Chapter 4 - Another Brick In The Wall

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Taylor sat alone in his bedroom, staring at the wall. The last two months had been hell for the young boy. Every time he went somewhere other than school, it seemed that Tommy was waiting for him. Wherever he went.

Just two weeks ago, Taylor mustered up the courage to meet up with Will at the park down the street. When he got there, however, Tommy and Parker dragged him into the woods near the park, and beat the senses out of him. Thankfully, Will found him a short while later, and Taylor had barely left the house since.

Since Taylor had so much time to himself, he figured he'd do something with his time. In between schoolwork and being sad, he was watching Inkopolis Ranked Battle League matches. He wanted to become the best player that ever stepped foot in a ranked battle match. And he would accomplish that through studying.

Taylor began to idolize the Inkslingers, because they had been one of the top teams in the league for years. During all his free time, he spent his time watching their past matches. He even had a notebook that he used to write notes about what they did that was successful and what was unsuccessful.

But now, Taylor has watched almost all of the Inkslingers' matches. He wasn't very interested in watching matches; there wasn't anything else for him to learn. All he could do was practice, but he was too scared to try and make his way to the field next to the school. Tommy and his friends terrified him.

A ring from the doorbell temporarily interrupted his stream of thoughts. He went downstairs to answer the door, silently praying that it wasn't Tommy coming to beat him up. A quick peek through the blinds next to the front door confirmed that it wasn't Tommy, which he was eternally grateful for. Instead, it was Emma and Eliza.

He opened the door with a slight smile. "Hey guys, how are ya?" He greeted the two girls.

"Hi, Taylor!" Both girls said at the same time.

"Come in, come in. Just drop your shoes on the mat right over here." He pointed to a mat next to the door before walking further into the house.

The girls quickly took off their shoes and followed Taylor into the living room, where he plopped down on a chair. Slightly confused, they followed his lead.

"What've you been up to recently?" Emma asked. "We haven't been able to see you in school much."

"Oh, not much, really. I'm just trying not to be too worried about Tommy."

"Is he still going after you?"

"Yeah. It feels like that whenever I'm out of school and my house, he's out there, waiting for me."

The two girls groaned apologetically.

"He's already beaten me up a bunch of times, and the school won't do anything about it. Won't even let me change classes or anything."

"Seriously? They won't even do that?"

"Yeah, that's seriously messed up, Taylor. Hopefully things will get better for you."

"I hope so. What have you guys been up to?"

A lengthy conversation ensued about the recent Inkopolis Ranked Battle League matches. It was fairly exciting, as an up and coming team, World Friend, defeated the first ranked Inkslingers in an intense best of seven matchup. With the regular season coming to a close, it was a race to the finish with almost every team in the running for the playoffs.

That conversation distracted them from the looming threat that was Tommy. Unbeknownst to them, he was waiting for the perfect moment to strike. He, Cal, and Evan were across the street from Taylor's house, staring through the windows, watching them.

"Tommy, isn't this a bit weird?" Cal asked. "We're standing outside his house."

"Nah, it's fine. It's not illegal or anything." Tommy reassured Cal.

"If you say so."

"So when are we gonna get 'im?" Evan asked.

"Soon, Evan, soon. We just have to wait for the right time."

"What even is 'the right time?'"

"I dunno. Let's just go get him already."

"Fine. Let's go."

The three delinquents walked up to Taylor's front door and knocked. They were in a triangle formation, with Tommy in front and Evan and Cal standing behind him. Taylor wasn't even thinking about Tommy when he went to answer the door, so he opened the door with no hesitation.

For a brief moment, the two rivals stared at each other. After that brief moment, Taylor slammed the door shut and locked it.

"Who was that?" Emma asked, with a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Tommy." Taylor said, casually. "Both of you, go out the back door and run into the forest, and stay away from them."

"Wha-"

"Cal and Evan are with him as well. You guys will be safe."

"Taylor, what's going on-"

"There's no time to explain. Just go!"

Emma and Eliza ran to the back door and opened it. They took a brief glance back at Taylor, gave him a quick nod, and continued running. Once he made sure they were in the forest without Cal or Evan chasing them, he turned his attention to the banging at his front door.

