Ignite

Chapter 4

I reach the fight as the teachers do, and the only reason I get to Jake's side first is because the teachers ask the students to move out of way. I pull them instead. I wrench one after the other backward by their bags, their shirts, their jumpers, anything I can grab to propel myself forward, and within seconds I'm at the heart of it.

Jake is on the ground, his face bloody, his hands by his sides, and to my complete horror, he's laughing. His entire body is shaking like a manic earthquake as the boy standing over him lays into him. Again and again and again.

The sight of it makes my vision run red, and I jerk forward and grab the boy's arm, trying to pull him away from Jake, but all I do is make him turn on me instead.

The moment he does, a tiny part of me begins to panic, because this guy is a six-foot-something, muscled freak of a mountain. But he's a mountain who's pounding my brother into dust.

So, I do the only thing that seems rational and punch him in the face.

My fist lands hard, right in the middle of his nose, and I feel something give way beneath. There's a crack, a crunch, and then he's reeling backwards, swearing furiously.

Before I can go at him again, I'm pulled back, someone's arms encircling my waist.

"Touch my brother again and there's more where that came from!" I scream, and Jake's antagonist stares at me in shock.

Everyone falls silent, waiting to see what this guy will do, and I become painfully aware of the kind of person I've just punched.

I can already tell, just by looking at him, that little year seven girls giggle when he walks past; that he's the star player of some school football team; that teachers love him and other guys want to be him; and, most importantly, I can tell that he hates me.

Because, from the way his nose is sitting, I'm ninety-five percent sure I've broken it.

It's just as this realisation hits that the teachers finally reach the centre and start yelling at everyone to break it up.

One of the teachers helps Jake up off the ground, and another grabs the mountain boy. A third comes up to me and looks me up and down, as if unsure what to make of my obvious lack-of-penis.

"How did you get here?"

I swallow hard as the adrenaline wears off and I glance at Jake. He's turned away from me, his shoulders tense.

"I jumped the fence."

The teacher stares at me for a moment.

"You're really not supposed to do that," he says, and then he leads me away, everyone's eyes burning into my back as I go.

...

After the fight, I'm sent to Principal Humphrey's office where I receive detention for the week.