Van Buren

by Aklaino2k7

During his second year at Bullworth, Jimmy was hoping for peace and quiet as King of the School, but soon he finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy involving a transfer student that could lead to open war with another school and the various cliques within. Only the one behind the conspiracy is who he least expected and the transfer student has secrets of his own.

3. Unexpected Allies

Chapter 3: Unexpected Allies

###

Disclaimer: I don't own Bully.

###

Zoe made her way through the dark corridors with the spy equipment ready. Thankfully, this early in the morning none of the prefects were patrolling the hallways. She just had the cameras to deal with. So, she was dressed up in a blue cat suit that would help her to blend in with the background.

She made her way from the second story into the cafeteria where she would place the monitoring equipment. She was surprised at how good the definition on the camera was. Then again, it was probably not even the phone's original camera.

She put the camera where it was supposed to be so that Edna could be watched making breakfast. Then she ran the wiring along the bottom of the counter where she taped it, running it along to where the girl hid the phone.

She then set it up to start filming as soon as Edna walked into the kitchen and started baking her latest monstrosity.

Then she slipped out the way she came. Jimmy would be in there as soon as the school doors opened to pick up the phone. Then they would have the evidence they needed to get rid of the lunch lady once and for all.

###

"Checkmate!" Melvin exclaimed, knocking over Connor's king. They were in the library, eating some cereal that the nerds had stashed away.

"Okay, I'll admit it, you're better at chess than I am," the heavier blond said, chuckling a little. "So, you have Spanish this morning with me too, right?"

"Yes, of course, though from the name I doubt that he speaks Spanish well at all," Melvin responded, moving his hair to the side.

"Yeah, Mr. Kriegshauser. That's definitely a Latin American name!" Fatty exclaimed sarcastically just as Jimmy walked by and handed Connor the phone.

"You got it!"

"Told you I'd go and get it," Jimmy told him. "So, you think this is enough evidence to take her down?"

"If this doesn't work, then the pictures of her nasty food will get rid of her," Connor told his mentor.

"What? You're getting rid of the lunch lady? It's about time!" Algie exclaimed, getting shushed by the others.

"Quiet, you don't want to let her know of the conspiracy to remove the wicked witch from our school," Melvin chastised his friend.

"So, what's happening?" Fatty asked upon sitting down.

"Oh, nothing, Francois, we're just getting rid of the lunch lady," Connor told him with a grin.

"What? I like her sustenance," he told the group.

"A knave like you would," Melvin told his friend.

"Listen, you may like her, but whatever replacement the school's gonna get is going to be even better," Jimmy told him.

###

When the group of friends entered into the Spanish classroom, they saw that the teacher was exactly what they had expected with a name like Kriegshauser. He was blond, blue-eyed and had strongly European features like most of the class. What none of them did expect though was for his English accent to be extremely foreign, almost Italian-sounding.

"Good morning, class, my name is Mr. Kriegshauser, or if you prefer, Señor Kriegshauser," he told the class. "I will be teaching you Spanish this semester. If you would like to know, I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and I moved to the United States to attend university here. I graduated with a Master's degree from Colorado Mesa University and I'm here to teach you ways of learning the Spanish language which I hope you will find both fun and effective."

"So much for him being some American who speaks bad Spanish," Connor mumbled to himself.

"Man, why do I get the feeling this is going to be really boring?" Jimmy commented quietly to himself.

###

Later on he had programming. Upon entering his new programming class, Jimmy didn't know what to think of the teacher who reminded him a bit much of Mr. Hattrick but white and shorter, with a smaller nose. He was just as heavy, though he had a bit more muscle to him than the former math teacher.

The words that came out of his mouth next showed that he was actually quite amiable, unlike the fired math teacher.

"Hello, class, I am Dr. Guevara and I shall be your new programming teacher. I'm hoping to have a fun time in class with you this semester and maybe we'll get to put together something that you'll like." He smiled genially.

Connor raised his hand and he was called on. "What language are we going to learn this semester?" he asked as he uploaded the video of Edna from his rigged phone.

"Good question. It turns out we'll be learning C++ throughout the year. I'll try to easy you into programming it, though, so that it will hopefully not be too hard for you." He smiled widely. "Anyone else have any questions?"

