Chapter 10: Mischief Managed

(October 8th)

I felt a strong sense of satisfaction as I walked down the halls. I pulled out my phone and loaded up my notes. On there was a recently edited list labeled 'Independent Study,' I double tapped the list to reveal a series of names. If anyone in this school happened to look at this list, they would have realized it was all the names from the three top gangs: The Felt, Midnight Crew, and Noir Duo. Most of the names had a black line marked through them, all except three.

Make that two. I openly smirked as I placed a line across the name of my most recent victim, Crowbar. It wasn't easy, considering he was always on his guard. I almost got caught switching out his clothes when he was in weightlifting. I muffled my laughter as best as I could as I remembered the image of Crowbar walking around in a Hello Kitty t-shirt and hot pink pants (an outfit he was forced to wear when the gym teacher refused to let the student walk around in his boxers).

After recomposing myself, I observed the remaining two names on the list. The first was Snowman. There's no point on attacking her, considering she's done no harm to anyone outside of the mafia. I would be no better than the people I'm trying to take down if I go and try to embarrass an innocent person. I scrolled around the list and finally located the final victim of my wrath.

Caliborn. The man who first started my hatred for those who hurt Dave. I left him last, knowing well that his would be the most satisfying victory. I already had a plan for what I was going to do to the asshole. I had discovered the day before that Caliborn was a fan of coca-cola, so I made him a specialized drink.

I placed my cellphone back into my pocket and retrieved the plastic bottle from my backpack. I stared at the plastic bottle in my hand. At first glance it seemed like any other soda, but the soft drink was composed of soy sauce and corn syrup. I examined the lid, which I had to carefully remove so that it did not look like the bottle had been unsealed. I looked up from the bottle to examine my surroundings. I had managed to walk down to the school's courtyard.

There was three curved walls around the yard, standing two feet high and were spread into a position to form an open circle. On the far left wall was the spot where the felt members were known to hang out. Only a few students were in the yard; not many were a fan of being so openly close to the gang. Snowman and Clover were the only ones near the wall at the moment. The two were in the middle of a normal conversation, and so I quickly located the soda bottle that was always laid out for Caliborn. The plastic bottle was lying carefully next the edge of the wall, on the end where the sidewalk was.

I strolled down the concrete path with confidence. It took a solid minute before I had reached the duo. As I passed them I adjusted the straps on my backpack, which in turn intentionally caused my elbow to come in contact with the plastic bottle. I hear a gasp escape Clover as he and Snowman watched the contents hit the ground. The sound of plastic crunching was made clear and I quickly faked a look of guilt.

I rubbed the back of my head and gave a weak laugh before picking up the bottle. "Sorry, it's probably ruined now." I examined the bottle, it was in alright condition minus the dent it had gained. I glanced up at the two who were sharing a glance. I extended the arm with the false soda, offering it with a innocent look. "Here, you can have mine. It's not exactly cold, but better than nothing, right?"

Snowman nodded as she reached for the soda, she gave me a suspicious look but said nothing as she located the bottle beside of Clover. Clover grinned eagerly at the quick solution before going back to his conversation with the senior about a recent activity that had involved him and Crowbar. I absconded towards a tree that was located fifteen feet away from the wall and sat down at the base of it's trunk.

I pulled out my phone once more, I begun to text Jade through pesterchum. I informed her that I would be in the courtyard because of some business I needed to attend to. She highly implied that she was greatly curious as to what I was going, so I caved since the anticipation was killing me. The second I had sent her a message of what I had done, she immediately began to (as politely as I can put it) completely flip her shit. I ignored her warnings and threats to have me go to the cafeteria that very moment before anything could happen. I simply told her that this was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up, not after what he had done to Dave. I then proceeded to tune out the sound of my phone vibrating and alerting me of my cousins messages.

Caliborn was now sitting on top of the concrete wall, legs crossed as he loudly complained to Quartz about how troublesome his sister had been. I couldn't resist the urge to allow a smug look to appear on my face. I waited eagerly for the teen to take a sip from his drink. I hadn't needed to wait long, as the boy snatched the drink away from Clover's presence; he barked at Snowman for allowing his drink to get warm as he unscrewed the lid.

