Kick the Puppy Chapter 1: Kick the Puppy, a bully fanfic

"Kick the Puppy"

By: Seinasu

Author's Note #1: This is a sequel to my "Extra Baggage" series, so it'd probably help to read that story first in order to understand what's going on. I've once again used Turmoil's characterizations and themes so if you see anything familiar, then that's all her, not me (because dammit, her ideas work for me so she gets credit!).

Summer semester finally arrived and Jimmy Hopkins couldn't be more relieved. He couldn't believe the amount of studying and work he actually pulled off on his own. He passed his classes with mostly Bs and Cs and he was glad that he didn't have to concentrate as hard during the summer time. During this phase, students who were struggling throughout the year could play catch up with their studies. For Jimmy, however, it meant living on easy street until fall semester arrived.

From his closet he pulled out a simple white shirt, a pair of favorite jeans, and sneakers. Once he was dressed, he grabbed his skateboard from under his bed and literally flew out of the room. Taking a sharp left, he avoided colliding into Pedro and the water fountain he was drinking out of, and was soon outside of the Boys Dorm.

"YEEEHAH!" he shouted as he leaped into the air, placed the skateboard under his feet, and landed smoothly against the cement ground. "That was awesome!"

He skateboarded away from the Boys Dorm and maneuvered himself straight over to the Girls Dorm. He was hoping to find Zoe because he wanted to go on one of their fun dates but then he noticed a familiar blonde sitting on the front steps of the dorm.

Small, boney, blonde haired, blue eyed, and looking absolutely miserable, Jimmy hadn't seen sight or sound of Tabitha Bailey since their last encounter during the beginning of spring semester, when she was serving her in-school suspension. He had delivered a letter to her from Petey and learned that her room was moved to the attic.

I'm surprised she's still around, he thought as he moved closer and closer to the dorm. She is one messed up chick. It's like she's got two sides of her that she can't control. I could never be with someone like that. It'd drive me insane. She's living in a fantasy world.

Since learning of her suspension, Gary didn't seem the least bit bothered. He simply went about his usual activities without a care in the world. Once in a great while, whenever he was with Jimmy or Petey, he'd make a comment about "the missing leech" but other than that, it was like she never existed. Besides, the thought of Gary caring about anybody but himself was ludicrous. It would be like Algie getting to first base with Pinky—it was never going to happen.

Just as he rolled under the stone archway of the Girls Dorm, Peanut sped past him and almost knocked him over.

"Watch it!" Jimmy shouted, but as he regained his balanced, a prefect pushed him past him, apparently chasing after Peanut. "Damn!"

Jimmy slipped off of his skateboard and fell to the ground. His skateboard rolled harmlessly over to the grass that grew over by the stairs of the Girls Dorm. As he lied on his back, a familiar face leaned over him.

"Are you okay, Jimmy?" Tabitha asked.

"That... sucked..." Jimmy grunted as he sat up and shook his head. "Dammit, I'm gonna have a word with that Grease ball next time." He looked up at Tabitha and thought, Why am I always falling off my damn skateboard whenever she's around?

Never the less, Jimmy kept his cool and greeted her. "Hey. What's up?"

"... Nothing much."

Tabitha sat back on her heels as Jimmy rolled over, got up, and retrieved his skateboard from a patch of wildflowers. As he came back, he said to Tabitha, "You fixed your voice."

Tabitha blinked. "I... did?"

"Yeah, you aren't stuttering."

"The therapists said I should think about what I want to say before I say it. Apparently I stuttered because I got too excited and I couldn't... focus my thoughts properly before talking. So I do a lot of pausing now because I don't... I don't want to stutter."

"Right. Okay. That's good." Jimmy bid farewell to Tabitha as he walked over to the main doors. He was going to waltz in as he always did, despite the fact that boys were not allowed inside the dorm.

"Hang on a sec."

Tabitha stood up from the ground and hurried over to his side. She looked at him square in the eyes and asked, "How's... How's Petey doing?"

Jimmy shrugged. "Petey's fine. Same ol' dork as always. He's trying to beat his old top score on that Future Racer game"

"Oh... Okay..." Tabitha smiled some as her blue eyes glanced sideways momentarily. "Um..."

Jimmy groaned and stopped her before she could speak. "If you're gonna ask about Gary, forget it. I don't keep track of what that guy does. I could care less—just as long as he's not pissing me off."

"J-Jimmy, w-wait!" Tabitha grabbed him by the sleeve of his shirt and tugged on it rather violently. Apparently the Tabitha he was talking to was quickly replaced by this manic female. "G-Gary! Is... Is Gary still around? I have to know—I have to know!!"

