Young Writers Society

Hello everyone. It has been a while since I have posted a story on here. So I figured it was time I posted something. A lot of the work I have posted in the past was stuff I had already written but this story I am going to be writing as I am putting it up.So here it is. Enjoy and please feel free to  tear it apart. I know it is pretty rough still. :)

Chapter 1.

“Felix, your friends from school are here.”

Seven little words.

They don’t seem scary do they? In fact, one would even think such an announcement would bring cheer. Friends are a good thing, you might say. Not if you are me. See, I don’t have friends. I have lackeys, minions or even henchmen, but I don’t have friends. The reason for that is quite simple.

I am the Bully.

Maybe now you are asking the ’why’. Why be a bully? Don’t you know that your actions could be what drives some poor kid to hurt themselves, or lowers their self image so much that they never have the courage to do anything? Blah, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, I have seen the stop bullying videos, the thing is, as long as there are people with different options there will be bigoted people who as going to try to spread their opposing ideas through violence and there is going to be casualties. I decided when I finished middle school right before our family moved that in high school I wasn’t going to be one of the victims.

And I wasn’t. The best offense is a defense they say. So that’s what I did. And as sports were never going to be something I could dominate at or even keep up with the pack in, I choose the one place I knew I would be able to hide. Grant it, if either of my valedictorian, glasses wearing, brothers or genius parents had found out what I planned I would have been disowned. That’s why I came up with the two versions of myself. Felix at home and Flex at school.

Not super original, I am aware of that. A guy who is one way in front of people but has a completely different side that no one ever sees, tale as old as time, plot as original as a reboot movie. Still for a guy whose whole life was taught that he should never be afraid to be himself and to always tell the truth, it was kind of big for me. Like Neil Armstrong big. I was walking on totally unexplored territory and the most amazing thing? It worked.

Leave behind the Star Wars t-shirts, skip the white tennis shoes and never ever tuck in your shirt and you are as good as gold.

So maybe you understand my panic when my mother shouted those words up the stairs. Especially on a Saturday at 10 AM. No normal kid would be up at this time, much less working on complex mathematics on a 4 foot by 6 foot blackboard on his bed room. I might as well hang a banner above my head with the words, “Nerd Alert” on it.

I briefly considered wiping the problems from the surface but decided that it would be fruitless with the mural of the solar system on my walls. Not to mention the Einstein poster and Latin quotes on the other. Sometimes I look back on that moment and wonder why I didn’t do something different. Like get the heck out of the room chalked full evidence that I wasn’t who I pretended or even hide. I have a huge closet. I didn’t do any of those things though.

Instead I froze. My cover was about to be blow to kingdom come and I did nothing.

“His bedroom is the first door on the left. I am sure he is up, you can go right in.” My mother’s voice came from the bottom of the stair.

“Okay, thanks Ms.Collins.” A female voice I didn’t recognize answered.

I had the sudden urge to mess up my neatly made bed.

The door swung open revealing someone I had never seen before. Purple converse were the first thing I notice. They were being worn by a girl who looked close to my own 15 years of age. Her blonde hair was pulled away from her face in two low pigtails, making the puzzled look on her face that much easier to see.

“Hey, Felix?” She said it like a question before turning around and speaking over her shoulder. I only caught a few words. “Are…sure…right guy.” and I caught a glimpse of someone behind her. They pushed past her only to stumble to a complete stop.

I couldn’t stop the name from tumbling out.

“Andrew?”

Andrew Grave’s mouth dropped open and his eyes bugging out. My expression felt like it mirrored his, as I tried to comprehend how the short skinny boy that I stole math answers from several times a week and made a point to shove in a locker 3 times a month, was standing in my bedroom.

“Four eyes!” He blurted out suddenly. I blinked before remembering the thick framed glasses I was wearing, not unlike the pair perched on his nose. I jerked them off, figuring that it wouldn’t really help with damage control to mention they were glassless spectacles. I tossed them on to my bed.

“What can I do for you?” I asked the question to attempt to take command of the situation but ended up sound like a waiter, the only thing that made me feel better at all was that Andrew wasn’t doing much better. Both he and I were jumped when the girl with him spoke up.

“Yeah, you can help us.” Her voice was angry and her blue eyes bore into mine. Hostility was coming off her so strong it was almost was a scent. I was slightly puzzled by the sudden change of attitude until her next words. “That is if you are the box of cat litter that has been bullying Andrew, because you have to stop.”

