Chapter 107.
WillowDragonCat - love you to TB5 and back!
JBarkerStarGazer – galactic importance you say? I'm honoured! Thank you so much!
islandsandstars, Sueemm & Poke-ranger21 - you're all so awesome!
-x-
Virgil's day was shaping up to be pretty crap indeed.
In the space of forty minutes he'd burnt breakfast, nearly squashed Alan while reversing up to the house, almost run out of fuel on the drive to school, realised he'd forgotten Gordon's bag, then properly run out of fuel on the drive back to the ranch to collect it. It was only courtesy of John and a friend who owed him a favour that he managed to get all his brothers to their respective classrooms on time.
"Never again," he swore, slumping down behind his desk and yanking out his trigonometry textbooks, "They can all go up for adoption if Scott snuffs it."
Speaking of Scott, Virgil had yet to hear from his older brother. His texts and voicemails were still going unanswered, yet he'd spied Scott's Audi in the carpark when he'd pulled up earlier. Maybe he'd gotten in early to catch up on his university applications…
Barely ten minutes passed before that theory was laid very much to rest.
Half the class jumped clean out of their seats as the door swung open, impaling itself into the wall and causing a light dusting of paint to flutter down from the ceiling.
"Sorry to intrude!" a voice coughed, "But I've been sent to retrieve Virgil Tracy. It's an emergency."
Poor Virgil barely had time to put his books away before he was herded out the door by his rather concerned teacher, the gabbled offer of him catching up next lesson fading as the door practically slammed in his face.
Putting his confusion on momentary hold, Virgil twisted to face his summoner. He was greeted with a mane of glossy black hair, a pair of panicked blue eyes, and a hand that seemed intent on squeezing all the blood out of his arm.
Willow Clements, president of the school literature club and John's fellow hall monitor. She'd been a long-term friend of the redhead and, by extension, all of his brothers for as far back as any of them could remember. Scott often joked that she and John shared more than just classes, but hadn't gone public with his theory...yet.
"Willow?" Virgil frowned and thumped the young woman on the back as she struggled to catch her breath, "What's wrong? Where's the emergency?"
Willow straightened, her breath wheezing like an out of tune flute, "Scott…fight…trouble."
Virgil could practically hear his hair growing as he waited for some kind of elaboration, "Okay, is he in a fight right now? Has he been in a fight? Is he planning to start a fight?"
Willow coughed and gestured to the lab coat she had on, hoping Virgil would take the hint that she'd just sprinted up two flights of stairs. The math classrooms were two floors above the science block, and the lift was out of action for scheduled maintenance.
The result: a hall monitor teetering on the precipice of death.
Thankfully, a welcome waft of citrus announced John's arrival onto the scene.
"Did you fill him in?" the redhead asked, relieving Virgil of back-thumping duty.
Willow nodded, "Scott. Fight. Trouble."
Virgil could feel his palms start to sweat, "Translation, John?"
The redhead's expression turned grim, "Willow was finishing up her morning patrol of the science labs when she spied Scott and two of Miss Andersons boys leaving the building ahead of her. She followed them to query why they were out of lessons, but had to register with her own class first. By the time she got back outside and found them, Scott had made short work of beating both boys to bloody pulps."
Several seconds of silence ensued before realisation dawned on Virgil like a sunrise in hell, "Those bullies you told me about over breakfast?"
John's lips thinned.
"He was seen on CCTV," Willow added, gesturing helplessly with her hands, "I would have intervened if I'd gotten there in time, but it was all over when I arrived. I'm so sorry!"
John shook his head and placed a reassuring hand on his comrade's shoulder, "You did exactly the right thing, Willow. You came and found us before someone from the school grapevine got hold of it. He's in the principal's office right now, but this is serious, Virg. One of the kids is en route to hospital with a broken nose."
Virgil was already striding towards the stairwell, "We need to hear his account of what happened, and fast. We're gunna have two sets of furious parents on our tails, and I want to be prepared. Wills, here's a copy of my timetable. Tell all my teachers I won't be in classes for the rest of the day. Do the same for John as well. Family emergency if they ask."
Willow nodded and turned towards John, her blue eyes fearful, "I'll pick up Gordon and Alan at the end of the day and take them to the park. There's no telling what the repercussions of this may be, or how long it might drag on for. At least you won't have to worry about them."
"You're a star," John praised, his expression softening for a second, "Come and find us if you need anything. We'll be in the principal's office, probably until the end of the day. We might have to consider sending out change of address cards."
Humour was usually a reliable way of calming Virgil down, but not today it seemed.
Scott may have won the battle, but it was up to him and John to win the war.
-x-
Clip. Clop. Clip. Clop.
Scott winced and adjusted the ice pack against his burning cheek.
Too bad he couldn't do anything for his burning ears.
Clip. Clop. Clip. Clop.
