As I walked in the school, I saw students scattered around everywhere.
Voices filled up through the school. I heard Gary's voice speak up through the noise.
"Hey Francois, come here and I'll show you and Jimmy around this prison!" He says.
I ran up to them and scowled at Gary. "It's Francis, Garfield." I say jokingly, he scoffs." Not, Francois."
"If you say so, now follow me." He runs off, Jimmy follows.
He runs to the right side of the school and takes a left. He stops behind the corner, Jimmy and I stop near him. We see a huge shaved gorilla standing near a row of lockers. He was wearing the same version of the uniform as the other guys I had a run in with.
Gary points at the guy. "That's Russell's locker," He turns to Jimmy. "You know, the big ape who almost put you in the hospital."
"He sorta looks like a naked sasquatch." I whisper to Gary and Jimmy.
Russell starts to walk off, still not noticing us. I feel Gary touch my back. I look back at him.
"If Jimmy met him, It's your turn too." I feel my eyes go wide. He's not serious, is he?
"No, Gary, seriously, don't do this!" I pleaded with him.
"Francis, believe in the me that believes in myself and believe in the you that believes in me." He says. What the hell does that mean?
"So… does that mean you believe in me?"
"What? No, why would I do that? Now get out there." He says. That actually kinda hurt...
Then, he shoves me out of our hiding spot. I stumble and slam myself into Russell's stomach. The force made me fall over. Russell picks me up by the back of my shirt, then let's go.
He starts banging on his chest. "Raaaaarrh!" He lets out a primal roar.
I look around, not too sure what to do. What can I do really? Wait, besides this.
I quickly turn around and try to run off. But, my plan was thwarted when I felt him forcefully grab the back of my collar. He pulled me back and turned me around. I feel like if this were a cartoon, there would be steam coming out of his ears. Yeah, that's how angry he was….
He grabbed me by the front of my collar and pulled me close to his face. Suddenly, I'm starting to realize this isn't a cartoon. "Hey, new kid, I'm the boss!" He shouts in my face. "ME. RUSSELL!"
I think I got it the first time. "Look man, I'm sorry. It was just an accident!" I start nodding my head to let him know I understand.
He holds out his hand. "Money!" He says angrily.
"...W-what?" I ask confused.
"Give Russell all money, now!" He demands.
All of it? I have like fifty bucks in my pocket! Let's hope he isn't a bright guy... I take whatever a fistful is could get me in my pocket. "Here! This is…." I take a quick look at it. "Two dollars, it's all I really have!"
He snatches the money from me. If he weren't so big, this would be a different story! I can just feel my hand reaching out for the money back…
"Sure you don't want a breath mint too?" Why did I say that?!
He brings his hand to his mouth and breathes out, then sniffs it. He shrugs, then turns his attention back to me. " You don't know what pain is!" He says. Clearly, I feel like I'm gonna find out.
He raises up his right hand, and smacks me in the face. The force was so hard, I did a one-eighty. I groan in pain, cupping my cheek in pain. Slightly bent over, I see Gary with a sick smile on his face while Jimmy is just cringing.
"Christ, that freakin' stings." I yelp in pain. Russell then grabs a hold of my underwear. Oh, damn.
He yanks them right up. I let out a very high pitched scream, which I didn't know I had it in me. I feel my feet leaving the ground, just dangling. He lets go and I can't move, it hurts so much. I see Gary full on slamming his head on a wall trying to hold in his laughter, Jimmy was literally shaking his head. This was honestly not that funny. He shoves me to the ground and walks away. I don't think he saw Jimmy or Gary.
After a few seconds, I finally have feeling on my lower body. All I see is nothing but the ceiling. I hear footsteps. I see Jimmy and Gary fill my vision. Gary had the same little shit eating grin while Jimmy went right back to cringing.
"Francis, there's a lesson in this, never trust anyone in Bullworth. You don't know what they might do." He looks over at Jimmy. "Well, help him up." Jimmy walks over and gives me his hand. I take it and he picks me up.
"I think he tore something." I say, while rubbing my rear end. I look at Jimmy. "Will you check for me?"
He stares at me. "Not a chance, man…" I thought so.
Gary walks up to me and slings his arm over my neck. "Don't worry, my friend. You have a way to get back at him." I hobble with him over to a locker with writing on it. It looks pretty rusted up.
"How?" I urge him on to continue.
"Much like I thought, you're a wimp and cowardly. Man, you really are French." He teases.
"Gee, thanks Gary. You're really giving me the welcome wagon." I say, oozing with sarcasm.
Gary points to the rusted locker. "Go break into Russell's locker and take something." Gary says, maliciously.
"So, you want me to pick his locker… after I just bitched out to him and gave 'em my money?" I stare at him, my eyebrow raised questioningly.
