Lost Fic: Burning Bridges
Mar. 9th, 2005 05:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alianoraTitle: Burning Bridges
Author: alianora
Rating: PGish
Summery: Walt was used to moving
You aren't looking.
Walt is used to moving around. He and his mom and Brian moved almost
every year.
His mother's smiles got more and more strained, as she insisted that
they needed to move again, to "promote their careers."
But the way Brian looked at him told him all the things Walt needed to
know. Brian blamed him.
Walt just shrugged, packed up his stuff, and got ready to change schools.
Everyone is always pretty nice the first few weeks. The other kids
will hang out with him, the teachers give him extra work to help him
catch up, and he makes a couple of friends.
And thats when it usually starts.
It is little things at first, nothing anyone can actually pin on him.
The school bully trips and lands with a face full of spaghetti, the
teacher runs out of chalk just before a lesson, the book he dropped in
the mud comes out clean and dry.
But then, at some point, things get bigger.
The class snake gets out and is always found curled up on Walt's desk.
No matter where in the room Walt is moved.
The class studies animals from other countries, and a mountain lion
wanders by the school. Never mind that those only live in America.
The news proclaims that it escaped from the zoo, but the zoo claims to have never had one.
Walt just knows he likes animals with big teeth.
And he knows that the other kids stop sitting with him at lunch that
day. And will walk the other way in the hallway.
And start calling him names.
It always gets worse after that.
Someone will fall down the stairs. Or have an accident with a butter knife.
And its always the kids who call him names.
And then one night, his mother is shaking him awake and they are
packing the car and leaving. Usually after somebody gets hurt.
So, Walt is used to moving.
But that doesn't mean he likes it.
Moving to the US with his dad, he thought might be fun.
But the island is even more fun. Here, he doesn't have to sit in
school all day. He gets to throw knives and skin animals and play
fetch with Vincent.
Walt likes the island. Nobody here looked at him funny or called him
names. And lots of weird things happened here anyway.
He did not mean to burn his dad's boat. Not really. He just wanted
to see what it would look like with torches on it.
And if a torch slipped, that was too bad, wasn't it?
He was sorry that Mr. Jin had gotten hurt. But you can't stop one of
Walt's fires once it gets going.
After all, the firemen at his old school never did manage to put that
one out, and it burned all the way down.
It was too bad that a couple of the students had gotten caught inside.
It wasn't like Walt had melted the doorknobs or anything. Just looked at the hinges.
That was when Brian stopped talking to him altogether. Brian had driven fast that time, while his mom sat in the backseat with him, whispering "it'll be ok" over and over. He just shrugged and went back to imagining things in the dark outside the windows.
His mom got sick right after that, and he had to move again.
That was the last time though.
Walt had decided that he wasn't moving again. And neither was anyone else.
They would be happy here, eventually, once they got used to it.
Soon, everyone would be too scared to try to build a boat. There are only so many times it can be burned down or attacked by boars.
Maybe someone would fall out of a tree and break their leg. That would make it tough to help. Or maybe a hurricane would come through.
Walt smiled down at Vincent.
Someday, everyone would like the island. Everyone left, anyway.
END
Author: alianora
Rating: PGish
Summery: Walt was used to moving
You aren't looking.
Walt is used to moving around. He and his mom and Brian moved almost
every year.
His mother's smiles got more and more strained, as she insisted that
they needed to move again, to "promote their careers."
But the way Brian looked at him told him all the things Walt needed to
know. Brian blamed him.
Walt just shrugged, packed up his stuff, and got ready to change schools.
Everyone is always pretty nice the first few weeks. The other kids
will hang out with him, the teachers give him extra work to help him
catch up, and he makes a couple of friends.
And thats when it usually starts.
It is little things at first, nothing anyone can actually pin on him.
The school bully trips and lands with a face full of spaghetti, the
teacher runs out of chalk just before a lesson, the book he dropped in
the mud comes out clean and dry.
But then, at some point, things get bigger.
The class snake gets out and is always found curled up on Walt's desk.
No matter where in the room Walt is moved.
The class studies animals from other countries, and a mountain lion
wanders by the school. Never mind that those only live in America.
The news proclaims that it escaped from the zoo, but the zoo claims to have never had one.
Walt just knows he likes animals with big teeth.
And he knows that the other kids stop sitting with him at lunch that
day. And will walk the other way in the hallway.
And start calling him names.
It always gets worse after that.
Someone will fall down the stairs. Or have an accident with a butter knife.
And its always the kids who call him names.
And then one night, his mother is shaking him awake and they are
packing the car and leaving. Usually after somebody gets hurt.
So, Walt is used to moving.
But that doesn't mean he likes it.
Moving to the US with his dad, he thought might be fun.
But the island is even more fun. Here, he doesn't have to sit in
school all day. He gets to throw knives and skin animals and play
fetch with Vincent.
Walt likes the island. Nobody here looked at him funny or called him
names. And lots of weird things happened here anyway.
He did not mean to burn his dad's boat. Not really. He just wanted
to see what it would look like with torches on it.
And if a torch slipped, that was too bad, wasn't it?
He was sorry that Mr. Jin had gotten hurt. But you can't stop one of
Walt's fires once it gets going.
After all, the firemen at his old school never did manage to put that
one out, and it burned all the way down.
It was too bad that a couple of the students had gotten caught inside.
It wasn't like Walt had melted the doorknobs or anything. Just looked at the hinges.
That was when Brian stopped talking to him altogether. Brian had driven fast that time, while his mom sat in the backseat with him, whispering "it'll be ok" over and over. He just shrugged and went back to imagining things in the dark outside the windows.
His mom got sick right after that, and he had to move again.
That was the last time though.
Walt had decided that he wasn't moving again. And neither was anyone else.
They would be happy here, eventually, once they got used to it.
Soon, everyone would be too scared to try to build a boat. There are only so many times it can be burned down or attacked by boars.
Maybe someone would fall out of a tree and break their leg. That would make it tough to help. Or maybe a hurricane would come through.
Walt smiled down at Vincent.
Someday, everyone would like the island. Everyone left, anyway.
END
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 01:48 am (UTC)This rocked so hard, babe. SO awesome!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 02:48 am (UTC)and yes, i honestly thought about making a cornfield mention..but i figured it might be overkill. i dont want to beat people about the head and shoulders with the creepy, just...smack them around a bit. *angelic smile*
glad you like. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 02:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 02:51 am (UTC)thanks! *beams*
no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 03:35 am (UTC)(mind if i friend you?)
no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 03:37 am (UTC)why thank you, by the way. I really want them to find a cornfield on the island..cause he is going to start sending people there...
no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 11:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 02:48 pm (UTC)thanks for reading!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 02:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 02:48 pm (UTC)thanks for reading!
no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-14 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 06:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-27 01:23 am (UTC)