Your first training with the basketball team goes well. You feel like you didn’t learn too much, but then again you’re still new, as are multiple other members of the team, so you mostly spent time doing some basic training to get to know each other and how everyone plays.
You decide to stay a little longer afterwards to help Justin, the captain, help clean up after.
Justin
“Thanks! It’s not a lot of work really, just making sure we put away the balls and cleaning the floor. Just a quick sweep should suffice.”
You’re about to put the broom away when a stocky boy swaggers his way from the entrance to the center of the indoor court. If his way of carrying himself and the door hitting the wall after how bombastically he swung it open didn’t alert you to his presence, his booming voice would.
???
“Murphy! How’s the new blood?”
He then proceeds to greet Justin with such a violent “handshake” you’re surprised it didn’t dislocate Justin’s arm. He seems to have been ready for it, at least.
Justin
“Not bad. They’ll get the hang of it soon enough. How’s the hockey team?”
???
“Same, same. We got one swollen shin but the nurse says it’s probably not broken, so it’s all good.” He turns to you. “Hey, I remember you! Good to see you joined. Wish it’d been my team, but hey, Justin needs all the help he can get.”
He holds out his hand to you and you walk towards him with dread forming in the pit of your stomach. You try to steel yourself for the force, but he still manages to shake your hand in a way that rattles your whole body. At least it was slightly less aggressive than when he greeted Justin, you think.
Oscar
“Oscar, I captain the hockey team. I think we’re in some of the same classes too, aren’t we?”
You are, but you’re not surprised Oscar doesn’t remember. He never seems to pay much attention in class, much less the people around him.
Oscar
“You play basketball at your old school, too?”
answer
anmswer
answer
Justin
“You’ll be fine either way. Our team isn’t top of the leaderboards or anything, but we hold our own.”
Oscar
“You gotta work ‘em harder, that’s what I’m hearing.”
Justin
He scoffs. “That wouldn’t work if I even wanted to, people aren’t gonna listen to me. The team isn’t as much of a brotherhood as the hockey team is.”
You’re a little relieved to hear that; you want to do your best at the game, but you didn’t join to get bossed around by another student. You didn’t think Justin looked like the type to do that, anyway.
You talk a little more with Justin and Oscar before heading home.
You feel a faint bond form between you.
Justin Social Link - Strength 2
You get to the gym a little earlier than usual; most of the team isn’t there yet. You find Justin, already in uniform, surrounded by a few girls. You know they’re in your year, but you aren’t well acquainted with any of them.
Girl with ponytail
“No but like, you must’ve been so pretty.”
Justin
“...”
Giggling girl
“You really think so?”
Girl with ponytail
“Don’t be mean! Yeah, I can tell.”
She suddenly grabs a strand of Justin’s hair off his shoulder. He doesn’t move. His gaze is fixed in the distance, it almost looks like he’s trying to move as little as possible. He looks extremely uncomfortable.
Girl with ponytail
“Your hair is still gorgeous. Do you still have a haircare routine?”
Girl with wavy hair
“Uh, are they even allowed to have those? Like, isn’t that against God’s wishes, or something?”
Giggling girl
“Have you ever at fundie girls before? They’re always super made up. There’s no way they don’t spend hours curling their hair every morning.”
Justin sheepishly pulls his hair out of the girl’s hand as they continue bickering. You’ve never seen him look so meek. He towers over them, but it’s almost like he’s not really there.
answer
anmswer
answer
The girls finally clear off once more team members start arriving. Justin relaxes a little. You want to ask him about what happened, but you can tell he doesn’t want to talk about it right now.
You focus on the training for the next hour, but Justin is pretty off for the rest of the training. He’s quiet, and doesn’t seem as enthusiastic as usual.
As strange as it sounds, it almost seems like he’s annoyed with the sound of his own voice every time he speaks. This confuses you; he sounds the same as he always does.
You help him put everything away again afterwards, and once again Oscar nearly breaks down the door after about five minutes after training ended.
Justin
“Can we go outside? I need some fresh air.”
Oscar
“Oh, um, yeah sure. You coming, newbie?”
