Chapter Text
“If you could see yourself five years from today, what would you see?” My year 6 teacher had said. We were doing a project, My Future Self, it was called. Most of the kids in class had given some of the most classic answers to that question, like they wanted to be a fireman, or a princess. In my case, believe it or not, I wanted to be a teacher, or a professional rugby player. I had grown up watching it, and I would play with my dad before he left for work and when he got home. Before he left my family. I had also always loved the thought of being able to be up in front of the classroom at my own big desk, to have my own big comfy spinning chair behind it, and being able to draw on the whiteboard for everyone to see. But never once had the thought occurred to me that I would be swinging through the London buildings clinging onto my boyfriend who was trying to stop the person he was fighting from… from whatever he was fighting now as the image changed from the classroom. Then all of a sudden, I was falling, with the Eiffel Tower in my line of sight and two other humans screaming from the fall, and then I heard someone call after me, but it wasn’t a male voice, as I was expecting, it was a female’s.
“Nicky! Nick? NICOLAS!” Mum said, waving her hand in front of my face. I had zoned out again. This is something almost completely normal by now, it usually happens at least 3 times a day and most of the time continues in sleep. Mainly during my study time, because it was boring. School has always been easy, for the most part, but math has always been a little bit more difficult. All of the numbers and the letters and the symbols just seem to become one big jumble that I always manage to figure out at the last possible second. I blinked a couple of times to show that I was awake again.
“Yes mum?” I said, with more humor in my tone than I was hoping, knowing that she obviously needed me for something. Most of the time she’ll just let me be in my world until I wake up on my own, unless it was one of those times that she needed something. Those are the perks of living with someone your whole life. You just get to know them all too well.
“I’m heading out for a few hours, I’ve gotta run some errands and then I’m going to visit a friend down in London. If you could do your laundry and the dishes while I’m gone that would be very greatly appreciated. Also Nellie might like a walk if you feel up for that today.” She said, I knew I needed to get my laundry done, but I hate and I mean hate doing laundry. Dishes aren’t too bad, but that’s mainly because rinsing out the sponge afterwards is always quite satisfying and I can never seem to get myself to stop. Plus the warm water feels nice. It’s a childlike thing I know but truth be told I don’t really care. As for the walk with Nellie.. I’m sure I could fit some time in to get out with her. It’ll be nice to be outside. Oh come on, I know that I would walk Nellie everyday if I could, she’s so well trained and it’s so easy to walk her because she’ll just stay by your side. Unless she sees something weird, or hears something.. or smells something, or even senses something is wrong.
“Yea, I’ll get it done mum, don’t worry. Have fun, I love you!” I said getting up to hug her and kiss her cheek before she left.
“I love you too baby, if I’m not home by 9, don't wait up alright? Summer ends tomorrow, remember? You have school to start my little year 11!” She said whilst pinching my cheek, causing heat to work its way into my cheeks and turn me red.
“Yea, ok. Bye!” I replied, and mum left. I decided to just throw my stuff in the wash cause there’s no point procrastinating. I’ll have to do it eventually so why not get it over with? I went to my room to gather my clothes and get them into a basket to make it easier to carry. I brought them to the laundry room, threw them in the washer, and put the soap in. Once that was done, I cleaned the dishes, put them on the drying rack, and just when I was done with that, it was time to switch the laundry. The dishes still hadn’t dried yet, so I got Nellie on her leash to take her for a walk. I took her on our normal route, down the street to the park by our house, and then a start around a couple street blocks. I was just about to turn around the last street when I heard a distressed yell from a voice that sounded quite familiar.
“Leave me ALONE! PLEASE!” Yelled the familiar voice. After I heard that I stopped in my tracks to hear faint laughing coming after. I knew that I couldn’t just leave that to deal with itself, I don’t know what this person did, but the voice was too young for it to be a grownup’s. So that means that someone has got to help, and to hell with me if I just ignore it. Well, this wasn’t how I was expecting my day to go. I pulled Nellie toward the direction of the distress, because even though the boy had stopped speaking, the laughing hadn’t stopped yet, and as I was getting closer that laughter became all too familiar, and that’s when everything came into view. Harry Greene was there, he was stood back but he was there, arms outstretched as if acting like a fence. The other boy was a bit less familiar, but I still recognized him. Ben Hope, he wasn’t a rugby lad exactly, he had tried out for the team a while back, and he had the build, but his grades weren’t good enough to get him in the team. But everyone liked him so we just kinda let him hang around. He also had an attitude. And not just like a bad mood, he had a proper attitude when he didn’t get his way, which wasn’t that often. Ben and Harry had a boy cornered in an alley, which is one of those things you can only see if you know it’s there, and that’s probably exactly why they chose it. The boy had his arms up in front of him, almost as if he were a police officer, asking people to stay back. He had a smaller build, and he didn’t look weak per sè, but he didn’t look like he could properly defend himself either. He had curly dark hair and even in the darkness I could see that his eyes were a pretty blue color. And they were filled with fear as he was pleading with the two boys to leave him alone. Now that I think about it, I know exactly who that boy is. He is the boy I was sat next to in my form class, the one so innocent and shy and sweet it was one really big question what the hell he had done to piss these two off. If he did anything at all! His eyes were frantically searching for a way out, still terrified, and then those eyes met mine, and my quiet attempt to advance was no longer an option.
“Charlie?”