A Not So Simple School Day

Tony entered the washroom and most of the boys were already there, so there was little space for him to change. He placed himself in the corner where the sinks were, squished by Zackary and Shane. He took off his shirt and started unzipping his pants when some dimwit turned off the washroom’s lights again.

            “HEY! Who did that?” Was heard in pitch blackness, blending with all sorts of other screams and crashes everywhere in the washroom. A big clothing war started once more, with shorts, shoes and even the big, heavy garbage bin flying everywhere while nobody could see what was happening. Somebody screamed like a girl just before the lights went back on again, and Sidrik entered the washrooms with a big smirk on his face. It was a jumble in the room, filled with clothing everywhere. Someone was definitely going around wearing no underwear. Everyone laughed from the resulting chaos, except Pribil, who was still sitting in the toilet stall, pants down, plus the giant garbage can on top of him. Someone actually threw the garbage can over the stall, and it was a wonder, because no kid could even lift the bin when the lights were on. No one realized that, of course. Alex had panicked all along, and for good reason, because he was always Kevin’s target in such circumstances. Somehow, in the blinding darkness, Kevin managed to throw his shoe in Alex’s face. Everybody gathered their stuff, and peace was restored as if nothing had ever happened.

            The boys were almost changed and ready, and those who were ready still waited for the others, because it was customary to do so.

            “DODGEBALL!” Shane exclaimed while putting on his deodorant.

“DODGEBALL!” Everyone responded, clenching their fists in the air.

Jayson understood Shane’s enthusiasm. “C’mon, Shane,” He let out, “Don’t do your Slam Ball today.”

“Yeah, seriously.” Zachary agreed, assenting with a couple of other boys.

“Or else I’m just not playing.” Alex asserted.

“Who cares if you’re not playing?” Scott affirmed while putting his shorts on.

The Slam Ball was a technique that Shane had developed throughout the years. It consisted of jumping over the middle line then slamming the ball on a person’s head before landing on the other side of the line.

“You go ahead and use that Slam Ball! I ain’t a wimp.” Sebastian pointed out, arms spread out like, “Come on, I’m stuck with a class of wimps or what?”

 “Right, we’re not wimps!” Phillip and Scott said in accord.

“Yeah, we can take it!” Anthony joined. Most profoundly, they really didn’t want Shane to use his special technique.

 “Let my team win, and I won’t use it.” Shane answered, walking out of the washrooms.

“Let’s set a rule; you can only use it once.” Bradley suggested.

 “Yeah, just use it on Alex!” Kevin let out, and they all left for the gymnasium.

 Some ran while some walked, and some just fooled around in the hallways because there was still five minutes left before class would start. Tony and Sidrik sat down on a bench along the way to talk and chill out.

 “Watch out for Shane, man,” Tony said, “He’s pretty hyped today.”

“I know...” He answered, with a nod. They arrived at the gym and the students were already playing everywhere. The girls were in their corner chit-chatting while the boys were kicking, hitting, and throwing balls at each other. It looked as if the end of world was announced and they had two minutes to do as much chaos as possible before they would die. It was like that every time the teacher hesitantly unlocked the door that led to the Ball Box. Tony and Sidrik entered the gym, rummaged through the Ball Box, and joined the ball-throwing melee with their weapons.

“Tony!” He heard from behind. He turned around and received a breath-stopping ball in the chest from Sebastian.

Sebastian Gayle was a loudmouth and a bully. Students were a little scared of him because he didn’t stop boasting about how strong he was and how many kids he’d beaten up in the past. He was the oldest of the class, and made everyone know about it.

Sebastian was still absorbing the proudness of his hit when he quickly got interrupted by Sidrik’s ball, which he received in the face. He did not accept that.

 “You got a problem?” Sebastian challenged, with a big red mark on his left cheek, which made him look a little less powerful.

“Are you doing your tough guy on me?” Sidrik called out, “Because it won’t work.”

