Abolish Herobrine

Distracted

Eighteen Years Ago

"Are you new? Or just plain stupid?" The older boy looked at Vic in derision.

His face still splotched from crying, Vic glared back at him and said nothing back at all.

Glancing back at the group of boys standing behind him, the older boy smirked and suddenly banged the table with both hands around Vic's plate of soup, making it spill all over the table and start dripping on Vic's shirt and pants. Vic jumped up, blinking as he backed away.

Chuckling, the older boy turned back and looked at his friends again as they grinned back at him in approval.

Gritting his teeth, Vic frowned and then launched himself right against the older child. Throwing him back off balance, he straddled his chest and began to throw punches, methodically hitting the child's nose until a bright red stream came flowing from the edge of it. The boy groaned, stunned.

It took another moment before his friends jumped in and pulled Vic off, gathering around him and starting to kick him in his stomach. Vic snarled, trying to cover up his head from the vicious blows.

"You! Break it up!"

The voice of the grown ups running into the group home's cafeteria soon stopped the vicious if brief fight. Vic felt strong hands lift him up and set him upright.

A half hour later, the entire group sat in the medical office, with the principal of the home sternly staring at them all.

"Who started the fight? Oh. You don't need to even tell me. It was you, Grot. Wasn't it? You know that this is your last straw. I'll be sending a recommendation to change your assignment for the criminally minded youth due for mental health retraining."

The lead boy's gray eyes opened wide and desperation appeared on his face. "Sir! I didn't start it this time. Honest!"

"Sure, sure. Who was it this time. This little shrimp?" He pointed sarcastically at little Vic, cowering shyly on his chair a little away from the bigger group. His own eyes wide, he remembered what he knew about the special group homes where children got sent if they were found to have criminally minded tendencies. He could remember his own father threatening to do it to him if he continued to mess up.

"I'm going to send you away! And I'm going to make sure that you'll get locked up, you crazy little s***. Where you belong! With the criminally insane!"

"I'm sorry dad! I didn't mean to do it!"

Hearing the older boy starting to suddenly sob, Vic broke away from his flashback and suddenly jumped up, his fists clenched.

"I did it, sir. I started the fight! I punched him first!"

For a moment, the principal just looked at Victor with disbelief and then suddenly smirked.

"Is that so... Victor is it? Fine. Why did you hit him?" The man sarcastically studied Vic, leaning back in his cheap office chair.

Vic frowned, sticking up his jaw. "Why? Because I was angry, that's why." He answered, rude on purpose to further distract the principal's attention from the other boy, who was now looking at him with surprise.

The older man only smirked, humor in his eyes. He then looked at the hushed group. "It's your lucky break, Grot. Hear that? But all of you are going straight into rehabilitative therapy. Fifteen sessions of normal family life for you all, get it? You d*** expensive brats. Get going! And this better not happen again! I have no time for this crap. Learn to get along!"

He gestured to the two personnel, dismissing the children into their custody. While on their way along the long corridors of their home, their small group unwillingly drew closer together. The other children didn't speak much, but they were definitely more friendly.