Extra Baggage Chapter 2: Petey's Talk, a bully fanfic

"Extra Baggage"

Story #2: "Petey's Talk"

By: Seinasu

"There's a fight over at the Girls Dorm. Apparently two freshman chicks are getting into it and they're throwing bras and panties at each other outside."

Jimmy immediately sat up from the couch and turned his attention to Gary who had just entered the Boys Dorm. "What're we sitting around here for?" he said as he stood up and made his way to the exit. "Let's go!"

Petey turned off the TV and said, "Won't the prefects be there to try and stop them?"

Gary laughed at Petey's apprehension as he casually strolled into the lounge. He clamped a hard hand on the smaller boy's shoulder and said in a frigid tone, "What's the matter with you? If you even knew what your sexual orientation was, you'd know that this is something worth seeing."

"I'm fine with who I am!" Pete replied weakly as he shoved Gary's hand away. "Quit picking on me. Why don't you... Why don't you just leave me alone and go watch the girls fight?"

Gary suddenly looked quite amused at his rebellious response. "Tsk, tsk, relax, Pete. I was just joking. What's the matter? You on your period or something?"

All of a sudden, Tabitha popped out from the garbage can next to the poker table (where Gary had stuffed her earlier so none of the prefects who happened to wander inside could see her) and blurted out, "GARY! A fight? How come I wasn't told of this earlier?"

"Because, Leech, nobody likes you," Gary stated casually as he pushed Pete away from him.

Tabitha visibly flinched at the hurtful statement but a second later, she smiled at Gary. Climbing out of the garbage and dusting herself, she cheerfully said, "When you're right, you're right!"

Petey rolled his eyes at this remark but he kept his mouth shut. He couldn't stand to be around Tabitha because all she ever did was idolize Gary whenever he was in the room. When was alone, she was so shy that she barely spoke more than two sentences before running off.

"Let's go then," Gary said as he apparently brushed aside Tabitha's comment and jerked a thumb to the door. "Hurry up before the prefects get wind of this."

He took off before Petey and Tabitha could react. Tabitha started to go around the couch and give chase, when Petey called out to her.

"Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Umm..." The shy, timid Tabitha seemed to take over once more and she seemed very hesitant. "I-I think I want to follow him..."

"It'll be for a second. You can find him afterwards."

"Well... Uh... Okay..."

She took a seat next to Petey on the couch, as Petey kept a respectable distance from her. He looked at the television set even though it was turned off, and stared at his reflection and Tabitha's. The blonde's head was bowed some, her long bangs hiding her eyes.

"Can I talk to you about Gary?" Petey asked, breaking the ice.

Tabitha's head lifted from her chest and she nodded. "Okay," she replied, her voice a little bit stronger. "I like talking about him."

"I know," Petey replied and in his mind he thought, I know, I know, I know. That's all you seem to talk about. "Uh... Well, how can I put this...? We're all about the same age, aren't we?"

She nodded.

"Well, y'know, we're all young here. I mean, what makes you think Gary's the right person you wanna spend time with?"

The blonde smiled softly and said, "B-Because he's so smart and brilliant. What he did to everyone at this school and the way his mind thinks..." She placed her hands on her face and gushed. "He's so godly!"

Gary? Godly?! The sheer notion of such a thing made Petey sick to his stomach. Gary was anything but a god.

Then she added, "I'll never... never be able to find anybody like Gary if I go anywhere else."

"That's not true!" Petey replied but quickly added, "You'll find someone eventually but that person shouldn't have to be like Gary. You can't be sure that he's the right one for you at your age."

"But I-I'm positive now," Tabitha insisted quietly, her voice was almost a whisper. "Even if he doesn't care about me, I-I-I still want to be near him. I want to be like him!"

Now that was sad. Here was a girl who depended so much on Gary's existence that she honestly believed he was "right" for her.

Petey tried to approach this situation another way. So he asked her, "What were you like before you talked to Gary?"

Tabitha turned red in the face but never the less answered, "I-I... I was alone. I'm still a little lonely but not when... when I'm with Gary. Before I didn't... I really didn't talk to anybody. I didn't feel the need to... I couldn't... connect with anybody. I-I wanted someone with confidence... I wanted to be near someone who was filled with pride so maybe I... I could be like them one day. I just wanted to be noticed. So when I heard about Gary's antics... I-I couldn't believe I had someone like him in my school! So... I-I had to see him... f-for myself... and when I did... I felt like... I felt like I needed to be near him... But he was always running around acting as Head Boy... I-I couldn't talk to him... and then there were times where he passed by me but I chickened out... I couldn't talk to him because I was so afraid..."

