#ooc: i havent written anything in a while smh

[caoimhe-from-hoenn]

📼

[CW bullying, mentions of ableism]

["Go on then." The boy roughly shoved Caoimhe backward. She stumbled back, barely catching herself. The bigger boy sneered. He was almost a head taller than her, and had friends behind and around him. Behind Caoimhe was the back of the school, a courtyard littered with rough, unmaintained cobblestones and a sickly green pond. There was nowhere to run except into the mountains, and there were dangerous rocks there. Ledges that fell 5 meters. Bushes with thorns.

"You think you're better than all of us?" The boy grinned, his teeth white and even from expensive dentist's appointments. "You think you can hit me? Fight me then, let's see if you can scratch me."

The small gaggle of kids standing around let out mixed responses. The boy's club cheered and jeered, teeth and spit flashing in the late day sun. The others had only come to watch, and whispered amongst themselves, wondering if they should call a teacher. Yet others stood stock-still, eyes wide, waiting for something to happen.

Caoimhe gritted her teeth, knowing that saying anything would mean another trip to the principal's office. Leif the Leafeon growled next to her, ears folded back. He knew too that he had no chance against the bully's Weezing, floating next to him. If she ran, she would just be chased into another corner of the school, and this stupid game would continue. Why wouldn't any other person in the crowd help her? She knew a few of them, and they were nice to her in class. But none of them did. They stood there, eyes wide as a Magikarp's.

The bully shoved her back again. Caoimhe stumbled, only barely managing to stay standing on the uneven ground. She couldn't hit him. She didn't want another lecture. If only someone could come and break this up, she could go home…

"Why aren't you saying anything?" The smile left the boy's face. "Say something, moron!"

Caoimhe tried to dodge the hit, but it was a fluke; it was a soft blow. Caoimhe had had this treatment before. The bullies would pepper her with soft, fake blows, and hit her when she least expected it. All the while, they'd taunt her. Say something. Dumbass. Stupid mute. Haha, she can't even talk. Fight back, or are you too scared?

They'd done this before, and she got in trouble for fighting back.

But maybe this time, if she could just grab his arm, she could make him stop.

And she reached upward to grab his arm. She held onto it. The boy yelped and flailed his arm, trying to get free. His friends yelled, pointed, yowled for her to stop. Other students gasped, oohed, and pointed out the obvious. Oh look, she's holding him! She's holding him! She wasn't hitting him, this didn't count. She could explain this to the teachers.

And then his free hand slugged her face.

Caoimhe hurtled back, grazing her elbows on the broken cobblestones. Her bully stepped over her, but before she could react, Leif had hopped on top of her. He gazed defiantly at the bully, growling. His face twisted itself into a mask of rage.

"Get out of here, stupid!"

"LEIF! Don't hurt h--"

The boy picked up Leif by the scruff and tossed him aside. Leif landed with a thud into a clump of reeds with a splash. The Weezing followed Leif, preparing a Smog in its mouth. Before Caoimhe could shout, her bully had grabbed her by the collar. The kids around him were yelling, the air was deafening. She barely heard the words "call" and "teacher", and felt a surge of panic.

"No, no, don't call a teacher, don't c-"

Cold, grassy, smelly water suddenly assaulted her senses, getting into her eyes and nose and ears. Caoimhe flailed in the water, trying to remember which direction up was in, dirt and weeds and detritus getting into her clothes and under her fingernails. She mentally berated herself for struggling in the pond: It's only chest-deep! Get up, stupid! Her hands clutched wet dirt, and she regained her footing on the bottom of the pond. It took more out of her than usual to get up into a standing position, coughing the muddy water out of her lungs. She swayed, nearly falling back into the water, but every fiber of her being went into fight-or-flight as she heard the voice of the math teacher, Mr. Isa. "What's going on here?"

"Cam was fighting me, I just tried to stop her, I didn't mean it!"

"Yeah, she told us not to call any teachers."

Mr. Isa gave Caoimhe a look that hovered between calculating and concerned.

"Caoimhe? Would you like to explain?"

Everything welled up inside of Caoimhe, the shame of standing there, bogged down by filthy pond water, the realization that here was someone else who wouldn't help her, and the fact that everyone was staring at her, expecting her to defend herself, to say something in her weirdly accented voice...

Oh no. She was crying now.

Now she wouldn't be able to speak in the principal's office, and if she couldn't say anything in time…

She just wanted to go home.

*

"Caoimhe. Caoimhe!"

Caoimhe jumped in her uncomfortable metal chair. Honestly, she should have rented different chairs for the seminar. Someone was prodding her on the shoulder.

"Nina! Don't worry, I'm here, what's up?"

"You were staring out into space. Did you sleep enough?"

"Yeah, I did, don't worry. It's just that…" She glanced towards the middle of the greenhouse. The guest speaker droned on and on, and the cheap sound system didn't do much to make this any more palatable. Half the audience had mentally clocked out about 30 minutes ago. "…yeah. We should probably wrap this up soon. Everyone's falling asleep."

"All right, you got this. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I am. Promise."

Caoimhe got up from her chair and stretched her neck, signaling to the guest speaker that they should probably end soon. Her thoughts were still riddled with thoughts of stupid intrusive memories and stupid assholes who don't know when to stop hitting. And stupid idiots who couldn't talk while crying.]

#pokeblog writing #cw bullying #cw ableism #ooc: i havent written anything in a while smh #writing is hard #also not lifted from personal experience #don't worry #i also don't usually put raw writing on here but for this cassette post i'll make exceptions #writing