Standard Disclaimer Applies
Word Count: Approx. 30,578 (this part, approx. 2,183)
Rants: So, yeah. If you're familiar you should be able to guess what happens in this chapter.
And I apologize for the end of this. I wrote it three times, and it just seemed like crap, so I left it. Meh.
Rei climbed out of the backseat of his grandfather's car, staring into the school's parking lot warily. It was almost filled. Today was no different from any other school day on the outside. Inside the workshop would be starting soon, and that was something he was regretting more than anything.
He headed towards the building, pausing on the crosswalk, in the middle of the lane. Mr. Granger was balancing two boxes on one hip, and struggling to open his car with his free hand. He was leaving. Mr. Granger had officially been sacked. Someone honked at Rei, and the Neko-Jin scuttled to the other side of the road and into the building.
The halls were quiet, despite the fact they were filled with students. Everyone he passed turned and glared at him, hushing up instantly when they saw him. He knew what they were talking about. It didn't take a genius. Someone had told he'd been accused of writing the Burn Book. Everyone hated him now.
Good. He deserved this.
Biting back tears of frustration and shame, Rei kept walking until he entered the gym, spotting students sitting in the bleachers in a hushed silence. All eyes were on him once more. Rei kept walking like he hadn't noticed, that he didn't care, but somehow, by the time he reacher the first row of bleachers, all he was seeing was his sneakers.
"Can I sit here?" Rei asked softly, looking up to see Michael.
"Fuck off," Michael said sweetly, smiling at him.
Rei winced, turning to Max. The blonde wouldn't even meet his gaze.
He kept walking. He found a seat in the back of the bleachers, all by himself. After what felt like an eternity, Rei glanced up to see Ian and Spencer sit a few seats away from him. He didn't meet their eyes, and they made no attempts to speak with him. Surprisingly, Rei was okay with this.
"Alright, everybody, listen up," Mrs. Tate said, talking into a microphone despite how quiet it was. "I don't want to be here on a Saturday any more than you do. So the faster we can get through these exercises and fix your self-esteems, the sooner we can get back in bed."
Ms. Kincaid wheeled a chalkboard across the gym's parquet-esque floors, and stopped a few feet away from Mrs. Tate. She handed the dean a piece of chalk, and everyone watched in curious silence as she spelled "CLIQUE" out in large letters.
"Okay," She said, brushing her hands off lightly, "Let's talk about cliques? What is a clique?"
"It's a bunch of people who all conform," the purple-head from Rei's homeroom said, Robert, he thought. "They all dress alike and act alike."
Mrs. Tate nodded her head. "That's right. Very good. Cliques are bad." She said, brushing her bangs from her face. "We have to get rid of cliques." She paused to write a large backslash between the 'C' and 'LIQUE'. "If you see 'c' a 'clique' you gotta 'lique' it." She said, her tone teasing, but her look was very serious.
Rei stared at Mrs. Tate for a moment, a small smile on his face. He'd been so caught up in being a Demolition Boy, he'd failed to realize what was going on around him. He had been convinced the Demolition Boys were not just a clique, but the clique. How stupid he'd been.
"You've been acting really stuck up ever since you switched to Striker," Tyson said to Johnny, a few seats ahead of him. "I mean, more than usual. Kai agrees."
"Kai?" Johnny asked, turning to look at the bluenette.
"Don't drag me into this," Kai muttered, "I'm playing tomorrow."
Rei smiled faintly, glancing at the back of the senior's head. Suddenly, it didn't matter Kai didn't want him anymore. He wouldn't say no if the senior showed any interest, but he found himself not quite as obsessed for winning his affections.
"Why are you always cockblocking me?" MingMing, from Rei's English class asked, a few seats to Rei's left.
"You're just jealous because guys like me better," Another female replied, brushing her red hair over her shoulder in an angry huff.
"Bitch, please," MingMing snorted.
- - -
Rei stood with his arms wrapped himself awkwardly, the crowd he was standing in leaving a circle around him. They were doing a trust exercise. A student would stand on a table and fall backwards, and the others would catch them, and giggles and other sounds of relief with echo through the crowd after each successful attempt.
"Good, next," Mrs. Tate said, watching Oliver fall back and get caught successfully.
Spencer climbed up onto the table next, and an angry hiss emitted from the crowd. Turns out everyone knew Spencer was behind it as well. Mrs. Tate didn't notice though, so Spencer turned and fell, only there was no one there to catch him.
"Is he okay?" Mr. Granger asked, lingering in the large doorway to the gym.
Mrs. Tate glanced up at him sharply, then back at Spencer, who had fallen unconscious. After a moment, the blonde woman nodded her head.
"Wait here, I'll get some ice," she said.
Mr. Granger nodded, and walked to the center of the crowd, the students parting for him like the red sea. He pulled the blonde male to his feet, confused grogginess issuing from the Demolition Boy.
"Walk it off," He said softly, nudging Spencer away from the crowd. "See that guys, your actions have consequences."
"Yeah," Spencer snorted. "If someone falls and you don't catch them, they get hurt!"
"Yeah, and if you piss people off, they won't catch you," Mr. Granger replied, not missing a beat. He turned his attention back to everyone else. "Everybody, take out a piece of paper."
- - -
Mr. Granger had everyone write out apologies to everyone they'd ever hurt. Just glancing at the piece of paper clutched in Rei's hand, he knew it wasn't going to be enough. There was no way to apologize for everything he'd done and everyone he'd hurt.
"Tyson, I'm sorry I called you a fat ass, but you really shouldn't be such a pig when you're a guest in someone else's home though."
"Carlos, I'm sorry I said your eyebrows were hideous. It's not your fault."
"Oliver, I'm sorry I called you a whore, even if it is true."
