All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Problems: Ch1 Pt iii Looking over towards a corner of the large foyer, a sight tugged at Stetson. A girl -The Girl- sat, knees touching her chin, with sleek white headphones barely visible against her pale complexion. A bright green hoodie modestly portrayed her slight curves, while skinny jeans, of the black variety, clad her lower half. She stared, blankly. Ahead of her the world kept turning, oblivious. Stetson had gazed, each day, at the sapphire eyes, hidden in the shadow of her hood, an enigma, he wanted to solve. Glancing one last time at her, Stetson entered Malebolge. A great crowd of kids were funneled into the over-cramped corridor, large enough for barely three teens standing abreast, yet still, people stood at the sides, disrupting the flow. All around him, Stetson saw sheep. Nobody was different, all the same. Girls ran around in mini skirts with their asses hanging out, covered in fake tan to the point of ridiculousness, earning their nickname ‘tangos’. The talk was, of course, superficial, which boy was the hottest, and the lust burning in their loins for him. The boys were hardly any better: Trousers falling, unrestrained, exhibiting underwear and talking of the last time they wanked and which girl following them had the biggest ‘jugs’. It made Stetson sick. Huddled around each other in groups of falsehood. No one dared to be different, or, if they were, they were shunned and exiled to anywhere of isolation -normally the Malebolge itself. That thought brought Stetson back to The Girl, sitting alone, content, yet saddened somehow. “Here comes The Freak!” A junior shouted. A path parted in the corridor, a gauntlet, much like Moses separated the sea. Stetson didn’t stop, he kept walking, down the gauntlet, all eyes shifting to him. “The vultures have found their carcass” he thought, “it’s time to feed.” Jeers and curses followed Stetson on his pilgrimage through the corridors, he knew what it was like, he suffered it daily. well every other day perhaps. His Modern Studies classroom came in sight, a tiny room with two thin sheets of MDF acting as a door. Stetson twirled around, his satchel providing a circumference of safety from the crowd. “Hey, I’m sorry man” He called to the junior walking a few metres behind him. The boy looked over at Stetson quizzically, suspicion apparent. “About the Cancer” Stetson’s head bobbed in the direction of the beanie covering the entirety of the boy’s head, covering his baldness. Chemotherapy does that. He saw the boy earlier when he took it off. Stetson recognised him as a boy from a few years ago. He suffered from #depression due to some family ‘stuff’ and went to the school nurse for ‘therapy’ around the same time Stetson did. He began to notice the boy’s complexion whitening; and his hair receding; and the weight-loss; and the dizziness. It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together and make five. Being melodramatic pays off sometimes. “They give up, eventually.” Stetson said “Once the novelty wears off. It might take a few years”. And with that, Stetson disappeared into the classroom. Leaving the bewildered boy to face the remains of the gauntlet alone.