The Suspension

Super Weegee · #1

"Because of our zero-tolerance policy, I'm going to have to suspend the both of you for fighting in the halls for a week."

Those words kept replaying in Matthew's head as his parents were driving him home. He understood that he was going to get punished, but why did that other guy get the same punishment? They should've been punished for longer for what they said to him! Matthew told his teachers what they were saying to him, but the principal is acting like he didn't! Did they just fucking forget about it?!

Before he could think about what happened, he felt the car stop in the driveway. Everett Hunt and Brenda Hunt wordlessly get out and Matthew proceeded to exit as well. Brenda walked up to him, grabbed his wrist, and pulled him towards the front door. He had to practically run to not fall towards the cement. She quickly shut the door behind them and looked at Matthew. If looks can kill, he would certainly be turned to ashes by now.

"Go to the living room," she said, "Now."

Matthew did just that. From an outsider's point of view, the living room was as welcoming as one would expect it to be. The TV had its back toward the front window, and each of the other walls had black couches. The couch on the back wall could hold three people, while the other two couches on the side walls could only accommodate two people. A DVR was on the top shelf below the TV, with the time showing that it is 11 AM. In the middle of the room was a glass table, which had the remote on it, as well as the food and drinks if someone decided to watch a movie, most of which are gone by the time it's over.

Everett and Brenda sat on the three-person couch, with one vacant seat in the middle intended for Matthew. Everett crossed his arms and Brenda had her hands on her legs as Matthew proceeded to sit down between his parents. Seconds pass by in complete silence before Everett broke it.

"Got anything to say for yourself, young man?"

Without waiting for a response, Brenda spoke to Matthew again.

"I thought you were better than that! But I guess I was wrong!"

Matthew stares at the ground, feeling tears form in his eyes as he tries not to cry in front of them. That person got what they deserved: his fist straight to the nose! Seeing them get exactly what they deserved was so damn satisfying! The only reason why he didn't do worse other than hitting them a few times while they were on the ground was because of the school faculty pulling them apart. He could still envision the bloody nose they got when he managed to get a good look at them.

Then again, was it really worth it? He was told that the suspension was going on his record and he would have to make up any homework he missed during his punishment. Besides that, his parents thought he was a good kid and he's never been scolded to this extent before. By the way they were talking to Matthew, one would think that he put them into a coma.

As those thoughts flashed in his mind, Everett spoke to his son again.

"You're lucky that the kid's parents decided not to sue us! Who knows how much we could've lost because of you lashing out at them! We lost a lot of money just from hiring a lawyer to defend your mother!" Matthew looked at his father, surprise being evident on his face, before looking back towards the ground again in shame. He was told about the lawsuit, but he wasn't told how much it actually costs to fight it.

Matthew looked at Everett again.

"Didn't you win a lot of money from that lawsuit?" He said, raising his right eyebrow in confusion.

Everett shook his head and answered, "We did. But if that kid's parents weren't so nice, then we would've lost for sure!"

Brenda glared at Matthew again.

"You're grounded for until the suspension is over!"

"...Ok..." Matthew mumbled as he stood up and walked quickly towards the stairs. Just as he put his hand on the handrail leading upstairs, he heard Brenda yell:

"Where do you think you're going?" She yelled, bending forwards slightly to look at Matthew, "We're not done! You have to apologize to that kid as soon as you get back to school!"

"What?!" Matthew yelled out as he rapidly turned to face his mother, his eyes widening.

"You heard her." his father said, glaring at Matthew for his outburst, "We'll be asking their parents if you did. If it turns out you did not, you will be grounded for another week. Is that clear?"

Matthew felt his anger rising again. Apologize to that kid?! Why?! Whenever they said that they were sorry, they usually told to do it by somebody else! Why should he have to apologize for something when they don't feel sorry about it?! Did he feel sorry now because he broke their nose?

"They started it!" He said, pointing his finger at his mother, "They called Mom a murderer when they found out about what happened in that restaurant!"

He saw Brenda's eyes widen a bit when he mentioned that, and heard her quietly say. "They do...?" A couple of seconds pass before she shook her head and said in her normal voice, "It doesn't matter. Punching someone because they said something nasty doesn't make the problem go away. Violence is never the answer, Matthew! Now, are you going to apologize to them or not?"

He unconsciously clenched his fists as he gave his answer immediately. That prick made fun of him, insulted him whenever they were out of earshot from the teachers, and all just to get a rise out of him! Well, they pushed him too far and gave them exactly what they deserved! Why should he have to apologize for that?!

