I stormed into Officer Black's office, stopping right at the doorway. Officer Black stood behind Wade, watching him write on the board. Manuel and Luke were still seated at their desks, looking at a wall. Luke noticed me first.
"Kevin, you're back!"
They all turned when I entered.
Officer Black stared at me quizzically, "Kevin, what are you doing?"
I turned and faced him, "Principal L wanted to let you know that school is canceled due to the ongoing blackout and to dismiss everyone immediately."
Wade threw his marker straight into the air, celebrating his freedom. He and Manuel zoomed out of there, laughing like hyenas.
"Smell ya later, Kev! Thanks for the update," Wade shouted as they ran to their lockers.
I cringed and began heading to my locker. The hallways were an even darker gray compared to upstairs due to the lack of windows.
"You are just pawns in the grand scheme of things. Throw in the towel."
I punched a locker and then flinched in pain. Principal L's smile and his words carved deep into my memories.
"You'll always be one step behind me, no matter what you do! I allowed it."
"Shut up!" I ball up my fists, "Shut up. Shut up. Shut up."
"Your ancestors are pawns just like you, Kevin."
I punched the same locker this time with my left and alternated.
"Ramen...You're not ready, Kevi... You think you're a hero, Kevin?"
"SHUT UP!" I roared.
BAMMM
I punched the locker, and as my fist connected, all the open locker doors around my area slammed shut like a crescendo.
My eyes were small slits as I glared at my right fist. It was very red. My veins, however, didn't change and were still turquoise.
Weird what triggers it to go that dark blue?
I was about to punch the locker again to have my fist caught. I glanced up in annoyance. Officer Black and Luke looked at me with worried glances.
"Son, Calm down." Officer Black said.
I shook my arm free, "You don't get to call me that, backstabber."
Officer Black's face was flabbergasted, "Backstabber?! Seriously Kevin. I'm on your side."
"No, you aren't!"I shouted, "You're on the side of 'justice' and whatever you see on that camera. You should be out there punishing the people who hurt Stanlee!"
Officer Black scoffed, "And who would that be, Kevin? Casper? We all saw the footage. He fell down the steps on his own!"
I shook my head violently, " You'll believe a machine over several people who heard directly from the victim and have quotes of the victims confessing."
Officer Black took a deep breath, "Kevin. Calm down."
"Why should he?"
We both turned our gaze to Luke, who had his arms folded across his chest.
Officer Black facepalmed, "Luke, not you too."
His nostrils flared. "I'm just saying, why are we always the ones that need to calm down and take all of their BS? It's almost like whenever we rebel, we're the bad guys!"
The hallway grew annoyingly silent. Officer Black was speechless for a moment before sighing and saying in a defeated tone:
"I'm still trying to pick up the pieces after what happened last year. I made a promise to him to keep you kids safe. I can't do that if you keep clashing with Wade and Principal L."
Luke was confused, "What are you talking about?"
I blinked away the tears that streamed down my face and rubbed them off immediately, lowering my gaze to my feet.
My throat hurt when I spoke, "You're missing the point, Officer Black. He would've wanted us to revolt. The Lyons he dreamed of wasn't like this."
Officer Black threw his hands up, "Mr.Brown entrusted things to me, Kevin! Why don't you trust me?"
I returned my gaze to my fist and the dented locker. "Don't you realize your very way of doing things is hurting the people you're trying to protect? I thought injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere? Guess I was wrong about you."
Officer Black reached for my shoulder, "Kevin, I-"
"Leave me alone!"
Officer Black sighed and headed up the staircase. Leaving me with Luke.
Luke whistled, "That was badass, bro."
I shook my head, "What does it matter. It's too little, too late."
Luke shrugged, "He had it coming. Might as well have been you. You're practically the leader of this school."
"No..."My balled up fists trembled, "I'm not a leader. I always fall one step behind the finish line. When everything matters most, I... Crumble."
Luke shook his head, "That's not true..."
"But it is!" My voice was rising again. "I failed Stanlee, I failed Jason, I failed Keisha, I failed the twins, I failed Marcus, I failed Jess, and I failed you! All because..."
My voice cracks in my hesitation.
"I am not strong. Not like Jason... Not like Stanlee..."
