Friends Will Not Be Friends
He pulled himself over the bar again and looked across the room. It was a fierce competition, but it looked like his friend was starting to feel the burn. Prangley's own muscles were screaming for him to stop, but he had to win. He simply had to.
"Give up, Snow!" Prangley groaned, as he performed another pull-up.
"Are you cheating yet, Jason?" Snow asked, yanking himself up until his chin reached the bar. "No biotics, remember."
Prangley remembered. He was going to beat Snow fair and square. He knew that he could. They always went to the gym together, but he had been putting extra hours in. He was stronger than Thomas Snow, and he didn't need his powers to prove it.
He could tell that Snow's form was getting worse. A clear sign of fatigue. But he also knew that Snow was just like him. He would continue until his muscles gave up. The everlasting competition was part of their friendship. Everything was a competition. When they weren't in the gym, it was in Orion Hall. Who could eat the most? who could burp the loudest? who could hit one of the Alliance guards in the back of the head with a piece of pasta? They would never stop. It was probably a good thing that they were not in the same classes. At least, when they were in their respective classrooms, they had a break from their constant competitions.
"Done already, Jason?" Snow taunted, hanging from his bar.
Everyone, even his own classmates, only ever called him by his last name, Prangley, except for maybe Lieutenant Sanders, who would sometimes use his first name to indicate that she expected better behavior from him. Snow, who was also mainly called by his last name, would use 'Jason' when they competed, mostly to try and distract him.
Prangley pulled himself over the bar one more time and laughed when Snow finally lost his grip and fell to the floor.
"You used biotics!" Snow accused, looking down at his, no doubt, sore hands.
This was an ongoing discussion in all of their competitions, at least the ones that Prangley won, which was most of them. Snow, a student of the combat engineering department, did not have biotics at his disposal like Prangley. So the fairness of all their competitions depended on Prangley's honesty and ability to not use his biotics at all.
"No, I didn't," he insisted, and performed another five pull-ups in quick succession, using his biotics, to show the difference.
Snow kicked his bottle of water, which sprayed all over the floor. He would be in a sour mood for a few hours, but soon everything would be back to normal, and he would find something else to challenge Prangley in. It would probably be something technical, something that would favor his skills as an engineer. Snow needed a victory.
Prangley laughed at his best friend and picked up a towel to dry the sweat off his face.
"I have to go to class," he said.
"Yeah," Snow sighed, looking at the time. "See you at lunch?"
Prangley nodded. He sure wasn't sitting with his classmates in Orion Hall.
After a quick shower, Prangley sat in a classroom in Ascension Hall, waiting for their instructor to show up. All his classmates were already there. The twins were discussing some idiotic drama show they had been following on the extranet. Nielsen and Rodriguez, who had just came back from a holiday on Terra Nova to visit their parents, were talking about one of Rodriguez' friends from back home, Maria. Apparently, Nielsen had convinced this unfortunate girl to become his girlfriend.
Prangley was not overly fond of his four classmates. Their biotics, frankly, was about the only thing they had in common. And in Prangley's head, their powers were all that made his classmates worthy of his time. Prangley, who was now 16 years old, had grown up with these four people, yet he was not sure that he could truly call them his friends. He wasn't even sure he wanted to. Snow was his friend. That was enough.
Mr. Yamauchi, their instructor, arrived and immediately asked them to form groups and begin their biotic exercises. As usual, Reiley and Seanne Bellarmine immediately formed their own little group, and Nielsen and Rodriguez was the other group. This pattern repeated every single time they were asked to form groups, and Prangley was now forced to make one of the groups a trio. It was only rarely that he was allowed to practice by himself or with the instructor.
He decided to join Nielsen and Rodriguez. He knew that the Bellarmines would be yapping about their stupid show all day, and he just couldn't take it.
Yamauchi asked them to warm up by biotically lifting heavy balls back and forth in their groups, and Rodriguez started by sending the ball over to Prangley, who quickly passed it to Nielsen. In his boredom, he probably passed the ball a bit too hard, and Kurt who had not been prepared for such a fast ball, was hit in the stomach and doubled over.
"Kurt!" Vera shouted and hurried over to her friend who coughed, trying to catch his breath.
"On your toes, Nielsen," Prangley said, and Rodriguez glared at him.
"You did that on purpose," she snarled.
"No," Kurt said, clapping Rodriguez on the back. "I'm sure he didn't."
Kurt lifted the ball off the ground and passed it back to Prangley.
Rodriguez shook her head at him, and Prangley passed it to her, much softer this time.
