CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN: LEO

Athena has missed two full days of school already. I, therefore, therefore expected her to be waiting for me in her seat, grinning, when I entered the class, but she was absent yet again. As I sat down for the customary roll call, Mr. Hunter entered the class. All of the people, both present and absent, had their names called out by him.

"I see Miss Marcos isn't around today," he said looking at her sitting with a scowl on his face, "she has the worst attendance in this class, does anyone know why she is absent".

"Perhaps she finally killed herself to free us from having to look at that ugly ass face," Diana jokes, and the entire class burst out laughing.

"Why don't you shut up Diana?" I yelled, turning to face her.

"What did you say?" she asked, surprised

"Are you deaf? I said shut the fuck up if you have nothing better to say"

"Mr Smith mind the language you use in this class" Mr Hunter said in a warning tone glaring at me

"Oh now you can speak, when she was saying shit about one of your students, you didn't give a fuck"

"Mr Smith watch your language"

"Someone is in trouble"Dylan mocked

"Bitch, fuck you!"

"That's it Mr Smith go to the Principal's office, I have had enough of your attitude"

"Dude chill, did that mute freak of your brother get into trouble again, I thought he'd stay out of trouble after what my brother and his friends did to him?" James said.

"What the fuck did you just say? I didn't quite hear you, can you repeat that"

"I said that bro..." I walked over to his table and punched the wall beside him

"Next time you should learn to keep your mouth shut James, and you should tell your brother to stay away from mine because I won't hesitate to put him in his place"

"What the fuck do, you could have seriously hurt me"

"Yes I could have but I didn't, but I could have"

Mr. Hunter yelled, "Mr. Smith, that is enough, get out of my class!" I could see the fear in their eyes; it's better that everyone is terrified of me because if they're scared they won't cross me.

"Gladly, I don't want to be here any longer, and you should be ashamed; you call yourself a teacher, but what should I expect, everyone here is an asshole," I said, picking up my bag before walking out of class and straight to the principal's office, where I took a seat in the waiting area and put in my earphones to calm down, my blood boiled because it was that little fucker's brother who assaulted Shane, and just thinking about it irritated me.

"Mr Smith, the principal will see you now," the secretary said as I walked into her office. She was on the phone when I arrived, so I sat down and tapped my fingers on the armrest while waiting for her to finish.

"Mr. Smith, I heard you called your classmates derogatory names and threatened another one; is this true?

"Yes, ma, I will not deny it, and I will accept any punishment you impose."

"Well, that's responsible of you, but the parents of the students you assaulted want you expelled, Mr. Smith."

"Hmm, so what's going to happen now ma, am I going to be expelled or not because I'm not going down without a fight?"

"Not today because the basketball coach put in a good word for you, and you only get community service for now, but the next time you are called into my office, Mr Smith, do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal clear, Ma"

"You will be required to complete 100 hours of community service, on Friday and Saturday, you will report to your coach whenever you're done."

Okay, Ma, may I go now?

"Yes you may" Shane said, I managed to contain my anger as I left her office because James had touched a nerve when he mentioned Shane. As a result, I found out that Zack is James's brother.

I proceeded to my next class, physics. I was about twenty minutes late, but it didn't matter. "Mr Smith, you finally graced us with your presence," he scoffs,

"It's the least I can do, we both know I'm your favorite student."

"Just take your seat, Mr Smith, so we can get back to class," I said as I sat down, not before flipping off Dylan and his friends. They all glared at me, murmuring amongst themselves.

"Mr Thompson, would you and your friends mind sharing what you're talking about with the class? It must be important if you have to disrupt my class."

"It's nothing sir" Dylan said still glaring at me "if it's nothing can you boys stop disrupting my class so the others can pay attention".

I could see the fumes coming out of his ears, oh this is just the beginning, they will regret ever messing with Shane or me.

Do you ever notice how time slows down when you're in a class you despise? For example, we're in chemistry right now, and time is moving extremely slowly. I despised this damn subject with all my heart.

The teacher just went on and on about chemical formulas and equations that I couldn't care less about.

