Tuct Side - 11. Chapter 8

Monday, August 13th, 2012

It was the day of reckoning. That’s what Justin called it.

Patriot High will finally share the halls with Wildwood. The rest of yesterday was spent at Bradvons Park playing ball and planning out war strategies. Finn, a jokester when he wants to be, even pulled out The Art of War by Sun Tzu to see if they could apply anything for the tumultuous year ahead.

However, even as they swaggered toward the school entrance, they were still trying to figure out an attack plan.

“I say we just ignore ‘em,” Kaspar suggested. “People here already think they’re shit on the bottom of our shoe, so let them handle the grunt work.”

West shook his head. “I doubt that’ll happen. I have the feeling they won’t be sitting ducks if somebody gave them shit.”

And he didn’t want them to be, either. Despite everything, he wanted them to have a good experience here. Though, he didn’t say that out loud.

“That is why we make the first move,” Justin spoke. “They ain’t any tougher than us.”

“I’m with Kasleo on this,” said Finn. “Let’s not bother them.”

“Well, judging by our first meet-and-greet, they didn’t have any warm regards for you, Finnehugs. Something tells me you didn’t have the best of times back in your Wildwood days,” the brunette put an arm around the much shorter boy. “Don’t you want to stick it to them for whatever they did?”

“No, man. I just want to get through these next three years smoothly and unscathed.”

“All I’m saying is that if they get in my face, I ain’t pulling any punches.”

The four sauntered past the entrance, getting a few appreciative looks from lower and upperclassmen alike, which they ignored.

“If they bother any of you guys, you tell me,” Kaspar pressed his thumb to his chest, his face serious. “I can’t say I won’t be expelled by the end of the week.”

West shook his head, but kept his sights forward and in search of a certain someone. “Nobody will be getting expelled. Just be nice.”

Justin pursed his lips in dissatisfaction. “I’m not taking a fist to the face.”

“Not what I’m saying.” The blond reached back for the side of his backpack to pull out his camera and turned it on.

“And you’re recording again,” Kaspar sighed dramatically. “Why am I not surprised?”

West rolled his eyes. “Get used to it.”

Lucky for the four of them, their lockers were located nearby each other, with West and Finn on one side and Kaspar and Justin on the other. Justin didn’t bother stopping at his, staying in between West and Finn.

“Yo! Jivin’ Four! What’s up!?” a stocky boy in a letterman jacket saluted.

“Hey, boys. Let’s play sometime, okay?” a girl in designer clothes passed by with her carbon copy posse.

“Dudes! Wanna light up later?” a long-haired guy in a beanie proposed quite loudly.

Justin immediately brightened at that. “I’ll take you up on that!”

West and Finn snapped their eyes to their brunette friend in surprise, who shrugged indifferently.

“What? Another excuse to get out of the house.”

It seemed like every single second they were greeted by someone they mostly knew or had no idea existed. It was expected, but West could see how tiring it could get. Soon, they were joined by their football friends, Scott, Henry, and the twins Nathan and Vinny. A few more players caught up as well.

“You guys enjoying the spotlight?” Scott asked with a grin.

“Yeah, but it’ll blow over in fifteen minutes,” West waved at a couple of giggling freshmen girls.

Henry, witnessing the interaction, clutched his stomach as he laughed, along with the other guys. “Not sure ‘bout that, man. You’re like Michael Jackson during the eighties.”

“I’m trying to be humble here.”

Nathan’s amusement vanished as his eyes locked with something down the hall. “Might want to save a piece of that humble pie. Look who's headed our way.”

All turned to find a familiar group of teens approaching the boys. However, instead of four individuals, a set of ten made their way over, the vaunting advance catching the attention of the entire corridor. Their advent was led by Neil Morterero, of course, his blue eyes charged with resolute hostility. In the midst of their group, West met eyes with Nora, who was gazing back at him with a silent apology. The blond smiled back, reassuring her that she didn’t have to choose sides.

He then redirected his attention to the noirette with the hidden husky singing voice with his best welcoming smile. He was tempted to mention Untold, something he has been listening to for the rest of summer break, but knew that wouldn’t go over well. “Hey, man,” he greeted brightly as he put his camera around his neck and left it recording. “You liking the school so far?”

