Chapter 18: Minor/minors?

“Thank you everyone! You’ve all done very well and I would like all of our First Years to know that you are very welcome here and that we are very proud to be able to offer you a wonderful time in Benjamin franklin High School” said James X. Gordon, dismissing the whole crowd.

Lindsey remained close to her brother, just to protect him. She had felt the gaze of all the MAJORS around when the ceremony had dragged toward its end, had noticed how some had slowly moved toward them. Strangely enough, Derek’s presence had seemed to drive away most of the guys, but emboldened the girls. Several of them had clearly tried to step into ‘Rando’s line of sight, offering him peeks of their panties, their massive asses or any other attributes they deemed useful to entice a Minor. It was both disgusting and more than a little ridiculous.  

Lindsey had mostly smirked witnessing this behavior. I wouldn’t ever debase myself like that! Sure, some of those girls, athletic and lean, hadn’t tried to use curves to seduce him, but a great deal of them had. And, quite frankly, no one here could even pretend to be in the same league as Shannon. Seeing teenagers with impressive cleavage only getting an annoyed glance from her brother lose all confidence in their assets, if only for a second, had been strangely rewarding. The young girl hoped that she wouldn’t suffer such lack of interest from Izzellah Ivory, but as of now, she had more pressing matters to deal with. Like protecting her brother. 

“Hey, Mister Ferrand. Would you like to go with me to your first Minor Class? I could show you the way?” offered a pale-skinned woman, probably around fifteen.

She wasn’t tall, 2m52 (8f3) perhaps, in any case almost the same size as herself, but she had a look of natural sexiness, not really curvy, with small asses and tits, but still with an eye-candy way of moving, almost exaggerating the way her hips gyrated, how she tilted her eyes, in a faked innocent-look. Her face was round and her cheeks plump, and she had a very bright smile. Still, Lindsey wanted to punch in the face. She was clearly eyeing her brother with lust, going as far as to pass her fingers in his hair without waiting for his answer.

“Hey!” shouted Alejandro, drawing more attention to himself, if it was possible.

“What’s the matter pixie cutie?” asked the irritating MAJOR. “Are you hurt in the head?” added the insufferable –in Lindsey’s eyes- woman, kneeling before her brother as if she wanted to have a look at his skull.

“He doesn’t want you foraging on his head with your dirty fingers Sandy Flannagan!” barked a massive black girl, showing aside the smaller one, and startling even Lindsey.

This one was enormous. Not that she was fat, not really. But she was freakishly tall for a High Schooler, at 3m23 (10f6), and very broad. She hadn’t muscles as massive as those of Samantha Paolini, but she was definitively a wrestler too, considering the bulging masses beneath her skin. Her curves were far more developed than those of that Sandy girl. She exuded confidence and arrogance, clearly flaunting her superiority over her smaller kindred. The smaller white girl glared at the newcomer and, shooting back on her feet she promptly landed a fist into her rival’s face, clearly not caring about the size and weigh differences.

“Get your ugly ass out of here, Helena Beaulac!” she roared.

Just as the colossus was turning her full attention to the smaller girl, Lindsey felt the right hand of her older brother fervently tugging at her skirt. She quickly turned toward him, but her attention was drawn back to the MAJORS around her, as several arguments and even fistfights seemed to be starting around the six Minors who had just joined the school. Strangely enough, it seemed to be mostly girls, since the guys were simply locked in staring contests, not unlike male wolves that she had seen in those documentaries about the wildlife of the United States.

“Let’s get out of here while we can” fervently said Alejandro, tilting his head toward the nearer exit.

“A wise decision, if I ever heard one” mumbled Joshua, who immediately begun to run toward the massive door, followed by Alejandro, and then Derek and Lindsey herself.

“You see what you did bitch!” roared the Beaulac girl, her yell followed by a loud thump and a scream. “I’ll make you rue the day you enrolled here, bitch!”

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“What was that, seriously!?” asked a bewildered Alejandro, looking at both Derek and herself in a way which made Lindsey’s heart ache.

