Riddle Middle

Chapter 27: Vacation

(Thanks to the singular [Maybe more idk] person who's reading this ;w;)

Zack (1st person)

As I predicted, Joy was showing everyone the video. I forced myself to get up and approach her. Everyone in the crowd was laughing hysterically. "Joy, what the heck?! I did your essay!" I said. You know what heck means. "Yeah, and I'm not gonna post it, like we agreed," she said. "Crap," I said, without saying crap. She laughed. I tried to ignore the people laughing at me, but they were practically screaming. I eventually went out into the hallway to get away from them. Joy followed me. "Hey, loser, where are you going?" she asked. "I- I'm t-trying to..." I didn't think my voice would be all choked again. "Aw, what's wrong? Are you gonna cry?" she asked. Unfortunately, the answer to that was a definite yes. "No!" I said, wiping my eyes with my sleeve. "Really? It doesn't look like it," she said. I made a small sniffling sound. Joy laughed and pushed me. I managed to stay upright, and I tried to hide my face from her. It's not like I was crying yet, I just looked like I was about to. Joy shoved me, and I fell. She laughed again. I didn't hear anything else for a while, so I raised my head. She had left, and now my friends were coming over to me.

I was still on the floor in the middle of the hallway. I hid my face and braced for them to start teasing me. "Are you okay?" Phil asked. I wasn't expecting that, but I still kept my face hidden. My friends all sat next to me. Lauren sat pressing up against me. I raised my head a bit and rested it on her leg. She lifted me a bit closer, so I wasn't quite on her leg anymore. That's when I started crying. I don't know, I couldn't help it. At first, it was soft and subtle, but it got loud pretty soon. I might've managed to keep myself together if Lauren wasn't there. I rolled off of her and forced myself to uncover my face. Lauren didn't look too great. Her entire front was wet, and her neck was pretty red. "A-Are you okay?!" I asked. "Well, you burned me a bit, but that's fine," she said. "I- I'm sorry... I understand if you don't want to be with me anymore..." I said. "What? No, of course I want to be with you!" she said. "Really?" I said, surprised. "Zack, you shouldn't doubt relationships so quickly," she said. "You're right. You're always right..." I said.

Joy came back for some reason. "Oh, you know that essay wasn't one of my assignments, right?" she asked. "What?" I said. I didn't understand what she meant. "Yeah, that's like, high school stuff. I just printed it so I had something to give you," she said. I was caught off guard when I started crying again. I didn't try to hide my face, I didn't try to muffle it, I just cried. Yeah, I don't think Joy was expecting that. Really, no one was expecting that. Not even me. By now, I had attracted a crowd. I barely noticed. My vision was blurry, and my hearing was a bit distorted. I cried until the bell rang, then my friends helped me to class. I had calmed down by then. Meh, the rest of the day was okay, I guess. We all walked home together, like always. "We really need to do something about Joy," Phred said. "Yeah, but what?" I asked. He looked thoughtful. "Okay, I have an idea, but it probably won't work," he said. "What is it?" I asked. "I should think it through before I tell you," he said. Okay, yeah, that's fair.

Phred (1st person)

Essentially, I wanted to become a safety patrol and report Joy. I don't know, they seem more privileged than the normal students. The next morning (Friday) before school, I went to the principal's office to see if he'd let me. It's pretty late to sign up, but I thought I'd try. "Do you need something?" he asked. "Yeah, I was wondering if I could become a safety patrol," I said. "Really? You know that requires a lot of... Work, right?" he said. Come on, I'm not that lazy. "Yeah, I know," I said. "Okay, you can start today," he said, handing me a neon yellow belt. That was easy. "What do I do?" I asked. "Go to the front doors of the school and hold them open. Help anyone who asks," he said. "You go to class at second bell," he said. "Second bell? I'm supposed to be in class by second bell," I said. "You might be a bit late, I'll inform your teachers," he said. I thanked him, then I left his office. I figured I tell him about Joy later. I went to the front doors and held them open. My arm got tired after about ten minutes, and no one had arrived yet. I put my backpack in front of one door and some books from inside of my backpack in front of the second one. That seemed to hold them, so now I didn't have to. It was about 9:15, and most people don't come until around 9:30. I used the extra time to do some homework I had forgotten about.

My friends came around 9:25. "Since when are you a safety patrol?" Phil asked. "I just started today," I said. "Is this your plan?" Zack asked. "Yeah, pretty much," I said. "How's this gonna stop Joy?" he asked. "Maybe someone'll listen to me if I report her," I said. "Well, did you?" he asked. "No, not yet, I'll do it soon," I said. "Alright," he said. My friends all went inside, except for Phil. "Was it easy?" he asked. "Yeah, I just told him I wanted to be one, and he gave me the belt," I said. He nodded and went inside. A few minutes later, he came back out, and he had a belt as well. "You're right, that was easy," Phil said. "Yeah. Why do you want to be one?" I asked. "So I can do it with you; I convinced him to let us share a post," he said. "Cool," I said. "I saw a swarm of bees migrating to Neptune to see a concert," Phil said. That's a game we play. "Well, I saw a sheep draw a picture of the Earth being decimated by agitated mice," I said. "I saw a school of piranhas single-handedly take down an armed triceratops," he said. "I saw a chameleon explode into ten million rainbow roosters," I said. "I saw a stampede of-" Phil started. "Since when are you safety patrols?" Joy asked.

"We just started today," I said. "Why? You know, you have to do work for that," she said. "C'mon, I'm not that lazy," I said. "Mm-hmm, right," she said. She shoved me over and strolled past me. The first bell rang. "I'll be right back," I said to Phil. I went to the principal's office, and he asked what I needed. "Joy's being a jerk," I said. "What do you mean?" he asked. "She's been giving Smiley her work, she's manipulating 5, she's been hurting my friends, and she humiliated Zack," I said. "Slow down. What about Smiley?" he asked. "She's been giving Smiley her homework," I said. "What about 5?" he asked. "She's his girlfriend, and she's threatening their relationship to make him do things," I said. "And what about your friends?" he asked. "She tried to drop Smiley into a bed of cacti, but Zack saved her and wound up in the cacti himself," I said. "And what about Zack?" he said. "She has an embarrassing video of him, and she was showing it to everyone," I said. "Ah... Okay, I'll talk to her later," he said. I left his office, and the second bell rang, so I went to class. Joy was called to the principal's office a few minutes later. I hope this works...

Joy (1st person)

I got suspended. Maybe I shouldn't've shoved Phred, because I think that pushed him over the edge. Heh. I'm guessing he reported me and the principal actually listened because he's a safety patrol. I was surprised that my mom didn't seem to care. She just said we can go on vacation now. I feel like this is more of a reward than a punishment, because I don't have to go to school for a while now too. I've been bragging about this since the beginning of the school year (Also known as chapter 5), and now I finally get to leave. And I can tell everyone I was just on vacation rather than being suspended.