Unhinged

02

'I wonder why that Vincent kid just ran off so suddenly like that. And did he leave this note behind on purpose or did he genuinely just didn't see it?' Thoughts wandered around the mind of the boy.

However, the two students will have to interact once again if the boy comes looking for the lost letter. That was the part Michael dreaded the most. He wasn't always the most outgoing person, but he was nice to people. Well, for the most part. If you got on his bad side there could be trouble.

The short male had got done washing his hands and thus was his cue to head back to first period. He usually liked all her teachers, but there was something off about Mr. Porter. Maybe it was his weird mustache, he certainly didn't seem like the type of person to have a handlebar mustache.

The classroom was deathly silent when he walked back in, which could either mean the other students are quietly doing work or they're sleeping. Either way, the silence made it even more awkward to come back to. Even after that encounter in the hallway with Vincent, supposedly.

"Oh, Michael, welcome back. If you come here, I'll give you the worksheet we're working

on. Or supposed to be working on, the rest of the class has started to fall asleep. It's their grade though, not mine. They can do what they want." The voice of the Algebra teacher boomed through the small classroom.

The brisk walk to the overcrowded desk and next thing you know there's papers in Mike's

hands to work on. As soon as he sat down to work, the bell rang, waking several students. They all rushed to pack their bags up and head to second period.

'One down, seven more to go. Hopefully I don't run into anymore students today.'

----------------------------------------

Fifth period rolled around and the lunch room began to fill. The art students had lunch first, with the exception of a few science kids who were in the band. Vincent happened to be one of those students. He had always loved trumpets growing up, from the way they looked to the pushing on the buttons to play the notes.

He was the trumpet section leader in the school band. Being an astronomy student and in the band at Gateway only meant one thing - you were classified as a nerd. Which Vincent didn't mind, it just got annoying every once in awhile.

The cafeteria was serving pepperoni pizza and hamburgers for lunch, neither interested Vincent but he went with the pizza. It looked like cardboard covered in cheap cheese and the pepperoni looked more like some strange mystery meat than anything. The school drinks weren't any better. Most of the milk cartons were moldy or the milk inside had chunks in it.

Vincent didn't have many friends at Riverview, just a few of the other outcasts who decided to include him into their little group. There was Keith who played the Tuba in the band, Peter who was studying biology, Duncan was trying to study geology but he was failing half his classes, and Ethan who was a painter but him and Keith were friends and they just stuck together instead of going into separate groups. The five of them referred to themselves as KPEVD, pronounced 'kay-peved'. It was a stupid little name they came up with one afternoon hanging out in Duncan's basement.

"Hey Vin, how's the shitty food today? Still gross as ever?" Keith pushed up his glasses as he sat down with his friends. He always wore glasses, and they weren't the plastic ones either. Keith wore those thin, metal framed ones with the nose pieces.

"Oh yeah, it's the same disgusting crap they always serve. If Riverview were to serve good food for once, the world would explode." Vincent's sarcastic remark gained him some laughs from the table. But it quickly grew louder as the rest of the cafeteria joined in. But they weren't laughing at his comment.

There was a crowd of people in the front of the room, seemingly gathered around another classmate. They were calling them names and on the verge of getting physical. Suddenly there was a lot of yelling and it seemed to be coming from inside the circle of students. The senior was fighting back, or attempting to. This didn't happen often in Gateway, but when it did, it was bad and never ended well. Vincent couldn't stand to watch this any longer.

He got up and ran across the cafeteria and started pulling students away from the crowd. For being dubbed a nerd, he certainly was not your stereotypical one. There were a few who tried to push Vincent back, but he wasn't having any of it. Enough was enough and he was going to put an end to it. It's not like he had a reputation to uphold.

He quickly made his way to the center and the room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The vice principal Mr. Douglas entered and grabbed both Vincent and the student who was on the ground, who appeared disheveled and broken. However, Vinny recognized it was the student he ran into earlier in the hall.