Ch.5- A Cat Fight and the Soccer Game
Ten minutes passed before the headache that Shanks got began to subside. The room turned silent after he fiddled with the knobs to turn off the radio and he was deeply grateful for that. These kids that he was practically baby-sitting were starting to annoy the hell out of him. Perhaps it was because he was acting nicer because they were kids. Had they been adults, he'd have been acting harder, tougher, like he acted with his own pirate crew. That was probably it. If he was tougher on the class, he could probably get them out of here and they would listen to him a lot more without whining or complaining.
Shanks opened up the desk that was to be his and pulled out a piece of a paper and a half used up pen. The paper and pen were placed in front of him as he thought of how he would act in front of each and every student and what he would make them do to make them listen to him or at least get them to shut up and stop screaming at one another.
Victoria was probably the easiest one to take care of. She was timid, shy. It was revealed when he met her at her home and the first day he saw her when she rarely spoke. The only one she talked back to was Lynn. He probably would end up scaring her if he screamed at her. That happened often on his ship with Saiyoru, who was just as timid as Victoria. A few simple requests in the form of orders would be said to her and she would listen to him.
Larry was also pretty easy to take care of. The man was twenty-five, older than his youngest crewmate. All he needed was an order and the man would do what he was told. No screaming or shouting would be needed. Just a simple request in the form of a soft order and that would be it.
Johnny already had a responsibility. He would be teaching the class a new language, but that didn't mean that that would prevent him from acting out. Sometimes he still talked back to the others, preferably Lynn, though not as much as Maura. Shanks would be doing the same thing to him as he'd be doing to Victoria. He'd make a few simple requests in the form of orders and he would soon follow...if he was lucky.
Maura and Lynn...those girls were complete enemies. Had the rest of the class not been around to separate the two, they would have ripped each other's throats out already. Both girls were probably going to end up killing him if Elie and Kurt didn't finish the job before he left. Shanks wanted to use the same technique against both girls, but whatever punishment that would work on one girl would cause the other to make a comment back. An idea suddenly popped into his head. Work worked on his ship. He had a few members years ago that didn't want to do anything when they first came onto the ship and often didn't listen to their captain, so they were forced to scrub the ship and if they didn't listen to him, then he would punish them by raising a fist or scaring them by using something else. That's what Shanks would use against Maura and Lynn.
Kyler was a lazy person, it was easy to tell. Most of the time, whenever Maura did something, he would, too. He wasn't as severe as Maura, though. He didn't physically fight with anybody Shanks knew about. The only thing that Shanks could think of doing to get the boy to listen to him was to order him around by yelling. If the boy didn't listen, then he would find a way to make him listen by scaring him with the same technique as he would do with Maura and Lynn. This would work with Larry, too.
That only left Kurt and Elie, the two fighters. They were hiding something from him and they were also not afraid to hit something or someone or even to cause another excruciating pain. At first he assumed that if he was nice to the two, they would be nice and listen to him, but that was untrue. He was nice, but they still hit him and didn't listen to him. The only time that happened was when he offered to take them upon his ship. Now, it was time to try something new. If they were going to attempt to hit him or even if they didn't listen to his orders, he would threaten to hit them. If they didn't believe him or didn't care, he would do it. From this day forward, he would not consider the cousins kids, but adults.
He was done. He finally had what he was going to do with every one of his students. He could probably get his plans to work starting right after lunchtime. The eight students of his were probably in the cafeteria like they were yesterday when his clothes got taken away. The only thing left for him to do was find the cafeteria and get something to eat before having to deal with the kids again.
Shanks opened the door to the classroom and stepped out into the empty hallway. No sounds could be heard. No noises from the other classes on the same floor. No echoing wheels from the garbage can the janitor pulled. Nothing. Only the sounds of his own footsteps echoing through the halls when he began to walk could be heard.
Tip. Tip. Tip. The footsteps did not get either louder nor softer with each step he took. The echoes were the only thing that was heard. Deep inside, Shanks began to feel like something, a hidden enemy, was about to come up and grab him from behind or even to attack him. His body stiffened and he continued to walk, looking from side-to-side and even turning his head back so he could see behind. No surprise attacks came.
