In a few seconds, Rory’s going to bump into the oak.
It’s inevitable. He was too preoccupied with how screamable and mysterious the name of the tree was (“Ooooooaaaaaak!”, he let it out immediately after noticing), chirruping back to birds and trying to catch a glimpse of Derry.
Rory’s bike is moving with the speed of a cheetah, and the oak ahead sprawls like a giant octopus, taking up all the space. There’s no sense in either braking or turning the handlebar to avoid the crush.
It’s awful. This greenery is making Rory dizzy. Because of the stupid oak, he’s going to lose his strike of not falling from the bike for a week. And then, after his coming home in a devastated state, his mummy will notice all the wounds and insist on cleaning them with that stingy bubbly white liquid. Rory will need to wear those ridiculous Garfield bandages again. But the worst that will happen after the shameful accident is Derry seeing it.
Ugh, Rory knew the day was about to go downhill when half an hour ago, on the sports ground near their school, he spotted Derry. The boy was doing his weirdo activities as usual: roller-skating on the right side of the track, with his head turned upwards to the sky and arms swaying like seaweed in a lake. Of course, with those antics, he wasn’t faster than a snail. He wasn’t more responsible than it either: who at all doesn’t mind their surroundings doing sports?
It is Derry. Derry, Rory’s one and only archnemesis since the beginning of this school year. A maths genius (“Maths what? More like a maths nerd!”), the everybody’s favourite quiet kid that has a green belt in judo yet never messes with anything.
Why would people pay attention to such a geek? Rory hasn’t found an answer yet. When he first approached Derry, that one only voiced his name and briefly answered the questions Rory asked. Derry didn’t try at least pretend to be friendly to Rory, questioning nothing in return, fidgeting, and looking everywhere except for the boy who had been hoping to make a new friend.
So, that is the way they’re playing? Alright, Rory’s not a fool himself. The first encounter was totally enough for him to grasp everything about Derry.
Rory has felt that he’s the only one who knows the whole truth about Derry. Teachers are constantly smiling at that boy gently, getting closer to Derry only to avoid making him speak up. And Mrs. Ginger is constantly praising his brightness when the same intelligent one has never even answered in a way the whole hears him!
Their classmates went no less crazy. Seriously, what is wrong with them all?! Those idiots are constantly inviting Derry to play football, helping him with English compositions, and bringing him buns from the canteen he is, probably, too arrogant to buy himself. And Derry is constantly around them so Rory needs to tolerate him whenever Rory wants to play with others. And all that’s left to him is to give Derry the glares and turn away when he catches Derry glancing at him.
And Rory constantly wastes his favourite word constantly (Meridith, his big sis, teaches Rory those fancy words, this one sounds especially nice) to speak of that loser!
That’s how it turned out that Rory had never talked to Derry after their first meeting. That’s why now, Rory’s eyes are constantly on Derry, ready to capture any wrongdoing that will prove Rory’s rightness.
The greenery is still dizzying. Rory doesn’t manage to register the moment when the world turns into a whirlpool of that greenery, and he finds himself lying in the grass. A few patches of skin are stinging on his face; his right side hurts, but just that much for mummy to be concerned, not enough for Rory to be shown to the doctor.
The air these days is constantly smelling like linden. Rory likes it. It is sweet. Rory, to be honest, likes a lot of things around him. He even kind of likes the position he’s lying in right now…
“You okay?”
What?! Who’s saying that?
Out of a sudden, Rory’s heart starts beating faster, and the sun rays on his cheeks feel scorching hot.
Rory squints his eyes. It’s just to get rid of the annoying greenery.
“Ro,” the voice cracks, “Rory?”
He can’t speak properly even now, what a loser!
“Rory…” Rory hears the grass rustling, feels the movement around, and then his hand is touched.
Now, that’s enough!
“What are you doing here?” Rory opens his eyes. Derry bent over him is nothing new with his eternal blank expression. “Rory, you fell…” “No way, how could I know!” “No, Rory, it was so bad, I saw you falling. I wanted to…”
Rory’s getting agitated. Why’s he doing that? Why is Derry still here, not laughing a bit, moreover, approaching him, moreover, moreover–
Wait. Is that a worry?
Rory pushes the bicycle from the top of his body and jumps to his feet. Derry stands in front of him, and as soon as Rory tries to look into this imco… icorpre… in-co-mpre-he-nsible one’s eyes, Derry averts his gaze down.
“What is wrong is you?” Rory squints his eyes again but this time in suspicion. “Me?” Derry glances only for a second. And the silence follows. And Rory’s eyes, as per usual, do not leave the person in front of him.
And then Derry simply shrugs. And finally, turns his head upwards, staring right into Rory’s… soul?
Derry’s eyes are green. And maybe this whole situation does seem like a special mission that Rory’s archnemesis conducts just to get closer to him and make the defeat even worse, but the moments Derry extends his favourite Garfield bandages in his left arm and helps to put them over all the big scratches, Rory thinks it’s probably Ok to say a few words a day to his archnemesis from time to time.
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