Nobody else raised their hands. "Okay, now, does anybody have any experience with programming, whether it be with a scripting language or with a full blown application programming interface?"
Connor, Melvin and Earnest raised their hands. "Okay, what's your name and what language or languages have you used?"

"The name's Connor and I've messed around with a few such as JavaScript, C#, and the language used in the Omega Scrolls Construction Set," he told his teacher, getting weird glances from the other kids.

"I've messed around with Basic a little," Melvin told the teacher.

"And I've gone all the way through Head First C#!" Earnest said proudly.

The teacher nodded. "Alright, it sounds like you three may have learned a little. C++ is quite a bit like C# or JavaScript. I've never used the others so I can't vouch for them except for Basic, which I wasn't particularly fond of when I went through it in college and it's been so long since I've learned it that I've forgotten all of it." Dr. Guevara chuckled. "Well, there's no use in boring you kids to death with details. Let's start our first program, shall we? A simple 'Hello World' program!"

Jimmy really dreaded the rest of the class but he survived.

###

The pictures that Dr. Crabblesnitch received just after getting back from lunch from an anonymous e-mail made him sick to the stomach. Then there was the video that was attached which the principal downloaded despite the absurdly large file size which quite literally caused him to expel the contents of his lunch into the nearest wastebasket. The sender of the letter also threatened to send this same video to the health department if action wasn't taken immediately.

He was profoundly disturbed that such a problem could have been going on for so long and that he didn't know about it. Then again, the staff usually went out to eat. It seemed that Mr. Hattrick was the only one that actually ate inside the cafeteria.

He was going to have to go to the cafeteria to investigate this personally. The principal walked downstairs to where Edna was and the disgusting lunch lady was busy cooking away while smoking, oblivious to Crabblesnitch's presence as the principal approached. The lady even had the gall to cough into the stew she was making for that night before spitting into it and laughing while Dr. Crabblesnitch stood there in shock.

The entire kitchen was absolutely filthy and looked like it hadn't been cleaned in months. Not to mention there were rats running around, one of them was even chewing on some wiring. And that wasn't even getting to the mold on the walls, the crud on the grills or the flies fluttering about.

"What is the meaning of this?" Dr. Crabblesnitch shouted, causing the lunch lady to flinch.

"What? Dr. Crabblesnitch? What are you doing here?" Edna asked, her crackly voice betraying her fear of her boss coming to talk to her. As she opened her mouth, her cigarette fell out and onto the ground before she stamped it out immediately.

"I am sure you are aware of the numerous health-code regulations you are violating or the fact that you're breaking the law by smoking indoors in a public facility," the principal told her.

"What? I can smoke wherever I want," she snapped back.

"Not according to the state's clean indoor act you can't. In fact, based on that, your filthy kitchen and your improper hygiene as well as the fact that you have been exposing the children of this school to disease and your own saliva, you are now fired from this institution!"

"What? You can't fire me! What about my severance pay?" she exclaimed.

"You have no severance pay. As far as I'm concerned, you won't be getting a job in any kitchen at any school in the entire country! Get out before I call the cops!" The principal pointed toward the door. "Now!"

"How could you do this?" she asked.

"You are getting off lightly, Edna! Imagine if the health inspector got involved. Then we'd both be in hot water with the law. Now get out!" his shouting attracted a pair of prefects, a tall, muscular black one and a svelte woman. The two of them escorted the lunch lady out of the building.

Upon returning to his office, Dr. Crabblesnitch spoke to Miss Danvers. "I need you to get the janitors down to the kitchen immediately to clean it up. I expect it to be spotless by the time we get a new chef," he explained to her, still angry at his former lunch lady.

"Yes, Headmaster," the woman responded in a dreamy voice.

"Oh, and hire a new chef pronto and make sure you do a background check so that we don't get another Edna. They can't have been fired from any institution before working here and they have to have a spotless record!"

"Yes, Headmaster," Ms. Danvers replied again before sitting down and making a few phone calls.

###

"All it is is getting the proper mindset for it. Once you've got that, it's going to be a lot easier," Connor told his friend during practice with the slingshot. His aim was definitely starting to improve from the day before. "You just got to ease into it like I am with this."

