Fan the Flames- Chapter 4

“Morning class!” Mr. Lincoln, my science teacher exclaimed, as he stumbled through the door carrying a large box. “Before we begin our experiment for today, I would like to introduce you all to our new student: Carson.”

Every head turned to my direction, towards the back of the room. Suddenly, I can feel every pair of eyes drilling into me, analyzing the new meat. Near the door, there was even a guy cracking his knuckles. Inconspicuously, I slide down into my seat.

“Don’t be shy, Carson. Why don’t you come on up to the front and tell us about yourself?” asked Mr. Lincoln, giving me a big smile.

Cursing my luck, I reluctantly obliged. Standing in front of the class, my eyes scan the room for any friendly faces, but I find none.

“Well as you said, my name is Carson.” I said, flashing a smile. “As for a little about myself, there’s not much to tell. I’m a simple guy with simple needs.”

Not the best speech ever, but it got my point across. At least no one was threatening me...yet. So I’ll take this as a victory.

“Is there nothing else you want to tell us?” Mr. Lincoln asked, interrupting my self praise.

“Not really.”

“Past schools?”

“No.”

“Favorite activities?”

“Nope.”

“How about past girlfriends?”

There were some snickers from the girls.

“Heck no.”

“Okay. Just one last question.” Mr. Lincoln said.

Dang.

“The office didn’t include your last name in the packet I received. Would you mind saying it? It’s for my records.”

I shrugged. “I don’t have one.”

“What do you mean ‘you don’t have one’?”

“I just don’t.” And with that I started walking back to my seat. Getting as far as the second row, before tripping over someone’s outstretched foot.

The room erupted in raucous laughter, as I picked myself off the floor. I could feel my cheeks burning from the embarrassment.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I trip you?” A voice said behind me.

Now I had two choices: I could turn around, face the jerk and probably break his nose. Or, I could continue to my seat. Being the rational guy that I was and remembering what Nicole had said earlier, I walked away.

And being the typical jerk, he began making loud clucking sounds.

“What’s wrong Carson? Are you normally a pathetic wuss?”

Pathetic?

“That’s enough Mr. Turner.” Mr. Lincoln voiced, appearing next to me. “Or do you want to go visit the vice principal again?”

“Sheesh. I’m just having fun, Mr. Lincoln. Lighten up.”

Lighten up?

“Yeah, he’s right. It was just a silly prank right?” I said.

“Yeah, see he gets it.”

“Yeah I get it.” I agreed, setting the guy’s hair on fire.

“Ex-AHHHHHHHHH!”

The guy starts running around the room hysterically, as he tries to put out the flames. Mr. Lincoln is behind him, spraying with the fire extinguisher. Meanwhile everyone else just stare, as the guy passes them. They have no idea what is going on.

"Fire!" The guy screams.

“Hold still!” Mr. Lincoln shouts.

All of a sudden, the guy trips and falls, his body now fully engulfed. Taking the opportunity, Mr. Lincoln starts spraying him. Eventually, the fire is out, but the guy is still on the floor.

"Miss. Rabaiotti, go get the nurse…and the principal.” Mr. Lincoln quickly insisted, his voice grave.

"Is he alright?" A girl asked.

Mr. Lincoln sighed. "He’s...I’m going to call 911, we need to get him to a hospital. There is nothing I can do for him here."

Everyone begins exchanging looks, fear, confusion, and worry on their face.

"What happened?"

________________________________________
What is it about being in a new place surrounded by people I don’t know that makes me want to start breaking things? It doesn’t help that the cousins ditched me as soon as we showed up. Guess they didn’t want to be seen with the new kid. Not that I’d do anything different and what was with Anais? As she was walking with her friends, I thought I saw her blush when one of them pointed at me. Is she that embarrassed to know me? Am I that much of a loser?

Also, what happened back in Chemistry? I remember being tripped by that guy, but then nothing. I awake to a dead body and suspicious faces. From what I could gather from those who would talk to me, the guy’s head spontaneously combusted. Was it me?

