SKINS – GEN 4 – SERIES 7 – 7.06: KEN
Hello again! I'm hungry, isn't that wonderful? Welcome to Episode 6! If you have put up with me mind-numbingly dull introductions this long, congratulations! You are halfway through! Seriously though, we are getting close to some really good stories, so it's going to be great. I'm also sick of school, we have exams next week then I'm done, not that I really but I'm kind of sick of it all. Also they announced our musical next year is Godspell! I looked it up, and it looks kind of interesting, auditions are in 4 weeks, so I'm pumped, but at the same time extremely nervous, I'll keep you up to date on how I go! Anyway, here is Episode 6: Ken!
Black liquid dribbled down the concrete in a slow motion, immediately being soaked up into the wall, the spray travelled right and arched down, and the black liquid followed, making a clearly defined line.
The can was stuck inside a bag on the ground, as hands shuffled through the bag, making metal clash against metal with a series of clinks, another can was pulled out and this time revealed an orange spray lighting up the dull grey wall.
Ken stood back more as he released a splash of colours onto the wall. It was like a wave of brightness had suddenly lit up the place.
There was a ladder up along the side, which he climbed up to start spraying along the top, this time with two cans in a helix motion.
Ken threw the two cans back down towards his bag and then jumped down to them.
He grunted as he hit the ground and turned around, lowering his mask and squinting his eyes.
It was the face of a large man, smiling into the distance as if he was a hero, wearing a suit, with a thick white moustache.
But a variety of bright colours, and shapes sort of distorted him, and kind of made a comical laugh out of him.
Ken turned around to see a young boy of about 5, staring at him with his mouth wide open.
Ken turned around, to a blank space, and sprayed rapidly in black paint, 'I stand up for my people.'
Ken turned around to see the boy, his young mind now analyzing the work before him.
A horrid looking woman, who hadn't showered in days grabbed him by the hand and flicked out her cigarette with the other, "Jimmy!" She shouted, "What the fuck have I told you about wandering off, you little shit, you stay away from bad fuckers like him, you're gonna get yourself raped by a pedo!"
Ken glared at the woman dragging him away, and then smiled down at the boy who was still staring at Ken while being dragged away.
Ken turned around and shook his black can, there wasn't that much left. So Ken, hurled it a blank wall as it exploded into a splotch of black, he zipped up his bag, hitched it on his back and then walked away.
Ken lay down on a grass hill near the park he was at, leaning his head back amongst the soft blades.
He sat up and firmly popped a spliff in his mouth, and lit it, letting a quick billow of white smoke into the air; he laid his head back on the grass again.
Maybe he'd been wrong about England after all, there were some beautiful places, and certainly enough places for art. It was different because in Japan, he had hardly any competition, here the town was full of other street artists, but most of them were just thugs writing tags.
He knew he liked it better though; the attitude of the people was just everything about this place, even if the urban side of it was lacking.
Back in Japan, it was study hard, become a doctor, get a wife, and she can start popping out babies while reading the newspaper.
Ken had been a new force, leading a small group of followers behind him into a way of freethinking, but he knew they'd never really be able to follow him like he wanted them to.
They were too controlled by their parents, where as his parents hated him, because he did exactly what he did.
Ken let out another blow again, looking out into a bunch of birds soaring out of the trees.
He smirked to himself, wondering what Yumi was doing now. Hell, it had been a long time since either of them had probably thought of each other, but now that he thought about it, it was the only thing that made Japan slightly worthwhile, apart from the size of Tokyo, a place where he could always find a new part of himself.
In the end, it was meant to be a punishment, and also a law-related thing, but burning down an icon of Tokyo City was one of the best decisions he made in his life, because he never though he'd find 8 people as free as he was, and they were all like that, even if they were a bit melodramatic and idiotic at times.
A foot crushed the spliff in his right hand onto the grass. "What the fuck?" said Ken, as he looked up to 4 strangers standing above him.
"Evening bro, up and at em them." The lead one said eyeing down Ken.
Ken stood up and looked at the four of them, "I'm just sitting here, what am I doing wrong?" asked Ken.
One of them gave Ken a shove in the chest, "You're on our turf bro, now we let public wankers used it, but you put your shit, you put your shit on our turf, didn't ya?"
