I

It was the following day, and the rain was gone. The morning was slightly foggy, but the sun was rising early as spring grew old. The morning was only peaceful in the town; in the village, it was filled with the commotion of workers and school kids commuting.

Busses rolled down the road towards the school, and on the other side cars pulled into senior parking. Some were beyond a high school student's salary, obviously bought by parents; others where the trash on wheels expected of a high school student.

Vince walked down the sidewalk, watching it all. His own license rested in his wallet, but if anyone checked that, they'd know why he didn't have a car: he was broke. He didn't mind though; he enjoyed the weather and the exercise.

He was light build, not lacking muscle but not bulging either. He wasn't really tall but he was taller than most, with wavy brown hair of medium length. He walked with an uncaring, slacking gait; his eyes, however, were alert and scanning everything that he saw. Every car, bus, or man walking; Vince was aware of them and all their actions.

The school day went with the same monotonous, repetitive routine as usual. Lunch came around, the only break for a bored high school student.

Vince was well known in school, but he had only a few really close friends. Two of them were in his lunch; the rest of the table was filled with acquaintances that he liked but didn't really hang out with.

"Vince, why didn't you return my call last night? You never return my calls!"

Vince looked over at him, "You called last night?"

"Wha…?"

"Relax, Kevin," said the other boy. "I gave you the wrong number for his new cell; you left a message on someone else's phone."

"Will! How could you?!? You know how insecure I am about these things!"

"Relax," said Will calmly. "Your more energetic than usual."

"That's not true," said Vince, leaning back in his chair. "He's not at a low now but he can definitely get worse than this."

Both his friends knew that the act of leaning back was a cover up; his eyes were rapidly wandering around the lunch room. He missed nothing, and by hiding that he was looking, they knew something had caught his attention.

They saw an agitated group of students, with more coming as kids arrived at the cafeteria. They immediately knew there was a fight going on. Vince sighed disgustedly and rose to his feet.

"Might as well check it out," he said.

His friends followed him over. The two boys where unknown to Vince and his friends, but they didn't care who they were or why they were fighting. Kevin excitedly pushed through the throng of people to get a better glimpse. Will walked over to a friend to discuss what was happening. Vince simply stood there, but his wandering eyes noticed something.

One of the acquaintances who sat at his table was on the ground, picking up books and papers. He realized that someone must have bumped her in the action, and knocked everything down. He stooped to help her out.

"Vince! I didn't see you, when did you get here?"

"Hey, Sel. Just arrived. I saw that you needed some help. What do you think of all this?"

"Stupid. Just stupid. Fighting over something dumb that happened in the locker room, I couldn't figure out more than that. And then everyone rushed to watch it, and my books fell on the floor."

"Freshmen?"

"Sophomores, I think. Definitely underclassmen though."

Vince sighed as they finished collecting her books, and they stood up. Fights erupted among all the grades, but he always felt that the younger kids were looking for them; they never had a good reason to fight. Seniors and Juniors like himself would fight less frequently and usually for better reasons, like several weeks of issues building up to one fight.

"Well, we can't do anything about it," he said. "Might as well go eat lunch-"

Kevin came bursting out of the crowd with his nose bleeding, "I tripped and fell indo da fight in da middle ob da guy's fist!"

Vince shook his head in exasperation as Sel laughed at Kevin's predicament.

School ended and they all returned home. Vince, Kevin, and Will were joined by Sel and Will's girlfriend, Virginia, on the walk home.

"Vince, I forgot to thank you for helping me earlier," said Sel.

"Eh, don't worry about it, it wasn't a big deal," he replied.

"Vince's got a soft spot for cute girls!" yelled Kevin, jumping in the middle.

"Don't mistake me for you," said Vince, calmly raising his fist. Kevin ran his nose into it and his injury opened up again.

"So there's a concert tomorrow," said Will. "Virginia and I are going; how about you guys?"

"I was going to go with some friends," said Sel. "We already have our tickets."

Vince said, "I'm going, cause I can leave these two alone. They could get hurt."

Kevin ran up from behind them (he had fallen on the ground), "Whadya mean, we can take care of ourselves! Or at least I can, leaving Will alone with any girl is the real danger-"

This time it was Will's fist that he ran into.