Kick the Puppy Chapter 4: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, a bully fanfic

"One Step Forward, Two Steps Back"

By: Seinasu

"Pick up the pace, Leech! It's a good thing I'm not paying you."

It was nightfall and Gary didn't seem bothered by the sweltering summer heat as he walked ahead of Tabitha with his hands shoved in his pockets. Trailing behind him, the small blonde tried to maintain a steady pace while holding all of his text books in her arms. Her stick-like arms shook at the weight of the books but she kept a smile for him never the less.

"You know your money is no good to me!" Tabitha said cheerfully as she narrowly missed tripping over a small pile of used firecrackers. "I'll do anything you ask!"

He said nothing as he continued his long strides. His mind kept flashing back to the kiss in the auditorium that occured over a week ago and he wanted nothing more than to rid himself of the memories.

She is nothing more than vermin! She's beneath me, just like everybody else... Okay, maybe she's barely staying afloat of the rest, but she's still beneath me! I have to quit thinking about her like this.

Tabitha rambled on about how she and Russell earned an A plus for the cake they were assigned to bake as a team in Home Economics. Earlier, she admitted how frightened she was to work with the leader of the Bully clique; but once she learned of his dream of designing wedding cakes, they started getting along. Of course Gary learned of this, he couldn't stop laughing. He vowed to use this information against Russell when the time was right.

After her droning on about other subjects in which Gary had already forgotten, they arrived at the entrance to the Boys Dorm.

"I can't have you hanging out in my room tonight," he declared as he took the books from Tabitha's arms and showed no sign of struggling with the weight.

Tabitha made a slight pouty face. "How come? Are you not feeling good?"

He shrugged as he turned around and walked up the stairs. "Yeah, sure. I'm not feeling well. See you later."

"But wait! Don't forget to take your last dosage of medication!"

The doors were thrown open and shut in just seconds, leaving the blonde out in the warm, Indian Summer night.

Waving a slight hand at the closed doors, Tabitha murmured, "G'night."

Once inside, Gary marched past the common room, uncharacteristically ignoring Jimmy and Petey who were seated next to each other on the couch, and went straight to his room. His thoughts about Tabitha were scrambled like a television set with bad reception.

I can't do this. I can't think about her like that! She's a leech! She's an ass kisser! But not a bad kisser, really... Ugh! Stop thinking like this. You can do so much better then her... Oh man, I'm thinking as if we're a couple. It has to be the meds. That's it. That damn nurse must have mixed them up, and then I probably mixed them up even more. I can't believe I mixed my meds again!

Once in his room, Gary dropped all of his books on the ground and slammed the door shut behind him. He ran both hands through his short hair and shook his head.

"Shit, double shit, triple shit," he grumbled under his breath. "Stop thinking like this."

He all but fell into his desk chair just a few feet away and propped his elbows on top of his desk with a loud thud. He lowered his head and closed his eyes as his mind continued to wander.

I can't like her. I can't! She's not my type! She's not attractive and she's not as smart as me. Then again, nobody is as smart as me. She can't be too idiotic if her focus of attention is constantly on me.

There was no way he could concentrate on his homework and this time it wasn't because of his ADD or his medication. He remained seated at his desk as he mulled over Tabitha. Out of all the people he's met, out of all the schools he's attended, she was really the only person who genuinely wanted to be with him despite his history of using people like toys. She stated time and time again that she was willing to let herself be used if it was necessary to execute the next phase of his attack—that was, whenever he decided to think up of another scheme and act upon it. She was so giving to a fault and so willing to please without asking for anything in return but to be in his mere company. Other girls thought he was a creep and a jerk. Tabitha thought he was a god.

He suddenly chuckled quietly to himself.

Lifting his head, his eyes drifted across his desk until he saw a letter opener next to a familiar photo taken the winter of his sophomore year.

Reaching over, Gary took the letter opener then pulled the photo over to him. He used the opener's sharp sides to insert a long incision across the part of the photo that bore Tabitha's face. It was the picture of her at that crummy amusement part—he was in there as well, pictured with that god-awful teddy bear she had won for him. Gary used the blunt end of the opener to cut holes into his picture's eyes and made outlines of devil horns on his head.

He was completely beside himself with the leech. He needed to do something to get his mind off of her. He wanted to do something but he wasn't sure exactly what he wanted to do. Random thoughts popped in and out of his head and many of them consisted of getting into mischief. But who would he cause misery upon? More than half of the students in the academy were enduring the last leg of summer school because they were too stupid to pass their classes the first time around.

The blade of the letter opener twisted across Tabitha's smiling face once more and so forcefully that it ripped part of the photo in half and almost tore off a small chunk of the desk underneath. He sat up in his seat and calmly slid the opener back to the other side of the desk. His fingers crawled back over to the half-torn photo and rested themselves over the gutted up piece that contained Tabitha's face.