Taylor swung open the door as hard as he could. Evan, who was putting all his weight into the door, fell backwards into his house. Their movements stopped, and all eyes were on Taylor.

"Tommy, what are you doing here?" Taylor said with anger.

"I'm here to getcha." Tommy responded with a shrug.

Evan stood up and stared at Taylor. "Come here, you stupid bitch."

"Hey! Watch your language!" Taylor said as he started moving backwards.

The aggressive boy lunged at Taylor, narrowly missing grabbing his shirt. Taylor's orange tentacles bounced around his head as he took longer steps back.

Cal and Tommy then decided it was time for them to join in on the fun. With all three of them now coming after him, his last option was to run. As he turned around to run away, something hit Taylor in the back of the head, knocking him on the ground. He looked at the three boys and saw that Tommy had thrown Taylor's own shoe at him, and he groaned.

Now prone, Taylor had no other option except to try and fight back. But the three bullies were quicker, and Cal grabbed Taylor's arms and held them behind his back. Still kicking, Taylor tried to shake free, but to no avail; Cal's grip was too tight.

"Can we kick his ass now?" Evan asked, punching his right fist into his open left palm.

"Yeah, sure, we can do tha-" Tommy said, giving his permission, before he was interrupted.

"HEY!" A voice from outside yelled. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?"

The three attackers looked up and out the front door to see an older inkling coming to the front door. Tommy cursed himself mentally for not remembering to shut it.

With a quick glance at each other, they ran out the back door, slamming it shut behind them. The adult came to Taylor's aid quickly, making sure he wasn't injured.

Taylor looked up at his savior, and saw that it was someone he knew. "Mr. Wrasse!?" He said, shocked. "What're you doing here!?"

Will's dad chuckled. "The Kelp girls came to my back door, panicking. They kept saying that you were getting attacked, and you needed help. So I made my way over here, hoping I could get there in time."

"You were right on time," The young boy said with a sigh of relief. "They had me pinned."

"No problem. Who were those boys, by the way? I didn't get a good look at them."

"Oh, it was, uh, Tommy Lagardes, Evan Planker, and Cal Stauroza."

"Lagardes, you said? I would never expect something like this from that family. They've always seemed nice."

"Yeah, no, Tommy is crazy. He's always going after me, for some reason."

"Really? That seems weird. Well, why don't you come back to our house. Will and the girls are there right now."

The older man helped Taylor up, and after a quick stretch, he and Mr. Wrasse made the short walk to Will's house. The cool air felt good on Taylor's body, as he had barely gone outside for anything except school. He took a deep breath to intake the refreshing air.

About ten minutes later, the two made it to the Wrasse's home. Will, Emma, and Eliza were waiting on the front porch, and greeted them with open arms.

"Oh, Taylor, thank goodness you're okay!" Eliza said, giving him a hug.

Emma assented to her twin's comment, and joined in on the hug. After a few moments, the three separated, and Will took the opportunity to talk with Taylor.

"Did Tommy really find your house?" He asked him.

"Yeah, he did. I don't know how."

"I guess nowhere is really safe for you now."

"I don't think he knows where you live. I could probably just hang out here if I need to."

"If you need to, you'll be welcome here."

Taylor smiled and gave Will a solid pat on the back. The two looked to Eliza and Emma, who were waiting for them to finish their conversation.

The four of them quickly made their way into Will's house to continue the 'fun' they were having at Taylor's house. Mr. Wrasse followed them in, but instead made his way to his office, because he had work to do. But he couldn't shake something off his mind.

'Why did Tommy try to assault Taylor?' He thought. 'It just makes no sense. They're a nice family. Sure, Daniel may have been sent to jail a while back, but they're a nice family otherwise. I guess it's just a childhood drama. They'll grow out of it.'

Meanwhile, in the living room, there was a different discussion going on; a discussion about Taylor's safety.

"Sooner or later Taylor," Will began, sitting down on a cushion chair. "You'll be in a situation where you'll be trapped, and we won't be able to help you."