I’m still musing over this when I hear laughter from around the next corner. It’s immediately followed by the sound of something being thrown against a wall. Curious as I was I went to go check it out. And almost killed someone. There on the ground laying in her own blood, surrounded by four guys holding knives and dressed in red leather jackets, was a small, orange lion/tiger hybrid.

As I watched the leader, a short ocelot with brown fur, motioned for the liger to be picked up. Nodding their heads, a rock golem with bright green magical runes and a muscle bound red rhino break from the group and roughly force their victim to her feet. From the way she grimaced, I can guess that her left leg is broken. Utterly helpless, the liger starts pleading with the gang, promising various favors if they let her go. Unfortunately, the leader refused to listen. He pulled back his fist to hit her, grinning deviously.

WHUMP! The fist makes contact with her stomach. The liger coughs up blood, her eyes getting cloudy. She looks in my direction. Our eyes meeting for a few seconds.

Help me. Please.

The leader pulls back his fist again.

CRACK! His fist slams into my cheek, knocking loose one of my teeth. Surprised, he backs off.

“That all you got?” I asked, spitting blood at the leader’s feet. Behind me, the liger gasps.

For a few moments all was silent. Everyone too shocked by my sudden appearance to move. Much less say anything. They all just stared at me with vacant faces. For five minutes. Five whole minutes. Finally, the leader broke the silence.

“Who the heck are you?” He asked in a strangely high voice. He turned to his other lackey, an otter with spiky brown fur and a black ring around his eye. “Rob, who is this fool?”

Instead of answering I broke into a fit of laughter, brought on by hearing a dude that sounded like he had ingested helium.

The leader turned back to me. “What’s wrong with you?” He asked.

“It’s your voice dude. You sound like a girl!” I said, struggling to breathe.

“Uh maybe that’s because I am a girl.”

Say what? I stopped laughing and looked back at the ocelot. He looked serious. “You’re a girl?”

“Yes. That would explain what I’m wearing and why my voice is so high.” The ocelot nodded. He motioned to his clothes, which consisted of black flats and a skirt, in addition to the leather jacket. How did I miss that? “Also why my parents named me Alicia”

I continued to stare blankly. Struggling to comprehend how a girl had just punched me hard enough to knock a tooth loose.

Sighing the ocelot snapped her fingers. “Rob. Heins. Jenson. Teach this fool the difference between boys and girls.”

Instantly, I found myself surrounded by the lackeys. Heins, the rhino, grabs my arms and pins them behind me. Then Jenson, the golem and Rob take turns punching me in the stomach, chest, and other areas.

Yeah, I know what you’re going to say. I’m an experiment built for destruction. I shouldn’t be able to feel pain. And that would be true, except that I can feel pain. I’m not indestructible. I can just take a lot of abuse. Something that can be both a blessing and a curse.

“So newbie, learn your lesson yet?” Rob said, giving me another punch in the stomach.

“That girls hit harder than you punks? Or maybe, only cowards pick on those who can’t fight back?” I said. “Sorry I already knew that.”

“Cowards, eh?” Rob pulled out his knife. Winking at me, he proceeded to cut a thin line across my cheek. I grimaced internally. “Who’s the coward again?”

I answered him with a swift kick between the legs.

“AHHHHHHH!” He shouted, dropping the knife.

Next, my head made contact with Heins’ nose, breaking it. Screaming, he released my arms and shortly afterwards, he also received a kick to the privates.

Lastly, in front of me, was the golem. Being made of rock, I won’t be able to kick him between the legs. So I’ll just have to try something else. Except, the golem wasn’t attacking. Confused, I looked around for the last lackey. Nothing. How did something that big just disappear?

There’s a cough from behind me. “Guess that’s it then.”

Suddenly, there’s a knife at my neck cutting off my ability to breathe: Alicia.

“You fight well newbie. What’s your name?” Alicia asked.

“Carson.”

“Carson.” She repeated, spitting it out like poison. “Well, Carson. You got lucky today. Usually I wouldn’t hesitate to get back at someone who crosses me, but I like you. So I’ll let you go.”

