Under Pressure

Chapter 1, Part 1

Part 1 - Burst

You're garanteed to run this town, Panic! at the Disco

Michael's POV

________________________________________________

If you were to ask me to describe Skye Martin in two words, I’d use “horrid bitch”, and I’d say it in a heartbeat. You know those cliché chick flicks, with the blonde dumb cheerleader that is mean to everybody, specially the not so popular kids? Yeah. That’s Skye. Head cheerleader, dating the Quarterback, straight A student, a horde of minions that do whatever she tells them to, flawless nails, impeccable hair and a spoiled rich brat. But sadly, she wasn’t dumb. Oh no, not Skye. Skye was brilliant, and cunning, and cautious, and manipulative. She had managed to have the upper hand and pull the strings in this place at the tender age of 14, and she wasn’t planning on letting go of it.

The thing is: in those stupid movies, that my cousin always forced me to watch with her, the Queen Bitch always gets what she deserves. Always. But not Skye. She got away with anything. I guess it helped that she was pretty, and looked so innocent in front of the teachers. I guess it helped that everyone in this place was afraid of her. Even her preppy friends. And no one dared saying anything. And I guess it helped that her parents were wealthy, and influent, and completely blind to the witch that their daughter really was. And so they got her out of trouble, if anyone DID say anything.

But most of all, it was the consequences. Crossing Skye meant something terrible was coming your way. And what could be so terrifying about a 14 year old girl, you wonder? Just let me tell you my story.

I moved here in the last term of my 8th grade. I was always a bit of an outcast in my old school. I didn’t like the same things as my “piers”. They liked football, I liked my Nintendo. They liked Facebook, I liked video games. They liked shitty music, I listened to old bands. And that always got me picked on. Long story short, I punched some kid who was pissing me off, accidentally got him in the ICU and his rich ass parents weren’t so happy about it. So, they got me expelled.

God, I hate rich people.

Anyway, it’s my first week here, and some blonde chick tries to be smart with me in the hallway. I remember thinking, oh hell no, not again. And I stood up to her. I stood up, and talked back, and ended up insulting her mom, calling her a “dumb bitch” and telling her to go fuck herself (though not with these exact words) in the sassiest 15 second speech I was ever able to say.

I swear to God Skye turned blue afterwards. She clenched her teeth, and squinted threateningly at me. ‘Funny’, she spat, and then turned around and walked away. I almost expected her to snap her fingers and click her tongue, to make her friends follow, but it wasn’t necessary. After one last look of shock (or disgust or disdain) at me, they all went the same way. And I figured, after that one, she and everyone else would just lay off my back from now on.

Boy, was I wrong.

The next week, on Monday, I got to school in the morning to find that the walls had been decorated with several copies of both the newspaper report on my expelling and my 7th grade yearbook picture with “anger issues” written in red all over it. And I really mean the whole school had my face taped on the walls. It wasn’t the fresh start I had hoped for, honestly.

I spent half of my first period ripping my own pictures off the wall (even though I was obviously completely innocent), along with some other kid that had gotten himself into detention for some reason. I then spent the other half in the Principal’s office. She told me that she was had no way of finding out who it had been, since there were no security cameras in my school, but that she was terribly sorry, and that she would make sure it wouldn’t happen again. And then she apologized 12 more times, despite having nothing to apologize for. I was furious. And I didn’t need her to tell me who it had been.