Last Of Spirit Bear

school

Peter walked to school grudgingly, Cole following close behind.

"I hate school," He groaned.

Cole wrapped a arm around him as they walked, sighing. "Everyone does, Peter."

Peter rolled his eyes and kept walking.

--

Yehl and Lily observed the spirit bear statue that replaced the old mascot, a growling bulldog. Instead of its usual chipped and graffiti covered surface, the fur of the bear was detailed and smooth, you could feel each individual hair as you ran your hand through it. There was nothing on it, in fact it shined from how clean it was.

"Damn, this school has changed a lot!" Yehl said. Once, her father Garvey brought her here with Lily to see if the school would be a good fit. Then, the school was littered with bullies and drugs. But Cole and Peter had changed all that.

Lily nodded, then glanced at the small memorial they had for a past student that had killed herself the last school year- the reason the school changed for the better. Beside it sat a hispanic girl with long, dark brown hair who had roses in hand, placing them gently next to the small picture of the girl.

"It's sweet how people still give her flowers," She said softly.

Yehl glanced over as well, then frowned.

"Actually, I see that girl over there everyday. She's the only one, I think. All those flowers are from her," She said sympathetically. "Maybe they were close friends."

Lily frowned too. "We should give her some flowers, too! She doesn't deserve only one person honoring her, after all she's been through.." She whispered.

Yehl smiled and ruffled Lily's hair. "Good idea, lil sis. We could go shopping for some after school, with Peter and Cole."

Lily checked her phone for the time and sighed. "They're always late, aren't they?" She said. "We should set up a system that pours water on them, or something."

Yehl ignored her sister when she noticed Keith walk up to her. "Oh, hi Keith." She said with a small smile.

Keith smiled his goofy, awkward smile and laughed. "Hi,"

For a while, they stayed in silence for a awkward amount of time. Yehl looked back at Lily for support, but Lily just looked back just as awkwardly.

Yehl coughed. "So, what's your favorite hobby's? Got a favorite color? Show? Movie?"

Keith blinked and smiled, thinking for a moment. He wasn't used to being bombarded with so many questions- in fact, hardly anyone spoke to him at all. Being a past bully does that to a person. He hoped that no one would tell Yehl or Lily about his past, he'd tried so hard to forget it.

"Oh, well, uhm.. I like, sports? Like, basketball.. I guess." That was a lie. His parents forced him to play basketball, they wanted him to be the next champion or something. The second he wanted to do anything different, especially anything deemed 'girly' by his parents, it was immediately denied and he was scolded.

Lily pitched into the conversation. "Really? Yehl and I play soccer sometimes!" She stated, putting a hand on Yehls shoulder. "I'm more of a arts and crafts girl, though, myself."

And just like that, they were all friends. Their conversation never faultered, as if they had been friends for years. Keith really appreciated that. He had never felt this way, not with his fake friends who didn't ever care for him, or even with his family.

--

"And so then I-" Peters sentence ended abruptly as he saw Keith, chatting and laughing with Yehl and Lily. Like they were close or something! It made his blood boil.

He shot a look at Cole, signaling him to look at Keith.

"He's talking to our friends." He scowled.

Cole put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it. "Don't worry, sweetheart. We talked about this, remember? Didn't we agree we wouldn't hold a grudge against him anymore?" He rarely used petnames on Peter, he thought it was corny and Peter agreed. But sometimes he would, mostly when Peter was upset.

"No, you aren't holding a grudge against him anymore. I never agreed to this." Peter shot back.

"But he apologized," Cole tried to reason with Peter.

"You gotta walk your talk."

"How can he, if your constantly avoiding him?"

"Well, sorry that I don't want me or my friends hanging out with the guy who beat up my boyfriend! I don't understand how you could forgive someone who did that to you!"

Cole kept his voice calm. "You always bring that up, as if your any different. I beat you up, in fact, I left you disabled. But here we are, dating. Isn't that proof people can forgive, and change?"

Peter stayed quiet, staring at the ground. He couldn't deny that Cole was correct. He had forgiven, befriended, and now is dating the very same boy who used to bully him relentlessly. "Fine," He grumbled.

Cole smiled and held Peters hand as they walked up to the small group.

Lily noticed them first, Yehl was to caught up in the conversation with Keith to see them yet.

"Peter, Cole! Where were you guys yesterday?"

Cole shrugged. "Peter was just recovering from a headache the night before, I think he deserved some time off." He said.

Peter just continued looking at the floor.

"Hey, Keith." Cole looked at Keith.

Yehl blinked. "You guys know each other?"

"Oh, we know eachother." Peter grumbled.

Keith just lowered his gaze and nodded as the bell finally rung.

"I'll walk Cole to his class, see you guys at lunch." Peter called out as he dragged Cole to his first class.

Yehl walked with Lily and Yehl, still continuing to chat for a while.

"So, how do you, Peter and Cole know each other?" Lily asked.

"Well, I.." He hesitated. What if they hated him, and didn't want anything to do with him if they discovered his past?

"I was..sorta a bully, last year."

Yehl and Lily stayed quiet for a moment. "Well, you've changed, haven't you?" Yehl said reassuringly.

Keith's eyes sparkled as he nodded his head.

Yehl smiled. "Then it's no problem. Cole was the same way, you know."

"Yeah, he beat Peter pretty bad in 10th grade.." Lily agreed. She remembered every time her father came home, he'd share a little about Cole. Not much, obviously, he didn't want to reveal to much- but enough to know the gist of it.

Keith also recalled that fight, he was one of the people cheering it on. He shivered. Maybe, he could become friends with Peter, just as Cole had!

They continued chatting in the halls, avoiding the annoying middle schoolers who would purposely crash into each other and  cause a chain of stumbling students. Yehl couldn't help but glance at Keith- his small, insecure but goofy smile, his shy attitude, his cute barely noticeable freckles. How could this boy have been a bully?

"Well, here's my class,"  Yehl announced. She turned to Keith and smiled, a heartfelt, genuine smile. Yehl hadn't seen one of those in a while.

"Bye, Keith."

Keith gulped. "Bye, Yehl."

He couldn't explain it, but there was something special about Yehl.

As Yehl walked into her class, Keith looked back to find Lily eyeing him suspiciously. "What?" He asked.

She grinned and shrugged. "Oh, nothing. Cmon, we're almost late!"