Tabitha, Tabitha, Tabitha.

She was his little, loyal leech. Would anything cause her to crumble? Would she ever doubt him? Did she ever have a reason to question him? Would she still devote herself to him after he decided to "play" with her?

He made a tight fist over the torn halves of the photo and snickered.

He wouldn't be bored for long. More importantly, those nagging, disturbing, twisted thoughts of Tabitha would soon vanish.

"So, you really don't remember what happened that night?" Petey asked as he and Tabitha walked through the halls of the second floor of the main building. It was lunch time and kids were scrambling to the cafeteria. Edna had mysteriously taken ill and Dr. Crabblesnitch hired a group of temporary staff members to work the kitchen. To the rest of the students, this meant REAL food was going to be served for once.

Tabitha cocked her head to once side and appeared thoughtful. After a moment passed, she suddenly gasped, "I remember... I remember... EEEK!"

Petey jumped out of his skin by her reaction and because of this, he dropped his books. "What! What is it?"

"I-I-I… I remember... Jimmy kissing Gary!"

She slapped her hands over her face and shook her head. "I still can't believe Jimmy of all people!" She sighed miserably. "Oh well, he's really the only person I can think of... who's up to Gary's standards..."

Petey collected the rest of his books and stood from the floor. He threw her a puzzled expression and asked, "Say what?!"

"I-It's only natural."

"But it was Gary who kissed Jimmy..." This would be the umpteenth time explaining what happened at the auditorium because she apparently couldn't remember much of it, so he decided to give up on doing so. "Never mind. Is that really all you remember?"

The blonde nodded and replied, "Yes. Why do you keep asking?"

Suddenly Jimmy rounded the corner and walked over to their general direction. Petey lifted a hand, waved to his friend, and greeted him. "Hey, Jimmy!"

The King of the School approached the Head Boy, slapped his hand roughly (not on purpose, mind you), and caused the smaller boy to wince and take his hand back to nurse it. Jimmy didn't seem to notice as he asked, "What's up?"

But then he saw Tabitha standing next to Pete and casually said, "Hey, Tabitha."

Almost too quickly, he realized what a mistake it was to acknowledge the girl's presence because she asked him, "J-Jimmy? What do Gary's lips feel like? I bet they were... so smooth and soft!"

"ARGH! I don't want to talk about that! Besides, you kissed him too!"

Tabitha gasped and turned red in the face. "I can only wish!"

"I keep telling you that you kissed him!"

"ME?!"

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "For the last time, yes! I swear, every time I'm around you, you get all worked up over something stupid!"

"C'mon, Jimmy, she's not too bad," Petey said defensively. Of course, he only said that whenever she wasn't around Gary. Without him, she was fairly normal and since getting to know her, she slowly became less shy around Jimmy and Petey, making her more tolerable. With Gary... well, she was considerably twisted.

Tabitha sighed dreamily as she closed her eyes thoughtfully and the color to her face turned to normal. "It's all about Gary," she insisted softly. "He is my life! What's not to like about him?"

Jimmy scoffed at the suggestion. "Don't even get me started."

"You know Tabitha," Petey began as he touched her arm with one hand, forcing her to look at him. "There are plenty of attractive looking guys at our school... Have you ever crushed on any of them?

"Uh, Pete?" Jimmy elbowed his friend and muttered, "you better rephrase that quick before someone overhears you."

Petey frowned and asked, "W-What did I say wrong?"

Around the corner, a loud voice belonging to Trent echoed throughout the hallways, "YOU FRUITCAKE, KOWALSKI! I mean, HEAD BOY!"

Petey groaned and his shoulders sank. Even in his position, he was still mocked and ridiculed but on a less daily basis than he was before Jimmy came to Bullworth Academy.

Tabitha smiled shyly at Petey and answered his earlier question. "Nope. Not at all."

Petey leaned forward and whispered, "Are you sure? What about... What about a girl, maybe?"

"Tabitha," Jimmy interrupted gruffly, "you have to quit living in the past. What has Gary done that's so 'brilliant' or 'marvelous' lately?"

"Um... Well..." Tabitha struggled momentarily before she heartily answered, "He freed that ghost from the auditorium!"

Jimmy growled once more and he retorted, "The only thing he did was piss me off that night!"

"Okay then, how about... er... let me see..."

"Exactly—NOTHING. You keep thinking and talking about the old Gary. The manipulative little jackass Gary who overturned the school and made everybody's lives miserable—mostly mine and Pete's."

Tabitha gasped and shook her head in objection. "T-That's not true! And he's... He's not a j-jackass!"

"For your sake, kid, I'll say he was starting to become more tolerable. But since the auditorium incident--!"

