CHAPTER 5: THE NERDS

"Move it", I hollered outside my window as I honked my horn and waited for the young woman to get into the Taxi. Is it me or does traffic move too slow around here? And I thought that traffic in Liberty City was slow. After the woman got into the Taxi, I continued my drive across the bridge to Bullworth Town behind the slow-moving Taxi. Once we entered Bullworth Town, I asked the injured Nerd, "Want to give me directions to Dragon's Wing?" "Make a left turn at the second intersection", he says in a distorted voice.

Once the Taxi made a right turn at the first intersection, I drove straight toward the second intersection. Once I was at the intersection, I made a left turn and saw the store at the end of the street. "There's an alleyway to the left that you can park your car in", the Nerd then tells me. I saw the alleyway and made a left turn into it. I shut my car off and got out. I went to the other side of the car and helped him out. When I helped him out of my car, I noticed that he left some blood on the seat. "Sorry about that", the Nerd says. I leaned him against the wall and checked out his wounds. On one side of his head, he had blood gushing out. His right hand was busted open with blood flowing out as well as probably a broken nose. He was one bloody mess.

"You sure you don't need to go to the hospital? You look like you're losing a lot of blood", I told him. "I need to tell the others about what happened", the Nerd says. "Your call", I told him as I helped him back onto his feet and walked him into the store. Once we entered the store, I couldn't help but notice all the comics that were on the shelves. I usually don't read comics, I'm more of a novel kind of guy. But seeing all those comics, there was a variety of them to choose from. From The Walking Dead to Republican Space Rangers and Impotent Rage. I should stop by sometime and check them out.

"Through that door behind the counter", the Nerd tells me. "Where's the owner?" I asked him. "He's usually out buying himself a burger to eat around this time", the Nerd answers. "Okay then", I said as I pulled him around the counter and dragged him to the door. I pushed it open and dragged him down the stairs into the basement. Once we got to the basement floor, there was a couple Nerds on a table set up in the corner of the room. They slowly turned to me and saw their injured friend leaning on me. They quickly went over to us and helped him into this one room to my left. Just as I was about to head into the room, one of the other Nerds came out of the room with some weird gun-looking thing. It looked like some kind of rocket launcher because there was some red rockets sticking out of the barrel, and he was aiming them right at me.

"Whoa man, I didn't have anything to do with him getting attacked", I told him. "You are dressed up and happened to be there to help Craig, so that means that you were at the party", Nerd #2 says to me. He was about to pull the trigger when the third Nerd came out of the small room and told him, "James, leave him be. Craig says that he's cool. So put the damn Bottle-Rocket Gun down". "Whatever you say, Carl", Nerd #2 says to him. "Where's the rest of the clique?" I then asked them both. "I know for a fact that there's more than just the three of you". "They're over at the Carnival for the evening", Nerd #3 tells me. "You guys still need me or should I go ahead and leave?" I then asked. "Stick around for a bit. I think Craig will want to thank you for what you've done", Nerd #3 tells me.

"Alright", I said out-loud. I then looked around the basement for something to do. I eventually came across an old arcade machine. "ConSumo. I remember when these machines were all the rage", I said out-loud. I then tried messing around with the machine, but it wouldn't operate. "Must be either broken or unplugged", I concluded. I looked around the basement some more, but there wasn't anything special to look at down here. I finally decided to check out what was behind the other door by the arcade machine, but then one of the two Nerds said to me, "Don't go in there. That door leads to a set of stairs that lead up to Zack's apartment. He wouldn't like it if a stranger went upstairs and messed with his personal belongings". "Okay then", I said out-loud. After a while of waiting, Nerd #3 finally told me, "Craig wants to speak with you now".

