Okay, so before I get seriously mangled, I know perfectly well that Violet couldn't have turned the car invisible the way she did last chapter. I just couldn't resist. So no worries, no more breaking laws of super-dom. But it was still muches fun! GIMME THAT POP-TART!
Dash sighed loudly. This is so boring, he thought as he stifled a yawn. Then again, classes are required to be boring aren't they?
Dash glared down at his signature-laden cast. Dumb piece of plaster. The doctor had said he'd have it on another two or three weeks, and then he'd have to go through physical therapy or whatever Helen had called it. Joy. Dash would have given just about anything to burn the cast right then and there.
Ms. Niblack started passing out graded tests. Whop de doo. Dash got his. 96. Big whop, Dash thought. He folded the test up and put it in his pocket to discard later. Niblack then handed out a packet of math problems, Dash's least favorite subject. It was to be a 'partners' activity; Dash ended up pairing up with Luke (who had actually signed his cast twice).
Only three minutes into the assignment saw Dash gazing out the window, daydreaming longingly of catching the Underminer himself and throwing him into a ditch with one of those stupid rodent contraptions of his.
"What's up Dash?" Luke asked.
"Huh? What d'you mean?"
"That's like the fifth time you've sighed in the last sixty seconds."
"Life sucks you know that?"
"Little early to be talkin' like that, ain't it Dash? Gotta be at least thirteen before you can be all depressed and gloomy like that."
Dash whispered a smile.
"Bummed you can't run."
"Bingo."
"Yeah well, I'm bummed I don't get these math problems. Wanna give me a hand?"
Dash looked over at the shared paper. Twenty seconds later, the assignment was done and Dash and Luke had the last ten minutes given to the assignment to daydream. They weren't the only ones.
"Hey Dash," Mickey said, walking over next to the younger boy. He momentarily glared at Luke, who looked away glaring as well. "What'd the doc say?"
"Another two to three weeks."
"Ouch."
"He made it this far," Luke grumbled.
"You shut up," Mickey growled.
"Why don't you?" Luke growled back.
"Uh, how's, uh, your, um, sister?" Dash asked Mickey, desperate to stop a fight before it started.
"I don't have a sister."
"Bet she'd be ugly if you did," mumbled Luke.
"What'd you say!"
"Hey, guys, cool it!" Dash said.
"What, can't you hear, muskrat?" Luke asked Mickey, standing up casually.
"You better watch who you call a muskrat, you oversized peacock." Mickey stood up, making sure to use his height over Luke to his advantage.
"Peacock? What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Luke snarled, his voice raising in volume.
"Guys, cool it," Dash said coolly.
"That's what peacocks are you moron! Nothing but show, just like you!" Mickey yelled back.
"Oh well how 'bout I show you a world of hurt?" Luke shouted. The class was beginning to notice them, and Ms. Niblack was in the bathroom.
"Knock it off, guys!" Dash said loudly.
Luke suddenly swung out at Mickey, who ducked just in time. Now they had the classroom's attention.
"Fight!" someone shouted. "Fight!"
"You wanna dance, Skywalker?" Mickey mocked. "C'mon, hit me!" Mickey swung, and made contact with Luke's shoulder.
"Uh!"
"Stop it!" Alice shouted over the calls for violence from the classroom.
The tall twelve year olds started to hop around each other, hands up like boxers. Dash struggled to his feet on his crutches.
Luke growled as he hit Mickey, first in the chest then in the chin.
"Gah!" Mickey stumbled back a bit, but the little ring of sixth graders pushed him back in. The momentum helped Mickey send a good hit into Luke's gut.
"Awh!" Luke doubled over and Mickey seized the opportunity to knee him, also in the guts, then hit him in the head from above.
Dash started to push his way through the larger students towards the 'ring.' Dodger and Jim were working their way towards the fighters as well. Ernie seemed to be leading the cheering. It hadn't taken long for the class to divide into two different sections, one cheering for each boy.
"Arrrr!" Luke, still doubled over, charged into Mickey and they fell over. The two continued to grapple on the floor. The ring seemed to close around them. Luke had Mickey in a chokehold of sorts, and Mickey was hitting Luke in the face rather successfully.
"Hey, c'mere!" Ernie yelled as Jim pushed past him. The contagious anger of human beings had infected Ernie, and the boy uppercut Jimmy who fell into the ring where Ernie started stomping on him.
"Stop it, you're hurting him!" Alice yelled, shoving Ernie away from Jim. Well, Ernie shoved back, and Alice tripped over her own feet and knocked over another classmate.
Mickey and Luke had somehow gotten up on their feet again and the two had lost all sense of civil fighting (if you wanna call fighting civil at all), as they had both stooped to such attacks as biting, etc.
Finally Dash and Dodger were able to push trough the crowd.
"Enough!" Dodger yelled. Everyone seemed to become aware of themselves again but Mickey and Luke, who were still dying to kill each other.