He pointed to his left, and Ken looked over to where his street art man, lay across a wall looking down on the park.
"Well I didn't know, did I?" said Ken with a shrug.
"Well maybe we better make you know." He said tilting his head and sneering at Ken.
"Look, I didn't mean to, it won't happen again, now do us a favour and fuck off." Said Ken with a twitch with his head.
The lead one picked Ken up by his jacket, "The fuck did you say to me, cunt? Do you have any fucking idea who I am?"
"A bald wanker, without pubes?" suggested Ken with a comedic look.
"I am fucking Billy Castaldi, I fucking run this city mate." He said with gritted teeth.
Ken frowned, "I think I've heard that name before, Castaldi, where have I heard that?"
"Keep thinking Ching-Chong, it'll come to you." He said with a grin.
Ken looked back at him with a wider gaze, "Oh…"
The lead boy did a huge blow to Ken's stomach, as Ken keeled over, in front of him.
"That's fucking right, you tiny-dicked asian cunt, go fuck off back to china, because everybody in this city fears our names, even your little pussy friends."
One to his right snickered, "You know some of the babes would be worth a decent shag. The party-lesbo chick."
He laughed, "Yeah the blonde one probably knows how to ride my throbbing cock, don't she?"
Ken raised his head and accidentally smacked the lead boy in the chin, as he stumbled black, and blood began to drip out his jaw.
"Boss!" said the one on the right, "He made you bleed."
He wiped his mouth and glared at Ken, "Get the tosser!" he yelled.
Ken grabbed his bag and burst into a sprint.
The four boys chased him down the hill and under the bridge, as they reached the inner streets.
This section was closed in, and during the daytime rather thriving with shoppers, but now in the early evening, there were considerably fewer people.
Ken closed his eyes, running as hard as his feet would carry him, he knew he was pretty good, but he wasn't the best, if there was one thing he wanted right now it was his skateboard.
Ken opened his eyes looking up ahead at a seemingly wide dead-end, as the boys laughed chasing behind him.
Ken smiled to himself, knowing he had the upper hand now.
He grabbed a park bench and launched himself against the right wall, swinging up and grabbing a shop's overhead cover.
He hauled himself up with another huge fling there and grabbed on to the end of the large concrete ledge, 10 feet above the ground.
He pushed down on the ledge and hurled himself up, clutching to the side with huge pants of breaths.
He looked over the edge to see the 4 of them, spitting angrily, trying to scramble up the wall with no use.
Ken flipped them the finger with a smirk, "See ya cocksuckers!" he yelled, as he walked off, back into the main street.
Ken trod up grotty, steel plated steps to the third floor. The set of flats was a rather poor one, the whole place of smelt of skunk, it was covered in rot, and you could usually get free yet disgusting porn if you waited around one of the windows long enough.
Ken dug into his pocket, as he pulled out his key and put it into the lock. Due to the nature of his mother, even though they had a rather poor apartment, it looked rather clean.
They weren't earning an awful amount of money to support a family of five, but there was enough luxury, their apartment was among the biggest in the unit that was falling to shreds.
They still had decent stuff, a fairly big TV, a very good kitchen, and also a lot of things like a decent enough laptop for his parents work.
He pushed open the door, and walked in, to the living room where his family was eating dinner.
His mum looked up and pushed herself up from the table, "Where have you been? I have been ringing you, why do you not answer my calls?"
Ken shrugged, "I've just been out, you know, at the park, cut me some slack will you?"
She put her hands on her hips, "We are already having dinner, and you are not even here, where have you been? Out with your scummy little friends again, doing things you know I would very much disapprove of."
Ken glared at his mum, "They're not scummy Mum, they…"
"Speak Japanese when you're at home, how many times have I told you!" she yelled.
"I'm speaking English mum, we are in England now so I have all the more reason, so deal with it." He said, "And they're not scummy, they are good people, besides, I wasn't even hanging out with them today, I was just on my own."
"Oh yeah?" she said, "Doing what? Huh? You never tell me, where you have been, doing what, have you even started your coursework?"
Ken sighed, "I said I'd do it tomorrow." He said.
