CHAPTER 10: BETRAYAL
It was just as I suspected. Jake did not take kindly to Cameron breaking up with him the next day, and he blew up in front of her out in the hallway. First, he accused her of being "an ungrateful bitch", and then he went on to tell her how much more fun Debbie was and that he was already through with her before Debbie came along. Everyone in the entire hallway, including myself and a few teachers, saw how angry he was when he stormed off. A week has pass, and everyone has been suffering since. The extortion prices skyrocketed to $200 per clique, the Greasers were heavily punished for their ambush the other week, and more than ever Craig and the Nerds was receiving the short end of the stick. More beatings, more wedgies, more humiliation than ever before. I felt sorry him, mainly because it was my fault for showing Cameron that photo and letting her dump him; nonetheless though, I had to help her out since she asked.
Things weren't also good for me. Just as Jaquon predicted, the Greasers had a grudge against me for my involvement with the Jocks. Whenever I walk pass a Greaser out in the hallway or walk anywhere near the Autoshop, they always toss down whatever textbook that they may have in their hands, pull out either their slingshots or switchblades, and try to fight me right there at the spot. The pass few times that it happened, there was a Jock there that approached them and fought them off for me. I know how to fight, but fighting in school was something that I really wanted to avoid right now. Something that I was having a hard time to do right at this moment.
I just got out of my last class for the day when a familiar face comes popping out of the crowd of students and approached me. "Jake needs you once again", Jaquon tells me. With that said, I followed him out of the Main Building and towards the Athletics Area. Along the way, a couple more Greasers spotted us and approached us only to stop dead in their tracks because of a Prefect approaching the area. We walked pass the Greasers, only for Jaquon to give them the finger. Once we walked underneath the archway with "Athletics Area" written on them, Jaquon then tells me, "You can go the rest of the way without me. I got to go take a leak anyway". "Good to know", I sarcastically replied to him as he went running towards the Gym.
I walked past the Gym and Pool buildings, down the stairs, and made a right turn to get to the Jocks' Clubhouse. Once I got to the clubhouse, I knocked on the door only to be greeted by John Maciel. "I see you're Jake's new errand boy. Good. I always thought you had potential", John remarked. At that moment, I really wanted to tell John to fuck off, but knowing what Craig has told me about John and his past life, I decided that wasn't a good idea. Just when he walked away from me, I entered the clubhouse just to see Jake with a pistol in his hands.
"Ah, Greg. So nice to see you", Jake says as he waves the pistol around. "Please tell me that isn't a real gun", I told him. "It's an air-soft gun. It's like a BB gun, but smaller", Jake tells me. "You ever had a BB gun before?" he then asks me. "No", I answered. "My dad forbid any kind of gun in his house, and so did my uncle and aunt". "What about your mom?" he then asks. "She died when I was born", I bluntly answered. "I never knew my mom. It was always me and my dad…. And a few special friends of his as well", he says to me. "Jake, what job do you need me to do today?" I then ask him.
"I'm glad you asked", Jake says to me before continuing. "I have a contact over in Blue Skies Industrial Park who has a package that I need picked up. This package is really important, so I need someone who I can trust that can get the package and bring it back to me without any problem". "What's in the package?" I asked him. After the last package that I picked up for him, I was very skeptical about what could be in this new package. After what Craig told me, I'm sure it was going to be more drugs. "What's in the package isn't any concern to you", Jake says to me. "Just get the package and bring it here. My contact, a member of an outside group called the Townies, will be wearing all orange, so he won't be hard to miss. Your call sign is Coltrane, his is Boss Hogg. He'll be over at the harbor around 8:00 PM, so be there on time". "Is that all?" I asked him. "That is all. You can go now", he replies.
I turned around and walked out of the clubhouse. So I got at least four and a half hours till the deal goes down. I had better get some stuff together and make sure that I'm ready to go. I just hope nothing bad goes down, but my gut right now tells me otherwise.
4 Hours Later; 7:30 PM
It was time for me to start heading out to the meeting. I put on some black clothes to camouflage myself in the dark as well as some combat boots in case I was going to have to fight my way out. I had my cellphone on me in case I had to call Jake about anything, a map to know where I was going, and I had my car keys so I could drive there. With everything that I needed, I left the Boys' Dorm and started making my way to the parking lot. Once I got to the parking lot, I hopped into my car and then drove out on School Street and onto Main Street.