“Girls being girl” sighed Derek, clearly not bothered by what they had just witnessed.

“We weren’t like that in Old Creek” defensively said Lindsey, who didn’t like the implication behind his words.

“Not to insult your hometown, but it’s kind of a village, really, barely a town in the formal sense of the word. And you’ve just had one Minor here, your brother, the Champ, and well, he was kind of a recluse, you know?” begun Derek, before being interrupted by her ‘Rando.

“I’m here Derek. Could you please not talk over my head, as if I was too dumb to understand what’s going on?” grumbled the one-armed Minor. “It’s really insulting.”

“Oops, sorry. I didn’t want to be disrespectful Champion” said Shannon’s little brother. “It’s just that well… I’m not really used to… herm, how could I put it…”

“Me being intervening when you do that? Well, don’t change when it’s just me and you and our friends, sexy boy” said his bond-mate, shaking his head and beaming his bright white teeth for all to see. “But I’m just one Minor. Others have the right to feel differently about it.”

“You’re really okay with that!?” couldn’t help but ask Alejandro, his face betraying how confused he was at this idea.

“Well… yes. But that’s because it’s quite common at home, with me being the sole Minor among a family of twelve, really. I needed to accept it real fast to not lose my mind and my dignity.”

“Twelve…” repeated Lindsey, her mind reeling just at the idea of so much peoples under one roof, all the time.

She knew that it wasn’t atypical for MAJOR families to have so many members under the same roof, but it was mostly true outside the cities, where social structures hadn’t changed much in the centuries, several generations living under the same roof. But the idea of so many siblings… it was terrifying to envision for her. She couldn’t help but think that she would have felt lost among the others, that she wouldn’t have been able to stand out… Somehow, it was probably for the best that Joshua was born a Minor.

“Yup, and he’s the sole Minor from this tribe. Believe me, getting a hold on him was the easy part, it was convincing his siblings to let him come to my home without a chaperone which was the arduous part! They were so used to have him with them all day, you wouldn’t believe!”

“You don’t say” replied Lindsey, noticing the darkening figure of her older brother.

She hadn’t the time to say more, or to appease him, because she heard the sound of many feet running in their direction. They were still far enough to be evaded, but their pursuers would quickly gain on them if the two Minors were allowed to walk at what was, frankly, an unbearably slow pace for the young MAJOR. But if I pick up ‘Rando like that, without asking for his authorization, he’ll be angry at me… The echoing footsteps, which finally registered for the two small figures between Derek and her forced her hand.

“Hey!” yelled her brother, quite indignantly, when her hands took hold of his body and lifted him against her torso.

“Sorry, but if we want to be left alone, we’ll have to run, ‘Rando” she tried to explain, following Derek who had reacted a second or so before her.

“Even then…” tried her brother, but the pre-teen cut him short.

“Don’t talk, if I have to run full speed, you could bite your tongue badly!”

He did as he was told, which wasn’t a good thing if his past behavior was any indication. Lindsey knew perfectly well that she would have to pay for this later on. She could almost picture him lecturing her about how improper it was for her to act as she just did. And quite frankly, she would happily endure it, if it meant that those harpies couldn’t get their hands on him. Hopefully, they wouldn’t press on once they would have reached their destination, whatever it may be. It was only then that she realized that she had no idea of where they were going, and she decided that, running swiftly through the corridors was as good a time as any to ask it.

“Where are you running?”

“Toward the Minor’s classroom. Joshua and the Champ have to go there anyway for the end of their first day, and all those MAJORS crazies over you won’t follow us here. Or at least, they’ll think about it” he added at the attention of Lindsey’s brother.

After a minute and a half of running, they finally stopped before a massive door, with a smaller one inside. Derek dropped his boyfriend and she did the same with her brother. He didn’t seemed too happy about the whole thing, but neither did he seemed really angry. He was more interested into the room and as she half-expected, once Shannon’s little brother opened the door, he rushed inside without waiting for her. With a low growl, she rolled her eyes and resisted the impulse to rush toward him.