Then a guy walked in. He was dressed in all black, his hood was covering his face so I couldn't see his face clearly, he was about to take his seat when the teacher called him back. "Mr Kendall come back here, can you tell me why you are late to class?".

"No"

"Mr Kendall, what did you say?"

"I said no or is your old age getting to you sir," he mocked.

"You just got back from juvie Mr Kendall, so you have to be careful, also you should be grateful the principal still allowed you to attend school here, I don't know why they let you go, you should still be locked up."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm a letdown, yadi, yadi, yada, can I take my seat now?"

"Watch your tone, boy, because I have the authority to remove you from this class."

"Well, whether you send me out or not, I've got better things to do than stay here."

I could tell the old man was holding back, because the dude just stood in front of me, staring at the floor, as if he didn't want to be here.

"Who wants to take Mr Kendal on as a partner here?" The teacher asked with a smug expression, knowing that no one here would answer, but when I raised my hand, he looked shocked.

"Dude, you can come over, I don't have a partner," I replied with a sweet smile, both of them looked surprised, I didn't care what the dude had done, I don't judge people without first getting to know them.

"Mr Smith, are you sure? Mr Kendall here will just bring you down; you're new, so you don't know who he is or what he did?," he cautioned.

"Well, I really don't care, he needs a partner and I need one as well, so problem solved Sir," I replied, and I saw the dude smile briefly before his expression changed to one of irritation when the teacher looked at him again.

"Go sit next to Mr Smith, Mr Kendall, and try to stay out of trouble this time."

"Whatever, sir," he mockingly said.

He walked over to our slab and sat beside me, and Dylan and his friend couldn't stop themselves from saying, "Awn it's so nice two freaks joining forces, how cute." I wish I could punch him in the face.

I was about to say something, but the new guy beat me to it. "Wow Dylan, you are still the dumb jock I remember, come on I know you wouldn't have come up with that insult yourself, even if it was weak, was it blondie or the emo freak over there?" he asked, giving him a huge smile.

Ladies and gentlemen, Dylan was rendered speechless. "Leo Smith, nice to meet you," I said, stretching out my hand for a handshake.

"Austin Kendall, right back at you, thanks for what you did back there," he said as he accepted my handshake, a wide grin on his face. He reminded me of my old friend Rider in some ways.

"No problem, that dude is a jerk."

He nodded as we both returned our attention to the board, but Austin lost interest along the way, pulling out a small combat knife and beginning to play with it.

At the end of the class, the douche assigned us a group assignment worth 20% of our grade; "So how are we going to do this, your place or mine?" I inquired.

"Would you mind If we just do the whole assignment at your place, my house isn't visitor friendly" With the look, he gave me after that statement, I didn't bother pushing it because I knew exactly what he meant because I had been there before.

"No problem, we can go over after school, but I will have to pick up my little brother first if you don't mind"

"Nope it not a problem, see you later"

I'm not sure what made me call him back, but he looked like he needed a friend, "Hey what class do you have next?" I asked,

"Biology," he replied with a raised eyebrow, "Cool, same here, we're going to the same place, so why don't we just go together?"

"Are you sure? I'm not someone you'd want to be seen with."

"I already have a bad reputation, so what the fuck, you seem like a cool dude."

"It's your funeral," he said as we both exited the chemistry lab for biology. The walk there was quiet, but people were staring at us like zoo animals, so I snapped.

"Yo, don't you fuckers have anything better to do, staring is rude," I yelled before they all stopped staring. As we walked into class, Miss Anne recognized Austin.

"Welcome back, Austin Kendall; it's great to see you."

"Right back at you, Miss Anne, how's little Summer?"

"Summer is fine, Austin; I just wanted to apologize and thank you for that day."

"It's not a problem, Miss Anne; anyone would have done the same thing, and there's no need to apologize."

Miss Anne began class when everyone had settled down, Miss Anne was one of her nice teachers, she genuinely cared about her students, which is why I liked her unlike the other assholes teachers in this school

The bell for lunch went off, and we all left class but Austin stayed behind to talk to Miss Anne. I waited outside the door for him, when he walked out and saw me I saw the surprised look he gave me but it was gone and replaced with his usual neutral expression.

