Chapter 9

Atrhur

Open up your ears

Muffy was little more than a pathetic coke whore. She was useless but for one quality: her rivalry with Francine

Her love for me was pathetic, but useful enough. I was able convince her to stir up some anger in francine for information. I sat in my car outside of the sugar shack waiting for their date to be over. Even from outside the window I could see that she was distracted, and only sitting across from francine for the promise of my affections and a small morsel of pure coke set aside specially for her.

George sat in the car with me, staring at Muffy trough his sun glasses.

"do you ever take those things off?"

"no"

My mother threw open the door, and brought two bags of groceries into the lap of d.w. who was in the font seat, and in one of her silent dazes after the rush of energy her last bump of coke had given her.

"What is this?" I asked, pointing at the Scant number of items she had thrown on D.W.s lap.

"Money is tight Arthur. We're gonna have to make do with less for a while."

I came close to telling her that she wouldn't have to worry for long, but she deserved to suffer the idea that as the grocery list got smaller, the list of lies she would have at her disposal would too. If it werent for me, the piss poor parenting of her, and her tumor of a husband would be the doom of all of us.

She took her seat in the car, hiding her silent weeping from me.

I decided it wasn't worth the charade. I handed her a wad of fifties.

"Arthur! Where did you get this kind of cash?"

"Don't worry about it mom, just go get groceries."

She left in confused happiness.

As she left, Muffy finally returned to the car. I didn't see Francine leave but I assumed she'd wanted to duck me after what I had done to Slink.

She sat in the seat to the right of me, and the moment she closed the door she looked at me like a begging puppy. "How'd I do Arthur?"

"We'll decide how well you did when you tell us everything Francine said to you."

" I pushed her buttons and got her really angry like you said. I didn't get much out her, but she said something weird when she left. She said I was going to end up like Mr. Haney."

"The principle?" I asked

"Yeah."

"What did she say about him?"

"She said I'd end up with debt like his."

"Very good Muffy."

"T-that's it? Is that good enough?"

I couldn't tell if she wanted my affection or coke more, so I decided to give her the easiest of the two. "D.W. , hand her a gram." D.W. remained completely still.

"D.W.!" She jumped up like a dog when its owner shouted at it, the confusion on her face was only slightly greater than it was before. "D.W., a gram of coke. Now."

"Okay." She smiled excitedly, pulled out a gram from the glove compartment and stuffed her nose in the baggy.

"D.W.!" She turned around.

"What?"

"A gram for her."

"Oh...sorry." She grabbed another gram from the glove compartment and threw it behind her without looking.

George caught it before it hit my face and opened his palm so Muffy could grab it.

"Out," George whispered.

Muffy was so happy to have her coke that I think she forgot about the date I promised her. She eyed me for a second, hoping that I would tell George to let her stay in the car, and left when she realized she was no longer welcome.

D.W. opened the glove compartment after she left. "Another...another gram Arthur?"

She'd been getting greedier and greedier after I gave her the brick that Binky gave me. She went through it in a week and a half, and now she was dipping into the stuff we'd stolen from Francine. "No D.W. you're gonna have to wait until we sell this shit before you can get your next few bumps."

She slammed her head once against the window before resting it. Tapping her feet, half high. Her next fix was clearly the only thing on her mind as she waited until her inevitable crash into a dazed and confused state.

"Haney." George whispered.

"We should find out what kind of debt he's got, maybe we could put it to use." My mother came in with a cart full of groceries and drove us to our house. After some searching on my computer, me and George decided to take a trip to Lakewood Elementary.

As school ended, we walked through the halls. The faces that had once ignored me were all over me. They must've heard the rumors about what me and The Hammer had done. Soon they'd all be under me. After all these years, the dream of their subjugation was finally coming to pass.

I looked down the dark narrow hallway to my classroom and passed it before I caught a glimpse of any of my classmates.

"There," The Hammer pointed to the office of Francis Haney. I'd been in the office only a few times before, but after The Hammer had slammed it open, I walked in like it belonged to me.

The cowering little insect was hiding behind his desk before I walked in.

"Don't shoot! I paid my tribute to Francine for the last four months. Just because I was light on the last one doesn't mean I'm not gonna make good on it."

I was lucky he couldn't see me. Anyone with a sharp eye could see my confidence drop a bit. I didn't think that Francine's arms reached as far as the principal.

"I don't work for Francine."

He got up. The moment he saw me he sat back on his chair in relief. "Oh, Arthur. Sorry, your class has gotten a little crazy lately. Everyone's on edge because of Binky."

"You have no idea how afraid of Binky you should be right now."

Sweat dripped from his forehead. "Well if you wanted to talk about it, I'm always here for you kids."

"I'm here to talk about something else Haney, a proposition."

He looked like he was about to say no until he saw The Hammer walk up next to me. "Oh, um, sure."

"So you like gambling, huh?"

"What?! How did you know about that?"

"We know a lot of things. We know about your little relationship with Francine. How she promised to cover half of your debts in exchange for your tribute once you paid them back in full. I know something else Haney. I know that once you'd paid them off, you fell right back into debt. You degenerate fucking gambler."

"I just can't help myself!" His suit was unevenly put together. He looked like an old wooden deck that was falling apart from decades of rain damage.

"You're afraid aren't you? You're afraid of losing the power over those kids. You're afraid that you won't be able to pay for the privilege of being the figurehead anymore. Well I've got an out for you this time, so you can keep looking the other way while those kids suffer. You can keep your little kingdom. Hell, if you play your cards right, you can have this whole city."

"N-no, I'm sorry I can't get myself involved any further than I already am. I'd rather just resign."

"Then maybe I'll just tell the cops what you've been letting happen in your school. Hell, francine's probably paid them off too. Wouldn't you rather have someone like me in charge rather than someone who's got their hands in so much dirt?"

"Don't you play moral high ground with me, kid. You're eight. I'm an adult and I'm not gonna be chastised by some..."

I didn't even have to tell The Hammer what to do. He cut of Haney's speech with the slam of a knife into his desk.

"You gonna play ball or are you gonna keep talking back. As you said, I'm a child and I might let my emotions get the better of me."

"I'm sorry! I-I can't. I can't know if you can stop her from killing me."

I smelled the urine and heard it drip to the floor.

The Hammer grabbed Haney and threw him over his desk, forcing him to stare into the blade of the half-buried knife.

"I'll kill you right now if you keep saying no."

The Hammer grabbed him by the hair and slid his face forward so that his nose touched the edge of the blade.

"Okay! Okay, I'll play ball! What do you want me to do?"

I slammed a briefcase onto his desk filled with one of Francines five packages. When The Hammer let his face up off the desk, Haney opened it.

"There are ten teachers in this entire school. From first grade, to eighth grade, I want this stuff in every single classroom. Give each teacher ten percent of the coke and have them sell it in every period until classes end. You get two percent of everything that's made, and you'll use that to pay your gambling debts."

"What about Francine?"

"She's putting on a ball tonight right?"

"Yeah, she is."

I had The Hammer throw two hundred thousand dollars in cash onto the desk. It was all from Muffy. It was everything I had.

"George will email you a list of the things I want you to spend this money on. All of it is going towards the dance."

"But Francine had specific specifications and..."

The Hammer pulled out a gun and shot Haney in the arm. He squealed.

The Hammer put his gun to Haney's head, but before he could pull the trigger, I stopped him.

"Sorry. George is very enthusiastic. Sometimes too much so."

Despite his attempts to stop crying, Haney sobbed. Blood was streaming down his arm. "I understand. I'll do what you want. Whatever you want.

The Hammer and I left to get tuxedos for the night's events.