We All Fall Down
Rating: PG-13/T
Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Humor/Drama
Summary: For the hc_bingo challenge, prompt "Heat Stroke". It was ninety-two degrees, and Burton was a monster.
Author's Note: …You know, it's kind of sad, but this is actually something I would expect from Burton in-game. I totally would. This game is rife with lampshaded and parodied child abuse, and Burton would totally do this.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bully. It belongs to Rockstar Games.
()()
Burton was a monster.
"We're going to pass out," Petey whispered between his harsh, panting breaths as they passed by the bleachers. "It's too hot. It's just too hot."
Gary, for once, was completely silent. If it hadn't been as bad as Petey claimed, he would have been making jabs about how Petey was such a girl, how he needed to grow some balls, generic Petey's-a-girl joke, generic Pissed-off-Petey response, etcetera, etcetera until Jimmy either found a way to shut them up or break away from them.
But it was that bad: Ninety-two degrees out in May, and it was definitely that bad. Global-Warming-Isn't-Real his ass. Slawter didn't know what he was talking about, the crackpot.
Jimmy was managing to keep up a pretty fair pace. He prided himself on being reasonably durable, a little harder to break than most; but even though he'd never excelled at biology, he knew that his body couldn't keep up with this for much longer. He was surprised that no one had collapsed yet (honestly, though, he wasn't paying attention to anyone else at the moment).
"This is insane." He muttered, deliberately lowering his tone as they passed by Burton, sweating in silence as he watched the students run. "I mean, Bullworth is loco la cabeza on a good day, but Burton's flipped his damn lid."
"You're actually implying that he had one to begin with, James." Gary grumbled, and maybe it was the sharp light and the sweat on his face, but he looked… Off. Pale.
"You gonna pass out?"
"My meds are dehydrating." Gary panted back through gritted teeth. "I will pass out if I don't drink something soon." No wonder he was being so quiet and relatively non-aggressive: Sick-Gary was probably the nicest form of Gary that Jimmy had encountered thus far.
"Maybe you should sit down." Petey advised, looking over the brunette in a way that, normally, would have earned him a gay-joke.
"Burton will fail me." Gary muttered. "And I'm not giving the son of a bitch the pleasure." It was one of the few points Jimmy was willing to give Gary credit for: The guy was stubborn to a fault, and in moments like these, it was an admirable trait.
Their peers seemed to be doing just as badly. "SPEED IT UP, YOU PUSSIES!" Burton bellowed at Thad, Algie and Melvin as they ran by. None of them were going particularly fast (You'd think they would, with all of the practice they had running away from the bullies of the school), but it didn't surprise Jimmy that of the three, Algie was the one lagging behind the most.
"I can't-" Heave, "-go-" Gasp, "-any-" Cough, "-faster!" He moaned. Algie had actually been moaning through most of the class, and while Jimmy could sympathize, it was starting to get on his nerves (And, from the looks on their faces, everyone else's as well). Whining was clearly not going to move Burton to let them stop, but evidently for all of those brains, Algie was too thick to figure that out. In fact, precedent showed that it might actually cause Burton to make them run longer.
"Here's an idea," Hal growled as he and Norton jogged by, "Why don't you just shut up and run, and maybe you won't have so much trouble breathing?"
"Here, here!" Parker called, glaring daggers at the back of Algie's head.
"But we've been running forever!"
"And it feels like forever and a day when you got someone bitching the entire time!" Vance hissed before speeding up to pull away from them.
"Leave him alone!" Melvin snapped, "This is unbearable! He can't help it!"
"Melvin, Algie, seriously." Jimmy said lowly, noticing that Burton was watching them. "Shut up. Stop complaining. You're not helping."
"We have to say something!"
"No, no you don't." Petey said nervously, noticing Burton as well.
"When has Burton ever given a rat's ass about-?"
"ALL RIGHT! IF YOU BABIES WANT TO PISS AND MOAN A LITTLE WHILE LONGER-" Burton broke off in a coughing fit, "-YOU CAN RUN FOR ANOTHER TEN MINUTES!"
There was a collective groan from everyone on the track, and Jimmy pointedly urged Petey along a little faster so that they wouldn't be near Melvin, Algie and Thad when the others started to vent their rage on the three. Gary, however, stopped abruptly.
"That's it."
"What?"
"That's it. I'm done."
"I thought you didn't want to give Burton the pleasure of failing you?" Jimmy said, slowing to a stop and taking the opportunity to catch his breath. As thick as the air was, it was like trying to inhale something with the consistency of liquid hand-soap.