The room was spacious, but clearly divided into two sides. Away from her, there was a platform of a sort, with a rail roughly at the hips of an adult MAJOR running around the edges. It wasn’t really spacious, with several tables gathered here, the chairs around them already occupied by several MAJORS of various ages, some probably students, other looking adult, if she judged their looks by their clothes. A small stairway lead from this part of the room to the main space, a sort of small amphitheater littered with big and soft cushion seats.

“Welcome Derek and whom I suspect is Mr. Ferrand” boomed a musical and yet masculine voice, greeting them inside the classroom. “My name is Maximillian Grundberg, but please, call me Max!”

“Max” was a small and extremely thin MAJOR. He couldn’t have been above 2m33 (7f6), and Lindsey realized with a mixture of stupor and pride that she probably weighed a lot more than him. He had long blond hairs, flowing below his shoulders, a long but beautiful face and bright blue eyes. He looked really frail, but the way he walked, with a spring in his steps, made him look so energetic that she couldn’t really focus on his physique. It was almost as if greeting them was the greatest thing happening to him today.

“I’ve been briefed about your situation, Alejandro” added the teacher. “I hope you will agree to fully participate in our exercises, but remember that the choice is yours. No one can force you to do anything here.”

“Herm… thanks, I guess?” replied her brother, clearly taken aback by such politeness and restrain from an unknown MAJOR.

“Wonderful!” chirped Max. “Then, Miss Ferrand, Mister Matthewson, if you would be so kind…” asked the small man, gesturing toward the platform and the tables.

“Couldn’t… couldn’t I stay with my brother?” quickly asked Lindsey. “It’s… it’s his first day at school and…”

“Don’t worry Miss. Your brother is in safe hands and you’ll be near, if anything happens. But for the well-being of our Minor students, I prefer that the MAJOR chaperones remain in the designated area.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine” added Alejandro, even while his grim countenance made her doubt very much that fine was to be expected.

With a nod and a smile, she moved toward the designated area and sat near Derek and the impressive blond woman she had seen near the ambassador for Shannon’s campaign. She wasn’t especially tall, being around 2m78 (9f1), but she had an hourglass figure and a face not unlike those of the Greco-roman statues she had seen in art classes and long straight hair. Her piercing grey eyes were made all the more striking by the slight tan that her skin had, and which seemed to glow from the inside. When their eyes met, she smiled at the younger girl and leaned forward, extending her hand to greet Lindsey.

“Hullo here, I’m Vanessa Pelas” said the striking model, her voice perhaps an octave too deep for her look.

“Lin… Lindsey Ferrand” stuttered the young MAJOR, a little surprised by how casually this woman was showing her an enormous amount of cleavage.

“I know, I saw your performance in the ceremony. I must say that you were great. Kris really loved your bit about making the population of his kindred grow. And I’m supporting you also, because, damn, if you find a way for a MAJOR woman to have Minor children more reliably, well, I’ll finally manage to hook him up for good!”

Lindsey gasped and turned red. It was not that she wasn’t used to such brutal honesty, she was a MAJOR after all. But somehow, there was a glint in Vanessa’s eyes as she had gazed at the athletic looking Minor she was apparently bonded, or at least keeping an eye on.

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“So, today’s our first day of the year, so we will start slow. No bonding practice today, sorry” said Maximillian, earning a lot of groans and boos from the MAJORS. “I know, I know, disappointing, but we need to make room for our six new students! Plus, it’s almost the end of the hour allowed for our class anyway, what with the ceremony being delayed… as always!”

This time, laugh followed the teacher’s words and even Alejandro couldn’t help but smile. Somehow, the fact that Max was so small and frail made him a lot easier to deal with than the other MAJORS. He also seemed almost… childlike. No, innocent would have been a better term. From the way he walked around them to his hands passing on the shoulders of the other Minors, the teacher seemed truly happy, as if he couldn’t dream of anything better than being surrounded by his smaller cousin for an hour and a half.