Sidrik and Sebastian were rivals in gym class, because Sidrik was slightly bigger than him and he also liked to bully kids. Somewhere else in the gym, Alex was getting invaded by balls from Phillip, Scott, Kevin and Anthony.

“Stop it guys!” Alex cried. He was curled into a ball on the floor trying to disappear.

“Come on, weakling! Get up!” Scott told him while bombing balls at him with the rest of the Gang.

Alex got up and managed to do it while blocking his face as he kept receiving balls from every direction. The boys then stopped throwing balls at him, and as soon as Alex started taking a step away, Bradley came out from nowhere, screaming and running, and he hit the boy in the neck with his forearm like a clothesline. Alex flipped harshly on his back, started to dwell tears, and ran to Mrs.Stafey, the gym teacher. They were obviously going to be in trouble.

“S**t, Brad! Why the hell did you do that?” Anthony asked.

“Oops, I didn’t want to make him cry. I just wanted to join in,” Bradley shrugged, “Not my fault if he can’t take jokes.”

“What the hell man, now we’ll be in trouble for sure.” Phillip said.

The blow of a whistle was heard. Class was starting.

 “Okay!” Mrs. Stafey called. Everyone sat on the floor in their respective lines, in their respective order. The line on which you sat in gym class was always pre-determined at the start of the year. There would be no re-ordering during the year, except if very necessary. That meant Phillip and Scott weren’t beside or behind each other, and Kevin wasn’t in line with anybody from the Gang. An interesting factor was that in each line, every single person in the line was part of the conversation, and no one was left out. Even people who rarely or never talked to each other at school would talk when they were sitting in the gym line.

Mrs. Stafey walked left and right, checking over the students. She then pointed at Phillip, Scott, Kevin, Bradley and Anthony. “Over there in the corner, fifty push-ups. And don’t rush them, because you won’t be playing anyways.”

“Damn Brad!” Kevin blared out, and they all skulked to the corner, sighing exaggeratedly to demonstrate how badly they were being treated.

“Let’s hurry up and do them guys.” Phillip murmured and started pumping fiercely. He was quite in shape for his age, or maybe he was only accustomed to those sorts of punishments.

“Yeah, then we’ll sneak in the game and no one will notice.” Bradley added.

“Fifty more for all of you then.” Mrs. Stafey called out.

“Damn Brad!” They all blared out at the same time, except for Bradley, who thought it was funny.

 By hearing the noises of the boys grunting and panting, Mrs.Stafey was satisfied and she then started making the teams.

“Jayson…left. Karyann…right.” The teacher started.

“Come on, I’ve got to be in the same team as Shane!” Tony said to himself.

“Tony…left. Shane…”

“Crap.”

“Right.”

Alex was out of the game because he told Stafey that he was too injured to play. So he just sat down, waiting eagerly to see everybody getting ravaged by balls, while he wouldn’t get hit by a single one.

Tony was now with Jayson, Sebastian, Pribil, Grace, Niomie, Clara, and Sidrik. The pitchers were Sebastian, Sidrik, and Grace. Pitchers were the people on the front catching and throwing the balls. Only good aimers and courageous people would do the job, and Grace was one of the rare girls that were brave and good enough to be one. The gatherers were the ones in the back hiding and catching balls that happened to roll by, and then handing them over to the pitchers. That job was mostly left to the girls because they didn’t want to do anything else, and they were scared of getting hit by balls anyway. So Niomie and Clara were the gatherers. Tony, Pribil and Jayson were what they called the distracters. The distracters hung out about everywhere in the field, and their job was to distract and taunt people by moving around and evading balls, giving some job for the gatherers.

 The other team was Shane, Zachary, Bryan, Laurence, Karyann, Trina, Caroline, and Catherine. The pitchers were Shane and Zachary. The girls were the gatherers, and Bryan was the lone distracter.

The two teams went in their respective halves of the gym and waited for Stafey’s whistle. The two teams glared at each other. Each person quickly chose another person to charge onto, and some tried to guess who would charge on them. They scrutinized the area with vigilant eyes for the best strategic places that matched the different roles of each player. Everyone had their plan made and ready, and the whistle blew.

