SofterThanMagic, Selia, Wyntirsno, Cola Zitron: Thank you so much for reviewing!
Well, if you already knew what Cody is going to say/do/think, then what would be the point of reading the story? I want you to stay interested! And that's why you will have to wait for the big moment for two or three more chaps ^^
Now, ladies and gentlemen, here is the first appearance of ... DRAMA! So make yourself comfortable, get some chocolate and read!
Coco
PS: I know it's kinda short. The next one will be a bit longer again.
**********************************Bullies 1 – CPOV*************************************
The bell rang and nearly everybody jumped from their chairs and ran out of the classroom with unbelievable speed. I carefully put my books back into my bag before I, too, made my way to the door, mechanically picking up some bubble gum wrappers on the floor and dropping them into the trash can.
"Come on!" That was Mrs. Jellins, our math teacher. "I want to go home, too!"
With a nod, I left the classroom behind Fred. We walked to the front doors together, said 'goodbye' and headed to opposite directions. I started humming a little melody; I think it was Bach. I was thinking about a science project we were supposed to do, so I wasn't expecting anything when I walked around the corner.
Suddenly, my right leg was kicked by something like a foot. I gasped and instinctively went into a defensive crouch before daring to look up to see who had kicked me.
There were two of them. One was leaning against the wall and the one who had kicked me had to be somewhere behind me. I knew for sure when a fist – or an elbow, I wasn't sure – was thrust into my side. I bit down on my lip, swallowing the cry of pain that rose in my throat.
"Won't you cry, nerd?" A low voice teased, followed by derisive laughter from the other bully. "Won't you shout for mommy? Don't be afraid, we won't tell anyone!" I grit my teeth and kept silent, even though I knew it didn't matter what I did right now. They wouldn't leave me alone anyway.
There was the sound of footsteps on the ground, the kind that wanted to sound heavy. Seconds later, a hand grabbed my hair and pulled hard. I made a sound somewhere between a sob and a moan, half suppressed, and unsuccessfully tried to hit the guy. The laughter returned, causing the hair on my arms to stand on edge.
"Very good. I knew you could do it!" The voice commended tauntingly. "Now, do something more spectacular. We want something to show the world!"
"You're on tape." Another voice told me. It was higher than the first one and a little bit less frightening. "Wave to the world!" I didn't move, irrationally hoping that they would just go away. I knew that was pointless, though. They could do to me whatever they wanted to and nothing I could do would stop them.
This time, I was kicked in the butt and nearly fell. I stumbled forward, right into the other guy who pushed me back by hitting my stomach and chest the same time. They pushed me back and forth a few times, all the while laughing and teasing, while I struggled not to fall.
When I was knocked off my feet by a leg, I finally fell to the ground and remembered to catch myself almost too late. A broken piece of glass cut my hand. "Ow!" I said, feeling tears waiting behind my eyelids.
Someone smacked my face into the dirt - fortunately, it missed the glass – just to pull my head back by my hair again. "Make him do something!" The second voice said. What did they think I was? A circus monkey?
"Give me the matches." Matches? What the… When I realized what they were about to do, I nearly shrieked. They wouldn't, I told myself. They don't dare. Even bullies like them wouldn't be willing to do such a thing. They were just saying that to frighten me. It so worked.
I heard the sound of something light being snatched out of the air, and a match being struck. "No" I choked, my voice trembling with fear. "Stop…" I couldn't end my sentence because one of them let himself fall to his knees – on top of me. My back felt like it was on fire already.
"Stop it!" This time, my voice was strong and arrogating. The really strange thing was that I didn't remember moving my lips. While I listened to my own voice in amazement, the bullies started laughing again. "Who are you – another nerd?"
Slowly, it came to me that it hadn't been my voice I had heard. Zack! I tried to roll over so I could see him, but was pinned to the ground by one of them. So I could do nothing but listen, torn between wishing for him to run, run fast, and hoping he would help me.
"Leave him," Zack said coolly. "And don't touch my brother ever again." How could he act so self-conscious? These guys were way too big for him! "Ever," somebody affirmed and I recognized Bob's voice. Again, I couldn't decide if I should be relieved or worried.
"Don't you dwarves tell us what to do!" The deep voice snarled and something hit Zack, who gasped and beat back. I could tell from the sounds that there were a few moments of fighting. The first voice was about to say something else when the second bully let go of me and took a few steps back.
"Come on," He said, "We got the tape. Let's go put it online." Suddenly, I heard more fighting noises. I got up in time to watch Zack trampling on a cell phone while Bob and another boy stepped in front of me.
The bully grimaced. "You're gonna pay for that," He promised, before he turned around and was gone.
***********************************Bullies 2 – ZPOV*************************************
"Cody!"
As soon as the two of them were gone, I hurried towards my brother. His face and hair were dirty and he had some small stones sticking to his skin, but apart from that, he looked fine. Not too upset. He even managed a weak smile. The fact that he still tried to cam me made my heart ache.
"Don't you smile at me!" I told him off, "What did they do to you?" I clung to the anger for the bullies and used it to act harsh; it was safest.
The smile vanished and was replaced by a frown. "You know," He answered.
I snorted. "Yeah, they hit you and at some point, they pushed you to the ground. Correction: How bad are you hurt?"
"Not that bad," he murmured. "You didn't have to…"
"Oh, cut it out. You do know what they were about to do, don't you? And all of us know you couldn't have stopped them alone. Now… How much time passed before we arrived?"