'Duh… You have picked a locker before, right?" He says, questioningly.
"Yeah," Now, he's insulted my talents. I'm gonna have to show him. "Check this out."
I put my ear close to the lock. I start twisting it to the left until I heard a snap. I turned it right and heard another snap. I twisted it to the right another time, this time I didn't hear anything. So, I turned to the left again, this time I heard another snap. I heard a clicking sound so I quickly opened the locker and looked inside.
"Well done, but don't let the prefects see you, their corrupt little turds who like to beat on the younger students." He warns me.
….. It was a dump. There was mold inside of the locker. How is mold inside of a locker? What the hell does he do in here? Why would I want anything in here? I think I see a picture of some chick's belly button, that's just freakin' creepy. A really dirty uniform shirt. And a stupid Bullworth cap, who would want this? Wait… are those stink bombs? No way, I'm taking these!
I snatch up three stink bombs, stash them away and slam the locker shut. When I turn around I see a guy standing on the opposite side, menacingly glaring at us. He had dark skin with black, faded hair. He was wearing a navy blue jacket and a pair gray slacks. He didn't look all that tall though, I think he was a little taller than Jimmy.
He started storming towards us. "You just made a serious mistake!" He sounds like he means business.
"It's a Prefect, don't let him catch you!" Gary yells, immediately taking off running from Prefect. Jimmy quickly ran around the corner, away from him. That just left me, the kid who just got bitchslapped, wedgied and was hobbling around from intense ass pain. I am so screwed.
I gotta think, he's charging at me! Come on, Francis! You're the man with a plan, so come up with a plan. He was reaching out towards me.
That's when I got the idea…
I quickly pulled out a stink bomb from the stash in Russell's locker. This outta be fun. I lunge it at the Prefect and it crashes into his chest, erupting a horrible stink cloud around him. Luckily, I was out of reach. He started coughing and hacking, forgetting about me entirely. Taking advantage of the situation, I hobbled away around the corner. Gotta find a locker to hide in or something, I don't see any trash cans.
I tried to open a locker. It was locked. "Damn." I cursed under my breath. I can hear the Prefect catch his breath.
I tried another locker. That was locked. "Oh, fuckboy." Oh, god. I can hear his footsteps.
I went to another locker. I heard two separate footsteps this time. So, I prayed and hoped this one was it. I pushed it and it opened right up. I had a chance to get a glimpse at it. It seemed pretty girly… with a lot of pink. I hopped inside and closed it. Now to play the waiting game.
I heard the footsteps come closer and closer and closer. Until, they stopped. I looked through the opening slits of the locker. I expected to see a Prefect's jacket, but, instead I saw a school uniform vest. Wait… that's an Aquaberry vest. As in, expensive clothing line, Aquaberry. All I know is that this person is gonna open the locker.
Shit, the locker is opening. The locker slowly started to swing open. I braced myself for the worse.
What I saw wasn't as threatening as I expected. I saw a girl… a pretty one too. She had dark brown hair that was cut short and brown eyes. She had the Aquaberry vest over a white blouse and a Aquaberry skirt, brown shoes and golden jewelry around her hands and neck.
When she saw me, she her eyes went wide. I gave her a sheepish smile. Her eyes started to slowly squint at me. Great, now I made her mad. Then, I heard the Prefect come up.
"Excuse me." He says, the girl in front of me turns to him. "Have you seen a boy with a hairband run through here?" He asks.
She takes a look at me, with a scowl on her face possibly seeing my hairband. Her mouth slowly starts to open.
I quickly clasp my hands together in a pleading gesture with a sad puppy eyes. "I'll do anything if you don't tell him!" I say in a hushed tone.
"Anything…?" A wicked smile appears on her face. "Alright then"
She turns to the prefect with a smile.
"Sadly, I haven't seen anyone." Her eye glazes over to me, then back. "But, I will certainly let you know if I do, Mr. Branting." She says, waving him goodbye.
"I'll keep looking for him." I hear his feet start moving.
She turns back to me, staring me right in the eyes. "Well, I suppose I should be flattered that I have a stalker and all, but…" She shoves me, making me bounce against the inside of the locker. "That was a stupid thing to do! What were you thinking? Nice girls deserve nice things, not weirdos barging into their lockers."
I raise both hands in defense. "I didn't know this was your locker, this is actually my first day here so, I kinda ran into some trouble."
"Oh, you must be the other new kid." Was that really my title. OTHER new kid. " Well, since you're already in my locker, I guess I'll humor you. My name is Pinky Gauthier." Her name is actually Pinky?