He got a few confused looks from his teammates at the warm salutation.

As expected, it was not reciprocated. “Flower Boy,” Neil murmured gruffly.

The two boys stood before each other, only a foot of space separating them. West could smell the aftershave and noticed a thin line of hair just above his rival’s upper lip.

“So,” Shaun took a step forward, looking around the hall and its decoration of motivational posters and sports banners with boredom, “this is where the rich pricks and bitches come to inbreed? I expected as much.”

That ignited Henry to get up in his face. He wasn’t nearly as tall as the former Wildwood student, but his brawn made him just as intimidating. “You wanna talk about inbred, look in the mirror, you western hicks!”

West was quick to quell the rising tension. “Alright, alright! Let’s rein in the teeth and claws, guys. We don’t want to fight with you. If we can’t all be friends, that’s fine,” he turned back to Neil. “You stay out of our way, we stay out of yours, okay?”

The lightning-eyed boy was silent.

“Yeah?” the blond stuck out a hand, hoping to nip the issue in the bud.

Unfortunately, his plea went unacknowledged. “You’re buggin’, Flower Boy. It’s you tontos that need t’ watch y’all’s backs, you feel me?”

West let out a breath, suddenly weary. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, bro.”

His teammates chuckled at that even though he wasn’t trying to be funny.

Neil sneered and closed the gap between them, nearly touching noses with his adversary. “Come ball season, I’ll be taking that captain’s seat, aight?”

“E-Excuse me?” the blond backpedaled, jarred from the trance Neil’s closeness nearly put him in.

The noirette towered over him with a malicious smirk. “Jivin’ fuckin’ Four. Watch your backs.” He glanced down at the camera and winked before stepping back and walking the way he came, his gang splitting apart for him before following.

“The fuck did he say?” Kaspar said behind him, having got there unnoticed at some point during the stand-off.

West couldn’t help but groan, being frazzled by the interaction completely unexpected. He thought he could get a handle on his rival’s demeanor, but this was a whole other ball game that was being played.

“You have football practice?” he asked.

“At four, but we won’t be there for long. If I’m remembering correctly, we get to settle our schedules.”

“Cool. Getting the position for president in student council is gonna be a bitch this year without time on my side.”

The first day of school proved to be more arduous on the academic side of things. Nothing else of significance occurred between the warring sides for the rest of the day, but it only served to fuel the ever-present tension.

“Okay, look,” Justin, who was laying on West’s bed behind a sitting Finn, piped up. “I’m ninety-nine percent sure you’ll be president, so I have a few proposals.”

Kaspar scoffed and talked as he typed away on his computer. “No, ‘Sophomore Skip Day’ is not going to be a thing and pizza on Fridays is not going to happen.”

The brunette predictably pouted. “The skip day, I know it’s wishful thinking, but why not Pizza Friday?”

“If it’s going to be every Friday, then it has to apply to the entire school. And you know how Murray is with the budget.”

“Bullshit!”

Kaspar sighed and stopped working to think for a moment. The tall boy was relentless with these kinds of demands. “I can work out a fundraiser or something. I’m getting a job at Tuct-In, so we might be able to work something out.”

“But every day?” Justin’s eyes fluttered hopefully.

“Gierig.”

That got a good laugh out of West and Finn, who turned to beam at each other. The latter kept his eyes on the former when he returned to whatever he was working on, which happened to be posting sticky notes onto a blank piece of paper.

“What’s going on over there, Flo?” the ebony-haired boy walked toward the blond to peek over his shoulder.

West pursed his lips as he glanced at Kaspar, who was still typing up a storm. “I don’t want Kas to get mad at me.”

The redhead grinned and spoke teasingly, “I already know. He likes mysteries, now.”

“Meaning?” Interested, Justin got up and stood next to Finn.

Finn peered at the writing of one of the sticky notes. “About Tuct Side? Honestly, I get that feeling around here.”

“Man, weird shit always happens in this fucking town. Like that car that drove up on the court at Bradvons.”

