The Outcasts
by Cole Parker
9
Will was watching a house football match, attendance required, a few days later. Afterwards, he headed towards his house, some distance away across the grounds. As usual, he was walking by himself. And then, suddenly, he wasn't. He looked up from the grass he'd been contemplating and found Hogsford on one side, and the other two boys there too, one on his other side, one behind him. He felt his heart speed up.
"Guess they were right about you, you little fairy. You are stupid. I told you not to get friendly with Blake. You said you wouldn't. You did anyway. So you did what I told you not to do, and you lied to me when you said you'd stay away from him. What are we going to do about that?"
Will looked around. There were other boys, but no one particularly close, and no one looking at the four of them. He thought he could probably yell for help, but it would sound silly as after all, these boys were simply walking with him. If people turned to look when he yelled, what would they see?
He kept walking, and the other three stayed close to him.
"Hey, I asked you a question. What are we going to do about this? What's you answer, fairy?"
Still Will didn't reply. He was pulling back into his shell, the one that had been his residence for so long until Liam had managed to crack it open a bit.
"Okay, if you're too scared to answer, I'll tell you. This is what's going to happen. You're going to get knocked around, and every day I see you sitting at tea with that homo, you're going to get it again. We'll just see how long it takes for you to learn."
Hogsford took a quick glance around, then nodded at his friends. They moved closer, screening Will somewhat with their bulk. Then Hogsford hit Will in the stomach, dropping him to his knees. Hogsford then hit him hard in the shoulder, knocking him over.
"No one saw anything, creep, and if you say anything, it's your word against ours, and then you'll really get it. Now stay away from that homo, or you get more."
The three boys walked off. No one seemed to notice Will lying on the ground. No one came to help him. He didn't know if that was because of who he was, or because they'd seen who did this to him and didn't want to get involved in anything that had to do with Hogsford.
When he'd recovered his breath, he rose to his feet and made his way back to his house. He needed to lie down before tea.
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