Castle High

36. Collateral Damage - II

“Damn!”

Joey gritted his teeth, as he lowered himself unto his usual seat on the general table at luncheon. On one side of the table, all the boys sat. Joey first, Andrew second, then Jamie, Jake and Stephen. On the other side sat Ariel, Alice, Alex, Shelby and Emily. The two pioneer seats at the intersection of both rows were occupied by Roxanne and Nicole. It was Wednesday in the fourth week of the second semester – which was the 8th of February, and school work had resumed in full-swing.

“Gosh, it’s so painful.” He grimaced painfully, as he adjusted his position on the seat and the rest joined the table. “I don’t think I’d be able to sit on a bench for a while.”

“I still don’t get the stunt you were trying to pull there, though.” Stephen laughed in mockery, and the rest of the group followed suit. “I mean, holding the stick upside down? It was like you were intentionally trying to hurt yourself.”

“See, how you’re stupid?” Joey snarled as he picked up his fork, and sliced his chocolate chip Banana bread into quarters, and slipped a slice into his mouth. “It’s a bamboo stick. There is nothing like upside down. I fell because Jake was at fault. He clearly handed a weak stick over to me. BTW, nice going – Jake. If you’re in cohorts with Stephen, then I gotta tell you that you picked the wrong team.”

Stephen replied before Jake could. “Losers keep on giving excuses for their failures. Tell me, if you have performed the stunt well with the weak stick Jake handed over to you, would you have called it luck or slander Jake for his mistake. Wouldn’t you hoard all the praise to yourself? But now that you failed, you’re whining like James Bond when he is taken off a case by M.”

“At least I didn’t get my lips kicked,” Joey growled once more in disgust. “I literally got my ass kicked.”

“Oh, please even I know bringing that up is lame.” Emily bickered in support of the boys. Her banana bread was a blueberry type, and the tone of her voice hinted that she was savoring the delicacy. “That happened a long time ago, and Stephen has paid the price in terms of mockery. You have to do so now.”

“I still think the injury could be something serious, you know.” Jake piled in, completely abandoning his plate of banana bread loaf with unripe bananas and molasses. “You said it really hurts. And I thought I heard something crack when your butt made contact with the floor earlier on.”

“Nah, it was the stick.” Alex dismissed Jake’s concern, also lodging a piece of Chocolate chip banana bread into her mouth. “Besides if it was his butt then I wouldn’t bother much about mending it anyway. Now I can always smack him hard on the butt to sway him to my will. Perfect.”

A collective chuckled erupted and Joey only scowled further.

“And just like that, the end of this semester is gradually approaching.” Jamie piled in on the general conversation, whilst devouring his own plate of banana bread also. “It’s always funny how the second semester seems shorter than the first one, despite having even more school days. I can’t believe for the life of me that we’re actually done with our first assessment tests for the semester. I am so sleeping like Ella today, or whatever name the female character in beauty and the beast was given.”

“Aurora,” Andrew chuckled, correcting his friend. “And besides, who sleeps on the night of the day tests end. When there is TV and a bunch of video games you’ve abandoned for more than a week.”

“I know I’d choose sleeping anytime over that,” Ariel piled in, unimpressed by the boys resort. “It isn’t like the stupid video game wouldn’t be there when I wake up the next morning. So why rush it? When my brothers start however at night, screaming in their room and acting like they’re on a real war-front of whatever war game they’re playing, it’s hard to get sleep, though.”