Chapter 18: Bully the bullies, part 1

It was a great idea... to hint to Eve that we went to the same school, but not to tell her who I was and not to get to know her myself.

If I had done it differently, I would have made myself look like some kind of stalker or fan that I had been following her from afar, knew about her alter ego and... well, that's not a good start for getting to know her.

As it was, I could smugly watch the nervous demeanor of Eve trying to identify me in the crowd of classmates. It was amusing. And since she and I only had one class in common, it was hard to figure me out.

Not impossible, though. I was tall for my age, well-built, and, though the mask partially hid my face, handsome - perfect genetics, not my fault, of course, but still nice, even the typical teenage problems like acne, bypassed me. The rest of the schoolboys, on the other hand... let's just say there aren't that many guys who meet all of the above requirements in our age group. And those who do answer are mostly athletes and other smug jerks - not that I'm prejudiced against sports, but premature popularity isn't good for a kid's character, and being unpopular isn't either. So after studying the local American football teams in the cafeteria (why foorball, by the way, if that game has no foot or, strictly speaking, a ball) and baseball, Eve expectedly found no suitable candidates for charming and witty superheroes; the boys were clearly lacking in the latter.

Finally her wandering gaze fell on my desk and Will's-since he knew my secret, it can be hard to get away from him at school-and... unimpressed by what she saw, she slid on. Well...

What did I expect, though? I was safe from female attention when I was with Will. Even if I didn't know about his secret nature, I couldn't imagine a girl going out with this guy. *

In the end she had no idea who was under the mask, and I didn't want to help her figure out who the mysterious stranger was, so I let her suffer a little... it was a shame: I was able to figure it out easily in the last world.

And speaking of shared classes and dorky athletes. These two things have a non-obvious connection: the son of Mr. Heisel, the biology teacher who taught Eve and me in the same class, will soon kill himself, after which his grief-stricken father will launch his vendetta against the jerk-jocks. Then it cost the lives of three of our best players on the soccer team and a dozen other random victims at the mall, where Hysl Sr. blew up the first student. Yes, this balding, boring biology teacher was unusually talented at organic terrorism - he turned kidnapped soccer players, and himself as well, into living organic timed bombs.

And since I'm here again, and that inventive jerk's son is still alive, why not prevent this bloody reference to "Breaking Bad" before it even begins? Thank goodness Mr. Hysl recounted before he died the reason for his son's suicide - the jerk athletes who bullied him. I glanced over at Richard from time to time, and the kid hadn't seemed too banged up until recently. Not the star of teenage Olympus, but not the ultimate loser either. He was one of those natural-born opportunists who, having no talent of their own in sports, nevertheless tried to get attached to the popular kids, hoping to eat scraps off their table. And Dick was pretty good at it. He had found a way of behaving that kept him to himself and didn't get too badly bullied. He wasn't too smart, but he made a perfect fool of himself. Realizing that he was not going to get a high position, he took the niche of being a sympathetic idiot who did not argue with anyone, and therefore became everyone's friend.

But not so long ago something didn't go according to plan, and the attitude of his patron friends toward the guy changed drastically. I don't know what he'd done to go from being a safe idiot to an object of ridicule and humiliation, but the result was that for a week now all of Dick's attempts to get back in with the cool company had been met with laughter and a new wave of humiliation.

And now, as Eve glanced around the dining room, I noticed that the younger Hysl had left the dining room with his head down again, and that Derek Sullivan, the stereotypically handsome, blond soccer player, had separated from the jocks' table and was following him with a focused expression on his face. Was this the climax of the conflict?

"I'll be back in a few minutes," I said to Will. "Will you keep an eye on my portion?

"Uh... what?" Clockwell was surprised at my back, but I wasn't listening.

In the hallway, I saw Derek and another guy I hadn't seen before put his arm around the victim's shoulders and lead Dick away toward the back of the school. Well, there were two possibilities... they'd either be gay or they'd be fighting. I hope it's the latter, as I have no desire to witness the former, especially within the walls of the school.

When I followed the sweet trio to the garbage can where Eve and I used to change into our costumes after school, I listened to the sounds coming from behind the brick and garbage heaps. Right now it would be nice to have super hearing, but even without it, I could make out something threatening, in high-pitched tones and about some Julie or something like that. So it's all about the girl? There was the sound of a bang, and one of the gates that covered the dumpster from the students' eyes shuddered. They were fighting, after all, thank God.

I looked around - no one seemed to be looking, only a janitor wielding a broom melancholy at the other end of the yard - and followed the couple. Just in time to see Derek place Dick's already slightly battered head against the trash can, while the other bully lifted Hysl by the legs, helping the process along.

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"Ew, that's uncultured..." I remarked as I closed the gate.

"What?" Derek, who had been chickening out at first, realized he'd been caught by a schoolboy just like himself, and got angry. "Grayson? Get out of here while you're still in one piece, it's none of your business."

Oh, the soccer star knows me, I' m popular... and I'd love to take his advice, but that's my hero's burden - to interfere where I'm not asked.

"It's getting too crowded in here," I say calmly, and with a light push to my chest I knock the guy standing closest to me to the ground.

"You brought this on yourself!" Letting go of Dick's head, Derek swung his shoulder with the obvious intention of hitting me.

But a swift slap interrupted his bountiful swing, instantly disorienting him and sending him hugging the helpfully open garbage can.

"You're gona regret this, Grayson!" panted the other bully from the floor. "We're not ov..."

The rest of the threatening speech sank into the garbage that sheltered the too hot and chatty head. I'm usually against this kind of schoolyard humiliation and self-aggrandizement, but they wanted to do the same thing to Hysl, and they attacked him, who was already notoriously weaker, with two of them. Derek followed his friend headfirst into the dumpster. The boys struggled, of course, clutching their palms to the sides of the can, but they only skinned their hands and made the dive more painful for themselves.

"Oh, shit..." said a shocked Dick, who had been watching the sudden unfolding of his adventure, quietly against the wall.

Well, now these jerks have a new enemy number one, they'll probably, if not get away from the teacher's son completely, at least not drive him to suicide. I turned away from the two pairs of feet twitching in an attempt to find my way back out of the recycling bin and walked out of the dumpster.

"Will you stay here?" I tossed Dick before closing the gate. Only then did he wake up from his stupor and hurry out of the cubbyhole.

It seemed to go quietly, only the janitor gave us a suspicious look...

Note:

* For example, Eve - is your wife and the mother of your child... hmm, jokes are jokes, but the show embellished Clockwell a bit. In the original, he's often a jerk... and yet Eve's tastes are peculiar: first Rex, then Will.

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