Two days later...
It was now lunchtime and Rodrigo had just finished eating his meal and was preparing to head down to the first floor to meet up with some friends and dance away for the remainder of their lunchtime. He quickly made his way down the stairs, opened the doors and turned to head where his friends always met up.
Upon entering the hallway, he saw a crowd and headed straight for it, thinking his friends had already started their dancing. It would have been like any other day, with no fusses or any drama. If anything, the whole reason why his friends met up to dance was precisely to reduce any of the usual stress that they experience as high school teenagers. However, as Rodrigo approached the crowd, he slowly started realizing that instead of hearing the usual music and cheer from the audience, there was instead shouting and yelling.
Instead of them being cheerful and encouraging, they sounded strained and angry. Almost from the very beginning he felt tension being high among the crowd. When he approached the crowd, it dawned on him that this crowd was not there to see a dancing competition. No, they were there to witness a fight.
Concerned as to who was fighting, Rodrigo gently pushed through the crowd to get a better look. As he did so, he saw that one of the teens fighting was his friend, Javier, trying to dodge some punches from a black student. The two teens had already received a few punches from each other, as their faces clearly indicated that. They were either bruised or had some blood. Horrified at this spectacle, Rodrigo immediately threw himself in between the two fighting teens and attempted to stop the fight.
"Javier! Whoa whoa whoa man, stop! What are you doing?!" He frantically looked as his friend, but just as quickly turned around to face the black student who was charging at them.
"Yo dude, stop! What the hell is this?!" He yelled at the black student as he stretched his arm out in order to create some distance between himself and him.
"This ain't yo business! Get the hell out of the way!" The black youth angrily yelled at Rodrigo. Whatever Javier must have said or done, it must have been bad. He looked furious and was out for blood!
"It is my business! He's my friend!" Rodrigo yelled back. "What the hell happened?"
"Nothing happened, Rodrigo!" Javier interjected with a raised and angry voice. "This guy just came out of nowhere and started to pick a fight with me!"
"I'm going to send you to an early grave after making those racist jokes against me!" The black teen snarled at Javier.
"What racist jokes?" Both Javier and Rodrigo asked him simultaneously with confused looks on their faces.
"Don't bs me around, Javier! I know that it was you making those jokes. It's all over the school. You idiot, you didn't even make an attempt to hide it. Good! It was easy to know who it was so I can beat the living snut out of him!" The black teen yelled and attempted to get around Rodrigo, but he held him back, albeit just barely. He was after all taller than him.
"Whoa dude, just stop for a second!" Rodrigo yelled back and pushed him back again.
"Lamar, I don't know where the hell you got your info, but I never made any racist jokes about you!" Javier exclaimed.
"Ya right, your saying that now because you are about to get your a** kicked, you scumbag!" Lamar yelled back.
"Damn it Lamar, it's the truth! Why the hell would I make any racist jokes about you?! I ain't got no beef with you!" Javier exclaimed angrily.
Lamar had heard enough and attempted to once again get to Javier, but Rodrigo refused to budge and held him from getting to him.
"Lamar, just stop!" Rodrigo cried out again frustratingly and once again pushed Lamar back a few steps. He then turned around to look at Javier.
"Javier, tell me the truth; did you actually make any racist joke about him?" he calmly but seriously asked him while looking at him straight in the eye.
"No, I did not." Javier answered back while also looking at him in the eye.
For a few seconds, both friends just started at each other. But then, Rodrigo finally turned around to face Lamar.
"Lamar, he didn't make those jokes about you. I believe him. Whatever rumours you heard were false." he said to him.
"Bull! Everyone here heard that it was him making those jokes!" Lamar yelled back, as he pointed to the crowd.
Rodrigo then looked at the crowd and said, "Is it true? Did all of you hear it that it was Javier that make that racist joke?"
most the crowd nodded.
"Then who here actually heard Javier make that racist joke? Who was actually present with him?" Rodrigo asked.
This time, the crowd just looked at each other, wondering to see if anyone was actually with Javier and heard it from his own mouth. Not to Rodrigo's surprise, no one said or made any physical gestures to acknowledge it.
