Welcome back, guys! The first day of high school is here! The chapter is over 5600 words, there was a lot of stuff that I wanted to do in this one, and I think I got it all done. Needless to say, there is still lots to cover in this story. The move is fast approaching, and with that, a whole lot of other stuff. I hope you enjoy this one :)
HyperSushi: Thanks! I hope you like this one, too!
Luna0603: Thanks! i'm glad you were excited for this one, I hope it lives up to your expectations. There will be problems though, but I'm sure they'll be able to get through them :) I enjoyed writing the Mileven scene, Mike is definitely the type of person to put El's needs ahead of his. Hopefully there will be some development in that area soon, haha. The Max and El talk will come soon, too. Enjoy the chapter!
Wow: lmao
jbg: Thanks! I think that is what Joyce would have wanted for them in terms of school. I'm glad you enjoy seeing El's and Mike's relationship developing. There is definitely going to be more that will happen with them, but in time. And thank you, I will try to find. I have no class for the next three weeks because of corona, so I will have some extra time, haha. But I have other personal projects of mine that I'm putting some time into. I hope you enjoy the chapter!
"El? El, are you there?"
El's eyes cracked open groggily. She looked to her left, and then right and saw the numbers eleven-thirty-two on her digital clock staring back at her. Groaning, she looked around, trying to identify the source of the sound.
"El, are you asleep?" It was the Supercom. She darted to the edge of the bed and reached her arm under the frame, and dug around until she found the Supercom.
She pressed the button on the side of the device and spoke into the receiver. "Mike, is that you?"
She heard a sigh followed by a pause. "Mike?" she asked again, still groggy from being woke up.
"Did I wake you up?" he asked, sounding guilty.
"No," she lied. She didn't want him to feel bad, but unfortunately lying had never been her strong suit.
"Yes, I did. I can tell," he said, sounding upset with himself. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," she assured him, already shaking the cobwebs out of her mind. "What's wrong? Is everything okay?"
"I don't know…" Mike sounded unsure and a little bit anxious. "School is starting tomorrow."
The lightbulb went off in El's head. She had almost completely forgotten about the whole thing. It had only been a couple of days ago Mike had mentioned it to her, but it had been in passing, and she had sort of forgot about it. But it was happening tomorrow, and it occurred to her that the reason he was calling her was probably because he was stressed and wanted to talk about it.
Which was something that she was more than happy to do, of course. "Are you worried?"
"A little bit," he replied. "Actually, I'm really worried. I don't want to have to deal with the type of shit that I had to deal with all of middle school. What if it's the same?"
El didn't have a whole lot of experience in comforting people; she knew that she was usually the one who always needed someone to talk to, give how the last few months had been. She wasn't entirely used to Mike coming to her for advice, rather than the other way around. But she knew him well.
Only El knew how brave and selfless and strong and smart he was. What other fourteen-year-old kid had done everything they had done? Faced a Demogorgon head-on, ran through the snaking tunnels of the Upside-Down while being chased by demodogs, and battled the Mindflayer on multiple occasions?
"Mike, look at all the things you've done since I met you," she said. "And you're worried about school?"
Mike laughed. "I won't have you there to save my ass every time though, El," he
explained. "The only reason why I was able to do all of that stuff was because of you."
"That's not true," she disagreed. "Remember Billy? In the sauna?" She shuddered at even thinking of the incident. She didn't think she had ever been more scared in her entire life, other than when they were in the mall and the Mindflayer was literally meters away from her powerless body. "You hit him with the… umm-"
"The barbell?" Mike finished.
"Is that what it's called? Oh. Yes, the barbell," she said. "You're the one who saved me there. If you can do all of that, you can manage high school, Mike. I promise."
He sighed. "But it's different. I can't just hit a classmate a barbell in class."
"No, you can't. But that doesn't mean you can't protect yourself. You don't have to get into a fight with anyone, either. You're the smartest person I know. You could just outsmart them."
"Things are different in school, El," he sighed. "I don't… I don't know. I don't know if anything you would help, but… I just called because talking to you always helps when I'm stressed."
El smiled to herself at hearing that. It was good to know that she was able to help him with stuff like this just by talking to him. "Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked.
"Unless you can snap your fingers and make kids like me and get rid of my stress, probably not," he said sadly.
"You don't need to stress about, Mike. You're the bravest, smartest, strongest person I know. I promise. I don't know why you don't see that."
