“Next.” A nasally voice echoed.
He picked up a lunch tray from the stack. While the firefighters dealt with the alarm, Micheal found himself in the cafeteria. Since having students standing outside on the school lawn didn’t give the best impression for anyone passing by, the principal sent everyone affected by the evacuation to the cafeteria to wait. This block was usually reserved for eighth-grade lunch. But today, it now included an impromptu snack break for sixth-graders. And he wasn’t going to say no to free snacks. Although, with the state of the food, he couldn’t say this was any improvement on his day.
He slid his tray along the counter, scanning the options: Jell-O cups with a tiny dollop of whipped cream, generic bags of chips, plastic cups of “fresh” fruit, those stale brownies with colorful sprinkles, and a piece of cardboard masquerading as pizza. He picked up a cup of what looked to be sliced apples; although, since they barely had any moisture left, they may as well have been apple crisps.
“Next.”
“Do you have any caramel sauce?” he asked the lady behind the counter.
“We do, but it’s an extra $1.99.”
Micheal shook his head. Guess he’ll just have apple crisps. After entering his pin, he looked out across the cafeteria. But trying to find an empty seat was going to be troublesome. With two grade-levels worth of students now, the room was packed. As he searched for a seat, he took note of all the renovations made. He could still smell freshly coated paint. Maybe that’s why they had the windows and sliding doors opened. By the looks of it, they had expanded the room; they even added a small outdoor patio with shaded tables and chairs.
All of the changes were likely meant to encourage more parents to administer their students here. His foster mother had mentioned that many parents were choosing to enroll their children in other schools this year. He had overheard her conversation on the phone with his care worker. He figured it must have something to do with the string of bad luck plaguing the school: the high frequency of fights, the recent drop in test scores, and the fact that the school went through teachers like one goes through paper towels. So, with donations from the local elite and alumni, Camden Promise spent a bunch of money trying to enhance its diminishing image.
Yet, with all that money, how could they not purchase some extra chairs and tables? He scanned the room for an empty place to sit. He spotted LaNiye sitting at a table full of cheerleaders. That was unexpected. Although, she was sitting by herself, staring at something on her phone, not really interacting with the girls, who were loudly discussing their first-day-of-school outfits. He eventually settled on the jock table. The group of students there were too enthralled in some game to notice him at the end of their table. He didn’t recognize many of them; maybe they would leave him alone. That’d be a plus. But just as he picked up a crisp, he heard a familiar voice from behind him.
“Hey, look, Goss actually made it to middle school.”
He didn’t need to face the person; he knew who it was. But he did not want to engage. Doing so would only make matters worse, and his day was already stressful.
“Hey, pipsqueak, I’m talking to you. Don’t you have any manners?”
“Not for you.”
“Leave Micheal alone, Lance.” A boy shouted from the jock group.
Micheal turned to see who it was. He was surprised that David said anything, much less knew his name. He always stayed out of trouble, due to his past history of fighting. From what Micheal knew, his mother had managed to avoid expulsion by enrolling David in a ton of sports to keep him too distracted to cause any trouble. Since then, he’s been a decent student. He doesn’t get involved with fights anymore. Although, Lance does have a way of just getting under your skin.
“Stay out of it, David.” Micheal said, trying to spare him.
“Yeah, Brown, stay out of it.” Lance mocked, but David didn’t back down.
“Don’t let him bother you. He’s just mad that he bombed tryouts last week.” David smirked, “it was pretty bad.”
This only managed to piss Lance off even more. The bully clenched his jaw and gritted his teeth, trying not to sound affected by the remark. But Micheal could still hear the annoyance and anger in his voice. He smiled, happy to see someone else getting under Lance’s skin.
“Pssh, whatever. Like I need to be accepted onto your loser team anyway. I’m already planning to transfer to Terrace Hills Academy, before the end of the semester. I need a winning team.”
“Not with your rap sheet. Not even daddy’s money can buy your way into that place.”
Micheal hadn’t even realized he was speaking out loud. And by the time he did, it was too late to turn back. Lance gripped Micheal’s shirt and yanked him up.
“What did you say?” the bully asked.
“I said your history of fights finally came in handy for once. That school is better off without you.” Micheal said, unfazed and without missing a beat.
“Are you saying I’m not smart enough?”