In front of him, Principal Perkins paced back and forth in front of her desk, hands clasped behind her back like a drill sergeant intent on beating the shit out of an underling.
Eh, wasn't too much of an inaccurate analogy.
"Of all the foolhardy things…" Principal Perkins muttered, her face puce with rage, "Never, in all my years…and a Tracy to boot! Never would have thought…"
Scott kept his mouth shut. Interrupting the principal's verbal thought train would probably be the straw that broke the already crippled camel's back.
In an effort to distract him from the ongoing clipping and clopping of Perkin's heels against the tiled wood floor, Scott allowed his eyes to wander curiously around her office. There was an oil portrait of the school's iconic fountain behind her desk, a massive banana leaf plant next to the window, and a gold plaque on her desk with the initials M. Perkins.
Blue eyes strayed to a piece of official looking paper balanced precariously on the edge of the mahogany desk he was sat in front of. Instinctively, Scott reached out to stop it from falling, his gaze catching a glimpse of the words, 'Principal Molly Perkins' along the top.
Molly. He preferred that name. It was softer and more human than, 'Principal Perkins'. He wondered if 'Molly' would appreciate him telling her that her banana plant could do with a water, but came to the swift conclusion that his education wasn't worth some water on some dirt.
A knock on the door nearly made Scott drop his ice pack. Molly frowned and pressed the intercom button on her desk, "Justine? Who is it?"
The line crackled briefly, "It's Virgil Tracy, ma'am. He's asked to speak with his brother. Do you want me to let him in?"
Molly paused for a second, her hands braced against her desk, "Go ahead. Check which lesson he's supposed to be in and notify the teacher of his absence."
No sooner had the door unlocked than Virgil practically fell through it, his cheeks as flushed as if he'd just run a marathon with a wardrobe strapped to his back.
"Principal…Perkins…" Virgil wheezed, coughing as he struggled to get enough air into his lungs, "Please…d-don't suspend him…"
Scott jumped to his feet and guided Virgil into the vacant seat beside him, "Virgil? Are you okay? How did you know I was here?"
The second brother mimed something that, to Scott's eyes, looked the same as someone asking for the bill in a restaurant, "Willow…John..."
Scott tried to frown, but stopped when the pain in his cheek spiked in warning, "What about them? Where are they?"
Virgil dragged a hand across his forehead and gratefully accepted the glass of water Molly was handing him, "John was with me, but mentioned something about misplacing his asthma inhaler and disappeared. Willow came and found both of us after she spotted you beating up two of Miss Anderson's kids. What the hell happened? And where were you this morning? I hadn't a clue where you'd gone and was worried sick! You left no note, no voicemail, no nothing! I barely had time to get Gordon and Alan ready, let alone myself!"
A thin smile peeked between the bruises mottling Scott's face, "Welcome to my world."
"Your face!" Virgil all but shrieked, "What happened to it? I know you started the fight, but please tell me you were also the one to finish it?"
"I did. But it was two against one, and they didn't go down without a fight of their own," Scott admitted, shifting the ice pack to his darkening eye, "I'm more concerned with what they were doing to Gordo. The one kid's bag was full of his stuff, Virg."
"Or so you claim," Molly interjected, her expression about as wholesome as a cold cup of coffee, "Be careful with your accusations, Tracy. This is an open case and anything you say can and will be held against you."
Virgil's eyes widened, "What do you mean, can and will be held against him? He's not going into custody, is he?"
Molly shook her head, "No, but I've got two students in an ambulance on their way to hospital and four parents on the phone demanding explanations. You both need to recognise the severity of what has happened here today. Scott, I'll need to take a statement from you, but I will not tolerate any kind of unprovoked assault at this school. I'll need to speak with your form tutor, liaise with the families of the affected students, and review the CCTV footage before I can comment further. Until then, I recommend you go to the hospital yourself for an examination. The left side of your face is continuing to swell, and I don't think cold compression is going to be enough."
Scott didn't react, primarily because he had Virgil to do it for him.
"Justine?" Molly pressed the intercom button and lowered her head towards the microphone, "Can we call the family of Scott Tracy and have someone come and collect him, please?"
The line crackled again, "Yes ma'am."
"W-Wait," Virgil croaked, his heart hammering in his ears, "We haven't heard his side of the story yet! What if he forgets some crucial detail between now and whenever he next speaks to you? Don't you think it would be safer if he gave his account now?"
It was with squinted eyes that Molly peered over the rim of her glasses at the two brothers, her forehead creased into the kind of frown commonly associated with lost causes. It was neither angry or condescending. If anything, it was pitiful.
"Very well," she conceded, pulling out her tablet, "I'll have to transcribe everything for the evidence file, but I see no reason why we can't use our remaining time to turn over some new ground."
Tension levels skyrocketed as two pairs of eyes locked onto Scott's rapidly bulging face.
"They were bullying my brother. I had to do something."
