This chapter is going to be a little fun, or saddening, depending on how you look at it. Some focus on the other five, since we haven't had a chapter solely dedicated to them yet. It will be refreshing, especially for me.
3.8
3.8
3.8
Gretchen had never seen a more retched, disgusting, stomach churning, deplorable number.
3.8
She wanted to tear the report card she held in her hands to shreds. It most likely would only put a dent in her frustration. This was no doubt the result of her reduced grade on that damn project in German class. It was the only reasonable explanation. Every other assignment in every other class was a beautiful 'A'. Except for that cursed B-.
"This is why I despise working in groups. There's always someone who drags you down," Victoria spoke.
Their group sat at their usual lunch table, report cards in hand. As everyone got their report cards first period, they made the promise to wait until lunch to open them. They all expected perfect 4.0's. They were the intellectual elites of the school, enrolled in the toughest classes, leaving the other students in the dust. And for the most part, they were correct. 4.0 after 4.0.
Until Gretchen read hers. She didn't know she could feel so much anger.
"It's alright, Gretchen. We know that it's not your fault," Susan said.
Whatever comfort could be found in those words fell on deaf ears. Gretchen forced herself to neatly fold the report card and place it in her bag. She would still need to show her parents, but at least she didn't have to stare at that atrocious GPA all day. Her parents would still be proud, but that was just it; they're her parents. A 3.8 was a noticeable blip on an otherwise perfect application to the prestigious private school across town.
She glared across the cafeteria where the cause of her problems sat, with his social rejects of friends. Of course he wouldn't understand the importance of grades, he never did. The nerve of some idiot like him to drag her down with him.
She took a deep breath to attempt to calm herself, though the effect was minimal. She needed to reasonable about this. She was above pettiness.
Right?
#
Despite her not being able to practice or perform with the rest of the team, Spinelli still attended practice, sitting on the benches and trying to memorize the new routine they started on today. She still needed to get her grades back up, but if she had some idea of what to expect when she's given the all clear then jumping back in would be easier. She hoped.
But that should be her on the top of that pyramid, getting flipped in the air. Too many of the other girls were too scared to be thrown that high, the cowards. What's the point in being a cheerleader if you didn't want to do flips? It was the only fun part about it.
Now she actually had to work at her grades. Getting some of the boys to do it turned out to be a shitty idea, they were really as dumb as they acted, and now her report card suffered because of it. She would've just skimmed by, though, if it wasn't for her grade on that damn German project. It made her want to punch a fucking wall. Or the person responsible for this.
God, he was such a self-righteous asshole. All he had to do what put together the damn board, but no, he had to be a fucking snitch. That dweeb Randall must be rubbing off on him to do some shit like this.
There was no way she was going to let this stand. Someone needed to knock him down a few pegs. But she couldn't get her hands dirty. So far, she hadn't gotten in trouble at all this school year, much to the surprise to her parents. Getting caught doing something to him could get her kicked off the cheerleading team for good, with no chance of getting back one. No, she needed someone else to do the dirty work.
She spotted Austin and some of his followers walk into the gym to get a look at the girls practicing. Well, that might problem might be solved.
#
Austin covered his mouth and he spray painted one of the theatre's backgrounds with black paint. His other cronies worked on some of the others. Those theatre kids were such losers, it's like they were asking for this. For all they know, this could be making things look better! Bunch of dancing, singing fags.
He stepped back and looked at his handiwork. Beautiful. You could barely tell whatever it was those theatre freaks tried to make of it. He gave it a number of kicks, leaving it dented and with a few holes. Trash. It was trash before and it's trash now. He patted his pockets until he found his pocket knife, and moved further behind the stage until he found the ugly costumes packed away.
Using his pocket knife, he ripped the costumes to shreds. He was doing them a favor. No one wanted to see a much of fruitcakes dance and prance around on stage. Besides, he was saving them from getting made fun of. Not from him, ha ha, hell no, he was still going to lay it on them, but from others. He was doing them a favor.
