September 1, 2013

Chrysanthemum sat back in her chair, and sighed loudly. It hadn't even been a minute and Crabblesnitch was already getting on her nerves.

"We can't have repeats of last year, Skelton." she could hear him saying. "You nearly got expelled, and you are aware that the only reason you're still here is because of your father, right?"

"Sure, Crabblesnitch."

"Hm?"

"I mean, yessir."

"And another thing, I see you and Gary Smith have a few classes together this year. I don't want you two causing anymore disturbances. Another thing we don't want a repeat of."

Chrys, bored and agitated, crossed her arms over her chest and glanced sideways at her family. Her father, step-mother, and three year old half-brother.

Her father and his blond hair, blue eyes, and icy white skin. His hard eyes, his perfect teeth, his sickly fake smile, his clenched fists. Her step-mother and her blonde hair, green eyes, and fake tanned skin. Her softer eyes permanently bloodshot from crying, her mouth with missing teeth, her smile that was once genuine but isn't anymore, her hands and their various scars. Her half-brother and his dirty blond hair, green eyes, and his innocence. Chrys and her brown hair, brown eyes, and olive skin. Her suspicious eyes, her crooked and chipped teeth, her cocky half smile, her shaking hands.

On the outside, she supposed they seemed like a picture perfect family. But they really weren't. Not in the slightest.

"Chrysanthemum Skelton!" Crabblesnitch yelled, knocking her out of her trance. "Are you even listening?"

Chrys shrugged slightly and said smugly, "No, sir, I wasn't. I was looking at my father, step-mother, and half-brother wondering how the fuck we ended up like we did — "

"Skelton, watch your language!"

" — and then, I was about to start wondering how out of place I must look among this family because I'm the only one who's not whiter than snow, but I was rudely interrupted — "

"Okay, I think our time here is pretty much done." Crabblesnitch said with a fake smile, standing up from his desk and gesturing for the family to leave. "Miss Danvers, can you please escort the Skelton's out?"

Almost instantly, the woman Chrys knew to be Miss Danvers appeared in Crabblesnitch's doorway, and smiled sweetly. Then gestured for Chrys and her parents to follow behind her. With Crabblesnitch's office behind her, Chrys smirked slightly, but the smirk didn't last long.

"What in the living fuck is wrong with you?" her father whispered violently, grabbing onto Chrys' shoulders. Trent (who was the son of Chrys' step-mother, making him her step-brother) had joined them, and she smiled at him, before her father snapped her back toward himself. "Do you know how much money I've had to pay to keep you in this place? Hm? I personally think the money would be better spent sending you to prison, but no. I'm a good man, and I kept my children in school."

"Yes, a very good man..." she said slowly, eye narrow. "That's why you almost got charged for fraud a little while ago, right?"

"Shut the fuck up! Shut up!"

"And also why I have scars, and Trent had scars, and my mother has scars, and my brother has scars, and everybody around you had scars, right?" Chrys mocked loudly, enough to get the attention of a few surrounding students. "Oh, but it must just be a coincidence that I come back every fall with bruises and cuts and new scars on my face. Because you're such a good man."

"Keep your voice down — "

But instead Chrys raised it. "And because you're a very respectable, noteworthy man, you'd never hurt a fly."

"Yes, I have heard of your father's respectability." someone Chrys instantly recognized said behind her. "He seems like a wonderful man."

"Indeed," Chrys said back, unlatching herself from the grips of her father, and turning to find Gary Smith, her infamous boyfriend. "And since Gary and I have seen how great you truly are, it must be true. We never tell lies."

"I can vouch for that one," Trent pipped up, smirking.

"Thanks, brother dearest." Chrys bowed slightly, taking Gary's hand in hers.

"You are very welcome, sister dearest." he said back, in a slightly mocking tone.

Chrys' father sighed angrily for a moment, and she could tell he really wanted to slap her. But he couldn't — not in public. He wouldn't dare risk tainting his perfect reputation. So he internalized it, but Chrys could see the rage waiting to explode at the surface. She felt bad for her step-mother, but she wasn't any better. She just wasn't physical with her abuse.