"Well, maybe it'll never click. What the heck did we learn in the class, anyway? I was hoping to make games!" Jimmy complained.

"Games are a lot of work. Don't worry, we'll get to that soon… maybe," Connor hit another can that was taken from the dumpster. "Gotcha! Well, anyway, if you want to learn how to make a game, how about I show you this engine I found on the internet one time."

"Sure, okay. That'll work," Jimmy responded, not sounding impressed with his friend's suggestion.

Then Connor hit another one. "Haha! I'm definitely getting this down!"

"Yeah, you're improving pretty quickly," the king of the school congratulated before glancing in the opposite direction. There he saw a dark-skinned man in a black cloak, watching them. The man also had a backwards black hat on so Jimmy couldn't tell the hairstyle. However the shirt gave away who he was since it was a black, 'Sex Pistols' t-shirt.

He glared as the man disappeared around the corner.

Jimmy had a feeling he'd be seeing him again real soon.

"So, what are you going to do the rest of the night?" he asked his protégé.

Connor just shrugged. "I'm going to help this one guy from class named Ray with his homework. He offered to buy me a bite to eat and since the cafeteria got closed down, I guess I should take him up on it." The heavier boy chuckled. "So, how long do you think it'll take for the headmaster to get a new lunch lady/dude/whatever?"

Jimmy had no idea. "Beats me. I've got plenty of cash saved up to eat, though, so I can eat out for a while. Some of the others kids on the other hand…"

"Yeah, how do you have such a stash? I've seen your book collection and… wow, how could you afford all those?" Connor inquired, shooting another couple of cans. Jimmy laughed at his friend's observation.

"The books came with the room. I do a bunch of odd jobs for people, though, that's how I make so much money," the smaller boy responded, getting a nod from his protégé. "Plus, there's the paper route and the lawn mowing. All that combined helps me out with cash."

It was about then that Jimmy noticed another kid approaching, another fat kid. At first, he just assumed that it was one of the nerds but then he realized that he had never seen this guy with the nerds ever. He had brown hair and was wearing a green shirt like much of the student body. At the same time, he was definitely heavier than Fatty.

"Hey, Connor! You ready for dinner?" the guy asked.

"So, you're Ray? I've seen you around school," Jimmy told him.

"You're Jimmy Hopkins, yeah, I know," the guy responded. "Saved the school from destruction by the cliques, fought Gary, saved the world."

"Not sure about that last part," Jimmy responded.

"Alright, so, where are we headed?" Connor asked Ray, pocketing his slingshot.

"Oh, there's this pizza joint in town. Well, see you later, Jim!" the obese teen said with a wave.

"You can come along too, if you don't have any plans," Connor offered.

"Nah, you guys go on ahead," Jimmy replied. "I got some things to do." He needed to find that punk and any accomplices he may have.

Still, he had to wonder why it seemed like Connor tended to attract all the fat kids at school.

###

When Jimmy approached the dorms, he heard footprints behind him and turned around to face the punk behind him with a rocket launcher in hand. "Okay, who the heck are you, punk?"
The black man chuckled a bit. Truth be told, he was most likely in the same age category as Jimmy and Connor were. "I knew the punk get-up would get your attention," he said. The black boy had coke-bottle glasses that obscured his eye-color and he was actually wearing a different shirt. Taking off his hat, he showed that underneath wasn't any sort of Mohawk but a bald head. "I'm not a punk, actually. You can actually say we're allies."

"What? Yeah right!" Jimmy exclaimed in disbelief. The mysterious visitor smirked a little bit when his accomplice, a beautiful girl who was wearing a black dress, had black hair and black eye-shadow on, creating even more of a contrast with her blue eyes.

"Goths?" the blond asked.

"No, actually we're not that either," the gothic-looking girl remarked. "In fact, even though I may dress in black, I don't identify with any clique at our school. Plus, this is my natural hair color."

"We're from the Van Buren High School Safety Patrol and we're here to investigate the reason for the punks coming this way since Monday," the black man said.

"Yeah? What's going on?" Jimmy inquired antagonistically, not letting his guard down for a second.

"It turns out that on Monday, in order to track down two of our friends, a number of cliques were sent to various schools within a fifty-mile radius of our school. It seems that the Punks found something and we're here to investigate. From the looks of it, Connor has found a good support group, though, so there may be nothing to worry about."