I followed Main Street till I crossed the bridge to Bullworth Town. Before I could get to the intersection ahead, I turned onto the dirt road to my right which I think was called Railroad Lane and followed it till I got to Blue Skies Road. I turned on Blue Skies Road and followed it till I crossed the bridge to Blue Skies. Just from the name and the looks of the district, it was an absolute shit-hole, more so than the Boys' Dorm. Lots of run-down houses and people living in poverty, lots of smoke coming from the smoke-stacks attached to different factories, cars stripped clean of their doors and seats as if they were the skeleton of a dead animal. Liberty City may have had a lot of traffic in the streets and people on the sidewalks, but compared to what I've seen from Bullworth so far, it was Heaven on earth.
After a while of driving around the small district and pass several factories, I finally found the entrance to the Bullworth Harbor. I parked my car near what I assumed to be a paint factory, turned it off, got out, and locked it. Hopefully, no one decides to break into it while I was gone. After all, I wasn't going to be gone long. With my car secured, I checked my cellphone to see what the time was. I had only five minutes till the contact should be here, so I entered the harbor, trying not to look suspicious.
I walked all the way to the far side of the harbor, looking for someone who dressed in a lot of orange. After I got to the far side where there were several barges lined up with garbage on them, I found what had to be some kid wearing a lot of orange, from head to toe. Who would want to dress up like that? Is the entire clique dressed like that?
I approached the kid and said to him, "Boss Hogg". Then then replied, "Yes? Coltrane?" "That's me", I told him. He then pulled a package out of his backpack and handed it to me. While I took the package, I took a good look at his features. He had scars all over his face, probably from all the fights that he had been in throughout his life. I also noticed his eyes; his eyes were a stone-cold gray and from the looks of them, he must have been through so many hardships in his life. I don't know much about the Townies apart from small talk from the student body that they mostly consisted of dropouts and kids who unfortunately couldn't afford to go to school. Not Bullworth Academy, not even the public school on the outskirts of town.
"You are dressed in a lot of orange. Is that your cliques' color?" I asked him, trying to make small talk. "My favorite color is orange. They're not crazy about it as much as I am", he replied. "Now since the exchange happened, what's next? Do I pay you? Does Jake pay you?" I then asked him. But just as I finished the question, a bright light coming from an unknown source flashed on and made us blind. "Bullworth PD. Freeze, both of you", a voice boomed on a microphone. "Shit, they followed you", the kid says as he makes a run up a ramp to our right. Turning away from the cop car in front of me, I quickly ran up the ramp myself while dodging all the Tasers that were aimed at me.
Once I climbed up the ramp, I saw the kid run along the dock and jump over a police car that happened to be parked right at the end. "Freeze, asshole", the cop says as he jumped out of his cop car and tried to catch the kid, but the kid was too fast him to even hit with his Taser gun. Knowing real well that the cop is expecting me to do the same, I did the next-best thing in this situation: I jumped into the water with the box tucked underneath my black hoodie. As I swam away very quietly right next to the dock, I couldn't help but hear the cops talk about us.
"The kid in orange got away. Damn, talk about a fast runner", one officer says out-loud. "Where's the second one? The one in black?" the other officer asks him. "I don't know", officer number one says. "If he was desperate and dumb enough, he must have jumped into the water. He's probably hiding out in that boat out in the middle of the water". "Damn it, we need Coast Guard out here right now", officer number two says out-loud. Once I got to the end of the dock, I quickly submerged myself and started swimming underwater. I swam like that for a good few minutes till I managed to get to land. I slowly, and I mean slowly after taking a swim in the middle of October, climbed out of the water and reached what I believed to be Back School Road.
I rolled onto my back and started taking deep breaths while also tried to warm myself by rubbing my hands together. After a while of calming myself down, I took the box out of my hoodie and noticed how much it was sagging. Hoping that the contents wasn't ruined, I quickly pulled the flaps open only to find that the contents in it was in an air-tight bag. "Thank God", I said out-loud, until I noticed the contents in the bag itself. The bag was full of marijuana.
Feeling really pissed off about all I went through, I pulled out my cellphone, which was luckily waterproof (by now, everything was waterproof; thank goodness for modern technology), and I dialed in Jake's number. Just as I started the call, Jake finally answered. "Greg, you got my package?" he asks me. "Yes, I did, and I almost got busted by the cops. I luckily jumped into the water and managed to keep the contents dry". I answered. I then told him, "I'm done being your errand boy. I had to get you drugs, twice, and one of those times I could have been arrested. You know how long I could go to juvie for even having a box full of weed on me?" "Well, it serves you right", Jake then tells me. "Consider this as your lesson".
