I can't Hurt You - Marcus Lopez Arguello

3

After Hand-to-Hand Combat class I changed and rushed to the rooftop where the other Rats were.

"What's up, assholes?" I said as I went up to them and sat down next to them placing my bag on the other side of me.

"I believe the only asshole here is you with your bitchy attitude." Lex said in his cocky manner.

"Shut the fuck up, Lex." I scoffed.

"Well I see you've met the new boy." Billy teased to me as he stood up and walked towards me.

"Yeah. I didn't really catch his name now that I think of it though." I said.

"He's probably a Legacy." Billy said.

"Nah he's a Rat. He was completely clueless about the whole clique thing. Only Rats are clueless like that when they first come here." I clarified.

"No shit!" Billy said excitedly.

"Yeah, so who's gonna give him the Rat bones?" Petra asked.

We all looked at each other.

"Petra and I have Poison Lab." Billy made his excuse.

"I have AP Black Arts." Lex went along with Billy.

"Well I'm supposed to have Poison Lab too." I justified.

"Relax, he's not gonna kill you if you skip one period." Billy said referring to the teacher as he sat next to me and swung an arm around me.

"Yeah maybe he won't but Lin definitely will." I said as I stood up to face all three of them.

"Well tradition says the first Rat to talk to a new one gives them the bones." Lex said with a smirk.

"Oh please, that's complete bullshit." I scoffed.

"Nope, happened every single time a new Rat joined." Billy agreed.

"Fuck, fine! I'll get the dead rats from the basement then." I said as I grabbed my bag and was about to head downstairs.

"You guys hear about that dude's rep?" Petra asked.

I stopped in my tracks and looked back at them which made them look at me.

"Seriously? No one?" Petra asked after looking at all of us and seeing that we all stayed quiet.

"Well go on then. What is it?" Lex urged.

"He burned down the boys' home he lived at. Killed all the kids and the adults in the building. He was the only one who survived." Petra said casually.

At that moment my heart dropped to my stomach. It sounded like a familiar story in theory. There's absolutely no way that he did it though. There's no way that he was the one responsible for my brother's death.

"Earth to Emma." Lex said as he waved in my face which snapped me out of my trance.

"Shit. Sorry I'm gonna go find the rats now. Get me my work from Poison Lab please." I said to Billy and Petra before I walked down to the basement.

My head was flooded with thoughts. It's a small world, but it can't be that fucking small. Okay, no freaking out. This is simple. All I have to do is make a simple promise to myself. No matter what happens, if he's my brother's killer I'll make sure he joins him in the grave. This whole school is based on getting revenge, all I'll be doing is putting their teaching to practice.

I made it down to the basement and went to the rat trap in the corner. Fuck, this smelled disgusting. There was a rat corpse stuck in it. It had already decomposed and turned into a skeleton which means it must've died a long time ago, but there was still blood on the bones and shit. Tradition says the bones have to be clean. Fuck this shit.