What Goes Up...

[chitoryu12†]

((Chris Carlson continued from Homework: Last Resort of the Bored))

Chris had spent the rest of lunch in the clinic. The nurse had checked him and happily informed him that he didn't have any serious injuries; his bones were pretty tough, so aside from bruising and a nasty headache, he would be fine. He gratefully took the ice pack from her, made sure to avoid walking by the principal's office on the way out, and went upstairs to physics.

When he limped through the door, about half the class was there already. Mr. DeSanto, the portly, mustachioed teacher, was seated at his computer next to his main desk. All eyes were on him as he slowly made his way to his seat, dropped his bag next to his seat, and slumped into the chair. Pretty much everyone had seen or heard about the fight, and most were of the opinion that Chris was lucky to be alive after such a pummeling, let alone going right back to class.

Mr. DeSanto looked at Chris with a mild look of shock; the 40-year-old was undoubtedly quite surprised that one of his pupils had just limped into class with various injuries, but his face wasn't good at displaying emotion without totally exaggerating it, so he kept it low.

"Chris, are you all right?" he asked. Chris looked up, holding the ice pack to the back of his head as it dripped on the table behind him. "I'll live," he said. "Well, don't hurt yourself any more. I heard about what that big guy did," Mr. DeSanto said. "I'm honestly surprised you're still walking around!"

Chris chuckled, shrugged, and leaned back in his seat. The bell rang right after most of the rest of the class had filed in, with students beginning to take their seats.

((OOC: To ensure consistency, I will be handling Mr. DeSanto's dialogue))

[MurderWeasel]

((Everett Taylor continued from The end of a torment.))

Everett walked into the classroom and towards his desk, glancing over the students as he did. He stopped when he saw one of the tallest boys in the class, Chris something or other, with an icepack pressed against his head. Everett head Mr. DeSanto say, "I heard about what that big guy did. I'm honestly surprised you're still walking around!"

Everett hadn't heard anything about what had happened to Chris. He had spent his lunch break in an empty classroom, skimming his textbook for a better understanding of the days' material. Everett didn't like eating with other students. He was self conscious about the large lunches he packed. Besides, socializing was uninteresting, and distracted him when he could be spending his time being productive.

Everett sat relatively near Chris, for which he was happy. He usually didn't care about other students' problems, at least their non-academic ones, but this looked serious. If someone was picking on students, Everett wanted to know about it, so he could avoid the perpetrator.

Everett set his stuff down, and was about to go over to Chris to ask what had happened, when the bell rang. Everett sighed. He would never disrupt class. Still, he hoped that he would get a chance to talk to Chis soon. Everett's curiosity about the matter was liable to be a distraction, and he needed to focus to ensure his continued success in class.

[chitoryu12†]

Chris wasn't too familiar with Everett, who sat next to him. While they had the same class for a while, they didn't talk except when working on labs together.

The majority of the class went smoothly. Mr. DeSanto did some demonstrations of refraction using a beaker of water and a partially-submerged test tube, and drew a diagram of Tom Hanks in Castaway trying to spear a fish. At the end of class, they had about ten minutes left after being given their homework assignment (Mr. DeSanto rarely gave homework, and it was usually only three or four problems; he said that if you can do 5, you can do 50, and if you can't do 5, there's no way you could ever do 50), and the rest of the period was basically free.

Mr. DeSanto answered some questions from the students on anything related to physics, sometimes drawing more diagrams to demonstrate, but let everyone else freely talk over him as long as they didn't cause a bad problem. Chris usually payed attention to try and learn more interesting facts, but his head was pounding so much he decided to just put his head down on his desk, ice pack on his head, and wait for the bell to ring.

[MurderWeasel]

The class passed relatively uneventfully. Everett took notes on everything, but he kept glancing towards Chris. He was incredibly curios about the boy's injury. Chris was a good guy, and worked well with Everett in labs, and he didn't like seeing Chris hurt.

Mr. DeSanto continued his lectures, using silly drawings to help drive the points home. At the start of the semester, that had driven Everett crazy, but eventually he had come to realize that it really did help him remember things better. Mr. DeSanto was probably Everett's favorite teacher; physics was the only class in which a teacher managed to teach Everett while maintaining a light workload and an entertaining style.

At the end, Mr. DeSanto started answering questions. Everett almost always paid attention to this part of class, but today he wanted to ask Chris about what had happened.

Keeping his voice down, so as not to disturb others, Everett said, "Hey, Chris, are you alright? What happened?"

[chitoryu12†]

"Hey, Chris, are you alright? What happened?"

The voice next to him shook him from his daze. Chris pushed against the table and brought himself back up into a seated position. Everett.

"Well," Chris said, "Neill whats-his-face decided to mouth off to Monty Pondsworth, I stopped Monty, and took the beating the kid was about to get for him. I did get a few good hits in on Monty, though."

In truth, his "few good hits" consisted of two whacks that annoyed more than they wounded, but Chris wasn't about to let that get in the way. Sometimes, his ego liked to boost itself by providing a very small, if not entirely false, embellishment to his stories.

[MurderWeasel]

"Well," Chris said, "Neill whats-his-face decided to mouth off to Monty Pondsworth, I stopped Monty, and took the beating the kid was about to get for him. I did get a few good hits in on Monty, though."

Everett straightened up a little and stared at Chris. He had been expecting to hear about someone being picked on, and Montgomery Pondsworth was the obvious suspect, but Chris' story was far more interesting than Everett had expected. Everett couldn't believe that Chris had gotten in Monty's way.

What was he thinking?

