CHAPTER 14: MEMOIRS OF THE PAST

I got released from the hospital on Sunday afternoon at around 4:00 PM. After the beating that I took from the Greasers, my doctor told me that it would be best for me to stay out of class for a few days just to take it easy, which was fine enough by me. I didn't want to go to a classroom setting where everyone was just going to stare at me for two and a half hours.

For most of Monday, I spend a lot of my time in bed. I was either asleep or lying in bed and just staring at the ceiling, thinking about how Jake and his crew is just getting away with what they did to me. It was so seriously messed up, I have half a mind to beat all those fucking apes. Regardless of whether I wanted to beat them or not, I had to take my condition in consideration. I was mostly sore from the beating that I got. The stitches and the bruises were far from getting better. I was going to feel like crap for at least a month if not a couple of weeks. After a while of getting bored, I decided to get out of bed and walk around the school.

Since it was 3:00 PM, I didn't have to worry about a lot of students giving me the stink-eye. So I slapped on a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, and then I walked out the dorm and started walking towards the football field. Right now, it was the only solitary place that I could go that was still out in the sun. While walking towards the field though, there was still a couple of students out walking the place. When they spotted me, they still hurled their insults at me. I ignored them and continued my way to the football field.

Once I got to the football field, I went to the far end of the field away from the Jocks' Clubhouse and sat down on the bleachers. While I sat there, I couldn't help but pull out a pack of cigarettes that I bought from Yum-Yum Market after leaving the hospital yesterday, slipped one of the sticks into my mouth, lit it up with my lighter, and started huffing on the smoke. Damn, did it feel good. And this stuff is illegal to sell to minors? They should really change the law because this stuff is great.

While huffing and puffing on the little cancer stick, my mind couldn't help but flashback to the events that transpired Friday night. Could there have been another way to prevent all of it from happening the way it did? I tried to think of every single solution that could have prevented Jake from telling the school my secret. Only one stuck out: I should have gone to Jake after class and beat the living shit out of him. Then again, I didn't know for sure that Jake got Craig to do his dirty work for him, so going to rescue Craig was still a necessity. So technically, there was no stopping Jake. Of course, there's no point in dwelling about it now. It happened, it's done. I should move on from the experience, but the one question now though was how to move on when the entire school thinks I'm some sort of sociopath.

After a while of thinking and smoking, my cigarette was nothing more than a little stump. I dropped it on the ground and stomped on it with my sneaker. I then pulled out my phone and checked out the time. My clock said it was 3:27 PM. "Damn", I said out-loud, "class is just about to end. I better make my way out of here". I spilled my phone into my pocket and started looking for a way out of there. I was not going to take the stairs by the Gym and Pool building since the Jocks would be using that same route. After a while of looking for a way out, I noticed a huge wooden gate beside the bleachers where I sat down.

I approached the gate and inspected it. From the looks of it, it hasn't been opened for years. It was kept shut by a rusty padlock, something I knew I could break if I had something solid to smash it with. I looked around for something that I knew would be strong enough to smash the padlock with. After a while, I found a huge rock about the size of my hand. I approached the padlock and started beating it with the rock. After maybe the seventh time, the lock finally broke off. I opened the gate just enough for me to squeeze through. Just as I did though, the school's bell ringed off, signifying the end of class. I quickly squeezed through the gate and closed it shut right behind me. Once I knew I was in the clear, I turned around and found myself in a dense forest.

Ahead of me was a pathway that was barely recognizable with all the dead leaves and branches that covered it up. I followed the pathway, hoping that it will lead me back to campus without having to face the Jocks. After following the path, I found myself at a crossroads. To the left, the paved pathway continued, but on the right was a dirt trait leading to a closed-off area, probably another mine shaft. After debating which direction to go, I decided to go left and see where the paved trail went.

As I followed the trail some more, I suddenly came across a gate with a fallen tree right in front of it. I slowly stepped onto the tree, approached the gate, and tried to open it; it too, like the padlock on the wooden gate, was rusted shut. I stepped off the tree and started looking for another rock that I could use to open the gate. After a while, I found one right by a set of boulders. I went back to the gate, stepped onto the fallen tree, and smashed the lock on the gate. With the lock broken, I was able to open the gate. It was hard at first, mainly because the whole thing was rusty, but with enough force I pushed it open and stepped into the unknown.

