By the Red Moon Part 1
"And so when you take the power of X and multiply it by the power of Y..."
The algebra teacher continued to drone on and on as Duo sighed heavily in his attempt to stay awake. Leaning his head heavily on an arm that was propped up on the edge of his desk, he colored in the sketch of a sword that he had drawn in his notebook beside the notes he had been taking.
Finally, the bells in the hallway sounded to announce the end of another boring class.
With a wide smile on his face, the braided teenager sealed his books into his backpack and rose from his seat along with his classmates.
Turning to face the group, Professor Gervis called, "Now, class, be sure to be prepared to go over the details of your midterm test when next we meet." Several voices from his students grumbled and groaned.
Duo kept his head ducked in the small crowd filtering past the teacher's desk on the way for the door.
Folding his arms, Gervis smirked, "Mister Maxwell, I would like to have a word with you before you go." Instantly freezing, the boy lowered his head with a deep sigh as his peers around snickered and continued to make their escape.
A hand gripping the strap of his backpack slung over his shoulder, Duo forced a smile as he moved for the front desk where the old man was waiting. When they were alone, he shrugged, "Yes, Professor G?" Already, he had a pretty good idea what he was in for.
Unfolding his arms, the affectionately named 'G' gave his student a genuine look of concern and frowned. "I understand that even these advanced classes must be incredibly mundane since you learned them in your previous school," he began.
He raised an eyebrow and commented, "However, for the sake of your classmates who would also like to sit back and doodle all day, could you please try and at least act remotely interested in your lessons?"
With a sheepish grin, the braided youth silently wondered if the man had eyes in the back of his head to catch him in the act from the back of the class.
He straightened his back and nodded firmly with the response he had already prepared in his head. "I am sorry about that, professor," he stated. "I did not mean to set a bad example and it won't happen again."
"Good enough," Gervis replied as a kind smile spread beneath his long nose. "Get going to your next class, then."
Not needing to be told twice, Duo bowed his head and hurried from the room.
Watching his best pupil as he disappeared, Professor G frowned sadly and shook his head. "It must be hard on such a young lad to be moved from home to home constantly," he muttered to himself.
The remainder of the school day went on without incident for Duo, much to his relief. Putting his extra books away into his locker, he slung his lightened backpack over his shoulder once again and headed for the main doors when a voice called, "Hey, Maxwell."
He paused to turn as Mary Ellen ran up towards him, her short blonde curls flying around her oval face. Inwardly, he winced knowing what was most likely coming.
Smiling widely, the petite girl worked her hands together in an almost nervous gesture. It was quite a strange thing to see the head of the cheerleading squad seeming to be a bit unsure of herself.
"A few of us are getting together at my parents' house tomorrow since they'll be leaving town for the weekend late tonight. It could be a good time, if you'd like to come along," she said with the hope dripping in her tone.
The braided teenager grinned apologetically and replied, "I really would love to go, Mary, and thank you for the invite."
Rubbing the back of his head, he released himself from the hook with a polite, "But, I think that I'm just going to stay home and work on my assignments." That was not a lie, but it omitted a lot of other little details that he was not comfortable going into.
What he really had to do on his Saturdays was something he hoped his classmates would never come to find out.
Her smile fading a bit at that, Mary Ellen shrugged, "Oh, that's alright. Maybe some other time?"
It was always 'some other time.'
Still, Duo smiled and nodded, "Sounds good. Have a good weekend." With a wave, he turned back on his heels and followed the rest of the class to the stairs at the end of the hallway to descend to the entrance of the school.
When he was outside, he took a deep breath of warm fresh air and sighed to himself. Removing his red baseball cap from the front pouch of his backpack, he slipped it on his head to shield as much of his face as he could.
Hands in his jean pockets, he discretely moved past the lines for the buses and turned the nearest corner to walk to the current house that he was staying in just a few blocks away.
That place was not home anymore than any of the other places he had spent time in before being moved on again.
One of the joys of being a ward of the state after adoption did not come along soon enough, you did not get to stay in the same area for very long. It was just a shuffle game to the next foster parent or parents that would deal with you for a while before sending you to the next.
And that was exactly why Duo never made friends. Eventually, they would be gone as well when he was moved once again. Problem was that everyone wanted to become friends and know 'the new kid' wherever he went.
So even if he wanted to be unnoticed at school, he still somehow managed to be popular.
