"What?! The hell you mean 'you don't know me', don't screw with me, you've met me In middle school"
Ah this guy.... I suddenly remembered him after I got a good look at him.
'He's a friend of that guy'
The guy that I was talking about was In middle school. 'that person was pretty violent'
It happened in my second year of Middle school.
'that person had beaten me up pretty good' It wasn't a lie, he truly was exceptionall at fighting
'he should've been a wrestler or boxer, too bad that he was mentally ill'
I truly felt pity for him, If it weren't for his mental Illness he wouldn't even have beaten me up In the first place.
Many people before me had been beaten up by that guy so badly that they didn't have the courage to say anything, of course I was different
Gabriel and Catrina saw me getting beat up and immediately called the teachers which saved me from that type of beating.
After a few moments of teachers holding meetings back and forth on what to do about him
All the students that got beat up by him started stepping up and started telling the teachers what he had done to them.
All the teachers then decided to sent him to a psychiatrist, concluding that there was mentally something wrong with him.
The school already had a psychiatrist, so they could start right away the next day.
The next day came and that guy beat up the psychiatrist so badly they transferred him to another school and also suggested to his parents that he gets a private tutor
"..."
'yeah no nevermind that guy had to go'
Any shred of pity that I had disappeared as I started recalling what that he did.
The person here was that guy's friend
'he also blamed me that I caused his transfer'
It didn't last long because The other students caught wind of that and started bombarding him with questions like 'what nonsense are you saying?!' or 'are you dumb?!'
The most questions they bombarded him with though was why he was defending the guy that was literally beating up everyone for no reason.
'maybe he was always the mentally ill one'
I sarcastically thought to myself, I quickly snapped out of it after a few moments had passed
"Listen, I don't know why I'm suddenly being accused of pushing you off the stairs, forcing me to defend myself for something I didn't even do but"
I look at him and narrowed my eyes.
"Despite being 'pushed' of the stairs, you still look fine? That doesn't make sense, does it?"
"That's only because my arm got caught In the railing!"
He looks back at Bringam.
"Sir Bringam, when classes ended yesterday, he was the one who pushed me off the stairs on the second floor, my friends can vouch for me!"
"Woah woah, Sir Bringam I wasn't even In the school building, I had already left with my friend when the bell rang"
"...?"
"?"
They both looked at me, this time they were confused instead of me.
"Wait what do you mean by 'weren't In the school building' ?"
"Exactly what I said, I had already left the school the moment the bell rang, you can go ask my friend"
Bringam massaged his temples, he looks at the student that made the whole drama in the first place.
He was slightly sweating, his face paled by the second.
Tsk
Bringam clicked his tongue.
'he couldn't make it more obvious that he created this whole drama for no reason'
Bringam looked at Cale who was wrongfully accused of something he didn't do
' should I lighten the mood a little bit'
"Why were you outside of class then?"
He skillfully skipped the subject
"..?"
'why was he asking me something like this?'
I pondered a bit before I answered
"I was supposed to have English classes right now, but the teacher didn't show up and there wasn't anyone else that could substitute, so they let us go outside"
"A-ah I see"
Bringam then told me that I can go on my way and told the other student who I was surprised to hear his name was Hans to stay
'i thought he had a different name...'
I was somewhat worries that Bringam might fact check what I said, after all someone might have saw the doppelganger go somewhere else other than outside.
'like my locker....'
"..."
My locker was on the second floor, so that must be where It pushed the guy off the stairs.
The reason It would go to my locker In the first place was obvious
'it tried to get my backpack...'
I was cautious of my doppelganger because I didn't want some of my stuff to suddenly disappear when I came back from Gardenia
But because I hadn't trusted it, It had done something completely unexpected and almost got me in trouble.
'I don't like this'
Being forced to trust something that I couldn't control made me feel sick
But it wasn't as if I could do anything about it. If the doppelganger had all my stuff from the get go, It would try to leave the school building.
