Young, Poor and Crazy

Chapter 2

It was safe to say that Roger and his friends were the loudest group in the school. It was also safe to say that they could be the rudest group in the school. Yes, sometimes they pushed the younger students, making fun of them and they always, always made fun of the teachers. Roger always had a big mouth and it was clear that he fit in with his loud, rude group. But Roger had also always been a kind person. This led to Roger not always feeling comfortable with the things his friends did. When his friends started bullying another kid, Roger would usually find himself watching from the sidelines,

feeling disconnected with his friends. At moments like these he was left wondering whether he still wanted to be friends with them or not. Sure, he had other friends, but none in his class. He had a friend who was a year older than him, named Brian, who would sometimes help him with his homework. But Roger liked to have a group of friends within his own class, it made him feel secure and safe. Roger hated school, he didn't understand a lot of it. His group of friends were the only security he had.

Roger, together with Mark, George and Andrew, made their way to the school cafeteria to have lunch. On their way there, they had to walk through several long corridors, lined with mint green lockers. George kicked and punched several of them, earning some disapproving looks from the teachers passing by. No one did anything about it though.

The three boys weren't going to wait in line for their food, so they proceeded to push all the smaller kids out of the way, cutting the line wherever they could. To their credit, they did pay for the food, although they lost that credit again soon after when Andrew grabbed a little boy by the collar and took his money. The boy was probably in his first year but clearly already knew about the boy's reputation so he didn't protest. That was, until Mark took his entire backpack from him and threw it to Roger. At this point it was starting to become quite a scene and other students gathered around in a big circle to watch the conflict unfold.

'Please give it back.' The boy pleaded with Roger, who didn't like to be in this position at all, but also didn't want to disappoint his friends. Before the boy could reach him, he'd thrown the bag to Andrew, who held it up high, so the short boy couldn't reach it. At this point the kid's eyes started to fill with tears and Roger didn't want to be a part of it anymore. Without saying a word, he broke free of the circle and walked away, ignoring his friends shouting his name or the whispering in the crowd.

As Roger exited the cafeteria, another boy was leaning against the doorframe, looking at Roger curiously. He had a mousy look about him and Roger guessed he was about two years younger than him. He didn't think he'd seen this boy before but he couldn't be sure. This was a kind of kid that's very easy to miss in a school. The only reason he noticed the kid was because he was the only one in the cafeteria that hadn't joined the crowd.

'What're you looking at?' Roger snapped angrily. The other boy didn't seem taken aback by this but on the other hand he did seem really shy. He mumbled something but Roger couldn't hear.

'Speak up for Christ's sake.' Roger exclaimed, quite annoyed didn't seem to be scared of him at all. The mousy boy still didn't seem affected by his bad mood and spoke again, louder this time.

'If you think those three are your friends,' He motioned to George, Andrew and Mark, who were now emptying the backpack above the poor kid's head. 'You're very naïve, I just wanted to warn you.'

Roger's eyes darkened a little bit as he took a couple of threatening steps towards the younger boy. 'What's your name?' He asked threateningly.

'John, John Deacon.' The boy replied.

'And I suppose you're new around here?' John nodded.

'Well John, my name is Roger Taylor and I have a reputation around here of beating scrawny kids like you to a pulp when they annoy me.'

John actually smirked slightly at that. 'Bigger boys too strong for you huh?'

At this point Roger was really considering punching the kid's teeth out, but he composed himself, he didn't want any conflict today.

'I'll let you off with a warning, because you're new, but next time you talk to me like that I'll...'

-'Beat me to a pulp yeah, yeah.'

Roger had to try really hard not to laugh at the way John acted. He couldn't help but be fascinated by the kid. John didn't seem to be afraid of him, but Roger knew that, had his friends been around for this, John wouldn't be safe. Maybe John knew that already. Maybe John saw that Roger didn't want to hurt anyone, but that it was his friends that pushed him to do it sometimes.

John seemed to be considering something, he looked a bit nervous now. He looked at his feet and cleared his throat.

'Uhm, this may sound a bit strange, but this is my first day and you're the first person I talked to so you're basically all I have and can you just help me find my class, I get lost very easily.' He now looked up at Roger with pleading eyes and a small smile and Roger felt a part of his anger slowly melting and he nodded.

'Alight, where do you need to go?' John showed him his schedule and together they left the cafeteria.

To be continued.

Okay, so this is my first update in quite a while. I have already explained this to Carlythewriter who has been really nice to me about this and is a great writer btw. Since people have started to comment on my stories I get very nervous and self-concious about my writing. Hence the delay I guess. But it's just something I have to deal with and I will. I hope you enjoyed this and are having a really really nice day. :)