He was bored. Many of his classes made him feel this way. Mr. Yamauchi often told him to engage more in the exercises, but Prangley was finding it hard to respect his instructor. He had never seen Mr. Yamauchi perform any biotics that he wouldn't be able to learn within a few weeks of practice. He was even convinced that he had a good chance of winning if he had to square off against his instructor in a biotic fight. How was he expected to respect a teacher like that?
After the class had ended, Prangley immediately picked up his things and left towards Orion Hall. On the way, he found Snow in the hallway, holding a toy up into the air. In front of him, jumping up and down to try to reach the toy, was a chubby little girl in a yellow uniform.
"What's up?" Prangley lazily asked.
Snow turned and showed him the toy. It looked like a character from a cartoon, but he wasn't sure.
"I'm just helping Tubby here lose some weight," he said, quickly holding the toy out of the girl's reach.
"Give it back!" she shrieked, and Snow and Prangley laughed.
"How about a few sit-ups, Tubbs?" Prangley asked.
"Excellent idea, buddy," Snow said. "Let's say… Hmmm… 100 sit-ups."
The girl, who was at least five years younger than them, glared, but sat down and began doing sit-ups. Snow started to count out loud, and they were joined by a few other students, who joined the counting. With tears in her eyes, the girl continued her sit-ups.
Then there was a bright flash of blue, and Snow was lifted into the air and slammed up against the wall. Vera Rodriguez was standing in the middle of the hallway with her arm outstretched. She was glowing with rage.
Meanwhile, Nielsen pulled the girl in the yellow uniform to her feet and handed her the toy, which Snow had dropped.
"Rodriguez," Snow groaned, still pinned against the wall. "You are hot when you're angry. Did you know that?"
"You are disgusting," she said and allowed him to fall back to the floor.
They were not allowed to use their biotics on other students, which Rodriguez knew very well. But, because he was friends with Prangley, so did Snow.
"Using biotics on me, Rodriguez?" he said. "I'm flattered."
She shook her head, and she and Nielsen continued towards Orion Hall.
Prangley smiled at Snow.
"Are you okay?" he asked, pretending to be very concerned for Snow's health. "That was pretty crazy! Imagine, getting bullied by a girl like that…"
Snow laughed. "Yeah, fuck you, man! But I mean… Did you see… She is so hot! How do you even concentrate in class?"
Vera Rodriguez was pretty hot, Prangley had to agree. But there was another reason she was his favorite, if he had to pick one of his classmates. He actually respected her.
Rodriguez was talented, even better than Prangley himself in some areas. She was the only one who could challenge him in some of the exercises. And she was confident enough in her powers to do something as what she had just done to Snow. Lifting a man off the ground and pinning him against the wall, even just for a few seconds, was no small feat.
She was always willing to talk to him, no matter how he behaved. He could depend on her to be nice, even when the three others refused to talk to him.
When Prangley and Snow finally arrived in Orion Hall, they took two trays from a group of students who had just been to the buffet.
"Hey!" one of them said.
"Get another," Snow simply said and sat down at a table with Prangley.
Prangley, who hadn't even looked at 'his' tray until now, quickly switched with Snow, who was staring at Rodriguez, sitting at a nearby table with Nielsen and the Bellarmines.
"Would you stop drooling, man?" he laughed.
"What? You think she is too good for me?" Snow asked without taking his eyes off Rodriguez.
"Who isn't?" Prangley laughed and dug into his lunch.
When they were done eating, Snow pulled out his datapad. His experienced fingers flew across the screen faster than Prangley could ever do. If they ever had a typing competition, Snow would win for sure. As an engineer, he was constantly working with computers. And he was very quick and precise. Prangley was not exactly sure what his friend's line of work included, but Snow had convinced him that he was very good at it. The best in his class, just like Prangley.
"Just sending out invitations for the party tonight," Snow said. "Ready?"
Prangley nodded. He had been looking forward to this party all week.
"Jefferson and Hitchens have been skiving from their engineering classes all morning to prepare," Snow continued. "It's going to be great!"
The party was hosted by the engineers and the journalism students. Every student above a certain age had heard about it, but an invitation from either an engineer or a journalist was needed. Prangley had of course been invited by Snow.
"Do you think any of your biotic friends would be cool to invite to the party?" Snow asked, obviously he was thinking about a particular, dark-haired one.
"They are fucking losers, dude," Prangley sighed.
"Just invite her then," Snow said.
"Rodriguez is not going to show up unless I invite the rest," Prangley assured him.