"Lesson?" I angrily replied to him. "I know it was you who took that picture of me and Debbie at the bonfire last week", he then tells me. "I know it was you who showed Cameron that photo and caused us to break up". "Dude, you were cheating on her", I then argued. "She was faithful to you, and you treated her as if she was nothing to you. You humiliated her in front of the entire school. Cameron doesn't deserve someone who's going to treat her like garbage; like something tossed to the side and never thought of again. She deserves someone who treats her right, like a human being. Someone who isn't you".
There was a long silence between the two of us on the phone. After maybe a minute or two, he then replied, "I called the cops, hoping that they'll catch you and send you away. You're smarter than I thought. You have a brain, and I like that. Now, come on back to the clubhouse, and give me my package". Just as I stood there in disbelief, he then replied before hanging up, "Deliver me my package, and I'll let you have some fun with what's left". Oh, I was going to have fun with it all right. If Jake thinks that I'm going to give it to him perfectly fine after all that he put me through, he has another thing coming. I'm going to get even with that joker.
Picking up the package, I then made a mad-dash run through the tunnel back onto the street, ran up the hill, past some fuel silos, and back to my car at the paint factory. I quickly hoped in and speeded away from the district. I made a cut through New Coventry, which was also a shit-hole compared to Liberty City, under the overpass, and into Bullworth Town. I made a couple turns till I got to the local Yum-Yum Market. I parked my car and then entered the store. Once I found what I was looking, aka a lighter and some fireworks, I bought the cheap thing and then went back out to my car.
I then drove back to the school, parked my car at its usual spot, and carried what was left of the box underneath my hoodie to the Jocks' Clubhouse. Along the way, I ran into some more Greasers. They tried to stop me in my tracks, but I roundhouse-kicked one of them and punched another in the throat. "I have no time for your shenanigans", I told them out-loud. Walking towards the stairs to the football, a couple of Jocks couldn't help but notice how pissed I looked, but I for the most part didn't care with what they had to say about me.
Once I got to the Jocks Clubhouse, I opened the bag up and placed all the fireworks that I bought underneath some of the leaves till it was only the fuse that wasn't covered. As I opened the doors to the clubhouse, I saw Jake, Jaquon, and a few of the other Jocks that accompanied me that day when we went to get the cash out of the cliques' pockets. "Greg, you got the package?" Jake asks me. "I sure do", I said as I laid the box down on the floor and pulled out the lighter. "What are you doing, asshole?" Jaquon then asks me. "It's a surprise", I remarked as I lit the fuse and kicked the box over to them.
Just as one of Jake's friends picked the box up, the box literally started exploding in his face. All the different colors lit the room up like it was the fourth of July. All the Jocks within close range of the fireworks, including Jake, went down as the fireworks exploded around them, bruising their skin, and burning parts of their hair off their heads. Once the fireworks stopped, the lighting went back to normal. All that was left of the box was its smoky and burned bottom. The room itself was also very smoky and had the stench of weed flowing through the air. "Enjoy", I remarked as I left the clubhouse and made a mad-dash out of Jocks' territory.
Once I was all the way to the Library, my phone then started to ring. I pulled it out and noticed that it was Jake who was calling. "Enjoyed your gift?" I answered the phone. "How dare you do what you just did?" Jake says in an angry tone. "You had it coming for trying to get me arrested. Consider this as your lesson", I remarked. "You smart-ass, long-haired little shit, nobody does this to me. Nobody", he says on the phone. "From the looks of it, I did it", I told him. "You're done for", he then threatens. "You're going to regret what you just did to me and the team. I'm going to get you back. A beating, that's too good for you. I'm going to do something to you that you won't be able to show your face around here ever again". "Good luck with that. You'll never find shit on me", I told him as I hung up the phone and continued my way to the Boys' Dorm.
Once I got to the Boys' Dorm, I quickly went into my room and laid down right on the bed. Too much stuff has happened already tonight. As I laid there on my bed, I couldn't help but think what Jake could do to me now after nearly setting them on fire. He said that a beating was too good for me, so I didn't have to worry about that. But what did Jake mean by that he'll do something to where I'll never show my face again? I shouldn't worry about it, but for some reason I kept thinking about it. The only person who has dirt on me right now is Craig, and that's only because he had access to my permanent record online. Of course, that was when I realized what dirt Jake could have on me.
Craig is Jake's most favorite target. The fact that Craig could get access to my permanent record online could mean that Jake could use him, threaten him, or even blackmail him into giving him the list of my past sins. I cannot let Jake know about what I did back at North Algonquin High. I have to find Craig and stop Jake before some real damage can be done to my fresh new start.