You do; and also take this opportunity to tell Oscar you’d rather he just call you your name, and not ‘newbie’. Hopefully saying it now will stop it from sticking.
You change out of your sports clothing and walk home with Oscar and Justin. Justin seems to have cheered up a little now you’re outside and he’s with friends, so you carefully ask him about the girls you saw before the training.
Justin
“Don’t worry about that. I guess they just needed to get that out of their system.”
Oscar
“What happened? Wait, it wasn’t those girls again, was it?”
Justin
“It’s not a big deal…”
Oscar
“They need to lay off.”
Justin
“It’s probably just payback. They probably remember me calling them names in the past. Honestly I barely hear them when they talk to me, I just wait it out.”
Oscar
“I know you’re a Murphy but you don’t have to pay penance for everything you did when you were still living with your dad.”
Your puzzled look seems to finally clue Oscar and Justin in that you might not know what they’re talking about.
Oscar
“You heard of the Murphies, newb-- Yon?”
You tell them you know Temperance, and are familiar with the work her father does.
Justin
“Temmie’s my little sister. There’s seven of us kids, and then our father, but we’re not on good terms, to put it lightly. I live with two of my siblings in the next town over. But to make a long story short, I left the main family about a year ago. Before then we’d get heckled a lot around town and we would yell back, about how everyone would go to hell and stuff like that. We were generally more mean towards girls, I think,” he says, looking a little ashamed. “I’ve definitely called a lot of girls things I’m not proud of. So I kind of understand why there’s girls in school who bully me over it.”
Oscar
“But if it’s just that, why don’t they just call you an asshole and be done with it? Or make fun of your clothes or something? I think the way they choose to insult you is just nasty.”
Justin
“I don’t know. I probably made them feel really bad about themselves, so it’s fair.”
Oscar
“I really don’t agree. But I see I can’t convince you.”
Justin
“They’ll stop eventually.” He gives Oscar a tired smile. “As I said, they just need to get it out of their system.”
You remember Julian telling you Temperance had a sibling that called him names once, but you were pretty sure he was talking about a sister of hers, not a brother. You’re curious about something else right now, and hope it’s okay to ask. So you carefully ask why Justin left his family.
Justin
“Don’t worry about asking, I don’t mind. I realised they would never accept me as I was, no matter how much they reassured me they loved me. I felt trapped, so one evening I just called my older sister who left years ago and she picked me up and I haven’t been back since. I do miss Temmie though. We were the youngest and I felt like she really did understand me, or at least tried her best to. But I can’t force her to leave, so I just try to be near her. It’s why I go to school here even though I live in another town.”
You look at him and wonder why his family wouldn’t accept him. His long hair, maybe? You can’t put your finger on it. Eventually Oscar puts his hand on your shoulder.
Oscar
“Ok man, lay off with the staring.”
Justin
“It’s fine! You don’t need to protect me, I can take care of myself, geez.” He awkwardly runs a hand through his hair.
“I still find it kinda hard to explain, but I’ll try. My real name’s Justice. Me and my siblings are all named after the seven virtues, it’s a stupid thing our parents did- Anyway, when I was born, I was… I grew up as a girl. But it never felt right. I thought it was my personal battle to fight or something, that I could get through it if I just persevered until I realised that the feeling that something was wrong wasn’t just gonna go away. I think Tem tried to understand, but my older siblings and my dad thought I was just causing trouble for them. Like the outside world had influenced me to become a dude or something. Even though the outside world had zero influence on me at the time, we were super sheltered.
So yeah, that’s why I had to leave. I feel like the people I’m around actually accept me the way I am, like, I’m not wrong to be myself. And I actually like the name Justice, so I’ll probably go back to using it eventually, just… Not yet. It’s a little painful.”
Oscar
“You didn’t have to tell him all that, if you didn’t want to.”
Justin
“But I did! I’d rather get it out of the way, anyway.”
You wonder why Oscar seems so protective of Justin. You understand they’re best friends, but as Justin said, you don’t think he needs protecting; he seems to be able to hold his own just fine.
You’ve arrived at the train station. You say goodbye to Justin as he has to catch the train back to his hometown, and say goodbye to Oscar.