After they were all one, they left the auditorium. They still need to get rid of the evidence on their hands, and Austin knew the perfect way to do that.
"Justin, hurry up and break into his locker," Austin told one of his cronies.
It was after school, and there probably wasn't anyone around to catch them, but he wasn't going to take that chance. Justin carefully turned the lock to Detweilers locker until it opened with a simple tug. They shoved the spray cans into his locker and closed it. Austin wiped his hands on his locker door, getting some of the ink on it, just for good measure.
It's what the twerp fucking gets, embarrassing him like that in front of the whole school.
#
It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Mikey woke up with the knowledge that it was him who earned the role of lead actor of the schools play, Hamlet. Him, not that smug Augustus. As it should be. Augustus' head was too big for his own good. Even though it's a month into rehearsals, it still feels wonderful to wake up knowing that. It made facing middle school just a little more bearable.
Arriving a school a bit earlier than the majority of the students, he headed towards the auditorium and met up with the other drama kids. They always met up with the head of the drama club to briefly go over what they will be doing during rehearsal after school.
But when he entered the auditorium, Mikey heard pained screaming from the back of the stage. When he made his way back stage, he saw one of his fellow artist and actresses, Amy, clutching her costume, a medieval dress, beautifully made, now in shreds.
"What happened?" He asked.
"Some vandal destroyed the set and our costumes," Augustus said.
A quick look around and he was the extent of the damage. The set was cruelly spray painted with several cruel words. It was hard to tell which was worse, the costumes or the background. The costumes were left in shreds. Their careful sewing and tailoring all gone to waste.
"You guys! They found who did it!" Amy said as she came running. They each followed her off stage and out of the auditorium. They weaved through the crowds, sticking together and stopping once Amy did. A number of teachers were around an open locker, pulling out cans of spray paint, and a pocketknife, it looked like. While a few teachers gathered the evidence, one confronted who the locker belonged to, TJ.
"I don't know how that got in my locker! It's not mine!" He protested.
"You're the only one who knows the combination to your locker. Either you put this stuff in here for the janitor did. You tell me which one is more likely," said the teacher.
"I don't know! Someone broke into my locker, that's how!" He said.
Once what was I his locker was taken, he was taken away, no doubt to the principals office.
Out of all the students in the school, it had to be him. Mikey was just thinking that we would start acting like a normal middle schooler but of course he wasn't. He still hung on to those immature actions that belonged in elementary school. He could almost pity him. Almost. They had to repair the stage set and costumes.
#
Spinelli impatiently tapped her food. Football practice ended a while ago, and she knew for a fact that all the football players walked through this path on their way home. She had places to be, she couldn't just wait around from dumb football player.
When she finally spotted him, she pulled him away from his little group.
"Oh shit. You finally come to your senses and decided you wanted to go out with me, Red?" Austin half joked.
"Can the crap, Austin. I need you to do something for me. And you're the only person I can think of who can do it and do it right," Spinelli said.
"Sorry, I don't do favors or just anybody, Red," he said. "You got it make it worth my while."
"Ugh. What do you want?"
"How about we discuss things in my office?"
His office turned out to be the space under a flight of stairs, Spinelli found out. It could've at least been a janitors closet, but she wasn't about to be too picky.
"So, what do you want, Red?"
"I need you to pull one of your stunts on TJ Detweiler. He pulled some bullshit in out German class that made my grade low enough to get me booted off the team," she said.
"Any what makes you think that I'd be willing to do it?"
"Oh, please. Everyone's seen how you target him the most. You're probably excited for another chance to do something to him now that you're being compensated for it."
"True. Alright, what do you have in mind? A rumor, a prank, or just a general beating the shit out of him? Gotta warn you, though. Me and my guys already knocked him out for LaSalle last week," said Austin.
"Something that makes him suffer."
"So a rumor then. Okay. What do you got on him?"
"Me?"