"Invite them all then," Snow said, leaning back in his chair. "I don't fucking care."
A group of three boys in the same red Ascension Project uniforms that Prangley was wearing stopped in front of their table. Prangley recognized them. They were about a year or two younger than him.
"We heard about the party," one of them said.
"Of course you did," Snow replied.
"Can we come?" another asked.
Snow lazily glanced across the table at Prangley, who gave the three boys a quick look and shook his head.
"That's a negative, boys," Snow said. "Maybe next time, eh?"
"But…" one of the boys was about to complain, but Snow had begun throwing pieces of bread into the bushy hair of a girl at the next table.
Sensing that there would be no negotiations, the three boys left.
"I am telling you. You don't want any other biotics at your party," Prangley said, standing up to walk back to Ascension Hall. "They suck. Especially my classmates."
"Think about it," Snow yawned and dropped another piece of bread in the unsuspecting girl's hair.
Prangley returned to Ascension Hall, noticing with glee how other students moved out of his way and stared after him. That was perhaps one of the greatest things about being a biotic at the Jon Grissom Academy. As a student of the Ascension Project he was not just like any other 16 year old. The other students looked up to him and his classmates, but especially him.
He swiped his ID card to get into Ascension Hall, but before he could reach his classroom for his afternoon lecture, Head Director Kahlee Sanders called him into her office.
Prangley liked Lieutenant Sanders. She was very nice to him, and she seemed to genuinely want him to develop his powers as much as possible. But she was also constantly bugging him about his behavior.
"Please sit down," the lieutenant said, walking around her desk.
She sat down on her chair, and Prangley settled across from her.
"I heard that you and Thomas Snow from the engineering department have been causing some commotion in the hallways," she said.
Prangley assumed that Nielsen and Rodriguez had talked to her. There was not much point in denying that something had happened. He decided not to say anything. Kahlee Sanders already knew exactly what had happened and what his role was. She was very smart, and unlike some of the other staff members, Prangley could not play games with her.
"Your behavior is not acceptable, Jason," she said.
There it was. His first name. A clear signal that she really did not like what he had done.
"You are a very talented biotic," she continued, "but you are not more important than the rest of this project, or the rest of the academy. If you don't improve, you simply cannot stay here, Jason."
He had never heard such a direct threat from her before. Would she really be willing to kick him out of the Ascension Project?
"You are old enough to hear this now, Jason. I know that you want to be a soldier, and as an officer of the Alliance, I can tell you for certain that you won't make it far with your current attitude."
Prangley scratched his thigh nervously. A career in the Alliance was his biggest dream, his only vision of the future.
"You are not working hard enough, and you are wasting your talent with your bullshit behavior," Lieutenant Sanders said.
Prangley could tell that she was both angry and disappointed. Not only had she cursed at him, but her voice was shaking.
"I am working hard," he insisted. "No one is working harder than me."
"That's a lie," Sanders said, pulling out her datapad. "It's clear to see in your test results, Jason. You have been blessed with a natural gift, but you are wasting your talent. All of your classmates and even some of the younger students in the project are improving at a much faster rate than you, and if you do not get your head in the right place, you will find that you are no longer the best all of a sudden."
Prangley nodded.
"I want to be the best," he said.
"Good," Sanders replied. "Then show it. How about a little modesty to begin with? If you want to be the best, you should start by realizing that you aren't already. And I am not just talking about this school. There are biotics out there who can do stuff you wouldn't believe, and I think, if you would only put in the work, that you could be up there with the best of them."
"Yes, Ma'am."
She nodded at him, apparently satisfied that he had understood her message.
"Go to class then," she said. "Oh, and of course, your extranet access will be limited to half an hour per day for the rest of this month. I will not accept your current behavior much longer, understood?"
He nodded and left the head director's office. He hadn't known that he was apparently that close to being kicked out of the academy. He had always seen himself as too good to be expelled. But Sanders seemed deadly serious, and there was no doubt in his mind that she was actually going to get rid of him if he did not improve.
He entered the classroom, where his classmates had already begun their exercises. Mr. Yamauchi was sitting on the desk, watching their work.
"Lift your hand a little higher, Seanne," he said.
Prangley watched as she moved her hand upwards a tiny bit and was finally able to make a heavy kettlebell-shaped weight float into the air.
Prangley picked up his own kettlebell, which was quite a bit heavier than the ones the rest of them were using, and placed it on the floor. Using his biotics, he then lifted the weight into the air and placed it on the desk.
