Chapter Text
The fluorescent lights of the cafeteria casted over the largely abandoned room. The lunch rush had ended 30 minutes ago, leaving the vast room cold and smelling faintly of fries and rolls. Over by the vending machines, two kids, Nick (Nickel) and Berlin (Baseball), were arguing over a bag of chips, but Marcus tuned them out. They were background noise.
The real problem was the worksheet in front of him.
Kinematics.
Marcus stared at Question 12 with a burning intensity.
A car accelerates from rest at a constant rate of…
"Why is it negative?" Marcus muttered, gripping his pen so hard his knuckles turned white. He aggressively tapped his calculator. "If the velocity is increasing, the gradient should be positive. Why does the answer key say option C?? What is wrong with this stupid graph??"
He groaned, resting his forehead against the cool laminate of the table. This was embarrassing. He was a Prefect. He was supposed to be the organized. And yet, here he was, suffering because he had pulled a ‘D’ in his assessments.
He looked around, desperate for a distraction, or better yet, help. But the table was empty. Michael (MePad) and Tabby (Toilet) were in English. Even Twila (Two) was on hall monitor duty in the West Wing of the campus.
He was alone with his failure.
Then, the squeak of sneakers broke the silence.
Marcus looked up.. Approaching his table, clutching a backpack strap with hands, was Bonnie (Bot).
Marcus exhaled, his shoulders dropping an inch. Finally. Someone to talk to.
"Soo, what's going on?" Marcus asked, leaning back as Bonnie pulled out the cafeteria chair opposite him.
Bonnie didn't answer immediately. They sat down, fidgeting with the hem of their sweater sleeves. They looked small, swallowed up by the plastic chair. Marcus frowned.
"Something.. wrong...?" Marcus asked.
Bonnie chewed on their lip, staring at the table. "If I tell you something... promise me not to laugh?"
Marcus blinked. He had been expecting a lot of things - trouble with homework, drama with the other kids.
"Promise," Marcus said, closing his physics textbook to show he was fully listening.
Bonnie took a deep breath. "I like someone."
They still refused to meet Marcus’s eyes. Marcus felt a small smile tug at the corner of his mouth. Ofcourse. High school romance. He decided to spare them the teasing; Bonnie looked like they might bolt if he made a joke.
"Oh! That’s... interesting," Marcus said, trying to sound encouraging. "Do... you think that person likes you back...?"
Bonnie finally looked up. Their eyes were wide, searching Marcus’s face with a desperate sort of hope.
"Only you can tell that..."
Marcus froze. "Me??"
His mind raced. Me? Surely Bonnie didn't mean him? That would be—
"Yeah...," Bonnie stammered, wringing their hands. "I... Please don't be mad at me but..."
And then, it clicked. The pieces of the puzzle fell into place faster than any kinematics equation ever had.
Only you can tell. Please don't be mad.
Bonnie didn't like Marcus. Bonnie liked Poppy.
Marcus’s blood ran cold.
Poppy. His half-sibling. The one who looked so much like him … their father, Cobs.
It wasn't that Poppy was outwardly evil. To the untrained eye, Poppy was just quirky, maybe a little chaotic. But Marcus saw the resemblance. He saw the potential for manipulation. He saw the "accidents" that seemed to happen whenever Poppy was around - always laughed off as clumsy mistakes.
But Marcus knew better. Cobs didn't make mistakes, and neither did his offspring. He didn't trust Poppy. Not for a second.
And Bonnie? Bonnie was innocent. Bonnie was fragile. Bonnie was practically his little sibling.
"You sure you want... Poppy...?" Marcus asked, his voice tight.
Bonnie nodded. "...Yes... I know no one really likes them, but—they are nice! They haven't hurt anyone on purpose and they actually helped me with—"
"I don't think they like you."
The words left Marcus’s mouth before he even processed them. He cut Bonnie off sharply, his voice colder than he intended.
It was a lie.
Marcus had no idea who Poppy liked. He hadn't spoken to his half-sibling in months, actively avoiding them in the hallways.
.
But he couldn't risk it. He couldn't let Bonnie get close to his family. He couldn't let Bonnie become collateral damage in whatever game Poppy might eventually play. He had to end this before it started.
It’s for their own good, Marcus told himself. I’m protecting them.
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Bonnie’s face went white. The hopeful light in their eyes didn't just fade; it was extinguished. They looked like they had been slapped.
Marcus felt a pit open in his stomach. Say something, his thoughts screamed. Take it back.
But he didn't. He just watched.
"Oh..." Bonnie’s voice was barely a whisper. They looked down at their lap, blinking rapidly. "...T-thanks for telling... I... yeah... thanks..."
The chair scraped loudly against the floor—a harsh, screeching sound—as Bonnie stood up. They didn't look at Marcus again. They just turned and walked out of the cafeteria, head hung low, disappearing into the hallway.
Marcus was alone again.
He looked back down at his table.
v^2 = u^2 + 2as. Final velocity equals initial velocity plus two times acceleration times displacement.
He felt sick.
He had never been in love. He didn't know the butterfly feeling Bonnie was probably chasing. But he knew what betrayal felt like. He knew what manipulation felt like.
And sitting there, in the empty cafeteria, Marcus realized with a sinking heart that to save Bonnie from a potential villain... he had just become one himself.
He couldn't even apologize. Apologizing meant admitting he lied. Admitting he lied meant admitting he was just as controlling as the man he hated.
Marcus picked up his pen, but his hand was shaking too much to write.
He didn't knew what to do.