West nodded eagerly, feeling a bit vindicated at Justin’s statement. “That’s right. And the school shooting threats that closed down Wildwood. And one of the Rabellinos at the graduation party and the strange figure at the open house, who I’m almost sure is the same person. And-”

“Wait! Hold on,” Justin interrupted. “What? Strange figure?”

The basketball captain spun over to find his three friends staring at him in surprise. While biting his cheek to suppress a smirk, he dug out his own laptop from his backpack, turned it on, and clicked into a folder dubbed “T.S.” Scrolling instantly toward the bottom, he pressed on one of the mp4 files taken by Jaylin.

The other three got in close and watched as the video focused on Principal Murray for about a minute before it zoomed out and panned upward in an attempt to capture the entire body of sports representatives. This maneuver happened to catch a bit of the balcony, but it was enough to get the unknown figure in the frame, sitting there ever so still and ominously.

“See that? In the balcony,” the blond pointed, watching the others’ faces shift from confusion to shock.

“Woah,” Justin leaned back. “Creepy.”

Kaspar scratched at his red hair, a sign of his growing agitation. “One – why are we hearing about this just now? And two – how do you know it’s the same guy? We barely got a glimpse at the weirdo at the party. Not to mention, it was crowded and dark as fuck.”

“Well, I looked up Javier Rabellino and got his Facebook page,” West replied as he did just that. “He hasn’t posted in a while, but I think it’s up to date. Jorge told me that his older brother coaches for the Humberston University basketball team. Tell me this isn’t the same person we saw at the party, Kas.”

He pulled up an image of said older sibling with two college-aged basketball players on either side. Javier Rabellino was a very handsome Latino man like his younger brother. His black hair fell in waves, stopping near the middle of his sturdy neck that sat atop a muscular, mesomorphic body. Similar to Jorge, his smile was white and bright, completely dissociative from the mysterious man from the party or the figure in the video.

“What was he was doing at a high school party?” Finn asked.

West shrugged. “Dunno. Probably recruiting more athletes?”

“He was surrounded by juniors, though,” Kaspar reminded them.

Finn moved away to sit back down on West’s bed. “He was recruiting juniors at a party? I don’t know about you, but that’s a bit suspect to me.”

Justin took the abandoned spot to gaze at the sticky notes. “What else we got?”

On the inside, West felt his excitement grow at the prospect of his buddies including themselves along for the ride.

“After the championship win, my folks and I got to Malt Chimney early and we nearly ran into these two guys. One of them was stomping and cursing angrily and the other just kind of followed along silently. Now that I think about it…”

“You met our new resident bad boy a lot earlier than you thought,” Finn grinned.

The captain nodded in agreement. “Oh yeah. And whoever showed up at Bradvons must have been the same guy. Nobody would be that crazy to nearly steamroll a bunch of kids at the park. Even Neil looked scared.”

He didn’t mention the hidden bruises he spotted marring the lightning-eyed boy’s pale skin. It was very possible the culprit was the angry fellow who, based on that day at the park, had no business driving a car.

Maybe it was one of those guys we saw at the orphanage- er, group home site,” Justin wondered. “Those guys had jackets with that purple diamond symbol on the back. They’re probably a part of a gang or some shit.”

Kaspar’s face scrunched up, disbelieving. “What gang would build a group home for children?”

It was quiet for a moment before West muttered, “Maybe it isn’t a group home.”

Of course, ever the intellectual, his cousin shook his head. “Man, I expected J-Dog here to say that, but not you. And it’s kind of hilarious.”

“I’m serious, though.” he reached for the corner of his desk and pulled out two more sticky notes to add to his timeline. “Lastly, we have secret surveillance and the timing of a whole bunch of marriages, but we need more info on those two.”

Kaspar huffed in exasperation. West knew his hotheaded relative wanted to tell him off, but it wasn’t like the blond to leave something unfinished once he got it started, especially something as exciting as this.

“How is any of this connected?” the redhead questioned.

“I don’t know, bro, but I have a feeling it is. It looks like we need to go exploring,” West clicked the power button on the camera around his neck, having secretly videoed the entire conversation.