Mike knew that El was pretty biased in this discussion, but he couldn't help but feel his confidence and self-esteem shoot up at her words. Maybe she was right. It was just school, after all. He had dealt with more than the average full-grown adult had in the last year and a half. If Troy decided to give him shit, then he'd be able to handle himself. What was stopping him from just punching him in the face? The stupid teachers? He'd get suspended, probably, but at least he'd get suspended with dignity and in good health. It was time for him to start standing up for himself.
"Thank you," he said whole-heartedly. "I feel better now."
"That's what I'm here for," she replied, reciting a line that he had told her many times before.
Mike looked at the clock, and his eyes bugged out when he realized that it was already past midnight. They had been talking a lot longer than he realized. "I should go to bed now," he sighed. "I have to get up really early tomorrow."
"Yeah," El agreed. "Okay. Goodnight, Mike."
"Goodnight, El. I lo- Talk to you tomorrow." The sound of the Supercom being clicked off came through the speaker, and El was left lying in her bed, her heart thumping loudly at realizing what Mike had almost said. Why did he hold back? Did he even know that she had heard him say that he loved her the first time, at the beginning of July? Obviously not, she guessed. It had been over two months since then, and she still hadn't heard those words come out of his mouth.
And she desperately wanted them to.
Why did was he afraid to say it? Did he think that she wouldn't say it back, or what she wouldn't understand? It was confusing and rather upsetting. Was he resisting because it wasn't true? She doubted that that was true. Maybe she could collect some advice from Max on this issue, too…
She turned off her own Supercom and placed it under the bed, and closed her eyes and went to sleep.
Elsewhere, Mike was kicking the shit out of himself for being so stupid. How could he have said that? How could he have let that slip again? After the cabin in July, and on all the other occasions he had just gotten away without letting it slip out, how could he have screwed up now?
He hoped that she hadn't picked up on it. He wasn't ready to tell her yet. Well, he knew he was ready to tell her. He just didn't know if she was ready to hear it. There was no way to know how she would react. If Mike was honest with himself, he wasn't even sure if El knew what actual love was. She might have been familiar with familial love, in the sense of the way she loved Hopper, but what about… this kind of love? The love that he felt for her? Did she understand that? Did she feel the same way?
"Fuck," he muttered to himself. He just prayed she didn't realize because then he would be looking forward to a very awkward conversation. All he wished was for there to be some way for him to figure out how she felt without having to ask her, because that would be impossible to do. It was not like he could just ask her "hey, El, do you love me?" Someone else would have to find out for him, most likely.
He cringed inwardly when he considered the option of asking Max to do some spy work. Maybe she could get some information for him? He knew that she and El were close. Or maybe Will could find out, but he didn't really know the type of relationship he had with her.
Damn it.
Right now he had bigger fish to fry with school. He settled his mind down and fell asleep after a few minutes.
The piercing shriek of the alarm clock ripped through Mike's ears and he jolted awake. On instinct, his hand flew to his bedside table and fumbled around until the noise halted. He cursed under his breath and turned over under the covers and buried his face into the pillow. Unfortunately, he knew that in no more than five minutes his Mom would be hollering up the stairs to make sure he was awake.
With a loud groan that he was pretty sure the neighbors could have heard, he threw the comforter off himself and made his way to the bathroom. He jumped in the shower and dried his hair in good time and walked downstairs to see the rest of his family already sitting down, minus his Dad because he left earlier for work.
Nancy looked up at him and offered him an encouraging smile. "Sleep well?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Well enough," he replied. His mom entered the room holding a plate with toast and scrambled eggs on it. At least Mike could count on his mom for always getting him great breakfasts on school mornings.
"Good morning, Mike," she said, a wide and warm smile spread across her face. "How are you feeling?"
"Feeling better than I was last night," he said honestly. "A little nervous still, but I'm okay."
"Good to hear," she said sweetly. "Hopefully this breakfast does you some good for your first day, then."
"Thanks, Mom," he replied, and eagerly took the plate from her hands.
Once he had finished his plate, he finished getting ready and hopped in the car with Nancy (but not before his mom hounding him for ten minutes to take photos) who dropped him off at Lucas's house, wished him good luck on his first day, and drove off.
Mike glanced at his watch to verify that he was running on time, which he was. Classes started at 8:10, and it was 7:50. Which meant that he'd have time to hang out at Lucas's house before they would have to leave for a couple of minutes, then walk over with the rest of the group. He walked up the walkway and went to knock on the door but it was opened by Will before he could.