 The kids charged for the balls in the middle like two opposing armies about to clash. Balls started flying in every direction, and it was hard to tell what came from where. One flying ball got Niomie on the arm, therefore she was out. Both Zachary and Bryan threw a ball at Sidrik, but he was swift enough to catch both balls with his hands, so the two of them were also out. Shane bent down to get a ball and Sidrik took the golden opportunity to throw the two balls he caught right in Shane’s back. His first one missed and got Laurence instead, but the second one got Shane right in his back.

“Alright!” Sidrik exclaimed.

Shane growled in anger. Every fan of the sport knew how insulting it was to be eliminated right at the beginning of the game. He ragingly threw his ball at Sidrik. Shane’s ball was incredibly fast, but Sidrik was still able to duck in time before the ball arrived. He thanked God, and then continued with the game. Zachary put all of the girls in Tony’s team out, except for Grace, who got him out before he had time to throw one at her. Only the girls were left in the other team, while Tony, Sidrik, Sebastian and Pribil were still remaining in the other team. The boys quickly got rid of the girls and the game ended with the victory of Tony’s team.

After some begging and a couple of apologies for having picked on Alex, the Gang was now allowed to play, so Stafey split them up in the two teams. Scott and Kevin were in Tony’s team and Phillip, Bradley, and Anthony were in Shane’s team. Alex then joined in Tony’s team.

“Everybody get into place!” Mrs.Stafey ordered, “All balls in the middle? Get set.”

Everyone quickly planned their own attack. Scott eyed Pribil, and Pribil knew that Scott was the first threat to deal with. Bradley laid his eyes on Kevin, and they both fiercely glared at each other, impatiently waiting for the whistle. Tony had spotted his target, and pointed at Phillip for him to know that the duel was on. The teacher then blew the whistle.

Scott, instead of heading for the balls, headed directly for Pribil and pushed him to the ground. “Ha-ha, loser!” he called, and then headed for the middle with the other pitchers. Sidrik got three balls and then headed straight to the back part of his field. All the other pitchers in each side of the field started throbbing balls at each other. Sidrik waited close to Tony for things to calm down a little bit so he could then barge in at the right moment.

Bradley got Kevin out while Kevin was rolling on the floor, imitating a monkey for some unclear reason. Sidrik had a lot of skill in Dodgeball. He got Bradley and Anthony out while dodging their balls. But then, while he was occupied throwing balls in the back to get some girls, he got hit on the left shoulder by Jayson. Zachary uselessly tried to throw a ball at Shane, but Shane caught it with the least effort, and therefore Zachary was out. Pribil was still on the ground recovering from Scott’s tackle, when he got hit by Karyann. It was a courageous but sacrificial act from Karyann, who then got hit by a ball in the chest by Grace. Alex was in his own corner, scared and practically doing nothing. Tony and Phillip had been ragingly attacking each other with balls since the beginning of the match, but they never caught each other. They only paused to dodge incoming balls, or to eliminate potentially easy targets that passed by. Scott threw a ball at Phillip from the corner of his field, but Phillip saw it coming and caught it, eliminating Scott.

“Oh you got owned, sucker! Go to your bench and stay there like the loser you are!” Phillip called to Scott, looking at him provokingly. That was before he got hit by a ball in the stomach by Tony.

“Oh! Who’s the sucker now, mothafucka?” Scott called back. The two foes started pushing each other in the middle of the field and before it could start to be serious, Mrs. Stafey interfered and separated the two children, also assigning lines to them for homework as a reward for swearing.

Trina and Grace were then hit by Sebastian, and Tony dived to catch a ball that Catherine had aimlessly lobbed in the air. Catherine was out and another player from Tony’s team was allowed in since he had caught the ball. Sidrik came in to help his buddy. Jayson and Niomie started invading Sebastian with balls, and even though he was good at dodging, he eventually got caught by one of Jayson’s precise throws. Shane cranked himself up to throw a ball at Alex, but he claimed himself out before Shane could even throw the ball. So Shane threw his ball at Bryan instead, which was a hit.

