Another Simple School Day

            Autumn’s sparkling morning sun was rising once more in Val-d’Or, Quebec, softly filling the bedroom to signal the start of another plain, boring day where Tony had to get up, get ready, and get to school. The birds were singing and his neighbor was already mowing the lawn, which was a thing he seemed to do all day, every day. The alarm clock usually woke Tony up every morning. This week had been different though. The bright sun flashed next to his bed and right in his face, and Tony’s ideal solution was not to wake up, but to smack on the snooze button and turn around, ignoring the day that was waiting for him. It was the same day as yesterday and the day before: a day where you had to sit on a chair all day, pretending to listen to the one speaking in front and then work on something you totally didn’t care about. For a lot of children, that’s what school seemed to be all about, and such a day didn’t give him the motivation to wake up on that morning. That’s when his mother had to step in.

            “Tony… Tony, wake up!” Tony’s mother said, shaking him up. “It’s morning; you have a bus to take!” There was no response, except for some groaning and fake snoring. “Oh, you better wake up young man, or you won’t have time for breakfast!” She said, smiling, as she started tickling him in the ribs.

             “Okay, okay! I’m waking up....” Tony grumbled while burying himself under his sheets.

“Gosh, you’re ten years old and you’re already having so much trouble getting up, I don’t even want to imagine how much of a pain it’ll be to wake you up as a teenager!”

“I’m getting up, it’s alright!” He whined, “You can go make breakfast now.” Parents tend to think that children love waking up by getting tickled.

Tony’s mother gladly left, satisfied, while Tony was still struggling to roll himself out of bed. Rambo, Tony’s fat, lazy, black and white cat came into the room as part of his quotidian morning stroll around the house, and as usual, he started purring exaggeratingly while rubbing himself on the side of Tony’s bed until a hand would appear to scratch his floppy belly. After a minute or so of orgasmic belly-scratching, the cat, glad and satisfied, left the room to finish his morning tour before it would go hungry again. The boy finally stood up, rubbing his heavy eyes, and then closed the curtains to hide the darn sun that blinded him. He then sat back on his bed, and tried to ruminate over the events of his dream. “Man, how am I supposed to sleep well with dreams like that…”  He muttered to himself.

 He dragged himself up the corridor to reach the washroom, and emptied the bladder that had filled up through the night. During his leak, he looked out the window in front of him, which faced the grumpy neighbour’s house and balcony. And of course, the innocent old man, rocking on his chair on the balcony, seemed like he was looking straight at him again. “What the hell!” Tony said, abruptly closing the curtains from that window. As he was taking his shower, he continued to think about last night’s dream. The dreams had been going on for a whole week now. He took his time trying to make some sense out of those dreams. He thought that maybe there could be some sort of hidden message, but before he could grasp the meaning, the water had become cold, and that meant his time in the shower was over.

Tony dried himself up, left the bathroom and scurried off to his bedroom. As he went down the hallway he passed beside his twelve year old brother, Jimmy, who was heading to the bathroom for his shower.

 “Yo.” He said to Tony as they crossed path. Tony ignored him and had a big smirk on his face as he dressed up.

 Jimmy was round and chunky, and within brother rivalry, those characteristics were a weapon Tony could use to pick on him. Unfortunately, Jimmy also took them as a weapon. Because of Tony’s small constitution, the big brother used his weight as his primary attack, for example, like simply sitting on him until Tony gave up on the argument.

            From his room, Tony could hear the sound of the shower running and seconds later, Jimmy screaming, “A*****e!”

Tony then headed for the dining table with a proud look on his face and Tony’s mother was preparing his breakfast. She sighed and asked, “You took all the hot water?”

“Sorry.” He answered in the most dishonest tone.

Tony’s mother handed him his toasts and he ate them fast in hope to finish before his brother could arrive to hassle him.

“So, what are you going to do today, Tony?” was his mother’s daily morning question.

“Same thing as usual” was Tony’s daily morning answer.

As usual, the living room TV was on and Tony’s mother was listening to the news while she prepared the boys’ lunchboxes. For some reason, she enjoyed hearing about all the problems and disasters happening around the world before going to work. “How horrible,” his mother then let out, “did you hear that? A whole family murdered in Amos and they can’t even find the killer. I tell you, crazy people everywhere! It’s a dangerous world.” She sighed, but reassured herself with the thought that her country was still relatively safe compared to many others. Crime and violence was part of life and there’s nothing she could really do about it, except teach her children how to live safely and peacefully.