It's hard to believe that the Felt would allow someone like that to rule the group. It wasn't like he was very special, he was one of the shortest people out of the group. The only thing remarkable about him was his mouth and how he could go on and on at the volume he naturally spoke in. Snowman or Crowbar would probably be more suited for the job. I shook my head and chuckled at my thoughts. Why am I analyzing ways for this ridiculous group to get better? Cause that's all we need, is an organized gang taking over the school. I leaned against the tree and awaited the results that were soon to come as Caliborn poured the warm liquid down his throat.

The chilled air was filled with a high pitch squeal of disgust as the grumpy teen tossed the contents onto the ground spitting out all the remaining contents in his mouth. "Snowball, what the absolute fucking hell! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME YOU WORTHLESS SHIT?" The shouting student slid from his seat and took a few steps towards the older woman.

The lady is question remained calm and she fully understood the situation. "Caliborn, I am not your enemy." Her voice sounded that of a mother trying to calm a young toddler who is throwing a fit. "A boy spilled your drink earlier, and provided a new one. Obviously he gave you a tampered one."

"Who. Was. It." The young boy growled as he tapped his foot waiting for an answer.

Snowman pointed a thumb towards my direction, obviously not caring about what was to happen next (nor having any sympathy towards Caliborn's misfortune). The furious boy stomped over to wear I was sitting. I barely had enough time to get to my feet before Caliborn threw a punch at me.

I easily dodge, as his angry hindered his ability to fight properly. This seemed to infuriate him even more as he once again moved his fist directly towards me, this time aiming towards my stomach. As the sharp pain entered my body,

I did a doubletake and my head was filled with the words of my father.

Remember John, If you ever get if get into a fight you need to live by these rules. 1. You have to prove you are a gentleman by not allowing yourself to throw the first punch (unless you are protecting someone). 2. After the other person throws the first punch, make sure you hit them back twice as hard.

I will admit, my father is an odd man, always telling Jane and I things that will help us "grow up." While normally it's nonsense stuff, like inheriting hand-me-down's or breaking objects to show our anger. It was time's like this that I am thankful my father taught me to stand up for what I thought was right.

I straightened out my position and steadied my stance. I looked behind Caliborn to look at the Felt, luckily none of the others had decided to participate on the action. My attention was once again given to Caliborn, who was preoccupied growling in my face.I took my brief opportunity of his weak defenses to throw my fist at him full force.

I felt a crunch across my knuckles, but knew it wasn't my hand that was hurt. I had connected my knuckles across his cheek. Caliborn collapsed to the ground, fully conscious. The infuriated teen leaned over towards his right and spat droplets of blood onto the ground. He finally managed to get a bloody tooth out from his mouth.

During my distraction of watching Caliborn, I had failed to notice a person come up behind me. I only realized this once Caliborn yelled in a harsh tone for the henchman to do his job. The last thing I remembered was feeling a sharp pain to the back of my skull before welcoming myself into the darkness.

I lifted my head and observed the room I was in. It was a large room coated with blue walls and having toys scattered all around the floor. I looked down once more and saw that I saw that my tiny hands were gripping onto one of Jane's dolls that she had given to me. I was indifferent over the toy, and decided to find a new source of entertainment.

"Mama? Maaaaaamaaaaaaa." My high pitched voice echoed through the door and down the long hallway. I rose from my knees and walked down the wooden area. The cream colored doors stood tall, all but one other door was closed.

The door was left ajar at the end of the hall, I recognized it immediately as my mother's room and smiled eagerly as I sprinted towards her room. I stopped abruptly at the door the moment I heard sniffling. I peered in and saw my mother slouched over the side of her bed.

Alarms blared in my head telling me to go over towards her and I didn't think twice. I essentially tip toed towards her, as to not disturb her. Once I was safely at her knees, I placed a hand onto her knee.

A gasp escaped her as she jumped at my touch. Her blue eyes were tear filled and her cheeks were flushed. I gave her a weak smile and patted her knee, "It's okay Mama." My mother pulled me into a tight hug, and I returned the embrace. I was use to this as it was a weekly occurrence. I wrapped my arms around her as tightly as I could.