Tony and Sidrik were now alone against the big crew still standing on the opposing side. Tony was doing his part by picking up balls and giving them to Sidrik, while Sidrik threw them out to hit some people. The game was tense, and Sidrik managed to get most of the girls out. Now only Niomie, Jayson and Shane were left on the other side.

“We’re winning this!” Sidrik exclaimed.

“Don’t’ be too sure yet! It’s not over ‘til I’m outta the game!” Shane shouted back and he threw a violent overhand in Sidrik’s direction, which fortunately missed.

Tony ran to get the red ball that Shane had just thrown. He bent down and drew his hand to pick it up, but before grabbing the ball, he realized something was very wrong with that hand. It was glowing blue. He looked at his other hand, expecting normality, but it was the same thing.

“Whoa…” He muttered, quite confused. He was pretty unsure of the situation, and so he looked around to get a witness, but no one was looking at him. He checked his hands a second time and they were now back to normal again. “What was that about?” Tony stayed there for a while, checking out his hands that seemed perfectly normal. He shook off the whole idea, grabbed the ball and stood up to give it to Sidrik, but Sidrik was no longer anywhere to be seen on the field. He was out.

“Go Tony!” Sidrik screamed on the bench with the rest of his team.

“Oh no.” He said, instinctively throwing his eyes on Shane. Tony and Shane were good buddies, but this was a Dodgeball game.

“Now let’s finish this!” Shane roared from the other end of the court. He started cranking himself up and ran to the middle line of the gym.

“No, not the Slam Ball!” Tony pleaded as he watched Shane do his fearsome technique. Shane jumped up and swung the ball with all his mighty strength right at Tony’s head. It was too fast to dodge, and simply too powerful to catch. Tony had no choice but to close his eyes and turn around, waiting for the painful moment to come. The slamming sound was heard like a rubber belt snapped on some kid’s naked butt, and it resonated throughout the whole gym. The students were jaw-dropped from the following scene. Tony was neither on the floor, nor was he crying or whining in pain. Tony was up and standing, arm reached out in Shane’s direction, with Shane’s ball in his reached out hand. The class was aghast.

“Can’t be, right?” Phillip asked.

“Did he really catch it?” Anthony asked.

“What a ninja!” Sidrik shouted out.

The students continued to question each other in disbelief, but a big moment of silence occurred when they heard another snap, similar to Shane’s Slam Ball, but louder. Shane fell on his arse and slightly slid on the floor after the impact. The crowd was bewildered. Tony didn’t have the ball anymore, and Shane was on the ground. The red ball just rolled innocently across the field. Niomie and Jayson, the two players left in Shane’s team, dropped their balls and looked at Shane, then Tony, and Shane again.

“What?” Tony whispered to himself. Tony was even more surprised than the class, because he didn’t know what had just happened either. He awkwardly walked to Mrs. Stafey. “Miss, may I go to the washroom? I don’t really feel well…”

“What happened, Tony?” She asked.

“I don’t know, Miss, but I really have to go.” Tony replied impatiently. He had suddenly developed an immense headache, and instantly he fell to his knees in pain. The gym floor shook terribly and when the students started losing their balance, they proceeded with panicking.

“Holy s**t an earthquake!” Anthony started yelling.

“I’m still a virgin!” Bradley screamed while leaning against the wall to stay steady. The students did just like him and all leaned against the wall, except for Sidrik who tried to advance close to Tony.

 Shane tried to stand up but the shaking was too violent. Mrs. Stafey crawled up to a wall so she could lean on it too.  Tony was on his four legs, and it was his headache that retained him from standing up.  He looked at his hands, and they were glowing blue again, as if the nerves in his hands had been replaced by blue radiating neon lights. His headache calmed down to a tolerable level, so he stood up and as he did, the floor stopped shaking. He ran outside the gym and slated for the nearest washrooms.

“Tony, stop! We have to stay as a group!” Mrs. Stafey shouted.