"You ready?" he asked.
"I guess so," he replied, trying to mask the unsureness in his voice. "Are we leaving already?" he asked.
"Yeah, everyone is here except for Max," he said. "We're gonna meet her down the street, she's running late."
"Sounds good. Where are Dustin and Lucas?"
"Downstairs, they're still packing their stuff. They'll be up in a sec."
As if on queue, the two teens stumbled up the stairway, bags in hand. "Hey, Mike," Lucas greeted.
"Fuck, I wish it was still summer," Dustin shouted.
"Language!" an annoyed Mrs. Sinclair called from inside the house.
"Sorry," Dustin called, his eyes bugging out when he realized he had forgotten who was still home. "Okay, let's go, I don't want to get yelled at anymore," he whispered and speed-walked out of the doorway. The rest of the boys rolled their eyes and followed him out, an amused look on their faces, with the exception of Lucas.
"How many times do I have to tell you guys," he began. "To not swear in my house?" he asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"My bad," Dustin said. "My mom is a lot more relaxed when it comes to that sort of shit," he said. "I'm not used to it."
"Get used to it," he said. "Every time you come over to my house, my mom has to tell you off for swearing, man."
"Okay, okay," he said, rolling his eyes. "I'm sorry. But don't worry, we aren't gonna be meeting at your house for school anyway. Max lives the closest, so we are gonna be meeting there from now on, anyway."
"Good," Lucas said, shaking his head. They turned the corner and saw Max's house up ahead, just in time to watch her open the front door and walk out of the house. She turned to her left and saw the Party and waved at them. The rest of them waved back.
They walked toward each other and met halfway. Max easily noticed that all of them seemed a little bit on edge. A laugh escaped her. "What's so funny?" Lucas asked her after giving her a quick peck on the lips.
"You guys look like deer caught in the headlights," she stated. "Just calm down. It's not a big deal." She placed her skateboard on the ground and rolled ahead a couple of feet before turning back. "After all, you have your zoomer to protect you," she added sarcastically.
The Party chuckled to themselves. "Yeah, yeah," Dustin said. "If zoomer can shove her skateboard up Troy's ass, it would be appreciated," he joked dryly. The Party laughed.
They spent the remainder of their walk to Hawkins High talking amongst themselves, and at that time, Mike was actually feeling pretty confident. At least he knew that no matter what happened, he'd always have his friends to back him up. And he also knew that no one in that school shared the same bond that the Party did. So in a way, they probably had an advantage over everyone else in the school.
After a few more minutes of walking, the school came into view. Hoards of students, most of which seemed a lot taller than them were walking into the doors and walking around outside. A couple of kids could be seen smoking cigarettes, which Nancy had warned Mike to never get involved in. A couple of cars were pulling into the parking lot, being driven by the seniors.
"They look so… old," Will said with a heavy swallow.
"I'm not looking forward to starting from square one again," Lucas muttered. It had been easier being the oldest kids in the school. When they were in grade six, they would always have to worry about the kids that were not just in their grade, but the older grades too. Kids in younger grades didn't often give older kids problems. But now, they would have to worry about the grade tens, elevens, and twelves, plus the nines in their own grade.
"It's fine," Max said dismissively. "Most of them have better things to do than harass runts like us. High schools aren't like the movies, you know. Not everyone is out to get you."
The rest of them hoped she was right. "She has a point," Dustin put forth. "If I was in grade ten or something, I probably wouldn't even give up the time to look at a younger kid."
"Everyone is here just to handle their own stuff," Max stated. "Not many people look for an issue."
They continued walking toward the main doors. They were able to pick out some of the students that were obviously freshmen. It was easy to see who was in grade nine; everyone seemed to have those trademark nervous expressions and unsureness. They were mostly in clusters, which wasn't shocking. It was hard to believe that anyone would want to be walking into something like this alone.
Once they got through the front door, the area opened up in front of them and they were greeted by a large foyer where dozens of students had gathered. Like outside, all of them seemed to be separated into different groups and cliques, and in between those amalgamations of children, there were stray students walking around and talking to one another.
Simply put, it looked like a mess.
"Nancy told me that new students go to the gymnasium," Mike told them, turning around. "If we can figure out where that is, then I'm sure we can get some instructions." The rest of them nodded in agreement and looked around.
"There seems to be a lot of foot traffic over there," Lucas said, pointing to the right. "Maybe the gym is somewhere over there?"
