Today started weird. I didn't think it would end the way it did.
After homeroom, I went straight for my first period. I stopped by my locker to get my textbook, my notebook, as well as the pencils that I needed for the class. On the way, students were behaving weirdly around me. Weirder than usual, actually.
They all seemed to be avoiding me, moving out of the way whenever I walked their way. Some would go as far as hiding in their lockers. One kid got really scared when I turned his way. He immediately dropped to his knees, begging that I shouldn't do anything to him. He kept pleading till it became extremely awkward. Everyone stood staring at me, wondering what I was going to do.
I turned away from the kid without a thought on what to do. I didn't want to waste any time, so I just walked away. I'm not going to lie, that experience was mortifying. Sadly, it wasn't over.
"You should apologize."
I stopped in my tracks, startled at the statement made earlier. It was the new girl from a few days before.
"Rumi," She said. "That's my name if you didn't catch it earlier."
"I have class right now, so-"
"I'll walk with you," She said. "We have the same class."
I sighed. I decided to just let her. It was silent until a few seconds after.
"So Lloyd, right?" She asked. "Is that your name?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"You're the first person who's talked to me since I came here. Most of the girls in this school are sort of weird."
"I'm guessing you haven't heard about me then."
Those words came out of nowhere. I couldn't believe I just told her that. I decided to change the subject.
"Do you hear that?" She asked.
I sighed in my head, relieved that she changed the subject herself.
"Hear what?"
We kept quiet for a moment, but I still couldn't hear anything.
"I could have sworn I heard something."
Suddenly, I heard a huge bang coming from another hallway.
"You heard that, right?
I nodded.
"Do you want to check it out?" She asked. "Someone could need some help."
I shook my head. "I'm not exactly good at helping people. Plus, we could end up late for class."
"Come on. Don't be like that" She pulled me by my arm and lead me down a hallway in the opposite direction from class.
Who was this girl? I thought to myself. Looking at her pulling my arm, I felt weird. Uncomfortable, sort of. I didn't want to push her arm off since it would be rude. Also, if someone needed help, I wouldn't want it on my conscience. I decided to go along with it until we got to the source of the noise. I hoped it would help distract my mind from all the strange things that had happened earlier.
Good news and bad news. The good news is it did distract my mind. The bad news is that what I planned on distracting my mind from got bigger.
Rumi and I found our way to the source of the noise. We stopped at the sound of some voices gathered by the lockers. I peered from behind a wall where we stood.
"Chen."
"Who?" Rumi asked, whispering.
"Why that good-for-nothing piece of-"
"Whoa, calm down," Rumi whispered. "Who's that? And what's he doing?"
"Oh my FSM, is that Jay?!"
"Who?"
I peered once again, groaning as soon as I spotted him again.
"That's Chen. A stupid bully who won't leave people alone. He should've stopped by now," I whispered, clenching my fists and gritting my teeth. "but he never listens."
"Stay here," I told her. "Actually, why don't you try to make it to class?"
"Why? What will you do?"
"Just go," I told her. "Chen's something I have to deal with personally."
"O-Okay," She said, "It was nice meeting you, Lloyd."
She smiled and waved before leaving. I wanted to wave back but raising my hand alone felt weird. Why did I even have such a thought? Waving at someone? A girl, for that matter. What's coming over you, Lloyd?
I moved back a bit and took a deep breath. I was angry, but I didn't want to go out of control. Jay was there, and I didn't want him to see me angry. Not again.
I exhaled and adjusted the hands of my bag on my shoulder. I walked, looking straight ahead as if I were just passing by. I stopped in the middle of the hallway where I was visible and turned towards Chen.
"Hey! Who are you standing over there! Get lost!"
I didn't move from my spot. I looked towards Jay. He looked bruised, beaten up, and unable to move. It made me angrier to see him like that. I saw Chen standing there, smiling, as his friends beat Jay up.
"Not so tough without your friends now, are you?"
Friends?! What does he mean by that? I asked myself. It was then I noticed it. Jay wasn't the only person they were bullying. Kai, Cole, and Zane had also been among, and they were there in that hallway scattered across the floor.
"Hey, you! What are you still doing here?! I taught I told you to get lost!"
I couldn't believe my friends got taken out by a bunch of idiots. I couldn't believe Chen and the rest of his idiots dared to go back to their old ways after all the stuff I gave them! Just thinking about it makes me wish I had murdered them on the spot!
"Are you even listening to me?!"
I dropped my bag on the floor and rushed towards Jay. Two guys came in front of me, both standing in a martial arts stance.
I can't describe what I did from here on out. All that talk of not getting angry in front of Jay turned out to be a waste. I ended up carrying nine injured bodies to the infirmary, five of which I only carried out of the good of my heart.
"Lloyd, is that you?"
"Zane? You're up. Just stay put while I get you and the guys to the infirmary."
"How are you carrying all of us? And what time is it?"
"I don't know. I think it's still the first period."
It was silent for the rest of the way to the infirmary. Once I got there, most of the anger had dissipated. I dropped all of them carefully on the floor and stood there wondering if I brought them all. Then I noticed Chen was missing. The thought of him brought back all the anger that had finally dispersed from my mind.