Once the gate was opened, I saw to the right of the gate a flight of steps. I slowly climbed up the steps, not sure what I would find while up there. Once I was at the top, all I found was mainly a bunch of tree branches that blocked way to the top of the gate. I stepped over the branches and found what looked to be a mounted gun. It too was rusty. While inspecting the gun, I couldn't help but wonder what it used as ammunition. Once I was done inspecting the gun, I climbed back down to the ground via the stairs and spotted in the distance a set of doors.

Not knowing what they were, I slowly approached them, stepping over dead leaves and a few ferns that somehow grew out of the cracks of the pathway. Once I was at the doors, I pushed them open, revealing a dark interior. "Where's a light switch when you need one?" I said out-loud. Just as I said that though, I spotted a breaker right by the doorway. Walking up to the breaker, I flipped the door open and messed around with the switches inside it. After a couple of attempts, the interior finally lit up, revealing everything in it. It was an old observatory; lost, abandoned, and taken back by mother nature.

"This is so cool", I said out-loud as I inspected the building. Mother nature has really done her job well. There were vines growing all over the walls, some of them even hanging from the dome part of the building. The stone columns in the center of the room were covered in some moss or fungus (I'd rather not know which). Hell, even the floor wasn't a floor anymore. Whatever there was left of the floor, it was covered in dirt and plant-life, mostly ferns and bushes.

Seeing all this remined me of a movie that I saw when I was four years old. I think it was called Jurassic World, and like every little kid ever born on this planet, I was hooked on dinosaurs. I don't remember the movie much except there was one scene when the kids were lost in the forest, and they came across the ruins of a building from the first movie, which I never got to see when growing up. Still, this reminds me of that scene. It was pretty cool seeing how something man-made could be taken over my nature in a matter of years.

I looked around the building, trying to find some interesting things that maybe would be worth collecting, but all I found mainly was old crates and a couple of lifts that were damaged and not operating anymore. After a while of looking around, my foot caught something, resulting in me tripping and falling into some ferns. I looked at what my foot caught and saw that it was another crate mostly covered up by dirt and roots I got up from the ground and kicked the rotten crate, watching as it broke into a million pieces, revealing a gun-like thing similar to what the Nerds carry. I picked it up and inspected it. It was a cylinder-shaped thing with a can attached to the end of it. I dusted it off and saw that it was a potato gun. That was something that I was going to keep, but just as I put it underneath my armpit, I saw something else that was worth checking out. It was a work-bench with the school's mascot barely noticeable with all the vines growing all over it.

I approached the work-bench and ripped up some of the vines to get a good look at what I was seeing. Once I was done tearing the vines off the bench, I saw a map of the school with the school's mascot drawn on the right side. The map had four different locations marked with an X on it. I didn't know what that was for, but what stuck out to me the most was the title written on the top of the map: "Operation Trojan Cow". Right beside the map was a couple of notebooks. I opened one of them and started reading it. The pages were all yellow and kind of moldy from age, but I was still able to read what was on the first page.

Operation: Trojan Cow, Day 1

We were attacked by a hostile kid who we thought wanted to hurt us. It wasn't by the Jocks or the Bullies who usually do harass us, but rather it was from Jimmy Hopkins. I never saw Hopkins as much of a threat before, but since he was getting increasingly popular since beating the Bullies, Preppies, and Greasers, we decided to back off since we knew it was a matter of time before he decided that we were not meant to be equal to the other school cliques.

But that just wasn't enough. Algernon Papadopoulous, aka Algie, a subordinate of mine, gave me a warning about Hopkins trying to get us to help him out with the Jocks. Of course, I did not want to get involved as I knew that Hopkins would betray us eventually, but he showed up right at my door step. He attacked my clique in the valley leading to the Observatory and let himself into the building after destroying the transformer and busting the doors down. Jimmy and I fought a ferocious battle with me being the victorious winner.