"I doubt that'll ever happen." Taylor dismissed Will's claims. "You guys don't need to worry. I can take care of Tommy myself."

"That's the thing, Taylor," Emma sighed. "You can't take Tommy down by yourself. He always has at least one of his friends with him at all times."

"I'll be fine on my own. Besi-"

His words were stopped by Eliza slapping him across the face. "Taylor! You WON'T be fine on your own! We all saw what happened to you when you were alone!" Tears were trickling down her face. "We just want you to be safe!"

Taylor looked down at the ground in shame. He finally recognized that his friends were trying to protect him. "I'm sorry…" he muttered.

The other three friends looked at him in silence. They weren't mad at him, because they knew he did not want to get them involved in the conflict. But they also knew he couldn't fight Tommy and his friends alone.

"Taylor, it's alright. You don't need to apologize," Emma comforted him. "We really care about you, and want you to be safe."

The young inkling recognized his error, and shoved his face into his open palms. The four friends knew that things were only going to get worse from here, but nobody knew how much worse. They could only take it one step at a time.

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Meanwhile, Tommy, Cal, and Evan met up with Parker in the outskirts of the forest behind Cal's house. The three boys who tried to beat up Taylor were scowling in frustration, and Parker was blabbering about how his mom wouldn't let him hang out with them until he finished cleaning the dishes, which he was very upset about.

"Oh my God, Parker, shut the hell up!" Evan yelled. "Jeez, man, we get it!"

Parker quickly clamped his mouth shut at the sight of Evan yelling at him. 'Evan is terrifying, man. Absolutely terrifying.' He thought.

Tommy was not much happier. He glared at Evan and Cal, and then at Parker, who still looked scared. "What went wrong!?" He said in frustration. "We had everything planned perfectly! And we still failed!"

"Some kid's dad just happened to be looking through the door the moment we were gonna beat him." Cal spat. "Without him, he was dead."

"But why'd we stop!? Why didn't we just finish it!? Who cares about some random parent!?"

Nobody had an answer for him.

Tommy paused for a moment, then sighed. "We need more people." He said abruptly.

Cal, Evan, and Parker looked at each other in confusion. They glanced at each other for an answer to Tommy's ridiculous suggestion.

"...Why?" Parker asked. "There's already four of us. Is that not enou-"

"NO! It isn't! We need the WHOLE SCHOOL on our side!"

"That seems a bit over the top, don't you think?"

"Nope. If every single goddamn kid in the school harasses Taylor, he'll finally learn his lesson."

Once again, the three boys looked cock-eyed at Tommy. This suggestion of his seemed ridiculous, but at the same time, it just might work for them. After all, if nobody likes Taylor, then he will be ruined.

"I guess that could work." Cal said.

"Hell yeah, that'll work!" Evan responded, excitedly.

"Then let's do it." Parker added.

"Alright, boys, let's make Taylor's life Hell." Tommy grinned devilishly.

And so the rumors started to spread. Day in and day out, the four boys spread vicious rumors to every student in their grade. Students who didn't even know who Taylor was started hating him because of what Tommy was telling them.

One of the rumors that spread was that he was the reason a beloved student, Colin Mako, had to leave the school. Tommy told all the students that Taylor had harassed Colin out of town, and forced him to move away. Colin was a very well liked student, so to hear that a student who still went to their school forced him out, a lot of them were very upset.

Taylor had committed no such act, however. He barely ever interacted with Colin. But the students were too blinded by their emotions to care.

Tommy and Evan had even more tricks up their sleeves. After a few months, once the rage over Colin died out, Evan kicked the crap out of Tommy after school one day. The next morning, Tommy came to school with several bruises and a black eye. He told everyone that Taylor attacked him after school for "seemingly no reason."

This was enough for the hatred to spiral out of control. No longer did anyone care about what Taylor had to say. To them, he was a deranged psychopath who would attack their friends.

Taylor's life was going downhill, and fast.

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I hope you guys like this story so far. I might have to change the rating from T to M depending on how the story develops. Also, let me know if you like the chapters short like these. (ex. 3000 words). I want to make you guys happy. See you next time.