The Untamed

Chapter 3: The Tornado Rises Once More

     The problem about the previous episode was that now people really knew Clyde’s name. Everywhere he went, whispers followed as well as some snotty laughs. Some people pitied him because of all the harassment he was getting and tried to befriend him, but the boy shrugged them all away. At that point, Clyde wasn’t sure what the point of even coming back to school was. In a week’s time, he had gotten himself a ticket, had a hallucination, and now, he possessed the bad kind of popularity.

   The week went by painfully slow. In the few days that passed since the incident with Anya Almendariz, so many things happened, it was ridiculous. For one, the news about the incident spread like wildfire. It couldn’t be helped as the guys poked fun at him and the girls kept away from him. In health class, there was a group project and he was the only one that had to be placed into one by the teacher. In second period, Tony went too far when he magnified the event so loud, even the teacher heard it.

   “Hey, Bob,” he said, “people are saying you were rolling around with some girl named –”

   “Can you just shut up?” Clyde hissed dangerously.

   Tony was automatically offended. He turned the other direction, folded his arms, and stuck his nose in the air. “Just for that,” he piped, “I’m no longer speaking to you until you apologize. Hopefully this teaches you a lesson that you shouldn’t use profanity on friends.”

   Other than the fact that Tony practically screamed out the headline of the week, Clyde was relieved that the boy ceased talking. He was going to take his time apologizing.

   The rest of his classes weren’t any easier. He had to put up like this for the entire week that followed. On top of that, Ms. Hansen was still crazier than usual over the ticket. The boy literally locked himself in his room in order to avoid a war with her. As much as he hated school life now, he couldn’t bear the thought of being home schooled all over again, so it was a good thing she hadn’t threatened him about that yet.

   Another plus was that Ms. Hansen never went in Clyde’s room. She claimed that she didn’t want anything to do with him or his things. The boy’s room was an utter disaster since he no longer occupied it as much as he used to. While he was home schooled, his room was the most organized in the entire house. Ever since school started, he seemed to have lost all interest in it and just threw things wherever. But this became a problem once he lost his ticket.

   He scavenged around, looking desperately in every inch of his room. When he couldn’t find it, he assumed that Ms. Hansen was probably playing a cruel joke on him by hiding it somewhere, but he dared not ask in fear of her screaming spit all over him. So, with no other choice, Clyde decided to just look up the court’s number on a computer and see if they had some kind of record of the ticket that he could use.

   Since Ms. Hansen forbade him to use the home computer (blaming him for all the viruses that constantly attacked it), he was forced to use one in the library. This was no easy task since every single computer seemed to be in use during every hour of the day.

   And now, exactly one week after the said incident, Clyde sat in the exact same spot during lunchtime. The sun was as hot as ever and the flies and bees buzzed about angrily. So far, today had been a pretty good one. It felt like all the whispers and gossip about Clyde and Anya were settling down.

   Anya was sitting back at her table next to all the other over-fashioned girls. As usual, Anya’s makeup and outfit were just too much. But underneath all of that, Clyde could see a remarkably pretty girl. Still, he tore his gaze away from her and decided that he made a terrible first impression on her last week.

   And…

   Come to think of it, he never got a chance to apologize. Though, as much as he wanted to, he knew it would only stir up more drama. Besides, the girl was probably not even expecting an apology. She probably just wanted him to stay as far away from her as possible. For Clyde, that was the easiest thing to do, because frankly, he was never good at apologizing.