Survival of the Toughest

Incidents And Punishments

It was Friday. Lunch was in session and Latimer's two tables of preps were eyeing us pretty hard. Auston Dean eventually came up to us and started harassing Josh.

"Why don't you sit where you belong, Arlington?" He said. "I'm pretty sure you don't belong with these gaptooths."

"Excuse me?" Dustin stood up. "Don't be pointing out our flaws, Material Girl."

"What's your deal? Food stamps not come in time?"

"I can't help the fact that they don't come at the same fast pace as your parents' affairs."

"What?" Auston said. "How would you, an uneducated hillbilly, know if any of my parents have affairs?"

"You really want to know?" Dustin smirked. "Ask your mom about her little Crop Duster."

Auston's face turned red and he spat in Dustin's face. In return Dustin picked up a bowl of mashed potatoes and hit Auston with it.

"Get that redneck!" Auston screamed.

Angel, Lexi, and Jen being the only girls at our table got up and took off.

The preps swarmed us as we and the other table of Townies stood up to fight them.

Our part of the cafetorium erupted into fighting as Damian came up and hit me right in the face. I hit him back and we got into it. Then another one of them got at me.

I was fighting Damian and whoever it was when we were broke up by multiple teachers and students.

Now we were to see the superintendent, Randall Nielson aka "Burnout Stuck On Past Popularity" as Josh called him.

Josh was let off as he avoided fighting. Nielson however had us sat down while everyone went back to class. Soon enough, he started to tear into us.

"I would ask you all if you knew why I was talking to you but the reason is obvious to everyone!" He scolded. "I don't care who or how it started but this is a school! Not a battleground! Not a pro-wrestling event! Not an Eldorado football game! AND NOT A UFC MATCH! Do you delinquents have anything to say before I give out the punishments?!"

"I'll be seeing your mom later tonight, Auston." Dustin laughed.

"Hey, Latimer. How'd my fingers taste?" I asked.

"ENOUGH!" Nielson hissed. "Hatchard, Dean, Latimer, and Patterson. I will be seeing you tomorrow morning and after school Monday. As for the rest of you, you're to clean up the cafetorium after lunch for a week. NOW GO TO CLASS!!!"

"Yeah fuck you too, Randy!" Auston screamed, inevitably increasing his punishment.

Well I guess this meant that HMS would have their own version of the Breakfast Club.

After school that day, I was walking around by myself since Dustin went to meet up with a girl. Personally, I didn't care about romance due to the fact that I believed I was too busy to fall in love.

I saw another Townie but I didn't recognize him. He had the decorative T drawn on his hand in sharpie and a shirt that I had probably painted the word "Townie" on. Then I realized. It was Lane Valance, who I hadn't seen since July.

Lane was in BD classes as they really couldn't keep him out of trouble. His next stop was probably vocational school or something like that. Lane was pretty intelligent but he always participated in delinquent behavior.

I didn't recognize him as he grew his hair out.

"Lane?!" I said. "Holy shit man, it's been a sec."

"Oh hey, Ricky." He nodded. "How's school?"