Chapter Text
It was a Saturday morning, when Silver took a walk on Route 34. He was on his way to one of the parks in Goldenrod City, to let his dogs off the leash. There were still four hours until lunch, and he only had to arrive at his part-time-job in the afternoon.
The weather was beautiful. No clouds in sight and the blue of the bright sky seemed so deep and endless. From afar you could hear many kinds of birds singing their own little songs.
Silver sighed. Coming Monday, he would be starting at his new school and he didn’t know what to think of it. On one hand he was excited to finally meet new people his age, but on the other hand he didn’t want to meet anyone at all. The stress he would be in while having to stand in front of a class full of strangers, being stared at without knowing what the others are thinking and then having to talk to them wasn’t really that appealing to him.
He was torn out of his thoughts when he felt a pull on a leash. Bolt, one of the dogs, barked at him, wagging his tail while turning from Silver to the entrance of the city. Silver chuckled at the energetic furball and shook his head lightly. It was this kind of behavior that made others scoop away from him, thought Bolt was all bark and no bite.
The walk from Silver’s home at the edge of Ilex Forest to Goldenrod City took about half an hour. So, it was no wonder that he spaced out a lot, when he brought his dogs to the park.
Upon walking through the gates, they turned left, past a rather quiet neighborhood, and arrived at the park. It was just one of several in Goldenrod, but it was the largest and closest to him.
Silver turned around to see Zorro, a black fox, standing there and seemingly staring him into the ground. He considered Zorro his pet too, thought he never put him into a cage or took him by the leash, since the fox was still a wild animal. But the elegant canine got its own collar and would always accompany Silver and the dogs on their walk.
After Silver undid the leashes, Bolt immediately dashed off, leaving the rest of them in an imaginary cloud of dust. Eve, the calmest of the four, gave a small bark and waited for Flame and River, before going after her friend. Zorro just trotted after them.
Silver smiled and brushed some of his flaming red hair out of his face. For some minutes he just stood there and watched his four-legged friends running around, seemingly playing tag. Taking a deep breath, he turned around and sat on a bench under a large tree. From there he could see the dogs from all the people in the park, as well as the ocean meeting the sky in the distance.
He took out his sketchbook and began drawing the view. The redhead didn’t bother setting an alarm, since the dogs already know the routine and would come to him on their own.
While Silver was drawing to his heart’s content, a boy about his age walked up to him and showed a charming smile.
“Why, hello beautiful. Are you new here? Cause I’d gladly show you to my room.”
When Silver didn’t react, the boy raised an eyebrow and shook his head. He sat down next to the redhead and stared at him, before coughing lightly.
He continued with his cheesy pick-up lines and whatever compliment he could come up with. Though none of them seemed to be successful.
“You know, when god made you, he was showing off.” The boy winked at him. Still Silver didn’t pay him any attention, which pissed him off slightly. He tried several more times, but Silver kept ignoring him, which angered the stranger even more. He ran a hand through his hair and then tipped Silver on his shoulder, making the latter flinch slightly.
“You know, love, ignoring people isn’t something angels should do.”
At that Silver arched an eyebrow and returned to his drawing. The stranger wouldn’t have it and tapped Silver’s shoulder again.
“I’m sorry, I should have started with introducing myself, gorgeous. My name is- “
The boy was stopped by Silver, who held up a hand. It had pissed the redhead off, that this guy wouldn’t just leave him alone. By the way Silver had turned away from him it should have been clear, that he wasn’t interested. So he packed his things and walked over to another bench.
When he sat down, he could see the boy, yelling some curses at him. Two other teens, a boy and a girl, held him back, which confused Silver, as he hadn’t seen them before. Considering the first boy wasn’t trying to fight those two off, he guessed they were his friends. Shaking his head, Silver took out a book and began to read. He would finish his drawing at home.
Even though he was reading one of his favorite books, he couldn’t concentrate. It really irked him how this boy could just come up to some stranger and hit on them, completely ignoring that they weren’t interested, just to start cursing because he was turned down. Though Silver had to admit that the boy was rather good looking. Under different circumstances he may have gone along with the flirting.
He sighed and looked up to the sky, laying his book in his lap. Luckily the sun was in the other direction, or he would have been blinded. Taking deep breaths to get his thoughts back under control, he closed his eyes and enjoyed the little moment of peace. When he felt something moving beside him, he looked down to see Zorro lying beside him, rubbing his head against Silvers hip. Silver smiled and petted the fox’s head.