"So, there are Punks here now?" the blond asked.

"Yes, though we're keeping tabs on them and they're nowhere near Connor's location," the Goth girl replied. The girl then looked around before handing Jimmy a card. "Aren't you curious about what happened with Connor and some of our other friends?"

"Nope," Jimmy replied deadpan. "His past is his business."

"I can understand that because I'm a former delinquent myself," the black boy replied.

The girl nodded. "I'm the same and since I've personally been expelled from a number of schools, I can understand that sentiment."

"So, was he expelled?" Jimmy inquired of Connor, getting a shake of the head from the girl.

"No," the girl replied. "Well, it's good meeting you."

"Yeah, my name's Jimmy Hopkins. Tell those punks that they should only come here if they want a world of hurt."

The mention of his full name piqued the attention of both the boy and the girl. "Dawg," the black boy replied, "you're the guy who changed this school!"

"What now?" Jimmy inquired.

"During the past year, there have been rumors of Bullworth improving," the girl replied, "and at the center of it was a boy named Jimmy Hopkins who forced the crime rate at this school to drop dramatically. Though, looking at the crime statistics for the year, it did until a spike toward the end of the year."

Jimmy nodded. "Yep, that was me."

"But we didn't realize…" she mumbled, realizing a connection that she didn't before. "Well, we better get going."

"Hey, do you guys have names?" he asked loudly as the pair walked away.

"Yeah, man, but we can't tell you, otherwise our mission might get compromised," the black man responded, turning back as they left. "Don't tell Connor we were here, either. See you around!" After he waved, the couple went around the corner and out of Jimmy's view.

In some ways, Jimmy wondered if he should have inquired a bit more about Connor's past. He felt as if this might all add up eventually and bite him in the rear. He would have to inquire about it later.

For now he went into his room, shut the door and glanced at the card that the pair left him.

On it was an address. He was curious about where it would lead him, but since he didn't have immediate access to a computer, that would have to wait until the next day.

###

Dinner and homework went by pretty quickly for Connor and Ray. The former hoped that his explanations on how to perform advanced geometry got through Ray's head. It turned out that Ray was definitely more of an Algebra type of guy.

"Wow, I wasn't expecting that!" the heavier boy commented after he finished a problem with more ease than he expected.

"Yeah, it gets easier the more you do it," Connor remarked before taking a bite out of some more pizza. One thing he noticed was that his new friend ordered far too much pizza for the two of them.

"Is the pizza good?" Ray inquired, getting a nod.

"Yeah, this place makes pretty good pizza, though I'd prefer a few more veggies than what you got," the blond remarked with a grin.

"Veggies? I hate vegetables," the brown-haired boy responded with a shudder.

"They're not so bad once you get used to them, though I don't like onions that much," Connor remarked. "So, why'd you get so much pizza for the two of us?"

"This is a lot?" Ray asked with incredulity. "This is what I always got when I came here with…" The boy's face contorted into a frown and he looked like he was about to cry.

"You had a girlfriend?" Connor asked with a bit of surprise.

"Well, not exactly. We were just friends… kind of. I liked her a lot but now she's with that greaser, Hal!" Ray Hughes sounded rather bitter about it.

Connor looked down at the slice of pizza. "I know what you're getting at. I found out my girlfriend was cheating on me late last year and it hurt me. Sometimes I wish I could get another girl, but… Eh, why the rush? We're only sixteen, right? That's fourteen years until we turn thirty!"

The two of them laughed at that.

"So, what was she like?" Ray asked, curious.

"Well, she was small, and cute and had black hair and glasses," Connor stated with a goofy smile. "I kind of wish I could see here again, but now I'm fifty miles away from her."

"So, why'd you start coming here anyway?" Ray inquired, getting a shrug from the blond.

"Well, let's say I got in some pretty deep manure back home and leave it at that. Now all the cliques are after me and… yeah…"

"Ouch!"

"So, what was your girl like?" Connor inquired.

"Well, her name is Eunice and you can't miss her at school. She's…" Connor's attention shifted to a black-haired girl that had just walked in. She had glasses much like his ex but they were black-rimmed and not circular. The girl also had some features that implied that she was part Asian.