Finally, another sound besides the echoing footsteps came after Shanks walked down the stairs onto the first floor. Shouting, obnoxious laughing, and the sound of money being passed around. Accompanying the sounds was the intoxicating smell of food being cooked.
The smell had a strong effect against Shanks as the man followed the smell, ignoring anything or anyone around him. The smell led him to a large room that was packed full of tables and students eating while talking amongst each other. At the left side of the room was a kitchen with a short line of only about four kids waiting to get their food. He noticed all of his students except for Larry sitting all around the room.
Johnny, Victoria, Kyler, and Maura were seated at a table in the middle of the room. Although they were surrounded by other kids at the table, they were not talking to the others. They were only talking and laughing amongst each other.
Kurt and Elie were sitting in the back of the room, at a small rickety table. Also seated at the table were about five other kids: three boys and two girls, wearing all black and dressed in spikes and muscle shirts. The five others looked like the strong, bully types like Kurt and Elie, but they weren't saying anything. In fact, they wouldn't even look at Kurt and Elie. The two cousins weren't saying anything either. Slowly, they bit into their what looked like sandwiches, and stared emotionlessly at the others around them.
Lynn was the hardest to find. She was seated at a table around the front of the room surrounded by all girls dressed in skimpy clothes...just like her. All the girls even had long hair and were almost all blondes. Only two of the twenty girls were brunettes and another two had dark skin and matching eyes. They were all equally loud. They talked at the same time and giggled at the exact same time. It was a little creepy.
"Hey! You're that teacher for them kids on the top floor, right!" A woman with frizzy black hair covered with a hair net shouted at Shanks from the kitchens.
The red haired man nodded and walked over to the woman. "Thought so. I'm surprised you came for another day. You teachers're supposed ta be in the teacher's lounge for lunch." The woman said in a strange accent the man had never heard before in his life. From under the counter the woman stood at, she pulled out a paper bag and handed it towards Shanks.
Shanks calmly walked to the woman and grabbed the bag. "Thanks...Brenda." he said after looking at the little name tag clipped on a thin, white T-shirt just above her left breast.
The woman, Brenda, smiled and said simply, "No problem. Hope ya stay longer." She got back to the even smaller line of kids waiting to get something to eat.
Shanks turned away from Brenda and began to head out of the cafeteria. A few steps out the door of the cafeteria and rather than the noise get softer, it got louder for some reason followed by angry screams that sounded awfully familiar.
"AH! YOU BITCH! THIS IS A NEW SHIRT!"
"IT'S CALLED AN ACCIDENT AND YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN WATCHING WHERE YOU WERE GOING!"
"YOU WANTED TO DO THIS, YOU GODDAMN PATHETIC BAR GIRL!"
"FUCK OFF, WHORE!"
A crashing sound came from the cafeteria with the screams from the two continuing. A large male shout joined the screams, "CAT FIGHT!" Cheering followed the male voice along with the screams.
Shanks turned around and peeked back into the cafeteria. In the middle of the lunchroom were two girls, a blonde and a redhead, yanking on each other's hair and slapping each other's faces. The blonde had some spaghetti sauce on her shirt with some noodles still stuck to the breast part of her shirt. The red head had some noodles flung onto her shirt. Half of the lunchroom, the kids that weren't dressed as nicely as Lynn, shouted out for the redhead, "Get her Maura! Kick her ass!"
The other half, the rich and possibly popular students, were cheering for the blonde, "You can do it, Lynn! Don't let that bar girl win!"
None of the students or the lunchladies did anything to stop the fighting, so the two girls continued fighting. From what it looked like, if Manson and Sarah hadn't come by to help Johnny, Victoria, and Kyler break the two apart and get the rest of the kids to stop screaming, Maura would have won this fight. She already looked like she was winning before the two came along.