After a while he picked up his book again and continued reading, while Zorro took a nap. He just finished his third page, when he noticed someone standing right in front of him. Thinking it was the boy again, Silver sighed and looked up. But he soon realized that it was a girl. She wore a smile on her lips, though it should have seemed friendly, to the redhead it was clear as daylight, that it was faked.
“Hiyah! Don’t worry, you don’t have to tell me your name. I won’t give you my name either. But there’s something I wanted to tell you.” During her little speech, the girl gave him a death glare, that seemingly should’ve intimidated Silver. It didn’t work though, since she somehow looked rather ridiculous to him.
“I saw you talking to that really handsome guy over there earlier”, she said, pointing at the group of teens from before. They were now by the shore, playing with a black dog. Silver questioningly raised an eyebrow at the girl.
“I know that you were flirting, and I warn you! He may like to flirt around, but he’s MY boyfriend. You seem to be new here, cause I’ve never seen you before, so I wanted to make sure you know. Stay away from him!” After she was done with her one-sided conversation, Silver rolled his eyes and stood up. He didn’t even think about giving someone like this pig an answer. She wasn’t even able to see, that Silver hadn’t flirted back. Immediately his four dogs came running up to him, so Silver could put them on their leashes again. Technically they still had time, before they had to return home, but he lost his interest in resting at the park.
He silently shook his head, while exiting the park. That girl most likely just wanted to show how she stood above him, since he was “new” here. Thought he lived near Goldenrod City long enough to even have a part-time-job.
At about 10.30 am, they reached Silver’s home. It was fairly large, with a garden matching in size. Upon arriving, Zorro sprinted through the garden into Ilex Forest. In the Entrance Hall, Silver let the dogs off again and they immediately ran off to greet whoever they could find wandering in the house.
Taking off his boots and coat, Silver got lost in his thoughts, wondering if Monday would be as annoying as he knew it could be. Especially with him shying away from human contact.
Silver walked into the Living Room, where his parents sat, the dogs barking at them.
“Good morning, Silver. Did you have a nice walk?”, his father asked, a warm smile on his face. The teen calmly walked towards the table and sat down at a manageable distance.
“It was alright. There were some annoying people, though.”
“Oh? Annoying as in `Saying stupid things` or `Doing stupid things`?”, his mother wanted to know. Silver thought he could see amusement in her eyes. He clicked his tongue and answered, “Being stupid in general.” His parents chuckled at that and Silver rolled his eyes.
“So, had you had breakfast yet?”, he asked, hoping to change subjects. Of course, he himself had eaten before going out, but he never knew with adults. They were unpredictable.
“We’ve already eaten, thank you, Silver.”, his father answered. Silver nodded and stood up.
“Then I’m going to feed the monsters”, he said - meaning the pets - and walked out of the room, the four dogs following him.
At 2 PM, Silver started his work at the animal shelter, which was located at Route 34, about a 10 minutes’ walk to Goldenrod City. Besides him, the only ones working there where the owners - an old married couple. Silver referred to them as ‘Grandpa’ and ‘Grandma’.
He greeted them with an attempted smile. If it failed, they didn’t let it show. Not wasting any time, Silver got the cleaning tools and started cleaning the enclosures. Grandpa was outside to sweep the path, while his wife cleaned the pet bowls. Afterwards the couple let the dogs out on their playgrounds.
Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, the animal shelter wasn’t too large, so that Silver had no problems with finishing the cleaning in time.
Between 4.30 and 5 PM, they started handing out the food. It was this time, where Silver could slow down a little and spend time with the animals. He wouldn’t ditch work, he wanted to help the couple after all, but you can’t deny these little loves their needed attention.
Whenever Silver was at work, he would try to do as much work as possible to unburden the old couple. Meaning he cleaned most of the animal shelter, did most of the laundry, and feed the dogs, cats and rodents. Sometimes even the amphibians or reptiles.
After the feeding, grandpa did the paperwork, while grandma and Silver did the rest of the laundry and cleaning.
Around 7 PM, Silver was free to go home. When he said goodbye, he didn’t realize the genuine smile he gave the couple.
