Victor, Victorious

Chapter Nineteen

The school cafeteria was crammed wall-to-wall with teenagers and buzzing with conversation. Victor, Sergio, and Bart sat a table with their lunch trays, although none of them touched their pockmarked apples, soggy French fries, or flimsy hamburgers.

"Yo, Victor, want my milk?" Bart asked.

"No, thanks."

"But it'll make you stronger. Right? 'Milk does a body good'."

"I'm fine."

"You gotta get real swole if you're gonna be a superhero."

"He's got a point there," said Sergio. "Drink up."

"Alright," said Victor. "Gimme." He took Bart's milk carton and chugged.

Colin, with his own lunch tray, slid in next to Victor. "Hey, guys," he said.

Victor choked, coughed. He spat out most of his drink, spraying milk across his tray.

Colin chuckled. "Lactose intolerant?"

Bart said, "What're you doing here?"

Sergio clarified. "We thought you were...absent. You weren't in first period."

"You're right, I was late to school," said Colin. "I got sidetracked. But you know all 'bout that, don't you?"

Bart pointed out the obvious. "Victor, it didn't work."

Victor glared at Colin with eyes made of red-hot coal. It took a massive amount of self-restraint for him not to annihilate the kid.

"Next time you want to scare me," said Colin, "don't let a couple of losers do your dirty work for you. Bart, have you heard from your cousin?"

Bart pulled out his phone and looked at it. "No. Why?"

"I think he got thrown in jail this morning. He and his stupid-ass friend."

Sergio asked, "Because of you?"

Colin smiled. "You thought I was bad before? You've only made things worse for yourself, Victor. That's a promise."

Ms. Todd approached their table. "Colin," she said, "we missed you this morning."

"Oh? I had a doctor's appointment."

"Feeling alright?" asked the teacher.

"I feel better than ever, actually."

"That's good," she replied. "Now, get up and eat your lunch somewhere else. You know you aren't supposed to be near Victor."

"Yes, ma'am." Colin promptly stood. "Later, guys." He left the scene.

Ms. Todd sat in his place. "I'm not stupid," she said, "and I'm not blind."

Victor was offended. "What'd I do?"

Bart came to his friend's defense. "He didn't do nothing!"

Ms. Todd focused her gaze on Victor. "What I'm saying is, I know Colin isn't as innocent as he claims to be. If he ever causes problems for you, let me know. Let any adult know."

Victor had already broken street code once by snitching on Colin after what he did to Mr. Koontz. However, nothing good came out of taking that risk. Therefore, Victor saw no benefit in ratting out Colin again. Matters had to be taken into his own hands.

Victor said, "I've got it handled. Thanks."

"Okay," said Ms. Todd. "Enjoy your lunches, boys." She walked away.

Bart wondered, "You really think Colin got Sway and Panda locked up?"

"Maybe," said Victor.

"Colin's just getting worse," Sergio said. "What're we gonna do?"

None of them spoke for a minute. A crazy solution slowly manifested itself inside Victor's mind.

"I'm not sure, but I know where we can maybe start looking for ideas."

"Oh, yeah?" asked Bart. "Where?"

"My comic books," said Victor. "In those, the good guys take out the bad guys all the time."

Bart scoffed at the suggestion. "But that stuff ain't real life."

"Look at what our lives have become, man." Victor shrugged. "I don't know, they might get our brains thinking in the right direction, is all."

Sergio stroked his chin. "Um...Sorry to bring this up, but the comics are at your house still, right?"

Bart's jaw dropped. "That's right, dawg! Your dad!"

Victor brushed them off. "I'll deal with him."

"We can go with you," Sergio offered.

"Naw, it's cool." Victor didn't want them seeing his father in all of his splendor. Stupor.

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

But that was a lie. Victor wasn't very sure at all. Thoughts of seeing his dad again sharpened the butterflies' wings in his stomach into razor blades. Made the palms sweat inside his gloves.

Made the electricity in his hands sizzle.