Emi stood in front of Darrick's desk as he reviewed her article on his tablet. As he read it he took a big draw from his vape and blew out a fat cloud between his buck teeth. Emi waved it out of her face.
"Are you seriously going to do that here?" Emi asked incredulously.
"What's the big deal?" Darrick replied. "I need to be constantly on alert. News moves so I can never stop. I need this to help keep me sharp." Emi looked tired.
"You know you're still a teenager right? Don't you think it's a bit too soon to have nicotine addiction? " She asked.
"You know I'm an old soul. Besides this is pure water vapor. It keeps me on my toes."
"Water vapor?'' Emi looked in disbelief.
"Yeah", Darrick replied. "My doctor told me my lungs look like they had pneumonia, and I told HIM to take a hike."
"Understood". Emi fluffed up her hair bit to ease the feeling of awkwardness.
"I really like this story you managed to nab, Emi. This is some hard-hitting journalism. The student body is eating this stuff up. Did that guy you see really use an umbrella to fend off the Orange Viper Gang?" Darrick asked my squinting his eyes.
"That's right, sir. He did more than fend them off with it. He told me that he was trained with the umbrella from his teacher."
"And this is quite some speech he has here!" Darrick exclaimed.
Emi smirked at this. "Yes, it's definitely something." She said sarcastically.
Darrick put down the article and balled his fist. "He's just brimming with manly spirit".
Some girls in the office overheard and one said, "He sounds like a real cutey. Hahaha." Emi looked around in confused disbelief. She couldn't understand what was so appealing about this umbrella-waving moron.
"Well, this is really great stuff, Emi. Let's not stop the momentum. I want you to report to the Z Wing boys bathroom to get a story on how the fights go. No cameras are allowed in there so we need you to write the story," Darrick said while pulling out a fight press pass. Emi looked annoyed and pinched her nose.
"I hate it there. That place smells." Darrick smacked his hand on the table and pointed at Emi.
"Godammit Emi, we're journalists. Our job is to wade through the shitty shit of this world and report that shit to the world." He handed her the pass which Emi reluctantly took. "Now get a move on. Apparently, Nerdy Nelson is gonna fight that one kid who eats glue."
Emi left the newsroom and made her way towards the Z wing of the high school. She walked up to the boys' bathroom, looked around to make sure no teachers were around, and then opened the door.
From the outside, it looked like your normal typical dingy boys bathroom, but the inside was completely remodeled and repurposed. Instead of typical urinals and piss-covered floors, it was instead a fighting stadium with hundreds of seats around the arena. It was filled with many students looking to see some action as well as some unsavory characters, looking to either gamble or take part in the fighting themselves. Local gangs were also looking for new recruits for their ranks.
As Emi walked towards her seat, she ran into Gustavo and Marcus, the flamboyant duo that run the underground fight club. Gustavo had pink cornrows and a fur crop top jacket and an arm wrapped around Marcus who had on a flowing blue shirt and an eyebrow piercing.
"Oh look, love, it's the girl from the papers," Gustavo said.
"Come to watch our little show, Emi?" Marcus said.
"Sup Marcus. Hey Gustavo," Emi greeted. Marcus and Gustavo were the ones who founded the Z wing bathroom fights. It started off as a relatively small operation with them organizing any beef a student might have with another into what they called a "safe place for disagreement management." Eventually, they were able to get so big that they were able to get school officials to turn a blind eye to some interior design changes to the bathroom.
"Time to see some fists fly into some pretty little faces," Gustavo said.
"Isn't this supposed to be about conflict resolution?" Emi piped back.
"Oh come on, Emi. You know what you're here to report on. Just watch the fights, give some brief summaries and a tally and you'll be on your merry little way." Marcus replied back.
They both started walking away from Emi.
"Ugh. I wish they sent Steve instead." Gustavo said to Marcus as they walked away arm in arm.
Emi went and found her seat overlooking the arena, pulled out her journal and began taking notes. A sunglass-wearing fight announcer stood on stage with a bowtie and introduced the first two fighters. A thin moderate-sized kid with dark hair and glasses and opposite to him was a tall large chunky kid. His hair was all shaved off except for a bun that was on top of his head.
