Vidare 03: Jefferson High

"Fifty Seven...Fifty Eight...Fifty Nine...Sixty." Panting, Derrick wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his arm. He flipped over into a pushup position when he heard Ariana call for him downstairs.

"Derrick! You need to come down here and eat breakfast before school." Sighing, Derrick stood up and threw on a black tshirt. Slamming all of his items into his backpack, he left his ratty room and descended the stairs.

"Morning." He said as he sat down and Ariana slid a bowl towards him with eggs and stir fry in it.

Ariana had been taking over getting him to school and back while Kai and Garrett were still in the hospital. "How did you sleep?"

"I got about five hours." He mumbled as he shoveled the first bite into his mouth.

"That's pretty good for you, how's it feel?" She put her hands on the counter and smiled.

"It feels weird. Like I was static too long." He continued to fill his mouth before he started to chew.

"Well don't get too used to staying up late, summer is coming soon. You're about to flush with time to rest and play."

"I've already got my workout routine picked out too."

"Trying to impress some girls?" She asked with a grin.

"I dunno, does your mom go to my school?" He laughed as she punched him in the arm with her wide smile.

"You ass!" She laughed and tapped the counter. "Finish your food, we need to get going."

As the two packed into her car, the sun shined through the windshield as they headed to Derrick's school. Pulling up to Jefferson High, Derrick looked out the window solemnly. "You okay?" Ariana asked as she saw the sour look on his face.

"Fine I guess. Just not excited for another day." He whined.

"You've got two months until summer. Then we can plan something fun if you like." Ariana gave him a hug in the car. "Be good, okay?" Derrick waved as he stepped out of the car and crossed the paved steps leading into the massive high school. His feet echoed against the tiles as he entered the hallway, and found his best friend waiting by her locker. Three kids approached her, one tostling her hijab, while the other two knocked the items out of her hands. Approaching faster, Derrick balled his fists as he felt the anger surge inside of him. Derrick slammed his hand against the locker next to him and dented the metal with his scarred fist. "You want to do this?"

The group of boys slowly backed off and turned around to walk away. Rema picked up her backpack and started piling her books back into it. She refitted her hijab and sighed. "You shouldn't do that, you know." She said as she proudly stood to walk again with Derrick right at her side. "Violence doesn't fix anything."

"I'm a pacifist, I wasn't going to hurt them." He casually shrugged.

"Were you a pacifist when you put that jerk Theo in the hospital?" She retorted angrily.

"I was an angry pacifist." He smiled and got a small smirk from her. "Look, anyone who picks on you for your race or your faith deserves an ass kicking." He said confidently.

"Oh, are you a gentleman now, Derrick Peterson?" She smiled at him.

"I can't help myself if a pretty girl is around." He smirked back at her and opened the door to their classroom. Taking the seat next to her, he opened his math book. "This shit is killing me."

"It's not that bad. If you'd take me up on my offer to study, I'd be happy to help." She assembled her books and notes, opening a new page and marking the date.

"You know I can't do that. My family is a bunch of weirdos." He whined.

"I'm the one willing to lie to my parents for you." She struck back.

"Alright...fine. I'll text my parents." He pulled out his phone and started typing a message to Ariana.

"Are you ashamed of your family?" She penned the messages on the board quickly.

"They're...not my blood. I'm adopted." He looked away as she eyed him.

"Are they mean to you?"

"No they're just...different." He grimaced at the idea of hiding his practices from her.

"Then it shouldn't be a problem." She said with a nod. "I'll be over at a quarter to five."

Derrick had met Rema when she was being bullied, and quickly stepped in on his first week of school. She never talked about how much crap she actually got from the student body, but behind her stern demeanor was a truly gentle soul. She tapped his book and gestured to the board to encourage his note taking, and with an exaggerated sigh he picked up his pen and went to work. They shared math, English, and history before they paused for lunch, going their separate ways. Derrick sat alone like he always did, poking at his tray of food.