Justin Social Link - Strength 3
You are once again helping Justin clean up after training. He chuckles when he notices you keep nervously glancing at the doors.
Justin
“Oscar’s off sick, so don’t worry about him busting down the door.”
You feel a little sheepish that he called you out. You ask him how the two of them met, just to get the attention off yourself.
Justin
“That story is actually a little embarrassing. I’m kinda glad he’s not here to tell it. We met before I left home. As I mentioned last time, my family and most of the townspeople aren’t on the best terms, so we got into shouting matches with people a lot. For me and Tem it was mostly other teens. We had one particularly bad day where we just got away from these people that were saying the most awful things about my dad, when we passed the banks next to the river, you know that area?”
You say you’re not sure, you still haven’t seen much of the town. Justin shrugs; it doesn’t matter that much for the story you suppose.
Justin
“Anyway, there was this group of guys playing football on the slope. Stupid place to play a ballgame now I think of it, but whatever. I think Oscar’s more into the physical aspect of games like that anyway, I think they were practicing taking the ball away from each other or something.
But they saw me and Tem pass overhead, and Oscar…”
Justin rolls his eyes. “He just jeered at me. I guess it was technically a cat call. He says he doesn’t remember, but I think he was just embarrassed. With the terrible day we’d already been having, I just kind of snapped.” He leans on the broom. He looks a little embarrassed but at the same time you sense he’s also a little proud of himself. “He’d already turned away back to his friends when I stormed over to him. Even him just turning away annoyed me so badly I threw the book I was holding at the back of his head. And the bibles we carried around aren’t small ones…”
He poorly suppresses a smile. "It hit him so hard he bent forward and cos he was caught off guard it was easy for me to tackle him to the ground, so… I did. And then I just kind of hit him in the face a lot.”
He’s still smiling like he’s fondly reminiscing until he notices your shocked expression.
Justin
“Um, his friends eventually pulled me off him. I was yelling a lot, but I don’t remember what. I remember Tem standing close by and just yelling my name, though. Oscar’s face was all bloody as they tried to help him up.
I don’t remember how I got home that day. I just saw white with rage, you know. My knuckles were scabbed over for weeks. It was all my dad would talk about for months, that I should be ashamed I lost my temper like that, that it was unbecoming of a Murphy… daughter. But you know what?”
He looks up at you. It seems he’s gotten over his shame of retelling the story. “It felt good. And afterwards, when I met Oscar again at school, I found out he actually remembers it positively too, as weird as that sounds.”
He laughs. He grabs the broom and moves it to the storage area, but continues his story.
Justin
“He asked me about that one sister that beat him up one time. That he wanted to meet her again. You should’ve seen his face when I told him it was me. Don’t think I’ve ever seen Oscar look that shocked since. Anyway, we should get outta here. You want to grab something to eat?”
You say that would be nice. You talk a little bit more about your friends as you get changed, and then head into town. You go to a small cafe that Robin recommended to you shortly after you arrived in town. You sit outside together on a bench facing the street as you drink the drinks you picked out.
Justin
“It’s funny, I must’ve passed this place hundreds of times when I still lived here, but I never went in. I always thought it looked nice, like, a good place to take a girl on a date, maybe?”
He looks at you for approval. You nod; you suppose it does. Though you also think it’s just nice to visit anyway.
Justin
“I feel like I still don’t really know what’s socially acceptable for me to do in some situations, you know. We weren’t really taught how to act in common society, just what kind of things to avoid. Which was almost everything.” He sighs, then takes a small sip of his drink. “Wow, this is really sweet.”
You ask him what he ordered, and discover it is the most sugary drink on the menu. You ask him what he was expecting.
Justin
“...I don’t know. I just thought the name sounded interesting. Is that stupid?”
You laugh and tell him no, that it’s fine. You offer him a sip of your drink, as you got a simple coffee with just a bit of milk.
Justin
“Thanks.” He wipes the lid before he takes a sip. “Hm…” He takes another sip of his own drink. “I feel like if I could combine them, it’d be perfect.” He hands you back your drink. “Oscar tries to help me act like a normal person, but I think sometimes he goes a little overboard. I don’t know if he still feels bad for catcalling me all that time ago so he’s trying to make up for that, but I don’t know. I’m used to getting called names and I know how to fight back, so he really doesn’t need to.”