Manson and Sarah practically drug Lynn and Maura away from the large crowd of students and back to the principal's office. Shanks followed. He wanted to know what was going on and see how Manson would deal with the two girls. He almost couldn't contain the laughter boiling inside after he got a good look at both girls when they sat down in chairs in front of Manson. Maura had a few nail scratches on her face, a red cheek, and her red hair was messy. Lynn had two broken nails, possibly from scratching Maura, a red cheek, and some spaghetti sauce and noodles stuck to her top and into her hair and on her face. It actually looked hilarious despite the fact that the two were, in a way, injured.
"Okay Miss Anders and Miss Perry. What happened?" Manson asked with a sigh.
"She threw her lunch on my expensive new shirt and then she began to slap me!" Lynn shouted and pointed at Maura accusingly.
"That's a lie!" Maura shouted, "Sure my food went onto her shirt, but it's not my fault that she bumped into me when I was trying to carry the rest of my lunch to the garbage. It's called an accident. It's not like I meant for it to fly onto her shirt and she threw the first punch! I just retaliated like I was taught to do."
Manson placed a hand on his forehead and with two fingers, started to massage his temple. "Maura, I'm getting tired of this happening. You are getting closer and closer to getting yourself suspended from this school. Three days detention starting tomorrow."
"What! You're punishing me and not her? She started this whole damn fight, so why am I getting in trouble for this! You're always doing this! You punish me and don't even do anything to Lynn even though she always starts the fights!" Maura shouted at Manson in a squeaky sort of voice.
"It's complicated, Maura." Manson explained.
"It's because her and her fucking family keep buying you off to make sure that Lynn doesn't get in trouble! You're pathetic, Manson! You let a simple family walk all over you and destroy the dreams and futures of the other students!" Maura screamed at Manson. The girl jolted out of her chair and stomped out of the room.
Lynn smiled innocently at Manson and handed him a green piece of paper with a "50" and an unfamiliar man printed on it. "Thank you so much, Principal Manson. I appreciate all what you've done for me." She calmly walked out of the room and headed back to the cafeteria.
Shanks followed Sarah back to the teacher's lounge and sat at a table next to her. As he lifted a container of cooked spaghetti, a ham sandwich wrapped in plastic wrap, and a bottle of juice, he said, "I take it that the fights between Maura and Lynn happen often."
Sarah nodded her head and answered truthfully, "I've only been working at this school for since last year and ever since the new school year started and Maura came to this school as a Freshman, both girls have been sent down to the office thirty-something times in the amount of seven months. Hell, the truth is that Lynn starts them all."
"So, why don't you punish her or something?" Shanks asked before taking a bite out of his now unwrapped sandwich.
"Have you ever punished the kids you watch over?" Sarah asked him. Shanks nodded. "Well, it's a little difficult here. Lynn's family funds the school. They practically own the school and if we punish Lynn for a fight, then the funding stops and this school will fail. That's just how it is. We're one of the best schools in this state and if the funding stops, then we will no longer be one of the best."
That explained why Manson was so nervous about the punishment he only gave to Maura. He knew that she didn't start it yet he could only punish the one that didn't start the fight. Maura was right. He was pathetic.
Lunch went by faster than he expected and before he knew it, Shanks was forced to go back to his tiring classroom. After the time he spent watching the fight and listening to the pathetic punishments and excuses, it seemed like his time wouldn't get any easier unless he went with his plan and get harder with the kids.
Like before, none of his students were sitting quietly in their seats. Kyler, Maura, Victoria, and Johnny were laughing while standing in a corner of the room. Lynn was glaring at Maura while talking into her little communicator. Kurt and Elie, the two that seemed to want to talk the least with the others, were surprisingly talking with Larry. No emotion was on their faces, but they were talking.
Shanks walked up to Kyler and grabbed the soccer ball from under the boy's arm.
"Hey, what the hell!" Kyler shouted.
"Okay, you little bastards! It's time for us to get serious! If I'm going to be stuck here teaching you, it's about damn time you listen to me and work together. I don't give a damn if you are boyfriend and girlfriend, best friends, or even mortal enemies. You are all going to work with each other and with me! Now, get ready! We're all going out onto the field to play a little game of soccer!" Shanks commanded.
