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Chapter 9
It's been two weeks since we took the tinker's base. Two weeks without Athena making constant comments about my teacher's teaching style and lack of ability. It's been downright peaceful. The downside is I've shattered three glasses and bent a door knob all to hell. On the up side I've figured out how to control the extra strength I've gotten from the nanites. I've also had to be careful during my weight and fight training, so I don't give away my full ability.
I don't know if it's just me but there seems to be a unseen strain among our little group of friends. Both Owen and Maddie have become secretive as well as tired. The tired part is probably form staying up to listen to the Defiance net cast's but the secretive part hurts. Then again I'm one to talk considering what I'm getting ready to do. I think Abby can feel the strain as well but she also keeps looking at Owen consideringly, something happened between those two an I don't know what. I don't know Jim well enough to guess what he's thinking but I can see the wheels turning.
Another awkward lunch hour comes to an end and we split up to go to our classes. Out of nowhere I'm thrown into a wall. I slam shoulder first into the rough bricks that make up the wall. My head snaps to the side and the left side of my head clips the walls. I feel the area above my left eye scrape across the rough brick. I close my left eye wincing in pain.
Harsh grating laughter fills the hall. I turn and glare at the group of four. They have formed a semicircle around me, trapping me against the wall. The leader stands directly across from me.
" Well if it isn't our buddy Theodore. You think cause you're going to the weight room and got that dick Leon to do your fighting for you that you're safe?" Sneers Omar Robinson.
Just what I need is Omar and his... flunkies, minions, thugs I don't know what I should classify them as. I just know that they're a pain in my ass. Omar is everything Leon is not as a human being. The guy is a straight up bully and thug wannabe. Leon look's like he can run through a wall. Omar looks like a wall. He kinda looks like a square starting at his shoulders down to his feet. He has a gut but there is muscle underneath that fat. His facial features are broad and thick. He kinda looks between a caveman and a slug do to his cheeks, and he's sporting a mohawk.
Omar has a lot of issues. He was the big man for football until Leon's sophomore year. Leon took Omar's spotlight and after he got himself kicked off the football team for trying to injure Leon during practice. After that he went down hill. He's now a senior with no college prospects and is one step away from being expelled from school.
His cousin Jerome who's standing next to him is in my class. He's been a pain in me and Owens butt's since grade school. He's a head shorter then Omar and is gangly. He's like a goblin next to a troll and just to even things out the other two are orcs. So now that my D&D nightmare is complete let's get back to our regularly scheduled program.
"Now you're going to be a good white boy and take your beating and not tell anyone. You wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong idea, now would we."
What!? What the hell is he going on about getting the wrong idea. He want's me to stand here and let him beat me up cause I'm white? It's like something straight out of the civil rights movement era movie, where the cop says the same thing to a suspect an then beats him. That sort of thing pissed me off then and right now I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or scream at him.
My enhanced eyes catch sight of Omar's ham sized fist coming straight for my head. I turn to the side and use a hand to direct his fist away from me. Omar growls as his right fist slams into the brick behind me. He pulls back his hand. He shakes and flexes his hand as he glares at me.
"Not going to happen."
"Oh it's happening."
Omar throw's a straight right punch at my face. I lean to the right. I don't quite lean far enough because the edge of his fist grazes my cheek. On the plus side I listen to his fist smack into the brick next to my head. He curl's his hand up next to his chest this time and he's holding his wrist with his left hand. The skin over his knuckles are split and at least one knuckle is starting to swell up.
"Get him!" Omar hisses in pain.
Jerome leaps at me. I duck under his out stretched arms and I shove him in the back as he goes by. His shriek of surprise is cut short as he his the wall. My back is turned to nameless orc thug number one. He wraps his thick arms around my chest and arms. I step back into him wrenching my arms up forcing his arms up. I drive my right then my left elbow into his chest. His arms go slack and I side step to my right. I grab his left arm and whip him at nameless orc thug number two. Thug one's legs slide out from under him so thug two tries to hurdle him, big mistake.
I spring forward, leading with my right shoulder. I slam into his chest just as his toes touch the floor. The force of the hit forces his upper body backwards and his feet out from under him. I stumble backwards as thug number two's flailing feet hit my legs. Thug number two gets lucky. Instead of cracking his head on the floor. His head comes down on thug number one's stomach, driving out all of the air in him painfully.