Justin: I guess! I mean, I’m really glad we became friends. I know he’s got my back, and that he doesn’t laugh when I do something stupid simply because I don’t know better. Justin: But you’re right, maybe I should cut him some slack; he’s patient with me after all.
Justin: I mean, not in those words, it’s not like I hate that he looks out for me. I just don’t need it, you know. Justin: I feel like if I get too aggressive about it, he might get the wrong idea.
Justin: He wasn’t hitting on me, he was trying to get a rise out of me! Justin: … Justin: …You don’t think he really was trying to hit on me, do you…? Justin: Wait, don’t answer that.
You and Justin spend some time people watching as you finish your drinks.
Justin
“This was nice. I still feel a little weird going around Grey Springs, but I’d like to get to know the town better now nobody’s telling me about how everyone who lives here is going to burn in hell for simply existing.”
You offer to explore the town some more after your next practice.
Justin
“Yeah, let’s do it! We should take Oscar along, he’s been wanting to show me stuff for ages.”
You walk with Justin to the train station and say your goodbyes.
Justin Social Link - Strength 4
You make good on your promise, so you, Justin and Oscar are walking through main street together after finishing training.
Oscar is getting some odd looks as he’s currently nursing a black eye; it’s not as swollen as it was a few days ago when he got it during hockey practice, but his eye is still blue and yellow in places, in addition to a dark purple mark next to his nose.
You pass the bookshop, so you comment that you’re friends with the daughter of the people who run it.
Oscar
“You ever been in there, Justin? Wanna check it out?”
Justin
“I haven’t, I don’t really read… But uh, sure.”
You head in. You find Robin is helping out her dad today, as she’s behind the counter. She looks up from the computer and gives you a little wave when she sees you.
Robin
“Yon! Let me know if you need anything. Oh, and Oscar! Hi!”
You’re a little surprised Robin seems to know Oscar so well. All three of you are in the same year, but you don’t remember them ever speaking at school.
Oscar
Hey Robin. Everything alright?”
Robin
“Sure! Are you here for the next AWOMAS release? I’m afraid it hasn’t come in yet, I’m sorry. We’re expecting it by next friday.”
“AWOMAS?” you say, a little perturbed. Justin seems just about as lost, though he seems a little unsure of the bookstore in general.
Oscar
“It’s a book series I follow,” he says quickly, “don’t worry about it.” he clears his throat before speaking up slightly. “No, we’re just here to show Justin around.” He points at Justin, as if he could have meant anyone else in your trio.
Robin
She flashes a smile at Justin. “No problem. Let me know if you’re looking for anything in particular.”
You browse the store a little, though you are hovering around the art supplies more than looking at the books. Maybe you could buy your aunt a little gift, you wonder. Oscar and Justin are nearby, looking at the best sellers. Oscar is telling Justin about different genres of books.
Justin
“I did have some books as a kid, you know. Fairytales and stuff, mainly. And dad had some old adventure books, but thinking about it now some of the stories in those were a little… old fashioned.”
His eyes fall on a large tome with a black cover with red, glossy lettering on the spine. He pulls it off the shelf and studies the cover.
Justin
“A War of Moons and Stars…”
“AWOMAS!” you say, a little louder than you intended. You hear Robin snicker from behind the counter.
Justin
“This is the series you’re reading?” He raises a brow as he looks at Oscar.
Oscar
“Yeah it’s a science fiction series, but it also uses fantasy elements. It’s really cool.”
Justin
“If it’s a fantasy book, then why’s it in the romance section?”
Oscar
“Because there’s a romance in it that plays a big part. But I read it because the worldbuilding is really good and the battles are exciting,” he stammers slightly.
Justin turns the book over and reads the blurb on the back.
Justin
“I admit, I didn’t expect you’d be into reading. Especially not books this thick.” He opens the book and flips to the last page. “800 pages! Wow.”
Oscar
“I like to read to unwind. To get lost in a story, and stuff. I know I don’t look it.”