Petey decided to step in at this point. "Jimmy's right. It seems like you're hanging around Gary and waiting to see him come up with another scheme to take over the school. I don't think he's going to do that, Tabitha, unless he's asking to be expelled permanently. He's been pretty, ah... 'decent'... ever since he was allowed to come back."

Tabitha shook her head and looked pleadingly at Petey. "But he's so wonderful never the less!"

Petey gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Remember, we're all still young. We have a whole lifetime to find that special someone."

Leaning forward, she quietly asked him, "Does that... Does that mean you'll figure out if this Marion person is right for you?"

Petey pulled his hand back and his cheeks burned red with embarrassment. "H-HEY!" he cried. "How'd you find that out?"

At this point, Jimmy grew interested. "Marion? You mean she's a real person? Not just someone Gary made up to tease you?"

"Or it could be a last name of a boy," Tabitha offered quietly as she tried to think with her arms folded across her chest. "Huh, I can't remember... what Gary said… 'Oh Marion, spank me!' or something..."

"Please don't say that too loud," Petey begged. "Oh man... This is bad..."

Jimmy laughed and said, "Hey, hey, Pete! So you DO like someone at the school!"

Petey groaned. "Jimmy...! Thanks a lot, Tabitha!"

Tabitha took a step forward and stood next to Jimmy. She grinned and said, "You... should show us who Marion is, Petey!"

Before anybody could answer, Gary's loud, overbearing voice echoed throughout the hallway with the following: "DO ME, MARION! DO ME LONG AND HARD! PETEY WANT YOU LONG TIME! AAAHHH!"

Mortified beyond belief, Petey dropped his books and cried, "Oh my god!"

Spinning on his heels, he scrambled down the hallway and vanished. By this point, Gary strolled over with an eerily calm composure.

"Pete, come back!" Jimmy said as he tried to hide his laughter. He hated himself for thinking what Gary did was funny. So to cover this up, he turned to the other boy and said, "You're such an ass."

Gary threw his hands up and tried to look innocent. "What? I did nothing wrong! Did I, Leech?"

Tabitha sighed dreamily as she readily replied, "No way, Gary!"

Jimmy shook his head and mumbled, "Here we go."

"Oh come on, James, you know it was funny," Gary remarked as he raised a scarred eyebrow at the blonde boy and stood between him and the blonde girl.

Tabitha tugged on Gary's sleeve like a child yearning to be picked up by her father and asked, "Where have you been? I haven't seen you in over a week since I walked you back to your dorm! Remember?"

Gary reached over, gently took Tabitha by the wrist, and removed her hold on his clothing. "I've been doing a lot of thinking," he said earnestly.

"I don't even wanna know," Jimmy said aloud as he yawned and scratched the back of his shaved head.

Gary turned his attention back to Jimmy and said, "Well, I'm certainly not thinking about turning you into my make-out buddy, Hopkins. You can't kiss if your life depended on it! How're you supposed to attract the men with your lousy kissing?"

"ME?!" Jimmy yelled angrily. "You're the one who can't kiss!"

"Don't talk to Gary like that!" Tabitha interjected.

Gary placed his hand over Tabitha's mouth and told her, "Stay out of this, Leech."

She nodded wordlessly as his hand slipped from her face.

Jimmy sighed and said to the girl, "Stand up for yourself! Don't let him talk to you like that! You can do whatever the hell you want."

"But he's right..." she began meekly.

"WHY do I even put up with this crap?!" He threw his hands up in defeat. "Tabitha, you are completely dysfunctional! You're hopeless! I'm not gonna feel sorry for you anymore!"

Gary wrinkled his nose at Jimmy. "I see. A real ladies man until the end, Hopkins. Smooth."

His comment rolled off of Jimmy. The King of the School replied, "Whatever. See you later, screwballs."

As he turned away, Gary mockingly called out, "HEY! That hurt my feelings! I think I need a kiss to make me feel better. Even if your kisses DO suck balls."

Whirling around, Jimmy threatened, "Come one step closer to me with those lips and I'll rip 'em out!"

Tabitha hid behind Gary and whispered, "He seems really mad."

Gary laughed at Tabitha's worried expression. He sighed calmly and explained, "You just have to know which buttons to press. It's really funny. When I see him pissed off, it makes me... I don't know... smile!"

The girl quickly grew relaxed at Gary's explanation. "I guess you're right."

Jimmy had decided to give up. He walked away without looking back and vanished around the hall corner from which he came upon. Gary turned around so that he was looking squarely at Tabitha.

"Say, Leech, I'm going to make a slight observation."

Tabitha nodded readily. "Okay, shoot."

Without hesitation, the attacks began. "What if I told you that you were the nastiest looking girl in school?"

This "observation" caught her off guard and like a deer in headlights. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary; after all, Gary was always making fun of her but it was never this direct. So she laughed nervously and replied, "Um... Well... Then, I guess you'd be right! Right as range, Gary!"