Dodger and Dash moved in to hold the two back, and Jim started to stagger to his feet so he could help Dash.
"Knock it off, guys," Dodger said quietly as he put a hand on Mickey's shoulder a began to pull. Dash was forcing himself between the two with the aid of his crutches, pushing against Luke to get him to back away from the fight. But the boxers in training weren't going to stand for that.
Luke shoved Dash to the ground, screaming like an animal. The eleven-year-old hit his face against a desk and blood was suddenly present. It took Dash a second to realize it was his.
Mickey was also furious that his fight had been interrupted. He whirled around to face timid Dodger, hooked him right in the jaw, the proceeded to punch the living daylights out of the boy's stomach.
"Hey!" Jimmy shouted. Where the heck is Ms. Niblack! The entire class reacted similarly upon seeing the shyest boy around getting the crap beat out of him by his idol. Which is why everyone moved in to stop Mickey, and keep Luke from kicking Dash's head off. And that's about the time Ms. Niblack walked in.
"Hm, you bring up a good point, Mr. Sandrews," Principal Polt of Dash's school was saying to a man with a press hat on.
"Of course I do, Principal Polt."
Principal Polt looked at the newsman suspiciously. "All right, I'll take care of it with the board, but the district will only tolerate a week of you goons snooping around, understand? And don't you dare start until I give you the okay, got it?"
"Clear as crystal, sir. Now, I'll be on my way so you can do your work. Good day, Principal Polt." Sandrews left the room. "Oh pardon me," he said as a woman who looked like a teacher there marched in a large group of boys.
"Principal Polt!" Ms. Niblack, sounding thoroughly outraged. "I am outraged!" (A/N told ya so)
"What seems to be the problem, Ms. Niblack?"
"These boys were fighting while I was out of the room!" she said.
Before him stood six boys: Jim, Ernie, Luke, Dodger, Mickey, and Dash. Principal looked them all over. They certainly looked as though they'd been in a brawl.
"All of them?"
"All of them were involved somehow, but their testimonies aren't exactly trustworthy so I don't know how they were involved."
"I see." Polt looked the sullen-faced boys over. "Boys, violence is not to be tolerated. You know that."
"Yes, sir," a chorus of boys responded.
Polt sighed. "All right. Ms. Niblack, you may return to the rest of your class for now, I'll talk with these gentlemen."
"With all due respect, they're hardly gentlemen," Ms. Niblack said as she left the principal's office.
"All right. Who wants to tell me the truth?"
No one spoke.
"Boys, I know you don't want to get in trouble, but you'll be in deeper if you don't tell me the truth."
The boys remained silent. Polt looked them over. Experience had taught him a thing or two about discerning guilty parties. So had two years in college learning to be a CSI, but obviously that plan fell through.
Neither Ernie or Jim were directly involved with the fight, that was for sure; neither one had nearly as many injuries. But all four of the other boys appeared fairly equally beat up.
That's when one boy hobbled forward a bit, straining on his crutches.
"I started it," Dash said quietly. All five other boys seemed to get shorter just then, but from their hung heads they each seemed to be staring at Dash.
"You, Dash?" Polt looked the boy over. Fat chance. This boy certainly looked the part and had the record, but his leg had him seriously restrained; he could never have caused the amount of damage on any of the other boys and have remained standing. Besides, his knuckles were clean.
"Yes, sir," Dash lied, and he suddenly wondered what the heck he was doing.
"I was the other one fighting, sir," Dodger said quietly, stepping forward too. "The other guys were just trying to stop us, sir." Dash chanced a surprised glance at Dodger. Who-da-thunk…
Polt felt very proud of the two boys standing in front of him. Neither one were the fighters, he knew. Fighters never turned themselves in when there was a chance they wouldn't get caught. Besides, both boys had clean knuckles. What's more, Dash wasn't the fighting kind; sure he was a prankster, but he'd never really harm someone else (except maybe Bernie). Dodger too was far too timid to be a fighter.
"What were you fighting about?"
"Uh…" Dodger and Dash said in unison. They glanced at each other.
"Boys, while I appreciate you're trying to help, you're only making Luke and Mickey here look worse."
The two volunteer scapegoats hung their heads rather low, embarrassed that their rescue mission had failed.
"Now why don't you tell me what really happened."
"We just started fighting," Luke said. "That's all. We just got angry."
"Angry?" Polt said, suddenly losing some control of his own temper. "If I'm correct, none of these other boys so much as threw a punch!"
Ernie shifted on his heels uncomfortably.
"And guessing from Niblack's behavior, I'd guess these four weren't the only ones harmed by this brawl of yours. You must have been pretty angry to attack each other and then the rest of the classroom! Mickey, Luke, to be frank I am sick of this! Either you two better figure something out or I don't know what I'll do!"