Silence dominated the area.
I stood there, and a giggle broke out of me like shattered glass. "Jackal was right after all. I'm not ready for this."
Luke scoffed, "You know what your problem is, Kevin?"
I glanced back at him.
Luke trained his gaze on the ceiling. "You keep acting as if everything started with Jason's arrival to our goofy academy life."
I clenched my teeth, "Luke..."
Luke wagged his finger, "No lemme finish bro. Jason and Stanlee weren't there when you led us into battle a year ago. You were the spark that started it all."
I squeezed my right fist that was still resting on the dented locker, "BS. I didn't do anything but lose back then and still now to this day. Also, that spark died out last year."
Luke brought his fist to his chest, "You don't think we haven't been watching Kevin? We've seen you come here every day and still keep pushing onward to the next day! When Jason stands up for someone or for himself, we expect that he has mad skills. Stanlee's got his big-brain moments, like all the time. But Kevin, you embody all of us little guys out there every day you come here. Could you have switched schools? Yes, but you never take the easy way out. You keep fighting like you haven't heard a bell ring! Even when you are down for the count. You always get back up!"
Luke took a deep breath, "It's a quality of yours I've been jealous of. It takes strength to be resilient. Resilience always starts mentally. In fact, you've been doing it all day! "
I stood there in shock. Luke was right. I had taken that beating in dodgeball and stood back up. I fought Wade and got back up. Hell, one could say I won that fight. I took on Principal L and wiped almost his entire board clean except his king. For all his talk about control and systems, he showed how flawed his very system was. He underestimated me. Though I slipped up and played stalemate, I made my point loud and clear. A pawn shouldn't be underestimated.
Luke brought me back to reality, bumping his fist into my chest.
"Finally, I can't speak for others. But bro, your actions do affect people. It isn't all worthless. Look at me. I have always been a bystander. Snitching and standing up for myself, others, and for what's right was never my thing. However, after seeing you get beaten again and again, and continuously keep pushing on. I wanted to try to. "
I blinked in amazement.
Luke scratched his head, "Obviously, I'm not on your level just yet. So I'm faking it till I make it."
I broke out laughing, "I'm a different kind of stubborn, Luke. You got tiers to go before you're on my level."
Luke beamed, "Is that a challenge? You are so on! C'mon, let's get our backpacks!"
I completely forgot we were free for the day. Now that we were free, we could get Marcus to be a witness for Stanlee to Officer Black. Then we can go over to visit Stanlee. I tried to lower my right fist from the locker.
Creak
Now I've seen many things in my small lifetime. But nothing as weird as my hand being stuck to a locker door. When I pulled my fist, the door opened, and it was stuck to my fist like I was Spiderman. I glanced at Luke, who looked bewildered.
Luke's eyebrow furrowed. "Okay, that's weird."
I kept trying to break myself free, but to no success. What the hell is going on? This is the exact opposite of what happened yesterday. What triggers it?
The sound of buzzing filled the nearby stairwell as students erupted out of there like it was a prison break. Jessica and Keisha exited the stairwell.
"Keisha! Jess!" I yelled.
They instantaneously turn towards us and make their way over. Keisha was now wearing some black shades to hide her black eye.
Jessica was rubbing her neck nervously, her eyes averting my gaze. "Kevin, we got some bad —"
"What are you doing?" Keisha cut in.
Jessica raised her gaze from the floor and saw me trying to pry myself off the locker door.
I slammed the locker door and leaned against it, "Oh, nothing? Just showing Luke how to throw a mean jab."
"BS." Luke, Jessica, and Keisha said in unison.
I sighed, "No fooling you guys. I'm...stuck."
Keisha rolled her eyes, "Ya don't say, Sherlock."
Without warning, she grabbed my wrist and yanked it full force.
"Ouch!" I yelped as the dull pain from earlier transformed into a sharp, needle-like pain as if someone was actively sewing my arm.
Keisha released my wrist, "Ok, he's actually stuck. What'd you do? Got some gorilla glue on yo fist?"
"Oh yeah, I just love it here in this hallway. Got nowhere better to be." I said sarcastically.
Keisha smirked, "Any bright ideas, anyone?"