"Hello everyone," the announcer said through a microphone. "Today we are all here to see Nerdy Nelson and Bobby 'I eat 2 tubs of glue' Thubbins reach a catharsis on their beef with one another. So now, bring your hands together for this conflict resolution!" The crowd went wild. Emi continued to jot down notes on the fighters' stats. Nelson looked kinda scrawny and the fact that he was a model student didn't help in the intimidation factor, either. His nerdiness did inspire him to train in several forms of martial arts, which he used to beat up a dozen kids who mistook him for a weak nerd and tried to rip up his lab report. Then there was Bobby Thubbins. He once stuck a teacher to the ceiling with glue after the teacher told him to put his glue away. It took 5 hours for firefighters to get the teacher down. Thubbins's strength, as well as his eagerness to get what he wants, made him dangerous.
Nelson stood firmly in the arena and adjusted the frames of his glasses, a flash of light reflected off the lenses before he pointed at Thubbins and shouted.
"YOU ATE ALL THE GLUE THAT I WAS USING FOR MY SCIENCE PROJECT! DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT WAS TO GET THAT GLUE?!?!" Apparently Nelson had been working on a science project with the goal of creating a strong glue, which Thubbins then consumed.
Thubbins just chuckled at this and used his pinky to start picking his nose. Nerdy Nelson's face went cold before looking down and saying.
"That glue was going to change humanity," Nelson looked up again with a fire in his eyes. "You're gonna pay for that, Thubbins." Nelson started sprinting towards Thubbins with intensity. Thubbins readied himself, and as soon as Nelson was in striking range, Thubbins shot a giant fist at him. The impact left a cloud of dust and debris with no sight of Nelson. Everyone let out a big gasp, thinking Nelson had been crushed. When the dust cleared, everyone including Thubbins was shocked to see that nobody was there.
"Got ya", is what Nerdy Nelson said while doing a spinning jump kick to the back of Thubbins head. This blow, that would render any normal highschooler unconscious, only caused him to slightly falter. This did not intimidate Nelson, though. He continued to move with impeccable speed around the towering Thubbins, landing multiple consecutive blows on different parts of his body. Thubbins would manage to block after getting hit a few times, but Nelson would just quickly move to a different area and continue to punish the hulking glue eater. Then, while Nelson was moving to the next location, Thubbins caught him with an uppercut to the stomach. Nelson managed to block the punch with both arms, but the punch sent him flying. Nelson managed to land gracefully on his two feet, but his sleeves had gotten torn up from the blow.
"Huh!" Thubbins exclaimed, "Yer like a lil annoyin bug. Not gonna take much to squash ya." When hearing this, Nelson just smiled and adjusted his glasses.
"I'm sure to a pea brain such as yourself those attacks seemed random, but I'm guessing you're having trouble moving those limbs right about now."
"Huh." Thubbins tried to walk forward but his legs were shaking.
"Those weren't just random attacks just now," Nerdy Nelson began to explain. "Those were calculated strikes on your pressure points. Qi is the life force that flows through hundreds of pressure points through your body. If these points are in harmony then your body will be healthy and functional. If the flow gets disrupted you can get sick, die, or in your case, be unable to move. Now it's time to finish the job." Nelson started to swing his arms and move his legs forwards, yet his feet remained stationary. "What?" Nelson said. Thubbins started laughing while remaining completely stationary.
"Huh huh huh. That's funny, we both did the same thang. 'Cept I threw some glue down where yer standin. Now I'm gonna squash you." When he said that, thubbins started to twist his neck to the side, causing his to muscles stretch and strain in an inhuman way as his head turned further and further. Then, when his head finally went around one hundred and eighty degrees, a giant cracking sound echoed throughout the arena as each vertebra cracked against one another. After this ghoulish sound reverberated throughout the arena, Thubbins head began to spin back into its original position while sweat shot off of the stretched out veiny neck.
"Eww," Emi said as she continued to jot down notes of the fight while shaking her head in disgust. The crowd gave a similar response. After the crack, Thubbins began moving again and started stretching.
"Th-that's impossible." Stuttered Nelson. "You shouldn't be able to move after that."
"Whatever was in that glue was strong." Said Thubbins as he began to walk towards the scared stiff Nelson. "Somfin in that..." Blue light started glowing from his eyes and mouth. "Hit different." Nelson was completely frozen in place as he looked up at Thubbins who then balled his hand up into a fist. "Buh Bye."
And with that, Thubbins released a giant punch that sent Nelson flying out of his shoes, which continued to stick to the floor, out of the ring, and into the stadium destroying a few seats that were right next to Emi. Nelson laid on the remains of the chairs destroyed by the impact, in torn and bloodied clothes without any shoes. His eyes were rolled into the back of his head, unconscious.
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