"You waited?" he asked, raising his brow. "Yeah, I hate eating lunch alone, so let's go, dude."

"You don't give up, do you?"

"No, it's one of my best qualities," I said with a big grin.

When Austin and I walked into the cafeteria, all eyes were on us as murmurs filled the cafeteria; seriously, don't people have better things to do than stick their noses In other people's business, I noticed Austin didn't get a tray or have his lunch with him, so when we took our seats, I placed my extra sandwich in front of him and turned to face me with a questioning look on his face.

"It's not poisoned if that's what you want to know," I said, looking up at his puzzled expression, "just take it, it's my extra, and who says no to free food?"

"You're one odd guy, why are you so nice to me?"

"I won't say I know what you're going through because I don't; I'm just trying to be nice and pay it forward, that's all," I explained as I bit into my sandwich.

"You are one of them."

"What are you talking about?" I asked my brow raised.

"You are one of those people that act like heroes and believe they can save everyone," he answered

"I'm far from being a hero Austin, I've done some things I'm not proud of, but I try to make up for that every day of my life."

"Hmm," he said, before unwrapping the sandwich and biting into it.

"You are the first person that hasn't asked me about juvie".

"It's not my place to ask; if you wanted to tell me, you would have already," I shrugged, as we ate in silence until Diana decided to grace us with her presence.

"What are you doing with this jailbird, Leo? You're aware that he murdered someone, right?"Diana said, making Austin frown slightly, but he ignored her, so because he killed someone that's why people were giving me weird looks. 'But who did he kill? And why?'

"Diana," I said.

"Yes, Leo, what do you need?" She inquired, batting her eyes at me.

"For you to leave me and Austin the fuck only, do you understand or do I have to say it slowly so your mind can comprehend what I'm saying?" I asked, and I swear I saw Austin give a small smile at my response.

"Why are you being so cruel to me? I'm just trying to prevent you from committing social suicide. First, you were standing up for that whore, and now it's this murderer.

"Diana, I'd leave right away if I were you. I'm trying to stay cool, but you're treading into dangerous waters, so fuck off."

"You're still thinking about what happened a few days ago, she's a whore and doesn't deserve you, so let me show you how well I can look after you, Leo."

"Diana, I believe he would prefer to eat glass than date you, but that could just be my opinion," Austin said

"Mind your damn business, jailbird; this is between Leo and me, so stay out of it," Diana yelled at him, and Austin smirked.

"Austin, it's not just your opinion; I'd rather eat glass."

"See I told you so, now walk away before I give you a beating".

"You'd hit a woman, that's barbaric,"

"Diana dear, calling you a woman would be an offence to the female gender, just saying," Austin said with a huge grin, and Diana was as red as a tomato, so I couldn't help but laugh until I almost fell off my seat, and Austin soon joined me.

"You as…hole, why are yo..u so stu…pid?" Diana stuttered as she tried to think of a good response, but it didn't go well for her.

"Wow, Diana, nice comeback; are you five? I'm not sure why I'm surprised you've always been slow to process things ", Austin was killing me; I couldn't stop laughing.

"I would walk away right now if I were you, you don't want your loyal subjects to watch you have a mental breakdown" I said.

"Gosh, I always hated that chick, she was always too clingy and bitchy back in junior year," Austin smugly said as Diana stormed out of the cafeteria, her friends trailing behind.

"I hope she gets the message because the next time she approaches me, it won't be pretty."

"Dude, it's like you don't know Diana, she'll do anything to get what she wants, trust me, this won't faze her"

"Seriously," I groaned in annoyance upon hearing what Austin had just said.

"You could always get a restraining order," Austin said as he finished the last bite of his sandwich.

"I don't think it's gotten to that yet, but I'll keep it in mind," I replied as an irritated expression crossed Austin's face; before I could ask what was wrong, he turned around and faced the other students.

"Seriously guys, mind your fucking business, we're not a circus act," Austin yelled, mumbling something else I couldn't quite understand. Something tells me He and I will be great friends.