Mr. Yamauchi pointed to a rack in the corner of the classroom. "Grab yourself a heavier one, Prangley," he said.
Prangley exchanged his kettlebell for a much heavier one. He couldn't even carry it back from the rack without putting his biotics into it. He placed the weight on the floor and tried to lift it with his biotics alone. But when he moved his hand up, the kettlebell barely moved. It was too heavy.
To his frustration, Lieutenant Sanders' words were proving to be true. His classmates were lifting heavier and heavier weights every week, but Prangley had been lifting the same weight for months. Unlike his classmates, he was not improving. He had become complacent, too satisfied with his current level.
Once again, he tried to lift the heavier weight, but nothing happened. He had to practice. For the first time in months, he felt that he was challenged in the classroom. It was his own fault. He had done nothing to improve.
Despite his failure, he smiled. It felt good to have something to work towards again. During the rest of the afternoon, Prangley worked hard and had fun with his classmates.
"Have you heard about the party tonight?" Nielsen asked the others after class was over and Mr. Yamauchi had left.
Reiley Bellarmine nodded. "I really want to go, but I don't know anyone in the engineering or journalism department."
Prangley was placing his weights back on the rack in the corner. "I'm invited," he said.
The others looked at him.
"You guys can come if you want to," Prangley said, feeling in a good mood after a full afternoon of exercises.
Rodriguez shook her head. "I don't want to go to Snow's party," she said.
"It's not his party," Nielsen said. "We don't have to talk to him."
She shrugged. "Maybe."
The two of them left the room with Seanne Bellarmine, but Reiley came up to Prangley.
"Can I bring my girlfriend?" he asked.
Prangley had not cared to get to know Reiley's girlfriend. All he knew was that she was in the chemistry department, and that she was very plain-looking.
"Don't bring sand to the beach, man," he said to Reiley. "There'll be plenty of pussy there."
Reiley just shook his head and left the room.
On his way back to his room, Prangley ran into Snow who was waiting for him by the bathrooms.
"Everything set for tonight?" Prangley asked.
Snow nodded. "The journalists have disguised an entire pallet of booze as lemonade. It will be awesome! Hey, do you want to come to the medical ward with me? I'm trying to score some pills."
"Sorry, dude. I can't get involved," Prangley said. "I'll have to lay low for a while, or Sanders will kick me out."
"Shit!" Snow sighed. "Too bad she is such a bitch! Your head director is pretty hot though. A total MILF."
Prangley shrugged. He hadn't thought about that.
"See you tonight then," he said.
"Yeah," Snow said, walking towards the medical ward. "See ya."
-X-X-X-
Prangley was drunk. He had only had alcohol on a couple occasions before, but not much more than a few beers. But this night was different. He had been drinking for hours, and danced with people he had no idea who were.
"Hey," a girl said, joining him on the edge of the dancefloor. "I'm Candice, what is your name?"
"Prangley… Um… Jason…"
"Want to dance?" she asked, but Prangley had just spotted his classmates in the crowd.
"In a minute," he said, leaving Candice to join Nielsen, Rodriguez and the Bellarmines at the bar.
"You came," he said, mostly to Rodriguez, who had seemed most opposed to the idea.
She was swaying back and forth, and even though he was drunk himself, he could tell that she was probably even more intoxicated than he was.
"Thanks for the invitation, mate," Nielsen said, bobbing his head to the music. "This is actually a pretty cool party."
Prangley grabbed a few drinks from the bar and placed them in the hands of his classmates. "Of course," he said and walked back to dance with Candice. A few minutes later, he saw both Bellarmines and Nielsen on the dancefloor.
"Where's Rodriguez?" he asked Nielsen over Candice's shoulder.
Nielsen pointed to the couches along the wall, and Prangley saw Rodriguez chatting to some of the girls from the engineering department.
"Want to go back to my room?"
"Huh?" Prangley said.
Candice stood on her toes and kissed him. "Want to go back to my room?" she repeated.
"Hell yes."
Prangley waved to Nielsen, who gave him a thumbs up on the way off the dancefloor.
When he woke up in Candice's bed the next morning, he tried to sit up, but his head felt like it was going to explode.
He winced, and Candice, who had also opened her eyes, laughed at him.
"My head," he complained. "Why is my mouth so dry?"
She laughed again. "That pretty cute. You must be a newbie. Is this your first hangover?"
He nodded, but immediately decided that not moving his head was preferable.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
She shrugged. "Not great, but I am used to it. We tend to drink a bit too much on the weekends in the journalism department."
"Right. So you're a journalist?"