"Oh, come ON! Is that the best you can come back with? Anyone who told you to be yourself couldn't have given you worse advice."

"But I like the way I am when I'm with you! I think I'm truly myself when I'm with you!"

Gary chuckled as he offered her a thin, cruel smile. "Are you always this stupid or is today a special occasion? You have to be the most clueless person in the school if you think I even liked you for one minute."

"Gary?" Tabitha called out weakly as she cringed at his sudden intimidation, smilling nervously. "W-W-What's the matter?"

He lifted an arm from his side and pointed a finger at her. "I told you in the beginning that you're just a liability," he stated. "I don't need people like you in my life. You're only with me because you felt sorry for me."

Startled by this revelation, she shook her head and cried, "No, that's not true!"

"What? Are you going to blame me then?"

"B-Blame you? For what?!"

"You're going to blame me for being so damn gullible. That's it, I know what you're up to, Leech. You remind me of Hopkins! In fact, you remind me of the ocean—you make me sick."

Tabitha flinched at his words and cast her eyes to the floor. She felt his hand grab a hold of her shoulder, his nails almost digging their way through her shirt and into her skin.

Leaning forward until his lips were next to her ear, Gary whispered, "Thanks for all the work you did for me, though. I appreciate the time and effort you put into it. Too bad I can't say the same about your appearance. You are living proof that crap can grow legs and walk."

"But... But I... I..." She felt tears weld up inside her eyes and she started to tremble in her spot. Gary pulled away and looked around to see if anybody was in the area. So far it was only the two of them.

He was quick to verbally attack her once more by mocking her. "'But... But I... I...' Can't you speak intellectually at all? If you were twice as smart, you'd still be stupid."

She closed her eyes as her voice shook along with the rest of her body. Despite all of what she was enduring, she continued to smile for him. "P-Please, Gary..."she begged miserably, followed by a light-hearted laugh. "W-What did I do to make you mad at me...?"

Gary raised an eyebrow at her and suddenly appeared very thoughtful. He answered, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm busy now thinking of another way to amuse myself. You're no longer needed. Just remember, my little ass kisser—you're the best at all you do and all you do is make people like me pissed off. Take my advice and stay the hell away from me. I don't ever want to see your face again."

With that, he leaned forward once more and gave her a kiss on top of her forehead. Pulling back, he smiled maliciously at her as he turned around and walked off.

"G-Gary!" Tabitha cried hysterically as remained frozen at her spot. "Gary! Please come back...! Don't... Don't leave me...!! I NEED YOU!"

As Gary turned a corner, he thought to himself, The sound of teenage torment. I've still got it! Maybe now I'll start to feel better again. At least the meds aren't acting weird on me. At least I don't think they are. I won't have to feel strange around Tabitha anymore. Everything will be back to normal. She's just the leech, nothing more and nothing less.

He paused as the sound of her pathetic cries bounced along the hallway walls. He clenched his fists at his sides and he tried in vain to clear out her out of his mind. He didn't do anything wrong! He did what he had to do. He was only looking out for the most important person he knew of—himself! He never needed to rely on anybody for long. He didn't need any friends! Besides, she knew damn well what he was capable of...

Unfortunately, he didn't realize until just now that he actually kind of... liked her. He, Gary Smith, was starting to feel like he actually gave a damn about someone.

It was a quarter after midnight but Tabitha was still wide awake. Sitting on the floor with her back facing the side of her bed, she stared helplessly at the window that was often used by Jimmy to sneak into the Girls Dorm. But she wasn't looking at the window because her mind kept thinking about Gary.

"Oh Gary, Gary, Gary. I would do anything you wanted me to do. All you had to do was ask! However, since you don't want me around--heh, heh, heh. Nobody can be near you now. If I can't be with you, then nobody can. Never again... It'll be just like last time. You'll be superior once more."

Without turning around, she reached behind her back and underneath the bed until her fingers grabbed the handle of a backpack. With one yank, she pulled out the backpack and slid it along the wooden floor. From the unzipped pack spilled out almost a dozen bottles of various medication, all with Gary Smith's named printed on the sides.

"Starting tomorrow," Tabitha announced as she smiled happily at her approaching thoughts, "the nurse won't be able to find your medication and you won't be able to take them on time... if at all. Who knows when the next set of meds will arrive because even then... It'll be too late!"

Before she could reach out to pick up one of the fallen bottles, a small rubber ball from seemingly out of nowhere smacked the bottle away from her reach. Tabitha gasped and turned around; to both her horror and surprise, she saw what looked like a red ninja standing at the top of the attic stairway. The red ninja was armed with a slingshot.

"You and I are going to have a nice, long talk--NOW," said the ninja in an all-too-familiar voice.

Tabitha bit her lower lip and moaned inward. It was Jimmy Hopkins and he caught her red handed.