Keiko slammed her cutlery down, "All the sacrifices I make for this family Kenneth, I move you from your rich home in Japan with good education, to bad home in bad country with bad education, to get you away from distractions and trouble, and you still don't focus. You will start focusing on your school work young man, or you will be in big trouble."
"Fuck my school work!" said Ken.
Keiko stood there with her mouth wide open, "How dare you! How dare you speak to me like that! I am your mother!"
"Mum just leave it," said Ken's older sister.
His Dad then tried to intervene, "Keiko, I think we should just…"
She placed her finger one her lips and let out a big 'Shh! Taylor stay out of this, this matter does not concern you; finish your meal. Akio, I am handling this, the boy needs to learn his place.'
She turned back to look at Ken, "I have gone to great lengths for you Ken, I have put a roof over your head, bought you nice things, given you meals, all I ask for you in return is that you focus on your education, that is the only thing that matters in your life, until you leave this house, I've even given you free will." Ken scoffed as his mother glared at him, "I've been lenient with what you want to be, you can choose from many options, a scientist, a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, you have many different options, and yet you still spend all your weekends out doing… bad things… things that I know about, that I will not mention in front of this family! So you work hard! Have you even thought about what you want to do?"
Ken scowled, "I haven't decided yet."
"Well you better hurry up and decide boy! Because in less than 18 months you are going to be getting you're A-levels, and that's exactly what they had better be! A's! I work hard for a successful family, from all of you, your sister is working hard at university of Oxford; your brother is getting A's in all his subjects, so you had better fix yourself up! Or otherwise I shall fix you up myself! The hard way!" she sneered angrily in his face.
Ken looked down at the floor while she spoke and then looked up with a fixed gaze, "What if I wanted to be an artist? You know, paint and draw and stuff."
Keiko shuddered as if Ken had just puked all over her face, "I did NOT! Bring you all the way to England away from our rich home, for you to become a slimy pig, who lives in a shed and throws colours over a piece of paper, like some mental asylum patient, you will get a high-paying job! You will work hard!"
Ken raised an eyebrow, "What? Are you afraid I'm going to turn out a useless twat like Dad did? At least it's better than become a snappy fucking bitch with a steel rod 10 feet up her ass, and don't worry it can fit, Dad made sure the hole was wide enough."
Keiko's face burst red with fury; Taylor shook her head, "Now you've done it wanker."
"You absolute disgusting pig! Go to your room right now! No dinner for you!" she screamed her finger shaking as she pointed it straight out to her left.
Ken frowned and started shouting back, "I was heading there anyway! I don't want any of your fucking slop! I just got held up to have the exact same conversation we have every fucking night!"
Ken stormed out of the room and kicked the wall with a heavy thud along the way, making Travis's glass slide off the table and smash on the ground.
Ken came back into the room and threw a pair of red underpants at his sister "Taylor! Stop leaving your dirty knickers around the house! Bet Brandon has had a good sniff of these hasn't he?"
Taylor slammed the table, "Oh my fucking goodness! Ken you dirty little prick!"
Keiko shut her eyes and screamed "Stop swearing in my house!"
Akio leaned into Travis, "I think you had better go to your room, son."
Travis nodded and got out of his chair as Keiko let out another scream.
Ken slammed the door to his room, punching the wall again; he then leaned his head against it and sighed, staring at the floor.
He sat down in the chair, and swiveled around to the computer. He browsed through his regular sites, but nothing interesting once again. Tonnes of messages from his old followers on his wall, that he had gotten everyday since he left, he had only replied to one of them, and that was to get a skateboard back.
Ken clicked his newsfeed and leant back in his chair with a sigh. At the top of the feed, was a status from Samantha O'Keefe, 'OMG, best day shopping with Claire Valentino xx Brand new knickers too ;)'
Ken clicked her profile, and surely enough there was a pair of her new knickers. He smirked, "Girls, gotta take photos of everything, don't they."
He started scrolling through her photos and smiling at all the different pictures, and especially her bright face in each one.
There was one that was a picture of her and Kelly lay back on the beach in bikinis. Ken zoomed in to get a focus shot of her face and her chest.
He looked at the door, which seemed quiet now that his Mum had stopped yelling.
He undid his fly, slipping his hand into his pants, as he began to move it up and down.
He bit his teeth, as he stared at Samantha's chests, rather exposed in her bikini.