"Thank you, John. You make mommy feel very happy when she's sad." A few strings were pulled at my heart as I grew upset that my mother still would not tell me what the problem was.

I pulled away from her touch, just enough so that she could look me in the eye. "Mama, I'm gonna make the bad people go away." She gave me a puzzled look, and I gave her one of my famous smiles. "People make you sad, and I don't like it." I lifted my pinkie finger to up to her face, "I promise to protect you."

Mama gave me a frail smile as she did her end of the pinkie promise. She ruffled my hair with one hand as she wiped away a few remaining tears. "Thank you, John. You're such a good boy. I can't believe you're already four, my little man."

I giggled before a felt a cold breeze hit my back. I looked over my shoulder, only to be greeting with a pitch black hallway, the only light source being fifteen or twenty feet away from another room. Facing forward again towards my mother, I realized she wasn't there anymore.

Panic arose in my system and I dashed towards the room with the light. With each step that I took, my body seemed to get heavier and hallway seemed to get smaller. Within a minute I had reached the newer room.

I almost puked as a foul scent violated my nose. The tiled floor was stained red as a pool of crimson led to the bathtub. A suffocating feeling overcame my body as I followed the trail to it's source.

The wrists of my mother.

I opened my eyes as I tried to relieve the nauseous feeling from my system. I sat up, a pain in my head reminded me of my recent disagreement.

"Oh, wonderful, you have awakened." A deep voice replied calmly. The smooth voice seemed like a relief from my pounding headache. I looked around the room, and located a short man wearing a green shirt and white pants. He had a shaved head and was searching through some drawers. "How do you feel?"

I rubbed my eye as I tried to focus. "I feel a little sick. How'd I get here?"

The short man examined me as he walked over towards the medical table/bed. "Do you not remember what happened?"

"The last thing I remember is getting into a fight with Caliborn," I murmured.

The man, who I assumed was the school nurse, held one finger in front of my eyes. "That is correct, you were knocked unconscious for ten minutes. Without moving your head, follow my finger, we will be doing a few quick tests before I let you go."

After a series of tests (involving me reciting the alphabet, touch my nose, and stating where we were) the Doc declared that I had a mild concussion. "Take ibuprofen to help with the headaches, follow the instructions on the bottle. Don't sleep for more than two or three hours at a time, and make sure someone wakes you up periodically." The doc pointed towards a door leading outside. "Your friend is waiting on you, he said he'd keep an eye on you till your sister had the both of you signed out to go home."

I gave him a puzzled look and tilted my head. "My friend?" I followed him out the door to where a blonde was sitting. My spirits were lifted to the heavens as I realized that it was Dave. "Oh, hey Dave!"

The blonde looked up, nearly completely hiding his concern. The school nurse relayed what he told me, and informed Dave that the information should be passed to Jane. Once the elder man was back inside his room, Dave looked over at me.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like shit, but I should be fine by tomorrow." I joyfully told my good friend. "So, why are you down here?" Curiosity highly emphasized in my voice.

"Jade called me in a fit of hysteria, saying her dumbass cousin was going to get himself killed by a mad man." Dave chuckled at the thought, but his attitude took that of a serious demeanor. "You're an idiot for trying to fight Caliborn. You're lucky that they didn't break any of your bones."

I changed my attention towards my shoes, not being able to bear looking Dave in the eyes. "I know that; what do you want me to do? Say I'm sorry?" My next words were hardly audible even to me. "Well I can't, because I won't mean it. I'd do it again if they hurt my friends."

I jumped out of my skin when Dave placed his hand onto my shoulder and faint grin painted onto his face. "So it's been you who has been pranking everybody?"

I nodded eagerly, proud of my accomplishment. The two of us shared a laugh as the air seemed less tense.

I watched as he pointed his open hand down towards the hall. "Thought so. Come on, Egderp, let's go find your sister. I need to tell her to make sure she wakes you up." We started to take a few steps down the tiled floors before he added.

"It wouldn't be any fun at the sleepover if you're in a coma, and I sure as hell won't watch Con Air if you're stuck in a hospital."

I rolled my eyes at the taller man, "Oh shut up, Dave. You'll love Con Air, it's practically the best movie of all time."