Often times what she said would hurt. But Chrys wouldn't let her know that it hurt, so her step-mother would just keep doing it. And Trent was like Chrys in the way that he wouldn't say anything, but even worse. Once, his mother had told him he was a mistake when he was younger, and he really never forgot. It was the sort of thing he only remembered when he didn't want to, and it had fucked him up pretty bad in the mental department. Another time, she had told Chrys that the Italian part of her was dirty. But Chrys thought all of her was dirty, really.

"We better get going, sweetheart." her step-mother cooed, holding her husbands shoulder tightly as if he might get away. "We've got that party to go to... at the Harrington's, remember?"

Her father grunted, and said, "You remember to keep that nose clean, got it?"

Venomously, Chrys snapped, "I got it. Don't worry." And watched with narrowed eyes as her parents left down the stairs, and out the door.

"So..." Gary said after a moment, "have you heard about the new kid?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Hopkins kid, right?" Chrys said shortly after waving goodbye to Trent. "The one coming from who the fuck knows because there's no other schools to take him. Yeah, I've heard about him."

"I say we make acquaintances with him, and see where it takes us." Gary said smoothly, grabbing Chrys' hips and pulling her into a hug. "I've got a plan for this year, and I think he might be able to help us."

"What's the plan?"

"I'll tell you later when it's more developed, okay babe?"

"Sure." Chrys smiled, pulling her head back to kiss Gary's cheek. "You want to go find Petey?"

Gary sighed, and rolled his eyes. "Do we have to?"

"He's our friend, Gary."

"Your friend," Gary corrected, "I don't have friends. They're for the weak."

Leading Gary down the stairs by his hand, Chrys asked, "If you don't have friends, then what am I?"

"The exception." he said smiling.

"Cheesy."

"You're the one who asked."

And as Chrys swung open the doors of the academy to the outside, she cringed. Bullworth Academy was a gong show. And that was putting it lightly.

If someone was really far away, couldn't see, and had no idea how students should interact with each other, Bullworth might feel like a functioning school. But it wasn't. Chrys had been attending since she was nine, and every year since then something horrible had happened to someone, and several times with several different people.

Details weren't really Chrys' strong suit, but something she had witnessed when she was eleven really made her realize how bad Bullworth was. And she didn't like to get into it since it brought back bad memories. But as a general thing, a friend she once had named Jordan had gotten himself into some trouble, and some of the townie kids decided it was time to show him what was up. But they took it a little too far, and... bad memories. Chrys had witnessed the entire thing, and so had Johnny Vincent (but he didn't like to think about it much either).

Anyway, there was also the problem of bullying at Bullshit Academy. The raging cliques had a social order when it came to everything, and those cliques down near the bottom often had it the worst.

At the top of the food chain there were the jocks. The typical sporty, rude, overzealous teenagers who were all pumped with steroids.

Next in line were the greasers. They brought the 50's back with their greased hair and leather jackets, and most of them were pretty nice, but only if you knew them well.

Next was the preps, otherwise known as the south side rich kids. They were all money and condescending attitudes, plus most (if not all, but Chrys couldn't remember) spoke in faux British accents, and (possibly worst of all) they were all inbred.

After the preps came the bullies, and that was the clique her step-brother Trent fit into. They were basically exactly what their title said — bullies — and they wasn't anything particularly outstanding to them except for the fact that they were assholes.

And last and always least, there was the nerds. The typical "still haven't hit puberty, but have the sex drive of a million teenaged boys" nerds, and also the "I'm pathetic and can't defend myself" nerds.

Basically, the Bullworth student body was a giant shit hole. Chrys couldn't wait to see the new kids face when he realized how messed up Bullworth was.

"Hey, Chrys." Christy, a girl in the year above Chrys, waved as Gary and Chrys walked by. "Have you heard about how Lola got — "

Chrys quickly turned around, "Listen, not right now. Definitely later. But not now. Have you seen Pete around?"

"Pete?"

"Y'know, Pete? The short kid with the pink shirt."

"OH! Yeah, that kid." she said sweetly, pointing in the direction of the gates. "His dad just dropped him off."

"Kay. Thanks, Angie."

"I'm Christy."

"Dammit... uh, Christy. Thanks." Chrys said, embarrassed that she had forgotten her name. "Catch you later."

Christy raised an eyebrow, and crossed her arms over her chest. Chrys could tell she was insulted by the name mixup, but she wasn't saying anything. If Chrys knew Christy as well as she thought, she'd definitely go talk about it later, though. Probably spreading some rumour about how Chrys was suffering from memory loss. Christy was just like that, and there wasn't ever going to be a change.