I decided not to dwell on it too much. I went on ahead to knock on the door to the infirmary. The doctor opened the door and poked her head through.
"Oh my," She said with a gasp, "How did this happen? Did you carry all of them here all by yourself?"
"Could you take care of them?" I asked, "I have class right now."
"Okay," She said, "But first, help me carry them inside. John! Come over here, please!"
A man who looked to be a bit older than the doctor came over to where we stood.
"Yes, Anne?"
"Could you help this boy carry these people inside while I prep a few things?"
"Sure thing," John answered. He looked towards me, "What's up, kid? The name's John. What's your name?"
"Lloyd."
"Okay, Lloyd, would you like to tell me what happened?"
I shook my head. I put Jay and Kai on one shoulder and picked up Zane and Cole before going inside to put them down.
"Whoa. Lloyd, how are you carrying all of them?"
I didn't answer. I was too engulfed in my thoughts at the time. I was like that for a while but I eventually snapped out of it when the woman called my attention.
"Lloyd," She said.
"Hmm?" I turned to the woman after laying down the last of my friends.
"I'd like to know what happened to all these boys."
"I'm not entirely sure," I lied, "I have class right now. I'll come back later and check on them."
I left before she asked me any more questions. I then rushed to the hallway where I dropped my bag and made it just in time for the second period. Fortunately, I didn't bump into Rumi. I'm not sure how I would have explained the whole situation to her.
~X~x~X~x~X~
I'm going to fast forward to lunch break. I don't think I need to explain how boring the second, third, and fourth periods were.
When I got to the cafeteria, my first priority was finding Nya. She had to know what came about with the guys. I eventually spotted her in a queue about to receive lunch. I hurried over to where she stood and tapped her lightly on her shoulder.
"Oh, hey, Lloyd."
"Hi, Nya." I replied, "I need to talk to you for a moment."
"Sure," She said. "Let's head over to my lunch spot."
I followed behind as she lead the way to her table. I made sure to avoid eye contact with everyone in the cafeteria, although it was easier said than done. Everyone's eyes were on me, murmuring and whispering to each other.
"You know," Nya said when we got to her table. You're the last person I expected to see in school today."
"Why would that be?" I asked, sitting down on a chair opposite Nya.
"No reason. It just felt like you'd wanna stay home after what happened on Thursday."
I wanted to ask her what happened on Thursday, but I felt that could wait. I decided to get on with telling her what I had come to tell her in the first place.
"Nya, there's something I need to tell you."
"What is it, Lloyd?"
"Ooh. You wanna profess your love for her?"
I slowly turned my head in anger to the source of the aggravating interruption. I feel like I'm not even required to say who the hell it was that would say something like that. I'll give three hints but nothing more.
~School gossip with a useless blog.
~Has a mom who always has it out for me and my uncle.
~Annoyingly persistent despite what I always do to him.
The moment I noticed him, I almost punched him in the face. Fortunately for him, he dodged.
"Whoa, Lloydster," He said, "I'm not here for a throwdown."
"Can't you see I'm in the middle of something?"
"Well, yeah," He said smiling, almost looking proud, "My guy's about to tell the girl he likes how he feels."
"Go away," I told him, "I'm already exhausted."
"Don't worry," He said, "I don't want to interrupt my guy during his big moment. I'll be on my way."
I found it hard to keep myself together. I really felt like picking him up, then throwing him far away from there. Luckily, he left.
"What was that about?" Nya asked.
"I don't know. It's not important." I told her.
"So what did you want to tell me?" Nya asked.
"It doesn't. This is about Jay, Kai, Cole, and Zane."
"No," I said, "They got into a fight with Chen and members of his group. They're currently resting at the infirmary."
"What?"
"Look, it may sound weird. Even I don't know how they got into a fight with them, not to talk of losing the fight."
"They lost?"
"Yeah, it kind of surprised me as well. But they're okay. I dropped them off at the infirmary."
It was silent for a moment. Nya looked in deep thought as she ate. I just stared on awkwardly.
"Well, I should get going," I told her, "I've said what I have to say."
"Wait," Nya said. She scarfed down her food and picked up her tray. "Come with me to go check on them."
"Er... not really." I told her, "I've missed a lot of schoolwork. My uncle won't be happy if I don't try to meet with the teachers."
"You don't have to worry about that Lloyd," She said, "I and the guys have already got that covered."
"You did?"
"Yup." She dropped her tray on a rack and pulled me out of the cafeteria.
Looking at Nya pull me out of there, I wondered if this was a normal girl thing. Pulling people by the arm, that is. That was the second time it had happened today and each time it was a girl. Come to think of it, I can't even imagine a guy doing it. It must be a girl thing, right? Maybe I'm wrong. My uncle did say it was rude to attribute stuff like that to people based on their gender. I remember he said that people get offended when you do that.
Well, at least I didn't say this out loud. This is just a journal. It's not like there's a bunch of strangers reading this without my knowledge. Hehehe...
Well, I've got to go. I've arrived at the volcano after a long and stressful day. Till next time.