Gang Wars

three | absentees

I rapped my hand against the wooden door in front of me, waiting for Gael (or his mother, on some occasions) to open up the door like he usually did. Ava stood besides me, humming a song quietly to herself, her white headphones blocking out the banter-filled argument Roman and Alec were currently having.

In the mornings, we all picked each other up (in a literal sense). Alec, living the furthest away from the school, would walk by himself until he'd reach my house. We'd go together to pick up Roman, the three of us would pick up Ava and then the four of us would pick up Gael, who lived only three minutes away from the campus.

I knocked again, my knuckles colliding against the door. This process continued until Alec and Roman dialled down their chatter after realising Gael wasn't opening the door. Eventually, we were greeted with Gael's mother.

She was of Chinese descent, his father of American. Her raven black hair was neatly pinned into a cute bun, her black hues full of a warm friendliness that the four of us were immediately immersed with. Gael said that his mother was a doctor whilst his father was a lawyer, explaining why he was so wealthy; wealthy enough to live in a mansion similar to a celebrity's.

"Sorry everyone, but Gael's at his cousin's hotel room. They recently came to Australia, and he volunteered to show them around. However, I'm pretty sure he just wanted to skip a day of school." She said, a soft chuckle assisting her sentence.

"Thanks for letting us know, Mrs Pendleton." I said with a polite bow, beginning to turn around and walk out of their iron gate. The other's did the same, muttering small goodbyes and thank yous. Alec, however, decided to stay exactly where he was standing.

"Tell Gael that he's a dead man tomorrow!" Alec said cheerfully, his smile seemingly forced as his pearly white teeth practically shone. Roman gave him a hard kick in the back for the comment.

So as Alec was fervently rubbing his back to ease the pain Roman had just inflicted upon him, I looked back, partially surprised to see Mrs Pendleton's eyes fractionally, almost unnoticeably, widened.

_____

"Somebody get Ms Erlic some breath mints because I could use a bottle of her breath as insect repellant." Ava sighed feistily , slamming down her books onto our group table. I gave her a nod of agreement, biting into the ham sandwich that almost tasted as bad as Ms Erlic smelt. This is what I get for trusting my brother to make me my lunch.

"How was the comp?" I asked, hesitantly taking another bit of my horrendous sandwich.

"I tripped on the stairs when making my way up the stage, making my competitors roar with laughter, but then again I had the last laugh, since I won." Ava said with a hearty chuckle, almost as if she were still mocking her competition.

Although she was a kind and unbelievably nice (up to the point where it made me sick), she was extremely competitive and hated being underestimated and underrated.

Moments later, Roman joined us.

"How was criminology?" I asked as he sat down next to Ava, twirling a pencil between his fingers.

"Boring. But apparently this local cop got arrested for funding this gang or something two days ago, and he escaped yesterday." Roman said, staring absent mindlessly at the vast bodies of students behind me. "His name was Chase Cadwell."

"Hilarious." I said with a roll of my eyes, chucking my sandwich's top layer of bread at him. One layer down, two more to go (three if you include the cheese). Roman smirked, moving his head away to dodge the flimsy piece of bread.

"That's a waste of food." He witty replied with a smirk.

"I'm feeding the birds, I'm a down to Earth person like that." I countered, satisfied when his smug expression faltered.

"ALEC!" Ava called out, just as Roman had opened his mouth to reply to me comment. The brunette, who was previously staring at the ground, looked up. He wore the school's sport uniform: red sweatpants and a black shirt, the school logo embroidered into the material. It was natural seeing him in the uniform due to his sporting activities.

"I've got volleyball practise!" He replied, running off to avoid further conversation.

"That's unusual, he usually skips lunchtime practises." I said, picking at my now disassembled sandwich.

"Nationals are coming up, and he seems really nervous, so I'm not that surprised." Ava said, watching his fleeting figure retreat into the gym. Her eyes lingered on the empty space he previously filled, before darting back to Roman and I.

"At least he's finally taking responsibility." Roman said, sipping on the chocolate milk he had pulled out from only God knows where.

Both Ava and I kicked him under the table.