"Soccer?" Elie asked from her spot.
"Damn right! Okay, let's get going!" Shanks commanded.
"Ugh. I don't want to play soccer! I'll get all sweaty and my clothes will get filthy." Lynn whined as she turned off her communicator.
"Your clothes are already dirty, so what's the difference?"
"I don't want to play." Lynn whined.
Whining. That was something Shanks hated. He hated when both kids and adults did it. He listened to Luffy whining years ago when the boy was only seven and deep inside, he wanted to beat the kid's ass since his parents wouldn't. He never did, though. He just ignored it, but now it was time to make a change with that. No longer would he listen to whining. He dropped Kyler's soccer ball, walked over to Maura's desk, and pulled out her metal pole hidden with her cigarette packs and slammed it hard upon Lynn's desk.
Lynn screamed as the metal hit the wood of her desk. The rest of the students jumped and stared at Shanks.
"Get up! All of you! We're going to play soccer and you're going to have a damn good time!" Shanks shouted at the others.
Victoria, Johnny, and Lynn were shaking as they stood in a line of three next to the door. Larry laughed, but joined them.
"You going to hit us with that thing?" Maura asked sarcastically.
Shanks swung the pole at her. The girl dodged it and ran to the door with Kyler following her. Elie and Kurt shrugged and joined the others. Shanks dropped the pole and picked up Kyler's soccer ball. "Okay, boys and girls. Let's get going!"
A few students were both in the halls and out on one side of the field stared in shock at the class of the "super special kids" walk out of the building and onto the school field. The class was usually crammed into the room at the top of the building and never came onto the field, so what the hell were they doing out now. The students on the field, a PE class on a free day, abandoned whatever sports they were playing and took seats on the bleachers so they could watch the eight students from the other class play a game on the left part of the field, the side with the soccer goals.
"Okay. The eight of you will be split up in two teams. Kyler will be the captain of Team 1 and Johnny will be the captain of Team 2. Boys, pick your teammates and the positions they will be playing." Shanks announced to the class.
"Maura." Kyler announced. Maura walked over to him.
"Victoria." Johnny announced. Victoria came to his side.
"Larry." Kyler announced. Larry smirked as he walked to Kyler's side.
"Kurt." Johnny announced. Kurt reluctantly walked over to his side.
"Elie." Kyler announced. Elie didn't look like she cared when she walked to Kyler's side.
Johnny looked at the remaining student left: Lynn, the queen of whiners. "Lynn." Johnny moaned, clearly showing his disappointment.
Kyler took his team in a little four person huddle and Johnny did the same to his team. By the time the boys were done, the teams were set up. Larry and Kurt walked back to the goals on their sides of the field. Standing in the right of the field were Maura and Victoria. Standing in the left were Elie and Lynn. Standing right in the center were Kyler and Johnny.
"Okay, kids and Larry. Remember that this is a game and if you break a nail or scrape a knee...I don't give a damn. Just keep on playing." Shanks shouted. He tossed the ball in the field and the game began.
The soccer game went on a lot better than Shanks thought it would go. Personally, he expected the only people that would be moving would be Kyler and possibly Johnny or Maura. He expected Lynn to be crying if the ball hit her in the leg or if she fell down. He expected the timid Victoria to be too afraid to kick the ball or steal from the opposing team. He expected Larry and Kurt to stand lazily at the goals, not caring if the ball went passed them or not. He expected Elie to tackle a person from the opposing team if they got in her way. He was mistaken.
Shanks' prediction about Lynn was correct. The girl was whining and crying when the ball hit her leg and when she slipped on her butt on a pile of dirt. Kurt and Larry were hunched over, in the correct position the goalies were in, waiting for the ball to come to them so they could knock it back. Maura was just running around, kicking the ball when necessary, ignoring Lynn's whines if she stole the ball from her. Kyler and Johnny probably had the most experience in soccer. They were running around all over the field, stealing the ball from each other and the members from the opposing team. There was only one student that never got the ball stolen was Elie. She wasn't a really good player, but she had a look on her face that caused the others that tried to steal the ball from her to stop in their tracks.
