The Beautiful You

Six - Arms Tonite

Amory took a bite of his apple and I quickly turned away, pretending to listen to Harris talk about the best anime shows. "No, listen to me Sam. That's not the anime you should be watching. Those are meant for teen girls!" Harris said.

"I don't care. No matter how many times you try to convince me, I won't budge. I'm not going to watch Naruto. It's too long and too much filler. Besides, I like romance," Sam said.

"I have a list!" Harris shouted. "We can cut straight to the plot!"

"Sam, Harris is right. Naruto is worth the watch," I said sipping my orange juice.

"See, even Perez agrees."

"That's not fair. Apollo's been watching Naruto since he was in diapers. Remember his 8th birthday party?" Sam said protesting.

"You had a Naruto theme'd birthday party?" Amory asked.

"I was a big fan," I said.

We continued debating until Mr. Rogers walked in to take attendance. Today we were supposed to go on a hike, but Mr. Rogers decided it would be best for me to go on another trail since he didn't want me to faint out in the mountains.

"The kids are going out to see the leaves change color, but I know someplace you'd like better," Mr. Rogers said.

"But Mr. Rogers I think I can handle the hike," I said.

"Listen," he said, pulling me to the side. " I think what happened yesterday reflects what's happening up here," he said, poking my head. "So, I want you to have fun, but not fun on top of a mountain where oxygen levels aren't as good as down here."

"I think you're over reacting," I said.

"Apollo, last night I think you had a panic attack. I don't want anything to trigger that and have you end up hurt. I'm going to watch out for you, and yesterday really did it for me. Sometimes they come out of nowhere, and I don't want the other kids to see you like that. You understand?" He asked.

"Yeah, you don't want them to know I'm crazy," I said starting to walk back. He caught onto my shoulder and turned me around.

"I don't want to give them another reason to look down on you, and I know you don't want that either. Listen, it's okay. It's okay to be a little lost, but I don't think you're ready to admit that yet."

I stood there silently. Is this what this is? I'm lost? It feels worse than that. Everything about me feels...broken.

Am I broken?

"You can ask someone to join you. If you'd like," Mr. Rogers said.

"Okay."

...

"I hope you can swim Levi," Mr. Rogers said as he opened his arms to gesture at the river. The location of the river was far away from the normal trails, so Mr. Rogers must have done some research.

"I've been coming to these trips for 15 years now, so I've had some exploring," Mr. Rogers explained.

"Sir, I didn't bring any trunks," Amory said.

"That's okay just dip your feet in," he said.

Amory and I made our way to the river and sat down with our feet hovering over the water. It didn't look exactly natural. There were rocks placed everywhere, almost like it was planned. Amory began taking off his shoes and socks, and I followed after him.

"Mr. Rogers, this river looks weird," Amory said, swiftly pulling off his shirt. I stared back down at my feet and watched the water flow down the rocks.