The Haunting

Chapter 4-the fight and telling Katy

Chapter 4

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"Thursday, lunch time, school*

The school cafeteria is buzzing with activity. Everyone's crowded around the middle of the room. Katy and I exchange a confused glance. What is going on?

You need to tell Katy. She deserves to know. She is your best friend, isn't she? A voice nags at the back of my mind.

I tell it to shut up. It's right though. I probably should tell Katy. It's not bad news, it's more good news. I'll be able to walk to and from school with her. She lives about 2 blocks away from Aunt D's old house/ my house-to-be, and only a block from school.

But at the moment, both hers and my attention is focused on the middle table. 

" Katy, what-"

"I don't know" she said with a shrug.

We walk over to the middle table and push through the crowd. In the middle is Daniel and Mitch, throwing wild punches.

Mitch is the school bully. At least, he tries to bully people, but he sucks at it. He's no good at insults or comebacks, and can't fight if his life depended on it.

Then again, neither can Daniel, but that's because he used to hate fighting, but now it happens a lot.

Mitch is 2 years older then Daniel, and at the moment, Danny's doing better then him. Mitch's lip is bleeding and he's holding his left arm like it's hurt bad. Once Danny took out his left arm (Mitch is left handed therefore his left arm is his punching arm) he had a major advantage.

Mitch can't punch with his right arm to save his life. It's kind of funny to watch him try though.

Danny might be winning, but he's also injured, with a bloody nose.

I sigh. Even though I'm younger then Daniel, I am constantly reminding him not to do things and why. He doesn't seem to be able to think for himself about these things. 

 I run out of the cafeteria to the Gym, and into Mr. Gray's( the Gym teacher) office, which is always empty at lunch time.

On his desks sits his marine horn. I grab it and sprint back to the cafeteria.

As I pass by Katy, she raises her eyebrows at me, looking at Coach's horn in my hand.

"I should really get myself one of these" I mutter, rolling my eyes. They really are useful when you have a brother like Danny who fights with people constantly.

I push my way through the circle of people to the middle and come up right behind Danny and Mitch. I set the horn on the ground in front of my right foot. I plug my ears and lift up my foot, placing it above the horn's big button on the top of the can.

 I silently count in my head; 1........2........3! And, scrunching my eyes closed with my hands pressed tightly over my ears, I press down on the horn with the balls of me feet.

I wait a few seconds, then,slowly, tentatively, I remove my hands from my ears and open my eyes. 

Everyone is staring at me. Danny is frozen mid-punch, Mitch with his arms in front of his face to deflect it.

"Chloe? What are you doing here? What was that for, why did you do that?" Danny's tone is so confused and alarmed I almost laugh, but resist.

"Well, this is the school cafeteria is it not? And it IS lunch time, right? And this is the place people come to eat lunch?" My tone implying the obvious. Mocking in a way, telling him that he should know this "And I did that because you were fighting AGAIN, and did you completely forget what Mom told you about that?" I ask, raising my eyebrows at him, crossing my arms over my chest

"Oh, oh right. Whoops, sorry, I guess I did forget." He turns to Mitch, his face apologetic. "Sorry, Mitch, I guess I overreacted. Are you alright?" His voice sounds sincerely concerned. 

Mitch nods, and they both head off to the nurse's office to clean up their wounds.

A while after Mitch and Danny left, the crowd dispersed, people separating into their little groups of friends, whispering among themselves.

Katy comes up behind me. "I can't believe her got into another fight."

I give a sigh and turn to face her "That's the 3rd this week..... Mom would kill him if she found out, luckily, she almost never does."

Katy has been my best friend for almost 6 years. She has been there with me for every one of Daniel's fights. Somehow, he manages to make all his fights happen only at school.

Every time Daniel gets into a fight, I'm the only one to stop him, and the way I do it is different with each fight. It all really matters about where and when.

Like the first 2 fights Daniel had gotten into earlier this week; the first one had been at recess on the basket ball court. 

To stop that fight I had to grab a basketball out of a boy's hands, and place it behind them. Obviously too absorbed in their fight, they were not paying attention to anyone else, the boy Danny was fighting pushed him, and Danny grabbed onto the boy's shirt to catch his balance, but instead, Danny tripped on the ball, and they both went down.

The second one he got into was actually in the hall, when switching classes. 

That one was hard to stop, I had nothing really useful in the hall to help me. I tried pulling them apart, but they both just shoved me out, without even looking at who it was. I tried yelling at them, I tried tripping them, I tried pushing them, anything to get them to stop, it really got bad.

Finally, though, I wasn't able to watch any more. They were both injured pretty bad.

I had to use my last resort. I took a deep breath and screamed at the top of my lungs. They both stopped fighting and scrunched their eyes closed, covering their ears. 

Of course, because I was in school, everyone heard me, teachers and students came rushing out of their classrooms, but it didn't matter. I had stopped the fight. I had done what I had to do. Danny and the boy he fought with both got sent home, to heal and to be punished.

That was how my mom had found out. At first she was worried and upset, of course she would have been, her son has badly hurt.

 But later she was furious, more than that.  She threatened that if he got into any more fights, she would ground him until he was 30, but I think she was just exaggerating to make him take her seriously enough that he would listen.

Of course, with Danny, most things just go in one ear and out the other.

Katy and I walk to the back of the room to our table. We always sit in the back.

The back of the car, the back of the class, the back of the cafeteria, everywhere. Even the back of the line.

 After settling into our chairs with our lunch trays on the table, I turn to her.

She sees me watching her and slowly puts down her sandwich.

"What is it Chloe?"

Silence.

"Chloe, seriously, what's wrong? Please stop staring at me like that, it's creeping me out."

Still, silence

She sighs, rolls her eyes at me and continues eating.

"I'm moving." The words seem to explode from my mouth before I can stop them.