"We can look," Will said. "We got here early, so we don't have to worry about being late."
With some degree of difficulty, they were able to navigate through the crowds of kids toward the other hallway. As Max had predicted, most of the older kids didn't seem to look at them twice, or even acknowledge that they were there. Mike silently thanked his parents' genes for making him tall, because he couldn't imagine being short and trying to get through everyone. However, there were still a lot of kids who were even taller than him. At least I'm not Will, he thought.
Sure enough, when the reached the hall, Mike saw a pair of double doors wing open and he caught a glimpse of the tiled wooden floor of a gym in front of a set of bleachers. "It's over there, guys," he announced. "Just follow me." He assumed the role of the leader, acting as a sort of wedge to drive away the groups of students so that his friends could follow behind him.
"Good thing we have you, Mike," Dustin joked. "I think we would have gotten lost by now if it wasn't for your height."
"Yeah," he laughed. It was good that he had grown a fair amount over the summer. He was now about an inch above Lucas, who was the second tallest in the Party.
They managed to squeeze in through the doors, and walked as quickly as they could to the bleachers. After securing some seats on the top row, they all let out a simultaneous sigh of relief. "Okay, we're here," Lucas exhaled. "We can relax now."
A few minutes later, the first bell rang. After the last few students trickled in, the staff and a man in a suit who they assumed to be the principal started talking amongst themselves while waiting for everyone to get settled. Mike felt a tap on his shoulder and looked over to face Will.
"What's up?" he asked.
Will discreetly pointed with his thumb to his left. "Troy and his buddies," he whispered. "They're over there."
Mike followed Will's finger and scowled when he saw the group of jackasses sitting in the far corner of the bleachers. "Fuck them," he muttered through gritted teeth. "I don't recognize some of those kids."
"Maybe he made some new friends this summer," Will suggested. "Whatever. I don't want to think about it right now." Mike nodded and both of them turned back to face the front of the gym where the principal was fiddling with a microphone.
"Testing, one two three, testing- okay! Hello everyone!" The conversations that were happening all died down and everyone looked at the front of the gym. "Thank you, everyone. Welcome to Hawkins High!"
From there, the principal launched into a lengthy speech regarding school rules, clubs and teams, dress codes, classes, courses, and a whole bunch of other stuff that one would expect to hear in an introductory speech to a horde of ninth-graders on the first day of school.
It dragged on for a while before the principal instructed them all to step forward and collect their schedules which were being handed out in order of last name. There were seven staff members handing them out, so the process was done in about fifteen minutes. After getting their schedules, the Party promptly escaped the gym and weaseled through the crowds to get the library (which they found by asking an older student that they saw in the hallway).
"Okay," Max said once they had sat down. "So the grade nines have… five minutes from now to get to first period. So let's figure these timetables out."
The Party all took their pieces of paper and sprawled them out across the table they were seated at. "Most of our courses are mandatory in grade nine, so we're probably gonna be in a lot of the same classes," Will reasoned.
"That's good," Lucas replied. "What electives did you guys choose, again?"
Before they finished school in grade eight, their guidance counselor had helped them select their courses for grade nine. They only had room for one elective, because everything else was mandatory in grade nine. On top of that, the options were limited.
"I took a second art course," Will answered.
"Computer science," Mike said, to which Dustin gave him a fist bump, given he was taking the same thing.
"Me and Stalker over here took one of the fitness courses," Max stated, giving her boyfriend a smile.
They stopped talking for a second while they looked over their schedules. Thankfully, with the exception of Will being alone for his second art class, it appeared that none of them would ever be alone in their classrooms. Each of them had at least one party member in their class for all their subjects.
"Thank God," Mike grumbled. "I'd rather die than do a group project with a bunch of wastoids or something." The rest of them murmured in agreement.
"We better branch off," Will said, looking at the clock above the library door. "The bell is gonna ring in a couple seconds."
"Alright," Mike agreed, grabbing the sheet of paper he was looking at and folding it up before jamming it in his pocket. "I have math first. Will, you're with me, right?"
"Yup," he said, doing the same. "Good luck guys."
The group said their good-byes until lunch and headed off. "Just stay behind me, squirt," Mike teased Will.
Will chuckled. "Just you wait. You got lucky with your growth spurt this summer. I'll catch up."
"Uh-huh," Mike grinned, and started walking toward the room. It was number 231, so he knew that it was upstairs. They found the nearest stairwell and managed to get up in good time, given that most of the students were in class and only the grade nines were up and about.