Of course because my backpack was in my locker, it had to go there first because that's what I'd do first. But because of that, this happened.
"..."
'I don't know... the letter said that It would act In a way I would' It wasn't guaranteed that the contents of the letter would all be correct after all, It was my fault in the first place for trusting its contents
I could only hope that something like this doesn't happen again.
My thoughts abruptly stopped as I stepped outside and walked at the basketball court where Gabriel and Catrina were probably at
"Gabriel the ball!"
"!!!"
Every hair on my body stood on end, as if they were predicting what will happen next.
Gabriel had shot the ball, but watching the ball's trajectory I lost hope and my face paled.
Gabriel had missed the hoop completely and the ball-
Tok!
It had gone over the fence and started rolling away from the school.
"This bastard!"
I screamed as I ran towards the fence and started climbing it at an Incredible speed as If I had done this multiple times before.
"Cale?! where did you come from!"
Catrina looked astonished as I came from out of thin air
"Where is the ball!"
I shouted at Gabriel and Catrina.
""It's over there!""
they both said at the same exact time.
"You think that helps?!"
"It's to your right"
I look to my right and see it, the ball rolling away.
'wait that road!'
the road where the ball was rolling towards was steep.
the road wasn't long but If the ball rolled towards it and reached it.
'It would pick up speed!'
and I might lose the ball or worse It might crash Into a car.
I started running towards the ball. my lungs burning as I focused on the ball but it already had started rolling and picked up more speed when it reached the steep road by the time I reached it.
I started running towards the ball, slowly catching up but
'It's going to hit a car!'
as if it wasn't bad enough
"!"
It hit a bump in the road, causing it to launch In the air.
however Its speed also slightly decreased, I didn't waste any time and threw my body towards the ball In the air
Grasp!
I caught It, barely
Thud!
"Ugh!"
my body fell to the ground and crashed Into the back of the Van the ball was going to hit
"whew"
the reason I threw my body towards the van was simply because I was sure the ball might've cracked its window at the speed it was rolling at
"I'm faster than I thought?"
I muttered dusting of my clothes and looked behind me to see If I damaged the Van In some way.
I had hit the bumper but I realized that I might've damaged the Van more than if the ball had hit it which made me look more carefully If it had been damaged by me.
"no visible damage?"
I was confident that I crashed into the Van with a lot of force but there was no damage on the Van whatsoever.
"Strang- Ow!"
I felt a lot of pain In my back which had hit the bumper
"I am more injured than the damn Van!"
I put my hand on my back bending forward slightly while my other hand held the basketball
I looked around before opening my mouth
"let's just go back..."
I started making my way back to school groaning as I tightly held the ball In my arm making sure It didn't fall.
***
"Uh... you okay?"
Deadshot asked if I was okay, but I only glared at him while I was leaning against the railing, suffering.
"Do I...look okay to you?"
"..."
"sorry"
"I'll only accept that apology if you start getting better"
Words were just words after all, anyone could say they were sorry but not all could apologize through actions.
Gabriel lowered his head feeling guilty that Cale had gotten hurt because he had missed a shot.
Cale tapped on his shoulders.
"Don't worry too much, It could've ended a whole lot worse after all. So be glad that the worst didn't happen"
I didn't say this just to cheer him up, I said this because it truly could have been worse
'I guess I got lucky'
that's the only way I could explain it, there wasn't any other way to explain that other than luck.
However the more I thought that It was luck, the more my stomach churned.
"I'll go sit over there while I you guys play". I pointed to a bench In a distance that my eye caught
Gabriel and Catrina looked at each other before Catrina opened her mouth.
"We should go to the other side of the court"
the other side of the court didn't have any fences nearby where the ball could go over.
"We should have done that from the start..."
"come on, don't beat yourself up, you're not the only one who's worried you know"
"you don't look worried?"
He sharply commented.
"does someone have to bawl their eyes out to show they were worried?"
"..."
when Catrina calmly retorted, Gabriel shut his mouth all while Cale laid on the bench