"You don't want to be like Gary," Petey insisted. "He's... He's messed up. He's on medication because when he isn't on medication—you saw what he did last year!"

Tabitha opened her eyes, cleared her throat, and brushed back her bangs aside her face. "Um, actually," she began nervously, "I... I wasn't at school... I-I… I... skipped that day."

"Oh."

Petey frowned. Well that explained why she didn't understand how seriously troublesome non-medicated Gary was and what he was capable of. If she'd witnessed first hand the chaos that ensued the school...

"Alright, well..." Petey stood from the couch and stretched his arms above his head. He continued his talk with her. "Tabitha, we're still kids. We really don't know what we want. When we get older, we're gonna realize some of the stuff we liked as kids aren't things we like anymore. We're going to change no matter what anybody says. Do you really think Gary's gonna be the same person ten years from now? Are you going to want that kind of personality by your side when you're in your twenties or thirties?"

Petey's arms fell to his side as he mulled over what he just said. He wasn't even sure what he liked at the moment. He was ashamed to admit that he really enjoyed watching the swimming competitions on television and mores specifically, the men who competed in them. Was this how he was going to feel ten years from now? Or even five years? Of course, there'd been one girl here and there he thought were cute but nothing more came out of it. After all, they never paid any attention to him. Nowadays he was noticed because he was Head Boy, the (supposedly) respectable representative of Bullworth Academy and most importantly, he was associated with the King of the School, Jimmy Hopkins.

Petey looked down at Tabitha and saw her staring at her reflection in the television screen. He still couldn't help but see a part of himself in her. She was small, shy, with no friends... What immediately separated him from her was that she was infatuated with Gary and did anything to be near him. That's when she became a completely different person: someone who was loud, obnoxious, and as Jimmy called her, "a clear cut ass-kisser." With this side of her, she lived up to the nickname that Gary gave her: "Leech." At least he made the attempt to try and make friends. She didn't seem to bother with anybody but Gary.

Petey reminded himself of how much he endured Gary's daily torture only because he wanted to be near his only supposed friend. Before Jimmy arrived at Bullworth, he thought he would have to put up with Gary until graduation. Thankfully that was no longer the case.

At long last, Tabitha spoke out as she stood from the couch and gave Petey such a calm and sincere expression.

"I guess when the time comes that he wants to rejects me fully," she said thoughtfully, "well... I'll just have to wait until I arrive at that part of my life."

Petey slapped his forehead. He should've known he couldn't breach through her obsession with Gary. Maybe she needed medication and hopefully not the type that'll make her dip between reality and insanity like Gary's tended to do.

"You know," Petey began, "you can find a guy with brains and doesn't use them for crazy things, how about... um..."

He struggled in vain to think of anybody smart and fairly good looking that Tabitha might like and not be frightened of. But then his mind wandered about the people he shared more than friendly feelings for and he forced himself to stop all together. He wasn't used to doing this for anybody besides Jimmy and Gary—that was, thinking for them. He never seemed to be of help to anybody. Perhaps he struggled because he was at the awkward stage of life like everybody his age and he too was trying to figure out what he wanted. He was still young and he had a whole life ahead of him. Who knew what the future held in store?

"Never mind," he said at last. "Could you at least think about what I said?"

The girl nodded slowly. Suddenly the doors flew open and Gary walked back inside the dorm, holding his stomach as he was laughing.

"You turds missed out on some funny stuff!" he said as he reached behind his back and threw something pink at Petey. "Those're your size so try 'em on."

"What?" Petey caught the object in question and to his horror, he realized that they were a pair of silk panties with questionable red and brown contents within. His entire skin turned beet red and he shook his head violently at Gary. He exclaimed, "NO! NO WAY! Hell no! You can't make me!!"

Suddenly, he felt someone snake their arms around his. Turning his head, he was shocked to see Tabitha clinging onto him.

"He'll look super cute in them, Gary," Tabitha stated as Gary approached the two of them. The steady tone of her voice indicated to Petey that he lost the person he was once talking to about life and future possibilities. "Over the pants or under?"

"We'll give him two pairs 'cause I have another pair in my pocket," Gary remarked as he grabbed the front of Petey's shirt and yanked him towards his body. Bending down so his lips were close to his ear, he whispered, "Over and under the pants. They'll look good on you because they'll match the shirt you're wearing."

Petey squeezed his eyes shut and decided that he'd only consider Tabitha somewhat of a friend whenever she wasn't with Gary. He felt the blonde hold him down with considerable strength he thought she never had with her small frame, while Gary pulled out another pair of stolen panties from his back pocket.

Before anything else could happen, Petey did what he did best...

"JIMMY! HELP ME!!!"

To be continued... in the Extra Baggage's Side Story - "Petey's Resolve."