"There it is," Will pointed ahead toward an open door with a piece of wood stuck to it that had the numbers 321 engraved onto it.
"Good eye," Mike complimented and quicken the pace to the room. They walked in together and saw about two dozen other students, a pretty even mix between males and females all sitting at desks arranged in groups of two, conveniently. There were several empty spots to sit; the two front ones, one at the far back, and three in the middle.
"Let's take the middle one," Mike whispered to Will, who nodded. Neither of them wanted to sit at the front and establish themselves as "nerds," but they didn't want to migrate all the way to the back, because then the teacher probably would think they were slackers.
They sat down at the desk in front of a pair of girls, one of which seemed to be really pushing the dress code. There were a handful of people talking, but most kids were silent. The second bell rang and within a second the teacher walked in. He was an Asian man who identified himself as "Mr. Chen." He seemed to be nice enough.
Mr. Chen briefly outlined what they would be covering in the course, most of which seemed to be algebra or algebra related. He mentioned something about "linear functions and relationships," or something like that, as well. It seemed pretty straight forward.
"Everything that you learn in this course will be the base of everything you will learn in the future," he stated. "It is imperative for you all to understand the skills I teach you in order to succeed in later grades." He glanced at the clock. "I'll be handing out a worksheet for you all to complete. If you don't finish it, it will be finished at home. It's just a review of what you likely did in middle school. I will be taking it up tomorrow."
Mike's second class of the day, English, was more of the same. He had that class with Max and Lucas. The desks were all arranged individually, but the three of them were able to find a spot where they could all sit beside one another. The teacher who taught it, a middle-aged woman named Mrs. Davis, seemed a lot more strict than Mr. Chen. She seemed to have a very "no-nonsense" vibe going on in her class. In contrast to the math room, the room was rather bare; in Mr. Chen's room, there were posters and photos and other decorations spread out across the walls. In here, it was mostly just shelves of old books.
The period went by quickly, and before they knew it, their lunch period had arrived. They had agreed to meet in the foyer where they had been earlier, which proved to be a mistake because it was insanely busy. Eventually, they all located one another and found their way to the cafeteria.
"So," Dustin sat down with a huge exhale and fished a bologna sandwich out of his lunch bag. "How you guys doing?"
The rest of them got their lunches out and took a bite before answering. "My math and English teachers are nice," Mike said. "Mrs. Davis seems really strict, though."
"I have her next semester," Dustin replied. "I'll be sure to be careful." The rest of them nodded.
Everyone compared notes and it seemed like everything was going well for all of them. Mike looked around and, to his surprise, didn't see Troy and his goons anywhere nearby. "Do any of you guys have classes with Troy?" he asked.
A series of no's and nope's went around the table. "I think it's because he's in the basic-level classes," Will said. "There are different levels for courses. He probably took the lower ones because he's too stupid."
"Well, I'm not complaining," Lucas said, taking another bite of his sandwich.
"You guys really don't like this Troy person, do you?" Max asked, looking concerned.
All of them shook their heads. "He was a really big pain in grade sixth and seventh grade, but when El broke his arm he started to leave us alone."
Max choked on her food. "I'm sorry, what?"
Dustin looked at her, a stupid grin across his face. "Did we never tell you the story? Of what El did to Troy when he tried fucking with me and Mike?"
Max looked around the table, an incredulous look on her face. "No," she said, enunciating the word heavily.
Dustin launched into the story of El making troy piss himself, and then her running away when the group got mad at her for flinging Lucas into a bus, followed by Lucas getting mad at them, forcing Dustin and Mike to look for El on their own. Mike then took over and described how Troy made him jump off the quarry when they chased them with knives, and El saved him and broke Troy's arm in the process.
"Wow," she said when they had finished. "How come you never told me?"
"Did I not tell you last year? In the arcade?" Lucas asked, confused.
"I don't think so," she said. "I'm pretty sure I would have remembered it."
Lucas shrugged. "Yeah, anyway," he said. "That's that."
They ate the rest of their lunches in comfortable silence; most of them were too busy looking around and absorbing the new landscape, anyway. There were a lot of new people, new scenery, new concepts to learn when it came to highschool. It was pretty overwhelming, if they were honest.
After their hour-and-a-half-long lunch period was up, they parted ways to go to their individual classes. For third period Mike had French, a subject that he was not particularly fond of. He had already decided that he would not be continuing the course after grade nine. He mostly zoned out during his teachers lengthy introductory speech, but he paid attention somewhat. It didn't help that she was speaking french half the time.
