"Did you hear about that Lester kid?" Ronnie said.
John Bender looked up from lighting his cigarette long enough to listen.
"Someone taped his ass cheeks together in the locker room last period."
He sniggered, and went back to what he was doing while the other two guys they were with cracked up with laughter.
"You mean the nerdy one?" Travis said.
"The one whose glasses I broke in 10th," Bender cut in.
"That's fucking funny, man," Travis said. John nodded, his smirk still on his face.
"Who did it?" Jev asked.
"No clue," Ronnie began, "thought it might have been one of you shit heads, that's why I said it."
"Not guilty," Travis said.
"Yeah, I gathered that when you didn't even know who he was."
"Oh, fuck," Jev muttered under his breath.
"What?" someone from the group asked.
They were sat just around the corner from the school building, taking up space just in front of the car lot on the grass banks. It was quiet, peaceful even, so anything said was heard to go unnoticed.
"I've got a fucking redo test today in English. Because I failed the last two."
"Is that the freshman class you're still taking?" Travis asked, trying his hardest to cover up his laughter.
"Shut up."
"What period?" Bender asked.
"Fourth."
"I'll set off the fire bell for you."
"Really?"
John nodded, not looking back at him as he stubbed out his cigarette butt into the grass, watching the last of the smoke rise up in a brief moment of interest.
"Well, isn't that sweet," Travis said.
"Not like I've got anything better to do. And you can go fuck yourself," he pointed at Travis, but grinned back at him when he was met with laughter.
Jev sat up from the floor and reached into the top pocket of his denim jacket, then pulled out a small plastic bag.
"This is my last for the week, but if you do that for me, Bender, then it's all yours."
"I only accept payment upfront."
Jev rolled his eyes, but still threw the bag over to him.
"Looks like we've got ourselves a deal."