“No, idiot. Are you deaf too? I’m saying I’d love to drop you off at their front doors and never hear back from you again. But the truth is, you’d be back here in a matter of days. There’s no way you could be nice any longer than that. And I’m sure they’d be quite sick of you by then.”
He thought he was being nice about it; all he did was state the facts. Lance had been in so many school altercations with students and teachers that he should have been expelled years ago. But his parents are higher-up school board leaders, so his misdeeds always wind up scrubbed away, and his documents missing.
Lance got silent, and his ears turned red. He shoved Micheal back at the table. Micheal didn’t have a chance to brace for the impact. He collided with the side of the table, hurting the side of his stomach.
“Do you have any idea who you’re talking to? When did you even start talking back?”
David jumped over his friends and knelt beside Micheal. He put his hand on his back.
“Geez, Lance. Are you hurt Micheal?” he asked.
It did hurt, but he wasn’t going to say it out loud. Micheal shook his head, secretly biting his tongue so as to not yell from the pain. He looked up and faced Lance, who was smiling with his arms folded. He looked so smug.
“Nothing to say now, orphan?”
Micheal looked around the room. Where the heck were the teachers when you actually needed them? For many other kids, summer break was supposed to be a fun and relaxing time spent with family. But for him, summer break usually meant moving foster homes. And after multiple rejections due to his “difficulties” and “inability to communicate,” he only saw the same family for a year. Thankfully, his new foster parents were located in the same city; all he had to do was change neighborhoods. But he quickly realized that he couldn’t rely on adults to look out for him. And if that was the case, then he had to look after himself. And that starts with not taking crap from anyone.
“Well? Tongue-tied?”
“Back off, Lance. Just walk away.” David said.
“Forget it. No way some dumb orphan is gonna speak to me that way.”
Micheal back stood up. Lance was back in his face, poking him in the chest.
“He’s not gonna do anything, if he knows what’s good for him?” he said.
But Micheal had no intention of backing down. He pushed against Lance with all his might, managing to shove him enough to stumble backwards. Luck must have been on his side, because Lance happened to trip over a misplaced chair, falling onto the floor on his back. A couple nearby tables noticed, some of them laughed.
“You seriously let some sixth-grader knock you down?” someone snickered.
Lance sat up. He touched his cheek tenderly, before locking eyes with Micehal again. It looked like he got scratched. But to Micheal, it wasn’t anything compared to his own pain. His side still burned from the impact with the table, yet he still advanced towards Lance. But this time David stepped in his way.
“Walk away, Micheal. You don’t need to go farther. It won’t do any good.”
“He’s not worth it.” LaNiya chimed in.
That was true. But he also remembered what his mother had said, that if there must be a fight, so long as you didn’t throw the first punch, you would be okay. Lance had pushed first, so he thought, why not show him a lesson? He then walked over to Lance and gripped his shirt. He pulled back a fist, ready to strike. Some students began crowding around them.
“I think it’s only fair that a bully like him deserves the absolute worst kind of—”
“THAT IS ENOUGH!” a voice boomed from the back of the cafeteria.
Everyone turned and saw their principal and vice principal walking down the aisles of cafeteria tables, with an older-looking male walking straight towards Micheal and Lance.
Micheal loosened his grip on Lance’s shirt, allowing David and LaNiye the chance to pull him off the bully and a bit farther away from the scene. But the woman took one glance in their direction and glared, daring them to take one more step away. The trio froze in place.
“What is the meaning of this chaos?” the principal asked.
“Lance?”
The older man walking behind her bee-lined it towards the bully on the ground. Micheal was a bit shocked at how fast he moved. For someone who looked relatively old, the guy moved swiftly around the principal. He even slipped through the remaining students crowded around Lance, who was still lying on the cafeteria floor, wiping his nose, when the man finally reached him.
“Lance?! What happened?!” the man screamed.
“Lance Gerald,” the principal asked, “you’d better not be starting another raucous in my cafeteria again.”
The old man jerked his head around so fast Micheal thought he could have broken something.
“Principal Mays, surely you are not insinuating that my son could in any way be the aggressor in this situation! He’s lying on the floor, for Christ’s sake. Not to mention the fact that his shirt has been wrinkled, and there are now stains on his pants.”
Micheal caught Principal Mays rolling her eyes when the old man turned back to Lance. It was so quick and reactive that he guessed this guy often annoyed her. But he was surprised by her next reaction.