Tony finished eating and then headed down to his room, which was the last door at the end of the hall. As he walked, carefree, beside the first door of the hallway, which was the bathroom, Jimmy opened the door bluntly and tried to grab Tony, who almost squealed in surprise, but he was swift enough to dodge his grasp and run to his room. He locked the door before Jimmy could arrive to smack him.

“Mom! He did it again!” Tony could hear Jimmy complain in the kitchen.

“Yes, we all heard you guys and you probably woke up your father.” Tony’s mother replied.

Tony had some time to spare, so he went to the gaming room across from his room and played Mario Kart on his Nintendo 64, waiting for 7:56 A.M, the precise time they had to leave to get at the bus stop just before the bus arrived. Jimmy joined his brother and they played together for a while. Tony won most of the time when it came to video games. Since the NES controller, he has always been proud about his gaming skills, and he trained every day to keep them. Tony always took Mario, and since Mario was the main character, Jimmy claimed that the character was obviously ripped from the beginning, so sometimes Tony took Luigi, and he still won.

Tony’s father got up to go to work. The first steps he took were towards the bathroom, where he’d take a leak, and open the window curtains, asking himself everyday who the hell was always closing them. He then walked down the hallway to deliver the news to the boys once again, with Minou, the older cat, following him all the way. Minou meowed annoyingly as it went, with its stupid little bell on its collar ringing with every enthusiastic step (but Tony’s mother found it cute). Minou was slim and caramel colored, except on its belly, cheeks and paws, where its fur was white. It was a snobby, independent cat that listened to no one because it thought it was the king of the house. The only person Minou actually seemed to have developed a liking to in the house was Tony’s father.

 “Shut up!” Tony’s father barked, and the cat did, because it knew that if it would, it could then sit on the man’s lap while he would take his coffee and listen to TV. Tony’s father stopped in front of the gaming room and said, “You know it’s 7:57, right?”

In a panicked and surprised look, as if it was the first time it ever happened, they rushed to put on their shoes, sweater and schoolbag, and Jimmy was done first so he headed outside to catch the bus. Tony was a little slower and had trouble tying his shoes so it took him more time. As soon as he finished tying his last shoe he ran outside, nearly forgetting to close the door behind him, but then he did, nearly squashing poor Rambo as he poked half of his body out to sniff the mysterious outside world. In self-defense, Rambo ran as fast as a bag of lard could until he reached the living room sofa, in which he could still barely squish himself under. Under the sofa was a secret hideout where death could not find him.

Before Tony could even leave his front yard and arrive at the bus stop, the bus was already there. Tony started running after the bus, and he could see all the students that were in line at the bus stop entering it. “Hey, hey!” He screamed while still running, hoping that the bus driver could hear him. The last person to enter the school bus was Jimmy, and as he took a step in, he looked at Tony and gave him the finger, followed by a wry face.

“Is your brother here today?” the bus driver asked as Jimmy climbed inside.

“Nope. Sick today.” He answered and then proceeded to his seat in the back with his friends.

The bus drove on until it arrived at the dead-end of the street, where it backed up and turned around to go down the other way, and that’s when the bus driver saw the little boy running, and so he stopped the vehicle to open the door.

 “Weren’t you sick today?”

“Not anymore, I guess.” Tony answered. He then walked to his usual seat. It was like that at least once a week.

“Still having trouble with your shoelaces?” Gab asked when Tony sat in the seat beside him and Dan.

“Shut up.”

“Ha-ha, you know, I was able to tie my shoes when I was six.” Dan said, who was on the seat beside them.

“…and I was able to do a push-up at age 5.” Tony struck back.

 “What a slap in the face!” Gab burst out.

“Funny.” Dan grunted back.

Dan Champ and Gabriel Aye were classmates from an elementary school. Tony did not go to the same school as them, but they were from the same village as him, so they became bus buddies. They always sat together in the bus.

Gabriel was quite tall. He was the oldest, the tallest and the most mature from the three, but he was also the jokester. Dan was a little shorter and his skin was pale from all his time inside playing video games. His attire was pretty sloppy, and he was quite chubby and out of shape. Tony and Gab couldn’t help but occasionally pick on him.

