Torn » h.s./marcel

Chapter 5: We Can Sing?!

Chapter 5: We Can Sing?!

Marcel's POV

I didn't know where Allie and I would meet up to go to my place, but it turns out Allie found me instead.

I was cleaning out my locker because it was incredibly messy. Just because I was a nerd doesn't mean I was an absolute neat freak. I had a dozen library books centuries overdue, graded tests and papers poking through here and there, and my textbooks were all piled haphazardly on my shelves.

I spilled everything out of my locker and onto the tiled floor after school. I began separating my things into four piles: home, library, school, and trash. My home pile was average-sized, my library pile was a little too big for my liking, the school pile was huge, and the trash pile was considerably small.

I stuffed my library and home things into my backpack, then got started on the shelves. They were plastic and made to be taken apart, but they sure were frustrating. They refused to snap into place. So I sat on the floor and tackled with that for awhile.

I heard footsteps and dismissed them as the janitor or a few teachers. I stuck my foot on one rack and pulled with all my might. No good.

"Here, let me help you with that."

A pair of large hands suddenly snatched the locker shelf from me, and I jumped. I'd never been helped like that before. I looked up and shrunk slightly.

Vince and a few of his buddies were standing over me. No, more like towering. Vince toyed with the shelf for a second or two before easily snapping it into place. His friends snickered. My ears felt hot.

Vince dropped the shelf carelessly and grinned down at me. It wasn't a friendly grin. "Never would've thought that Marcel would stay after school of his own free will," he jeered. He was right; after school was a dangerous time of day.

"Cleaning your locker, huh?" Vince said, eyeing my empty locker. "You know what this needs, nerd?"

I shook my head, kind of fearing the answer. I was still on the floor, and it didn't exactly help my self-confidence.

"You!" Vince basically picked me up by my shirt collar. My feet hung off the ground, and my heart raced in my chest.

One of Vince's goons held the locker door open eagerly as Vince himself stuffed me inside. It was very uncomfortable. Then the door closed.

With great difficulty, I somehow managed to turn around so I was facing the light. I jiggled with the locker opener that was jabbing into my side. It was my only hope.

Then I heard the worst sound that could ever come out of a nerd trapped in a locker: the sound of a lock clicking into place.

That was a dirty trick.

I pounded my fists against the locker door, breath coming in short spurts. "Let me out!" I cried. "Let me out!"

I heard Vince and friends laughing, but I didn't hear the lock coming off.

"Sorry, geek," Vince said. "We don't know your combination. Asta lavista, Marcel."

I peered through the slits in the metal door to see them walking away, still laughing and high-fiving and shoving each other around.

"No!" I shouted. "Come back! Help me!" I smacked the locker door as hard as I could. It rattled, but it didn't open.

I lost hope right then and there, and I slunk against the back of the locker. I bowed my head.

I don't know how long I stood there for, but probably long enough. Then I heard my last bit of hope:

"Hellooo? Marcel, are you here?"