"Are you really sure this is going to work?"
"Sure I'm sure! Like I keep telling you, everything's right here! There's a board, here's a sail, and voila, a jet ski!"
"You mean that floating pile of duct-taped junk?"
"Yeah! So there's nothing to worry about, alright, Gary? What more could you want!?"
"For you to not sink like a rock?"
"Nah, I made some 'mods' to the engine to make sure that doesn't happen. This baby'll fly like no one's business!"
"Uh-huh. Perry, you do know that your mom's gonna freak if you get her ironing board wrecked, right?"
"That's what the sail's for!"
"...it's made out of old drapes, cardboard, and moldy string."
"Whatever! Tony, you're getting all of this?"
In response, the short, jet-black haired boy in the green hoodie flashed a quick thumbs-up, smartphone firmly in hand and Tiktok camera on standby, watching over the scene unfolding in front of the swimming pool. Gary, ever the argumentative skeptic, was idling just at the corner of the screen, waiting right by the edge of his family's swimming pool in nothing but his black-and-green-striped swimming trucks as he showed off every square inch of his well-developed, chiseled abs. He never seemed to wear any shirts, so everyone was more than familiar with the sight by now.
Showoff.
Jason and Brian were there too, of course, stripped down to nothing but their khaki shorts as they were whooping and cheering on the spectacle before them under the Hawaiian tiki shack that Gary's dad had just recently installed - a stark contrast to the hyper-brutalist stylings of the rest of Gary's humble abode, which consisted of a bunch of grey glass and concrete rectangle stacked on top of one another.
Then there was Perry, who was about to try wake surfing on the surface of the swimming pool by using a lawnmower engine strapped to the bottom of an ironing board, complete with a makeshift "sail" tied to a long, white umbrella stand pole awkwardly duct taped to the right side of the board.
Man, his friends were all so cool.
Meanwhile, there was Tony. Tony wasn't cool like his friends were. He also wasn't lame, or nerdy, or anything like that. Hell, nothing about him was even the slightest bit weird or off-putting or special in any way, shape or form. Tony was just normal.
Ordinary.
Boring.
Medicore.
And honestly - he didn't mind that.
Standing out wasn't his style, anyway. Anyone else would feel like a glorified tagalong. The guy who just so happened to hang out with the cool kids and nothing else. Tony himself couldn't deny that whenever he heard people at school talk about whatever he and his friends had just blown up that week, they never said even a peep about him in particular. Perhaps, at one point, he had felt something at that, but now it was just indifference.
Really, though, he was just glad to be here. To get a chance to be a part of his friends' worlds. Frankly, it was an honor that someone as plain and uninteresting as him, out of anyone, was chosen by people as cool as them to hang out with them, doing the kinds of insane shit that became legends all throughout the neighborhood. It was mostly dumb shit, granted, but it was still memorable, something to be remembered by, something...that meant you existed. Being even at the periphery of all of that was as much as he could ever hope for himself.
"Well?", Jason yelled, "You're gonna keep edging us or are we gonna see some action?!"
"I'm doing it right now, jackass! Tony, start rolling!"
With a quick thumbs-up and a small, encouraging smile, Tony pressed down on the record button as Perry revved up the engine to full power and kicked himself and his makeshift jet ski straight into the water. Immediately, Perry fell right off the jet ski, the pole coming straight off the board like butter as flopped unceremoniously into the water with a tremendous splash. Meanwhile, the ironing board, still taped straight onto the runaway motor, went skidding right off the surface of the water before being sent flying straight up into the sky thanks to a stray slope at the end the pool. For a few glorious seconds, the board was soaring through the air under its own power, before gravity took over and the whole thing went plummeting down to the ground. On impact, the board and the engine were sent flying in two different directions, the former left discarded with scorch burns on a nearby bush while the continued to blast off into the distance, leaving a trail of smoke and skid marks as it did before finally crashing into a telephone pole.
For a few moments, all was silent. Perry found himself drifting face up on the water's surface, his face completely back, while the rest stared on at the wreckage with slack jaws.
"...did you get all of that, T?"
"Yup."
"...fuck yeah!"
Everyone started cheering and whooping after that, caught up in the euphoria of just how awesome that was, and how everyone was so gonna be talking about this in no time once they posted the video and everyone saw it! Even Gary couldn't help but smirk as he joked about how Perry was going to be paying for the ironing board for the rest of his like. It truly was a spectacle to behold, and Tony couldn't help but feel so lucky that he was here to witness it. He never could've done anything like that himself, that's for certain.
Not in a million years.
"Aw, come on Tony! You don't have to look so down!" Jason chided; his arm slung right around Tony's right shoulder as the latter flinched at the sudden body contact.
"W-what?!" Tony sputtered, just barely stopping himself from dropping his phone. "I'm not-!"
"You don't have to lie to me."
And then, to Tony's eternal bafflement, Jason looked straight at him with the most stern, serious expression he had ever seen on him, as he continued on with his...lecture? "Listen, I don't know what's up right now, but you don't look anywhere near ok! You sure you don't wanna talk about it?"
Tony couldn't even think of a reply to that, simply staring back at the boy with a black, unreadable expression. Jason didn't seem to mind though, as he let himself off of Tony's shoulders and simply patted Tony on the back.
"Alright. Just want you to know one thing: you're good as you are, and I mean it."
"I...well...thanks."
As Tony watched Jason walk back towards the others to discuss their plans, all that passed through Tony's mind was pure and utter bafflement. One of these days, he would have to find a way to take care of that resting bitch face he apparently had developed, because this was getting ridiculous. What was this, the third time that one of his friends had though something was going on with him?
Still, he couldn't help but feel a little... he didn't know how to exactly describe it, but in made Tony feel warm inside that his friends seemed to care this much about how he felt that they would try to cheer him, up in spite of their misinterpretations. Considering that, even though he liked being as he was, Tony... supposed he wouldn't mind opening up to his friends and standing out a little more. His friends were all out there being in the center of attention, so the least he could do was to be able to join in every once in a while. That'd be nice.
But how would he stand out?
Technically, he was still the youngest out of everyone at 13 years old. To top it all off, he was by far the shortest out of everyone in his class at a measly 4'11". Maybe if he had a growth spurt later on, that would do the trick! Oh, or maybe he could take advantage of how short he was and think of ways to look cute in front of the public, like a mascot! Or maybe-
As Tony became lost in his own thoughts, the rest of the gang began to discuss among themselves their plans for the weekend. Things were very quickly beginning to get heated.
"Right, so what did you say we were all gonna do on Sunday again?"
"Jesus Christ, you actually- don't you remember?! We talked about this, like, two hours ago! We're all going..."
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