Sunny September, part four. Nothing to be proud of. Christopher.

  “You’re not taking this seriously enough man.” He says, with a casual smile.

  “Get off my dick.” I reply frowning.

  Several dozen feet down the crowded parking lot I see Daniel and his sister leave her car. They greet some friends before progressing down the red bricked walkway flanked by palm trees that leads to the school entrance.

  Okimoto looks at them then back at me before winking. This isn’t gonna be easy.

  Dashawn and the others come to greet Okimoto. Money, edibles and bags of weed are exchanged as I break away from the group, circling around to the side of the building where I see a small window above a dumpster. The dumpster lies in shadow under one of the massive bridges linking the main building to the others. The nearby cameras point off in different directions leaving the dumpster as a small blindspot. Many kids take advantage of this including me. I climb on top before peering through to the inside of the janitor’s lounge. I peel the window open and throw my bag onto a pile of other bags on the floor.

  “You don’t just throw your shit in here without knocking on the window first.”

  A twenty something year old Janitor steps into view. Dirty blonde hair spikes out crazily from under his hat, his blue eyes red from smoking a blunt.

  “That will be ten dollars,” He declares, “Give me the money and get the fuck out of here before the camera’s turn back this way.”

  Charlie is Trevor’s older brother. I don’t know much about him, only that he lets kids sneak things into the school for a small fee.

  “You better not go through my shit,” I say half joking while reaching into my pocket to get the money.

  I extend my hand and quickly retract it again when he reaches for the cash.

  “Today’s not the day kid.” He sneers.

  This nigga is feinin for that money. His weed funds must be running dry.

  I hand him the ten bucks, then close the window hop off the dumpster and circle back around to the main entrance.

  I stand before a long line of students all waiting to pass through the metal detectors behind the pillared marble entrance. Where the marble arches over the glass double doors, there is a small sculpture of Mount Rushmore. The founding fathers look down on me, with my recent history even the stone eyes of a sculpture bear judgement within them. Seeing Daniel standing further down the line I know that it’s not just judgement for what I did, but also what I’m about to do.

  I adjust my hat as I pass under the arches, the line quickly moving forward.

  I pass through the metal detector without any problems, continuing past the reception alongside most of the kids. Heading back towards the janitor’s room I bypass my Homeroom and many of my fellow freshmen.

  I see a somewhat familiar face that just like me stands a head and a half taller than the other freshman boys. Dwayne, someone I sort of knew in middle school but was never quite close enough for me to consider him a friend. Nothing against him we just never really talked since I shared only a single class with him. We’re in the same Homeroom now and we share basically every class since it’s too early in the year for us to be divided based on grades. He’s chill but I still don’t know if I’d call him a friend just yet though.

  He’s light skinned like Leah and has a long face that makes him look like Malcom x with his glasses on. I think back to all the jokes I made about him in my mind but never actually said out loud.

  We share a nod as I pass the others from our class that all gossip amidst themselves by the lockers. The freshmen socialise along both walls, the upperclassmen a river of indifference flowing down the centre. The main school building had an interesting layout to say the least. The first floor was for the freshmen, the second for sophomores, third for the junior’s and fourth for the seniors. The fifth floor’s for all of the after school clubs and extracurricular programs, as well as the teacher’s office and principal’s office. With around two thousand five hundred students, Middlecrest was a behemoth of a high school.

  I enter the colourful lights of the grand main hall. Two massive marble staircases spiral around as they ascend past each floor. The upperclassmen march up before leaving the steps at various points. Many sit along the wooden railings and beige pillars of the staircase and encircling walkways, chattering away like a horde of chimpanzees. I see Daniel disappear into the crowd of sophomores on the second floor alongside Daqwan, Shakira and Markeiff.

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  There’s an old blue mustang perched on a pedestal wide enough for at least a dozen people to gather around the car. This display coronates the centre of the hall with couches and amenities surrounding it. Dashawn and Leah sat on the mustang’s top cloaked in the ceiling window’s light. Surrounding them is a group of other Seniors all wearing jerseys. They came from different backgrounds and give off the generic vibe of a popular clique.

  Dashawn winks at me when I pass them by, before turning to talk enthusiastically to the rest of them while pointing at me. He’s big-brothering me? I don’t like being patronised. There aren’t a ton of things more embarrassing than a more popular friend pointing you out and saying, ‘hey that kid is new, please be his friend and treat him with pity and condescension’. Dashawn was a great friend, but man does that come with a cost.