"Ah, there's the little bitch now." Gary said loudly, pointing at the slight boy with his back turned. "I can already hear his annoying, squeaky voice."

"Hey, play nice." Chrys said.

"What? It's not my fault he's literally the worst to be around." Gary snapped.

Chrys rolled her eyes, and as they approached Pete yelled, "Hey, hey, hey, Petey!"

She saw him jump a little, but calm down when he realized it was just Gary and Chrys — his two sort of friends. "Oh, hey." He grunted as he put a large suitcase onto the sidewalk, and looked them over cautiously. He'd be damned if he was getting pranked on the first day of school.

"Looking for pranks, Pete?" Gary smirked. "Well don't worry. I'm giving you a little time to warm up before the fun begins."

"Awesome." Pete said sourly, cocking an eyebrow. "Really appreciate it."

"Consider it an early birthday present."

"My birthday was over the summer. It already passed." Pete said.

"Consider it an early Christmas present." Gary corrected himself, a smirk on his lips.

Chrys laughed a little, and ran her hand across Gary's back. In a moment, she wondered how the school year was going to go, but it quickly all vanished when she heard Gary gasp slightly. She quickly turned to look at him and, upon seeing he had his head turned toward the gate, snapped her head that way.

"Holy shit... That's the new kid?" Chrys said quietly, removing her herself from Gary, and taking a few steps toward the gate. "He's looks rough."

"You look rough too, you two will get along then." Pete said.

She swung her hand at his stomach, and hit him right underneath the ribs. "Shut it."

"Well, should one of us go talk to him?" Gary said.

"I don't know..."

"Uh, yeah..." Pete said softly, holding his stomach. "And I vote Chrys takes one for the team."

"Why? You scared he'll crush you like the delicate flower you are?" Chrys snapped back.

"No, no no... Chrys, you should go." Gary agreed, shoving her slightly forward and taking a few steps back. "Maybe if the first person he talks to is a hot girl he'll warm up to us faster." he smirked, and Chrys stuck out her tongue.

"Whatever, fine." Chrys held up her hands in defeat. "I'll go."

As she started toward the new Hopkins kid, she started to see exactly how rough he looked. From a far, someone wouldn't really be able to make it out, but up close he was definitely a delinquent. He even had a single ear piercing, which was almost always a telltale sign of someone who caused trouble. Chrys liked him already.

"Miss Danvers — " she said loudly as she reached the new kids side and Miss Danver's side as well. She always greeted new kids at the gates. " — may I please have a moment to introduce myself to the new boy?"

"Actually, Skelton, we were just — "

"Uh, too bad." Chrys spoke over her, turning to look the new kid directly in the eyes. "Hello, new kid, my name's Chrysanthemum Skelton. But most just call me Chrys."

He looked awed for a moment, before he narrowed his eyes. "Um... hey, Chrys. I'm Jimmy."

Chrys smiled charmingly, and then took a step to the side to reveal Gary and Pete who were standing quite a bit away observing. "If you ever need anything, you can come find me, or either of my two friends over there. Welcome to Bullshit Academy, Jimmy." And with that, she turned quickly and left, just narrowly avoiding a stern lecture about swearing from Miss Danvers.

"How'd it go?" Pete asked as Chrys made it back, an angry looking Miss Danvers in the background.

"Fine... I think."

"Well, does he seem like he'd be a helpful attribute to the plan?" Gary asked, arms crossed over his chest.

"You never told me the plan, babe. Remember?"

Gary cocked an eyebrow, confusion on his face. But it quickly swept away, never to be seen again. "Right... well how does he seem? Okay? Smart? Someone we could befriend — "

"I thought you didn't have friends." Chrys interrupted, eyebrows raised. He looked a bit angry for a moment, but when he realized Chrys had realized, he smiled. That was the only thing she hated about Gary — he could flip emotions in a fraction of a second.

"Very clever, darling." Gary said sarcastically.

Chrys, sensing the sarcasm, said, "Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week."

"Unfortunately." Pete said.

"Ha ha, fuck you." she said, ruffling Pete's hair.

Momentarily, Pete looked like he might defend himself, but it quickly vanished away. He wasn't one for confrontation. Especially with friends. To be honest, Chrys thought it might be because he had so little that any chance to lose somebody must to have been avoided. But she didn't know. Quite frankly, she didn't care much either.