"Kill anyone today, freak?" A boy passed by with a nasty look.

"If you have something to say then say it." Derrick said calmly, refusing to look up as the boy turned around and stood in front of him.

"Yeah I got something to say. What was it again?" He knocked the tray from Derrick's hands and laughed. "Oops."

Derrick clenched his fists and started to do the breathing exercises Kai had taught him. "Just go away." He mumbled.

Kyle stepped closer and put his finger out as he talked. "Or what? Are you gonna smash my head in too? Everyone here knows you're some outside from an inbred family. You probably go home and sit right in Daddy's lap." He teased. Derrick stayed quiet as he breathed, trying his best to control his temper. "You hang out with that walking terrorist all day and look what it's done to you?"

Derrick stood up and lifted his hands like a boxer. Slowly the kids around them turned their heads. "Walk away Kyle." Derrick commanded.

"After school, you're fucking dead Derrick." He slid his finger across his own throat as he backed up and walked away.

Derrick sat for a few minutes as he watched the ants slowly pick up the food on the ground before he grabbed his tray and returned it to the cafeteria. Walking into one of the study labs, he set down his backpack. "Rough day?" Mr. Coleman was sitting with his back to a wall as he chewed an apple.

"Sorta." Derrick sighed. "Just assholes like usual."

Mr. Coleman got closer and sat across from Derrick at the table. "Think you wanna talk about it?"

"People keep wanting to pick fights with me. I don't wanna hurt anyone again. I hated how it made me feel last time, but it's like my blood boils and I can't control it."

"You know when I was a kid I got in a lot of fights?" Mr. Coleman nodded. "This little jerk, Kit, he hit me in the face with a rock." Tracing his finger over a scar on his forehead he looked at Derrick. "Every day after that I fought back. I got in so much trouble I got expelled from two schools."

"What did you do?" Derrick looked up at him.

"Eventually, a really good teacher of mine sat me down and talked to me, every day for a few weeks. He turned my life around." Mr. Coleman got up and set his lunch between them to share. "That's exactly what we're gonna do."

***

Derrick heard the final bell ring and gathered his things as quick as he could. He started to run for the door despite the security guard yelling after him and headed down the hill behind the school. As he turned to look behind him, a group of six kids were already running after him and gaining on him.

The tires of Ariana's old car screeched as she swung the car around and separated the boys closing in and Derrick. "Get in the car." She said firmly. Stepping out, she approached the boys with a nasty look. Derrick froze on the side of the car as he saw the wind begin to howl in the trees, and the leaves rustle heavily.

"Ariana, don't." He crossed to the other side of the car as her magic packed itself together into a roaring storm that swept in quickly. He shuddered as he saw her fingers start to twitch. "They're still asleep."

She took a deep breath as she balled her hands into fists, turning back to the car and getting inside. "Enjoy your time with your Mommy Derrick!" One of the boys jeered as Derrick got in the passenger side.

Ariana sped off through the parking lot. "You were smart to text me. One more fight and you get kicked out of school."

"Can I still meet up with Rema?" He asked nervously.

Ariana smacked her hand on the steering wheel as she came to a hard brake for the car in front of her. "You haven't told her about who or what we are?"

"No. I'm not stupid. She doesn't know anything about magic. She's a dedicated muslim and a good person."

"So you have a crush on her." She said frankly.

"It's not like that."

"Derrick, can you just tell me the truth for five minutes?" She looked at him and waited for his face to change.

"Alright fine, so I like her." He threw his hands up. "Is that so fucking wrong?"

"No, Derrick I want you to have a normal lif-"

"I don't have a normal life! I'm a freak!" He shouted.

Ariana quicked off to a side street and looked at him as she put the car in park. "Listen to me very closely. You are not a freak. Everyone who awakens at your age feels like that. You were given a gift from the gods."