With me aiming my Spud Gun down at Jimmy's head, he begged for us to help him out. All I said to him at that moment was, "You're just like everyone else, picking on the little men". Jimmy begged and begged, and even cried, for us to help him eliminate the Jocks. Finally, I gave in and told him, "We need to come up with an awesome plan to kick their hairy asses. From now on, we're friends. We work together".

Long story short, I started planning together on what our next moves were going to be. I spend all night devising a plan that will help us achieve our goal and thus, Operation Trojan Cow was born.

Getting tired of reading the first page (deep down, I knew a lot of it was a lie), I continued reading it some more. I went to the last page, which, thankfully, talked about what Trojan Cow was.

Operation: Trojan Cow, Day 12

Today was the day of the big game, the last and final one of the season where the Bullworth Bullhorns played against our rival school, the Bullworth Miners from the public school on the outskirts of town. I had five agents waiting for Hopkins to approach them so he does what tasks that they came up with.

Agent #1, Bucky Pasteur, will give Jimmy a rigged football with an explosive in it. Any player who tries to catch that ball will be caught in the explosion. It will either knock them out, or burn their skin enough to where they can't play the game. Bucky will be behind the bleachers close to the Observatory.

Agent #2, Fatty Johnson, will hand Jimmy a bottle of glue for smearing all over the team benches. If done right, any Jock who sits on the glue will be stuck. The only way out would be for them to tear their pants off. Fatty will be behind the bleachers close to the Jocks' Clubhouse.

Agent #3, Melvin O'Connor, will hand Jimmy a bag of marbles to spread across the football field. Anyone who steps in the marbles will trip. Hopefully, this will be enough to get them injured enough to where they must forfeit the game. Melvin will be along the pathway to the Autoshop.

Agent #4, Algie Papadopoulous, will give Jimmy the assignment of "enhancing" the team's sport drink in the cooler. Hopefully, it will make the Jocks sick from drinking it. Algie will be along the path to Harrington House.

And lastly, Agent #5, Cornelius Johnson, will give Jimmy the task of switching the message on the scoreboard. Cornelius has already reprogrammed the scoreboard. All Jimmy must do is mess with the controls, and the new message will be unveiled. Cornelius will be located by the water fountain.

…

The operation was a success. Once all the pranks were accomplished, the Bullhorns had no choice but to forfeit against the Miners. However, that didn't stop the Jocks from trying to kick the living daylights out of Hopkins. After what seemed like a brutal battle (one against twenty), Jimmy got the upper-hand and beat Ted Thompson and his boys into submission. It was an absolute victory for us Nerds. No longer will the Jocks bully and torment us. No longer will we be treated like dog muck on their shoes. We will now be treated with equal respect from the Jocks and Bullies. Hopkins is our king now though. Not sure how that will pan out, but will be better than before, that's for sure.

So, the previous Nerds who went here came up with an idea to take down the Jocks? Interesting. Maybe I could do the same thing from before to take down the Jocks here. I found the solution to end the school's modern Jock problem. Of course, I going to need as much help as I could.

Looking around for a bag or a sack, I found an old backpack underneath the work-bench. I pulled it out, shook it to get any bugs or debris out of it, and stuffed the potato gun, the notebooks, and even the map of the school into the backpack. I zipped it up and then left the Observatory. While leaving the Observatory, I pulled my phone out and texted Cameron.

Cameron, meet me my dorm room. I got something to show you.

I'm already here. I brought u ur classwork. Wat do you have 2 show me?

You'll see when I get there.

With Cameron already notified of my arrival, I decided to go down the dirt path to get back to the dorm. I approached the closed-off shaft and kicked the metal sheet down. I walked through the hole to find myself in more dense forest. I followed what looked like a path through the forest. After a while of walking, I found myself out of the forest and by the school Library.

I walked through an old electronic door and vaulted over a part of the wall that didn't have a chain-link fence. I walked by some Nerds who were just idling in the courtyard, talking to one another. Only a few of them noticed me, but didn't say anything to me at all. Once I walked away from the Library, I continued my way to the Boys' Dorm. I vaulted over another wall with no fencing on it when I came across a group of Bullies, one of them being the kid that I met that day when I was helping the Jocks with their extortion process.

