, that’d only give others the chance to climb to the top of the ladder.”
-
A bang and rumble, Dustin glancing up at who it was only to find Elizabeth smirking with both hands down, looking at him, “Working on your nerd book again nerd?”
“Get lost Elizabeth, I’m not in the mood. Mark’s hit me multiple times today already.”
“That son of a bitch, I told him it was my turn. Oh well,” she laughed slamming his laptop lid down, “Talking to your bitch friends again? They’re not real so why bother, eh?”
“They are real people, realer than you at least-”
“What, what!? Honey, I am all the way one hundred percent real, not that I’d show it to a nerd like you,” she laughed as another student called over to her, moving away following.
Dustin popped the lid up again and logged back in, annoyed, trying to remember where he had left off. Once ready, headphones in, he popped up some Mayhem to listen to for a bit before it was set to switch over to Nargaroth on the playlist, drowning himself in music as he began to type more of his story.
‘-the fat man cornered the little boy, drooling as he began to scream, a woman running to his aid with a machete as the gun was empty-’ [“No no no, that’s… that’s stupid,”] Dustin thought to himself as he backspaced, trying to think of something else.
Bringing up his character sheet, he began to look through, trying to find a better character to stick into the scene to rescue the boy rather than a random lady.
Going off of the sheet, the minimal sound of typing could be heard again as Dustin began to rewrite what he backspaced changing it to a different character, one modeled after him by the name of Rain.
‘As the fat man began to corner the young boy, the ceiling above collapsed with large portions dropping down on top of the fat man, his sides giving out as his blood and guts flowed out like a waterfall of filth, squashed near flat.’
With the press of enter and a nod of his approval, Dustin moved on, bringing the messages back up out of curiosity only to see Sujit and Zero barking even more with Unmei complaining at both of them who were seemingly ignoring her. Minimizing the tab, he got back to work, though a glance to the right and he saw people surrounding Ellie chatting to her, writing her off immediately as one of them with a growl in his head as he looked back down, typing into the chat, ‘this new girl is getting swarmed by these assholes, she’s probably going to be just like them.’
The bickering stopped as Zero began to type back, the message popping up in seconds, ‘ignore it, people are just naturally assholes’
Another sigh as he continued to work solo, with black metal playing in his head for the rest of the thirty five minute class period until the bell would ring, signaling the end of the day.
Everyone got up and quickly began to storm out except for Ellie who walked out slowishly, glancing back to the left corner noticing Dustin who continued to type as he picked up his bag. She walked out as Dustin waited as he did every day, knowing his father wouldn’t be on time and knowing he was better off waiting regardless for people to leave, also knowing the teacher didn’t give a damn.
With a sigh, he knew the trouble had only just begun for the day as he still had to go home and deal with what awaited.
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