“My apologies, sir.”
Everyone in that room quietly inhaled. This was the woman who, like her second-in-command, refused to be told what to do. Not even officers could threaten them. Micheal guessed that this man must be above her in some way. Principal Mays was said to confront parents who questioned her harsh disciplinary actions towards those who continued to break school rules, children like Lance. But here she was, bowing her head to this parent who obviously doesn’t know his little angel of a son, who is actually a renowned bully.
“Just what kind of school are you running here? My son has been attacked. I want the culprit found immediately. Who did this to you, Lance?”
Lance wasted no time and stuck out his finger, pointing to the culprit.
“That’s him?” the man asked.
“All three of them did it.” Lance corrected.
“What?” LaNiye said, her shock being sudden. She nearly let go of Micheal.
“That’s not true!” Zuriya said.
Micheal had to scan the crowd to find her. She soon emerged from behind them.
“Principal Mays, Lance started the fight. He said awful things about Micheal.” She continued.
“Are you calling my son a liar?” the old man asked.
Principal Mays looked over towards Micheal. From routine, he turned his head away from her gaze, though he thought in hindsight that may not have been the best move.
“That child even looks guilty.” The man continued yelling.
“Micheal, is that true?” Principal Mays asked.
He felt the surge of anger start to well back up again. Why was he the one being questioned? He yanked his arm away from David and finished standing up on his own. He stumbled a bit, still uneasy from the crash earlier.
“Seriously, are you okay?” David whispered.
“Yeah. Fine.” Micheal answered, turning to his principal, “Lance started it.”
“Liar!” Lance shouted.
“You’re the liar”, Micheal shouted back, “And you’d better start telling the truth you giant—.”
“Certainly, we can’t believe anything YOU say. Just look at my son on the floor. Two students had to grab you off of him. Everything points to you as the delinquent one.” The old man said, finally helping Lance off of the floor. He then turned towards Principal Mays. “Frankly, Principal Mays, after everything I’ve seen here today, I have half a mind to close down this establishment. Or, at the very least, assign it to a more qualified candidate—ones who will actually protect our students.”
The man’s face started to turn a faint tint of red with all his yelling. Still, Principal Mays remained calm and collected.
“I assure you, sir, that proper actions will be taken once everyone—”
“I will not be talked down to when my child has been assaulted by delinquents. Now, unless you wish to take a trip with me down to the board of educators, I suggest justice be administered immediately!”
“And just what exactly would you have me do, superintendent?
“Expulsion! Expel all four of them!”
People like Lance didn’t care about what they did or said. They walked about with the confidence that someone would always take their side. They had power. Stupidity in relying on such a weak principle, but still power nonetheless. That’s what made Micheal so mad. Those kinds of people would never understand the weight of their actions until they got to feel it first-hand like everyone else. He didn’t regret his decision. But Zuriya, David, and LaNiye only got into this because of him. They didn’t deserve to be punished.
“You can’t punish them. They didn’t do anything wrong.” Micheal called out.
“See? They’re protecting one another. They must all be guilty or at least cahooted with one another.”
“I don’t need anyone to protect me.” Micheal cut in.
“Mark my words, Mays, if you’re showing leniency towards these no good—”
“ENOUGH,” Principal Mays finally shouted back, “There is not a single, viable reason that you should continue to be insulting our students here. This is a school matter, and as such, it is the principal’s job and responsibility to administer a punishment deserving of the actions taken. And I will not take kindly to such threats. If you have a problem with my standards and methods, you are free to remove your children from our establishment.”
She glanced towards Lance.
“And I would be sure to transfer his entire school file to the next recipient personally.” She said, glaring back at the old man.
There was a bit of silence hanging there for some time before the old man spoke again.
“None of this will distract me from the fact that you have yet to serve a punishment towards my son’s aggressors—”
“Goss, Rodgers, Brown, and Thomas. Principals’ office, now!” Ms. Mendoza said, quickly cutting the old man off.
Micheal looked back at Lance, who had the nerve to smile after everything that had happened. He clenched his fists, ready to throw another punch at Lane’s stupid face.
“Micheal Goss!” Ms. Mendoza repeated his name.
David rushed towards Micheal, pushing him towards the cafeteria doors and out into the cool hallway, along with the other three students he had gotten in trouble with.