"Yes sir," Mickey said quietly. He felt lower than a brick, lower than a worm on a hook, more because he'd hit Dodger than because he'd fought with Luke.
"How'd these other four get so beat up, Luke?"
"Trying to stop us, sir."
"Trying to stop you? Well you have some pretty great friends if they're willing to have their faces knocked off on your accounts, then stand there and try to take the fall for your actions."
Even though Dash knew Polt wasn't talking to him, standing closer to the principal's desk than everyone else made him feel targeted.
"Yes sir," Mickey whispered.
"Boys," Polt said, "head to the nurse's office and get cleaned up. Then come back here and tell it to me straight, got it? Mickey, Luke, you realize one more strike on both of you are out."
"Yes sir."
"Yes, sir."
"All right… go."
"You were in a fight?" Violet asked in disbelief that night after dinner. For the first time since… forever, Dash had come to Violet's room to confide in her instead of annoy her.
"It wasn't me, it was Luke and Mickey! I was just trying to stop 'em."
"Yeah well, either way your eye now matches my hair."
"What am I supposed to do? What on earth did these guys do to each other!"
"You're really stuck thinking on this, aren't you?"
"I nearly had my face blown off, of course I am."
"You nearly get your face blown off by me all the time," Violet said shrugging. "Or out there."
"Yeah, well out there or in here I'm expecting it. Not at school. Besides, out there I'm wearing a bulletproof scuba suit."
"So why do you hang out with these two again?"
"Because Luke likes jokes and does his homework too, and because Mickey's a great runner who likes the same music as me."
"Oh." Those were some pretty decent reasons, Vi had to admit. What she didn't get is how these two boys got so worked up after just a few words. "So why did they get so worked up over getting called some names?"
"Beats me."
"So why don't you ask one of their friends?"
"Behind their back?"
"Better than letting those two kill each other and get expelled from school."
"That's not gonna happen."
"Whatever. Need anything else, Twerp?"
"Yeah… how'm I gonna explain this to Mom 'n Dad?"
"Violet!" Helen shouted from downstairs. "Come change Jack-Jack's diaper while I finish doing the dishes!"
"Coming," Violet shouted back. She and Dash left the room. As Violet headed down the stairs, Dash went to the hallway phone…
"Hello?"
"Hey, is this Dodger? It's Dash."
"Oh hold on, this is Ginger, his sister," the person on the other side said. Dash could hear someone shouting for somebody else and the phone being handed off.
"Dash?"
"Hey Dodger."
"What's up?"
"The ceiling."
"Ha ha. Seriously dude."
"About today," Dash said into the phone. "What the heck is it with Mickey and Luke?"
There was a pause. "I really shouldn't say."
"Well you better tell me. I don't feel like havin' to play referee ever again."
"Yeah, well neither do I…" Dodger seemed to be debating whether or not he should tell Dash. "Mickey and Luke used to be best buddies until last school year. Luke was more into pranks and skateboards, and Mickey really liked running and stuff. So they just sorta didn't hang out as much. But then…"
Dash had a bad feeling about this pause.
"Maybe I shouldn't say."
"For pete's sake, Dodger!"
"All right, all right already! You remember that day when that jet-rocket thing with that robot attacked the city and the Incredibles stopped it?"
Dash had a flashback of fighting the Omnidroid on the streets. "Well enough."
"Well, right after that, Mickey made his Rapid Fire club, you know?"
Dash had another flashback of coming over to Mickey's house one day after school last month to find the room plastered with pictures of himself, not to mention all sorts of other memorabilia. The most awkward two hours of his life. The next day Jim had explained that Mickey, Dodger, Alice, and Jim himself made up the Rapid Fire club (although Mickey was by far the most involved).
"Yeah, I know about the club."
"Course he didn't name the club until the stupid media came up with a name for the guy."
"Dodger, what's the point?"
"Well, Mickey made the club and all… and didn't let Luke join."
This slightly confused Dash. "He wanted in?"
"Yeah, Luke used to like running, too."
"Oh. So why couldn't he join?"
"Because he didn't like… live for running the way we do, I guess. Also, I think Mickey didn't like the idea of having someone else being the possible president of the club."
"Oh."
"Well Luke got pissed."
"Okay."
"And locked Mickey in a broom closet at school."
Dash looked at the phone a second. "He locked him in a closet?" Dash asked, sounding as though he had no idea how this was relevant. He didn't.
"Mickey has claustrophobia."
Ah, the light is shed and things make sense. "Uh oh."
"Yeah…"
"Well, uh… thanks for clearing that up, Dodger. Later."
"Later."
Dash hung up. So Mickey didn't let Luke join his club, and then Luke locked the claustrophobic boy in three-by-four-foot closet. Dash it seemed had his work cut out for him.
All right! A whole chapter of nothin' but Dash! A little different huh? Now what to do next time… hmmm…
Review…?