 The three boys were always fooling around in the bus, screaming, throwing stuff at each other and out the window, and even occasionally pushing the limit when they threw a juice box across the bus and the driver had to separate them.

“What do you guys have first period?” Tony asked to his friends.

“We start off with math.” Gab stated.

“Yuck.” The two others said simultaneously, because Dan was also in that class. Tony wasn’t but he still sympathized.

“It sucks, but then we have physical education second period.”

“Yeah. We’re gonna play Cat & Mouse. I’ll trick them all like a ninja.” Dan said, munching on a bag of Crispers.

“Of course you will. I don’t understand why you keep bothering to try and get that ball. You know you can’t make it.” Gab remarked.

“I’m surprised he even bothers to run!” Tony stated, laughing with Gab.

“He only runs if it’s to get on Runescape!” Gab added, and they laughed even more. Runescape was the reigning MMORPG before World of Warcraft arrived, and Dan was a faithful, high-skilled player at it.

“Shut up, I’m only allowed to play Runescape on week-ends now.” Dan replied, eating the first half of his sandwich.

“It’s for your own good.” Gab answered, tapping his chubby friend’s belly, and then started laughing along with Tony.

Dan smacked Gab’s hand off. “F**k you!” he said, slightly laughing out of uneasiness, because he said it a little louder than he wanted.

“HEY! You, little kid over there.” A harsh, intimidating voice asserted, halting every other conversation in the bus. No matter where you sat in the bus, you just had to take a glance at the rear-view mirror in front to know when the bus driver was definitely looking at you. “Next time I hear that word, I drop you off at the next corner.”

Dan looked down, hoping that the bus driver was talking to someone else. He wasn’t brave enough to look in the rear-view mirror.

“Hey, I’m talking to you. Did you understand?”

“Okay!” Dan squirmed, breaking through the pressure. There was no response, and people slowly started getting back into their chatter. There was no possible way to know if the bus driver had really aimed that at Dan, because the boy never dared to look up.

“I have physical education for my first class,” Tony continued, “I think we’re playing Dodgeball. I’m usually pretty good, but today I’m tired.”

“You gamed through bedtime ey?” Dan asked, eating his Scooby-Doo candy.

“No, that’s something only you would do. I’ve just been having some weird nightmares recently, and they always wake me up. There’s a man that keeps following me in my dreams, and even if I run away, he still keeps up, and he doesn’t even run! He just walks and I don’t know how he does it, but he always ends up right behind me.”

“Yeah well that is pretty creepy.” Dan said.

“Dan would still be shitting himself in bed right now if he had dreamt about that!” Blurted out Gab, and the two broke out in laughter.

“Stop it with your stupid jokes, it’s annoying!” Dan cried.

The two boys then calmed down in fear that Dan would scream something again, because they were already lucky enough to only have a warning.

“Yeah, so math, gym, English and art, that’s what we got today. We have this project in art and ah… I haven’t even started yet.” Gab said.

“We’ve been working on it for like a week and a half now. I’m almost finished.” Dan said with his mouth full of pudding.

“What’s the project about?” Tony asked.

“We have to do this papier-mâché mask, with a wire frame thing-of-a-jig and then paint it and gosh it’s boring. I’m too picky and I started over like four times, and now I’m back to zero and I have no idea what I want it to look like.” Gab answered.

“Mine looks like Shrek, but blue, and I cut up some rags for the hair.” Dan went on, with a fruit roll-up in hand.

“And it’s so frickin’ hideous! Tony, you should so see it.”

“At least I did something! It’s not like I forced myself or anything, it’s just to get a passing grade, and I’ll probably have a higher one than you.” Dan replied.

“True, true.” Tony agreed, “C’mon, gimme a piece of that fruit roll-up, Dan.”

“You kiddin’ me? It’s the last snack I have.”

“What? You ate everything in your lunchbox?” Gab asked, surprised as if it were the first time. “What a pork! I don’t believe you.” He snatched Dan’s lunchbox and peeked in to confirm it really was empty, and it was, except for the bread crusts from his baloney and mayo sandwich.

“Stop. Give it back.” Dan let out.