"Hey!" Jimmy yanked his arm and sleeve out of her grasp and took a few steps back, almost falling down the stairs. "Relax, Tabitha! You're turning crazy on me again!"

"Jimmy," Tabitha gasped as she threw herself against him and clutched his shirt with her fists. "It hurts so much... I need him... I-I need him!"

"Will you quit being so dramatic with me?!" Jimmy exclaimed as he placed his hands on her shoulders and pried her off of his chest. "Calm down. You haven't seen Gary since your suspension?"

She lowered her head and sadly replied, "N-No... Oh, Jimmy! It was h-h-horrible! Oh no, my stuttering's back... because I can't focus!"

Her head snapped back up as her blue eyes widened with excitement. "Gary is my focus! Seeing him makes my days go by so smoothly! But I haven't seen him for so long! I constantly think about him! Even after my suspension I wasn't allowed to see him! And I haven't seen you or Petey and... and...! At least seeing you two makes me feel a little bit better... but it's not good enough!"

She drew in a sharp breath and grabbed a fistful of her own hair, shaking her head aggressively.

"I need to see him again!! Please, Jimmy! Let me see Gary! I NEED HIM!"

"I am NOT getting involved in this!" Jimmy stated as he turned his back on the blonde, already thinking about using the attic window to enter the dorm. "If you want to find Gary, you're on your own, sister."

"I'll pay you one hundred dollars!"

Jimmy froze and turned around, as Tabitha reached into her pocket and produced a single Benjamin Franklin. The crisp bill was held between two fingers and for a second, he wondered where she had gotten that much money. As far as he knew, she didn't communicate with her family and she didn't have a job... Oh well. Money was money, no matter where it came from.

He went back over to Tabitha and snatched the bill from her fingers.

"I'm in," he announced as he slipped the bill inside his back pocket. "This'll make up for what you did to me last winter. Zoe's gonna have to wait. But could you stop pulling your hair? You're gonna go bald quicker."

Tabitha cried out for joy and shouted, "Thanks, Jimmy...!"

So the two teenagers left the Girls Dorm in search of Gary. Jimmy rode his skateboard but went slow enough for Tabitha to keep up. He still couldn't believe how much someone could adore Gary. The word alone sounded crazy! Adore? Gary? She hadn't seen him since winter and yet she was still nuts about him. To Jimmy, she was like a puppy that was often kicked around. He knew Gary would never miss an opportunity to kick a small puppy. She was in desperate need of affection and she'd do anything to be by his side.

Why anybody would let themselves be treated that way, I'll never know, Jimmy thought darkly as he led Tabitha inside and through the halls of the main. All the while, he thought about his mother and her many relationships. The guys she landed were all losers, sure, but none of them had ever treated her so badly like Gary did to Tabitha. If he'd even seen an inch of harm on his mother, Jimmy would've shown the guy no mercy. But ever since Jimmy's known Tabitha, she hadn't shown any signs of being abused physically—that was, beyond the pushing and shoving she endured.

Gary's not a complete monster, I'll give him that. Now where the hell is that jackass?

As they roamed the building, Jimmy kept an eye on Tabitha and made sure nobody caused her harm. After all, she paid him one hundred dollars just to find Gary. It was the most money anybody ever paid him and he was going to make sure he helped her just so he could get more money from her later on, if she ever needed anything else done (that didn't require sacrificing his dignity). She was nuts, but she had money.

Jimmy didn't want to ask anybody for Gary's whereabouts, only because he knew nobody wanted to have anything to do with him. So he kept his wits about him and decided to take the search outside. With Tabitha following him as best as she could, he skateboarded a little faster as they made their way to the gym. It was possible that Gary still had P.E. around that time of the day (as Tabitha did, until her classes were switched around for the spring semester) so he decided this would be his next bet.

"You all right back there?" Jimmy asked as he got off his skateboard and decided to walk the rest of the way.

Tabitha caught up with him and bent over, trying to catch her breath. "I'm... I'm fine..." she breathed as she ran her fingers through her short mop of hair. "Just not... used to all this walking around... Never realized... how big our school was..."

Jimmy stopped in his tracks and waited for her. "Didn't Gary make you run around this whole place for something or another?" he asked.

"Yeah... but that was... a few months ago," she replied between breaths. "Since then, I pretty much... just go to school and to my room."

"Uh-huh. Well, here we are at the gym and according to my watch..."

Jimmy glanced at the wristwatch he wore and saw that it was three o'clock. The bell rang not a moment too soon and students gradually began to pour through the gym doors. Jimmy and Tabitha waited by the basketball courts and watched as familiar faces walked pass them, but none of them belonged to Gary. They waited as long as fifteen minutes and there was still no sign of Gary.