She frowned, but nodded. "I told you that last night, Jason. Don't you remember?"
He tried to recall their conversation on the way back from the party. Maybe she had said something about that.
"Well, I'm a biotic," he said.
"I know. You told me. Eight times."
She pulled off the blanket and let Prangley enjoy the view of her body, dressed only in black underwear.
"I remember that," he said, and she laughed.
"You were pretty good," she told him, kissing his cheek. "But we can't do this again. I have a boyfriend."
"Okay," Prangley said, rolling out of bed.
He got dressed quickly, said goodbye to Candice and started walking towards Orion Hall. He needed to get some breakfast.
As he was eating his yoghurt, trying to keep it down in spite of his nausea, Nielsen came storming into Orion Hall. With his biotics, he ripped the bowl of yoghurt out of Prangley's hands. He then kicked away the table. The nearby students, who had also come to Orion Hall for breakfast, stared at the two biotics.
"Tell me you didn't play a part in this!" Nielsen shouted, pulling Prangley out of his chair.
Prangley looked down at the much shorter boy.
"Watch it, Nielsen!"
"DID YOU KNOW? WERE YOU IN ON IT!" Nielsen roared, shaking Prangley by the collar of his uniform.
"Know about what?" Prangley asked, trying to shove Nielsen away.
Nielsen stood his ground, and Prangley could feel his feet leaving the ground. He didn't even know that Nielsen could do something like that with his biotics.
"I swear I am going to kill you if I find out you had anything to do with this!" the blond hissed.
"TO DO WITH WHAT?!" Prangley shouted back.
"Come with me," Nielsen said, placing Prangley back on the floor.
Kurt marched back out of Orion Hall, and Prangley followed him all the way back to Kahlee Sanders' office. The head director was sitting on the edge of her desk, holding Vera Rodriguez who was crying against her shoulder.
"What's up?" Prangley asked, as Nielsen hurried over to help Sanders with Rodriguez.
"Kurt," Sanders said. "Would you please take Vera to the classroom?"
Nielsen wrapped his arm around Rodriguez, who seemed inconsolable, and they walked out of the office. On their way out, Prangley caught a glimpse of Rodriguez' face through her tousled hair. Not only did she look like she had been crying for the entire duration of the night, she also had red scratch marks on her face and down her neck.
"What happened to her?" he asked Sanders as soon as Nielsen and Rodriguez had closed the door behind them.
"Are you sure you don't have any idea, Jason?" Sanders asked. She was close to foaming with rage, he could tell. But she managed to keep her voice calm. She sounded colder than he had ever heard her before.
"I swear I have no idea what you or Kurt are talking about! Do you thinkI did that to her?"
Sanders looked at him, as if she was trying to figure out if he was telling the truth.
"Look at this," she said, turning her computer screen so he could see the image.
There was a dark, empty corridor on the screen. It looked like security footage. Then Thomas Snow walked into frame, and walking hand in hand with him was Vera Rodriguez. Prangley didn't understand. Rodriguez absolutely hated Snow. Why would she be holding his hand? But then he remembered how she had seemed quite drunk, and he could tell from the images on the screen that she was not exactly sober.
Snow and Rodriguez disappeared into the combat engineers room and the door closed behind them. Sanders fast-forwarded a few minutes. Suddenly, Snow's door opened and Rodriguez stumbled out, covering her face with one hand and holding her jacket with the other. She was clearly very distressed and crying. The footage ended with Rodriguez running away and Snow's door closing again.
"What happened in there?" Prangley asked. "Why was Rodriguez with Snow?"
Sanders sighed and spun the screen back around.
"We don't know for sure. We have no cameras inside the students' private rooms. But Vera says that Thomas Snow tried to rape her."
"WHAT!?"
Sanders nodded. "And we have found traces of drugs in her blood. Vera admits to have been drinking alcohol, but she insists that she did not take any drugs."
"And you seriously think that I would be involved in something like that?"
"You and Snow have done some very crummy things," Sanders said. "But I don't want to believe that you had anything to do with this, Jason."
"I didn't!" he said and started pacing the floor. "And I can't believe that Snow actually tried to rape her. He wouldn't go that far. I need to talk to him."
"You can't," Sanders said. "He is currently being questioned by the police on Elysium. We turned him over to them this morning."
Prangley was panicking. He did not know what to do with himself, so he continued to pace back and forth in Sanders' office.
If he was being honest, he was not actually so sure that attempting to rape Vera was that far out of Snow's character. He curled his fists in anger. What the hell was Snow thinking? And what about his own judgment? Had he picked a monster for a friend? Shouldn't he know if it was within the character of his best friend to try to rape someone?