Gee thanks. Wait, she likes me?

“But.” Alicia pushes the knife deeper into my neck. “If you ever try a stunt like that again. I won’t be so forgiving. Capiche?”

I nodded.

“Good boy.” The knife is removed from my neck. Then before I can relax, she kisses me on the cheek.

“What?”

She winked at me and turns to leave with her ruffled gang. Heins, nursing a broken nose. And Rob making obscene gestures as he struggles to walk away with pride. Neither looks like he’ll be bothering anyone for a while.

Shaking my head, I turn back to their victim. She’s wearing a blue dress with miniature white flowers along the bottom. Both her arms are covered in various cuts from where the thugs’ knives touched her. She’s also trying to hobble away on her one good leg.

“Hey stop!” I shouted, running to catch up with her.

Startled, she lost her balance and fell backward, her arms flailing in direction, before she cried out. In an instant, I got behind her, catching her before she touched the ground.

“I got you.”

Her brown eyes follow me, as I help her to a nearby bench. They were filled with fear, a reaction I know all too well.

“You okay?” I asked, as I kneel down beside her to check her leg. It’s bent at an awkward angle but otherwise seemed to be fine.

She continued staring at me, her silence so thick, it could be cut with a butter knife.

I sighed. “Listen. We need to get that leg of yours fixed up.”

No reply.

“I’m going to carry you on my back. Is that alright with you?”

“Why?”

“What?”

“Why did you help me? You don’t even know me.” She asked, her voice a slight Brazilian accent.

I shrugged. “So? I couldn’t just let them beat you up for no reason either.”

“Everyone else does; they see what’s happening, but they don’t do anything.” She’s looking at the ground now, her voice faltering.

“Well, that’s not me. If I see someone in trouble, I try to do something. That’s what a true friend would do.”

“Friend? We’re friends?”

“Yeah. I guess so.”

She grinned widely.

“Okay. Uh, let’s go get you to the nurse.” I suggested. If I’m not mistaken, I think her eyes just changed color when I mentioned we were friends. Instead of being black, they now seemed a dark purple. Weird.

“Okay.”

I gently helped her onto my back, being careful to not cause her more pain than I had to. She was surprisingly light.

“By the way. What’s your name?”

“Kendall.”

“Mine’s Carson. Nice to meet you.”

“You too.” She beamed.

________________________________________
“So let me get this straight. The reason you look like...this, is because you got into a car wreck on the way to school? Is this correct?” Vice Principal Elkrose asked, reading the report.

I nodded, the movement pulling some of my stitches free. “That’s right.”

“And the girl, Kendall was it? How was she involved?”

“She looked tired. So being the good samaritan that I am, I gave her a ride.” I shrugged.

“Uh, huh.”

Standing at nearly 7 feet, Vice Principal Elkrose was big. Even by bull standards. He wore a tight beige suit that highlighted his muscles. With his mirrored sunglasses on, I couldn’t tell if he was believing a word of what I was saying, or calculating how far he could throw me out the nearest window.

He muttered something. “Must have been a fluke.”

“Excuse me, sir?”

“Nothing, but more to the point, you do know that fighting is prohibited right, Mr. Watterson?”

“I do now.”

“And that if I were to catch you, I would be forced to suspend you.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

“And your aunt. She wouldn’t be all too thrilled to hear you got suspended on the first day, would she?”

I felt my body shivered, as an image of Nicole standing over my broken body formed in my mind.

“No.”

He closed the folder on his desk, throwing it into the trash.

“All right, since you’re the cousin of our most prestigious student, I’m willing to turn a blind eye this time. But if I ever catch you fighting another student…”

He slid a finger across his throat.

“I understand.”

“Attaboy.” He lowered his voice. “Between you and me, Nicole scares the shit out of me everytime I see her.”

I nodded my head in agreement. Nicole scared me too.

“Glad I’m not the only one. Now you go on to class, as I got work to do.”

“Yes sir.”

Picking up my stuff I hurried out the door, and hopefully a less eventful afternoon.