"Mr. Granger," Tala said, snapping Rei out of his own thoughts, "I'm sorry you lost your job." The red head was staring at the math teacher with a look Rei couldn't read. "I wouldn't have given Mrs. Tate the book if I knew you really had a drug problem."
"Tala Ivanov," Mr. Granger said, a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Every student here is afraid of you. Hell, I'm afraid of you half the time. But I've met punks like you before, and I can tell you this: if you don't change your life, you're about ten years away from being a divorced Real Estate agent with chipped nails."
"Excuse me?" Tala asked icily, glaring daggers at Mr. Granger now.
"And don't think Tala is the meanest kid in school," Mr. Granger said to the crowd at large. "I have never met anyone as mean as Ozuma."
The male could only assume was Ozuma let out an amused laugh, hands on his hips.
"I've seen Ozuma make a kid cry only be looking at them," Mr. Granger continued, "Go on, do it."
Ozuma glared at the students, and several steps backwards were taken. Point proven, Mr. Granger.
"You guys act like you've got it all under control, but I know you're all freaking out inside," Mr. Granger said, a sad smile on his face at this point. "You feel like everybody else has some kind of secret guidebook on how to be perfect and smart and well liked and you're just a goon. That's because you're still changing. Not everybody looks their best in high school."
Soft murmurs spread through the crowd once more. Mr. Granger met Rei's eyes, and he wasn't quite sure what his (ex-)teacher was thinking. "Rei, do you have anything you want to apologize for?"
"No," Rei replied softly, forcing himself to remain lock-eyed with Mr. Granger.
"Really?" Mr. Granger asked with a hint of sarcasm, "You haven't done anything bad?"
Rei shook his head, feeling his shame and tears well up within him. "No." he repeated.
"You really disappointed me this year, Rei," Mr. Granger said softly, his expression distant. "When I met you, you were unique. You were talented. Now it's like you went from being a sunflower to being a picture of a sunflower on a box of Kleenex."
He cocked his head to the side, glancing at Spencer. "And Spencer Sergei," He said, "You are so desperate for someone to tell you that you're worth something. Tell yourself. Say one positive thing about yourself. Right now."
"You are not officially leading this workshop-" Spencer argued, caught off guard.
"Do it!" Mr. Granger ordered.
"I have a nice smile?" Spencer asked, and Mr. Granger nodded, smiling.
"Was that so hard?" He asked, before turning back to the group. "Stand up. Everyone of you is going to say one positive thing about yourselves. And don't say you have nice eyes, because that is the oldest trick in the book."
"I'm good at sports."
"I have nice hair."
"I have strong legs."
"I'm dependable."
"I can race to the moon and back in five minutes," Michael said, and laughter rippled through the crowd.
"Something true, Michael," Mr. Granger said with an amused smile.
Michael shrugged. "Baseball. I'm good at baseball."
Mr. Granger quirked an eyebrow. "Something we don't know."
"What? That's bullshit!" Michael argued. "I won't do it. I gave you an answer."
"Michael..." Mr. Granger warned.
"No offense, but you can go fuck yourself," Michael snorted, adjusting his baseball cap on his head.
There was a moment of stunned silence, before everyone started to laugh. Even Mr. Granger was able to force a smile through after his initial insulted and shocked expression.
Michael attempted to worm his way back into the crowd, but paused suddenly. Turning around, he said "Mr. Granger, I have an apology."
"Go ahead," the ex-teacher replied.
"Okay, I have this friend who's a new student this year," Michael said, walking over to stand by Rei, glaring icily at Tala who was a few feet to the Neko-Jin's left, "And I convinced him it would be fun to mess up Tala Ivanov's life. So I had him pretend to be Tala's friend, and then he would come over to my basement and we would just laugh about all the stupid stuff Tala said. And we tricked Tala into eating these candy bars that would make him gain weight-"
Ian and Spencer let out sounds of amusement, though their expressions were shocked. The looks Tala threw them silenced them immediately though, before the blue eyed red head turned his attention back to Michael.
"-and we turned his best friends against him," Michael said, and impressed murmurs followed. "And then Rei, you know my friend Rei, he made out with Tala's boyfriend-"
"Wait Fine!" Rei snapped, sending an annoyed but thankful look at Michael, who just rolled his eyes and cuffed him lightly on the shoulder. "I'll tell the truth. Tala..." He paused, glancing at the red head nervously. "I kissed Kai while he was still your boyfriend. I'm the one that told him you were cheating on him. And I rigged your scale so it would always say 112." Rei paused, looking at the ground for a moment, utterly ashamed, before forcing himself to meet Tala's icy gaze. "And I am so sorry, Tala. I wish I could take it all back, because it makes me feel so sick inside."
"Yeah, Tala," Michael snorted sarcastically, "So sorry. I guess we were just jealous of you."
Applause broke out in the crowd, and Tala stormed off in an angry huff. After through a brief, awkward hug around Michael's neck, Rei took off after him. Tala ignored his cries of protests to stop, and was able to storm off into the street before Rei managed to grab his arm and whirl him around.
"Tala, wait," Rei said, "I didn't mean for that to happen!"
"For me to find out that everyone hates me?" Tala spat out bitterly. "I don't care. You wanna know what everyone else says about you? They say you're a Chinese voodoo mountain freak who's a less hot version of me. Yeah. So you can take your fake apology and stick it up your-"
In a fit on anger, Tala shoved Rei, and the smaller Neko-Jin stumbled backwards falling onto his ass. Unwittingly, the redhead has just saved his life. A large bus came whipping around the corner, smashing into Tala before it even had the chance to register the fact someone had been in the middle of the road.
There was a screeching of tires, followed by a deathly silence before all hell broke loose.
TBC