Really, the only 'friend' that he had was his hair. It was the only real constant that he had in his life, which was why he kept it going past his waistline. Even though it made him stand out all the more in a crowd, he had no intentions of ever letting it go... not when everything else around him tended to.
Duo reached his house less than a half-hour later, stepped up to the front porch and entered the front door without a knock. "I'm back, Renee," he called towards the kitchen where his newest foster mother would be working on dinner. He never bothered with 'Mom' or 'Dad' when it came to his guardians.
They were always on a first-name basis with him. And they always understood.
"Welcome back, hon," her bright voice replied, carrying into the living room along with the smell of spaghetti sauce and garlic. "Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes, so make yourself at home."
Home. The word made Duo both snort and cringe at the same time. Luckily, Renee was not in the room to see his reaction.
Renee and her husband, John, were easily two of the nicest guardians he had ever lived with. Their twenty-something son and daughter, Jasper and Rose, were both away in college and had been for a couple of years when their house seemed a little too empty for their liking. So, they enrolled to become foster parents to those who needed them.
Now having lived with the Harrison's for the whole of his junior year in high school, much longer than his stay anywhere else, Duo was accustomed to their routines and had become quite comfortable in them.
It was Friday, meaning that John would be returning from work in about fifteen minutes. Jasper and Rose would be arriving that evening to spend as much time with their parents and 'brother' as they could over the weekend. While predictable, it was still comfortable.
Shedding his backpack beside the staircase, Duo climbed up to the second floor. At the end of the hall, he opened the door to his room and shed his cap to set it atop the dresser just inside. Closing the door behind him, he leaned against it and smiled in the relief of solitude.
As he kicked his sneakers off, the teenager's socked feet padded over to his bed at the opposite wall. Sinking into the mattress on his back, he folded his arms behind his head and stared up at the ceiling.
Duo reached for the thin cord around his neck, as he always would when he was alone, to remove the pendant hidden beneath his red T-shirt. Holding the banged up coin with his name carved into it before his eyes, he ran a finger tip over the rough ridges.
That coin was his only other constant.
Sister Helen of the Maxwell orphanage had told him of how it was hanging from his neck when he had been discovered on the church steps. It was how he earned his name. And when the end of his waiting time for adoption came up, he took on the orphanage's name as his own.
Not only was that coin what helped him earn his name... it was a beacon of hope for Duo as well.
Of course he had a mother and a father. Where they were and what happened to them were unknown. But someone had thought enough of him as a baby to leave something to him. And maybe that meant he actually belonged somewhere.
As a young man who never felt as though he belonged anywhere, that meant more than anything to him.
Quietly sighing, Duo lowered the coin to lie back on his chest and closed his eyes to daydream on what that place might be like.
* * * * * *
Saturday.
Duo hated Saturdays beyond any other day because of his weekly required visits to a psychiatrist. Yet another 'perk' of the ward of state system. To see that the emotional state of a kid being moved around constantly, it was deemed necessary for a professional to check in and see how they were fairing.
Wearing a pair pf blue jeans and a plain black T-shirt that were the most comfortable things he owned, the braided teenager once again tried to make the best of the always uncomfortable visits.
"So how are you feeling today, Duo?" the doctor asked as she pushed her round-rimmed glasses higher up on her nose.
Her blonde hair was pulled back in a neat bun that added to her professional look. In her black skirted lap she held a tall notepad and pen that were ready to be set to work while she kept her cool blue eyes on her client sitting across from her.
With a shrug, he started with his usual course of avoiding the details by answering, "Fine."
As expected, the blonde doctor was not about to let him off the hook that easily. "Then all is well at your school?" she pressed. "Have you had any luck in making friends since you've arrived here almost a year ago? You're about to finish your junior year and I am sure that the constant transitioning can make such an impressionable time difficult."
Duo shook his head and frowned. Regardless of how sincere the words sounded, there was no real meaning behind them as far as he was concerned.
Whatever psychiatrist he met with, they all had the same canned comments that they used to prod something out of him. After the first couple of meetings he experienced years before, he knew better than to spill his feelings out to someone that only actually cared about him for the hour that they were forced to be together.
Taking a deep breath, Duo responded, "Look, Doc, I'm not about to slit my wrists or jump from a cliff, so I really don't see the point in being here right now besides the fact that I'm being told to be here by the powers that have been sending me around for years now."
Pleased that the braided teenager actually gave her more than the short replies to her questions that she had become accustomed to, the lady across from him smiled.
