Those kids. -- ARCHITECT(TOSKA) EXCERPT

Instructions

-- PAST. -- ____ Toska laid there on the dirt, staring up at the sky. It happened again. They weren't sure what they had done wrong this time, their act was pretty decent at the very least, was it not? Alas, they still failed. They slowly sat up, scrapes burning along their arms, legs, and face. Their textbook was off to the side, completely torn up. Why did the other kids tear up a perfectly good book? They reached over and grabbed it, examining it. It was fixable seemingly. At the very least, it could be taped up. Only the pages were damaged, and the front cover was mostly just dirty from being stomped on. ... Maybe Meraki could fix it. They stood slowly, wincing faintly at their scrapes but ignoring it for the most part. They could just worry about it when they got back to the library. --- "...Meraki?" Toska stood in the doorway of the office, where he slept whenever Oakley was staying the night at his mom's instead of the library. Otherwise, Meraki usually slept in the attic on a seperate matress from Toska's. Meraki turned around, "Oh, you're-..." His expression shifted the moment he saw his sibling's current state and their ripped up book. "...back." He looked away for a second before looking back, "...They did it again?" Toska nodded, "I thought I did it better this time." Meraki clenched his fists for a moment, gritting his teeth and closing his eyes before forcing himself to relax, looking back, "...It's... not your fault. Let's just... get you fixed up, alright?" Toska dipped their head faintly, before glancing at their textbook and holding it forward, "...Do you think you can fix it again?" Meraki stared, then breathed out through his nose, "...I can try." --- Toska sat on the edge of the bed, staring at their feet. Meraki was in the office again, trying to tape together Toska's textbook- he had already managed to clean up Toska's scrapes and had put some ice on their bruises. They slowly stood, going and making their way down the ladder. The restroom was quiet. It was a public restroom, sure, but the library was closed at the moment so nobody was there, and it had been cleaned recently so it wasn't that bad. Stopping in front of the mirror, they tilted their head. "...Freak." They repeated blankly, not being self-deprecating, simply just repeating what those kids had told them earlier. Slowly, they pushed the corners of their mouth up with their fingers, creating a very unnatural looking smile. Weird. Even after dropping their hands it didn't look all that believable. Maybe they hadn't been doing it as well as they thought they were. Leaning forward, they began to study their own expression. "Creepy." They stated, not even completely thinking about what they said. "Toska? Where you at? I managed to fix up your book!...Er... for the most part at least." The voice came from the attic, causing Toska to turn and leave immediately without a glance back.