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Logan's hands knot into useless fists at his sides. He can feel his anger burning and boiling and sloshing inside him, like a pressure cooker turned up high. It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair. He wasn't talking during quiet time, he just wasn't. It was Remy.
But Remy isn't labeled 'autistic' and he is. And his teacher doesn't like him. He knows that as well as he knows his own name. His mom tries to convince him that he's mistaken, but he knows the truth. He's not stupid. At least Patton, his older brother, believes him.
Which is good, because he's going to need all the people in his corner he can get, because Ms. Phelps put a red mark on his homework and told him to tell his parents. And he doesn't want to tell his parents because it's not even true, but no one's going to believe him, and it makes him so mad he could just-
"Psst. Hey!"
Logan jumps, peering around the playground and uneasily remembering last month's assembly on stranger danger. But no, instead of some old man huddled in the bushes, it's one of the twins that lives nearby. He thinks it's Remus. Remus is the one with a gap in his front teeth. Remus is also the one likely to run away from the rest of his class and hide in the bushes like a Scooby Doo villain.
"You should be with your friends," Logan says, scrubbing at tears he didn't know had fallen until he feels their drying trails on his face.
"Don't have any," Remus says frankly. Logan frowns.
"Not even your brother?" He asks. Remus shrugs, scuffing the toe of his sneaker along the edge of a faded chalk outline of a flower.
"We aren't friends," Remus says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "We're brothers."
"Oh," Logan says. Then-
"Why were you crying?"
"I got in trouble," Logan says shortly, fresh anger rising. "For talking. But I didn't talk during quiet time, and now my parents are going to be mad at me, and I'll get in trouble at home, too, and-"
"What if you told them it wasn't you?" Remus asks. Logical, Logan supposes. Too bad it won't work.
"Won't work," he says. "They won't believe me. She gave me a red mark."
A considering look comes over Remus's face.
"Gimme your homework," Remus says. Logan frowns, but hands it over anyway. The red mark glares up at him. Remus digs through the detritus of his own backpack, triumphantly pulling out a container of White Out and gently dabbing it on, flapping the page in the breeze.
"My parents will notice the White Out," Logan points out. "And then I'll be in even more trouble for trying to hide it," he adds gloomily.
"No, no, this is just step one," Remus assures him. "Step two will take a minute. Don't move." He folds Logan's homework up and stuffs it in his shirt, before darting back into the school. Logan waits nervously, all too aware that at any moment, their bus might pull up.
Only a few minutes later, Remus comes thumping back down the steps, pushing a fresh bundle of homework pages into Logan's hands. They're still warm from being copied.
"Look," Remus says smugly. The red mark is gone like it had never been.
"I- thank you," Logan says. Remus grins, revealing the gap between his teeth.
"Welcome!" He chirps. "Now your parents won't find out!"
"I owe you one," Logan says. He's heard Patton say it to his friends countless times. Remus just laughs and flaps a hand at him.
"It's cool," Remus says. "But uh, maybe we could play soon?"
"Sounds good to me," Logan agrees. The bus pulls up in a rush of exhaust and noise, making Logan want to put his hands over his ears. From the disgruntled look on Remus's face, he feels similarly.
"See you later?" Remus asks, grabbing his own backpack and thumping it between his shoulder blades.
"Yeah," Logan says, tucking his homework back into his backpack. While the red mark might stay on his record, Ms. Phelps had a habit of removing them for good behavior. And she never followed up with parents, so maybe this secret could actually stay a secret.
He flaps his hands, low by his sides, as he gets in line for the school bus, Roman and Remus ahead of him. Remus turns to look back, sees him, and drops a heavily conspiratorial wink. Logan blinks back, unable to quite master the art of the wink yet.
He's not going to tell his parents what really happened today. But maybe he can tell Patton.
And tell Patton that maybe Remus wasn't such a baby after all.