“Wait, I gotta throw these crumbs out first.” Gab remarked, and tossed the crumbs in a perfectly aimed line into Tony’s face.

“Ah, you dumbass!” Tony spouted back.

“Give me my lunchbox!” Dan exclaimed, and tried to snatch it back from his friend beside him, but Gab clobbered him on the head with it and passed it to Tony, and it went on like that for at least forty seconds, along with exaggerated noise and laughter. It would have lasted a lot longer if the bus hadn’t parked itself on the side of the street.

 The bus driver stood up, turned around and started walking slowly down the bus corridor, tapping each bench as he passed beside them. The students in the bus, only waiting to arrive at school, could only guess at which seat the driver would stop to, and they all looked at the seats where Gab, Dan and Tony were sitting in. The bus driver suddenly halted when he reached the boys’ seats, and they all felt very uncomfortable when he just glared at them in eerie silence for at least half a minute. His glare did not leave a place for any word, and they couldn’t just ignore him and look out the window, nor could they glare back at him, so they just stared at the floor, as if something fantastic was happening down below.

 Gab was now forced to sit at the front of the bus for having thrown a lunchbox blurting out unnecessary comments. Tony was forced to be in the back for having laughed extremely too loud for nothing. Dan remained in his original seat, proud but lonely, with his empty lunchbox, though he had been forced to pick up his bread crusts.

The bus finally came to a stop at Golden Valley, the school that Tony and Jimmy attended to. As he stepped out of the bus, he saw a big sunny day ahead waiting for him. He parked himself to the side of the fence, took off his schoolbag and opened it to retrieve an old, stolen Tennis ball he had found in Anthony’s locker. He threw his bag in the pile of schoolbags beside the schoolyard fence, and then bounced the ball off the ground to certify it was still functional. He was about to catch it back but dropped it when Jimmy shoved him to the side before going for the swing area to meet with his friends. Golden Valley was the only school in the town of Val-d’Or to teach students from both elementary and secondary levels. That meant Tony wasn’t even close to finish with his older brother who always bullied him in the school hallways, or even outside, embarrassing him in front of his buddies.

Almost every kid had his or her own little gang, and the gangs were spread out throughout the multiple areas of the vast schoolyard.  For example, Jimmy and other older boys mostly hung out at the swing area, blocking access to younger kids, even though they themselves rarely actually used the swings except to break them, wrap them around the top pole so no one could reach it, or to strangle someone. The younger girls were most of the time at the monkey bars area, practicing gymnastics moves and throwing sand at ugly boys passing below. Tony also had his own little clique, which hung out between the basketball area and the A*****e area. The A*****e area was an open space with a bumpy and cracked cement ground beside a giant brick wall that kids used to throw balls on and play the school’s traditional ball game, A*****e.

“Finally! Tony, I hope you remembered it’s your turn to bring one today.” Phillip said as he saw his friend arrive.

“I know, here.” Tony said, tossing him the ball.

“Isn’t that Antho’s?”

“Yeah but shut up, he doesn’t know. And actually, he stole it from Brad.”

“Awesome, c’mon, who’s playing?” Phillip said out loud, through the mob of kids who were playing with their own balls. Multiple groups could play A*****e at the same time on such a massive wall. Tony, Phillip and the rest of the crew usually played with another group until someone from their gang arrived with a ball, and they then ostracized themselves in a little private A*****e group, only accepting other recruits in the game after making a circle plan agreement. It occasionally happened that every group, from first grade to sixth, merged together to play one huge game of A*****e with only one ball. Those were usually intense and violent, and teachers occasionally stopped such games. A*****e had never been approved by teachers in the first place, but there was just nothing they could do against such an indestructible tradition. The game seemed to have existed forever, and every single kid that went to Golden Valley had to play at least once.

“I’m in!” Kevin and Bradley cried out simultaneously.

“Me too!” Scott and Anthony shouted at the same time.

“I’m in.” Alex Dandrin, one of their classmates, also said. He walked up to the gang casually, as if he had always been part of the deal.

“No.” They all let out simultaneously, and the poor boy went off to ask another group, in which he fortunately got accepted in.

            The Gang consisted of six people, and all six of them grew up to be known by every single teacher of Golden Valley.

