The corridor was silent, until one of the girls started screaming since Steven continued to lie on the floor unconsciously.

“He killed him! Gary just killed somebody!” Tiffany screamed.

Although it was unheard of that a scrawny high schooler would have the strength to kill someone with one hit, Gary was far from being an ordinary high schooler. In his rage, he had struck Steven without holding back. Tom ran past the gathering crowd and checked out the situation.

His best friend was still in disbelief about what he had just done. Gary just stood there, looking from the hand that had slammed Steven into the wall to the body to his feet. Meanwhile, Tom had noticed the specks of red that started to run down the karateka’s head. Examining the carotid artery, he let out a sigh of relief when he felt a pulse.

“Gary, snap out of it! He’s okay but we need to get him to the nurse ASAP! I mean he’s not okay, but at least he’s alive, now help me carry him.” Tom called out to his friend, and quickly Gary went to the other side lifting him off the ground as the two walked to the nurse’s office.

The crowd just watched them with their mouths wide open, none of them knew what they were supposed to do. Should they go and help the duo? Should they call a teacher? Perhaps an ambulance? In the end the thing those high schoolers chose… was to spread the news about this event to those who had missed it!

Tom and Gary were lucky enough that no teacher was in the hallways, but they encountered someone else. Xin had just come from the toilet and was surprised to see three faces she recognised.

“What happened to him?” Xin asked when she saw the way Steven was carried by the two.

Gary would have loved to explain himself to her, but he honestly didn’t know how. The truth was, he had just bashed the skull of his school mate in. Sure, Steven had provoked him, but even Gary saw that he had vastly overreacted. As such, the duo just walked past, leaving Xin to listen to the rumours that had already begun to spread.

“He slammed him into the wall with just ONE hand!”

“Caspar told me that Josh, who was there, even heard the poor guy’s skull crack. Steven might never be able to be the same again!”

“Does anyone know what he told that Broccoli head to piss him off to that degree?”

“I don’t know, I heard the name Xin get mentioned.”

Hearing this, Xin felt a bit guilty. Had she somehow ended up being the cause of this mess?

‘Were those stupid boys seriously fighting over me?’

Eventually, Tom and Gary brought Steven over to the nurse’s office. After briefly checking his vitals, the nurse immediately decided that this was something above her paygrade, so she called an ambulance. The high schooler was breathing and she did what she could to keep him in a stable condition, but for some reason he wasn’t responding nor did he show any signs of regaining consciousness.

When asked what had happened, Gary mumbled he had been hit in the head, but there wasn’t much details after that. The nurse had agreed to let them stay and miss the morning lessons, believing that the three of them were friends.

It didn’t take too long for the ambulance to arrive at school. After getting a brief account on what had happened they took Steven away, leaving Tom and Gary behind. Once her patient was out, the nurse left to go and make a report.

“What…what happened there, bro?” Tom eventually asked, after making sure the nurse wouldn’t come back because she might have forgotten something.

“I-I don’t know. Suddenly all this anger, this rage just came over me. The moment he mentioned Amy, images of him hurting my family came flooding into my head. All my senses were telling me that I needed to do everything I could to stop him. Before I even realised what I did, I saw him on the floor.” Gary tried to explain as best he could.

Nevertheless, he didn’t tell Tom everything. If he was honest, he had actually wanted to hurt Steven more. The only reason he had stopped was because panic had begun to set at the sight of the motionless teenager. His rational side returned, stopping him from further worsening the situation.

Tom didn’t ask him any more questions after that, however he was very glad that he had decided to keep the truth about what had really happened to him on Friday hidden from his best friend. If Gary could get this crazy at the mere thought of someone hurting those close to him, the two of them would have most likely ended in a morgue rather than the hospital.

Eventually, the two of them headed to their class. All eyes quickly turned to the two who had entered the room.

“Gary, you are finally here. There’s no need for you to sit down, Headmistress Young wants to see you in her office. I’m sure you know why.” Mrs Bedford said, after briefly looking at who had disturbed her closs.

It didn’t go unnoticed and for some reason, Gary felt pissed off at being ignored like that. Fortunately, his rational side was still in charge, so the high schooler just started walking to the principal's room, leaving Tom to sit down in class.

‘What is wrong with me? How come everything is getting on my nerves today? Are people just arseholes today, or am I being super sensitive?’ Gary wondered, worried that this might be the effect of the ‘bloodlust’ his system kept mentioning.

Above the double door, a plaque read Headmistress Young. He knocked at the door and soon a ‘Come in’ sounded from the other side. This was the first time he had been called in. Cautiously, Gary opened the door and entered the large office that was big enough to fit even a sofa and coffee machine inside.

“I would love to say that it’s good to see you, Mr. Dem, but you should already be aware why you’re here.” Ironically, Mrs Young’s family name didn’t match her outer appearance. She was an older woman with mostly gray hair. The light in her eyes showed that she was actually younger than she looked and that the graying of her hair was mostly due to the stress that came with her position.

“We have already gathered the testimony of the students who saw this morning’s event unfold and a few minutes ago, the hospital sent me a report about Mr. Ricahrdson’s condition. You might be elated to know that your school mate is awake and is doing relatively fine. There are no injuries other than some bruising on the outside of his head and a bump. Luckily after some rest he should be good as new.”

“Unfortunately, this doesn’t change the fact that his mother is out for blood. She wants something done and I’m in no position to deny her request. We can’t exactly allow you to get away scot-free after doing what you did.”

“Fortunately, you were never really a troublesome student. While I personally don’t understand why a young man like you would choose to dye his hair in that horrible colour, it doesn’t violate school regulations. It’s also your first offense, so I would have usually just let you off with a warning, but due to how severe this case is, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

Honestly, Gary had expected to be shouted at the moment he came in. He had been prepared to get a good lecture about how dangerous and wrong his actions had been and how easily he could have ruined Steven’s and his own future.

The way Headmistress Young had chosen to talk with him as her equal had made it so he didn’t find her annoying, yet the tone in her voice made him fear for the worst about what was going to happen next.

“I expect you to write an apology letter to the Richardson’s family, about how deeply you regret your actions. Now I don’t care if you really do or not, but for your own sake you should make sure that it at least sounds sincere enough so that Mrs Richardson won’t pursue any legal actions against you.”

“Apart from that, effective immediately, you’re excluded from school for the rest of the week.”

“Excluded?!” Gary repeated, standing up from his seat. “You mean, I won’t be allowed to come to school for an entire week?!”

****

Note: In the U.K we have

Suspended: Still go to school but taken out of lessons

Excluded: Not aloud to go to school

Expelled: Kicked out of school

Instagram: jksmanga

Patreon: jksmanga