Tony only had the time to hear her say, “It’s not safe…” And he was already past the gym door and down to the next hallway.

“What the heck was that? It was so crazy.” Kevin said.

            “I dunno, but I thought it was pretty darn cool.” Anthony answered.

            “Ha, Tony got so scared that he ran away.” Scott added.

            “…He probably pissed himself.” Phillip continued.

            “That’s not likely,” Zachary bumped in, “Because even Alex didn’t run away.”

            “He sure pissed himself, though.” Sebastian said, pointing at Alex, who had a huge dark spot on his light blue shorts, implementing the dark and light contrast.

             “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m gonna figure it out.” Sidrik said, running for the door.

“And where do you think you’re going, kid?” The teacher demanded before Sidrik arrived at the door, but he ignored her and ran off.

“When I come back, I will be in trouble.” He said to himself, and proceeded on his way.

Sidrik looked around the school for Tony. He would never let his best friend down because he knew that he would do the same thing for him. Truth be told, Sidrik always had a great knack for adventure. He even wrote comic books in his spare time to express such a passion. He ran down the main hallway looking in every direction when he abruptly bounced off the corpulent teacher, Mrs. Pakshoo. He nearly fell down, and then tried to move aside, but she stepped aside too, and you can’t get past such a person that easily.

“…And where are you running to, young man?” She asked, trying to look menacing, and she was.

He gulped and ran away on the other side, going back in his trails. He had to do the big detour to get to the other side. What else could he do? He ran down the stairs and into the cafeteria past Miss Cally, the lunch lady.

“Never takin’ a break, you troublemakers, don’t ya?” Miss Cally said, sighing but smiling at the same time.

“I’m trying to figure out what caused that earthquake, miss. For once I think that’s a good cause.”

“I guess so… and which earthquake is that?”

“Well, you know! The one that just happened while we were in gym class!”

“Oh...right. Well off you go, Mr. Adventurer, before you get caught.” She said with a wink.

“See you at lunch!” He said, running off.

“Ah, children… such imagination, it comes to them just like that.” She said to herself and continued to wash her tables.

Sidrik ran towards the boy’s washroom at the end of the hallway, but before he could arrive, harsh green light came out from the crack under the washroom entry’s door. It was so bright that it lighted the floor up to the wall across from the washroom’s door.

“Whoa…” He gasped, approaching the door cautiously.

 

 

 

 

***

 

“Is there a problem, Jennifer?” Janet Landry, the school principal, asked.

“Well of course there is! Didn’t you feel it? It seemed like the whole town was shaking!” Jennifer Stafey answered to her.

“What do you mean, shaking?”

“It did! We’re all witnesses. It was a huge trembling.” Grace said.

 “We all had to lean on the wall or else we would fall down!” Catherine added.

“Heh heh.” Anthony let out.

The students looked at him.

“Oh, nothing. Just thought of something funny.”

“Tony and Sidrik ran away!” Phillip blurted out.

“And Alex pissed all over the place!” Bradley added.

“Whoa, one at a time, please! Everybody calm down.” Mrs. Landry shouted over all the other kids who were trying to explain at the same time. “What is this all about?” She asked. All the kids remained silent, waiting for someone else to speak.

“I don’t know, Janet. You may find this crazy, but the whole class did witness it with me.” Mrs. Stafey replied.

“HEY! Leave Alex alone!” Mrs. Landry snapped at the swarm of boys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

Sidrik slowly approached the entrance and laid a hand on the doorknob. His hand was shaking and he actually didn’t feel like opening the door at all. It was his first abnormal adventure, and he realized how hard it was to be a superhero. He paused and closed his eyes, thinking of all the adventures that the main character in his comics had to go through.

“Frake ran to the door and busted it open with a single mighty Kung-Fu push-kick, and then ran inside to rescue his friend from that weird green-glowing alien!” He said to encourage himself. He gave a mighty kick to the door, and then another one, and a final big one, and then decided to open the door normally before a teacher would hear all the noise.

