Spurred by the sound of the lunch bell, Jim and Remmie made their way from the twins toward their usual spot back behind the school, to have lunch with the rest of the people that Jim has decided to make me endure.  Blitz was there, early as usual, lighting up as usual, but surprisingly she still had the new kid in tow.  He seemed even more out of place next to the fresh graffiti on the back wall and the cigarette smoke filling the air.

“Well, well.”  Remmie said, walking up to the two.  “Looks like our girl made a new friend.  How’re ya, Safi? Adjustin’?”

“Not really...”  the boy mumbled, head down.

“Ahh, you’ll get used to it!”  Remmie said, assuring him with a pat on the back.

“You got anymore?”  Jim asked, pointing to Blitz’s cigarette.

She smiled at him, “Sure I do.  ‘Cus I make mine last.”  Putting one of her hands on her hips, she said. “Tell me, why should I share with you?”

“Because I’m adorable?”  Jim tried.

Blitz looked him up and down and shrugged.  “True enough.”

She handed him hers and lit up a new one.  Jim looked at the half finished cigarette and held it up to Blitz.  “Hey, what the hell?”

Remmie smiled as he pulled a joint from his back pocket.  “What, did ya really think she was gonna give you a whole one?”

“Cigarettes are expensive, Jimmy.  Girl’s gotta eat.”  Blitz smiled, blowing a puff of smoke into Jim’s face.

“So mean!” Jim laughed, giving Blitz a friendly push.  “And on my birthday too!”

“I’ll make it up to you later.”  She smiled.

Remmie seemed to find this funny and choked on the inhale he just took from his joint.

Jim smiled at his friend then noticed the horrified look on the new kids face. “What’s wrong, rich kid?”

“Is...are you smoking-”

“Pot, yeah.”  Remmie said through a fading cloud of smoke, holding out the joint for him. “Want a puff?”

Still dazed, he turned to Blitz and Jim, “And you’re smoking...at school...and you're both...”

“Underage.”  Blitz smiles.

I think it’s retarded.

Jim smiled. Eh you may be right.

“Ah...” he said, shell shocked. “And uh...where...where's your other friend? Is he getting lunch or something?”

The other three just laughed.

“Oh he’s havin’ lunch yeah,” Remmie smiled. “Or givin' it”

“I’m sure it’s full of protein either way.” Blitz giggled.

“What?” The rich kid asked, looking at the three.

Jim smiled. “Our good friend spends his lunch periods taking money for certain...favors.”

“First times, experimentation, teachers with kid fetishes...” Blitz listed off, holding up a finger with each one.

“So...you’re saying...that guy...who’s our age is a-”

“Prostitute, yeah.” Remmie said.

“What the hell...”

“Don’t worry, new guy.”  Jim said, wrapping his arms around him and bringing him closer.  “This here is the No-Mans-Land.  The fact that we’re actually in school is good enough for these guys.”

“Long as we don’t fuck in the common areas.” Blitz said.

“Or do anything too hard.” Remmie continued, taking a long drag from his joint.

“Or kill each other...they’re more than willing to live and let live.”  Jim finished.

“How...how is this okay?  What kind of place allows stuff like this to happen?”

“The place with the highest murder rate in the world.”  Blitz said.

“Kids born in the No-Man districts are expected to live to the ripe ol’ age of fifteen.” Remmie said, smoke from his joint rising up to his face giving him a foreboding appearance.  “Prostitution.  Theft.  Rape.  Murder.  These are daily events.  So if we grow up a bit fucked up, hey! ‘Least we grew up.  Ya know.   Sometimes.”

“This is the worst place in the world, rich kid.”  Jim said, offering him his cigarette, and tapping his own heart.  “Everyone here’s just a Deadman walking.  So may as well have some fun, yeah?”

The new kid hesitated before reaching towards the cigarette, towards their acceptance, when a voice came from behind.  “So the rumors are true!”  The group turned to see a boy wearing an expensive purple coat with four heavily built older kids standing around him, all wearing purple.  “Muhammed Safi, in the flesh, in this shit hole.”  He smiled as if he said something clever.

Oh this fuck. Jim don’t do somethen’ stupid.

“The fuck you want, ya stupid blue blood?”

Thank ya Jim!

“What’d you call me?”  The newcomer, a self entitled little bastard named Philip Hare, barked, taking a step towards us.

Jim, don’t antaga-

“What, all that inbreeden’ make ya a fucken’ retard?”

Motherfucker….

“You have no right to talk to me like that!  Or do I need to remind you what happens to people who fuck with me?”  As Philip spoke, one of his goons moved forward, towards our little group until he was stopped dead in his tracks by a knife, suddenly landing inches from his foot.

Standing next to Jim, arm outstretched, Remmie stood, grinning, another knife in his hand which he hid behind his back.  “Now boys. Ain’t no need for a scrap.  But if that’s what ya want...well I’d be delighted to oblige.”

The big kids hesitated.  Like us, they were from the streets, and more than aware of the kind of reputation that Remmie had built for himself; what kind of work kept food on his table.

