The van pulled up to the entry of Bullworth Academy and stopped. The passenger door opened, and a boy stepped gingerly to the pavement. After a brief exchange with the driver, he closed the door and the van moved off, leaving him alone. He made his way towards the front entryway, walking slowly with a very pronounced limp. I’ve picked a real good day to return, he thought wirily, The Ides Of March. How Appropriate.
With painful slowness, he walked towards the School building. The grounds looked deserted on this sunny mid-morning, no Students were out and about. He stopped to rest before the school, then thought the better of trying to tackle the front steps leading up to the building. Instead, he decided to make his way around to the Gym. As he limped past the Library, he took a look in that direction to assure himself it was still there. Nobody was in sight and he moved on.
At the Quad in back, it was also strangely silent and devoid of people, Students and Prefects alike. He managed to mount the few steps to the Fountain, and stopped for another break. Peering out towards Harrington House, he finally did see someone. Up by the stone pillars in front of the House, he spotted what looked like Edward the Prefect, standing rock still and staring up at Harrington House. After a few minutes, he moved on, leaving the Fountain behind and Edward still unmoving. The Prefect seemed awfully focused on something, but he didn’t really give a shit. Prefects were a weird lot anyway.
By the time he reached the Gym doors, he was limping quite badly. Two months in an induced coma followed by six months of intense rehab tends to do that to a person, and even though he had trained for this very day, his return to Bullworth, it was still as difficult and exhausting as climbing the mountains ringing the Vale Valley would be for a normal person. Opening the Gym door, he went in.
Once inside, he surveyed the the Gym floor with disappointment. It was empty. He was hoping to catch his brother here. Making his way over towards the path that led to the steps down to the locker room, he was forced to take a seat on the bleachers for another rest. If tired too long, his legs would fail to work and he would go down in a heap until they revitalized. As he sat on the bleachers, he took a look around the old Gym. He was looking off to his left when a section of bleacher out of his line of vision noiselessly opened, and Kirby emerged. Spotting the back of the head of the stranger in his Gym, Kirby crept closer.
“Time For Your Poundcake !!”, Kirby yelled, drawing back his fist. As the black kid sitting on the bleacher turned toward him, Kirby’s face changed in an instant from that of a warrior to undisguised shock.
“Lance !! Is that YOU ?”, Kirby said in disbelief, dropping his arm.
“Hey, Kirbs, man it’s good to see you !”, Lance smiled.
“Whoa, how’d you get here, I mean....Where’d you come from ? We thought you was....”, Kirby stammered, and then stopped.
“Crippled ?”, Lance said. “Fucked Up ?”
“Uh....Well, yeah”, Kirby said, a little embarrassed. “We heard you was, like....”
“Never gonna walk again ?”, supplied Lance.
“Um...Yeah, that”, Kirby finished lamely.
Lance uttered a short laugh. “I almost was a total wreck. It took a lotta time for me to get some feeling back into my legs. When I did, I kept working at it. I still wanna be on the Team with you guys someday. Maybe I can try out next season, if I continue to improve. Doctors said I gotta chance for a recovery, won’t never be a 100%, but maybe I can still Quarterback someday. Long as I don’t get hit too much, that is”, he added.
“Hey, that’s awesome, man”, said Kirby. “You seen Bo yet ?”
“Naw, I haven’t”, Lance said. “Fact, where is everybody ? It’s like a Ghost Town out there.”
“They’re all at some assembly or somptin like that, at the Auditorium”, Kirby said. “The Admin is gettin’ all up in arms about the ‘Violence At The School’ again, so they made everybody go to some kinda ‘Intervention Session’ to straighten ‘em out. Either that or do detentions.”
“Why ain’t you there ?”, Lance asked.
“Coach said I don’t hafta go”, Kirby replied.
“How come ?”, Lance asked. “Don’t you still Poundcake ?”
“It’s...Uh...A long story”, Kirby said. “I don’t even bunk with the guys anymore. I stay under the bleachers now.” Kirby pointed to the gull-wing doorway where he had exited the bleachers. “There was a....Little trouble....”
“Maybe have something to do with you and Trent ?”, Lance asked with a sly look.
Kirby’s face registered astonishment. “You....You know about....That ?”
“Sure, I seen you two hanging around all the time over by the movie theater. Kinda hard to miss”, Lance said.
But...But....How ?, Kirby stammered. “We never saw you anywhere around !”
“Oh, don’t look so surprised. Nobody ever notices an underclassman”, Lance said. “Now do they ?”
“No...I guess not”, Kirby said sheepishly. Both boys laughed at that.
After a pause, Kirby turned serious. “Uh....They ever catch whoever....Umm...Did that to you ?”
“No, but I remember who it was now”, Lance said quietly. “It was those Punks.”
“Punks ?” A shiver ran along Kirby’s spine. “Sid and his Gang ?”
“Yeah”, Lance said quitely. “Took me a while to remember. They jumped me behind that walled-in area behind the Happy Diner. I tried to fight back, but......” Here Lance’s voice trailed off.
“Whoa, that’s heavy”, Kirby said. “Are the Cops even lookin’ for them ?”
“I never told anyone”, Lance said, and his voice grew stronger. “That’s why I came back. I’m gonna find those Motherfuckers and make them pay for what they done to me.”
“That’s a tall order, little friend”, Kirby said, shaking his head. “Geezh, the Punks....”
The Punks were a group of way older guys, older than even the Townies. They were universally hated by everyone, especially the Townies, who outnumbered them by more than two to one. The Punks were huge drug users to the point of addiction, and were ruthless to any opponent they faced, be it the street-tough Townies or little old ladies they robbed for drug money. The Punks were rumored to hole up in caverns in the Northern mountains where the rail spur cut through into Western New Coventry. They were experts in staying hidden, venturing out late at night under cover of darkness to attack any hapless citizen they found along a dark street or alleyway. Sid himself was the Vale Valley’s public enemy number one, although the inept Cops had very little chance of ever catching him, or any of the Punks for that matter. They were often gone for months at a time, and the speculation was that they would slip into other communities and wreak their havoc before returning to their haunts, although no one really knew for sure.
“With some help, I could take them down, I’m sure of it”, Lance said, resolutely. “That’s where you guys come in. With Weapons, and maybe a sneak attack, we could catch them unawares.”
Kirby shook his head. “That sounds like a tough job, if it’s even possible. You’d have to talk to Ted. He could probably tell you better than I could. I’m sure the guys will help, if they could.”
“That’s what I’m here for. I coulda waited till next year, but I wanna get them now.” Lance paused for a minute. “I’ve missed so much. Maybe....You could catch me up on all the stuff that’s happened since I been gone ?”
Kirby exhaled. “Whoo....Where to start ? I guess at the start of the School year.....” And with that, Kirby began relating to Lance of all the events of Bullworth....The Bombings, the Clique wars, the Attacks, the Valentine’s Bloodbath, all of it. Lance would interrupt to ask questions here and there. Still, it would take the rest of the morning and all afternoon to tell the tale, up until the time the afternoon bell rang.
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