Chapter 28: Cold Shower
Dr. Crabblesnitch was a strange, strange man. Whatever traumatic past or delusions of grandeur were the cause, nobody knew, but his sharp, ever-observant eyes looked at the world where his head was: so deep in his own ass it threatened to burst out of his chest.
Most notable about him was the terrible passion with which he tried to "fix" youngsters. If one knew him as more than just a worryingly incompetent principal, you could have said with 100% certainty that he meant no harm to any of his subjects, but this didn't bring any comfort to the youngsters that were involved in his pet project. Somehow, Dr. Crabblesnitch viewed himself the most merciful and generous person on Earth because he had agreed, with a nice little funding from somewhere to sweeten the pot, to take in underprivileged students into his crapsack of a preparatory school and made them "reform" by making them work instead of paying full tuition.
April Fool's Day had just gone by and the unfortunate youths had been rounded up to clean up the mess and do other miscellaneous chores. The usual group included Troy Miller, Ethan Robinson, Davis White, Tom Gurney, Lucky De Luca, Vance Medici, Lefty Mancini, Johnny Vincent, Ricky Pucino, Norton Williams, and Larry Romano. Notably, Hal Esposito's mother actually paid the full tuition and his grades and record of misconducts were teetering on acceptable levels, so he was the only greaser who didn't attend. Zoe Taylor, also in the school because of Dr. Crabblesnitch's "mercy", was also not there because she was a girl and girls got special treatment in the academy. The others stood in a row with the rest of the losers.
Among the usual bored thugs and hooligans was one who didn't quite belong, though. Lance Jackson stood in the row, looking around nervously. Someone had gotten the bright idea to have a water balloon fight outside, as if snow fights didn't make your clothes wet enough, and somehow Lance had gotten the blame for it and was now serving detention with the underachievers and troublemakers.
Lance gulped as Dr. Crabblesnitch decided to slowly stride past the row standing in front of the school's library, scrutinizing his students with his keen brown eyes. His eyebrows knitted together tightly as he seemed to see right through the youngsters. But really, he just tried to look intimidating.
"It's been a while, hasn't it boys. Well, for your information, some of you were doing so well that I 'cut you some slack', as they say. But, you lads have been very naughty again, haven't you? It is time for you to repay this prestigious school for the trouble of keeping you in", the man stated with his clear and pompous voice. The students' faces didn't even twitch at the word "prestigious" – they had learned that the more they snickered at it, the longer they had to endure preaching.
"Ah, yes, but I don't blame you for all of it, of course. It is tragic, so tragic, that you boys had the luck of being born to such uncaring and unfit parents. Think nothing of it, boys, even you have a chance. Remember that I exist here as your dependable father figure, ready to give a helping hand whenever you might need one", the man said proudly.
Lance winced and glanced at the boys at his both sides. Did they have to listen to this all the time without even making a face? He almost felt sorry for them.
"As for you, mister Jackson. I'm disappointed, so very disappointed. You had a good record – this is going to be a nasty chink in it. What a shame! You should take a leaf out of your cousin's book", Dr. Crabblesnitch said as he stopped in front of the startled black youth, once showing again that he knew nothing of his students. Bo Jackson was a bully like the rest of them, only he was a jock and as such he could get away with it.
"Well, I will leave you to your work with our honorable prefect. Carry on, Hopkins", the man harrumphed and made his way to the parking lot where his car was ready to go.
"At ease ladies", the stout boy said gruffly as he stepped forward from the background.
"Alright, let's get this over with. Greaseballs: your turn to shovel the snow. They finally got two more shovels so there oughta be enough of them", Jimmy explained and pointed his finger at the greasers.
"Rest of you bunch are going indoors. Troy and Tom, you got the walls and bathrooms upstairs. Ethan and Davis, you have the same downstairs. Larry and Lance, you clean up the caf. After it's clean, you're gonna peel some potatoes and stuff for Edna, she said she left a note with instructions", he continued while peering at the rest.
"As for me, I'm gonna go do something that's worth my time. If you ladies slack off, I will find out and I'll come kick your asses personally, so don't get any ideas", Jimmy concluded and then started walking away to the direction of the dorms. With all likelihood, he was going to go somewhere with Zoe Taylor.
The youngsters slumped, groaning and whining to themselves. Before everyone had the opportunity to scram each to their own direction, Lefty suddenly wrapped his arm around Lance's shoulders and blew some smoke from his freshly lit cigarette straight into his face.
"So what's this square doin' here anyway?" he sneered and held on as the startled Lance tried to struggle away from him.
"H-Hey! Let go!" the black youth yelped, attracting the attention of everyone who hadn't yet left.
"Guess teacher's pets ain't that precious after all", Ricky chuckled as Lefty put his cigarette between his lips, forced Lance to bend down so he could reach down and shove a helping of snow into the boy's face with his free hand.
"Cut it out!" Lance demanded. Desperate for help, he turned his eyes to Larry, who observed the situation nonchalantly.
"Hey, hey Larry! These are your friends, right? Get them off me, please!"
Larry cocked his brow and shifted his weight on his left leg.
"You heard the guy", he drawled and looked at the black-haired boy expectantly.
"Heh, what's it to ya Peanut?" Lefty teased.
It was still right about in the confides of good will, but Larry wasn't feeling lenient, not after hearing that nickname again even after all this time of saying he refused to go by it anymore. The ex-greaser stepped up unexpectedly and grabbed Lefty's collar, tearing the guy off Lance and tripping him over in the snow.
"Better cool down now, Lefty", Larry snickered.
This might not have been the smartest thing to do. The greasers, sort of remembering that there were still a couple of mildly intrigued bullies staring at the episode, became tense and shot hostile glares at Larry. No non-clique student should be allowed to mess with the greasers publicly and get away with it, even if he had been a greaser before. Johnny, who had stood further away and faced into a different direction than the rest of the greasers, suddenly walked up to Larry, staring at him threateningly with squinted eyes.
"What, you too Johnny?" Larry said, scowling.
"C'mon, this is totally unnecessary", he continued and gestured at Lefty, who was getting up and was obviously okay despite rolling around in the snow a bit.
Johnny, however, didn't back away from the staredown. Neither did Larry, to the surprise of himself as much as the others. Lefty had no reason to hassle Lance, whom Larry had confirmed to be an okay guy when they had still been in the same dorm room.
Suddenly, Johnny ended the staredown. With a quick movement he grabbed Larry's shoulder, snaked his leg behind the ex-greaser's ankles, and swept him on the ground. Then, before he could react, he sat on top of him, grabbed some snow from the ground, and covered Larry's face with it. Thanks to him being disoriented and having his eyes obstructed by the cold substance, Johnny also had the time to zip down his coat a bit and stuff a few packed clumps of snow inside it before zipping it back up.
"There, we even now?" Johnny asked from his fellow greasers crankily while still sitting on top of his squirming victim.
The lower-ranked greasers stared at him, wide-eyed, and seemed to at least have no objections. When the clique leader lifted his weight off of Larry, the boy scrambled to his feet while shaking snow down through his coat and sweater vest until they found their way out. Johnny turned his eyes back to him, making sure he wasn't going to come at him.
"L-Let's just go Lance, pronto", Larry said while shoving the fellow non-clique student towards the main building. They scurried away quickly, both avoiding eye contact with any of the greasers.
Thank god the cold snow was a good reason for Larry's face to be red – otherwise someone might have noticed that he was blushing.