Jimmy sighed in frustration. He asked himself, "Why is it whenever I want to find that asshole, he's nowhere to be found? But when I don't want him around, he shows up? Don't tell me I have to do THAT to attract him."

Tabitha looked absolutely heart broken. She tugged on Jimmy's sleeve and said, "The nurse's office."

"Say, what?"

"The nurse's office," she repeated as she pointed back to the main building. "If... If I remember correctly, he goes to therapy around this time. A doctor visits him and talks to him in the nurse's office."

"Grrr, why didn't you tell me this before?" Jimmy asked in annoyance. "We didn't have to be standing out here in the first place!"

"I-I forgot," Tabitha replied with a blush across her face. "I-I'm sorry, Jimmy."

He rolled his eyes and said, "Forget it. Let's just get moving."

They quickly went back over to the main building. Once inside they walked over to the nurse's office, only to learn that Gary wasn't there.

At this point, Jimmy was getting tired of looking for Gary. He was tired enough that he was willing to give her money back when around the corner, the wanted man made his appearance.

Gary Smith stopped in his tracks as he saw both Jimmy and Tabitha in front of the closed door to the nurse's office. A small, thin smile appeared across his lips.

"I didn't know you were so worried about me," Gary said as he approached them, all too eager to talk to someone. "Don't worry the meds haven't driven me to the point of wanting to kill everybody in school. So hold off the celebration balloons until then, Hopkins. So what's going on here?"

That's when Mount Tabitha erupted: "GARY!!!"

Like a lost child reunited with its parent, Tabitha threw herself at Gary. She tackled him against a nearby garbage can, tipping it over in the process, and crashed to the ground; but she didn't seem to be phased at all. Gary was flat on his back, groaning while Jimmy couldn't help but snicker at the sight.

Gary sat up and forced Tabitha's arms off of him. He rubbed the back of his neck and glared at Jimmy.

"Shut up," he moaned as he shook his head and stood up alongside Tabitha. "Now my meds are gonna get mixed up inside my head."

"Yeah, whatever, Gary," Jimmy replied with a wave of his hand. "So there you go, Tabitha. Anything else you need, you know where I'm at."

Tabitha nodded and with her arms wrapped around Gary's arm, she shouted, "Thanks, Jimmy! You're worth the money!"

Gary suddenly jerked his head at Tabitha. Without warning, he pushed Tabitha over the tipped over garbage can and leaning over, he exclaimed, "You paid this moron to find me? You idiot! You should've saved that money something worthwhile!"

"I-I'm sorry, Gary," Tabitha apologized as she tried to sit up off the ground. "I-I should've... known better..."

That's when Jimmy reached for Gary, grabbed a fistful of his shirt and shoved his back against the wall.

"Man, what's your problem?" Jimmy yelled as he shoved him against the wall again, this time harder. "She obviously cared enough about you to want to find your ass and this is how you treat her?"

Gary's eyes narrowed and his gaze stared seethingly into Jimmy's. He swiftly brought his arm up and broke Jimmy's hold on his shirt. Then he pushed Jimmy back as he went over and roughly helped Tabitha get to her feet, albeit not too gracefully.

"Relax, James," Gary said, saying his name with much emphasis. "She knows I don't mean anything by it. Isn't that right, Leech?"

Tabitha gasped in excitement as she hugged Gary's arm. "I could never be mad at a brilliant genius like you, Gary! Everything you do is for a good reason!"

Gary threw an arrogant smile at Jimmy and said, "See?"

Jimmy rolled his eyes for the second time and shook his head in disbelief. He couldn't even begin to comprehend this bizarre relationship they had and frankly, he didn't want to get anymore involved than he already had. Harassing girls wasn't anything new at Bullworth—it was just highly discouraged. Anybody caught doing so would get into serious trouble. However, Tabitha didn't seem to mind the way Gary pushed her around. Whatever he did was okay in her eyes—it was expected.

"You know something, Leech?" Gary said after he ordered Tabitha to pick up the mess they made by tipping over the garbage bin, "I was just thinking about you."

The blonde paused and looked up at him hopefully. "Y-You... You were?"

"Yeah." Gary smiled innocently (not good, in Jimmy's opinion). "I was thinking... How boring this school is, and how dull everybody's lives are here. I was going to replace you with somebody else but when I saw you with Jimmy I realized... you bring me something fun! Who else can bring such live entertainment? Jimmy Hopkins, aged sixteen, sexually confused and whose mother thought joining the church meant doing the missionary position night after night."

