"Hey, Ray! Hey, Patrick!"
Patrick and Ray turned their heads. Ryan was waving at them from across the room.
"What do you think?" Ray asked out of the corner of his mouth. "Pity him?"
"Ray, you must be joking!" Patrick said. The two laughed as Ryan popped up between them. He kissed them both on the cheeks.
"What's for lunch today?" Ryan asked.
"Spaghetti," Patrick answered.
"Aw, that's the worst!"
"Yeah, well, tomorrow's hot dog day, so suck it up. It's just one day."
Ryan rolled his eyes. They went through the lunch line, then took their spots at their usual table.
"Did they forget to clean this table or something?" Patrick asked, wiping a few bits of food off of the cafeteria table.
"Must have," Ray said, doing the same. They talked for a little bit, passing the time while they ate.
Then, when lunch had almost ended, there was a loud scream from across the cafeteria. It led to a series of more cries of terror as students jumped up and ran.
"W-What's going on?!" Ryan cried.
"There's a rat!" someone else yelled.
And then the three fell into the chaos, trying to get out of the big room.
~
"Attention students. You will report to the auditorium by grade level. There will be an important announcement made by Principal Wilford."
Ray rolled his eyes at the intercom. "I bet it's about that rat."
"Of course it's about that rat," Tyler said, placing his pencil down on his desk.
"Will you shut up?"Josh said. "You were the one who screamed in the first place!"
"It was you?" Patrick asked. "I thought it was Jamia or someone!"
They laughed at each other, teasing.
Then, their teacher told them to get up. They all walked down to the auditorium and took places in their seats, waiting for Wilford to come out and tell them what was so important.
It didn't take long.
"Students, faculty, and staff members of Inland Pike High, as you all know, today, there was an... incident in the cafeteria," Dr. Wilford said. "Upon further investigation, we have discovered that there is a rat infestation."
Murmurs rippled throughout the auditorium. No one knew how it could've happened. They were a pretty sanitary school.
"Now, looking even further into the issue, we have realized that the school will need to be shut down and the infestation will need to be professionally taken care of."
"Shut down?" Ray whispered. "Then where are we supposed to-"
"I understand that this might come as a shock to you, and that some of you might not like this option, but... You all know that the nearest school is... Over the fence."
No. There was no way-
"Effective Friday, all of you will be transferred over to Redwood Drive High School in Redwood City."
"That's not a high school, that's a homeless shelter!"
The shout was met with laughs and cheers.
"I can't do this," Ray muttered.
"Me either," Patrick whispered.
Ray glanced down at his friend. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Patrick nodded. "Let's go."
~
"We can't do this."
Dr. Wilford sighed. "Do what, Mr. Toro? And... Mr. Stump..."
"Attend RDH," Ray said. "That school isn't even a school, Dr. Wilford. And with all due respect, that school is so low that they don't even bother with rat problems. How is that supposed to protect us?"
She sighed again. "What do your parents do, boys?"
Ray and Patrick exchanged glances. They knew what she was going to say.
"If they aren't qualified to home-school you, then you have no other legal option. I'm sorry. I think you'll live. Is that all?"
They boys nodded.
"Alright," Dr. Wilford said. "Sorry I can't help you. Have a nice day."
They walked out of the office. "Can you believe they're making us go to school on Desolation Row?" Patrick hissed.
"Hey, they can call it that, we can't, remember?" Ray joked. They snickered.
"Forget that," Patrick said. "They live in the roach-hole they call home, so we can call it Desolation Row. What makes them so much better than us? Nothing, that's what. We paid to go to this school, and I don't know about you, but I'm getting my money's worth."
Ray grinned. "Sounds good."
~
"Hey! All of you, shut the hell up!"
The class looked up at McCracken. He jumped down from his desk. "We're going to the main hall in, like, ten minutes. So just pretend we were doing something."
"Hey, McCrackhead," Gerard called from the back of the room, "I got a question!"
"Ask someone else."
"I would, but you're the teacher!"
McCracken sighed. "Alright, what?"
"How come we call it the main hall? It's just the cafeteria!"
"Because we ain't got no fancy auditorium."
"How come?"
McCracken gave Gerard a look. "You know we ain't got funding for shit like that."
Gerard shrugged and went back to frenching Frank. The 'teacher' sat down, opened the window, and lit a cigarette.
Ten minutes later, McCracken herded the kids out of the classroom and down to the cafeteria. Everyone was flooding in at once, so the quick ones fought for seats, the tired ones sat on the floor, and the energetic ones found spots on top of the tables.
The familiar face of Principal Allman came up in front of them. "What do you think?" Pete hissed into Mikey's ear. "He sucks off McCracken in their spare time, yeah?" They snickered.
"Alright," Allman said, "So I was just contacted by Wilford over at that, uh... what is it? Oh yeah, Inland Pike High. And she told me that there was a big problem over there. So, on Friday, there's gonna be a bunch of rich kids parading up in here like they own the place."
Shouts of protest erupted from the cafeteria. Allman and McCracken started threatening to shut them all up until it got quiet again.
"Look," Allman said, "They're gonna act like they're better than you, but they ain't. They got money, that's all. They don't know how to use their fists-"
Vice Principal Howard stepped forward to stop Allman, who cleared his throat. "They're not better than you."
"I'll kick any prick's ass if he fucks with me," Frank muttered.
"Shut up, half-pint," Bob hissed.
"Real creative, cock snot."
All the guys chuckled, giving Frank firm and affectionate cuffs.
"Well, are we just supposed to take this?" Gerard asked as everyone began to disperse.
"What else are we supposed to do?" Pete asked.
Gerard shrugged.
"Look, we have switchblades, they've got big words," Mikey said. "I would almost say it wasn't a fair fight if they didn't know all that legal bullshit. They could sue for any amount of money, and we wouldn't be able to pay it. So what's a little physical threat compared to the threat of our lives being fucked up even more than they already are?"
The guys nodded in agreement.
"Let's just hope we don't have to see none of 'em."