WHO: Thomas and OPEN WHAT: Buying flowers for Lydia (and being annoyed by high schoolers) WHEN: Friday after school WHERE: The flower shop WARNINGS: TBD STATUS: Open/Ongoing
Thomas hated school. Every day, it seemed he came home with a pounding headache, exhausted from just having survived the day. It wasn't even the learning part that bothered him. In fact, he usually enjoyed the subject matter and he didn't mind doing the work. What he minded was being in class with a bunch of hooligans who acted like children. Yes, the kids in his classes were biologically the same age he was, but Thomas hadn't been a child in a very long time. He didn't see what was so amusing about throwing paper wads or paper airplanes. He din't find their fights over girls or supposed insults entertaining.
With everything he'd been to, Thomas just couldn't relate to the other kids at all. He didn't understand them. He wasn't one of them. What was going on in their minds? Why did they do such stupid things? Or was it him? Maybe he'd just forgotten how to have fun. He definitely hadn't had much of it lately.
It wasn't even that Thomas was annoyed with the other kids for breaking rules. It was the breaking rules for no (or stupid) reasons that blew his mind.
Thomas had broken more than his share of rules in his lifetime, but there was a difference between going into the maze to save a friend's life and not shutting up when the people around you were trying to learn. There was a difference between trying to bring down WICKED and smoking in the boy's bathroom. Teenagers broke rules - it was part of growing up - but so was learning which rules to break. Thomas had learned to differentiate. Most of his classmates hadn't. And it drove him crazy.
He didn't know if he pitied or envied these kids for their obnoxious and annoying innocence. He'd lost his a long time ago, maybe when he was just a little boy and the flares had come. Or maybe it had been when he'd helped WICKED build the Maze. Or when Chuck had died in his arms. Or when Teresa had betrayed him. Or when he'd had to kill Newt. Whenever the exact moment, it was long gone and Thomas couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed like his classmates laughed at the stupidest things.
When the bell rang, Thomas was one of the first ones out of the school, bookbag tossed carelessly over his shoulder. He didn't have many friends, so as usual, he was walking home alone. His mind went to Lydia (this was a pretty common thing by now) and on a whim he ducked into the florist's to buy her a flower. Or flowers. He didn't know yet. It just sort of depended on what was there and what was pretty.