Shifting in her seat, the green satin of her blouse shimmered a bit from the movement as she sat back and stated, "You may call me by my first name, Iria. So, I take it you are bitter over the fact that you are being forced to talk with me? Perhaps there is bitterness over more than just these visits?"
What did opening up a little matter? Duo wondered to himself. Maybe he could get some things off his chest and get out of there earlier than usual at the same time.
Happy with that plan, he stretched his legs before him and commented, "I know that you're just doing your job and all, but I really think that these meetings are defeating the purpose in getting me to feel normal in a new environment when I don't see the other kids in my school having to see a psychiatrist every week."
Iria's pen was flying across the pad in her raised hands before he finished.
Grinning to her client, she reassured, "Yes, but your classmates have not been moved around quite as often as you have. Already, you have seen more of this great state of Maryland than most people who have lived here all their lives. I assure you that our meetings are simply for your best interests in seeing that you are handling the constant change well."
A snort escaped Duo at that and he turned his head away as he grumbled, "My best interests. I'm told what is in my best interests and never given the chance to say what I think is in my own best interests."
When the scratching of the pen on paper came to an abrupt stop, he knew that he had his audience's full attention.
Sighing, he met the gaze on him and smirked, "You know, the funny thing is, I really shouldn't be bitter over anything in my life. I could be upset over the fact that I'm turning sixteen in a couple of days on a birthday that was guessed for me and still have yet to ever be taken into a permanent home. And I could be pissed that I have no real friends because getting attached and separated is too difficult."
The doctor swallowed roughly, her smile fading completely away.
Without a hint of amusement in his voice, Duo laughed, "But you know what, I know there are other people out there who have it harder than I do because they have to make decisions on how they're going to keep a roof over their head and food in their stomachs."
Pointing to his own chest, Duo continued, "Me? I don't have to make one damned decision in my own life over anything. Some man or woman, whom I have never had the pleasure of meeting, is sitting behind a desk in a real lavish office and they get to make all of those hard choices for me with the stroke of a pen."
Her brown eyes widening, Iria leaned further back in her chair when the boy across from her leaned forward. "You really want to know how I feel?" Duo questioned quietly. "Call them up and find out. Because I could be a lot of things, but I'm afraid that I apparently don't have a say in how my life is."
Finally managing to pull in a quick breath, the young woman stammered, "I-I think that is enough for today's session, Mister Maxwell."
"Whatever you say," he smirked. Taking his baseball cap up from his lap, he got to his feet and made long strides for the door to make as quick a get away as possible. As he closed the door behind him, the weight that had settled on his shoulders from the moment he arrived was lifted and he was able to relax again.
On his way down the front porch of the white building, Duo checked his watch and chuckled, "Seventeen minutes. A new record for me." It was both humorous and saddening at the same time that when he was opening up about his personal dilemmas that no one was willing to deal with them... even a trained professional.
Since it was a bright and sunny Saturday afternoon that he now had to himself, he stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets and decided to go for a walk.
And a very long one at that.
* * * * * *
Spring was a wondrous thing to Duo.
There was something about the warmth in the air along with the returning wildlife and plant life that never failed to rejuvenate him no matter what mood he was in.
In the outskirts of town where only the forest was to be found, blossoms were blooming to give off a pleasant smell that carried along the path the teenager was trotting on. Birds could be heard chirping all around, making him smile a bit.
On foot, it took Duo an hour to reach the thick forest. And it took a little over another hour before he reached his destination when the trees gave way to reveal the large lake he had stumbled upon not long after he first arrived to the area. Hidden as the lake was, it almost felt like his own little island where he could just be himself.
Climbing to the top of a cluster of rocks gathered just by the water's edge, he took a seat and picked up a few loose pebbles to skip across the clear pool while reflecting quietly.
Thoughts of his upcoming birthday filled the braided teenager's mind.
Sixteen was a landmark year for many kids his age. For him, he was happy in knowing that he was that much closer to becoming a legal adult at the age of twenty-one. When that day came, he would be able to do and be as he freely wished.
Before then, choices would need to be made that Duo hadn't considered before such as what he would take up as a career, where he wanted to stay and those sorts of details.
It was going to be wonderful when he would be able to make those decisions all his own.
His hand reaching to pull out the coin from his shirt, he ran his fingers over it for the quiet comfort that it offered.
Yea... it really was going to be wonderful when that day would come. He would just need to hold on a little longer.
TBC...
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