The bell rang and Ricky was late for the third time this week. He would have rather slept in and then played Age of Dragons the whole day, maybe he would fake being sick tomorrow and do just that.
It was a Friday, so most of the kids were a little perkier than the other days of the week. Teenagers were draining out of the hallway quickly, but there was still enough to cause an occasional shoulder nudge.
Ricky arrived at his locker to discover that it was bare. He had been expecting some insulting note about how fat he was or how he wasn’t really and dragon, and needed to “grow the f*** up”. Notes and comments like that came up often throughout the day, sometimes leading to physical bullying and fights. Teachers even made insulting comments sometimes.
Ricky took the books that he needed from his backpack for first block, Chemistry. He enjoyed chem class some of the time. Days for notes sucked, but lab days were awesome. He liked watching the bunsen burners and thinking about how awesome it would be to be able to breathe fire. Sometimes getting so lost in his own imagination that he would even make some fire-breathing noises, summoning strange looks from some students, snide remarks from others.
Today happened to be a notes day. Ricky would probably spend the time Doodling Dragons and swords instead of taking notes. The time went by quickly and soon the bell rang him from his imaginative trance.
As he left the chemistry room a boy behind him nudged him, “Nice drawings, fat *ss.”
Ricky ignored the comment, and the laughs the other kids around him threw in. Today it didn’t seem to matter to him as much
Second block was Health, they only had four blocks in a day about an hour and a half each. On his way to the next class he stopped at his locker and swapped out his books, being careful when reaching in his backpack. He grabbed a Chewy bar and bag of Chex Mix. He shut his locker Quietly and Started making his way down the hall. He received a single insult on the way, a jock saying he took up too much room in the hall. He didn’t hear that one often, and never before from that guy, it was aggravating
Second block was Health. It was often an awkward class for Ricky. Today might not be so bad, they are just starting the reproductive unit. Something he didn’t mind, compared the the Physical Health unit. That unit just made everyone think about how large he actually was, and when they thought about that then they thought about how different he was. Which meant that he ultimately got bullied more.
Ricky walked into the classroom and sat in the middle row off to the left, closest to the teacher’s desk.
The other kids took a few minutes to take their seats. Finally, the teacher started. “As you all know, We’re going to be starting on the reproductive unit today”, She beamed, “Can any of you…” and that was when he stopped listening. He imagined the frozen pizza he would be having for lunch at his house. He put his head down and quickly dozed off to the pleasant thoughts.
Something woke him with a start, he could remember feeling something but couldn’t quite remember what. the room was dark, the teacher had started a powerpoint, and today they were going over the female reproductive organs.
Then it hit him, another spitball, this one in the back of the neck. He didn’t turn around or make a big deal about it. He actually kind of smiled, How little they know, he thought to himself.
The teacher moved on the the next slide, it was simply a picture of a vagina.
A comment arose from the back row, “Wow, Rick, I didn’t know you were part of this presentation.”
The whole classroom laughed, the walls, the chairs, every single kid, even the teacher was trying to hide a smile.
Ricky stood up, threw his books on the floor and ran from the room. Tears of rage beading up in his eyes.
He left the school through a side door and walked to his house, only two blocks away. As soon as he unlocked the door he was rushing inside. he sat on the couch and mumbled to himself, trying to gather his wits.
After a few minutes he was breathing normally and thinking clearly, Telling himself, It doesn’t matter, after today it’ll be different.
He got up and went to the freezer. Opening it with a deep inhale, he watched the mist pour out of the bottom.
He grabbed a pizza, noticing it was his favorite, Chicken Alfredo.
Ricky decided to skip third block that day, he had left early for lunch and figured he would get in trouble anyways, so why not skip third block and play Age of Dragons?
He would go back for fourth block though. The was going to be a pep-rally, he planned for it to be the highlight of his day.
After about an hour of adventuring in the game, Ricky put the computer back into sleep mode and headed for the door. Locking it behind him, he started for the school.
The walk went by fast and soon he was back in the hallways. The news of him storming out of class had already spread to seemingly everyone. Groups of people stopped their conversations to whisper and point at him. A few made audible comments like, “What a loser” and he heard one person whisper, “It must all be baby fat, crying like that”.
As he got closer to his locker, a kid in the grade below him called him a p*ssy and pushed him. He ignored the shove and finished the walk to his locker. he dialed in the code for the lock and opened the door. He grabbed his backpack and made his way to his fourth block classroom to check in before heading to the gym for the rally.
Walking through the halls, he got the same treatment as before. He purposefully took a longer way to avoid having to talk to any teachers.
After entering the gym he walking up a few levels of the stairs and took his seat, placing his backpack between his legs.
Many kids were seated already and it was clear the crowd was happy to be out of class.
Another spitball hit him, right in the back of the head. immediately after it one hit him in the ear, actually inside his ear. Out of instinct he flinched and tried to get it out. He couldn’t, either it was too deep or his finger was too fat, he couldn’t tell. He could feel his face getting hot, and sweat beading on his lip.
The kid who hit him thought this was hysterical. Roaring with laughter, he told other people what he had done and they started laughing too.
“C’mon, Dragon-boy, you don’t feel like defending yourself today?”. Lots of people were laughing now but the noise of it blended in with all the other jabbering in the auditorium. The kid who shot the spitball leaned over and started tapping Ricky on the head.
The tears of rage started to well up again.
Dragons don’t cry, they’re fierce, they breathe fire.
That’s all Ricky wanted to do, was breathe fire on his foes.
Thats what he would do.
He jammed his hand into his backpack and pulled out something that made the girl sitting next to him gasp.
He cocked the handgun, whipped around and shot the boy square in the chest.
The crack had silenced the crowd, but for only a split second.
The girl who had gasped screamed and started to run, and the rest of the crown followed suit like a wave moving across the stands. He aimed the weapon at the crowd and emptied the clip.
Ten rounds total.
A single problem.
Seven people injured.
Two lives ended.
Countless ruined.