I walked into the back room and saw Craig laid out on some old-beaten mattress. His hand and the side of his head had bandages and his nose had a couple of pieces of paper towel up the nostrils to prevent anymore blood from running down his face. It's good to see that these Nerds know how to patch up wounds, but I still feel that they should at least take him to a hospital just in case he may have a concussion. "I want to thank you for helping me out after what those apes did to me", he tells me. "It's fine. I don't like the Jocks either", I told him. "Why were you there at the party then?" he asks me. "In a sense, it wasn't by choice. I'm friends with Cameron", I told him. "Such a sweet girl. Too bad she's stuck with such a dick like Jake", he says out-loud. "If you don't mind me asking", I begin asking, "what was the point of you going into that party? Didn't you realize that you seriously weren't welcome there?"

"I was setting up a spy camera in there", Craig answered. "Luckily, I placed it in a safe place just before one of the Jocks noticed me". "A spy camera? What for?" I asked him. "Normally, I wouldn't talk about the incident. You probably already saw the video on YouTube", he tells me. "What video?" I then asked him. "A month back before you started to attend this school", Craig begin to explain, "there was an incident that involved my entire clique being recorded by the Jocks doing something embarrassing. We were taking our showers in the locker-room when the Jocks put inching powder in our clean underwear and when we got out of the shower and put them on, we were itching really bad. We were so busy scratching ourselves that we never noticed that one of Jake's goons was recording us. The next day, everyone was laughing at us and we didn't know why until Cameron told us about the video. She's a nice girl. She tried to tell Jake to take the video down. Still have yet to see that video get taken down".

"Cameron is a nice girl. I'm just surprised that she hasn't started a anti-bully organization around here", I said. "She probably would have had it not been for John Maciel", Craig says. "What's the deal with that guy anyway?" I asked Craig. "That dude is not to be trusted, that's for sure", Craig tells me. "From what I heard, he use to live in Los Santos prior to coming here. He rolled with a street gang called the Vagos. I don't know much about what he did when he lived over there except that there's a rumor or a conspiracy that he killed a guy from another gang called The Families". "How do you know all this?" I asked him. "I hacked into the school files and looked up his record. It's very easy. This school doesn't have much of security software when it comes to their records", he answers. "What else have you looked up about John?" I asked him.

"Well, another incident that John got into involved him pulling his switchblade out and threatening to stab another student for accidentally dumping his food all over him. He was arrested by the student resource officer and expelled from Davis High School immediately afterwards", Craig tells me. "So you can look up any student that you like and learn about their past?" I asked him. "Hell yeah, I can. I can even look up what you did prior to coming here", he says. "Do me a favor and don't", I told him. "Why? Do you have something that you like to hide from me?" he asks me. "No. I just don't think you should. I earned your trust, haven't I? I brought you back here to your friends. I just don't think it's necessary", I told him.

He just laid there and stared at me for a while until he said, "Okay, I won't check on your record". I tried to relax a bit before saying, "Thanks". After a while of him grunting in pain, I asked him, "Are you sure you're going to be okay?" "I usually get a beating like this every time I leave my dorm. I'll be alright", he tells me. "Was setting up the spy camera in the clubhouse worth it?" I then asked him. "It will be once I get the computer connected to the camera. Luckily, it was a wireless camera that I put in there", he says. "It's 2028. Everything is becoming wireless now", I told him. He chuckled out-loud before saying, "That is true". After a while, I pulled out my cellphone and noticed that it was 10:30 PM. Curfew will in half an hour.

"I better get back to the school", I told Craig. "Yeah, you better get a move on. Since you have a car with a Bullworth Academy parking car hanging on your rear-view mirror, the police will impound it if they see it parked anywhere in town", Craig explained. "Plus, I like to get started on spying on the Jocks. I want to see what embarrassing things they do in their clubhouse". "Good luck with that. I mean it", I told him. Just as I turned to leave the small room, Craig asks me, "What's your name?" I turned to him and told him, "My name is Greg Winston". "Well Greg, I'm Craig Smith and I owe you big time for your help". "You don't owe me anything", I told him as I left the small room. As I walked towards the stairs leading back to the storefront, one of the Nerds tell me, "That backdoor over there leads straight back up to the street. You can go through there instead of going back through the storefront".

I went to the back door instead and before I went through it, I told them, "You two take care of yourselves". I went through the door and up some steps leading to the street. I got back to my car and then drove back to the school in silence. This night could have been better.