Chapter TWO: Two Weeks Later
The group sat down at their table, like they had done for the past two weeks. Just sitting and talking about the usual, the sting of being Outcasts quickly wore off and they resumed their usual topics "I was up...two whole nights trying to beat that freakin' game!..." "...Nope, still here" Were some of the most talked about at this table. However, the sting of becoming an Outcast overstayed it's welcome in Vincent's mind... and he did not like it. "Heather, I'm going crazy here." He said half to himself "Really..." Heather replied not listening, as she was reading a book of Hamlet and was too interested in it to really pay attention, that and it started to sound like one of his many rants. "I'm tired of this, for the past two weeks, we have tolerated being spit at, rideculed and altogether treated like crap! Not to mention one of 'em stole my favorite anime DVD..." "...You shouldn't have had here in the first place hon. " She replied flipping a page. " Well, I'll tell you what... I'm not gonna take it anymore." He stood up on his chair and his voice grew louder "If I could, I would challenge whoever is in charge of this "Popular" clan to duel over our RESPECT! AND DIGNITY!!" That last part caught the whole lunch room's attention.
A cricket chirped in the silence.
Vincent sat back down, clearly embarrassed at his emotional outburst but the room still stayed silent. A loud clonk of shoes rang through out the lunch room hall, and the noise revealed itself as Deacon Nielson, most popular jock in the school, and the one elected to take charge of this artificial government. He quietly made his way to the outcast table where he stopped. "Which one of you 'people' is the "Otaku"?" Almost as if it was rehearsed, everyone pointed to Vincent. "So, you're the one who wants to challenge me?" Realizing this hole was deeper than a ladder could reach Vincent stood up "Yes...I am" He gave out a slight laugh, looked at Vincent from head to toe, his glasses that barely stayed on the tip of his nose, the black uncombed hair, the shirt that said 'Now accepting applications for Japanese girlfriend' in Japanese. It was no wonder he was Outcast "A fight for dignity?" he said mockingly. "Yes, a duel for the respect of all outcasts in this school." Deacon laughed, "The way I see it, you're gonna need every last speck of it you can find." He began to walk away, then hammering in the last nail in the proverbial coffin Vincent said to Deacon "I will make you regret those words, Nielson." Deacon didn't turn to face him. "Fine, two days... after school in the football field. A duel, for respect. You will eat those words, even now I have friends writing them on shards of glass. I hope you're hungry." The lunch bell rang and he disapearred in a crowd of people clammering to get to glasses before the period bell rang.
Vincent sat back down, the goths stared at him for awhile only making one sound "Shit." and Shaun and Heather chipped in "You're screwed." and Vincent turned to face Heather "I hope you have a plunger, because my selfesteem is going right down the drain."
He returned home, going right up to his bedroom where he turned on a DVD of his and sat down on his bed. Which was surrounded by anime propoganda and merchandise. He lay down and quietly fell asleep.
Vincent stood in the football field where Deacon stood waiting for him, "About time you showed up, I was beginning to think you had died..." Deacon said mockingly. 'Now where have heard that before?' Vincent thought to himself, Deacon put himself in a proper Jeet Kun Do fighting position and beckoned him to step forward an fight. Vincent now angered, stood calmly. "Deacon Nielson." He said, a golden aura flowed over his body as his hair slowly spiked up and turned golden-yellow "Today, your reign of terror ends!" He yelled going into an all out fighting position as a golden yellow aura surrounded him and his hair became spiked and golden. Deacon's position didn't waver, in fact he challenged him. Vincent began to chant: "KA-----ME----HA----ME---" He allowed the last syllable to stick to the tip of his tongue. A blue ball of chi energy flowed between his linked palms and brought them back. "HA!!!!" He finished the chant and a blue beam erupted from Vincent's now outstretched hands and slammed into Deacon's hapless body, causing him to slam into a conveniently placed brick wall like a rag doll thrown from a dog's mouth. He lay there twitching in agony as Vincent reverted back to his old state, a gaggle of women crowded him saying things like "Make love to me" and "Oh my Gawd! You are so cute!":as he walked into the sunset.
Then he woke up. Sitting in his bed he muttered under his breath: "If only..." The next day was even worse than those before it. Along with the torment of being spat on and being disregarded he had to bear taunts and betting aginst him, even a newspaper clipping was hung up on the bulletin board announcing his Soon-to-be-demise. Vincent sat in his chair at biology next to Heather where slowly dissected a frog. He looked over to his right and spotted to Sophomores quietly laughing at him, one even put a scapel close to his neck and slowly scrolled it to the right. They both laughed and he looked back over at Heather She looked back at him and stared into each others eyes for awhile she then said: "If you die, can I have your room full of anime propoganda and merchandise?" "As long as you don't touch my shrine to Hayao Miyazaki."