“To our new students, as you probably already know, this class will mostly teach you how to properly bond, how to behave when you’re being held by a MAJOR relative, or the basics needed to defuse a potentially volatile encounter with a MAJOR. It won’t be our sole subjects, by far, but it’s what the State and the Headmaster are expecting of us, and we will have to tackle them. You must know that your MAJOR will be required to participate in some exercises and in any case will always be here to intervene should you feel the need to call him or her, okay?”

“Yeah” meekly answered a quarter of the class, or maybe even less.

“I didn’t hear anything!” said Max with a big smile on his face. “Louder!”

“YEAH!” yelled the assembled Minors, around twenty, before returning to a far more passive and subdued behavior.

Alejandro was a little overwhelmed by everything which was happening around him. Even Izzy’s accounts of her first year at school hadn’t prepared him to the sheer incredulity he felt looking at so many Minors gathered together. Most of them had that chubby look so common among their kind, and they seemed kind of uneasy around him, judging by the way they glanced at him sideway, and mostly toward his left “arm” or his torso and its hidden scars. And yet, none of them dared to say anything, as if they were too meek to voice their feelings. Which was quite disturbing, to say the least.

“I see that one of our new member is kind of… attracting your attention” said Max, smilingly at all the Minors standing before him. “I had in mind of telling you that class was dismissed and let you go to the cafeteria. But, if you want to, you can remain in the classroom and talk about it.”

There was a lot of mumbling and blushing from the small men and women gathered and even Alejandro felt a little off-put by it. He had been an attraction, something strange all his life, but it had been with MAJORS, and only from what his family had told him. He had expected something else from his kin, but they seemed to consider him just as strange and exotic creature, if perhaps a slightly dangerous one. It was strangely hurtful, as if even among his own, he wasn’t truly a part of them, without being a MAJORS either.

“I’m Kris O’Donnel!” said a joyous voice, startling him and shaking him out of those dark ideas.

“Al… Alejandro Ferrand” replied the crippled Minor, locking his right hand in a firm handshake with the young man before him.

“Haha, yeah, I heard it during the ceremony. Talk about drawing the short stick, being forced to be the first to go and parade before the MAJORS, right?”

“Uh, yeah, but honestly, it was better for me to be done with it and avoiding to have to wait before being forced to show off for those big dummies.

Kris laughed at this answer, a clear and powerful laugh which surprised Alejandro. He wasn’t much of a funny man himself and not really used to laugh healthfully himself. The young man had light brown hairs and eyes, and this close, Alejandro noticed that his nose had probably been broken once, but he couldn’t fathom why or how. Still, he was an ambassador for Shannon’s campaign and it had to matter, because it meant that he was conscious of their kind’s plight.

“I like you. You should come and tell Vanessa to suck it up her very beautiful but still extremely overbearing ass! Perhaps she would understand what I mean when I say that us Minors may want to be left alone and have some personal space to avoid problems, you know?”

“Or you could learn to not conflate your Social Justice Warrior bullshit with what real minors want” spat a feminine voice.

Alejandro turned his head and met the teenage girl who had just spoken with such venom in her voice that all the chattering and muttering around them ceased and even Max’s ever present smile wavered a little, until it returned and he chose to let the three of them talk it out. The Minor from Old Creek was taken aback, however. The girl was a pretty black girl, with an impressive afro, a light skin probably betraying a white family member somewhere among her recent ancestors. She wasn’t as curvy as most MAJORS but still overweight, and she couldn’t have been taller than 1m55 (5f), discounting the hair, and it was quite strange to be yelled at by someone smaller than him, for once.

“Get your propagandist ass out of here Shawna!” growled Kris, turning toward the newcomer and looking at her menacingly.

“I’m a propagandist!? I am!?” almost shrieked the minor girl. “You’re the one spouting your delirious ideas that minors could be equals to MAJORS, when it’s factually wrong and good that way, because it’s God’s will!”