I extend my hand. "I'm Francis, Francis Ghoulstone." She takes it. Her hand… it's so soft and smooth… Jesus, way to channel your inner creep, Ghoulstone. I shake it and let go, but she doesn't let go. I look up and she has a stern look on her face.
"Did I do something wrong?" I ask her. Besides, you know, barging into her locker while having a normal conversation with you.
"A princess extends her hand to you and all you do is shake it?" She says. A princess? I give her a confused look.
"S-should I like, kiss your hand?" I asked, puzzled.
"You're something else, aren't you. Though, I suppose I can forgive you just this once." She says in an exasperated tone. She points to a book while looking at me, I take the hint and give it to her. She lightly smiles at me then pulls out her phone, and raises its camera at me. She snaps a picture of me, the flash almost blinded me. Wait, why did she take a picture of me?
"Oh, and the badge makes you look kind of cute, in a odd, feminine, middle-class kind of way." She looks at my hair-band, then takes it. "This is even cuter, I'm gonna borrow it, thanks."
"Uh, I… I have a cat named, Mitch" What the hell is that supposed to mean to her?
"I love cats! You have to show me a picture of him sometime." I love that cat.
She wiggles her phone."I'm keeping the photo, good bye Francis. You owe me a favor for this." She winks at me and slams the locker. She said I was cute…
Wait! She closed the locker on me! And, I'm pretty sure she robbed me. And I'm pretty sure she called me feminine. I start banging on the locker. Hopefully, I don't attract any unwanted attention. "Anyone out there?!" I hear someone speak up.
"Welp, I think I found out where our buddy, Francis went to." I heard Gary say. "I'll let him out." Suddenly, the locker flung open, causing me to fall face first on the ground. I groan in pain and roll over to get up.
"C'mon, I still got a lot of stuff to show you two!" Gary starts taking off again. Jimmy follows behind. Do this two ever take five? I starts running after them.
Gary runs behind the stairwell and past the hallway, takes a left then to the bathroom. Once we get there, we see a girl coming from the girls bathroom.
"Oh man, there's that thing Eunice. Let's have fun with her." Gary points to her and looks at Jimmy. "Go, talk to her."
Jimmy starts reluctantly walk towards her and waves. " Hey, I'm Jimmy. Mind telling me what's wrong with you?" He says in a comforting tone.
She looks up while crying. She… contrary to the other girl, was not as pretty. "Constantinos… he took my chocolate from me and ran into the boy's bathroom. Please get it back for me." Chocolate… Seriously?
*Jimmy's POV*
This girl was crying in the bathroom… cause someone stole her chocolate. I hate this school already.
"Look, Jimmy will get the chocolate for you." Gary says. Excuse me, I'll do what? "He just loves helping people."
"Thanks, Jimmy!" Eunice says, happily. Oh man. Now I have to do it.
"Let's go, the bathroom is over their!" Gary says, taking off again. This guy is really starting to annoy me. Me and that Francis guy start following after him. He runs straight until we see the boys bathroom. We see a guy standing in their.
He was a short, skinny student with black hair that was combed backwards. He was wearing a dark teal Bullworth sweater with a white shirt and black tie, with tan pants and black shoes. I guess this is Constantinos.
Gary pushes me into the bathroom. "Go ahead and give it back." I start walking towards him. He looks up and sees me with the chocolate in his hands.
"Hey, uh, Constantinos, right?" I ask.
"What do you want?" Well, don't you sound happy.
"Give me Eunice's chocolate back." I say,making it clear I wasn't playing around. He grabs onto the chocolate tighter.
"Sure, I will, but you gotta pay for it." He says. He cannot be serious…
"I got a better idea. How about I do this instead." I grab onto his arm and start twisting the skin as hard as I could. He started yelping and slouching down. Gary started laughing in the background. Man, that guy really likes to see people in pain.
"Haha, the old Indian Burn." I hear that Francis kid say.
"Okay, okay, here's your stupid chocolate!" Constantinos wails. He gives me the chocolate and starts running away. I look back to Gary and Francis with the chocolate. The mission was accomplished.
"Now c'mon, that Eunice chick might give you something." Francis says, starting to run back to her. Gary stops him and glares at him.
"Hey, I'm the one who takes lead here." He warns, starting to run ahead. I look at Francis and shrug.
Francis cups his mouth and whispers into my ear. "I think that guy has problems, like, special problems…" No kidding. We start running after him to Eunice. She was in the exact same spot, still crying. Sheesh, take away her chocolate and that's her whole world gone.
"Hey, Eunice, here's your chocolate back." She giddily reaches out and takes it. Then, she stares at me and, oh god! Why was she blushing?
"Thanks… I was thinking… do you… wanna make out?" Oh for the love of god! No, no, no, not at all. I was going to slowly back away, but I was literally jumped on by her….