 As he opened the door, the green light faded dramatically, as if the alien knew that Sidrik was coming. He went through the passageway of lockers in the changing room and approached the right curb that lead to the sink and toilets. As he passed by one of the open lockers, he noticed upon a wooden ruler. He took it and held it with both hands for self-defence.

“Sidd, go away.”

“Tony! Sidrik screamed, recognizing his voice. He hurried up to the curb, and saw Tony surrounded by green light, holding on to the sink with his head down.

“Oh my god what the f**k! Your hands are blue!”

“Sidrik! Leave, I don’t know what might happen!” Tony snapped at him while still looking down at the sink.

“What might happen?” Sidrik tried to say, but then some sort of invisible energy projected him back harshly into the changing room. He crashed in a locker and stumbled to the ground. Before he could even recover or express any sort of emotion, a green flash blinded him and another powerful gust whooshed him out of the washroom, making him tumble over and knock himself on the wall in front of the washroom. Somewhere in the adventure, he had broken his self-defence ruler. He lay there, squashed on the floor looking terrified, and after regaining his awareness, he stood up and ran away back to gym class to be in trouble.

He arrived in the gym, surprised to see Mrs. Landry waiting for him at the entrance.

“Where are you coming back from? And what’s that broken ruler for?” She asked him.

“Oh um, Tony’s alright… he’s just down in the washroom… throwing up some green chemicals while um, his hands are blue.”

 

***

 

Tony held himself so hard on the sink’s rim that he made a fissure in it. His headache was getting intolerable again, and over that, some familiar voice in his head was muttering something that he couldn’t understand. He went out of the washroom and sought for fresh air, hoping it would make him feel better and relieve his headache. He hurried to find a way outside while holding his head with one hand to ease the throbbing. He babbled nonsense to himself out loud to try and silence the turbulent muttering going on in his head.

Luckily, there was no teacher close, so he managed to sneak outside from a door leading right in front of the Basket-ball court. In the middle of the Basket-Ball court was a figure that Tony couldn’t determine because it wore a sweater with a hood covering its head. The figure held some sort of handheld device that kept ringing incessantly. Tony felt compelled to run away, but then everything stopped. His headache disappeared, his hands weren’t blue, and there was no more blabbering voice in his head. It made him curious as ever to see if the figure had something to do with all this. He hesitantly walked up to the Basket-ball court, and as if the figure had been waiting for him, it turned off the device, shoved it in his pocket and dropped its hood to expose a short but messy haircut, with a horn sticking out in the middle of it. Tony saw the terrifying creature that looked like a human-sized lizard. The creature stared at Tony with deep, shiny yellow eyes, and it paralyzed the boy in fear.

“Who are you?” The anthropomorphic lizard asked.

“I should be the one asking you that.” Tony answered, trying to look tough.

“Tell me your name or I am gonna kill you.” The creature refuted. He opened his mouth to reveal his sharp yellow teeth.

“Tony!” He yelped.

“Tony what?”

“Tony Gardens, it’s my real name, I swear! Please don’t kill me I’ll do whatever you want!” Tony pleaded.

“Ha! So that’s whom we call the Hero! Looks pretty scrawny to me,” The creature said, almost looking deceived.

 Tony was too horrified and consumed to even spell out a word.

“You actually went out of your way to meet me out here, how nice of you. That saves me some trouble. I was lying here trying to figure out how to get in undetected.” The creature walked in circles around Tony, examining him like a car inspector.

 “So… let’s look at what we’ve got here.” The creature stepped up to Tony, and bent down to his height until they were almost touching each other’s noses. “I’m taller than you,” it said, “Even though we’re the same age.”

 Tony had a good look at its face and even with the scaly green aspect and those glowing yellow eyes, his face looked childish.

“If you really are the person I’m looking for, I’ve got no time to lose.”

An instant after his last word, he swiftly drifted behind Tony and delivered a mighty blow from the back of his elbow behind the boy’s head. After feeling dizzy and seeing a handful of spinning colours, Tony fainted and fell front first to the asphalt court.

 “Ha-ha-ha! What a hero…shameful.”