Little weirdos

[Kero Sima]

"There's that weird kid!"

"The one with the creepy dad?"

"Yeah!"

Kero split open the wrapper of his chocolate bar and took a big bite, munching as he listened to the girls at the next table over gossiping about somebody weird, with a creepy dad. It was raining hard outside, with great fat raindrops bouncing off the windows, so they were stuck inside during lunchtime. He had already worked his way through the sandwich that his mom made for him, a banana and a small carton of milk.

"I heard his dad's a huge perv! Like, I heard from Jenny that he hangs around the school and pervs on all the girls!"

His interest piqued, Kero looked around and noticed that they were sneaking glances at somebody sitting by himself, not too far off. Kero snuck a couple of glances that way too.

Weird? More like cute.

Unfortunately, Ollie didn't notice him. He never seemed to notice Kero. If Kero sidled past him, he just eased back to get out of his way. If Kero worked up the courage to smile in his general direction (if not exactly at him, because Kero got all shy with people he liked), he pretended like he didn't see it or else he gave Kero a weird look and turned away. Sheesh. Talk about clueless! What the hell did Kero have to do to get his attention?

Aside from being some new kid. Hmph. What was so special about that new guy anyway? Kero didn't see whatever Ollie saw. Was it because he was tall? Because he was new? Because he was a big fat dork? Kero tried to figure it out, but jealousy and resentment stopped him from really making any headway. Annoyingly, new kid got along fine with Ollie, and Kero felt like if Ollie didn't notice him before, now he was even more invisible!

Most of the kids in their class gave Ollie a wider berth, because of all the rumors swirling around about his dad. Or guardian—whatever that creepy man was who sometimes came to get him, or was seen with him around town. There was talk of him being a drug dealer, or a mass murderer, or a drunk, or a nasty old perv who did gross stuff to Ollie. Kero didn't know if he believed everything that the other kids said, but he, too, thought that the man was scary. Nevermind what he did for a living, he just looked like the type of guy who'd backhand a kid for talking back to him!

That didn't mean that Ollie himself was creepy, though. He was kind of quiet and did his own thing; he was mysterious. Kero thought he was cute. And Kero liked cute guys, and he liked Evie. He didn't know that he liked those girls so much, since they were talking smack about Ollie, even if they were pretty and popular. Probably because they were pretty and popular, they got away with whispering stuff like that behind Ollie's back.

"Eww, that's gross. I bet Ollie's a perv too, just like his dad!"

"HE IS NOT!"

Kero shot out of his seat before he thought about his own actions, glowering heatedly at the girls. They looked shocked and scandalized. One of them raised her eyebrows at him.

"What is YOUR problem, dweeb?" She asked, her tone scathing.

Kero's face flamed. He didn't even dare to look over his shoulder at Ollie, and instead swept up his lunch bag, shoving the sandwich container inside with a loud clatter, crushing the banana peel with it, smushing his half-eaten chocolate bar in with everything else. Then he scooted for the cafeteria exit, as fast as he could.

Shit!

Now Ollie was gonna think he was weird!