"Not long. They were only just getting started." Cody had never been a good liar, and as his twin brother, I was the last person he was able to lie to. The way he lowered his gaze belied his words.
I searched the ground with my eyes, but I couldn't find what I was looking for. After a few seconds, I noticed that Bob had already taken the little card out of the broken cell and was switching it with the one in his own. Minutes later, he handed his cell phone to me.
Together, we watched the video. Every time they beat Cody, I got angrier. In the end, I gave the cell back to Bob because I was afraid I was going to drop it. We watched until the display first showed our faces, then Bob put the cell back into his pocket.
"Not that bad. Just getting started," I repeated, trying to sound neutral but knowing everyone could hear the fury in my voice, "I get it. Let me see your back." When he hesitated, I simply grabbed his shirt and pushed it up.
There were already big, knee-shaped bruises on his back. I touched one lightly, and he moaned in pain. "Damn fucking assholes," Jake snarled through clenched teeth. "Two big guys against one boy who is obviously not used to fights. Do they have no honor?"
"Some people are not even cool enough for their own requirements," I said in a monotone voice, this time not letting any emotion show. "I guess they need that for their wimpy ego. C'mon, guys, let's get… to the bus station." I'd been about to say 'Let's get him home' but I knew he wouldn't have liked that.
***********************************Bullies 3 – CPOV*************************************
Bob and the other boy, Jake, who turned out to be surprisingly kind, guarded us all the way back to the hotel and even up to our suite. The other two tried to make some conversation, but Zack was obviously in no talking mood and everybody was kind of tense, anyway.
When we finally arrived at home, I was surprised to see we weren't late at all. I mean, of course we weren't late – we had been on the same bus as always, for there was only one bus in two hours – but it somehow seemed inappropriate. For example, if we were a movie, Mom would have been a mess right now.
Instead, she was downright euphoric because she had actually talked a raise out of Moseby. She had even bought us new skateboards – one each! And our old ones were still in one piece, even Zack's! It was close to a miracle.
Zack was doing his best to be excited about the skateboards and he even asked for the details of the raise to make sure she wasn't being fooled (I listened in amazement. So did Mom.), but I could feel he just wanted to get rid of her and I saw he was relieved when she announced she was going to meet a friend.
As soon as she was gone, he made himself comfortable on the sofa and started watching some stupid TV-Show. I could tell he was upset, even though he didn't let it show, and I could tell he was going to talk to me sometime soon, so I just kept silent.
Mom ordered Chinese food for dinner and it was delicious. She was in such a good mood she talked and talked all the time and didn't seem to notice how Zack was unusually quiet. Finally, he took a chance and told her about a bad history grade, but not even that could make her less happy.
After dinner, Mom and I were doing the dishes, the phone rang.
"Zack, honey, will you get the phone, please?"
He didn't react in any way but continued playing his video game.
"Get it now!" Mom yelled, but sighed and dried her hands to get it herself because she knew her efforts were wasted. "Hello?"
She listened to whatever whoever that was on the phone was saying, and her expression changed. "Actually, they didn't," she said, giving us poisonous looks. "I am very sorry to hear that. I'll have a little talk with them, if you don't mind, and call you back later." She waited a few more moments, and then hung up. Zack (who had finally taken his eyes off the TV) and I exchanged worried looks.
"Who scrunched that boy's cell phone? Alright why am I asking Zack why did you do that? You ruined my good mood!"
Okay, it was exactly like we had feared it would be. I saw how Zack mouthed the word Coward. Now who was the one running to tell Mommy? We had agreed on not telling Mom because we knew she would be hysterical with worry. But if we didn't want her to believe the bully's version of the story, we had to tell her now.
"Look…" He started, raising his hands in defense. "I don't know what that guy told his parents, but…"
"He told them that you crunched his cell phone – his brand new cell phone! – and they want the money! Do you have any idea how much that will cost me?" Her eyes were murderous.
"Mom, it would help if you listened to our version of the story first before blaming me," He said. She looked at us with a confused expression. "Because our version is the truth. Look, that boy is a bully, really. He and his friend caught Cody after school and beat him up…"
I spotted a clenched fist in his pocket, and he spit the words out like bullets. "They were about to do something with matches when I, Bob, and Jake came. They ran away because they were outnumbered." He added contemptuously.
Mom frowned, but seemed more confused than angry now. "And what was that about the cell phone?"
"Yeah… well… I guess I might have broken that, too."
I decided that this was the right moment for me to jump in. "They were filming the whole thing to put it on the Internet, so Zack wanted to destroy the video!"
"And… Maybe I don't know much about these things, but… Why didn't he just delete it?"
"He had to act quickly!" I defended, but Zack shrugged and said "I kinda freaked, I guess." It sounded really compunctious, and he looked like he was sorry. I listened and watched in confusion as he went on: "I was just… I was so furious, I think I lost control. Dammit, they were bashing Cody…" He fell silent.
"I see…" Mom looked shocked, but not as shocked as I had imagined. Probably it hadn't really sunk in yet.
"We can prove it!" I said quickly, "We have the video!"
"You don't have to… I thought Zack broke the cell!?"
Zack rolled his eyes in an attempt to cover… I didn't know what, actually. "Yeah, I may have broken the cell, but the data are undamaged." He explained in the way you talk to a child. "But don't worry, Mom, the bully didn't get that, either." Mom made a funny noise and dropped herself onto a chair.
We watched in worry as her blinking went too fast and her expression got very, very strange. "Okay…" She finally managed to choke, "I guess that means trouble."