Precisely a week after Jeff confessed to me, school started. To be honest, I wasn't so thrilled about returning to my crappy school but Jeff seemed to be looking forward to it, which was quite understandable. His family moved into our neighborhood during summer vacation, so the boy basically no idea what his new school was like. He might as well make some new acquaintances there. I was just glad that we were studying in the same place though. After all, this village was so small that it could only accommodate two state schools. And since the one we went to was closest to our homes, it made our journey each day a whole lot more convenient.
Near the end of the holiday, most of our neighbors who had gone away for summer trips returned promptly. This included our neighbor, Billy. I had to mention him because he was partially the underlying cause of our unforeseen predicament. This boy lived across the road and was by far the most pampered kid I had ever encountered. His family was wealthy as hell, not to mention they had traveled to Hawaii for an entire month. They came back inviting us to the kid's birthday party. I was, of course, inclined to decline the offer. There was no way I was attending some dumb boy's party. Jeff thought the same but Margaret actually made him and Liu go. So, rendered no choice, I had to accompany with my boyfriend.
Now, we're done talking about this Billy kid. I regretted having not informed Jeff about these three other guys in our community earlier. In every neighborhood, I suppose there are always some big boys who regard themselves as the mighty kings. Well, these people I'm about to introduce were the most conceited, revolting and nasty bugs I had ever met. There was this brown-haired boy called Randy. His family went away to Australia in the summer which was certainly a heavenly bliss to us because no one and by that saying, I mean even adults, wanted to mess with him. He was simply disturbing and vile. I couldn't remember why I used to be his friend in kindergarten. Anyway, he wasn't the type that ought to act so egocentric and narcissistic. He was barely an average jerk who actually thought there was more to his trademark artful grin whenever he got himself into mischief. He wasn't the conspicuous kind that stood out in the crowd which might explain why he was incessantly trying to gain himself some attention by inflicting pain on others. He courted me once or twice before but needless to say, I was so not going to date this freak. Even though we were quite compatible when it came to shop-lifting, I wasn't as ruthless as this beast. At least, I never went as far as to threaten someone to pay for my bus fare.
If someone was smart enough, they surely wouldn't want to fool around with Randy, whom I, myself, also strove to keep a distance from. This boy had two sidekicks. Troy was a real troll. This obsessed kid ate nothing but meat. Seriously, I had once tried to count how many beef burgers he could gobble down in one go and I got twenty. To make things worse, this guy was hitting puberty and he had got all these disgusting pimples on his greasy face which undoubtedly gave people nothing but nausea. Again, I made sure I wouldn't go near this plump, lousy boy. He was someone whom you should be afraid of just by glancing at his abnormal size. No, I wasn't scared of him though. I was never frightened by Randy's gang because he knew I could act more vicious if necessary.
Next, there was Keith who in my opinion was the exact opposite or rather a mirror image of Troy. He was so pitifully scrawny that sometimes I had to sympathize with his physique. The boy looked as though he had been starving for years and to add more repulsion to his appearance, his face was always as pale as a sheet. Gosh, I wished someone could tell me why the people in my neighborhood were so damn weird. They gave me chills just by uttering a single word.
On the first school day, Mom made me run some morning errands for her. I was miffed because I was initially planning to go to school with Jeff. If only I did, I wouldn't be feeling guilty afterwards because what happened was far beyond my capability of accepting the truth. To make things short, it was a turning point of my boyfriend's life. Jeff and Liu were walking to school when they bumped into Randy's gang. What triggered the quarrel was when Randy skated and almost crashed into Jeff on the bench while trying to leap in the air. The two brothers were utterly annoyed by the unfriendly stranger and so foolishly, they decided to argue with him. The unwise choice they made immediately got them into jeopardy. Randy's gang attempted to terrorize Jeff and Liu, forcing them to hand over their money. When they refused to comply, Troy pulled out a knife and continued with the threat. From what I gathered later about the incident, there was a moment when Liu tried to stand up against the bullies but was held back by his brother. When Troy snatched Liu's wallet, Jeff practically went berserk. No longer able to stifle his rage, he did something even I couldn't believe he would achieve. He charged at Randy and walloped his face, causing him to groan and get distracted. Grabbing Randy's knife, Jeff proceeded to clutch his wrist and wrung it several times until the bone broke. Randy was defeated. His sidekicks were furious. They attacked Jeff naively thinking they could win when all they got in the end was the very same dire consequence. After tossing Randy to the ground, Jeff clasped the knife and stabbed Keith in the arm. The boy collapsed wailing and crying for mommy. Troy the fat troll was clearly incensed when he saw the fall of his two dear, feeble friends. He lunged towards my boyfriend and spread out his arms in an attempt to catch him. Jeff was, nonetheless, too fast. He didn't even need a knife to retaliate. He simply punched the fat junk's stomach and it was sufficient to send him puking all over.
