Heist

Chapter 2

Alex took fairly fast steps forward, walking straight into the leg that Mai stuck out towards him, and stumbling backwards into King's tall form. The bin was dropped but not before hitting the latch button on King's watch, disconnecting the gold chain from his wrist. The watch hit the classroom floor and shattered, creating a noise that made everything go silent. A few moments later Mai had a fist to Alex's face.

As her hand smashed into his cheek and he rocketed down to the floor, Singh stood abruptly ready to rush to Alex's side and retreat but two of King's girls pushed him back into his seat. One girl in yellow with long brown hair, named Heidi, had a hold of his left shoulder. The other girl had silver hair that draped down her body gracefully, slinking over her bright and eccentric clothing choices, her name was Rainbow, and she smiled down at him while applying heavy pressure to his right shoulder. Her nails dug into his shoulder to send him a message, that if he dared to try and fight, they'd put him in the same situation. Mai stood over Alex and looked down at him like she was the superior, as King stood behind him. Alex rubbed his cheek gently, eyes full of fear, his body didn't move away as he did not want to be hit again.

The pain in Alex's chest began to illuminate as if his heart pounding so fast was cracking against his rib cage. A hot flash ran down his body, creating a level of pressure that felt like fire in his stomach and his brain. He kept the motion of rubbing circles into his cheek to ground himself as his gaze flicked between Mai and Singh.

"Calm down, don't panic." He thought to himself, biting on the left side of his cheek and lip.

Working on steadying his breathing was the last thing that Alex was worried about. Mai hand leaned down and took hold of the scruff of his shirt, placing their faces uncomfortably close together.

"Do you know how expensive that watch was?" Mai growled with the same stern look on her face, raising an eyebrow like it was a non rhetorical question. Alex shook his head a bit, truly not knowing. Even if he did know the price of the watch, he would have shook his head because there is no way he would want to piss her off any more.

"A hundred thousand dollars." Mai whispered quietly and it made Alex's blood run cold.

Alex was completely pale, his face had lost all the blood, and between the stressful situation, the panic attack, and the absurd amount of money for a watch, he was beginning to become very very upset.

"Pay me back and we'll have no problems, If you don't there'll be consequences," spoke King from behind him, arms folded around his chest, leaning on the doorframe. "Let him go Mai."

Mai promptly dropped his shirt from her fist, stood, and walked over to join King. Heidi and Rainbow followed, and the whole group retreated, leaving room for Singh to bolt over to his friend.

"Alex!" He cried as he slid down beside him and adjusted his glasses, analyzing his best friend's form carefully. "Are you okay!?"

Alex smiled weakly, shaking slightly, adjusting to sit more upright.

"Terrified, but yeah, I'm okay" Alex muttered, putting a hand to his chest and making slow eye contact with Singh, as both came to terms with the new problem that faced them. How in the world were they going to get their hands on a hundred thousand dollars?

The debate lasted until lunch time, where they hauled up in an empty boot room and began to plan. None of the plans were much good, they were honestly on the adequate side more than anything, but they were plans nonetheless. Of course they did think of telling their parents, which may keep the money out of the picture for a while, but King would be back, and with their luck he would probably raise the price.

Singh began to pace across the boot room, quickly stepping and turning in a little line, running his thumbs over the inside of his fingers and the top of his palm, occasionally shooting out little plans that Alex shot down almost immediately with almost wacky reasons as to why they couldn't possibly manage it in a hundred years. Alex was sitting in a corner and had created himself a little bubble made of his books and art supplies. He was folding tiny paper cranes out of neon red, blue, and yellow sticky notes and muttering reassurances to himself to keep from freaking out or bursting into tears.

When the knock came on the door of the tiny, and admittedly cold, room, both boys turned to look at their newest visitor. The newest boy entered, leaning on the frame of the door letting the spikes on his leather jacket scrape against the wood gently. He ran a hand through his bright red hair and smirked at the boys, which accentuated his high cheekbones.

"So," the boy spoke in a deeper voice and a tone that would probably intimidate the best of people, it made Alex and Singh surprised and yes, intimidated.

"News around the school is that you two have a debt to Mr. Dirt-bag." He placed a hand on his hip and blew an electric blue bubble from a piece of gum that had been in his mouth, it popped as Alex and Singh stared blankly at him as neither knew how to respond to Eden Michaels standing in the doorway.