His biotic aura started to glow, and Sanders asked him to sit down.
"I understand that you are angry," she said. "You should be. Rape or not, something bad clearly happened in that room. But I don't want you to do anything rash. Let us and the police handle this situation. Just try to be supportive of Vera. I hope you are able to convince her that you didn't have anything to do with this mess."
Prangley left Kahlee Sanders' office in a state of internal turmoil. Even though he had been advised not to, he needed to do something about this situation. He couldn't just sit around and do nothing. He needed to find out what was true and what wasn't.
He stepped into the classroom and found Rodriguez and Nielsen sitting on the teacher's desk. Looking at her like this, he could really see the marks that Snow had left on her. Most upsetting were the bruises on her neck. It looked like he had tried to grab her throat.
She started crying again as soon as she saw him, and Nielsen jumped up, curling his fists.
"Vera, I am so, so sorry," Prangley said, motioning for Nielsen to sit down again. "I swear I had nothing to do with this."
She sobbed even louder, and Prangley felt his knees shaking. Watching her like this was horrible.
"H-he pulled off my jacket," she got out between her sobs. "And… And he opened my pants. When I told him to stop, h-he put his hand under my t-shirt and into my pants… H-he touched me."
Nielsen groaned with rage and started walking back and forth, grinding his teeth. Prangley was tempted to cover his ears. If looking at Rodriguez crying was horrible, hearing her talk about the previous night was bordering the unbearable.
"I-I scratched him and kicked," Rodriguez continued. She could barely speak through her tears. "But he pushed me down and told me to just enjoy it. In the end, I managed to throw him off with my biotics."
Nielsen groaned and punched the wall, and Prangley could tell that tears had begun to form in his eyes as well.
"I am s-sorry, Vera. I am sorry. I am sorry," Prangley cried and fell to his knees.
To his surprise, she joined him on the floor and wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her until Nielsen pulled both of them to their feet.
"I believe you," she said when she finally had her voice under control again.
Prangley nodded and accepted a hug from Nielsen as well.
"I will do whatever I can to help," he promised. "Whatever it takes."
Having seen Rodriguez and heard her tell her story, there was no longer any doubt. Snow had actually done it. He had tried to rape his classmate. Prangley was so angry he nearly ripped out his own hair. He needed to destroy something to get out his aggressions.
He ran out of the classroom, past Sanders who tried to stop him and out of Ascension Hall. As he ran, he could feel the tears stinging in his eyes. He finally arrived at Snow's room, but a tiny red light indicated that the door had been locked by the station administrators.
"Argh!" he screamed and fell to his knees, slamming his fists into the floor. The other students in the hallway were staring at him, but Prangley continued to scream and pound his fists into the floor, until someone finally put a hand on his shoulder.
"Jason," Sanders said, taking a much softer tone with him than she had in the last few days. "Please, go back to your room."
And he did. In fact, Prangley stayed in his room the entire weekend. He didn't even go to Orion Hall to eat. Seanne had been nice enough to bring him food and water. He knew how rumors spread like wildfire at the Jon Grissom Academy. Everyone knew that he was Snow's friend. Even if they didn't know exactly what had happened between Rodriguez and Snow, they would still think that Prangley was somehow involved.
Seanne had told him that Snow spent the entire weekend on Elysium with the police, and Prangley half hoped never to see him again. Even though he had been his best friend, Prangley had already judged Snow in his mind. He couldn't believe how he had overlooked how bad a person Snow actually was for so long. Why had it taken Rodriguez getting hurt for him to get it?
Prangley almost didn't make it to his first class after the weekend. He wanted to stay in his room, but Sanders had messaged all of them, asking them to show up.
The head director stood in front of them when class began. Prangley had not had the courage to look at Rodriguez yet. She was sitting at the desk behind him, and he wanted to turn around. He wanted to help her and make sure that she was okay. But he couldn't. He didn't know what he could do for her, and he was still ashamed for his friendship with Snow.
"I have an important message for you," Sanders said seriously, pulling out a datapad. "This is not going to be easy for me, and not for you either."
"The investigation has not turned up any definite evidence that proves Snow tried to rape Vera," Sanders read from the datapad. There was a tear running down her cheek as she spoke. "According to the police, there is only evidence of a fight, not an attempt of rape."
"Bullshit!" Prangley shouted, standing up so quick that his desk nearly flipped over. "I saw the video!"