Rodrigo then turned back to face Lamar.
"Lamar, no one here actually heard him say that joke. Whatever information you heard, it was a lie. Someone else must have said it." he said to him.
Lamar was having none of it and again attempted to charge at him, but then Rodrigo abruptly spoke again.
"Listen here, Lamar." Rodrigo to him, this time with a vicious and deadly tone in his voice. "If you want to fight, you'll have to go through me and I swear I WILL send you to an early grave. Then your friends are going to join in, and then mine, until a big and huge brawl will erupt. Many people will get hurt and you will end up getting suspended, all because of a dumb rumour. Good luck with your scholarship! If you want to avoid all of that, then just walk away; I'll do the same. No harm, no foul."
Lamar initially said nothing, as he continued to angrily look at both Latinos with a deadly glare in his eyes. He was still out for blood, but he was hesitating. He had to think about his future. Was it worth losing it all to a dumb racist joke, especially to that dumb Latino kid? Should he just walk away?
Finally, after some careful consideration, Lamar's angry facial expression lessened a bit, and then finally, slowly but surely, turned around and started to walk away. It wasn't worth it.
Rodrigo continued standing in his place until Lamar put a good amount of distance between them before also turning around and walked away. Then, the crowd slowly started dispersing, some going with Rodrigo's group, while others went with Lamar, while others simply went back to their business.
Rodrigo walked towards their usual spot and sat down while making a big sigh of relief. His friends joined him, feeling also relieved that a big fight was avoided.
"Quien propago esa estúpida rumor que yo dije bromas racistas contra él?" (Who spread that stupid rumour that I said racist jokes about him?) Javier asked in completely confusion.
"No lo se." (I don't know.) Rodrigo responded. "Pero esperamos que escuchamos lo último de eso" (But let's just hope we have heard the end of this.)
During the next month and a half...
Fortunately, Rodrigo did hear the end of that event, but not in others. As the days and weeks went by, Rodrigo and everyone else at school started noticing a huge spike in students fighting each other as a result of racist, sexist and homophobic rumours, slanders and blackmailing spreading throughout the school from 'particular' students, although no one was able to pinpoint who was actually spreading them.
At first, students started getting confused as to who or how were these rumours spreading and why. It was clear to everyone that these rumours were meant to provoke people into getting angry; they were not funny in any way. It started out slowly, but the fights soon started becoming more and more frequent.
The rumours were very serious. One involved in 'outing' a closeted gay male student who came from a religious background and had conservative friends. The 'outing' also involved a video that was released on social media, where the male student was explicitly seen to be romantically involved with another male. Although the student denied the accusation, once his parents and his friends found out, they shunned him, which caused even more of a scandal within the school, as the student's former friends were now being accused of being homophobic, causing everyone else to shun them, if not outright criticize them in return.
Another rumour involved a Muslim male student being romantically involved with a Hindu female student. Initially, the rumour only 'outed' their relationship to everyone, and other than just a few suspicious looks, did not cause any drama or any tempers flaring up. If anything, some students were even glad of the hookup. However, violence soon erupted between the female's brother and the Muslim male student when she one day came to school with bruises on her legs and arms. The female teen was known for being involved in heavy contact sports and she suffered bruises in her last game. The next day she hid them by wearing long sleeves and jeans, mostly for aesthetic reasons. Her brother did not notice, but when he heard of rumours that her boyfriend beat her and gave her bruises , he quickly approached his sister and demanded that he show him her bruises. Being ignorant of the rumours, she did, prompting the brother to seek out the boyfriend with his friends and immediately attempted beat him within an inch of his life. Despite her sister's pleas that her bruises came from the game, her brother was so infuriated that he completely ignored her and a terrible fight ensued between his friends and the Muslim teen's friends. Up to ten teachers and the Principal had to get physically involved in order to stop the fight and even had to involve the police. In the end, the parents from both teens demanded from their children to terminate their relationship, for the sake of peace.
