The Matters of Power

Chapter 67- The Fate of Marcus Fernandino [5]

Years ago, Quarter's perspective...

"It's only natural to be nervous on the first day of school," I told myself. Middle school, a whole new world compared to elementary school, where the idea of being teenagers was an exciting prospect and we would be wrapped up in things such as trends, popularity, puberty, all that nonsense. Despite being born and raised in San Anton, the people who I knew from elementary school before had seemed to change drastically from what I saw on the first day. Among the changes that were happening all around me, I found myself seeming more distant from the childhood friends I used to know and came to a point we had sort of drifted apart and sought out friend groups that accepted them. On the first day of school, when our morning classes came and went by, the cafeteria became a proving ground for the typical friend groups that would solidify your hangouts during Lunch. The jocks, gaming enthusiasts, fashionistas, band kids, wanna-be delinquents, star students, you name it, they all sort of meshed into their own groups on the first day. Unfortunately, I didn't take the opportunity to introduce myself to any groups I was interested in and sort of drifted to an unoccupied table and ate my first ever taste of school lunch (it still tastes awful after all this time). I had assumed and accepted that I was going to not be affiliated with any group for the school year when I was surprised by someone approaching me. "Hey there. Are there any seats taken?" I shook my head, and he sat down on one of the seats next to me, though he was kind enough to give me a bit of space. "You know, the place is leagues better than the other one I was gonna go to, but I guess the food is just as shit as anywhere, huh?"

I was confused to what he was talking about, but I listened to him anyway out of courtesy. "Ah, sorry, I must have talked your ear off. Forgot to introduce myself, I'm Yan. Yan Mark." He extends his hand out for a handshake. "...Quarter Lee." I return the gesture. "Nice, nice. We're off to a good start, and I hope we can be friends if you want to. I'm fairly new to this town in case it wasn't obvious, heh." We ended up spending the rest of that Lunch talking to each other about ourselves, and I was surprised to know that he and his family moved here during the summer from a city on the east coast because they visited family here last Christmas and were that impressed here that they decided to move after he finished elementary. I found out that we had quite a lot in common and I was confident then that I had gained a strong friendship with Yan. We ended up hanging out both during and after school even to the point where we had the honors of introducing our parents to each other and hung out at each other's houses numerous times. Middle school was hard to adjust to, sure, but I had found that as long as I had someone on my side to endure hardships then I could keep going.

Fast forward a few months later, it was the middle of January, and everyone had seemed to have gotten over the hangover that was Winter Break. It was business as usual, go to school, nearly fall asleep in morning classes, restore our energy in Lunch, then slog through the remaining classes so we could go home and relax. I waited near the school entrance for Yan so we could "hit the town" as most students had started doing at this point, but he was far late than his usual arrival time. Far too late for my liking. I was going to search the whole school to find him and ask him what it was that had happened that's taking him so long, but I didn't have to look much. I found Yan being harassed by upperclassmen near the middle between the school buildings, and they were trying to bully him out of some pocket money. Seeing my friend in trouble, I naturally jumped in between them to stop them from bothering him, but they seemed to be amused by my action, especially their leader. They toyed with me a bit before leaving out of some twisted sense of mercy, but not before the leader of the upperclassman group kicked me into the ground and laughed it off as he walked away. I really wanted to tackle him and beat him up after that, but it was clear I was at a disadvantage from the start. They were 8th graders, with bodies that overpower us 6th graders and our puny body frame. Yan extensively apologized to me about getting me involved in his mess, but I brushed it off as I told him that I wasn't gonna sit by and let my best friend bet bullied by anyone.