I'll Be There

Someone. Just one person--that's all that Logan Mitchell asked for. Maybe Shakopee would be a place for him to find what he was looking for, but something deep inside told him that Minnesota would be just as bad as everywhere else. It could be slightly better than the nightmare his old town was; anything would be better than Brentwood. Logan was sick of the harassing, bullying, overall nastiness. Gosh, was it really that hard to find someone nice in the places he had lived. Yeah, he was a nerd...a shy nerd, but that didn't mean he didn't need just as much love as everyone else. He just wanted someone, one person, just one person to come up to him and say a simple 'hello'...they didn't even have to say anything--a smile would be fine too.

Trust. Something Logan sadly lacked. Add confidence and self-esteem to that list. How do you expect someone to trust people after being hurt so badly in the past? Logan wouldn't ever tell anyone, but his parents never were around. Never. They'd come and go. Most of the time they were on useless business trips, and when they were home, they neglected Logan. He was sick of being shooed away, or told to 'leave' them alone. When Logan's parents told him that they were moving to Shakopee to be closer to their job, the boy wished that meant they'd be around more. Maybe if they were home more often, then they'd want to see him. They wouldn't be so stressed from work; they'd be able to love him. Nope. Shakopee was just another place they dragged Logan to. 6 houses...6 different houses that Logan had lived in. Each one worse than the last, and yep...this one was way worse than his old one in Tennessee. He knew his family had very little money--but this house...this house was basically advertising that. Logan would have been better off writing "WE'RE POOR" across the roof. The whole place was depressing and reflected his mood towards everything perfectly.

Logan dreaded the morning ahead him. It’d be his first day at his new school. Oh joy. More of a reason to bully him. He’d be the ‘new kid’. The dorky new kid that everyone will tease. Just great. Logan struggled to get up and out of bed…he really didn’t want to go. His parents were right downstairs, but only because they had just moved in. They were leaving for New York City later that afternoon. His parents were not going to let him stay home…that was for sure. Unless he was sick…then they’d let him stay home and wallow in his self-pity. Logan felt sick…but he knew he wasn’t. He was just nervous, but being nervous wouldn’t give him a fever, sadly. Even with a fever he’d still be sent off to school. He’d have to be really sick to actually stay home…like throwing up sick. Logan thought about faking that he puked, but ditched the idea when he realized his parents probably wouldn’t believe it unless they saw it…and being terrified of vomiting, Logan figured he would just have to go to school and deal with the pain like he had did a million times before.

Logan dragged his body over to his closet and grabbed some clothes, not even bothering to look and see what he was holding. He walked into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. Logan looked in the mirror and was disgusted. His skin was a deathly shade of pale due to lack of sleep. His brunette hair was greasy and matted down to his forehead. His eyes drooped and had big bags under them. Logan splashed his face with water a few times and then began to get dressed. He pulled on his old black pants. He noticed a forming hole in the area near his ankle. He ripped his shirt off and put on a different one that was a navy blue color. He added a gray cardigan, but only because he was freezing. Logan felt even more repelled by his reflection now. His cardigan, that was probably an extra-small, swallowed his little body up. The sleeves came way past his hands. His pants hung down past his tiny waist, and no matter how much he pulled them up, they always continued to fall down. He took his hands and put some hair gel onto them, slicking up his hair a little in the front. He figured he looked somewhat ok now…gelling his hair helped a bit.

Logan left the house without saying goodbye to his parents; if they really wanted to say goodbye, then they would have noticed the sound of their wooden door smacking shut, and followed him outside. Logan hoped on the insides that they’d come outside and say that they loved him…but no…they didn’t Tears prickled Logan’s coco brown eyes as the grip of his hands on his backpack straps tightened and he trekked through the snow on the ground. Minnesota was so snowy, definitely different than Tennessee, so no wonder he was always so cold here…his body wasn’t used to any of this. Logan finally arrived at school and managed to sneak inside without drawing any attention to himself. He took the paper with his schedule on it out of his backpack and read out the number of his homeroom class. He made his way to that classroom and entered it slowly, hoping that maybe no one would bother him. He quickly made his way to his desk and sat down, pulling out a book and burying his face into it. Logan sat there and quickly became lost in reading his book. People started surrounding him…but being so absorbed in the novel, Logan didn't notice. A blonde boy who sat behind Logan watched from afar as a few guys got closer, and closer.

"Whatcha reading?" One guy asked.

Logan looked up, "…..a….b-book…?"

"Lemme see." He said as he ripped the book from Logan's hands.

The blonde didn't know who that kid was…all he knew was that he just moved to Shakopee Minnesota. He had to be a new kid…since the blonde didn’t recognize him.

That blonde was pretty nice…very nice actually. Everyone loved Kendall Knight. He was a hockey star and not too hard on the eyes either. Kendall was friends with a whole bunch of kids, he had to be the most popular guy in the school, and despite the fact that he wanted to help Logan out, he still had to stop himself for a second. Kendall wanted to do something, but honestly, he was afraid of those guys who were tormenting Logan…they were 5x bigger than him…and about 20x bigger than that Logan kid. Kendall let his long beach blonde hair flop in front of his eyes as he tried to stop worrying so much about Logan. He couldn’t though. His heart was too big to just watch some innocent kid get beat up on his first day here.

Logan sat there staring at the guys who had taken his book with watery eyes. Of course…he was going to cry now. Logan hated how emotional he was at times. He couldn’t help it though…he cried a lot for a reason. He cried when he father told him he was worthless. He cried when his mom threw out the Mother’s Day card he took hours to make for her and then told him it was stupid. He cried when bullies gave him a bloody nose that sent him to the hospital. He had every reason to cry a little more than the average person.

"Awwh…do you want it back?" The guy snickered as he chucked the book across the classroom and into the hallways, "Then you're going to have to get it, loser."

Logan got up and walked into the hallways to get his book now actually crying. He sniffled a few times and tried to steady his breathing before entering the class again. The last thing Logan wanted was for the bullies to see him crying for real now, that’d only make things worse.

The rest of the day Kendall kept seeing Logan…he couldn't help but notice how sad he looked…he knew something was up. While others saw Logan as a lonely freak, Kendall knew he was more than that…he just couldn't work up the courage to find out if his theory was true. Kendall knew if he was seen with Logan, he'd end up getting bullied as well…

That day Kendall followed Logan home and peered through his window…watching the small boy sit down on the couch and start to cry. Kendall couldn't stand watching anymore, nobody was around to bug him about helping the small raven haired boy…he could help him now. Kendall ran to the front of the house and knocked on the door.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Wh-who i-is i-i-it?" Logan asked in between sobs.

"Kendall…I'm in your homeroom."

Logan wiped his eyes so Kendall couldn't see that he was crying and opened the door, "Y-yeah?"

"Can I come in?"

Logan nodded wearily, "Sorry about my house…"

Kendall looked around. Boxes everywhere. Things falling off the walls. Paint chipping. The floor was all broken, there were holes everywhere on the wood. The couch was just thrown in the middle of the room. It was a mess in there…a total mess. Kendall felt bad for Logan who had to live in that slop. It was clearly too much for one 15 year old boy to do alone.

"W-we just moved in…" Logan’s cheeks grew red with embarrassment when he noticed Kendall gaping at the horrid disaster his house was.

"It's ok." Kendall smiled, "So you know I'm Kendall…what's your name?"

"Logan."