|Spooks wrote this |

3rd person POV

The next day Dark entered school, talking and walking with Anti and having to look down slightly at the smaller boy.

"You willing to come around and play the rest of Shadow of the Colossus?" Anti asked hopefully, his usual happy go-lucky smile shining brightly on his face.

"Uhm, I-I'll see, my dad a-and I still-l have quite a lot of unpacking to do, but I hopefully w-will." Dark replied with a small smile of his own.

His smile instantly faltered however when he heard Xilef, or Xil for short as his many friends called him, ran towards them.

"Hey Anti, dude wait up!" The boy called out.

He was taller than both of them so naturally with his long legs he managed to catch up to them pretty quickly.

"Oh, hey Xil, where were you? You promised you'd meet me by the gates." Anti reminded him with a small frown.

"Oh, I did? I forgot, I was walking to school with a bunch of friends, sorry." Xil shrugged nonchalantly.

Despite having apologized, Xil didn't really seem so bothered about it much to Dark's dismay, but he bit his tongue to hold back the nasty remarks that came to mind.

He knew Anti was worth more than that, but why didn't Xil?

"Fair enough I guess, it's a good thing Dark was on the bus with me then!" Anti continued happily.

Xil glared daggers at Dark, having had payed no attention to him until now.

"Was he now....." Xil growled through gritted teeth with forced cheer in his tone, obviously mad at him for stealing his spotlight.

Dark stayed quiet as he nervously adjusted his black rectangular framed reading glasses, wondering how the day would go.

-----

A shrill whistle abruptly pierced through the boys and girls ears like a bullet through flesh, alerting them that gym class was starting.

"Alright kids, time to get those muscles going and those legs a moving! Do five laps around the gym!" The overly enthusiastic gym teacher shouted encouragingly, blowing the whistle again.

The kids started running laps as they were told, some more reluctant than others and tending to hang more towards the back to chat with friends.

When they all came to a stop, the PE teacher began putting them into groups of twelve, picking at random.

Dark was in a group of people he knew were friendly, but he didn't know well, except for Dan and Phil.

The two were practically inseparable like Dark and Anti, causing Dark to almost feel jealous about their friendship since there was never anyone else that got in between them.

He looked over at the other team to see Xil smirking at him, but as soon as he looked away Anti waved at Dark, who shyly waved back.

"Alright everyone, today we're playing dodgeball!" The teacher announced.

There were a few groans of dismay in reply, but overall there was also positive feedback and shouts of excitement.

"This is gonna be so fun!" Anti grinned as he rocked back one forth on his heels impatiently, eager to start.

"I'm gonna kick all of your butts!" Xil yelled tauntingly over at Dark's team, who didn't mind much since they knew it was just a game.

Or at least to them it was.

Anti flashed Dark a thumbs up and whispered something to him that Xil didn't catch.

"Good luck."

"Y-you too." Dark nodded before the two teams had to go off to each side of the gym hall.

{*smol Time Skips catches a ball*}

The game was going pretty well for both teams, neither having an advantage over the other, though that didn't stop Xil from cheating whenever he could.

He wouldn't go on when he'd be hit or whenever his ball had been caught, it not only frustrated the opposite team, but also some of his own.

Dan and Phil were the first two out since they purposefully tossed their balls to the opposite team for them to be caught, neither boy a fan of exercise.

Despite the fact that Xil was frustrating them, they were still having fun, especially Dark and Anti.

The two were laughing and being silly as kids would be, especially when the other almost got hit and had to make some silly pose to dodge it.

Eventually Anti got out due to his ball being caught by someone and sat down, cheering both teams on.

It was coming down to the wire now of who was going to win, both teams having only a few players left.

Xil grabbed a ball and looked directly at Dark as a plan came to mind, smirking maliciously as he threw the rubber ball at full force at him, sending it rocketing through the air like a bullet.

"HEY FOUREYES!" Die shouted abruptly, catching everyone's attention.

Dark whipped his head around in confusion, only to be harshly smacked in the face by a dodgeball, cracking his glasses and knocking him over onto the ground with a sickening thud.

Everyone gasped in shock as the loud whistle blew again.

"Time out! Time out!" The teacher called out sternly as everyone else in the room except Xilef raced towards Dark, crowding around him.

He looked like he had gone through hell and back with shards of glass from his lenses embedded in his face, but thankfully not his eyes.

Dark shakily managed to push himself up into a sitting position and touched his nose where the largest shard of glass was stuck, instantly regretting his decision as pain burned through his body.

Anti must think I'm such a baby, Dark thought sourly as tears welled up in his red eyes and began to spill down his cheeks, the tears mixing with the blood before dripping onto his shirt.

"Dark are you ok?!" Anti asked worriedly with concern shining in his eyes as he barged through the crowd, his face seeming to grow paler when he saw how hurt Dark was.

"Go with Anti to the nurse and get patched up, I need to I have a chat with Xil." The teacher instructed Dark kindly before storming towards Xil to give him a lecture that Dark knew Xil wouldn't listen to.

Anti knelt down by Dark and carefully helped him stand by allowing Dark to swing an arm around his shoulder for support before they limped out.

Dark cast a last glance back at Xil to see him glaring back, jealously flickering in his cold blue eyes.

Dark couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of joy for being able to spend more time with Anti away from Xil as the door shut behind them, the pain seeming more manageable with Anti by his side to help him through it.