I leave the canteen and make my way toward the court.

Our school's basketball team is… bad. They don’t win much. The last time they qualified for anything was over a decade ago, when the current coach captained the team. The traffic decreases the closer I approach the basketball court. Only loafers and basketball players roam this area. I have a hard time distinguishing who is who among the boys on the court.

About the court, it’s the standard indoor lot. There are benches. Rarely any games happen here though. So the court is mostly used by the school to conduct drills and speeches. We don’t have an auditorium. We do however have an indoor theater. It’s surprisingly good considering the condition of everything else.

Luckily the team is practicing on the court when I get there. I don’t know much of anything about basketball. I know my points and my positions. But don’t ask me to name a player or make a basket. I can do neither. I am not dexterous. Well, I never had to run from anyone so there was no reason to train my body. I guess.

“Simmons!” I shout at the players... great acoustics by the way. I love how my voice echoes in the court. No wonder the school loves the place so much.

The players ignore me once. I don’t falter and call the name again and one of the boys looks my way with indignation. Brown hair, small eyes, and a head taller than me; I guess that’s my man.

“Are you Simmons?” I point at him.

He ignores me. Should I command him? Fortunately, I don’t have to. The boy makes a pass then leaves the court and approaches me with a frown, barely keeping his breath. Basketball is a strenuous sport all right.

“What do you want?” The boy stops beside me, but keeps his eyes on the court, ready to jump at the moment he’s needed.

I was wrong to assume I was only a head shorter than him. He loomed over me like a scarecrow in the fields. I saw Jeepers Creepers last night. So bite me.

“What can you tell me about the Ruffes brothers?”

The game stops, and I find everyone looking at me. I guess the brothers are popular. Or I was just a tab bit too loud.

“What do you want with the brothers?” One of the boys says. He is older, maybe seventeen. He looks great with the braids and the bandana. Some tattoos on his arms and he would have looked dangerous.

“I heard they are in trouble. I can help them.”
“Yeah?”
“They don’t need no bitch’s help, bitch.” Another one of them in a number fifteen jersey spits at me.
“That’s inappropriate,” I tell him, but let him go.
The guy mouths off my words, making the others laugh. I ignore him this time and turn to Simmons.

I notice two of the guy’s sharing glances. The guy dribbling the ball nods to his friend and stares at me. I don’t know what he was cooking, but I decided to take precautions before anything happens.  

“Drop the ball,” I command.

The ball slips from his hand and bounces away attracting the other's attention.

His friends click their tongues in disgust. Someone snorts in his direction.
“Boy, you need to practice more.” One of them chides.
“He needs milk,” Another taunt and slaps his neighbor's hand in glee.
The boy doesn’t say anything but turns to me. “What are you laughing at?” He says aggressively.

“He’s not laughing at anything.” Simmons comes to my aid and then tells me to follow him to the locker room. I do exactly that.

The locker rooms are right by the court. It’s large enough for the boys to gather together after a game and be lectured by their coach. That’s what I imagine happening there since the team never wins any games.

Simmons pulls a towel out of his bag and wipes his face. “So what do you want with them?”
“As I said, can help them,” I tell him.

He shakes his head and throws the towel in the bag.

 “Look,” He raises a hand at my face. I love hand gestures. “I don’t know what you think they need, but there is nothing… and I say nothing you can give them other than trouble. All right, so just go back to your class, enjoy school, and graduate. Don’t get in trouble you don’t know about.” He shows me the door.

I just stare at him, silently. The stare makes him fidgety.

“Fuck it, I can’t help you.” He goes to leave.
“Come back,” I command him and he does return. “Do you have their phone number?” I ask while he’s still dazed.
He’s puzzled why he turned back, but he does answer my question. “Yeah, sure,”
“I need the number.” This isn’t a command. I give him the option to choose. It’s easier to command, but you do it once and you do it again and soon you end up with puppets following every word you say. That’s not the kind of life I want to live.

“It’s your funeral,” Simmons says after a sigh. He goes back to this bag, pulls out his phone, and tells me, “All right, write it down,”
I take note, pocket my phone, thank him, and leave.

Would I have left without getting the number? Maybe I would have, just to make it difficult to find the brothers.

I don’t call the number right away, no private work during school time. They were in a mess I created and I will help them but in my own time. It’s not like they are going to die. I hope they won’t.

I head to the canteen. I don’t know why I’m not surprised to see a crowd gathered around my table, encircling Em and Sky. Everyone has their phones out. I sigh when I hear Jade’s high-pitched voice all the way from the door. Can’t take a step back in this world. You give someone an inch and they try to take everything you own.

I push through the crowd that's busy recording the whole mess.

I thought them to be better than this. Now everyone will be called to the principal’s office. Perhaps that’s what the three girls want. The school will probably let them go with a slap on the wrist. Maybe they will be fined some, but money’s the last thing they are missing.

