If you are offended by the following words. Please discontinue reading. There is no racial comment that follows 'skip' and 'wog' just the slang expression for calling 'Europeans' and 'Australians'. Sorry if this does offend you.
O.Dive.
The Boy With No Smile.
He was the boy with no smile. He had no friends. He had no personality. He had nothing. He was just there. Everyone has pinned him as the Living Dead. He would be there, just sitting there; but he looked none the lively as other people would be. Sometimes he would sit with the same blank expression; he would look at nothing in particular. That's probably why no one would go near him, why he would have no friends; because he was different.
And then, I commit the same crime. I'm different. I'm Asian. There's not a lot of Asians at this school. Even if there are, you wouldn't notice them. They would have insults thrown at them, because they spent their time in the library, reading books, or talking about some game that made no sense. It was a stark comparison from the previous school I went to. And yet I'm here sitting with the popular 'white' people. It was hypocritical, what they did; bag an Asian and hang out with one.
But the boy with no smile, I call him that because he doesn't smile; the Living Dead was too harsh, was a halfie, and got more insults that any Asian or skip or wog or anybody for that matter got. Every time I was with, my friends I guess, they would tell me to stay away from him, they wouldn't say anything in particular to justify their reason, but they would push my closer into the circle of a tight knit pack. I would never make a sound. Just go along with the prodding, just living with it.
I would never ask why. It never occurred to me that I could, or that I had a needed to. He was coincidently in all my classes, and when I told the others about it, they had all sneered conspiracy against the boy with no smile about hacking into the school computer system and changing the class lists around so he could see me in all his classes. That led to more crude and cruel jokes about the boy with no smile. I just laughed politely.
I would also never catch his name; like it was planned that I would never get to hear the name of the boy with no smile. One day in English class, I was waiting patiently for his name to be called out, but the fire alarm went off and we rushed out onto the oval. The boy with no smile stayed though. He watched as everyone passed. I left, I didn't want to wait for the sprinklers to turn on, I don't like getting my hair wet. When the teachers had announced that it was a false alarm, we went back into the classroom, and there was the boy with no smile, sitting on the desk swinging his legs leisurely, watching once again as everyone sat back down and class resumed, with the roll left unattended.
And it's coincidences like that, that make me frustrated. I had asked my friends and they didn't know what his name was, if you were going to insult them, have some decency to know their name at least. But alas they couldn't think of his name. My stupid question led to what might his name be, stupid suggestions arose and it was a laughing fit for everyone.
Sure no one knew his name, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't doesn't talk. He must talk some time. He looks the type. I imagine him to have the loudest voice of everyone in an auditorium, and the wise ass that makes the most noise trying to shut people up. So I sat in the back row, while he sat somewhere in the middle two rows and watch him as the teacher went about teaching. The teacher would look at his general direction, but turn to another eager student (an Asian might I add) and let them answer the question. Throughout the whole day he wouldn't say a single word, not even cough. I had even bothered so much as to stalk him to the bus station where he takes the bus home and see if he talks to the bus driver like some strange people do. So I came to learn that he is well prepared and bought a 10 times two hour bus fair.
So he's odd, and different, doesn't talk and seemingly doesn't have a name, but that can't be the only reason that he gets insulted. He doesn't look ugly or anything. He's pretty when you look at him long enough. I don't mean that in a bad way, I mean it like; at first you don't really notice him. The way he just shrinks by the walls to get to class, looking all small and mouse like, you don't notice him there. But he has these days that he stands out, when the crowds are thinned, you see this blond and your turn back around to look who it is. And it's the same person, no matter how many times you think it's someone else. It's the boy with no smile. He has nice blue eyes, more vibrant than some of the skips. He had a tan, but that could be from his halfie heritage, I don't know. No one knows what sort of mix he is.