At that instant, Jimmy saw red.

The second time... That was the SECOND time that bastard dissed his mother! The first time happened last year and that's when he kicked Gary's ass by falling through the school's rooftop. This time he wouldn't let him get away so easily!

He threw a punch across Gary's jaw, followed by a kick to his knees. With one hand, Jimmy grabbed Tabitha and pulled her away so she wouldn't get hurt. With his other hand, he threw another punch, this time at Gary's stomach. However, Gary was ready to retaliate. Despite getting his knee kicked in and stomach punched, Gary was able to push himself forward and tackle Jimmy to the ground. Once on top of Jimmy, he drove his knee into Jimmy's groin, causing the boy much discomfort. Before he could do any further damage, a couple of prefects were seen running down the hall, shouting at them.

"Shit," Gary hissed under his breath as he quickly climbed off of Jimmy. He remained calm, despite the panic he was feeling within. He knew if he got into any sort of trouble, he would be thrown out of school for good.

By the time Jimmy was able to catch his breath and shakily climb to his feet, the prefects had arrived.

"What's going on here?!" the first prefect, a tall burly senior with a buzz cut, demanded. Looking over at Jimmy, he asked, "Where is your uniform, young man?"

Tabitha hid behind Gary and slowly realized what she had to do. Poor Jimmy... Jimmy only helped her find Gary. He only warned her about Gary in the beginning. He only tolerated her presence after what she did to him last winter. He'd done so much for her. She knew had to do the right thing...

"U-Um... Excuse me..." Tabitha meekly called out to the prefects as she emerged from her hiding spot.

"What're you doing?" Gary whispered harshly. He remained planted in his spot as Tabitha slipped away from his side and approached the two members of the student body.

She threw a sorrowful glance at Gary and quietly murmured to the prefects, "... it was Jimmy's fault. H-He... He started it."

Though her voice was hushed, Jimmy clearly heard his name as if she'd spoken it through the loud speaker. His jaw dropped in shock as he tried to will away the last remaining bit of pain from his groin. Gary turned away and tried not to laugh out loud by biting down on his lower lip.

The second prefect, a smaller but much rounder senior, looked at Jimmy and asked, "Is this true? You started this mess, Hopkins?"

Before he could answer, Tabitha exclaimed, "H-He was trying to grope me! And... and Gary saw it and tried to stop him...! It was horrible!"

"WHAT?!" Jimmy cried as he glared at her. "The hell--Tabitha?! What're you saying? You know that's a lie!"

Tabitha said nothing. The tall prefect grabbed Jimmy roughly by the arm and said, "You know damn well the rules of this school. Harassing girls or children will earn you serious punishment!"

"Punish this!" Jimmy retorted as he took his arm back and stomped on the prefect's foot. He pushed him back into the smaller, rounder prefect and took off running. The two prefects quickly gave chase, leaving Gary and Tabitha alone in the hallways.

Tabitha fell to her knees and was panting heavily. She'd never been so nervous before! The sheer adrenaline she gained when she talked to the seniors had vanished, leaving her weak and... oddly enough, proud.

"Why'd you do that?" Gary asked as he scratched the side of his head.

Tabitha chuckled lightly as she turned around, still sitting on her knees. Looking up at him, she explained, "I don't want you going anywhere, Gary. I'd do anything to keep you here. I'll do whatever it takes to keep your brilliance shining at Bullworth Academy."

"... Huh. I guess I'm... flattered." He paused momentarily then said, "You know Jimmy's gonna be pretty pissed off at you."

She smiled at him. "It's okay because I only need you! I live to serve!"

She got up off her knees and dusted her uniform skirt. Then she clasped her hands together and asked, "Did you miss me?"

Instead of answering her question, Gary asked, "What happened to your hair? Last winter it looked like Russell took a fat dump on your head."

"Did you like it? I tried to get your same hair color! But I guess I can never imagine being anywhere near as perfect as you, Gary!"

"All right, shut up already. We're gonna steal a bicycle from the garage and head into town. You have a lot of paper routes and lawn mowing to do if you're gonna make up the money you wasted on Hopkins."

Tabitha happily attached herself to Gary's arm as they made their way through the empty halls of the school and over to the nearest exit. Gary managed to push her off of his arm; this didn't bother Tabitha as she simply nipped at his heels like a happy little puppy that's been kicked around so many times.

No matter how badly her master treats her, she's always eager to be with him.

THE END

Author's Notes #2: I'll probably add more stories to this series as the ideas come along to me. Please let me know what you think! A special thank you to all who've reviewed "Extra Baggage" and the rest of my Bully fics! You guys rock!