Emily won’t have it that easy. I will have to intervene and it just makes me want to slap the three senseless.

It’s enough. If the school calls our parents I’m going to talk to their daddies and tell them to rein in their daughters before it’s too late. Maybe I’ll also suggest they stop their pocket money for a few months. I think that’ll hurt the girls more than any command I can give.

“You are a bitch. That’s what you are. Don’t think I don’t know what you are doing. Call your boyfriend. Today we’ll see how he gets you out of this mess.” Jade screams at Emily.

“Calm down already. I’m here.” I say coming out of the crowd.

Jade isn’t alone. There are three older boys with her. I know two of the three by name. Giant James and Shorty. Those are obviously not their real names. James is her boyfriend. Shorty is… a spectator, I guess.

They are our seniors. James is a rugby player, which unlike our basketball team is actually pretty decent. They qualified for the state championship last year and almost reached the quarterfinals. Shorty is a decent kid. All right, I won’t lie. He’s a crack head. His eyes are glassy, his face paralyzed. I bet he’s high right now. I didn’t know the third one, but he was big and held sky in a bear hug. The whole thing reminds me of the 70’s action movies. It’s just stupid.

“You all didn’t gather here just to bully a junior, right?” I say barging into the mess.

Jade sees me and takes a step back. Her eyes tremble in fear. I ignore her and go to Em’s side. her eyes tremble when she sees me. I see fear in them. Well, fuck. I didn’t want to do anything today. Guess, things never go according to plan.

“That’s him?” James asks jade. She nods.
“You are all here for me?”
James pops his knuckles.

“You want to fight in the middle of the cafeteria, with everyone watching? You can’t be that stupid.”
“I’m not.” James grins. “That’s why we called him,” He points to the guy who is holding Sky.

“What do they have on you?” I command the guy. They don’t look like friends. Besides, I am angry.  
“I don’t want to sit on the bench anymore. He says he can help.”
A vein pops up on James's forehead. “The matters with you, Dude! Just kick his butt!”

Even the guy’s surprised that he blurted out the truth. If the audience’s laughter’s any indicator, he had just made a joke of them all.

“Do you really want to do this?” I ask Jade. This was a question. Commands are statements, direct and irretraceable. Questions give a choice.

I see the guy getting ready to move and decide to end the thing before something irreversible happens.

“Throw him out, everyone,” I command the audience and before our enemies realize anything, the mass of students converges at them. They pull the boy from the arm and throw him out of the cafeteria, leaving the girls and James stunned.

“Dude… That was fucking awesome!” Shorty yells. I grin at him. He’s a talent, all right.
“What the fuck happened?” James was saying when a teacher appears at the door.

“What’s going on here,”

Like anyone was going to answer him. Well, the camera was there, but teachers are more interested in keeping things calm rather than creating problems. It would have been a different thing if a fight had broken out. The fines and suspension would have been long and painful to pay.

The crowd disperses. Jade and James also leave. I go back to Emily. She sits on the bench, her head in her hands.

“Bring her water,” I tell Sky and take a seat beside her. “Why don’t you fight back?” I ask her. She doesn’t answer.
“What do they want with you?’ She keeps silent. I sigh. “How can I help you if you don’t tell me anything?”
I hear a squeak.
“Is that right? You want me to do that? Really?” I tell her as a joke. “All right, then I’ll do exactly that.” I stand up and she hurriedly grabs my hand.

There are no tears in her eyes.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on or do you want me to ask jade? People don’t act like that without a reason, Em.”

Sky returns with a glass of water. He gives it to me. I give it to her and she takes it, holds it in her hand, but doesn’t take a sip.

Suddenly, Sky’s phone rings and so does mine and Em’s.  We all look at eachother and pull out our phones. The fights on Instagram… and it already has a thousand likes.

“Well, we all are popular now.” Sky murmurs.

This… is a problem. And it has no easy fix. Once a video is on the internet, there is no going back. No matter how you delete it someone will always have a copy of the copy of the copy and the shit will continue hitting you until you either get used to it or something new props up into attention. Thankfully the video had no meme potential or it would be bad.

That didn’t mean we weren’t in trouble. The video gives the school a reason to suspend us.  

“I broke up her and Bruno,” Em says suddenly.
Neither Sky nor I can believe it.
“You can’t mean that Bruno…”
She nods. “I told him she was with him for his money.”

No wonder Jade was mad. Who’s Bruno? He’s of no concern to anyone who doesn’t listen to music, but to anyone who does, he’s the guy, with a label and everything. According to rumor, he already has an album in the production.

Now it all made sense. My lips twitch. I don’t know what to say.

She watches me, reading my face.

“Do you regret it?” I ask her.

Em’ looks toward the door. Jade is not there, but I can imagine the things going through her head. She looks back at me and gives me a beautiful and scary smile.

“Not one bit.”

I chuckle. That’s my girl.