"The well of fucks that I have available to me has run dry. I have not a fuck to give." Gary said, turning and walking off the track as Jimmy found himself unable to stop a laugh from rising up at that.
"SMITH! GET BACK ON THE TRACK OR YOU FAIL MY CLASS!"
"FINE! FUCKING FINE!" Gary bellowed, going from zero to sixty in a matter of seconds, and Jimmy could see his chest heaving with the effort. "I FAIL YOUR CLASS! I DON'T CARE! IT'S NO GREAT FUCKING TRAGEDY!" He turned on his heel and walked off, presumably to the gym showers. Jimmy and Petey watched him go with appreciation.
"God, I wish I had balls like that." Petey muttered. Jimmy shut his eyes.
"Take a minute and think about what you just said, Pete." Petey's eyes widened, and his cheeks went an even darker shade of red than they already were.
Meanwhile, other students were starting to consider following Gary's lead. "He surely can't fail us all if we all decided to stop." Gord reasoned, apparently directing the comment at Jimmy as he walked by.
"Try him." Jimmy threw back, wincing as the muscles in his legs and back began to cramp.
"Not all of us have the endurance of a work-horse, Hopkins." The Prep sniffed. Jimmy was just too damn tired to fire back at him, because in spite of what Gord had just said, Jimmy was not faring well. The heat was too much, and like Gary, he really didn't want to give Burton the pleasure of failing him. But there was a cut-off point, and he was getting to it quickly.
They jogged for a few more minutes and, once they'd passed Burton again, Petey said "I think Gord's right. I think we just all have to stop and take what he gives us. If he tries to fail us all Crabblesnitch might step in and- Are you all right?"
Jimmy was panting. But when he came to a stop to catch his breath, he found that he couldn't. It was much harder to breathe than it was before, and the just-do-it strength he'd had a moment ago (all that he really had left, really) was almost completely gone. He couldn't keep running, even if he wanted to.
"Yeah, I-"
Then his legs gave out completely, and he slumped to the ground.
For the next few minutes, everything was a blur of motion and pain. Someone was half-helping, half-dragging Jimmy up steps, down steps, the temperature changed to something slightly cooler, a little more bearable, and then he was helped to the ground leaning against a wall-
And then it was like getting thrown into a bucket of ice.
"HOLY SHIT!"
However hot it was outside, being suddenly assaulted with extremely cold water was not pleasant. Jimmy's first instinct was to lunge away from the source of the stream, but someone unceremoniously shoved him back. "Feel the cold, James! Feel the cold!" Came Gary's- unfortunately- very lively and sadistic voice.
"FOR THE LOVE OF- I FEEL THE COLD, OKAY? I FEEL THE FRICKING COLD!"
"Gary, turn down the temperature a bit!" The sound of Gary's laughter was followed by Petey mumbling something unintelligible; Jimmy assumed that it was Petey who eventually adjusted the temperature of the shower, because the water began to feel less like ice and more like cold, but normal.
Gradually, his better senses began to come back. Petey and… From the looks of it, Vance and Ethan, must have helped him hobble down to the showers. And from the sound of the doors to the gym opening and their peers talking echoing down, the 'everyone-jumps-ship' plan seemed to have gone off already.
"Shit." Jimmy squeezed his eyes shut, and then realized that he should probably vacate the showers before the others could come rushing in. As his legs were not completely reconnected to his brain yet, Jimmy was forced to crawl out and haul himself up using the lockers as a steadying point. "Oh man. That's never happened before."
"You've passed out plenty of times, Jimmy-boy." Gary remarked, tying his shoes.
"Not from heat. No one's ever been stupid enough to keep any of my classes running that long in weather like this."
"Gord's dad is a lawyer." Petey noted. He'd taken the shower next to Jimmy's and, not even bothering to remove his uniform, was standing under a stream of water. "Think maybe he'll sue?"
"God I hope so. Maybe an actual charge in court will get the son of a bitch fired for good. Why the hell didn't that sexual harassment charge stick?" Gary said. But then, before Jimmy or Petey could answer, he snorted. "Oh wait, right: It's Bullworth."
"Yes it is." Jimmy muttered, ripping off his gym shirt and throwing it towards his backpack. "And that means Burton's getting a paper bag on his doorstep tonight- or a dozen. When I'm done here, we're going scouting for dogs in the park."
"Hell yes!"
-End