"Which doesn't show enough to formally accuse Snow of rape," Sanders sighed, motioning for Prangley to sit down again.
Lieutenant Sanders proceeded to explain how Vera's positive drug test was not worth much as long as they couldn't connect the drugs to Snow, and that, since he had come out of the situation with as many scratches and bruises as she had, it just looked like the two of them had been having a fight. There wasn't anything except Vera's testimonial evidence to prove that Snow in fact tried to rape her.
"But… But…" Prangley said, trying to find another argument.
"I am very sorry," Sanders said. "Especially for Vera. I am so sorry. But, as you know, the school has had an epidemic of false rape accusations in the last year. And I think that is really backfiring now. This case would definitely have been taken more seriously, if we hadn't expelled three girls for false allegations in the last six months."
Vera, who had remained quiet up until now, finally spoke in a shaky voice. "What happens now?"
"I am very sorry, Vera. But this is being treated like it was just a fight resulting in relatively mild injuries. They happen all the time. They are bound to when you bring thousands of kids together in a small space like this station. Snow will be allowed to continue here. He's coming back from Elysium today."
"What!?" Kurt shouted. "That cunt's not even being expelled?"
Sanders shook her head sadly. "This was out of my hands, but that is the decision."
Prangley's blood was boiling. He had never encountered such a level of injustice. How could Thomas Snow be allowed to just continue his education at Grissom as if nothing had happened? He had expected Snow to go to jail. Even expulsion seemed way too mild. But that wasn't even happening.
Without a word, he stood up and stormed out of the classroom. Sanders called after him, but he almost couldn't hear her over his own rapidly accelerating pulse.
As soon as he was out of Ascension Hall, he started running, and he didn't stop until he reached Snow's door.
He rang the doorbell and waited a few seconds for Snow to open. When the door slid away, he almost punched his old friend in the face straight away, but he ended up just staring at him.
"Hey, buddy," Snow said. "I'm glad you came to see me. Come in."
Prangley silently followed Snow into the room. It was sickening to think of what had almost happened in there.
"What a weekend, huh?" Snow said, smiling at Prangley. "It was so boring on Elysium. And the cops had nothing on me… But hey, it was worth it. Those tits…"
BAM!
Prangley drove his knuckles straight into Snow's jaw, and the engineer stumbled backwards.
"I knew it! You piece of shit! I knew you fucking did it!" Prangley hissed, blinded by wrath and tears.
He punched again, but Snow was ready for this one, and he blocked it. Snow was big and strong, almost as big and strong as Prangley, and he tried to tackle the biotic to the ground. But Prangley connected with another blow, this time to the nose.
He wasn't even using his biotics. His anger was more than enough. He punched Snow again and again, picked him up, slammed him against the wall, punched him one more time and slammed his head into the edge of the desk.
"You were my friend!" he screamed. "You were my friend!"
But Snow didn't move any more. He was just curled up on the floor. His head was misshapen and covered in blood. So were Prangley's hands.
"You fucking monster!" Prangley spat, kicking Snow's limp body before he stormed out of the room and ran to the bathrooms further down the hallway.
He tried to wash his hands in the sink, but as soon as he saw his own reflection in the mirror, he broke down and fell over on the tiles. He cried for almost an hour before the guards came and picked him up and put him in handcuffs.
-X-X-X-
He hadn't talked to anyone in almost 24 hours. They wouldn't even tell him if Snow was still alive or not. Prangley looked down at his hands. They had been cleaned more than once, but he thought that he could still see the red blood on them.
He wished that someone would tell him what was going on outside. They had locked him in a small security office with no windows or anything to give him any hints about what was going on outside. He hated it. He was certain that he had killed Snow. Why else would they keep him locked there for so long.
When the door finally opened, it was Sanders who stepped in and took a seat opposite him.
"Jason," she sighed, and he started crying immediately.
She quickly took his hand and held it in hers.
"Thomas Snow is in the hospital wing," she said. "He will make it."
Prangley gasped. He didn't know if that feeling was relief or maybe even disappointment.
Sanders continued quietly. "The school administration wants to expel you," she said. "You took the law into your own hands and assaulted another student. You almost killed him, Jason."
He didn't know what to say. Saying that part of him wished that he had killed him probably wouldn't help. He did not want to be expelled. He would accept any other form of punishment, but the Ascension Project meant everything to him. If he failed to graduate, he would throw himself out the airlock.
"I tried to convince my bosses to let you stay," Sanders said, realizing that she was not going to get any words out of Prangley.
Prangley felt as if his heart had stopped. It sounded a lot like his days at the academy were over.