The game was going along great for the first seven minutes before another fight happened. Kyler had the ball in his position and he was rushing towards Kurt, hoping to make the first goal for his team, when, out of the blue, Lynn tackled Kyler to the ground. To most people, it would seem like the tackle was a little mistake, but it appeared that it wasn't when Lynn gripped Kyler's shoulders and smiled at him. She would not let go even though he struggled to get her off of him.
Maura could easily see that it wasn't an accident and, like a berserk wolf, she ran to Lynn and screamed, "GET OFF MY BOYFRIEND!" Lynn didn't move. Without making a second thought, she clenched a fist and gave a good, hard punch to the right eye of Lynn.
The blonde girl screamed and released her grip from Kyler's shoulders. She jumped up and stared at Maura with her left eye after placing a hand over her right. "You...you bitch!" she shrieked.
"You'll get another one if you do that again with my boyfriend!" Maura shouted back.
Lynn removed her hand and ran back at Maura with her arms swinging...just like what happened in the lunchroom not more than a half hour ago. It was time for Shanks to intervene.
Victoria was already starting to hold Maura back with the help of Kyler. "Maura, stop it! You already got in trouble today. Don't make it any worse." Victoria muttered at Maura.
Shanks, with his only arm, grabbed Lynn back from Maura by the shirt and it wasn't easy. The girl was pissed and had some extra strength hidden deep inside that was just being released. He almost couldn't hold her back, but he managed to do it and finally let go when some of that anger was burned off.
By this time, Lynn was yet again crying. "She hit my eye! I'm going to be blind!" Lynn cried as she thought about her eye.
Shanks turned to Elie and motioned for her to come over. She obeyed him and looked at Lynn's eye. "Black eye. She'll be okay in a week." Elie answered only five seconds later.
"Okay, kids. That's enough. Back to the game. Lynn, stop crying about your damn black eye. You'll be fine." Shanks ordered his students. Everybody, even the crying Lynn, obeyed him.
The soccer game only lasted another ten minutes. Four minutes into the second part of the game, Victoria finally got the soccer ball and while she was running with it, she somehow managed to trip over the ball rather than kick it. The fall did not hurt her, but something else did.
From the bleachers, a large, muscley boy saw Victoria trip and fall. He let out a laugh before shouting, "You suck!" The rest of the kids on the bleachers laughed with him.
Victoria was not physically hurt, but the words hurt her emotionlessly. She was horrible in soccer, but she felt that the others didn't have to make fun of her for it. All she did was trip over the ball and already the others were laughing endlessly at her. Her pale cheeks gained a deep, embarrassed blush before she ran away from the field and to the inside of the school.
"Victoria!" Maura screamed for her friend. She turned to the kids on the bleachers and shouted, "You're all bastards!" Maura abandoned the field and ran after Victoria, in hopes of calming down the embarrassed friend.
"Keep going, kids. Just because we lost Victoria and Maura doesn't mean that the game has to stop! The teams are still equal!" Shanks shouted at the rest of his class. The game continued.
Within the remaining six minutes, dark clouds plagued the sky and it began to pour outside. The game was abandoned as the rest of his class quickly ran inside with the soccer ball. The game was over with a score of 1-0. Kyler's team was the victor, but nobody seemed to really care. Rain was pouring and the students just wanted to get inside the school and out of the rain.
It was about 1:00pm when the game ended and the class on the top floor, Shanks' class, was acting just as wild as they did the first day Shanks came to teach the class. Maura was seated on Kyler's lap, kissing him roughly while holding a lit cigarette in her right hand. Kyler was returning the kisses while rubbing the areas around her back and chest. Lynn was in her desk, chatting away on her communicator rather loudly and laughing stupidly. Larry was seated in his desk, drinking from a brown container filled with an unknown but possibly alcoholic liquid. Elie was sitting in her desk, turned around to Kurt. "Okay, go." She said. Kurt, who's left hand was flat on his desk and his right had a dagger, nodded and began to quickly stab the part in between his fingers back and forth without stabbing a single finger. Johnny was speaking to Victoria in loud Al Bhed while holding out what looked like a mechanic slingshot with something wet and white in it. Victoria was normally the nicest student, but she took Johnny's item and spoke back to him in Al Bhed before pressing a button.
