A TAIL OF NINE

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: A Little Payback and ... NO!

I've got a long way to go before Mirabelle needs to be scared of me. I don't care what Hazlerigg says. What would Mr. Unger say? Maybe he was just blowing smoke up your ass ... I keep thinking of the slime and pus on the Ito working its way to me. Nothing at all from Mirabelle. Not even a twitch on the ito.

She's saving up. To hit me with everything she's got as soon as she's able to.

Almost every fantasy movie that starts with a naïve character that later becomes a badass has a montage where they squish a month's worth of practicing and learning into five minutes. Usually there's music with heavy guitar riffs. Nobody really cares how the hero becomes badass, not really, just that he does so he can take out the villain.

Since Toby has it rough and I'm crashing at his place, I leave the Dunnie's coin under his mattress. He needs as much luck as he can get. At least, it makes it seem more like I'm paying my own way and not being a free-loader.

Today, when he comes home, Toby's got a busted lip. He doesn't say anything about how he got it at school today, but I can guess. After he flops down on the bed, he stares at the ceiling.

Figuring that he doesn't want to talk about today (even if he can't hear me), I blurt out the first thing that jumps into my head. "You're dad's pretty okay some of the time. Do you think that maybe my parents weren't all bad?"

Where the heck did THAT come from???? Maybe I'm just tired from practicing, but why don't I stop talking???? Instead, I keep running my mouth, unable to shut up.

"Do you think my parents went with the Glass Man because they had to? You know, what if he had something that meant a lot to them so they felt like they didn't have a choice?"

Did the Glass Man have something of theirs that they cared about, so that he could make them do whatever he wanted them to?

Was it me???

Of course not! They didn't care about me!

I hate them and I love Kon. It's not like I can like all three of them. That would be telling Kon that she doesn't mean a lot to me, right? She stuck with me and they didn't!

Some things are simple and always will be.

With a sigh, Toby opens his backpack to pull out the book his mom gave him, like he always does.

But this time, the book isn't there.

More and more riled up, Toby dumps out his backpack and digs through the mess. Still not finding it, he checks under his bed, in the closet ... even in the pile of clothes erupting out of his broken hamper.

Just as he gets ready to root through the papers and schoolbooks on his bed for a third time, a rock plinks against his bedroom window. And then another. He doesn't have to look to see who it is. I know who it is but I look anyway. Mitch and Jarred grin from the sidewalk below. Jarred has Toby's book! Don't these losers have anything else to do?!!? Get girlfriends! Or boyfriends! Get a job for crying out loud!

Toby wants to go down there and shove his fist down their throats and I don't blame him. They outnumber him ... and he knows it. He paces back and forth like a caged lion. Ready to explode, he slams his fist into the wall over and over and over again, dreaming that it's Jarred's face.

Even after Toby leaves the window, I keep watching. Jarred shouts something that I can't make out and then tries to rip the book in half. When the idiot can't, he rips out a bunch of pages. With a final grin, he tosses down what remains of Toby's book.