I was taken aback by the bluntness of her statement and also curious where this was going. I had never been confronted by one of my nerds before. It gave me a rush and I decided I didn’t want that moment to be over just yet. I engaged.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” I pulled my swivel chair away from the desk and sat down in it slowly. “By the way, who are you?” Originally I hadn’t recognized her but looking at her closer I thought she looked familiar.

“The name is Taylor MacMann and what I am talking about is you making Andrew do your math homework for you.” I found myself distracted on the way her nose was crinkling that, however, didn’t stop me from calling her bluff.

“So you got any proof?” I let my tone go bored.

She smiled coldly. “Naturally,”

I gave her a smile of my own before replying. “Do tell.”

Annoyance flitted across her delicate features. “Fine, treat this like a joke if you want to but there is proof that you have been cheating off Andrew and it has been in the teachers hands right now. All we have to do is say a few words to them and you will be caught.”

I guess being the bad guy might have run a little deeper than I thought because I couldn’t help but enjoy what I was about to do next.

“Oh, you mean the coded messages he left in the math problems he did for me.” I stood up and walked past the two teens standing in my door way to grab my backpack from where it was hanging from on a hook. After unzipping it I pulled out the paper of answers I had taken from him Thursday. “I have to say I am hurt Andrew, I thought those notes were just between us.” I winked at him before address Taylor again. “He always makes me blush with the things he writes.” I said letting my tone imply that the code words the nerd had be hiding in the math problems he gave me were more than things like, “This guy is a cheater,” Or one my favorites “ I am so dumb that if a zombie stole my brains, no one would notice,” I had to admit, the guy was creative.

Taylor gave Andrew an incredulous look to which he returned with one of his own, “Come on Taylor, you do remember who you are talking to right?” He said gesturing at me with a wild hand.

Taking a step towards me he snatched the paper out of my hand. Pushing up his glasses, he looked closely at the page as if to make sure I hadn’t forged his handiwork. He finally turned a very confused gaze on me. “I don’t understand. If you didn’t turn this in for the test then what answers did you give Ms Dill?”

“My own,” I said crossed my arms over my chest beginning to feel uncomfortable again as I watched the pairs of eyes travel over my room.

“So you don’t even use the answers Andrew give you?” The girl’s blue eyes were confused as she tried to piece together what was going on. “If you aren’t using them then why even bully Andrew for them?” Her brow was wrinkled.

“Because he’s a psychopath,” The lost look had slipped from Andrew’s face. His features were icy cold. “Come on Taylor, we were wasting our time. It was a nice idea Taylor but we’ve got nothing on him,” His voice sounded oddly calm, making me wonder who’s plan it has actually been to come here. He took her arm gently and tried to lead her back to the door but she didn’t budge.

Her jaw jutted out angrily.

“This isn’t over Felix,” She spat at me, and then turned on her heel, her pigtails fanning out as she spun.

After they were gone I sank down in my chair again with a sigh. Disaster was averted for the moment, however I couldn’t help but think that she was right;

This was far from over.

***

I avoided Andrew all of Monday and Tuesday. After spending most of Saturday and all of Sunday in a state of panic I had finally settled on the ‘no contact at all’ plan. Hiding behind walls, ducking around corners, I stuck with it until Wednesday. Then I got fed up.

I was eating lunch in the library when it hit me. This is exactly what I had worked so hard to avoid. Yet here I was letting a first little bit of resistance scary me into retreat. Letting two teenagers tie me in knots. I could feel the cracks forming in the wall I had worked so hard to construct and I didn’t like it.

Wadding up my napkin I stood and pushed back my chair from the table I was sitting at with loud scrape, earning a few dirty looks from several other ‘residents’. That was it. No more slinking around like a scared loser. I tossed my trash and a half eaten apple at a nearby trash can and missed, pegging instead an unfortunate reader by accident. I ignored his yelp and continued out of the library.

Hey, what were you expecting? I am bully.

Surprisingly I didn’t see Andrew or Taylor for the rest of the day. I kept my head up and eyes open  but there wasn’t a sign of them which made me wonder if they might have been avoiding me as much as I was them. Whatever the reason, I didn’t dwell on it much. With me having laid low for the past few days I had a lot of people to make sure were still in line.

When the final bell rang for the day I felt satisfied with the day’s work. Swirlies had been given, a wedgie or two delivered, Tucker, the school report, shoved in his locker and all the henchmen put in their places.

