Collateral Beauty

Summary: Jaune watched his sister die of cancer when he was fourteen. Since then, he's closed himself up completely. Who has the determination and compassion to help him finally work through his severe emotional issues?

Love, Time and Death. These three abstractions connect every single human being on Earth. Everything we covet, everything we fear not having, everything we ultimately end up getting is because, at the end of the day, we long for love, we wish we had more time, and we fear death.

Love. Time. Death. Let's begin there. - Will Smith.

Jaune kneeled to keep the tabletop at eye level as he lay the last dominoes down. This area of the enormous structure was built with a pattern of blue, purple and yellow tiles. Once he finished, he took a quick glance around the U of tables that lined about two and a half of the walls. They were piled, arranged and placed along the surface to form large patterns in various sizes. Some were stacked up in the shapes of buildings or a pyramid, others were just in lines and rows, connecting the whole thing. One was even constructed in the likeness of a coliseum.

The boy then reached for the last domino and flicked it down, not even bothering to watch his latest creation collapse. He grabbed his bag and left via the south exit to the hallway to get to class. However, there was a second door in that room. It was connected to the school guidance counselor/vice principle's room.

From the open doorway, two women watched him go and the dominoes topple.
"How long did this one take?" Raven asked. The VP herself, Glynda Goodwitch, answered, "Four days." Raven nodded. "Pretty impressive. How long did you say he's been coming in here?"

"Since halfway through his freshman year, so since about two and a half years ago. Every day at lunch. I've asked some of the other faculty and they barely knew he existed, even his own teachers."

"Does he just leave this mess here?"

"No. On Fridays Mr. Arc cleans up and stores them himself, even tidies up any other junk left out. I tried talking to him, but he's barely spoke a word. To anyone, unless he has to."

"You think he's, you know, on the spectrum?"

"Definitely not. He'd be registered in one of the programs, or at least be in one of the sheltered classes." Glynda made her way back to her desk and typed into the computer. "His grades are astonishing. He scored within the top ten national percentiles on the practice ACT's and the SAT's. By all academic accounts, he's a genius."

"A genius who never talks and plays with dominoes in high school? He's either a complete introvert or a sociopath." Raven stated. Glynda shook her head, "I've been trying to do some digging, but the boy's a ghost. No social media, just an email given by the school district for classes, not even a listed phone number."

"Damn. Should we be worried he might..." Raven mimed cocking a gun and spraying bullets around the room. Glynda shook her head again. "No, no. Don't be ridiculous. Let's just move on for now. You're needed to cover for Professor Peach in AP Humanities for maybe a month. She's out with mono and who knows when she'll recover. Here's the materials you'll need to cover for the week. I'll call and have someone bring you the rest later." Raven took the stack of papers Glynda gave her. The substitute would have to figure out how to teach an English and History class rolled into one on her own.

Jaune sat in his chair as the last bell before class started. Every other faceless person in this class talked amongst themselves while they waited for Prof. Peach to come in. To their moderate surprise, a woman with long black hair and red eyes walked in. She wore a red and black blouse with dark jeans.

"Good afternoon, I'm your substitute teacher, Mrs. Branwen. I'm afraid Professor Peach is out sick for a while with a case of mono, so I'll be taking over. She's given me all the information to carry on with your class's unit." She started writing on the whiteboard and most of the students quieted down and payed attention.

"Abstractions. These things have been around since the dawn of human existence. Whether it's death, time, emotions, art, freedom, control, any of these are just ideas thought up by people. It'll be your job to write about or illustrate three of these from a list I'll be handing out to you. It can be in the form of a short research paper, draw a picture, poems, personified letters, et cetera. You have until Friday to complete the assignment."

A cacophony of groans followed her introduction. Then she added, "Don't whine just yet. You've all got a week to do it and it's your only homework 'til next Monday."

Once she passed out instructions for the assignment, she started actually teaching. They read some more from The Great Gatsby and then worked on a sheet about the motifs and symbols in the book. The school day passed by in a blur like every other school day.

Jaune rode his bike home, riding in the middle of the street. He made it home in twenty five minutes. Once he made it home, he made it up to his room. His mother wouldn't be home form work for another hour, so he decided to go for a run.

The next day, Raven and Glynda had lunch together in one of the teacher's lounges. "So, that Jaune kid is in the humanities class I'm covering for Peach." Raven took another bite of her sandwich. Glynda looked up from her book, "What was he like?"

"Honestly? He looked completely apathetic. He didn't pay any attention between lessons, did his work with no problem and left without talking to anyone. It was like he wasn't even there!"

Glynda set the book down and leaned back, "You never saw anyone talk to him?"

"Nada."

"Hm. Keep an eye on him, but don't treat him differently than any other student."

"Right. You think he should talk to you or one of the other counselors?"

The blonde woman shrugged, "It's too early to do anything. So, how's Yang doing? I imagine she's thrilled to have her mother teaching not one, but now two classes this quarter."

"Yeah, she's ecstatic. She and her friends should be in the quad where they usually hang out. Am I right to assume Arc's in the room next to your's?"

She hummed in confirmation. "I've thought about contacting his parents."

"You sure that's the best decision?"

"I honestly don't know." Glynda replied before closing the book in her hands. Right as she stood up, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. "How do you do that?" Raven asked the blonde.

So, first story for the... collection of stories? Whatever. I'll be uploading a few of these until I finish the next chapters for my other published works.

-Fireballmonkey