Phillip Stylorengo was most of the time the centre of attention in class, even when teachers and students alike unsuccessfully tried to ignore him. Jokes, buffooneries, yelling, and all sorts of immaturities that made all the other kids laugh, was what made him quite the popular guy. He often lead the troop to do some of the most ridiculous gambols and bad-minded pranks, and it always made them end up in a collective detention. He was very impulsive and lacked the notion of discretion. He couldn’t lie without screaming, laughing, or getting angry, which was the reason why he wouldn’t do the talking when it came to explaining the story to a teacher.

Scott Morse, on the other hand, was more of the notorious little kid who always swore and behaved inappropriately. He was an ace to seek trouble and he often found it. He and Phillip, since as long they’ve known each other, have always been ending up in a quarrel or disagreement, and it could even lead up to fights on rare and funny occasions.

Bradley Sirus had always been the random dude to scream out unnecessary and out of context sentences in the middle of discussions, and that’s what made him who he is.  He was always there to make the situation funny, or to participate in bad schemes; just enough to make trouble, but not enough to get caught, so the others would always pay for his acts. He could easily make friends because of his humoristic but charismatic personality, and he could get along with pretty much anybody when he wanted to.

Kevin Robiaff was the real troublemaker of the clan. He seemed to have no conscience, and never hesitated to say what he had to say, even in front of the principal. No limits and not a scare to do anything, Kevin was always on the blacklist of every teacher, meaning if something bad happened, he would be blamed, and so the whole gang with him. What also didn’t help in his already troublesome case were his impulsivity, his hyperactivity, and his urge to always climb out of the class window.

Anthony Valid was lanky and one of the tallest in the class. He was slow, and often seemed to be absent-minded, but when it consisted of making trouble, he was awake and quite at it. He loved to blabber on and talk over the teacher’s voice, which somehow made him an expert at writing lines. It would be silent in class, and then he would suddenly burst into a laughing fit because of what seemed to be an inside joke.

Tony was the smallest boy in the class, but he made up for it by having his reputation as “the kid who jumped in the garbage bin and once got stuck in it for a whole period”, or “the boy who flushed someone’s shoe down the toilet”, and all other sorts of absurdities that made him become acknowledged as a member of the Gang. A trait he had in common with Phillip was that he never refused “a challenge”, and often proved himself to be the most “game” member in the gang, from time to time getting surpassed by Kevin, who would challenge himself alone, just because the reaction on the teachers’ faces was what kept him going.

So the members of the Gang were quite the troublemakers. Every year, they always ended up being in the same class, and no matter the class, the teacher had a profile on each one of them, even the new teachers or teachers they had never talked to before. When something bad happened in the elementary level of Golden Valley, the first people to be questioned were the Gang.

“Double Touch!” Anthony blared out, pointing at Phillip as if he had just committed a murder. Double Touch was an infraction to the rules of A*****e.

“What the hell! No!” Phillip whined back.

“Oh you liar, you’re out, go to the wall!” Scott screamed.

“Oh yeah? Calling me a liar?”

“Have a problem with that?” Scott replied as he pulled his sleeves up.

As Phillip and Scott started arguing again, Kevin, Bradley, Tony and Anthony circled them, and Bradley was calling, “Grab his nuts, grab his nuts!”

“Hello!” A young feminine voice came from behind Tony. He turned around to see that it was Trina Manark, his crush since second grade. “Can I play?”

The rest of the boys looked at each other, and Kevin called out, “Circle plan!” The boys assembled, and started murmuring.

“Why not.” Scott started.

“Cause she’s a girl.” Phillip said.

“She’s gonna throw like a wuss and she’ll cry if we throw it too hard at her.” Kevin added.

“Mhmm.” Anthony said, nodding.

They then looked at Tony, who had a big smile on his face. “How about you?”

“She’s in.” He replied enthusiastically.

“Why?”

“’Cause it’s my ball.”

They all made a synchronized nod, and Phillip added, “Damn.”

After having played for a while, Bus. O1 arrived. “Keep the ball.” Tony said to Scott, and then ran off to the bus stop to greet his best friend, Sidrik Vikson, as he came out of the bus.

 “Hey dude, my dad bought me a sick Gameboy game yesterday!” Sidrik started. He was still excited from the night before. His eyes were red and we could see that he hadn’t slept much. His already small Asian eyes were squinting even more than usual.