Omar comes at me again with a left aimed at my stomach, it connects. I stumble backwards into the wall with a oof. He stomps towards me his right hand held tight to his chest. His face is set in a snarl of rage and pain. He throws a left hook. I side step and grab his wrist and arm. I twist his arm behind his back and shove him into the wall still holding his wrist with my left hand.
I tuck his arm right up to his back and put my right forearm to the side of his face and press his face into the brick. He tries to buck loose but a quick twist of his arm put an end to that. I lean in right next to his head.
"Now Omar it time for you to be a good boy or I'm going to start breaking bones, starting with your wrist."
"If I really trying to hurt you nerd I could break you in half." I tweak his wrist and he hisses in pain.
"I prefer Geek thank you very much. An if you didn't notice I didn't hit you or any of your cronies."
"I don't give a shit what you did or didn't do nerd. I can still break you." He growls out. I feel the other three close in around me from behind.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. If you push him, Theo can snap his wrist like a twig." Leon's voice is clear and calm. The sound of running feet fills the silence.
Around the corner comes vice principal Higgins, the head of campus security 'what a joke' Mr. Smithers and two security guards. Higgins shaggy eyebrows are turn down forming a V. Smithers cruel beady eyes are gleaming with glee at us. There are rumors that one or both of them are in Omar's dad's pocket.
"Theodore let go of Omar now." Mr. Higgins voice is stern
"Now you're in for it you little shit." Omar growls at me as I let go of him and back away from him. Omar spins and starts as if he's going to come at me.
"Robinson don't move." Higgins barks loudly.
"But Mr. Higgins he came after me and."
"Save it Robinson, we have it all recorded. Both you and your father were warned what would happen if you were caught fighting again." Omar glares at the vice principal.
"We both know you're not going to kick me out of school." Omar sneers at him, then throws a glare my way.
"You just keep thinking that Robinson. Now everyone come along, were going to the principal's office. And yes that means you to mister Thompson."
Leon fall into step besides me at the back of the group. Omar, Jerome, and the nameless orc thugs are boxed in by Higgins, Smithers, and the guards. Omar keeps throwing threatening looks at me over his shoulder as we walk. We file into the school's office and standing behind the counter is Principal Fredrickson.
Now Fredrickson is a large man but large in a Leon in twenty years if he keeps working out. Fredrickson is bigger than both Leon and Omar. He must have played sports when he was younger and then either kept playing or join the military or something cause his built. His skin is a shade lighter than chocolate milk. His head is completely bald, it even gleams in the florescent light. A neatly trimmed beard surrounds his mouth.
"Everyone but Thompson sit. Thompson my office."
The principal turns and stalks into his office. Leon claps me on the shoulder and follows him into his office. I spend the next forty five minutes sitting with only a security guard between me and Omar. Leon and the nameless orc thugs are gone and Jerome is leaving with his very angry mother, as a man in a business suit storms into the office. Mr. Higgins straightens as the man enters and blocks him from moving behind the counter and barging into the principal's office. The man towers over Higgins small frame. He's not quite as big as the principal but not by much.
"Move Higgins I need to have a word with your boss." The man says darkly. Higgins shrinks away from the larger man.
"Principal Fredrickson will be ready to see you in a moment Mr. Robinson." So this must be Omar's dad.
"Higgins you..." The office door opens and my father walks in.
Now my dad and I share a lot of the same features and hair color. Now dads never been fat but he is overweight. Tho he's not as overweight as he used to be. Mom and dad started working out when they figured out that I was working out. They both seem to have more energy and are happier, their almost frisky ugh. Dad glances over at me then looks toward the vice principal and Mr Robinson. The look on my father's face is grim, almost as if he's preparing for a fight.
"Vice principal Higgins?" My father asks questioningly. Higgins eyes dart to my dad the back to Omar's dad.
"Good Mr. Gibson you're here." Mr. Robinson turns to my dad and looks him up and down.
"It's been awhile Paul." He says coldly.
"Yes it has Tyrone." Dad says right back just as coldly.
The phone rings cutting the building tension between the two older men. Higgins picks up the phone. He put it down just as fast. He licks his lips.
