Misery Loves Company
By: theinkslingerr
Track 10: Bound for the Floor
When I was ten years old, I hated recess.
Just mentioning it caused me to break out in hives.
But the day before Josh moved to California something felt...off.
It was the end of a four-day spring shower and every 5th grader at Beechmill Elementary was bouncing off the walls because they'd finally get to go outside.
Everyone but me.
During those inside recesses, Josh and his friends couldn't torture me as much, because our teacher Miss Reese paid attention. The problem was when we got outside that attention shifted from bullies to the gym teacher with the short-shorts and the hairy arms.
For four beautiful days I'd gotten a break, so on the fifth day when Josh found me by the big tree on the edge of the playground, I knew what was coming. I knew he had to make up for lost time.
There were puddles everywhere, some deep, some shallow, and the ground was soft and wet, droplets of leftover rain sparkling as they fell from twisted tree branches. The playground equipment was a slippery death trap and the teachers would've probably kept us in for another day if we hadn't exhausted them with our pent up energy and whines of needing fresh air.
Josh stepped into a deep puddle as he approached me, one leg swallowed up to his ankle, the other firmly set on dry ground. He was wearing what had to be his favorite Godzilla t-shirt, and a strange look.
I let out shallow breaths, expecting his evil minions to come and line up behind him. When they didn't, I got a weird feeling in my stomach and inched back further under the giant tree.
"I'm moving to California," Josh said suddenly. His leg was still in the puddle and even though it had to be uncomfortable, he didn't move or flinch. He just kept staring at me with those blank blue eyes.
My fear intensified. If he wasn't going to say anything mean or hurt me then why was he here? What did he want?
"Today's my last day," he added.
I blinked, the words soaring above my head like the clouds in the gray sky. This had to be some sort of trick, so I didn't react, didn't even breathe. Just stood there motionless, waiting for the fallout.
After a few seconds, Josh opened his mouth and said something I'd wonder about for years. "Maybe...maybe she thought you would be bad."
"What?" I whispered, confused.
"Maybe you were bad in your Mommy's tummy, so she thought you'd be bad when you came out," he said. "But you came out...good, and now...now she can't change your name."
I tilted my head, wondering if he'd actually sat around and thought about this or if it was just leading somewhere cruel. "How can little babies be bad?"
He shrugged. "My Mommy told me I made her sick."
But his Mommy hadn't named him Sick, she'd named him Joshua!
Something else was bothering me about what he said, one word that stood out among the rest. "I'm...good?"
Now it was Josh's turn to look surprised. His forehead crinkled, and he stared into the puddle, moving his sneaker around slowly. "Miss Reese likes you," he shrugged again. "And...I guess you do your homework and stuff. And when Bigfoot got sick you brought her medicine."
My little heart beat wildly as different emotions ricocheted off the walls in my head. If he thought I was good because our teacher liked me, I did my homework, and I brought in medicine for the class hamster, then why did he call me names? Throw sticks at me? Tell everyone that I'd peed on myself in second grade when I hadn't?
I glared at him hard and clenched my jaw. Would he stop if I was bad? If Miss Reese hated me? If I never did my homework? If I dropped Bigfoot on purpose like he sometimes did when he thought no one was watching?
"You're happy I'm moving, right?" Josh asked, gaze darkening. "Gonna go home and throw a party with your dumb, fat friend?"
It made me sad when people called me names, but it made me angry when people called Enid names. "Shut up!"
"Aw, come on. What kinda party is it gonna be? Are you gonna feed her animal crackers until she explodes?"
"I said shut up!"
Josh was small in every way. Skinny and short (even shorter than me) but he was strong. Something I'd found out one day when I pushed him and he kicked me in the stomach so hard, I couldn't breathe.
"I hate you!" I shouted. "I hate you, and I hope you and your family never come back!"
Anger filled Josh's eyes and his cheeks became ruddy as he finally stepped out of the puddle and ran at me full-speed.
My eyes widened and I ducked behind the tree, hoping I could keep it between us until recess ended. I faked right then left repeatedly, whimpering whenever an arm shot out to grab me. It didn't last long because Josh caught on quickly and was blessed with good reflexes, so the next time I faked left, he followed and grabbed my shoulders before slamming me against the tree. He grabbed a handful of my curly hair and yanked, jerking my head to one side.
"Stop! Get off me!" I yelled, arms flailing wildly. I smacked him in the face then dug my nails across it, catching him off-guard enough to push him away and run.
There was a problem though. Josh was also the fastest kid on the playground, and seconds later he lived up to that title when he caught up to me and pushed with both hands. I lurched forward, landing face-first in the puddle he'd just been standing in. Pain exploded in my right knee and the palms of my hands, but I barely had time to feel it, because I was already struggling to get up.
In the blink of an eye, Josh skidded to a stop by my side, dropped to his knees, and grabbed a fistful of hair at the back of my head. A moment before my face broke the surface of the cold, dirty water, I closed my eyes and wondered if I'd be the first kid to die on this playground.
The puddle was deep, but that didn't stop my nose from smashing into the ground, causing a sharp pain to shoot up the bridge and settle right in-between my eyes. I opened my mouth to cry out, and murky water, tiny rocks, and crushed leaves rushed in, stealing my air and choking me. I flattened my hands against the gravel and pushed up, but the fist in my hair pushed down, showing no signs of releasing me. All I could do was panic as my lungs caught fire, and claw at Josh's arm as desperation set in.
Was he really going to...?
His hand suddenly disappeared, and my head snapped up. The momentum tipped me over and carried me onto my back, where I lay sucking in air, coughing, and crying all at once.
I sat up when I finally registered the loud shrieking that wasn't my own, and saw Enid on top of Josh; hitting, slapping, and scratching wherever she could reach.
Miss Reese and the gym teacher with the hairy arms raced over, shocked anger lining their faces. The gym teacher pulled Enid off a stunned, but red-faced Josh while Miss Reese knelt down beside me. The first thing I expected her to ask was if I was OK.
Instead the whites of her eyes turned black, her mouth stretched open, and out came:
Born to be down
I think that I've said this before now
Born to be down
What good is confidence?
And you just don't get it, you keep it copacetic
And you learn to accept it, you know it's so pathetic
And you just don't get it, you keep it copacetic
And you learn to accept it, you know it's so pathetic-
I stared at Miss Reese in horror as her mouth stretched wider and wider. I started screaming when she came closer, and right as she swallowed me up, I woke up in my bedroom drenched in sweat.
When I was ten years old, Josh Henderson had tried to drown me in a puddle during recess.
It was a memory I'd spent years trying to erase, but sometimes our minds wound up being the biggest bully on the playground.
~~~
Author's notes: To hear the song that starts coming out of Miss Reese's mouth click the video above. :) I thought the lyrics matched Misery's mindset pretty well.
I really can't believe how far I've come with this story!
I just wanna thank you guys again for being so encouraging and supportive, and for 5,000 views! For over a year this story only had like 10 views, so I never dreamed that one day it'd hit 5,000!
Now as for the chapter itself, I know it's shorter than usual, but I hope you enjoyed it. I think it really gives some insight into the kind of kid Josh was, and why Misery would be wary of him even now despite it seeming like he has changed. The next chapter will feature grown-up Josh, so please continue to be patient, and don't forget to VOTE!
You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net