Chapter Text
Red paint dripped down the leg of the table, mixed with feathers and glitter. Evan dipped his hands into it, smearing it along as the coldness bit beneath his fingernails. He had lost his scissors among the red and was blindly trying to fish them out, not realising they had fallen onto the floor.
“Evan!” Tyler yelled, coming up behind him. He too was covered in paint which he had plastered onto his now completely ruined clothing. A light pink had found its way into his hair and onto his face.
“Yes, Ty-Ty?”
“Have you finished? Look what I made!” He smiled goofily, holding up what looked to be a cut out pig mask, painted pink and red, with pompoms placed in random locations.
“Hey, sweet!” Evan called, grinning back at his best friend. “Look at mine.” He pointed to a different table where his laid on a neat layer of newspaper, setting to dry.
“Wow Evan, that’s pretty cool, is it a chicken?”
“No! It’s a red owl.”
“Oh.” Tyler chuckled, trying not to wheeze as Evan pouted; his chubby filled cheeks puffing out slightly. “Well, it looks great... I wonder who else is done?”
“Brock is, Brian isn’t, but Brock's helping him and Anthony is helping someone I don’t know…”
“Scotty?”
“Yeah, Scotty I think.”
Tyler winced a little, staring at Anthony and Scotty who were playing with the black and white paint, turning it to grey. “Maybe we should go make more friends like Anthony is Evan. We don't want to not have any new friends here. Then it'll feel just like kindergarten, but we ain't at kindergarten! We are now at school!”
“But I wanna go back to kindergarten, I hate school and I hate science.” Evan sighed, following Tyler’s view.
“At least this is kinda like silly stuff, I can’t wait to show everyone my mask!” Tyler grinned, waving over to Anthony who had caught him staring. “Let’s go introduce ourselves!”
“Nah, I don’t wanna. Can’t we wait, Ty-Ty?” But Tyler was already walking over towards Anthony and smiling at Scotty. “Okay then…” Evan sat down next to his mask, staring at it. Did it really look like a chicken?
“Hi.”
Evan spun to see a slightly tanned boy with dark hair and gleaming blue eyes. He had a big smile planted on his face, with a tooth missing from the front.
“Um, hi there.”
“Nice mask.” The boy said, scrunching up his nose as he tried to make his smile wider. “Is it a birdman?”
“An owl.”
“Batman likes owls.” The boy mumbled to himself but still keeping eye contact. “That’s pretty cool, is that your bestest thing?”
“Yeah.” Evan continued to look up at the boy who was stained in blue. “How about yours?”
“It’s a raccoon!” The other boy sung, lifting it from the table beside him. “I got the black thingies and everything.”
“It looks like a cat gone wrong.” Evan giggled, causing the other boy to frown.
“No! It’s a raccoon! Why’s everyone sayin’ that!” He exclaimed, looking down at it in wonder about why people saw it as a cat when it was clear as day a raccoon.
“Why is it blue then?”
“Why is yours red?”
“Because it’s the best colour.” Evan said, playing with a feather that was firmly stuck onto his mask.
“Nu-uh blue is the bestest colour ever to live.” The other boy blurted out loudly, causing some of their classmates to look over.
“Jonathan, keep your voice down. Have you finished?”
“Yes, Mrs.” The boy said shyly back to the teacher, embarrassed to have been called out.
“Has everyone finished their masks?” She mumbled, watching all the children nod in agreement. “Okay then, let's have a look.”
---
Brock had showed his off first, it was an eagle with black and white spots like a cow. Secondly, Brian came up, but only when he was holding Brock's hand, showing what appeared to be a robot horse; with hair grips glued along the face to give it the metal look. Anthony came up with Scotty as they had stuck their masks together to make a massive four eyed panda which the teacher didn’t seem too happy with. They only smiled at each other though, making their way back down to their table.
Then, if Evan remembered correctly, Jonathan came up, stating it was definitely a raccoon and not a cat, but Tyler kept calling it a cat anyway. Tyler came next, showing off his pig with the random pompoms and some kid at the back saying it looked like a dying pig. Then that kid came up, showing off a monkey and saying how no one could state it was a monkey without being racist towards him.
Again, the teacher was not amused.
Finally, Evan came up, making up a story about how his owl got hit by a car and that’s why it was red. He could see Jonathan laughing the whole time which filled him with a confidence he had never felt before.
“Okay, is that everyone?” The teacher said. Nobody responded so she assumed so. “Time for a break then, you can all go out and play with them.”
---
Evan stood high and mighty on the jungle gym wearing his bright red owl mask. “Just call me super owlman!”
“I think it should be batowl.” Jonathan mumbled. Evan hadn’t even seen him sitting next to him, drinking a carton of orange juice. “Why?”
“Because Batman likes owls! You could be his super duper side-person-kick thingy.” He exclaimed.
Tyler, who Evan normally played with, looked towards him and raised an eyebrow. “Who dis?”
“This is Jonathan, I met him in class. You told me to meet new people.” Evan mumbled, taking his mask off and lowering himself down to sit next to Jonathan.
“Oh, okay, hi, I’m Tyler.”
“Hi. Just call me Batcoon!” Jonathan laughed strangely, causing Evan to laugh too.
“You should be the bad guy!”
“What? Why?” He pouted, now causing Tyler to grin.
“Your laugh sounds like a crazy person.” Evan snorted, making Jonathan chuckle lightly.
Before they could continue, a stranger came over. “Hey, Jo, what you up too? I was looking for you!”
“Just saving the damn world from death and doom.” Jonathan sung, biting hard into a ham sandwich. The other kid laughed before looking around.
“Hey, where is Luke and Ryan? They said their lesson would be over by now.”
Jonathan shrugged, now looking towards Evan, who frowned at him. “This is Marcel.” He mumbled, pointing to the stranger. “He’s my bud.”
“Hey, losers!” Someone called from behind Evan, he turned around to see an older boy climbing the wrong way up the jungle gym, and another one walking around tutting. “You’re going to hurt yourself doing that, buddy.”
“Don’t fret, mama, I’ve got this!” The boy climbing jumped down, hitting the floor with a tingling sensation running up his legs. He winced, jumping around like he had pins and needles.
“Told you.” The one walking towards Marcel said, watching the other as he hobbled in pain.
“Nah, it’s all good! I’m not hurt.”
Jonathan laughed, wide eyes looking toward the one hopping around. He thought it was hilarious.
Evan watched him, amused by the way his face lit up, though Jonathan felt it and spun to meet his eyes.
“They’re Luke and Ryan. Luke’s the one on the floor.” He laughed again causing Luke to give him a glare.
“Laugh it up, little man. Luke’s going to get you.” Ryan jeered.
Jonathan screamed in excitement, scaring Evan, and jumped onto the floor, running as Luke got up and started chasing him.
Tyler stole his spot, looking towards his open lunchbox. “He left it, it’s mine now.”