"Principal Fredrickson is ready for you. Please follow me."
Higgins leads us all back to the principal's office. Me and dad take the chairs to the left. The Robinson's take the ones on the right. Mr. Fredrickson is sitting behind his desk with his hands steepled in front of him. His gaze travels across us.
"Carl.." Mr. Fredrickson hold up his hand stopping Mr. Robinson who hasn't even sat down yet.
"Sit down Mr. Robinson and address me as either Principal Fredrickson or Mr. Fredrickson." The elder Robinson stiffens but it's."
"Mr. Fredrickson why have I been asked to come to the school and why did I find my son in the office waiting for me?"
"Those are both very good question Mr. Gibson. I was hoping both you and your wife would come." Dad nods his head sharply.
"Lisa was just starting her shift when I received the phone call. We decided that I would handle this situation to start and if need be I will catch her up on what's going on later." Mr. Robinson opens his mouth to speak but Fredrickson cuts him off with a raised finger.
"Before you even start I've something everyone needs to see. Mr. Smithers if you please."
I jerk as the man seem to appear out of the shadows. He opens a cabinet set into the wall and picks up a remote. He point's the remote at the monitor in the cabinet. The monitor flickers on and the screen shows me walking down the hall, Omar, Jerome, and the thugs. I watch as Omar shoulder checks me out of the camera's sight line. I see Omar smirk out of the corner of my eye. A new picture cut's in. The quality is much better and there's even sound. Omar's smirk fades and he goes pale. Both my father and Mr. Robinson stiffen at Omar's words. After that the fight is quite short. It felt a lot longer at the time, strange. I glance at Omar and instead of having a swollen right fist he's flexing it as if there's nothing wrong with it.
I squint at it and I can see the bruising changing color as I watch. He's got some sort of power and he has a healing ability to go with it. So this is what he meant when he said he could break me in half if he wanted to. This is just something I really don't need. The video finishes.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself Omar?" Mr. Fredrickson's voice is emotionless as he stare at Omar. Omar shrugs his shoulders.
"I saw nothing wrong. 'He leans around his father.' Did you see me doing anything wrong Theodore?" His eyes narrow at me in a threatening way, I lock eyes with him.
"I saw you and your cronies doing plenty of thing wrong Omar. 'I dissect their lack of fighting skill and coordination.' Oh an you tried to beat me up for what, some laughs or just cause you thought you could get away with it?" I some how wound up on my feet glaring down at him. Looks like my bravado is back.
"Sit down Theodore. 'Mr. Fredrickson voice is even.' Omar Robinson I've given you more chances than most and yet you've wasted them all. You've left me with no choice but to expel you." Omar turns to his father.
"You're just going to let him expel me, what kind of father are you?" Mr. Robinson turn's to his son, His face flushing red with rage.
"The only reason you haven't been expelled before this is because of me you ungrateful little shit. You should have been expelled after that stunt with the Thompson kid. I believe it's time I take the advice you principal gave me last time we were here and spend more time at home. Then maybe you will pull you head out of your ass now get up we're leaving." Omar huffs as he levers himself out of his seat.
"Way to roll over old man. I guess you only fight for your clients." Mr. Robinson grabs his son and slams him against the wall.
"You were caught red handed you idiot. An I've already used up all my pull with the principal. You don't have a legal leg to stand on here."
"Then bribe him and the board." Mr. Robinson lets go of his son with a bark of laughter.
"I could offer Carl every cent we have and he wouldn't budge and if he won't budge the board won't either. So let's go." He grabs his son by the back of his neck and drag's him from the office.
"Now as for you Theodore, I'm sending you home for the rest of the day. Simply because it is part of the rules. You will be excused from the classes you've missed and they won't be held against you. An as I'm sure you're aware. The word of what's happened will spread like wildfire. So tomorrow is most likely going to be rough. So go get some rest tonight, you can go."
We get up and exit the office. Dad puts his hand on my shoulder as we walk out of school. Dad starts for his car.
"Dad I'll be home in a while. I need to work off all this." I wave my hand vaguely in the air.
"Don't stay out to late or you'll worry your mother." I smile at him.
"Got it." I give him a wave and slide into my car. Time to see what progress D has made.
Will he be friend or foe, only time will tell.