One day I had the courage to ask my 'friends' why everyone hates him. I got knocked in the head by the guys and my hair ruffled by the girls. I didn't get it, I made an effort to make it show and they just waved their hands in a 'drop it' manner. But I wanted to know. I felt as if I was some little kid wanting a toy that they knew they couldn't get but tried anyway. Annoying stupid little brats, and as they are, their nagging doesn't go on for long, and I quit. I just sat their like a lump of rice pouting. I got candy for being cute. But the conversation didn't pick up again and I knew I had made some sort of point. A point I don't know the point of.
That got them thinking of stuff. Stuff that obviously I didn't know and that they kept to themselves. They still bullied the boy with no smile. If I was the one getting bullied, I would have tried to make a move and punch one of them. Or I would go all major emo and plot revenge and threaten to kill people. Yeah, but he didn't. He just took it; he took all the insults and the looks and the whispers and the shoving and the pushing and the everything! How could he just take it in? How could he take it and still have the face to come to school with nothing but a blank expression. I don't know how he could deal with all of that.
We had one of those curriculum days and we all thought going to the city was a good idea. It was solid until some stupid protestors flogged the city. They sniggered that the boy with no smile would be among them. But I couldn't imagine an angry screaming kid fighting for something they believed was right. The way that I had gotten to know him didn't seem to fit the profile of an angry protestor. We had bummed round the shopping centre, absently wondering around. We did what we do, go into random shops and try on random clothes and photo whore; waiting for the shopkeepers to get angry to kick us out. It wasn't long til security started chasing us around the whole centre. A kid with pink hair, an emo with black hair, another emo with red hair, a kid with massive pants and too many other people to name ran around the centre. From the spare glimpses, all of us running, it made the best music video clip. I laughed as I ran, and that obviously made the security guard angry. We busted up a fire escape door and ran down the stairs to the under ground car park. It was like a 15 metre jump roughly from the edge of the level to the bushes and flowers below. We were trapped, there was no choice. I nearly broke my leg. But it was worth it.
We found ourselves at the arcade in the cinema, we were going to see a movie but it didn't start in another half hour. We were playing pool when someone spotted the boy with no smile playing DDR with another kid. He must have talked with the kid if he wanted to play. Maybe they might know his name! But when they turned around, I don't recognize the face. The kid made hand signs to the boy with no smile, which he returned. The kid was deaf. The others snickered at the loser and the loser kid. I didn't know what to do, so I took my shot at pool. I sunk the fucking eight ball.
He was bullied even more after that. People would flip him the finger and ask what it meant. All the fingers plus the other taunts and mockery must be turning him into a psychotic killer, seeking revenge. It surprised everyone in the hall at lunch when he flipped it back. The teachers stopped it before anything exciting happened. But he doesn't look the type to be vengeful and fight, if he smiled, he might be even friendly looking. But that's where everything stops and freezes, he never smiles. Smiles are like a foreign feeling for him, to have the twitch of lips. He doesn't even try it. Maybe he has no need to. But don't you just smile? Out of politeness. I know I do, just to make people know that you're listening and valued their opinion even if you personally that they're a wanker.
But his voice is nice. I heard it one day I was late to school. He was late too I guess, and I thought it might have been a stroke of luck, but then the bully inside thought 'oh great'. And completely out of coincidence our lockers where next to each other. He was rummaging through his locker for our first period. His books avalanched out of his locker and spilled onto the floor. He mumbled an 'oh shit'. It was so quiet I would have missed it and I nearly did. His voice was a mix of sandy husky and something different. He must have noticed that I heard him because he had started picking his books and papers quickly. I don't know why, but I bent down and helped him. When his things where all in his locker he turned to face me, his eyes searching and darting around, thinking of what to say. He didn't say anything in the end, just bowed slightly and walked briskly to class. I slapped my forehead. I should have looked at his papers for his name. So the boy was still nameless, but at least I know he talks.