"NO!" Matthew yelled out again.

"Figured you would say that." Everett said, letting out a sigh and looking into Matthew's eyes. The tone of his voice made clear that he was running out of patience, "Matthew, I'm disappointed in you. You can consider that grounding extended to two weeks now. Let me put it to you this way: If you keep acting like the way you did today, nobody will ever want to be your friend-"

"FUCK YOU!"

That last sentence made something in Matthew snap, like a branch breaking in half after it's been stepped on. He didn't even know how those two words came to mind, how he could possibly say that in front of his own parents, but they came out of his mouth. It only took Brenda's loud gasp and Everett's flinching, something he rarely ever sees, for him to realize how much he's screwed.

Everett lowered his eyebrows as he stood up from the couch and walked over to his son, anger written all over his face. Matthew took two steps back and looked at his father as he stood directly in front of him.

"That's it." Everett said, his voice booming, "Matthew Hunt, you are grounded for a month. No TV, no games, no hanging out with your friends, no doing anything on your computer and phone other than school related activities, nothing. You are to come straight home from school, do any homework you have, and do nothing else. In fact, don't even bother coming out of your room except when you have to go to the bathroom or if we call for you. Do you hear me?"

In the middle of his father's sentencing, tears started to roll down Matthew's cheeks. Brenda was the one who punished him when he did something wrong, and the grounding she initially gave him was the longest she ever grounded him for. Whenever Everett is certain about something, it took a lot of convincing in order to change his mind. Judging by the fact that Brenda remained silent throughout Everett's punishing, she wasn't going to talk him out of it.

After a few moments of silence, Matthew spoke again.

"...Y-yes...sir..." Matthew quietly said, his tears reaching the bottom of his cheeks and slowly dripping on the ground, "...I...I'm s-sorry..." His mind was filled with all sorts of negative thoughts. He deserved it, he thought, he deserved to be punished for talking like that to his own parents. What kind of person was he? Oh right, a bad one!

Nobody spoke a word for another couple of seconds before Everett takes in a deep breath through his nose. He then bent down and put his hands on his son's shoulders. "Look at me, Matthew." he said, this time in a more softer tone. Matthew instead kept looking off to the side, unable to face his father. Everett grabbed his face with his hand and turned his head towards him. Staring into each other's eyes, Everett began to speak again, making sure to talk to him more softly.

"You're better than this, Matthew. I know you didn't mean to say that to us." He smiled at his son as he continued, "How about this? If someone is bullying you, then just ignore them and try to remain calm. If they don't stop after that, tell a teacher about it. Attention is what they want. If you give them that, they'll only want to get more from you. Do you understand?"

Taking in every word, Matthew nodded.

"Ok," Everett said, nodding as well and taking his hands off Matthew's shoulders as he took a couple of steps backwards, "You're still grounded, though, so don't do..."

Matthew didn't hear anything his father said after that, as he proceeded to run upstairs to his room. Once there, he closes the door and pushes the button on the doorknob to lock it.

His room wasn't as big as his parent's room, but it was still decent in size. The bed was at the end of the room with it's headboard touching the wall. The window was to the right above the bed, curtains covering the windows to prevent too much sunlight from getting in. His computer was right next to the door, his 25 inch monitor on top of the black desk. It can pretty much run most games at the highest settings. His wardrobe to the left held his clothes, as it was designed to.

Not bothering to take his clothes off, he walked over to the bed and laid on it, putting the blanket over himself. He continued to sniffle and even let out a few hiccups as he thought about what his father told him. He told the teachers what was going on before, but they didn't do anything!

...

Now that he thought about it, however, he did look like he was throwing a hissy fit over everything, from being poked at repeatably and having his pencil stolen, as well as some other incidents he couldn't really remember now. Why would they listen to him after losing his crap over losing something that he could easily replace or over a situation that he could easily deal with himself?

He thought back to the last thing Everett said:

"Attention is what they want. If you give them that, they'll only want to get more from you."

He was one-hundred percent right on that bit. They were doing it to get a rise out of him. Once they leave him alone, they'll eventually leave him alone, right?

Attention is all they want from him...

...

Attention is all they...

...

Attention...

Matthew's thoughts slowed to a crawl as he felt himself begin to fall asleep. Eventually, his thoughts stopped altogether as he began to snore.

((Matthew Hunt continued in I'm alright. I'm just fine. And you're a tool, so.))