Rumours about personal information and secrets also leaked out. Pictures of two lesbians students having sex were leaked out onto the internet and on social media websites. While one had already came out to everyone, the other female unfortunately was still a closeted lesbian. Apart from the humiliation, the two female teens now had to endure the teasing and the harassment. But more damagingly, rumours started spreading that their only male, heterosexual friend had explicitly leaked out the pictures. It made sense to the female teens because he had been in their homes many times and because they trusted him, they made no attempt to lock or hide away any private photos of themselves from their home computers. Despite their friend's plea that he was innocent, the two female teens were having none of it and terminated their friendship, threatening to call the police if he ever approached them again. In addition to this, along with other similar situations, it worsened relations between the LGBQT students and the rest of the heterosexual students, as the former now started treating the latter with serious suspicious, if not outright hostility.
As this trend continued, the students' confusion within the school started to give way towards suspicion. Slowly but surely, it soon turned to anger, and then, outright hate. Within only a span of a month and a half, much of the cohesion and bonds that many of the students bodies and organizations shared with each other were starting to fall apart. Indeed, they were having a difficult time controlling their members. For instance, after much discussion and debate from its members, the LGBQT organization decided that out of safety and peace of mind for its members, whatever events, rallies it would hold in the future, it would no longer encourage straight students to attend. This prompted outrage from the rest of the school, as many felt that by closing its doors, it was setting the LGBQT movement back instead of forward. Many students signed a petition against this decision, calling it complete discrimination. Unfortunately, after many incidents against gays, lesbians and transgendered youths, the Principal decided to support the decision. In addition, after much tension and potentially rising ethnic hatred, the Islamic Student Organization decided to cut all ties with the Indian Student Organization and the Sikh student Organization and was no longer going to be participating in holding any events with those mentioned organizations. They were now on their own.
Unfortunately, things got even worse. Many student friendship groups that had a diverse array people from different cultural, ethnic and sexual backgrounds started feeling the pressure. Some friendship groups actually ended up breaking up, as those students no longer felt comfortable or 'safe' with those that where 'different' from them. However, other groups held firm and refused to be split up by these troubling times.
Indeed the situation, rumours, infighting, paranoia and suspicious got so serious that the school ended up holding a meeting with all of the students' parents to discuss the situation. Unfortunately, no consensus was reached and no concrete plan was ever devised on how to deal with the growing crisis. Some parents were either indifferent, or supported their children's decision to no longer associate themselves with 'certain' students, while others reframed from letting these rumours and rising hate get the best of their children. Whatever plan was devised, it was quickly thrown away by the students themselves as some deemed them to be either insufficient or too radical.
Students that were not directly affected by these rumors and slanders became 'politically' divided by them. These rumors created, if not revealed, the political division that many student organizational and friendly groups already had within their mist. While some directly opposed the rumors and called them stereotypical, if not outright racist and homophobic lies, others discreetly agreed with them, increasing the level of tension and division that were already showing between students.
Even those who were lifelong friends were starting to feel the pressure, as some felt they needed to take sides, while others refused to do so, fearing either reprisal from their peers or because they felt it would only worsen the situation.
To make matter even more dire, some students ended up becoming affiliated with certain Alta-right and Alta-left organizations and had began either discreetly or openly recruiting more students into their cause as a result of these events. The first 'political' brawl broke out in early May, in a Civics class, when leftist students clashed with rightist students over the issue of immigration. Wanting to teach the kids about the power of rhetoric, the teacher held a debate during his class on that day, not knowing how politically extreme his students had became. Almost immediately, the teacher lost control of his class, as students began to shout at each other, followed by insults. Then, a Latino student angrily launched himself against a white student. Feeling like an outcast after the white student supposedly said the 'racist' remark that illegal immigrants are not welcomed into the U.S., it created a flood of violence in the class as others soon joined in from both 'sides'. The teacher had no choice but to ask for help from other teachers and even the Principal had to intervene again.
The mysterious person that spoke to Roger and El came through on his promise; he had used every dirty trick in the book and splintered the entire student body of the school into multiple factions, weakening them of their strength. He replaced friendship, understanding and love with suspicion, fear, and hatred.
Yet, out of all of the remaining diverse group of friends that held firm during this storm, one of them was Rodrigo and Helga's group.