My friends had some sort of sport carnival thing to go to, Sakura and I were the only ones left. I didn't really care, she was the least cruel out of them, doesn't mean she isn't though. There were whispers around the school, normally I pay no mind to it, but this time, they were targeted at me, because they kept peeking at me and talking. I didn't like it. Sakura told me later that people where whispering that the boy with no smile likes me. And you know how sometimes when some people tell you rumours that you start to believe it isn't a rumour and that if its like some likes you, that you start to like them too. Found myself starting to believe that what was said was true, and that looking at the boy even more made my heart start beating for him. At that time it didn't feel as stupid. But the next day when Sakura broke the news to the rest of them, they all started laughing, and saying how stupid the kid was. I didn't say anything.
So I hid the feelings. The rumours still spread though, like wild fire. People would point and whisper as I walked past. I wasn't that interesting. And then I started to feel ashamed for liking the freak. And it was when I was at the coffee shop with my homework did I find the eyes of the boy with no smile. I sort of freaked out. Covering my work and looking weirdly at him. He put my coffee down, he wanted to say something, you could see it in his blank face. But he just looked me and something changed then. He smiled. But he didn't. He smiled with his eyes, his lips didn't even twitch. His eyes did all the work, they showed the pure smiling joy emotion, in the twinkle of his eyes. I took my coffee and went home. I spent the next few hours locked in the bathroom trying to imitate that same twinkling eye smile. But all I got was blank eyes and a screwed up mouth. I had tried all night, making my eyes twinkle the way his did, but it didn't work. My face came out blank or with my face muscles twitching.
I kept trying every time I was in the bathroom. When I went to the toilet, when I was taking a shower, anywhere that had a mirror, I would trying to distort my face and let my eyes smile. It wouldn't work. The boy with no smile, wasn't the boy with no smile any more. He was the boy with the eye smile. Or the boy with incredible face muscle control. But that was too long. He was the boy that eye smiles now.
The rumours started to get out of hand; but it didn't stop the boy that eye smiles to stop coming to school and have people constantly jab him with insults and anything else you could name. With each remark about the rumour, my heart would beat for an extra beat. Every time he passed me in the halls, he would look at me and give me an eye smile, I would try one back, but that probably came across as a disgusted look by the way me face would distort to keep it straight. It didn't deter him though; he knew what I was trying to do.
I kept at it though. I was really close. And one night with absolutely no intention of getting it right, I did it. I think I did anyway. I had been reading a book before I stepped into the bathroom to brush my teeth. It was a hobby to just try and eye smile now. I had grown so accustomed to do it when I passed a mirror. The book I had been reading was so good, I loved it and I couldn't help but feel happy for the main character. And it showed through in my eyes, without my mouth or face muscles twitching. I couldn't wait to walk past the boy that eye smiles so I could show him that I can eye smile too.
Dreams where never made to last. I found mine shattered before it even had a chance to be a mature dream. I didn't see the boy that eye smiles all day that day. I asked Sakura where he went. She laughed and looked at me like a retarded kid and said with one of the most cheerful voices ever "He left Sasuke".
That's where I fell. I had indeed fallen in love at the most with the freak. And just when I could do something that he could, he leaves. Sakura was laughing and exclaiming how happy she was. I slapped her. I told her to shut up. I yelled obscenities, every curse word I knew that would fit in a sentence with it still making sense. They didn't hang out with me anymore. I didn't want to. They continued being the jackasses they always where. With the boy that eye smiled gone, they had nothing to tease. Except me.
Because.
The boy with no smile became the boy that eye smiled, had gone. And there was no smile or non smiling.
So I became the boy with no smile, and I'm the boy who doesn't eye smile anymore.
O.Dive. Love It. Hate It. Review It.
I'm writing out of writers block. Which is funny because I could write a complete o--s----, and not write a decent chapter for "A Lover's Dozen".
This was supposed to make, some sense, but not a lot. That's what I found anyway.
Written in Sasuke's point of view, and the boy with no smile is obviously Naruto.
FEED BACK!!! It's like the whack to the head your mother would give you so you could learn. You either take it or you don't, I'll take your hit to my head though.
As I was reading through it again, I noticed my 'voice' has changed so much during this. Just me I think. What about you?