"I do," Luke said, wrapping both his arms around my waist.
I felt my face burning from embarrassment, "Bro—"
Luke chuckled, "Trust me, bro, I saw this exact scenario when in a movie. We just need to loosen your arm. While we tug, you use your other hand to push off the locker."
Psshh, nobody's actually going to follow through with that.
Keisha shrugged, "Sure, not the worst idea I heard today."
I couldn't believe my ears. Keisha was okay with ripping me in two.
Jessica patted my shoulder," Let us know if it hurts, Kevin."
Not you too, Jess.
Keisha wrapped her arms around my left side. Jessica took my right, and Luke was directly behind me.
"On the count of three," Luke said.
We all nodded.
"One."
I brought my left hand near my right hand, which still looked red from all that punching.
"Two."
My left hand's vein went dark blue. My right hand was still turquoise and red.
"Three!"
They began the tug of war, or in this case, the tug of lil ol me. My left hand was on my right hand, trying to peel it off. But here's the weird thing, it now also felt stuck on my right fist. It didn't help that my lower body felt like it was about to get sawed off.
"You feeling looser, bro?" Luke grunted.
I clenched my teeth. What is wrong with me?
I stared at my hands. How did I do what I did in the 5th hour?
Then it hit me.
I took a deep breath and let the oxygen race all over me before I punched him
. Stanlee said something similar in the locker room:
"Keep breathing the way you did out there. You might find that 'zone' again sooner than you think."
I closed my eyes and let the air of the hallway flow through my nostrils and enter my body. Waiting until I felt it reach my arms.
When I opened my eyes, the veins in my left arm weren't that cerulean blue; it was that turquoise blue, and my left hand also now looked red. A heavy metallic taste hit my mouth like a coin on your tongue.
CLANG
We all fell backward to the floor. When I looked up, the dent on the locker looked even worse now.
Keisha pushed her hands hard on the floor, bounced herself onto her feet, and dusted herself off.
Keisha sighed, "Next time, we're calling Houdini. That was very extra."
Luke groaned, "It worked, finally."
I glanced at Jessica, "Now that I'm free. Tell me the news."
Jessica's face darkened, "Marcus wasn't in 5th hour."
"What?"
Keisha seethed, "He is so dead when I find him. How is he going to disappear when we need him the most?"
Jessica rose to her feet, "I mean, he was hurt after what Barry said about him."
"Speaking of Barry." I quickly fill the guys in on my latest misadventure in the office. Barry's crash-out, the goofy Jonas, and my face-off with Principal L.
Keisha shook her head, "Kevin, you taking part in that bet with that insane Principal was..."
"Brave?" Jessica added.
"Courageous?" Luke joined
Keisha facepalmed, "No, it was goofy. That was way too risky."
I glanced at my hands, examining them. My turquoise veins, "I know, but think about it. Everything works out for Wade and them because he's there to cover their tracks. We get rid of him and his whole 'system' comes crashing down."
Keisha raised a brow, "Are you talking about how Officer Black was conveniently not here when Stan got jumped. All cause he was doing an errand for that tyrannical principal of ours."
I nodded," That, and we have Luke plus our entire 5th that was there when Wade made those comments about Stanlee. "
Jessica whispered, "But they're terrified of Jackal and Wade. We can't rely on them."
Luke wrapped his arm around my shoulder, "Leave that to us. I got a plan."
Keisha stared at Luke for what felt like a full minute before rising up to her feet," Alrighty, now can we get out of this dump?"
We all rose up and made our way towards our lockers around the corner. The hallways were still dark. It may have stopped raining for the moment. But it was still dark out. No thanks to the gloomy thunderclouds.
As we turned the corner, Jessica froze.
"Guys, who is that?"
I squinted a dark silhouette seemed to be leaning on the lockers waiting for us. The headphones gave away his identity immediately.
I sighed in relief, "It's Jason."
Keisha scoffed, "I can't believe he has the guts to show up while suspended. "
Luke chuckled, "He's trespassing on school. That's so badass."
We hastened our pace down the ramp to our lockers. As we got closer, Jason took off his headphones.
His green eyes seemed to glow in the dark hallway; his face looked distraught.
He glanced up at us, "What happened?"