I am very good at what I do.

Walking in to my house though I let myself relax, sometimes it was nice to not feel the pressure of being Flex.

“Mom, I’m home.” I shouted as I took the steps up to my room two at a time. Kicking off my shoes I flipped open my laptop on my desk.

“Shoot.” I said to myself as I saw Quinn; one of the college students I tutored via Skype was already online. I opened a video window.

“Hey Quinn, sorry I am late. I got tied up with some stuff. Hope you weren’t waiting too long.” I apologized as I sat down, clicking on some soft classical music. “How did the test go?”

There was a second delay before her reply came back. “Oh that’s fine, I wasn’t waiting long at all,” The redhead on the screen smiled and brushed her hair back. “The test went great, thanks to you!” Her tone turned extra sweet, “By the way, Felix I was wondering if you would let me skip out on tutoring tonight. There is this party tonight that I really wanted to go to and since it looks like you have friends over how about we just skip lessons for today.” She gave me doe eyes.

I shook my head. “Quinn, we’ve talked about this before. If you want to graduate you can’t just blow off stud…” I stopped when part of what she said sunk in. “Wait, what ‘friends’ are you talking about?”

“Um, the ones right behind you. “ She giggled. “Your girlfriend is cute. Looks like you aren’t all work and no play after all.” She winked at me and ended the link. The darkened window reflected two familiar figures.

“I feel like we already did this. Did we forget to cover something the last time you were here.” I said as I turned around to face the two people sitting on the edge of my bed.

Andrew and Taylor both had the grace to look at least slightly uncomfortable. Taylor manage to pull herself together pretty quickly though. I noticed she was wearing the same purple shoes as before.

“So you’re a tutor as well, you’re just full of surprises, aren’t you Felix?” She stood up and walked slowly over to the shelf with all my trophies on it and ran a finger down the length of the board.

“Chess Tournament Champion four year running. Wow, your parents must be so proud, wonder what your friends Billy, Jess and Ralph would think of these.” She named a few of my side kicks from school as her fingers left the shelf to tap lightly on the sides of the camera hanging around her neck. I done enough blackmail myself in the past couple years to recognize it when I hear it.

“Okay, I’ll leave Andrew alone.” I know when to cut my losses.

Taylor blinked a few times, my words clearly taking a few moments to sink in. She shot a glance at Andrew but then her expression went hard.

“That’s not all we want.” She said and as the smirked formed on her lips. I couldn’t help thinking she would make a marvelous bully.

That is until she told me what she wanted.

“You want me to join the Math Club?” I gasped between bouts of laughter. “The only reason we are parlaying at all is because I want to skip the whole social suicide part of this and as Andrew here can tell you, being a mathlete is most defiantly social suicide.”

The girl wasn’t backing down though. “Suck it up Collins.” She spat out my last name. “We’re the ones making the demands here.”

“Oh, is that right MacMann?” I was starting to get angry. “‘Cause the only one I see talking here is you.” I directed my next words to Andrew.

“You have any demands to make, or did your girlfriend just drag you alone on this ‘Let’s Stop Bullying’ campaign? It's clear to see who is wearing the pant in your relationship. ”

Andrew’s face was red and his mouth had twisted up, Taylor started to speak but Andrew cut her off, shooting to his feet.

“First off you are right, it was Taylor idea to come here, both the first time and today. You are the last person I would want on the Mathete team. When I thought you were just some dumb bully it was bad enough, but then to find out you are a psychopath who like to torturer kids for the heck of it makes it just that much worst.”

He took a breath and seemed to compose himself. “I don't like you but the club needs 6th player if we want to compete in the State Math Olympiad and we need someone who is actually good at math, which you obviously are,” He gestured at my blackboard of problems before crossing his arms over his chest, his stance stiff with defiance. “So that’s the deal, you join the math club or your secret is out.” He turned to the girl.

“Let’s go Taylor.” He motions to the door and she walked out but not before giving me one last glare. Andrew followed but paused a moment before exiting all the way. “Practice is Fridays and Tuesdays after school in Mr. Heaths’ class room, be there or our photos are headed straight to Tucker. I am sure he will be able to find a spot in the school newspaper.” He started to leave but then stop. “Oh and by the way. Taylor isn’t my girlfriend, she’s my cousin.”

Then he was gone and I was left to stew in the choices they had left me.

Which were exactly none.

Thanks again for reading. Hope you liked it. :)

-DG