[center][color=DodgerBlue][h2]Tobit Broflovski[/h2][/color][/center]


The first sound that Toby registered, before he was even really awake, was the noise of his aunt April's scraggly fingernails rapping on his old wood door.
"What the fuck are you still doing in bed!? Everyone's left already! Get moving, you little shit!" 
His aunt's grating Midwestern accent met his ears and he groaned, rolling out of bed. 
"I'm up, I'm up! Oy vey..." 

He limped over to his dresser, rifling through his clothing options before turning to his hamper with a heavy sigh. He hadn't had the time to do his laundry in almost two weeks. He eventually selected a relatively clean pair of blue jeans that were frayed at the edges and torn on the left knee, a red t shirt and a grey and black checkered flannel, also slightly frayed. 
Not bothering to comb his hair and knowing he didn't have time to shower, he opened the door to find his hungover aunt standing with her hands on her hips, tapping her foot impatiently. She was still wearing a dark blue bathrobe and holding a bottle of some sort of hard liquor in her right hand. 
"Your mom left for a job interview. It's 7:00 and you should have been up an hour ago. Get moving, kiddo!" She snapped, taking a swig from the bottle and shoving her tiny nephew in the direction of the stairs. 
"Don't call me kiddo!" Retorted Toby. Even though the kid didn't look it, he was in fact fifteen and a half years old. He was only four feet tall and weighed just 65 pounds. He looked and sounded exactly like your average nine-to-eleven year old, and this is how he would look for the rest of his mortal days. As much as he hated it, and the bullying that came along with it, he couldn't do anything about it.

Toby stumbled down the stairs into the foyer of their apartment, walking into the kitchen to see if they had any food. Unlikely. With his dad working pretty much minimum wage and his mom unemployed, they often couldn't afford things like groceries. Toby's dread was confirmed when he opened the ancient fridge to find half a jar of pickles, some spoiled milk and a single piece of bread. Rummaging through the cabinets he found a couple cans of soup and a box of crackers that were well past their sell-by date. [i]Great. No breakfast for me.[/i] He thought, trudging back out into the foyer to get his worn out red sneakers. He picked up one of them and looked at the sole. [i]Needs more duct tape...[/i] He thought, grabbing a roll of tape from the kitchen and silently taping the holes in his shoes. 
His aunt had returned to the couch, nursing her bottle of booze and trying to get their busted TV to work. Toby could hear her swearing to herself as he grabbed his worn out grey backpack and walked out the door, scaling down three stories of stairs to get to the door that led outside. 

It was chilly for a September morning. Toby was glad he brought the flannel. He walked down the front steps, checking the rusty mailbox before beginning his half hour long walk to school. His backpack was already weighing him down as he started to limp his way down Chevalle street. A couple of homeless people wandered aimlessly down the block, and one of his neighbors gave him a glare from her window. This was by no means a good neighborhood, it was just where the Broflovskis had to live. If his mother didn't have to support his aunt and her drinking, maybe they'd have enough money for food and heat. But as it stood, they were just barely making the rent every month. 

[hr]

By the time Toby got to the school, the sky had clouded over as if it was threatening to rain. He briskly walked to his homeroom class, finding it fairly easily as all his class numbers were marked on his schedule. He sat through the announcement, not really listening to what was being said, then followed the rest of the students to the auditorium. On the way there, one of the hall monitors stopped him. "Excuse me young man, visitors can't roam the halls unaccompanied."  He said, crouching down to Toby's level. "Who are you looking for? Did you sign in at the front desk..." 
"I'm not a visitor. I'm a student." Toby said briskly, stepping aside to avoid knocking into the hall monitor as he followed the rest of the class. The hall monitor blinked for a moment, then muttered to himself "must have skipped at least five grades to be here..." 

Once the assembly was over, the students were basically dumped in the football field where a bunch of booths had been set up carnival style. Toby wasn't really interested in looking at anything and was still kind of ticked off about his encounter with the hall monitor, so he simply followed the crowd of students, trying not to get too close to anyone. As he passed by a group of junior girls, they broke out into a fit of giggles, whispering to themselves as they walked on. Toby blushed furiously, speeding up as he continued to pretend to look at the booths.