“Awesome! Your parents didn’t tell you to stop after five in the morning?”

“Heh-heh, my parents didn’t know about it… I had headphones!”

“I wish I had headphones.” Tony sighed.

“It’s Zelda!”

“Oh, the new one? How’s it called… Link’s Awakening?”

“Oh yeh.”

The boys kept on discussing about Sidrik’s new Gameboy game, walking up to the entry stairs of the school in the line-up area, where they always sat down to talk about new stuff. He got out his Gameboy and gave Tony a demonstration.

“…and that’s how I found a Chain Chomp in a Zelda game.” Sidrik finished. “How about you?”

“Nothing special this morning. Still having those nightmares though.”

“Sucky.”

The school bell then rang, so every class went in its respective line in front of the school’s entry door. That’s why it was called the line-up area. Of course, every boy pushed each other to be the first in their line, except for Tony and Sidrik, who watched them from afar, because to them, it was more interesting from 3^rd person view.

The gang was still playing A*****e with Scott’s ball when they heard the bell ring. Bradley was about to throw the ball on the wall, but then froze for a second, turned around, and threw the ball as far as he could at the end of the schoolyard. “Ha, sucker!” He said as he threw it, and then sprinted for the line. Scott then had to go get his ball before getting in line.

“Yup, that’s why I never play with my ball anymore.” Sidrik said, smiling at the promising scene before them.

“I’d like to play with one of my bouncing balls, but every time Jimmy sees me with one at school, he steals it from me and roofs it.” Tony said.

 “Roofing” was a term used at Golden Valley to designate the action of throwing an object on one of the roofs of the school. For a verb to be invented for such an action, you could guess that it was a real treasure island on the roofs of Golden Valley.

“You sure it’s always your ball?”

“…Comes from Jimmy’s room.” Tony answered with a smirk.

“And then you wonder!” Sidrik sighed comically.

Scott started running for his ball but he then noticed Kevin who was also running to be first place, so he took a rock and threw it at him in hope it could slow him down. He got Kevin right on his left thigh, and he collapsed to the ground exaggeratedly and started crying with dry tears. Ms. Pakshoo, the incredibly large fourth grade teacher, went to see if Kevin was alright, and Scott could see Kevin pointing in his direction, with the rock in his other hand. Now Scott was not only running after his ball, but also running away from Pakshoo. Kevin was now completely fine, hopping around without a tear in his eyes or a pain in his leg.  Bradley was almost in front of the line where his homeroom teacher was, but Phillip was right behind him. Phillip was the fastest runner of the class, and as soon as he caught up with Bradley, he pushed him to the ground from behind, leaving Phillip the second place. First place was Trina, who had already been waiting there for a while. Deceived, Phillip walked slowly behind Trina. Before he could even get comfortable, he got roughly pulled from behind and was now third place.

“Excuse me, but I was here.” Shane affirmed.

“Sorry.” Phillip replied.

No one ever dared take on Shane Planter. He was the tallest and bulkiest of the class. All the male students were scared of the big guy, but he was actually a real softy inside. Everyone knew that they had to stay on Shane’s soft side. Last time he got mad, it was in 3^rd grade, and that teacher never came back the year afterwards.

  Everyone was in line, except for Kevin who sneaked in the fourth grade line, trying to be funny. He was making weird faces at the girls in the middle of the 5^th grade line (which was his respective class) to make them giggle, but then Miss Roja grabbed his arm, while dragging Scott with the other hand.  

The students went inside to change shoes and prepare for their first class. Tony’s locker was between Sidrik’s and Sebastian’s.

“We still playing Dodgeball?” Tony asked to Sebastian as he put his running shoes on.

“OH YEAH.” He answered. Sebastian loved Dodgeball, and everything else that could be turned into violence.

“Great.” He answered apathetically.

Tony then headed for the changing room, prepared for another simple school day. But he was still slightly bothered by his strange dreams… could it be a sign, or a warning of something to come? Anyhow, it seemed like it would happen someday soon because for every dream, the sinister male figure kept approaching closer and closer, and he was less of a blur than at the beginning of the week. What could he want from a typical ten year old boy? Bah, forget it. It’s just a stupid dream after all, isn’t it?