Whoosh! The wet and white thing that was in Johnny's slingshot was quickly released and aimed at Shanks' head. Whether the attack was accidental or not, Shanks didn't know. What he did know was that he did not like the thing that hit him on the right cheek. The white item broke apart and almost covered his face. He knew what the item was. He used to make them all the time when he was at school or at home when he was a kid, back before he became a pirate. It was a spitball. A large, extremely moist spitball.
No apologies were made from either Johnny nor Victoria. In fact, the two completely ignored the fact that Victoria just shot a huge spitball at Shanks. Victoria blushed and handed the item back to Johnny and continued to talk back with Johnny in Al Bhed.
"Victoria! Johnny!" Shanks shouted at the two. They didn't move. They just continued talking to each other as if nothing was going on around them.
"Oh my God!...No way!...We have to go there!...Yeah...I'll meet you at the front of the school...love ya lots, girl." Lynn spoke into her communicator before switching it off. She slipped her communicator in her bag and slipped the bag over her shoulders. She then stood up and headed for the door.
"Where are you going, Lynn?" Shanks asked.
Lynn tossed back her long hair and answered simply, "If it's any of your business. I have some important business to do at the mall."
Maura, who was now finished with her business, said, "In other words...she's going to the mall to find more clothes to make her look like more of a whore than she already is."
Lynn didn't say anything and left the door anyway, despite her teacher's disapproval. She wasn't the only student to leave early. Maura picked up her bag and stood up from Kyler's lap.
"Well, I'm bored and everyone's probably going to leave soon, so I might as well go, too. I gotta get to work. You coming?" Maura's question was aimed at Kyler. Her boyfriend nodded and stood up.
"Hey Maura. I gotta get going, too and your work is on the way. Want me to drop you two off?" Larry asked. The offer was taken up and within three minutes, the three were out of the room and the school parking lot. Shanks had attempted to stop them, but they still had not listened to him. It didn't matter though. He had a plan for the next day to scare the hell out of his students and get them to listen to him.
The only students that remained were Johnny, Victoria, Kurt, and Elie. They were still not paying attention to their surroundings. Shanks tried talking to them and ordering them to do something, but they refused to do it. Finally, he decided to stop trying for the day. Half of his students were gone anyway.
"Okay, you little bastards. You can go home or to work or wherever the hell you want, but just remember this: tomorrow I'm taking you someplace where you will know what Hell feels like. I'll see you tomorrow morning." he announced to the remaining students.
Almost instantly, like Maura, Kyler, Larry, and Lynn, the final four grabbed their bags and left. Victoria and Johnny were out quicker than the others. Kurt and Elie were slower as they left and gave Shanks evil death-glares as they left. Shanks wasn't scared, though. Kurt and Elie were only kids and the next day when he took them onto his pirate ship to meet the rest of his crew, he would make sure that they were going to get scared out of their minds and would finally listen to him and obey his orders. The rest of the Red Hair Pirates would find a way to scare them. They knew how to scare people and with a simple order from their captain, they would scare the hell out of these kids.
Shanks smirked at his plan as he sat at his desk in his empty classroom. It was so perfect, so excellent that he couldn't help but imagine how the students were going to act when he finally got them to stop acting like little Hellraisers. The only thing he hated was that he would have to wait until the next day for the trip to begin.
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A/N: Okay, that's chapter 5. I know I focused mainly on Maura and Lynn, but in the next chapter I'm going to focus mainly on Victoria, Johnny, and the other students I haven't mentioned very much in this story. I also want to thank all you reviewers for your reviews. In the first four chapters I got 9 reviews. That's more than I got when I put up the first nine chapters of The Melody of the Seas. That's the most reviews I got for the first few chapters of ANY story I ever put up on this site...even the ones that were deleted.