"You didn't use your biotics, did you?"
Prangley shook his head.
"That's good," Sanders said. "And Snow will make a full recovery. For your continued stay here, that is a good thing."
Prangley nodded. He understood.
"I think it's safe to say that you have learned a lesson about the kind of people you want to associate yourself with," she continued.
"Yes," Prangley said hoarsely.
"I am going to recommend that you are allowed to stay in the Ascension Project, Jason," Sanders said. "But you are going to have to promise me a few things."
He nodded, listening intently.
"I never want to see you and Snow causing trouble again. I don't want you to get back together, and I don't want you two to keep fighting each other either. You'll learn to stay as far from each other as possible at all times," she said.
"Trust me, I never want to see that bastard again, not if I can help it," Prangley replied.
"And I want you to improve your behavior," she said. "You have been flirting with expulsion in a few weeks now. And beating Thomas Snow within an inch of his life is not going to help. Most of the academy leaders think that you have reached your limit of missteps."
"I'll change! I can be better, Lieutenant Sanders."
She smiled sadly. "I know you can. But I have to convince the board."
"Please," he cried, squeezing her hand. "I have to stay here. I need the Ascension Project."
She nodded. "If they let you stay, I want you to remember this feeling. Show us how much you want to be here. Show us your true potential."
"I will! I will!"
Sanders gave his hand a final little squeeze and left the room again. When the door opened again several hours later, it was an Alliance guard. Prangley was sure that he was there to escort him off the station.
"Come on, kid," the guard said and helped Prangley to his feet.
He breathed a deep sigh and followed the guard out of the security office.
"Go to Orion Hall," the Alliance guard said. "Get a meal and then some sleep."
Prangley looked around in confusion. He was not being taken off the station? Slowly, he began to walk towards Orion Hall, expecting someone to stop him every step of the way. But nothing happened. Other students gave him a wide berth and stared at his Ascension Project uniform, just as they always had, but no one tried to stop him.
Eventually, he reached Orion Hall, where he picked up a tray and hurried back to his room. He didn't feel like eating with the rest of the students at this time.
Once inside his room, he quickly jumped out of his uniform, which still had blood stains on it. He ate his food in his underwear. After the meal, he grabbed a towel from his closet and stepped back out of his room. He needed a wash. Luckily, the showers just a little further down the hallway were empty.
He turned the cold water on max and shuddered when it hit him. He stood under the ice cold shower for almost half an hour, until he was absolutely shivering. Thankfully, no one else used the showers in that time.
Still shivering, he wrapped the towel around his body and walked back towards his room. Waiting outside his door was Vera Rodriguez, and Prangley almost wanted to turn around and run. But it was too late.
"Hey," she said.
"Hi."
"I heard you are staying."
He nodded. "I guess."
She smiled sadly.
"I'm glad. I heard what you did. You shouldn't have done that… But thank you, Jason."
He nodded awkwardly.
"Kurt and Reiley are hosting a movie night in the Charles Duke Auditorium tomorrow. Would you like to come?" she asked.
Prangley looked back at her. "Yes," he finally said, and she smiled.
"Fair warning though," she said. "Knowing those two, the movie will probably be something stupid with a lot of half-naked asari."
Prangley nodded and returned her smile.
"See you in class tomorrow," she said. "And… Thank you."
She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before walking down the hallway. Prangley, who was still very cold, hurried into his room. He needed to get some sleep.
He had a feeling that the last few days had completely changed his life at the Jon Grissom Academy. Obviously, he needed new friends. He had a newfound appreciation of his fellow Ascension Project students, whom he was willing to spend more time with. He had known them for years, but somehow he had failed to become close friends with his classmates. He was going to make a bigger effort to make friends with them.
His talks with Sanders had also reminded him how much he actually wanted to become an Alliance soldier in the biotics division. He had to admit that he had not been working as hard as he could have for quite some time. But that was over now. Without Snow to distract him, he was back on track. He still wanted to be the best biotic, and he would work very hard to get there.
Cursing his bed, which was calling out for him to get in and sleep, he put on his gym clothes and stepped back out of his room and started jogging towards the Ascension Hall gym. He would work hard. And he wanted to get started right away.
Author's notes:
There you are. Another one-shot that serves as a prequel to Biotic Beginnings. Hope you liked it. This obviously takes place just a few years before Jack is hired as an instructor, and I hope it will explain some of Jason Prangley's character and the students' justified hatred of Thomas Snow. Let me know what you think. Reviews and PM's are much appreciated.