•DEAD OR ALIVE•

FOURTEEN

•A TEST FOR THE WEAK•
"survive and you earn a place here. fail and you die"

"So I found this haggard-ass homeless lady who told me about this dude. Full hardcore—" Willie grinned smugly, his eyes switching from student to student finding my bored and disbelieving glare in the few rows of desks.
The tall boy stood at the head of the class in Master Lin's usual spot and I watched how his hands continued to fiddle with the buttons on his blazer, before settling on twirling the toothpick around in his mouth.
"—He was collecting memorabilia like we learned about in class" 
I let out a long huff, my head falling onto my desk as I thought about how much of an idiot I was for saying what I did to Master Lin, 'I can't complete one and fail another' bullshit that landed me to be Marcus's pledge.

I ever so slightly banged my head on the desk, my eyes wandering back to Willie, "So I waited for him, crept up on him. This dude, he was about to stab me with a screwdriver" I rolled my orbs, glancing behind me to see if Killian bought the crap that came out of Sasquatch's mouth. Killian rose his brows before scoffing—yeah he definitely doesn't.
I let out a breathy laugh my eyes briefly flickering over to Marcus before settling back on Willie. From the brief look at Marcus, I knew something was up. He was simmering in his rage and sooner or later it's going to boil over.

From what though? Maria? Chico? Or has it got something to do with Willie?

"And I found this pipe, I crushed that fool's head in—" I broke my thought pattern and glanced back again making eye contact with Marcus, and saw a cold rage bubbling behind his brown irises.
Fuck it's definitely got something to do with Willie. The more Bigfoot talks, the angrier Marcus gets "—Dumpstered the body, set it on fire and got out of there." Willie finally finished and Marcus's fist unclenched. His eyes still swarming my thoughts as I turned back to the front.
"Did you have help?" I asked Willie, genuinely curious. His eyes shifted from mine to Master Lin's. But Lin only shifted his weight onto his cane watching Willie with curiosity. I let out a sigh of relief, usually, we aren't meant to question such things or speak out of turn. This seems like an exception.

"You don't think I can handle a motherfucker like that?" Willie narrowed his eyes, leaving the question unanswered as he retired to his seat.
"No—no I don't" I muttered to myself, looking down at my hands, the image of blood still painted clearly in my mind. The tapping of Lins cane snapped me out of my trance, as I realised Master Lin was stalking down the middle aisle. "70% of soldiers don't pull the trigger in battle, no matter the stakes. The weak always choke in the face of killing. With fear of expulsion, all your hopes and dreams, all your family's expectations, only one of you could do it...So—", Master Lin aggressively slammed his cane down, a students desk rattled from the contact. My whole body tensing up as a flash of red was sent through me.

"—We'll have a new test, a final chance to prove your worth. Survive and you earn a place here. Fail and you die"

My eyes closed for a second. It's the test. He's putting us through the test now.
"The weak do not belong in my school.
Go! Get out of my sight!" 
I immediately stood up sliding my books off the desk and leaving without a second thought.
"Kil" I gripped my fellow gang members arm, pulling him to one side. "He's putting us up to a test now! I don't think it's like the other times" I gulped, my eyes looking through the crowd of students that formed outside of the class.
"Willie isn't here" I muttered, rubbing a hand down my face.
"Shit" Killian breathed out, slamming his fist onto the wall. "I couldn't do it, too many witnesses"
I nodded as I leant against the wood, my fingers lightly tapping my thigh.