As I walked by the trio of Bullies, George, the one I beat up, stepped in my way. I tried to step my way around them, but he stepped right back in front of me. "May I please get through?" I asked him. "What you did to me back at the parking lot is unacceptable", he tells me. "I didn't want to hurt you, but you attacked me first", I plainly told him. "I'm still not letting you go. Tell me one good reason why I shouldn't beat the living shit out of you", he says to me. "I got three in fact", I started to explain, "One: I stopped those Jocks from beating you to death. Two: I'm still injured from the beating the Greasers gave me Friday. And three: don't make me hurt you".

The three Bullies then started laughing so hard, a couple of them fell right to the floor. With them uncontrollably laughing hard, I then made my move. I smashed George's throat again, followed by an over-head punch onto the last two. All three of laid on the ground holding their injuries. "Idiots", I said to them as I left them and went straight to the Boys' Dorm. Once I walked into the dorm, I went straight into my room where I found Cameron waiting for me.

"So, what did you want to show me?" Cameron asks as I entered the room and closed the door. I laid the backpack on the desk and then pulled out its contents. "I went exploring and found an old abandoned observatory near the football field", I started to explain. "The place was completely covered in plant-life, but I managed to find a few Souvenirs. I found this gun. I believe it to be a potato gun. Then, I found this map and a notebook that talks about a plan that the Nerds did years ago to overthrow the Jocks. While I was reading the notebook, I couldn't help but think about what we could do; something that the entire school could do. We should take down the Jocks and end their rule of the school".

Cameron looked at me in complete surprise as I finished saying what was on my mind. "Take down the Jocks? Greg, where did you find your new-found confidence?" she then asks me. "Look", I began to explain, "I've been really thinking about this all day. The Jocks got a grip on the entire school. Every clique except for the Preps are either afraid of them, or they despise the Jocks to an extreme level. I figured that we should round up all the cliques and unite as one front. I know that Craig and his crew will want a piece of the action, so we can at least go ahead and talk to him about the plan. I also feel that with the Bullies and Greasers on our side, we can have the numbers on our side, and if things get worst, we can always try to hire the Townies from Blue Skies Industrial. It's perfect. We'll be bringing together most the school while also taking down a common foe. It's got to work".

"Greg, as far as we're concerned, even with all the cliques hating on the Jocks, that still won't be enough to unite them just to go to war together", Cameron tells me. "I'm sure with enough convincing, they'll have to take part in it", I tell her. "But to do that, you'll have to get close to their leaders, and right now, you're not quite popular with the Greasers, or even the Bullies I should add". Cameron pointed out the window to the Bullies that I just recently beat up. "I guess my social skills need some working then", I joked. I turned back to her and said to her, "I'm going through with the plan. But what I would like to know is are you in or not?"

She looked at me like I just said the worst thing unimaginable to her. "I don't know", she begins to say. "I'm not into bullying, you know that. From reading what I have so far from this notebook you found, it sounds like we'll be bullying the Jocks. I couldn't do that, not even to Jake". "Cameron", I began speaking while also taking a hold of her hands, "Jake humiliated you. He cheated on you for Debbie, made a commotion of you dumping him in front of the whole school, and even got Eric Young to broadcast a false story about it on the radio. He deserves it; you know it, and I know it. He's also the biggest bully out of every student in the entire school. It just won't be bullying that you'll be helping me out with; it will be bullying the bully to stop the bullying. I know you want it to stop. So, I have to ask you this: will you please help me?"

While I told her why she should help, she kept staring down at my hands. Once I was done convincing her why though, she remained hesitant. At first, I thought that she wouldn't go along with my plan, but after a while, she replied, "I'll do it". I smiled and then gave her a hug. "When do we begin though?" she asks me. "We should begin right away. I'm thinking about getting the Nerds convinced first. Then, we'll focus on the other cliques". "Jake has no idea what he is in for", Cameron says out-loud. "Neither do we", I tell her. "This is our time now. Let's get this shit started".