Vincent sat in front of his t.v. playing a game FIGHT! OR DIE TRYING 2 on his old, rundown PS2. Still in despair over the events of the last couple of days he scrambled for ideas on how to get himself out of this godforsaken mess before he ended up with God. "Maybe you could try emulating to combat styles and situations in your duel with Deacon. I mean some are over-the-top but most are grounded firmly in a believable reality." Shaun said, severly kicking Vincent's ass "Y'know Shaun, you may be the quietest person in school, but when you do talk... things just make the craziest sense. It might work." Then he jumped up "Shaun! I have training to do!" "Be careful, remember you are still a young padawan learner. I can teach you" Shaun replied. Vincent just stared, wondering at his nonsense "Just call me sensei." "Deal."
Soon a day past and after almost 20 hours of learning the fighting styles and moves from his various fighting games it was already 2:00 p.m and there they stood in the field as snow drifted down. Deacon cracked his knuckles and walked slowly to Vincent who was as expected, scared witless hardly able to remember what Shaun had taught him the day before. "Shall we begin?" Deacon said boastfully, students all around them began to pass around dollars and various items. Vincent gulped "yes..." he whispered assuming the position of the martial art Aikido and the fight began. Deacon threw his fist at Vincent's face who caught it just miliseconds away from impact, using what was left of the throwing force he flung him back and tripped him, falling flat on his face in the process.
Students began to pass their betting items the other way.
"Beginner's luck, too bad it lasts only once!" Deacon yelled, slamming his body into Vincent's. A move he was completely unprepared for, and the beating afterward. Punches slammed into his face from the left and right, blood began to seep from his nose, he stopped "Had enough?" he said smiling as he got up. Vincent could not speak, the pain hurt so much it cut to the bone. Deacon wiped some blood off his lip "Figures. Outcast." And he walked away. Heather, Shaun, Adam and Rebecca rushed over to his aid. Heather looked at him, wiping excess blood off his face with her sleave, Vincent stared at a tooth which had fallen to the ground during the onslaught "I will have redemption. I swear it. This so called student government will go down along Deacon and his brood." He had enough adrenaline to stand up. "But can't, there's no way, you know how badly he kicked your ass!? It's suicide!" Heather yelled as the others remained silent. "I got myself into this, I cannot just let this...defeat fall off my shoulder. Somehow, someway, they'll go down."
The group sat down at their table, like they had done for the past two weeks. Just sitting and talking about the usual, the sting of being Outcasts quickly wore off and they resumed their usual topics "I was up...two whole nights trying to beat that freakin' game!..." "...Nope, still here" Were some of the most talked about at this table. However, the sting of becoming an Outcast overstayed it's welcome in Vincent's mind... and he did not like it. "Heather, I'm going crazy here." He said half to himself "Really..." Heather replied not listening, as she was reading a book of Hamlet and was too interested in it to really pay attention, that and it started to sound like one of his many rants. "I'm tired of this, for the past two weeks, we have tolerated being spit at, rideculed and altogether treated like crap! Not to mention one of 'em stole my favorite anime DVD..." "...You shouldn't have had here in the first place hon. " She replied flipping a page. " Well, I'll tell you what... I'm not gonna take it anymore." He stood up on his chair and his voice grew louder "If I could, I would challenge whoever is in charge of this "Popular" clan to duel over our RESPECT! AND DIGNITY!!" That last part caught the whole lunch room's attention.
A cricket chirped in the silence.
Vincent sat back down, clearly embarrassed at his emotional outburst but the room still stayed silent. A loud clonk of shoes rang through out the lunch room hall, and the noise revealed itself as Deacon Nielson, most popular jock in the school, and the one elected to take charge of this artificial government. He quietly made his way to the outcast table where he stopped. "Which one of you 'people' is the "Otaku"?" Almost as if it was rehearsed, everyone pointed to Vincent. "So, you're the one who wants to challenge me?" Realizing this hole was deeper than a ladder could reach Vincent stood up "Yes...I am" He gave out a slight laugh, looked at Vincent from head to toe, his glasses that barely stayed on the tip of his nose, the black uncombed hair, the shirt that said 'Now accepting applications for Japanese girlfriend' in Japanese. It was no wonder he was Outcast "A fight for dignity?" he said mockingly. "Yes, a duel for the respect of all outcasts in this school." Deacon laughed, "The way I see it, you're gonna need every last speck of it you can find." He began to walk away, then hammering in the last nail in the proverbial coffin Vincent said to Deacon "I will make you regret those words, Nielson." Deacon didn't turn to face him. "Fine, two days... after school in the football field. A duel, for respect. You will eat those words, even now I have friends writing them on shards of glass. I hope you're hungry." The lunch bell rang and he disapearred in a crowd of people clammering to get to glasses before the period bell rang.