"What gods?" He shouted. "The ones that gave me a Dad who burned me? The ones that let me go hungry five nights a week?" Tears started to drip down his face, and Ariana leaned over to hug him.

"You got to be my son. You gave me a gift I could never have before." She squeezed him tightly. "You're about to grow up into one of the best mages the world has ever seen. Nothing, absolutely nothing on this earth could stop me from caring about you." She held him as he cried for a few minutes. "I never got to have kids Derrick. It's one of the prices I paid a long time ago. When we found you, I felt like I had this chance to give someone a normal life."

"What am I supposed to be?" He asked as he wiped his face.

"Anything. You can be anything and I'll be there to support you." She helped him wipe his face. "Fuck your homework for now, lets go get you some food before your date with Remy." Derrick chuckled as they drove. "Derrick...have you ever kissed someone?" She looked at his face drain of color.

"Uh..no?" He shifted in his seat.

"Did your Dad ever give you...the talk?" She looked again as he shook his head.

Taking a deep breath she looked around. "This is gonna sound a little weird."

***

Derrick poked at his food a few more times as Ariana munched on her salad. "So...does that...hurt?"

"It can." She said matter of fact. "It's mostly about feeling comfortable."

"What if...it's with another guy?" He said slowly.

"Oh um..." Ariana bit her lip as she pretended to feign innocence about him being bisexual.

"Well, that's a whole different thing." Ariana slowly walked him through the differences and waited for him to speak again as he chewed. She had given him plenty of moments of letting him know she was supportive, and even discussed some of the way the gay community thrived inside the Sahajiya.

"What if I brought home a boy instead?" He poked his plate again.

"Go for it. Kai's little brother was gay."

"Was? I heard you yelling about it the other day before Garrett was in the hospital. What happened to him?" He looked up as her face filled with sorrow.

Ariana sighed and put her hands together as she pushed aside her plate. "About a year ago he was beaten to death for being queer. We worked the case as hard as we could, but we found nothing. Unfortunately it was just a case of shitty people."

Derrick sat quietly as the waiter delivered their check, and didn't have any idea of what to say as she took him back to the house. As they stepped in the door, Rema was sitting patiently on the couch with Kai as he handed her a glass of water. "Oh hey!" She said as she smiled.

"Hey Derrick, your friend here showed up just a few minutes ago." Kai gave him a smile and Derrick came right over to Rema and apologized furiously.

"It's really okay, where did you want to study?" She asked and Derrick looked around wildly.

"My room isn't very clean." He mumbled with his hand in his hair.

"Just leave the door cracked." Ariana smiled as the two of them headed up the stairs.

"That kid is in for some hell." Kai laughed.

"When did you even get out of the hospital?" Ariana said as she sat next to Kai on the couch.

Kai lifted his shirt to show his bandaged ribs. "Just today. I caught a ride home."

"Listen, we need to talk about Garrett." Ariana put her hand on his.

"He's still checked in. I know he's back on using that shit again. He must really be hurting for it."

"Not that. First I was wrong to mention your brother the other day." Kai waved it off but she squeezed his hand. "Second, Derrick just came out to me and I gave him the talk. You think you could talk to him sometime?" Kai nodded slowly. "Third. I found this letter." Standing up and going over to her books, she pulled the printed letter and photo from one of them and handed them to Kai.

"Who the hell is Vic?" He asked as he read the letter. As he looked at the photo he put a finger to it. "Maybe he isn't Derrick but he's someone who looks just like him?"

Ariana shook her head. "What about this, combined with the dreams? If we find out who this group is, we can find out what's going on."

"We can't take a mission, I can't heal anyone." Kai said flatly. "I was mostly planning on practicing guitar for a few weeks while the effect bleeds off."

"I know I've been incredibly hard on you lately." She looked him in the eyes. "Maybe tonight...I could take care of you?"

"What do you mean?" His head was woozy from the pain pills. Leaning close, she put her hand to his cheek and kissed him. They froze for a second as they looked at each other.