Oh, well. He could tolerate one mark in the seventies. He wouldn't be taking it again. At least he could do group projects with Dustin and Lucas.
His last period class was gym. Great. On his way to it, he shook his head to himself. Why on Earth was this a mandatory course? On top of that, the only person who was in this class with him from the Party was Max.
It's not that Mike didn't like Max. It was just that they were still on… weird terms. She had broken up him and El, influenced her pretty heavily, in ways both good and bad, he guessed. But something about them hadn't quite clicked yet. Having her was better than having nobody, though. And besides, from what he had heard, the boys and girls barely mixed. They were in the same room for attendance and that was about it, and twice a week they would all go to the main gym for fitness testing. Other than that, there was a second gym that Nancy told him the girls went to for most cases.
That meant that, for the majority of his time in this class, he would be alone.
Great.
I'm sure I can find some nice people, Mike thought as he walked into the changeroom and dropped his backpack on the ground. It was the first class so they weren't expected to change, but everyone else was coming in to drop their things off, so Mike figured he would, too. There were already several students in the changeroom, about half of which were actually talking to one another. He recognized most of the students from Hawkins middle (it wasn't like there were any other feeder schools in the area), but there were some new faces. He didn't bother talking to anyone until the door swung open and the final person entered the room.
It was Troy.
As soon as he walked through the door, Mike turned away and pretended to look in his bag, acting like he hadn't noticed him. What he had said that morning was true; he was feeling less nervous about everything, and after talking to El, he was definitely more confident in his abilities to deal with a situation. But he still preferred for there to just not be a situation at all. And hopefully, if he didn't confront him, then there wouldn't be one.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. He heard footsteps behind him that seemed to be exaggeratingly loud. The smell of cigarette smoke filled his nostrils. Had Troy been smoking?
"Wheeler," he said loudly. The talking in the changeroom died down. It seemed as though most people knew who Troy was. Perhaps the rest of the kids had a similar opinion as he did regarding him.
He put on a brave face and stood up from his bag and stood up as tall he could without
looking weird and turned around.
Troy had grown taller, but so had he; where Troy had previously been taller than Mike, they were now equal. But he definitely had a weight advantage over him, because Mike was still on the lanky side. Behind him stood three other boys. He recognized one as James, the other kid from the quarry. He had put on some weight since the end of grade eight it seemed, and was even more intimidating. The other two boys he didn't recognize.
"Troy," he said simply, merely acknowledging the fact that he had said his name.
"These are my friends," he said smugly. "This is Daniel, and this is Ron. And you
remember James, right?" Mike surveyed the group of boys. Ron was an Asian kid who was a little on the short side, but his steely gaze still stared daggers at Mike. Mike didn't consider himself racist, but Ron definitely seemed to be the type of kid to know some kind of martial art. On the other hand, Daniel was a really skinny kid, with a lot of freckles and piercing in each earlobe with greasy, long brown hair that sort of hung in his eyes a little bit.
"Yes," he said curtly, not bothering to say hello to his two new acquaintances.
"It sucks that you're in our gym class," Troy said, his lip curling into a stupidly condescending smirk.
"I'd have to agree," Mike replied, keeping eyes fixated on Troy's. There was no way in
Hell that he was going to look away first and show any kind of weakness.
"No," Troy said, taking a step forward. "It sucks for us. Because every time we play a game, we might have your faggot-ass on our team. And that would really suck for us, right?"
Mike said the first snappy comeback he could think of; "Yeah, it would. But I guess it would also suck to piss yourself in front of an entire school, wouldn't it? You'd know a thing or two about that, wouldn't you, Troy?"
A series of "ooh's" and "oh's" echoed through the changeroom. Troy's face contorted and he glared at Mike in a way that made his skin crawl, but he didn't show it. He didn't back down.
Troy stepped forward so that his face was only a couple inches away from Mike's. He could smell the smoke even more and he had to resist the urge to cough. "This is gonna be a rough year for you, Wheeler," he said quietly, so that no one else could hear.
"Hm," Mike grunted in response. He watched as Troy and the rest of his gang stalked out of the room and into the gym.
Mike might not have won the war yet, but this battle had been won.
Alright, that's it for this one! I hope you guys all liked it. Leave me your thoughts and I'll respond to all of them. I'll see you all soon :)