She noticed him pretty quickly.

"Don't tell me: she's behind me isn't she?"

"Huh?" Connor asked, confused as the black-haired girl started to walk towards the duo.

"Oh, no, she just heard me describe her body and how I wanted to squeeze those cheeks of hers and…"

"Hi, you're the new kid, aren't you?" the girl asked, surprising Ray who was expecting Eunice.

"Uh, hi," Connor greeted, an uneasy grin on his face. Come on, speak. This girl's pretty cute!

"I'm Angie. I'm trying to remember yours. What was it again? Carter?"

Connor stuttered. "Connor, actually. It's good to meet you. What brings you to…" He struggled to find the next couple of words. "… This joint?"

"Well, since the cafeteria got closed down I had to go somewhere to get something to eat," the girl replied. "I'd say it's about time too, since Edna was such a nasty cook."

"Yeah, lady, I totally agree with you there. That broad was one terrible chef. Would you believe that I found a nail in my breakfast yesterday morning? A nail!" he replied, his voice changing to some sort of bizarre form of jive. "So, where your homies, young lady?"

The girl just chuckled at the ridiculousness of it. "I don't really have that many friends. Well, there's Gretchen but she went on a date with her boyfriend so I'm all alone."

"You can have some pizza if you want, young lady," Connor offered, still beyond nervous and in a state of acting like some unholy version of Shaft.

"Thank you!" She exclaimed as she took a slice. Ray looked on with his mouth wide open.

###

"That was scary," Connor said, his nervousness slowly going away as he made his way back to Bullworth academy with Ray.

"Wow, you like turned into Captain Jack Harkness in there!" The brown-haired boy remarked.

"I turned into a pirate?" the blond asked in confusion. He heard some rustling in the bushes and turned around, grabbing onto his slingshot just in case.

Then out came a dorky red-head with a camera. "Oof!" he exclaimed as he fell flat on his face.

"O'Farrell?" Connor asked in disbelief.

"You know this guy?" Ray inquired.

"He's from my old school. Don't tell me, Fillmore and Ingrid are here too, aren't they?" the blond inquired.

"Uh, they were, but they took the bus back already. I'm just here to keep tabs on the Punks that just went into that building over there," the dorky red-head responded, pointing at the dorm building.

"Oh, crap. How many others know where I am?" Connor asked O'Farrell with narrow slits for eyes.

"Uh, just the three of us and the Punks, I swear!"

"And how do you guys all know where I'm at?" The death-glare returned.

"The Student Body President sent a bunch of cliques to all the neighboring schools on Monday to try and find you and Vallejo. The punks just sent a couple others and we followed them, that's all! Nobody else knows you're here, I swear!"

"Reminds me of how we had a nasty head boy named Gary at the end of last year, then Hopkins beat the crap out of him," Ray explained. "President Ted didn't do much, though. Maybe Gary changed schools?"

"No, this guy's not Gary," O'Farrell responded, not knowing who Ray was talking about.
"His name is Parnassus, Ray," Connor explained. "After that stunt he pulled at X a couple years back, I was amazed that he even qualified for that position, especially since he's a sophomore like Fillmore and Ingrid. What about all my friends? Are Winston, Marshall and Garrett still alright?"

"Yeah, but Winston was blackmailed into working with Parnassus some more so the Techies aren't on your side anymore," O'Farrell informed him.

"Good thing neither Vallejo nor I told anybody else about where we were going. Let me know of anything else. You got my e-mail address," Connor then turned towards the building.

"Wait, you're going back in there?"

"Yeah, I guess I am," he responded, nervously pulling out his slingshot and getting it ready for the punks he was about to go up against. He made his way into the dormitories. "Ray, you know anything about fighting?"

"I can shove," the obese boy replied.

Connor wasn't looking forward to this. It was at about that time that he saw another kid there wandering the halls, a big one who was wearing a white shirt and who had medium-length red hair.

"Hey, you! Red-head!" the blond called out, getting the large boy's attention. The boy looked at him and smiled.

"What?"
"Any chance you can help me kick some punks out of my room?" Connor inquired.

The large man his fist with his palm. "Any friend of Jimmy's is a friend of Russell's!"

