Nightmare Within - Vance Hopper

chapter two: Deskmates

THE next morning, Amanda awoke to the sound of her alarm clock blaring in her ear. After getting up and getting dressed, Amanda looked in the mirror and cringed at the sight before her. Her eye was as swollen as ever and a hundred different shades of blue and purple.

"Fucking Moose," she muttered, running a brush through her hair.

Amanda left her room to find that her mother was in the kitchen, reading the newspaper and drinking a coffee. Amanda grabbed a piece of toast from the counter before pressing a kiss to her mothers cheek and leaving the house.

As soon as she left the porch, Amanda spotted Finney and Gwenny Blake, her next door neighbours and lifelong friends. She jogged to catch up with the two and when she did, Gwennys eyes widened.

"Holy shit, what happened to you?" she asked, looking at her swollen black eye.

Amanda shrugged her shoulders. "Moose," she stated.

"Shit," Finney mumbled. "Cause of me?" he asked.

Amanda shook her head immediately, shooting the boy a look.

"Of course it wasn't because of you," she denied. "It was because of me and my loud mouth,"

Finney chuckled for a second before stopping in his tracks and looking at the fence beside him. Amanda followed his eyes and saw that he was looking at the missing poster for Bruce Yamada.

"It's new," he said.

"What?" Gwen asked, stopping in her tracks.

"The flyer," Finney explained. "Mr. Yamada is putting them up again,"

Gwenny looked down at the poster solemnly, obviously wanting to say something.

"You don't think they're gonna find them, do you?" Amanda asked.

Gwen glanced at Amanda and pulled her lips into a straight line. "Not how they want to," she muttered. "Come on. Let's go. We're gonna be late,"

As the trio reached the outside of the fence, chanting reached their ears. There was a fight.

And Amanda knew exactly who it was who was fighting.

All three teens started running towards the large crowd that had built up straight ahead, all of them yelling "fight!" loudly.

When Amanda finally pushed her way through the crowd, she wasn't surprised to see Robin and Moose standing across from each other.

"You think it's cool to gang beat a teenage girl?" Robin asked angrily. "That's not tough, Moose,"

Moose shrugged his shoulders before glancing over at Amanda.

"Maybe the whore should learn to keep her mouth shut," he snickered, earning laughs from a couple kids in the crowd. "Me and my boys only did what was coming for her,"

"Call her a whore one more time," Robin threatened, his voice low. "See what happens,"

Moose scoffed and shook his head. "You think you're so tough, huh?" he asked.

"Let's find out," Robin challenged, raising his eyebrows.

"I will pound you like a nail, you scrawny little beaner," Moose snapped.

Amanda's jaw almost dropped when she heard Moose say this. She tried to take a step forward to beat his ass herself but Finney's hand landed on her arm, holding her back.

"Then do it," Robin snapped, his cool persona not cracking. "Unless you're scared,"

Moose looked nervous for a second before lunging forward and swinging at Robin. Robin, however, was expecting this. He ducked out of the way of Moose's fist and spun around and kicked his foot into Moose's face, knocking him backwards and into a pole.