Vincent sat back down, the goths stared at him for awhile only making one sound "Shit." and Shaun and Heather chipped in "You're screwed." and Vincent turned to face Heather "I hope you have a plunger, because my selfesteem is going right down the drain."
He returned home, going right up to his bedroom where he turned on a DVD of his and sat down on his bed. Which was surrounded by anime propoganda and merchandise. He lay down and quietly fell asleep.
Vincent stood in the football field where Deacon stood waiting for him, "About time you showed up, I was beginning to think you had died..." Deacon said mockingly. 'Now where have heard that before?' Vincent thought to himself, Deacon put himself in a proper Jeet Kun Do fighting position and beckoned him to step forward an fight. Vincent now angered, stood calmly. "Deacon Nielson." He said, a golden aura flowed over his body as his hair slowly spiked up and turned golden-yellow "Today, your reign of terror ends!" He yelled going into an all out fighting position as a golden yellow aura surrounded him and his hair became spiked and golden. Deacon's position didn't waver, in fact he challenged him. Vincent began to chant: "KA-----ME----HA----ME---" He allowed the last syllable to stick to the tip of his tongue. A blue ball of chi energy flowed between his linked palms and brought them back. "HA!!!!" He finished the chant and a blue beam erupted from Vincent's now outstretched hands and slammed into Deacon's hapless body, causing him to slam into a conveniently placed brick wall like a rag doll thrown from a dog's mouth. He lay there twitching in agony as Vincent reverted back to his old state, a gaggle of women crowded him saying things like "Make love to me" and "Oh my Gawd! You are so cute!":as he walked into the sunset.
Then he woke up. Sitting in his bed he muttered under his breath: "If only..." The next day was even worse than those before it. Along with the torment of being spat on and being disregarded he had to bear taunts and betting aginst him, even a newspaper clipping was hung up on the bulletin board announcing his Soon-to-be-demise. Vincent sat in his chair at biology next to Heather where slowly dissected a frog. He looked over to his right and spotted to Sophomores quietly laughing at him, one even put a scapel close to his neck and slowly scrolled it to the right. They both laughed and he looked back over at Heather She looked back at him and stared into each others eyes for awhile she then said: "If you die, can I have your room full of anime propoganda and merchandise?" "As long as you don't touch my shrine to Hayao Miyazaki."
Vincent sat in front of his t.v. playing a game FIGHT! OR DIE TRYING 2 on his old, rundown PS2. Still in despair over the events of the last couple of days he scrambled for ideas on how to get himself out of this godforsaken mess before he ended up with God. "Maybe you could try emulating to combat styles and situations in your duel with Deacon. I mean some are over-the-top but most are grounded firmly in a believable reality." Shaun said, severly kicking Vincent's ass "Y'know Shaun, you may be the quietest person in school, but when you do talk... things just make the craziest sense. It might work." Then he jumped up "Shaun! I have training to do!" "Be careful, remember you are still a young padawan learner. I can teach you" Shaun replied. Vincent just stared, wondering at his nonsense "Just call me sensei." "Deal."
Soon a day past and after almost 20 hours of learning the fighting styles and moves from his various fighting games it was already 2:00 p.m and there they stood in the field as snow drifted down. Deacon cracked his knuckles and walked slowly to Vincent who was as expected, scared witless hardly able to remember what Shaun had taught him the day before. "Shall we begin?" Deacon said boastfully, students all around them began to pass around dollars and various items. Vincent gulped "yes..." he whispered assuming the position of the martial art Aikido and the fight began. Deacon threw his fist at Vincent's face who caught it just miliseconds away from impact, using what was left of the throwing force he flung him back and tripped him, falling flat on his face in the process.
Students began to pass their betting items the other way.
"Beginner's luck, too bad it lasts only once!" Deacon yelled, slamming his body into Vincent's. A move he was completely unprepared for, and the beating afterward. Punches slammed into his face from the left and right, blood began to seep from his nose, he stopped "Had enough?" he said smiling as he got up. Vincent could not speak, the pain hurt so much it cut to the bone. Deacon wiped some blood off his lip "Figures. Outcast." And he walked away. Heather, Shaun, Adam and Rebecca rushed over to his aid. Heather looked at him, wiping excess blood off his face with her sleave, Vincent stared at a tooth which had fallen to the ground during the onslaught "I will have redemption. I swear it. This so called student government will go down along Deacon and his brood." He had enough adrenaline to stand up. "But can't, there's no way, you know how badly he kicked your ass!? It's suicide!" Heather yelled as the others remained silent. "I got myself into this, I cannot just let this...defeat fall off my shoulder. Somehow, someway, they'll go down."