Tahk tried not to look at anyone as he dressed for gym class. If he didn't look at them, there was no eye contact. With no eye contact, there was no communication. With no communication, there was no recognition. With no recognition, there was invisibility.
He gasped as his head was grabbed from behind and shoved forward so he bashed his forehead against his locker.
"What's up, goggle-boy?" asked Matt Carter maliciously. Matt was a bully in every sense of the word. He was huge, a lineman for the school football team, and he had a feeling of superiority over everyone. Today he was making fun of the large tinted goggles Tahk was forced to wear because his eyes were extremely photosensitive. Yesterday, it had been his clothes.
"Carter, lay off," said River Corry, the gym teacher's student assistant. River was different than everyone else. He was tall, almost six feet, and he had dark brown hair that was parted on the side; the large portion of hair would always fall over one of his eyes that were a vibrant green, like leaves on a tree in the summer. However, he wasn't different because of his looks alone. He was beautiful on the outside and the inside. He was kind and generous and he didn't put other people down to lift himself up, which wasn't true with just about anyone else in the whole school.
Matt grinned at River and gently patted Tahk on the head, "Just giving my little buddy a love pat," he said, and then hit Tahk's shoulder with his fist.
Tahk winced and rubbed his wounded shoulder, glaring at Matt.
"Bastard," he muttered, tucking a strand of his hair behind his ear as he bent down to tie his shoes. His hair was another subject of ridicule. It was a pale sky blue, nearly white. People said he dyed it, but that was a lie. It was his natural color, though how that was possible was beyond him. He'd even shaved his head a few times, but it always grew back the same abnormal color.
"McKenzie!" the gym teacher, Coach John Rickets shouted, causing Tahk to jump, "Get out here now or I'll mark you absent!"
Tahk groaned and ran out of the locker room and into the gym, then stood at the end of a long line of boys.
"Dodge ball!" the teacher exclaimed, "River, two teams; count them off!"
River went down the line, whapping each boy on the head and shouting a number, "1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2," he hit Matt extra hard with a "one," and continued. Tahk groaned, knowing the inevitable would happen. He got tapped on the head as one word exited River's mouth, "Two."
*
Balls were flying everywhere. One kid, a small boy, had gotten hit in the groin and was sent to the nurse's office. Half of team two was on the sidelines, having gotten hit, giving team one, who was almost all there, a large advantage. Tahk was very good at the dodging part of the game, but the ball part gave him trouble. That was mainly because he couldn't get his hands on one.
He didn't even see it, the ball flying straight for his head. He turned and saw it, then turned to run. He felt it hit him. Then everything went black.
*
The entire class huddled around the small boy that lay unconscious on the wooden floor. The back of his head was covered in blood so thick it looked black. The same liquid dripped from his nose and ran out of his mouth.
"River, call the hospital," said Rickets and made his way through the crowd of boys to bend down next to Tahk. He pulled off the thick goggles that wrapped around Tahk's head and pulled one eye open. It was slightly larger than that of a normal person, but the strange thing was that he didn't have human eyes. He had cat eyes. They bulged from his head and were clear when you looked at them sideways. The slit-like pupils were small and thin, like he was staring into a 100-watt light bulb.
Tahk coughed and slammed his eyes shut, sending droplets of the dark fluid in every direction. The coughing grew into a hissing noise that sounded like something straight of a snake. He started hacking and coughing again after the hissing fit, then started choking on the blood in his mouth and gargling it. He started whimpering. These whimpers grew into growling and snarling as he started writhing on the ground, his face contorted in pain and anger.
River came over and plopped down next to Rickets, "They're on their way. Is he having a seizure?"
Rickets shook his head, "I don't know what he's doing. I haven't ever seen anything like this."
"Coach," one of the boys in the crowd around them said softly, "His blood, it's. it's green, sir."
They all looked down at the slowly growing pool of liquid growing on the gym floor. Many backed away, realizing that the blood wasn't a dark red like they'd assumed, but a very, very deep green.
Tahk whimpered and started bashing the back of his head against the floor. He was arching his back away from it and clawing at the wooden panels as though he were trying to rip them away. His fingernails got caught under a chunk of board and he pulled it out and crushed it like it was nothing but a ball of Play-Do.
He started screaming like his entire body was burning. He began scratching at the back of his head, trying to tear his skin off or so it seemed.
The students covered their ears, as his screams grew louder, shriller. They gasped in shock as they watched all of the glass in the vicinity shatter; the trophy cases, the windows, the basketball goal backs, and even the fluorescent light bulbs in the ceiling shattered, sending shards of glass everywhere. The room grew dim.
Tahk slowly opened his eyes, gasping and panting for air. He bit his lower lip and whispered, "Get it out."
River nervously licked his lips, realizing that everyone was more likely to run away in terror than help Tahk, "What do I need to get out? Where is it?"
"GET IT OUT!!" Tahk screamed, tears running down the pale skin of his cheeks and mixing with the green blood caked below his lips along with the stream running from his nose.
"What?" replied River.
He grabbed Tahk's head, forcing him to stop beating it against the floor. He reached behind his head and ran his hand over the soft hair there, "What am I looking for?" he asked gently. Then he felt it. There was a small, square-shaped protrusion right below the crown of his skull. "Rickets, there's something there," he said cautiously.
Rickets frowned and carefully placed his hand where River's had been, "What do you think that is?"
"CHIP!" shouted Tahk, "Take out chip!"
"Hand me your pocket knife," said River. Rickets handed it to him with shaky fingers, fumbling with it and nearly dropping it.
"What are you gonna do?" asked Matt as River turned Tahk over onto his stomach.
"I'm going to get it out," River replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Tahk gasped as though his lungs wouldn't work, like he was a fish out of water. River ignored this and shallowly put the knife into his skin, sliding it under the flat square and pushing it up.
The scream that ripped out of Tahk was the most horrible noise River had ever heard. It was anguished and blood curdling. He froze and pulled the knife out of his skin.
"Pull back the skin," Tahk panted, "And cut off the orange nodes."
River nodded and cut along the perimeter of the chip then pealed away the piece of flesh like it was nothing more than a piece of saran wrap.
"He. he said orange, right?" stuttered River, staring at the small piece of green silicon that was causing this boy such intense pain. There were five small orange nodes, not even a quarter of a centimeter in diameter each. Rickets nodded and River closed the knife and pulled out the corkscrew attachment. He cautiously poked the first node, concentrating solely on the object at hand so that he didn't hear the loud blare of ambulances approaching.
Tahk hissed and arched his back away from the blood-covered wood, pressing his stomach down against it.
"Hold him down," said River and proceeded to poke the node harder and scoop it out of the chip. Tahk screamed then growled with an extremely primal tone.
River quickly went through and pulled each node out one at a time while the boys pinned Tahk to the floor. Said boy jerked more violently with each node removal.
"Take it out," he grated out when the last node had been removed, his voice barely identifiable as human.
River pulled out the chip, just as the paramedics ran in with a gurney. Tahk hissed at the paramedics then rolled over onto his back and grabbed River's arm, holding onto it for dear life.
"Please," he whispered; his voice was desperate and pleading and his eyes were dilated and watery in the dim light. He was trembling with fear, "Don't let them take me. Please, don't let them take me."
He was lifted from River's grasp and strapped to a gurney, too exhausted to struggle. He just stared at River. River just stared back. He grabbed onto Tahk's hand, holding so tightly that his knuckles were white. Tahk smiled softly then just gave up as the paramedics forced him to let go.