She was kissing me… She's touching me all over. She's putting her leg on me… Why won't any of them help me? God, her face is so pudgy and I taste chocolate…
*Francis P.O.V.*
I shielded my little boy eyes from what was happening in front of me. Gary was simply enjoying every minute of this. What is with this guy?
Jimmy eventually managing to get a grip on her, pushed her off him. He started wiping his mouth frantically. "Sheesh, that was… something." Poor guy must be traumatized.
"I'll remember this for the rest of my life." She exclaims. She starts happily running off. Gary just suddenly bursts out laughing.
"That's something I'm gonna save for therapy." I muttered.
"Haha, you actually kissed her!?" He looks at Jimmy, while clutching his stomach. "What is your damage, Hopkins?"
Jimmy shoves him. "I'm no more damaged then you are, man!" He started to spit on the floor. "God, I think she had chocolate on her mouth still…"
"Whatever…" Gary rolls his eyes. "Let's go to the cafe. Time I showed you how this prison really functions." He starts running off again. Really? More running...
Jimmy and I start running after him. After a short distance, we made it to the cafe. I see Pete at a table. Gary must have seen him as he went towards him.
Gary walks up to the table and sits down. I sit on the sit opposite of him and next to Pete while Jimmy sits next to him.
I look at Pete. "Hey, Peter… I get that, ya know, we haven't known eachother for a while or anything, but I feel like I can trust you."
Pete furrows his brows at me. "Dude, what are you talking about?" He starts sliding away as I scooched closer to him.
"I need for you to… Well, er, to look at my… my ass. I think it's bleeding." I say, as seriously as that sentence could be said.
"No."
"... I understand."
Gary impatiently smacks his hand on the table to grab our attention and raises his hands, unveiling everything around him. "Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to the Bullworth zoo…." He looks at both of us. "Alright, this is the rundown."
He points to a bunch of kids playing…. Oh, for god's sake.
"Over there is the nerds, who are complete social outcasts, obviously." Gary says, as a matter-of-factly.
"Of course they are, you don't play 'Grotto's and Gremlins' in public. That's just social suicide." I add.
"They don't look all that threatening…" Jimmy says, questioningly.
"They're actually sleazy little bastards who hang around the library mostly." Gary adds. Oh boy, how stereotypical.
He then points toward a couple of students wearing Aquaberry. I mean they are all wearing it, they must be rich. I even see that girl from before around the arms of some blowhard… Who am I kidding, this guy looks damn near perfect. I mean, look at his hair! Kind of a spirit breaker to see that.
"Those are the preps, who only care about money and have these condescending attitudes." Gary goes on.
"Yeah, entirely inbred trash, and just plain brainless morons." Jimmy adds on.
I look over to him with a grin. "Yeah, I'm sure you know what 'condescending' means, right?" I say, jokingly.
He pushes me in response. I raise my hands defensively. "I was just joking."
Gary snaps his head back at us. "Don't interrupt when I'm educating!" He hisses. He points over to a retro throwback to the 50's… in other words, guys in leather jackets and incredibly greased up hair.
"Over there are the greasers… who actually think their tough." Gary says, patronizingly,
"Or at least try to look tough." Jimmy says.
"With all the gel weighing them down, they do a pretty good job." I say, jokingly.
"Wouldn't go messing with them if I were either of you." Gary warns. "At least not yet. Oh, and unsurprisingly, they waste around the auto shop like wannabe handymen."
"Wow, I'm shocked." I say, sarcastically.
He points to another crowded table. This time to a group of large guys. Two of them were arm wrestling each other.
"Those are the jocks. They completely rule the school. Do not mess with them." Gary advises, looking directly towards Jimmy.
"Whatever, I'm not afraid of some brainless roid monkeys." Jimmy says, cockily.
"You'll learn soon enough, when there flushing your head down the toilet." Gary says, all-knowingly.
I poke Jimmy and he looks at me questioningly. I nod my head over to Pinky. "Think I got a shot with her?"
He stares at me. "No offense, I mean, you seem like a nice guy and all, but you have no chance in hell of EVER, look at me, I mean, ever getting with that."
I glare at him, my pride is obviously hurt. "You don't pull punches, do you?"
Before Jimmy could say anything else, the school bell started to ring. "Come on, let's go" Gary starts to get up and walk out. We once again followed. Once we got up the stairs, we saw another Prefect.
He points at us, cause people here love to point apparently. "You're here to learn, not to goof off. So hurry up and get to class." He hisses at us.
When he said that, they all quickly started to scatter. Leaving just Pete and me. I looked over to him.
"So, what class do you have?"
"Gym"
I look over my schedule and see that's my first class. "Welp, can't skip the first class." I start walking and motion him to follow. "Let's go man."