"Uh, wow," Everett said, "That must have been something. Monty's probably the scariest guy I know."

Monty was actually another reason Everett avoided eating with other students. He didn't want to give the bully any reason to notice him.

"What happened to Monty?" Everett asked, "Did he go to the nurses' office too?"

[chitoryu12†]

"What happened to Monty?" Everett asked, "Did he go to the nurses' office too?"

"No," Chris said. "I was a bit out of it after taking that blow to the head, but I heard something about the principal's office. I didn't go past it, though, so I don't know if he's still there or what."

To tell the truth, Chris was having a bit of trouble remembering all the details from his head shot to leaving the cafeteria. That elbow was doing a bit more to his head than he thought.

"I'm hoping the bastard gets expelled," he said. "He's been so much of a handful for the administration, I don't know why he's even here, let alone out of prison. They should just lock him up and keep him there for a good, long time."

[MurderWeasel]

Everett nodded when Chris said Monty had gone to the principal's office. That made sense. Principal Kendrick was a good man, and tough on students who deserved it. Everett had great faith in him, and the school's staff in general.

"I'm hoping the bastard gets expelled," Chris said, "He's been so much of a handful for the administration, I don't know why he's even here, let alone out of prison. They should just lock him up and keep him there for a good, long time."

"I agree completely," Everett said, "I've never really gotten why they let people disrupt class and keep coming. How I see it, they shouldn't have to. If people like Monty don't want to be here, let them live on the streets and make burgers at McDonalds for a living.

"Heck, I think school's too lax about a lot of things," Everett getting a little worked up. He had strong views about school: he tended to agree with and support any decision the staff made. Everett longed for a more formal, structured educational system, with a dress code. He wore a suit every day, regardless of the weather and his classmates' stares, because he felt that that was the proper way for respectable people to dress.

"I think students should have to maintain a good grade average, and..."

Everett trailed off. He could talk about this all day, but he didn't want to offend any less dedicated students nearby, so he simply finished, "Yeah, I hope they throw Monty out too."

[chitoryu12†]

Chris nodded to Everett. He was making sense. Why should the kids who don't want to be here, well, BE here?

"Heck, I think school's too lax about a lot of things. I think students should have to maintain a good grade average, and..."

Everett trailed off. Chris was worried that he was just going to ramble on, somewhat unlike him, but Everett must have sensed that because he almost immediately stopped, as if something clicked in his mind that said "Not cool, dude."

"I agree," Chris said. "There's too many kids who just don't want to be here? Why should society try to force them to be here? There are plenty of other places for them to spend their time, so why should it be here causing problems? I mean, I can understand the kids with poor grades simply because they're not that good in class, but the ones who are only here because they'll be grounded or have an expulsion or drop-out on their permanent record? No, get rid of them. Let them do what they want, as long as it doesn't cause a problem for us!"

Now CHRIS was worried that he was rambling, but he never got much of a chance to speak his mind. He was always too hesitant at sharing his views unless something really got to him, like bigotry or politics. Now that you got him going, he may not stop until someone shoved a sock in his mouth.

[MurderWeasel]

Chris agreed with Everett, and expanded on his own views, which mirrored Everett's closely. Everett was pleased to find another student who took academics seriously, and nodded along as Chris talked. Everett especially agreed about letting idiots do what they wanted if they left other people alone. There was no need to force people to behave; if they didn't, they would end up in jail or something and stop bothering sensible people.

"Right on," he said, when Chris paused.

Everett paused for a second, as a student asked a question he had been wondering about too, then turned back to Chris after Mr. DeSanto answered.

"Hey, Chris," he said, "We should totally do a study session sometime. I mean, you're great in science, and I could always use a little more help, and, I dunno, maybe I could help you out sometimes too."

Everett hoped he didn't sound too awkward. Sometimes he had trouble communicating with his classmates, since he tended to have little in common with them except school. This was a particularly large problem with slackers, who Everett couldn't be civil with most of the time. Fortunately, he had learned to ignore them, instead of starting arguments.

Everett glanced at the clock. Class was almost done. He wished it wasn't though. Chris was a great guy to talk with.

[chitoryu12†]

"Hey, Chris," Everett said, "We should totally do a study session sometime. I mean, you're great in science, and I could always use a little more help, and, I dunno, maybe I could help you out sometimes too."

Chris thought it might be a good idea. Everett was a good kid, albeit a bit stuck-up at times, and he could definitely help Chris understand some of the more complex algebraic concepts that his bimbo teacher (a cheerleading coach who was half-brain dead) couldn't properly explain.

"Sure, I'd definitely be up for it!" Chris said. "Here's my number and email address. If you ever want to call me to get together, you can reach me here."

Chris just finished writing his phone number and email on a post-it note (he had no clue why they were in his backpack; he just found a whole pack of them next to his pencil case one day) when the bell rang. He winced, the piercing noise making his headache worse. He packed up his stuff and got up to leave.

"See you another time, man!" he said.

((Chris Carlson continued in A Flock of Cuckoos))

[MurderWeasel]

Chris agreed, and Everett smiled. New study partners were always good. Everett just hoped he could pull his weight and help Chris out. He took the post it note Chris offered him, and affixed it to the inside of his science textbook, where he wouldn't lose it.

The bell rang, and Everett saw Chris wince. He hoped the boy hadn't been seriously hurt. He seemed alright, but Everett wasn't a doctor.

"See you another time, man!" Chris said.

"You too," Everett replied, "I'll give you a call. Hope your head feels better."

Chris left the classroom, and Everett did too.

((Everett Taylor continued in Just passing the time.))