On his way home, Silver stopped at a bench and sat down. Thinking about what had happened that day, he took out his cigarettes and took note that he would have to buy a new packet soon. He felt lucky, living outside the city. That way, there weren’t many people walking around on his way home. A little privacy under the open sky felt just great.
Disposing of the cigarette butt in his portable ashtray, he stood back up again.
Back home, after feeding the pets, Silver went to the Dining Room, where his family waited for him. His father sat at the head of the table with his mother to his right. Silver would sit at his father’s left. Beside him sat Petrel and at the other end of the table was Archer. They were close friends, and considered a part of the family, alongside Proton, who just entered the Room to set the food on the table.
Archer, Proton and Petrel lived in the house next door, and every now and then they would come over to have a shared meal. From what Silver had picked up, Archer and Petrel were just a little younger than his parents, while Proton was in his early twenties. That’s why he was like an older brother to him.
***
Monday morning rolled in way too fast. Though it was still just 5 AM, Silver sat already wide awake in his bed, trying to get rid of the memories of what he’d dreamt last night.
His first lesson today would start at 8.20, which meant he had plenty of time to take his morning shower and preparing himself mentally for the horror that was hordes of idiotic kids.
An hour later, Silver had already repacked his schoolbag three times. Sighing he went to the kitchen and started preparing breakfast. It wouldn’t be long until his parents get up, since they had to leave for work at about 6.40 on weekdays.
The redhead cooked some fried eggs with bacon, while simultaneously making lunchboxes for him and his family. He decided on rice with octopus-sausages and egg rolls. For the vegetables he went with a simple salad and cherry tomatoes. In addition to that, he put in some apple bunnies.
Satisfied with his work, Silver packed the boxes in their respective bags, before joining his parents in the Dining Room. They had arrived while Silver had been cutting the apples. Setting their lunchboxes on the table next to their plates, he sat down to eat.
Since it was early morning, Silver didn’t want to talk to anyone. Fortunately, his parents knew and just kept quiet. Instead they nodded at him as a greeting and thanks.
When Silver arrived at school, the first thing he did was looking for the staff room. With a little help from one of the younger students - who seemed to be scared of him - he easily found it.
Knocking at the already open door, he tried to find his voice and spoke up rather quietly.
“G’morning. I… uhm… Mr. Stone?” Smooth, Silver, really well done. Luckily no one seemed to pay attention to his retarded way of speaking. He noticed a young man walking up to him. He had light blue hair and eyes. But not as blue as Archer, more like steel blue. Though technically Archer’s hair wasn’t really blue but teal, so whatever.
“Good morning. You must be Silver, right? I’m Steven Stone, but you can just call me Steven. Nice to meet you.”, the man said, with a brilliant smile on his face. How could someone radiate such happiness, Silver wondered and shook Steven’s hand. It looked like he would have an annoying homeroom teacher.
“Class is going to start soon, so I’ll best walk you to your classroom. Winona, your English teacher is a very kind person, but she can also be strict. Oh, and don’t worry, Cynthia had made sure the teachers know.”
On their way to his classroom, Silver tried to keep his cool, and forgot to pay attention to the directions. They stopped in front of a door and Steven knocked, while Silver took a deep breath.
“Hello, Winona. Here’s the new student.”, Steven announced. He changed some words with her, before taking his leave.
“Alright! Would you like to introduce yourself to your classmates?” Silver gave his English teacher a blank stare. Sighing he turned to the class, thinking of what he should say. There wasn’t anything interesting about him to know. He was about to open his mouth, when he noticed a golden flash in the back row. And there, by the seat next to the window, sat the boy he had met two days ago.
The other teen seemed to recognize him too, since he glared at him, as if he was trying to kill him with his eyes, which were gold. Though it didn’t look like he’d say something to him.
Winona realized that Silver won’t say anything and sighed.
“Alright, class. This is Silver D’Ignazio, your new classmate. If I see anyone of you giving him a hard time, you’ll have to worry about the hard time I’m going to give you.”, she said, sending a warning glance at the golden eyed boy. Are teachers supposed to intimidate their students?
His teacher told him to take a seat. There were only three desks free, all of them in the back row. Considering that the gold eyed teen sat back there too, Silver decided on the one farthest from him. In the seat next to him sat a boy with long green hair, that had been tied together.
To the warm smile the green haired teen gave him, Silver answered with a small nod. After that he turned his attention to Winona, as the lesson started.