Philip, however, was an idiot.

“Don’t just stand there you fucking idiots!  Do something!”  Philip shouted.

“Wonderful idea, Phil!”  Blitz said, seeming to just appear next to one of Philip’s men.  She began lifting him up by the shirt as if he was light as a feather.  “Mind if I take it?” She asked, and tossed the boy effortlessly into a nearby bench, denting it with his body.  Blitz walked towards him, casually stretching her joints as she did, a wickedly sweet smile on her face.

This was a stupid fucken’ idea, Jim.

I dunno, He smiled, watching Blitz.  She seems happy.

Hesitating with a shared look, the two other goons made a decision to help the one getting his face pounded in.  As they moved towards Blitz, Remmie slid in between them like a shadow.

The boys paused, looking at Remmie’s knife, which caused him to grin.  “Oh don’t worry.  I ain’t gonna kill ya.”  He said, smoothly as he slid the knife back into its home.  “I’m just gonna make ya wish I did.”

“What’s going on...” The rich kid whispered from his place behind Jim.

Jim turned his head and smiled devilishly to the kid.  “Just a bit of fun, Eddy boy!  Enjoy it while it lasts!  Embrace the chaos!”

Wow. Two syllables. Fancy, Jim.

Fuck a cactus.

Eddy looked past Jim, at the scene before him, of Philip looking increasingly unsure as he watched Remmie playfully dodging the two boys’ attacks while delivering well placed jabs of his own here and there and Blitz, who grew tired of beating the shit out of the first boy and was looking around for something new to play with.  Eddy looked back to Jim smiling at him. accepting him.  Offering him friendship even though he didn’t belong.  And we could see in his eyes that he so wanted to belong.  We’ve seen that same look in the mirror, over and over.  Eddy made the decision that would change his life forever.  He took a long puff of Jim’s cigarette, and doubled over, coughing up his lungs.

“Thata boy!”  Remmie laughed, before delivering a kick to one of the boys’ chins.

Blitz turned to see what the commotion was, and smiled seeing Eddy try another puff through the coughing. “What a trooper!”

Eddy looked up to Jim, unsure what to feel, and after seeing Jim smiling at him, offering his hand to help Eddy up, he returned the smile, and took the hand.

“You made a big mistake picking the trash’s side, Safi!”  Philip barked, moving towards Jim and Eddy. “Let’s see if you’re so willing to slum around with these losers when I beat you and your new friend there.”

Haha!  Did he just threaten us?

I sigh, knowing what was coming. 

Yeah I think he did.

Awesome. Jim grinned.

Before Philip could even get close enough to spit on, Blitz rushed him and punched him in the face, sending him to the ground, hard. Blitz, and Remmie who was spinning the knife he threw earlier, looked down on Philip.  Remmie smiling like a demon, and Blitz looking like she was ready to tear Philip’s head off.

“Ah sorry, Philip!” Remmie laughed, tossing his knife in the air.  “But there’s one thing me and little Blitz can’t let you, or anyone else, do-” Remmie caught his knife and pointed it at Philip, his eyes becoming deadly, the very air around him bending to reveal a darker world, a world of smoke and skulls, of sharp blades and shadows, just out of sight, just within the young voudisant’s grasp. “-and that’s lay a finger on Jim here!”

“So take a hint, inbred.” Blitz spat, putting her boot on the boy's chest and slowly pressing down, causing him to wheeze out a scream, before being cut off when his ribcage made an audible crack. “And fuck off.”

As the sound of the scream and echo of the crack left the air, Remmie's strange energy left too, that dark world of his bending back out of sight. Philip frantically looked toward his “friends” to find them all unconscious and in various states of broken and then upwards at the two psychotic children standing over him, pining for a reason to tear him apart.

This’ll bite us in the arse.  Hard.  

-I warn Jim.

Jim glanced back to Eddy, who seemed very unsure of himself at the moment, and sighed.  “Alright kids.  ‘Nough fun for one day, anyway.”  Jim said, turning back toward his friends.

He waved them both off of Philip.  “Go on then.  He’s learned his lesson, anyway.”  He offered his hand to Philip and smiled.  “No harm, eh Philip?  Bit of fun, yeah?”

Philip glared daggers at Jim and slapped his hand away.  “You’ll pay for this one day, McAllister.”  He coughed as he ran off.  “I fucking guarantee it.”

We should nip that in the bud.

Ah he ain’t gonna do shite.

“That...”  Eddy whispered, causing the small group to turn to him. “That was insane.”

“Nah.”  Remmie said simply, sheathing his knife.

“That’s Thursday, Eddy.”  Blitz said, lighting two cigarettes and handing one to Jim.

Remmie lit another joint, then looked at it, before offering it to Eddy.  Eddy hesitated, hand hovering over the weed, before taking it and slowly, with the silent encouragement of the three children around him, took a long puff of it and smiled when he didn't cough nearly as bad as a moment ago.  

Eddy looked up at his new friends, who were smiling back at him.  “Awesome.”