  “Welcome to Middlecrest!” A blonde girl amongst his group cheers before blowing me a kiss. If I’m not mistaken she’s Sofia the president of the modelling club. I'll spare you another jarring description, just imagine Shakira (the columbian singer) crossed with Sydney sweeney and Harley Quinn. She’s beautiful, easily up there with Shakira and that one girl that hitched a ride with me. Shakira holds her in high regard which is a problem. If she trusts her too much then boom, she tells her about the sign and we all go bye bye. The rest of the popular kids all wave at me with wide smiles.

  When I get back to the janitor’s room I retrieve my bag and circle around the main hall underneath the second floor walkway. I do this to avoid the prying eyes of Dashawn’s friends so that they don’t question where I suddenly got a backpack from. I only need to hide like this for the first period, after the first class of the day their memories of the morning will be too vague for them to remember me not having one. I enter a nearby elevator and exit on the second floor. I quickly march down the pastel corridor before inviting myself into the Homeroom class Daniel shares with Daqwan.

  All eyes lock on me straight away as I make my way over to Daniel who sits with a funky looking kid at his desk.

  “Come with me.” I command, cutting into his conversation.

  He looks at me stunned for a moment and then replies, “class is about to start… can’t this wait.”

  I bend down to whisper, “no. It can’t wait. We need to have a talk about your big mouth.”

  “Shit.” He mumbles. “Look man I only told the two people closest to me that’s all.”

  “What are you two whispering about?” His desk partner, some heavily built thumb faced kid says, minding our business and neglecting his own.

  Looking past the mountain of a youth I see Daqwan chuckle at his own desk that he sits at alone, looking at us like he’s watching a soap opera.

  “Please don’t make me drag you out of class.” I say, looking back at Daniel.

  “Fine…” he sighs before getting up.

  “Where are you going?” His desk partner continues to pry.

  “Don’t worry about it.” Daniel says to him. “This is Christopher, the kid that dropped the butthole png in the group chat this morning, I’m just gonna have a talk with him about something private.”

  After hearing that, this Wilson Fisk looking kid stares at me with a shit eating grin.

  “Please don’t take too long Daniel I’m going to start taking down attendance in five minutes.” The Homeroom teacher says as we pass him by on the way out.

  I take him all the way back to the Janitors office where we wait for all of the other shady kids to collect their backpacks and piss off.

  A few of the blue bandana boys pass by while hissing bullshit under their breath that they don’t dare say to my face.

  When it’s only me, Daniel and Charlie left, I surprise Daniel. A beautiful surprise that takes his breath away.

  “Damn!” Charlie says, sitting on the couch in the corner. “you better be careful, wouldn’t want him ending up in the nurse’s office.”

  Now curling in a foetal position on the pink tiled floor, Daniel gasps for the air my fist took from him.

  I don’t follow up with more violence. Instead squat down beside him and speak. “When you got involved with Okimoto you knew the risk. Imagine all of your high school years vanishing before your eyes as you rot in a cell. I don’t want that for myself and I don’t want that for you. So please think before you open up your mouth to people that aren’t involved.”

  “I get it.” he groans, holding up a hand to shield himself.

  He’s in agony, his scrunched up face says it all. I don’t want to do things like this but I have to. Telling anyone about what we did was extremely stupid, it couldn’t go unpunished. Even though I know that I still feel a pit form in my chest.

  “Wait!” Charlie says, putting two and two together. “I was wandering where Trevor ran off to last night with you kids. Don’t tell me yo-“

  I hold my right index finger over my lips to hush him. I don’t mind him knowing. In his case there was a sense of mutually assured destruction. He tells the authorities about me and the others and I tell them about him letting kids smuggle drugs and weapons into the school. He’d probably be in for a life sentence while I’d still have a few years of my thirties left when I get out.

  Charlie laughs. “You Gen Z maniacs are something else.”

  “Aren’t you also Gen Z?”

  “Um…” he shrugs, “maybe? I ain’t got a clue.”

  “Damn.” Daniel scowls as he sits up. “I think you broke a rib.”

  I pat him on the shoulder. “Just walk it off.”

  Standing up, I unzip my bag and stick my hand inside. Feeling the cold metal sting my fingers I pull it out and hold it up in the air. It’s got some decent weight to it, much better than the cheap and busted crap the others blast off. At my age it’s illegal for me to use one of these so hopefully none of the school security officers walk in and see it.

  I know what you’re thinking and no, it’s not a gun.

  I put the vape pen to my lips and take a deep puff, the pineapple flavour dances on my tongue as the vapour fills my lungs. After a few puffs I fancy myself a knew man and tuck the pen back in its place in the backpack next to my Glock nineteen.