A Hero's Legacy

Chapter Two

It was about 3:15 pm when Ryder finally pushed open the door of the principal's office, having spent the vast majority of his afternoon switching between there and the nurse's room for timely inspections of the wounds he'd sustained in the earlier day - he'd expected an expulsion or at least a suspension ordered for one or both of the participants at the lunchtime brawl, but he supposed his grades too high and Cole's athletic records too great for the institution to fathom the discharge of both students at the same time over the incident. He began a somewhat slow trek through the main hallway, grateful that he still had a school to attend, but unable to prevent himself from ruminating on the events that had led up to this moment - the anger, the bruises, that unyielding sense of necessity.

For those oh-so-noble efforts, Ryder had earned himself the king of all black eyes, a bullied alien who was now more apologetic about what happened than he was, and a glaringly watchless wrist that acted as a continual reminder of the embarassment he'd caused himself and others in the vicinity. He'd surely enjoy having to explain to his mother that he'd lost a generational valuable to some glowering thug of an eleventh-grader, all for a misguided attempt at pretending to be that which he so clearly was not.

For some ill-informed, unimaginably harebrained try at being some sort of hero.

All that unexplainable side of himself had ever done is draw undeserved attention to himself and cause him injuries that ultimately helped no-one, and so Ryder had come to bear a particular kind of hatred for the pretender, the false saviour that existed inside of his being and forced him to take fruitless action; none of these people had entertained the thought of lending him their assistance while he was continually and violently battered by Cole that afternoon, nor would any of them have followed that thoughtless young charlatan into the primary school's furnace of six years past, so what reason did he have to risk himself and his wellbeing for them, time and time again - what significance did it all really have?

And as if in answer, the same brown-haired beauty stepped into focus a short distance from Ryder's ambling form, full-lipped smile almost doing something to alleviate the pain of his adversary's punches with more effect than any medication he could have taken before he laid his eyes upon her. Riley, equal parts elegant and natural, easily contrasted the overly-cautious countenance the sixteen year old boy seemed to hold whenever he wasn't leaping into battle with athletes twice his size - and in such display, she raised a finger to press lightly at the shiner he'd received, gentle smile replaced then with a teasing grin.

"Well," she said, "That'll bruise."

Ryder tipped back his head, knowing that there was absolutely nothing for him to laugh about as of right now, but the quiet mirth that escaped his lips defied all logical sense. "Yeah. It might."

"Did you get expelled?"

"No, I didn't get expelled," the male answered honestly, "But with four weeks of community service ahead of me, they might as well finish the job and start writing the termination papers. I can also kiss my videogame priveleges goodbye for the next eternity and a half, alongside  everything else I own."

"Something on your mind besides having to scrape under the desks for three-year-old chewing gum?" questioned Riley, falling into step with her taller counterpart as they began to traverse the desolate halls of the school in a path for it's front exit, "If it makes you feel any better, since he started it, Cole might be given toilet duty while the school janitor puts his feet up for a while."

"That does actually make me feel a little better, yeah," was his reply, pinching his nose as he repressed the smile threatening to spill across his features, "It's not that, though - guess he wasn't satisfied with kicking my butt down the cafeteria and back, since he got to my wristwatch right after. It barely told the time, but it was super important to my mom, y'know? Expensive, antique kind of important .. said it used to be my dad's before I started wearing it around."