Justin
“It’s cool,” he says as he leafs through the book. “Oh.”
Oscar
“What?” He sounds slightly alarmed.
Justin
“Nothing, it’s just… Yeah, I guess you’re right, I didn’t expect you to be interested in books like this.” He closes the book and puts it back on the shelf. He has a smirk on his face.
Oscar
“What does that mean? What did you read?”
Justin
“Don’t worry about it!”
Oscar
“Tell me!”
Justin
He laughs. “Calm down, it’s fine. I just feel like I learned something more about you, and… It’s amusing!”
Oscar
“You’re laughing at me. Stop it.”
You wonder what was on the page Justin read. The two boys go back and forth a bit more, with Justin refusing to tell Oscar what he read.
You’ve picked up a pocket sketchbook that you plan on giving to your aunt. You walk over to your friends and check the bestseller shelf yourself. Studying the titles, you’re pretty sure they’re all fantasy romance books.
Robin
“If you’d like some other genres, check the other bestseller shelf,” she says as she points to the shelf opposite to where you’re standing. “That’s where the thrillers are, and some autobiographies, if you’re interested in those.”
Oscar
“Y-yeah, let’s have a look at those! Great idea!” He grabs you and Justin by the sleeve and drags both of you over to the other shelf.
You look at the autobiographies for a bit.
Justin
“I have no idea who any of these people are.”
Oscar
“Don’t worry, neither do I.”
You say you think one of them is by a politician, maybe. You’re also not sure.
Oscar
“Thrillers are pretty cool, though. Do you like scary stories?”
Justin
“...I don’t know. I haven’t read any, I don’t think… I mean, I know some ghost stories, does that count?”
Oscar
“Not really, no…” He picks up a pretty thin book off the shelf. “This might be a good one for you to start with, to find out. It’s a classic. I guess they republished it recently. It should be pretty easy to get through, too!”
Justin
“Okay, I’ll buy it. Thanks. Might be nice to read on the train ride over.”
He smiles at Oscar, who quickly looks away.
Oscar
“D-don’t mention it.”
Justin goes over to Robin to pay for the book. Oscar suddenly seems a little nervous. What’s that all about, you wonder?
You pay for the sketchpad and ask Robin to giftwrap it. She seems to think it’s very sweet you got your aunt a little gift.
You leave the shop with Justin and Oscar.
Oscar
“Let me know what you think of the book when you’ve read it.”
Justin
“Sure. Maybe if it turns out I like reading I can read one of those Star Moon War books.”
Oscar
“As I said I like the world building! Geez.”
You begin walking to the train station, as it’s about time for Justin to go home.
Justin
“The world building of a space captain dreamily staring into the eyes of a blue alien woman,” he chuckles.
Oscar
“Oh, it’s that part,” he grumbles. “That’s not even the main romance, that’s just a fling the main character has.” He seems to catch himself, and turns a little red. “But that doesn’t matter! It’s a good series with a great conflict. You just… read a bad page.”
Justin
“I didn’t think it was bad, as I said I was just surprised you like stories like that. No judgment. Just unexpected.”
Oscar
“Yeah well I feel super judged. Hey Yon, do you read?” he says, aggressively trying to swerve the subject to you.
Oscar: Guess that’s why you were just looking at the art supplies, then.
Justin: I’m surprised you wanted to go to the bookstore then, if you find them that lame.
Oscar: Most of the stuff I read is popular too, honestly. People are reading them for a reason. Justin: I guess technically I have, too. Oscar: What do you mean? Justin smirks again. Justin: Pretty sure the bible’s the most popular book in the world. Oscar: If that’s supposed to be a joke I’m gonna throw you off the bridge.
Oscar: You do? Justin: Wow, I guess I learned something new about both of you today. Not to be rude but, I didn’t expect that of you, Yon. Oscar: Maybe you can help me understand some of them, I’ve tried getting into the classics before but most of them just go over my head.
You and Oscar say your goodbyes as Justin gets on the train. You see through the window that he takes the book he bought at Kaminski’s out of his bag and begins reading it as the train starts to drive away.