“Not this shit again! You’re the one parading around campus, and the tv spots for the Mayor’s reelection campaign! You’re the one everywhere on the Internet repeating ad nauseam that most Minors want to be dominated and treated as pet!”

“That’s not because you were treated like a piece of shit by your parents that all of us have. Not everyone lived among depraved…”

“How dare you insult my family, you shit stain!” roared Kris, taking a step forward and pushing Shawna away from him. “You… you fucking slavery-apologist bitch!”

“You’ve seen that!? He pushed me, that asshole! I always knew that those SJW were tyrants! Fascists!” screamed the girl from the top of her lungs.

“Enough! ENOUGH!” bellowed Max, his ever present smile dropping totally. “Kris, out. I don’t want to see you here this whole week, you can’t just bully others into submission!”

“That’s what you guys are always doing!” roared the ambassador. “While is it right for you MAJORS and not us, uh? ‘Cause we’re smaller?”

“I… because… Damn it, out, now!” yelled Maximillian, clearly not knowing how to react what was happening.

Alejandro was standing still, literally frozen in place by what he was witnessing. Never in his worst nightmares had he thought that some Minors – no, minors he corrected himself- could be opposed to the “Equal Rights for Minors” Campaign. MAJORS, it was expected, since the world as it was, was tailored to their needs, and changing it was bound to upset some of them. But a minor? Someone who had everything to gain from this? It was something he simply couldn’t fathom what was happening here; he just knew he had to act.

“Hey! He was insulted, and his family with him! It’s unfair to punish him just because he overreacted!”

“Oww, look, the freak is coming to your rescue Krissie-boy! I guess that it must be great to feel supported by a cripple!”

“SHAWNA, SAME PUNISHMENT AS KRIS!” roared an indignant Max.

Just then, massive forms entered Alejandro’s field of vision. Lindsey had rushed to his side, alongside the massive blonde woman he suspected was Vanessa, who picked up Kris without a word, only glaring balefully at Shawna and some who was probably her father, or at least an older relative, a sizeable one at that, roughly 3m (10f) tall . This one begun prattling about how unfair her little girl was treated, how did Max dare ban her from her class for a week just like his barbaric aggressor, and that matters would be taken to the Headmaster.

“By all means, do it!” Max growled at the far taller MAJOR. “I think we both know that Mr. Gordon would agree with my choices…”

Shawna’s relative huffed in disgust and took his daughter/niece/sister/whatever with him, storming out of the room. Vanessa followed suit almost immediately, but not before Alejandro couldn’t notice her whispering urgently in Kris’ ear. Whatever she said, the angry face of the Minor turned pale, a look of fear overcoming his features. But he hadn’t the time to call him, to ask him what was happening. The young man suddenly felt very alone and more than a little lost. The real world turned out to be even more complicated than what he had assumed it to be.

“I’m sorry everyone” said Max, returning to his more jovial nature. “I really can’t let you go your merry way like that, after such an incident, so, if everyone is okay with that, I would like us all to sing Linda and the fairy peoples!”

“You should do it ‘Rando” whispered Lindsey, making jump a little.

“You just want to see me sing, right?” he managed to tease her, but instead of answering it, she simply kissed his forehead and went back to the MAJOR’s side of the room.

With a sigh, Alejandro joined the other Minors to sing the story of Linda who kept discovering little peoples in her house and garden, playing with them and all kind of childish behavior. The one-armed Minor hadn’t sang in years, not since the Incident at least, and his voice sounded more like on old crow than anything remotely human to his ears, but Max seemed quite happy with the performance of his class and gave each of them a hug. Alejandro took an instinctual step back when the teacher moved toward him, and the MAJOR smiled weakly.

“Of course, it must not be… comfortable for you. I’m sorry” apologized Max. “But I want you to know that standing out for Kris was… well, probably a little misguided, because he has been violent, but very brave. 10 points for Gryffindor.”

“Actually, I’m a Hufflepuff” replied Alejandro, very seriously.