Travis tilted his head from the hallway as he looked at Ken's screen, "Who is that?" he asked.
Ken freaked out turning around suddenly, "Holy shit! Fuck's sake Travis, remember the rule buddy, you gotta tell me when I'm coming in."
"In case your with a girl?" he asked.
Ken nodded, zipping up his pants, "That's right incase I'm with a girl, you don't want a repeat of when you and Taylor walked into my room back in Tokyo, I didn't get to see her again after that." He paused and looked up, "Hey! You're speaking English! Good one, Japanese is for wankers."
Ken gave Travis a Hi-5, as Travis smiled, "Yeah, I wanted to be cool like you Ken." He said, as Ken smirked to himself
"Ken?" his brother asked.
"Yeah buddy?" he said.
"Could you knock too? In case I'm with a girl?" He asked.
Ken laughed, "Alright kiddo, incase your with a girl, wouldn't want to walk in on you holding hands."
"No Ken, I want to do sex! Like you did back in Tokyo! But I don't want Mum to get angry at me, like she does with you." He said lowering his head.
Ken smiled, "Then let's just put it off for now yeah? Besides I'm not too sure that girls your age will be particularly keen, buddy."
"Who's that?" asked Travis, "Did you do sex with her too?"
Ken turned around to the picture of Samantha, "Um, that's nobody, that's just some weirdo from college, just let me close that," he said as he quickly closed the internet.
Ken jumped on his bed, lying out across it, "Ah bollocks, you know how hard it is having a hard-on that you can't deal with? It's annoying kiddo."
Travis sat on his own bed, "I'm sorry Ken," he said, "I didn't mean to."
Ken shook his head and got out his lighter, lighting a spliff in his mouth. Travis watched with a focus gaze as Ken let out a billow of smoke.
"Mum thinks you've been smoking weed, Ken." He said nervously.
Ken looked around, "I am smoking weed."
"But you could get in trouble!" he said anxiously.
Ken laughed and looked back at the roof, before looking at Travis again, "Do you wanna go?"
Travis's eyes flung wide open, "NO!" he said quickly, but then paused, "Yes…" he uttered quietly.
Ken shuffled off his bed and walked over to Travis' bed, he stuck it in Travis' mouth, "Now, listen closely," he said, "Don't breathe in, inhale, yeah?"
His brother took a puff and started coughing and spluttering loudly immediately.
"Ken!" shouted his mother, "What is that smell?"
Ken quickly took the spliff from his brother, and stamped it out, chucking it out the window before waving away all the smoke, as his mother's footsteps drew closer.
Keiko scowled as she slammed his door open, "You have been smoking marijuana in my house!" she yelled.
She looked at Travis who was still coughing and spluttering, with bits of smoke coming out his mouth.
Her mouth fell wide open, "You have been teaching your younger brother to smoke! How dare you! You little prick! How dare you bring your sick deeds upon your younger brother, you sick bastard!"
Keiko bent down to Travis and helped him up, "Come into the kitchen darling, mummy will help you out."
She looked back at Ken before slamming the door, "You are grounded big time Mr.! No drugs! No drinks! No parties! No going out! No pornos! And No friends!"
She slammed the door with a heavy bang.
Ken laid his head back on his pillow and pulled his hands slowly down his face. He looked out the window to the street below, nothing more than dreary lamplights, shadows of apartments, and filth from the occasional chav.
There were times when he certainly missed Japan, and there were times where he wanted to get away from both Bristol and Tokyo. He didn't want to be anywhere right now.
I was thinking about writing two chapters tonight, but it's later than I thought it was, so I'm not going to anymore. Special little note, if you haven't figured it out: when some of the families writing is in Italics, like Keiko's or Taylor's or whatever, it's cause they're speaking Japanese; I obviously do not know how to speak Japanese and even if I did write in Japanese you wouldn't understand what I was saying, it's just as if they are speaking Japanese on the show with English subtitles, and any dialogue they have not in Italics is on purpose to show they are speaking in English, it's not a mistake or anything. Heads up, I've got a band tour to Queensland in about 12 days time, and because of that I shall not be beginning 7.07 before I leave, I shall begin it when I get back, so it'll be about a week's break, sorry to say. Chapter 2 up soon.