Connor glanced over at Ray, who looked like he was shaking. The trio then made their way up the stairs and into the hallway. The blond could hear rustling coming from the direction of his room as he made his way there.

"Okay, Russell, right? Run in there and get the punks' attention, will you?"

"Russell will show these punks what he's made of!" he yelled out as he ran into Connor and Algie's dormitory.

"What the-?" one of the punks exclaimed as he was socked in the face by the bully.

"No way, who the heck is this guy? His roommate- Oof!" the other said as he was pummeled mercilessly.

"What's going on up here?" Connor turned around to see Jimmy coming up the stairs.

"Uh, I heard that there were some punks up in my room and so I sent this big guy named Russell after them," the heavy blond replied before glancing towards his door and seeing Russell pull out a pair of punks who looked like they were in serious pain. He was holding them by the collars.

Jimmy glared at the duo as they were plopped on the ground.

###

As soon as the two punks came to, they found themselves inside an almost-empty room, face to face with Jimmy Hopkins. "Okay, punks! Where's your base?" he demanded angrily as he held one of the punks up.

"What? Our base? There's no way we're telling you!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah? Well guess what, if any more of you idiots decides to come here, guess what? Connor has allies, me! Jimmy Hopkins!" The other punk looked surprised as soon as the king of Bullworth told him his name. "Guess who's boss around here! Me!"

"Okay, you're boss!" the punk exclaimed. "You're boss and we won't be coming back here ever again!"

"No, you're not because if you do, I'm going to go to where you're from and hunt you down! And it won't just be me, either!" Jimmy yelled in the punks face. "Give me your base or we'll shave your heads."

When the two Punks remained silent with only a sneer on their faces, Jimmy took action. "Come on in, boys!" the blond exclaimed before Russell and a medium-sized, goatee-sporting townie entered into the room. His name was Gurney.

"What should Russell do to them?" the massive red-head asked.

"I'd say we strip them naked, take them to the city and force them to walk home without any clothes on," the goateed townie replied, ready to do this.

"How about we just strip them down to their underwear and drop them off in say… Rhubarb Hills," Jimmy suggested.

"But that's the nice part of town," the townie complained.

"Yeah, but I don't want to kill them, I just want to set an example…" Jimmy responded before looking at the two punks. "Oh, and before you go, shave off those stupid Mohawks."

"What? No, not my Mohawk!" the punk exclaimed as Jimmy left the room and the townie and bully approached. The kids immediately started yelling out the address of the Punks' Hideout as they got their heads shaved off.
###

Ellone sat quietly inside the punk hangout, watching a TV show about skateboarding when she heard a knock at the door. It was getting to be late and the duo she sent to find Connor's laptop as well as kidnapping the fatso in case they couldn't find it hadn't come back. She was getting worried that they had been caught and hazed when she heard the knock. Getting up, she had hoped that the duo was victorious, but when she answered, she found the duo, wearing nothing but grey boxer-briefs or white briefs with their Mohawks shaved off.

"What happened?" she hissed angrily, glaring at the failures.

"That Connor guy's got friends, man! This guy named Jimmy along with this huge guy!" one member of the duo exclaimed. He was the heavier of the two and he was wearing briefs.

"Yeah, as soon as they caught us, Jimmy humiliated us, shaved our heads and stripped us to our underwear before dropping us off in Rhubarb Hills!" the other, skinnier one complained. "He wanted to use us as examples, man! And now they know where the base is!"

"There's no way we're going back there!" the other punk explained. "No more, man, no more!"

Her glare was positively venomous. "Well, guess what? Since you were caught and since you got your Mohawks shaved off, you're no longer in the Punks, got it?"

"Yeah, just give us some clothes, man, and we'll be on our way," the first of the duo requested, panicking still. Ellone just responded by slamming the door in their faces.

"Wow… I guess we'll have to go to plan C before Jimmy decides to go after us," she mumbled to herself. She had heard about what the Hipsters were planning along with the Goths, but thankfully none of them had surmised that she had been sending Punks to Bullsworth. At least as far as she knew.

She grinned madly as she sat down, ready for the next step in the plan.

###

A/N: Well, that's that. Let me know what you think in a review.