"Yeah. Everyone knows you used to be friends with shortshit. You gotta have some dirt on him," Austin said. "Embarrassing secrets, dumb fears, something he doesn't want people to know."
"Oh."
"Look, Red. I got places I need to be. How 'bout you come back tomorrow with what I need, and we can talk?"
With that, Austin winked and headed out.
#
Vince thought he would feel better after it was done and over with. That what he told himself, it's what he reasoned in the middle of his anger and frustration, but now, Monday came, and he was having trouble telling himself that he got his revenge. If anything, it was making him more upset and frustrated.
Austin and his ground ganging up and beating the snot out of TJ certainly made him feel better after it happened. He slept just fine that night. It was what he got for pulling that bullshit with the project. And hell, if that fight with Austin in the park was anything to go by, he could take a hit, so what difference did it make?
It was hard to keep that thinking up the following Monday, though, when he came into school covered in bruises, stitches, and an eye swollen shut. He tried not to think about it. He got his revenge. It's over with.
#
Austin was having what he would call a good day. Beat up a couple of nerds, threw Short Shit into his locker, scored three touchdowns in practice, it was a great day to be him. And it was only going to get better with Red giving him for to torment that short little fuck with. Whoever said middle school was hard was damn liar.
He split off from his group for "personal business". Today was a great day.
"Excuse me. Austin, is it?"
He stopped when he heard his name. He looked around until he spotted what had to be one of those lame, nerdy kids who had no life at all. Too bad it's a chick. He was all for tossing a nerd in the garbage but doing it to a chick gets your into major trouble.
"Who wants to know?" He asked.
"Someone who needs to make use of your services."
Ugh. Austin almost cringed. Who actually talks like that?
"Yeah? Get in line," he said. "You're not the only one."
Austin continued his way to his 'office'. Part of him was surprised when Red was actually there, but she was.
"You got what I need, Red?" Austin asked.
"Yeah, yeah. You better write this down, because I'm not repeating myself," she said. "Got it?"
"Heh, yeah, sure, whatever."
"Excuse me, but what is all this about?" The geek asked.
"After that stupid project I got kicked off the cheerleading team," said Red. "It's all TJ's fault! And he's gonna pay for it! I can't believe this bullshit-!"
"That's why I'm here," said the Geek. "He ruined my perfect grade point average! There needs to be retribution."
"Great, now can I get what I need?" Austin said. "C'mon, I don't have all day."
"Austin's gonna destroy what's left on his reputation, we've just gonna give him some dirt to work with," said Red. "Over the summer I found out he took pills. For depression or something, I dunno, I don't remember. You can work with that, right? I think he owns a gun, too."
"It's just a BB gun, if my memory is correct. But that shouldn't matter," The geek added. "He's also severely claustrophobic."
"Might be gay. I came home from camp for like a week, and he can King Bob were hanging out. They were really close. Too close if you ask me. He's got these weird stuffed animals in his room. Huge ones, like the kind you'd win at a carnival? Those, like some chick. Kind of a nerd, too, with all those damn comic books."
"Back in elementary he had a penchant for committing pranks on others. If you could somehow shift the blame of some of those on others, that would be wonderful. If you really want to get under his skin, you would attack his group of friends. Better yet, find a way to break them up, that frustrates him the most."
Austin wrote down all the dirt he was getting on the short piece of shit that had the nerve to stand up to him. He was going to use all of this to drag that twerk through the dirt and back. It's what he gets. By the time he was done with shortshit, he'll be nothing.
#
Gus stayed quiet long after the three of them left the stairway. He had heard their entire conversation on his way home from a club meeting. They had no idea he was listening in, even if accidently. What should he do now? Should he tell a teacher? Or the principal? What if Austin found out it was him who snitched? Then all his bullying would be aimed at him.
It wasn't like anyone knew he heard them. If he just walked away and didn't say a thing, no one would know. Besides, he wasn't supposed to be there anyways. Nodding to himself, he decided to keep this to himself. They didn't mess with one of his group, so there wasn't anything he had to do.
Please Review.