The sun hung high in the sky, and there was an abundance of dark, storm clouds on the horizon. Chrys figured rain would most likely be inevitable by the next morning, but she couldn't know for sure. Weather had always been unpredictable in Bullworth. Maine state had a weird way of being like that. The only thing Chrys missed about Califonia was the predictability. But regardless, Chrys felt a little bad for the new kid Jimmy Hopkins. First day in Bullworth and it rains. Just like Chrys' first day.

Presently, however, the weather was that sort of chilly that's not really chilly and is actually comforting. Chrys couldn't make sense of it. But Gary didn't seem to notice when she was lost in thought about this occurrence, or when she was stumbling just behind them ignoring the oncoming nerds, or when she ran directly into a nerd she was incredibly not fond of. When he did notice, the insults had already started flying, and there's no way to put back together an exploded bomb.

"Watch where you're going, psycho!" Algie, a rather large nerd with a slight lisp and an unfortunate disposition, snapped. His books and papers were already all over the ground, and it was only the first day. "What? Were you lost in your little sociopathic daydream?"

"Oh, bite me, pee stain." Chrys yelled back, shoving his shoulder so aggressively that some of the kids around sensed a physical fight coming on. "I'm not a sociopath, I'm a psychopath. If you're gonna insult me, at least get the terminology right."

Algie, having forgotten about the nickname he'd received as a result of peeing his pants when he got nervous, frowned. He hated the nickname, especially coming from Chrys. The whole thing just drove him mental. Tears were present in his eyes, but he knew better than to cry in front of bullies. They wanted power. Crying meant less power. At least that's what his mother said.

"You're making me really angry!" he yelled. "You're gonna regret it!"

"Yeah?" Chrys mocked. "And what're you gonna do about it? Punch me? You don't have the balls."

"Yeah I do!"

"Mmhm... is that why you went to shove me once and stopped because "I'm a girl"?" Chrys mocked, crossing her arms over her chest and smirking. "Because I don't think you have to balls to hit a me, let alone anybody."

Algie was silent for a moment too long, and Chrys took it as a win. Which, in a way, it was. Because he'd never be able to win against someone as oppressive as Chrys. And they both knew it. Everybody did.

"Oh wow, look what we have here... Algie not defending himself! Wow! What else is new?" Chrys exclaimed, an annoying sort of fake excitement in her voice. She hated him, and really wanted to drive that point in. "I really regret making you angry now... after I've seen what you can do."

There was silence on Algie's side. And she could see tears in his eyes.

"Awe, don't cry." Chrys said. "It only gives the bullies power, remember?"

"Shut up." Algie managed to say, but Chrys couldn't hear him over the lump in his throat.

"What?"

"SHUT UP!" he snapped, shoving Chrys backward as hard as he could. "Just go. You win."

Gary, witnessing the nerd he loathed shove his girlfriend, quickly ran over and grabbed Chrys' shoulders. He'd be damned if Chrys got a detention on the first day. It had happened once to him, and Crabblesnitch wasn't in the mood. Plus, Gary knowing Chrys and all, she would've killed Algie if she could.

Hands clasped on Chrys' shoulders tightly, Gary pulled her away from the nerd in the year under them, and through the crowd of teenagers now gathered around. Bullworth Academy had a thing for fights, and everybody had to be around if they were happening. And today wasn't an exception, but today Gary was also exceptionally pissed. Algie had touched his girlfriend, and Algie had called her names, and Algie was dumb, and he wanted to kill him. But that'd have to wait for another day.

"You're ridiculous..." Pete said as the trio reached the steps of the school. Far enough away that Chrys could blow off some stem without attacking Algie. "You've already picked a fight, and you've been here for twenty minutes tops."

Chrys rolled her eyes. "Whatever, man. At least I'm not a passive "oh I'll let you stomp all over me" kinda person like you."

"I'm not passive."

"Pete, you let a twelve year old kid take your twenty bucks because she threatened you with a sharpened pencil." Gary said.

"And also let Ted and Damon swirly you without a fight." Chrys added.

Pete sighed, and sat back onto his luggage. "Whatever."

"Whatever..." Chrys mocked.

And in that moment, Pete could feel the rage building up inside of him. But Chrys knew he'd never say anything. And he knew too.