Bab 5: The Girl Gang and Tom's Past
T-1 Days to Incident
#Some time after tiffin
In Cacey’s class, there were five vicious and extremely jealous girls with connections to school gangs: Maisie (the boss), Carol, Denise, Elaine, and Jennie. With the dwindling number of tributes every passing day, they grew ever more impatient at Cacey.
"Our wallets are gone! We've got to do something about that attention-seeking bitch!"
They used boys as their disposable 'wallets'. They would tease them by feigning interest in them. They loved to turn the boys into marmots that they could manipulate with their womanly charm.
Now that the boys' attention was diverted to Cacey, she became an attention-seeking whore and a slut in their eyes. They simply couldn't overlook how Cacey was so naturally charming; she didn’t have to even look at the boys to bring them down to her feet for her own good. That's what they believed Cacey was doing—messing with their food chain.
"That's not YOUR problem, right? You are afraid that even your wallets will go to Cacey," Carol looked up from her smartphone. Among them, she was the only one not bothered by this nonsense. All that mattered to her was gambling.
Jennie spat on the ground, "That whore!"
"Hey! Why are you so tensed, babe?" Elaine was reading a dirty magazine. She always did this. Her stash was right here in the dumpster, where nobody would think about searching.
"Yea! Why are you so edgy? Are you perhaps afraid to lose your target to Cacey?" Carol said this without looking up from her phone.
Maisie glared at her friend and asked, "Are you calling me a chicken?"
"I never said 'chicken' though!" Carol replied without looking up, "Your problem is that you try to find meaning in things when there is none."
"Anyway, I'm telling you! The punishment will be very thorough! The bitch girl needs to be educated properly." Said Maisie. This was the time when all the other girls turned their faces toward her, along with their scattered attention. "Now, we are talking! What's your plan? I'm in!" Elaine was intently listening.
They sat on the ground in a circle as if they were playing something. They whispered to each other. Some laughed, some cursed, and some said they wouldn't expect anything unless the Cacey was 'canceled'.
Maisie said, "Why do you think the guys are attracted to her?"
"Why?"
"Her innocent image of purity is the reason. They feel it's their fucking duty to protect her."
"So?"
A nasty, evil-looking smile appeared on her face. "We start by destroying that image of innocence. Once the boys feel betrayed, they will do the rest on their own. We will just offer the finishing blow."
#After school hours
The evening felt refreshing. The goodbye toll of spring resonated in the air, and Mother Nature was readying herself to embrace the infant summer in her bosom. The occasional cool breeze from the mountainside near the city gave Tom a bit of comfort at the end of a very upsetting day. The smell of pine and juniper seeped into the wind to give it a refreshing fragrance. Tom stopped on his track. Closing his eyes, he opened his arms wide as if he were embracing the peaceful zephyr to his bosom in acquiescence. He inhaled long and hard, tilting his head backward. “Ah! This is something to live for in this wretched, cruel world.” Tom got lost in the beauty of the blinking stars hanging in the clear, dark sky. He looked at the path he had been plodding on, a decorated sidewalk with white pearl-like lamps.
Tom entertained himself with the beauty of the view while dragging his feet, sometimes limping. He could have taken the taxi or the bus, but earlier today, the bullies robbed him of his pocket money with a ridiculous excuse: protection. “What protection? That’s extortion!” A snicker of frustration appeared on his face. “How ridiculous can this world be? They are the ones beating me up, and they will give me protection!"
Thomas Baker was a loner and an outcast—a nobody even beyond the confines of school—a non-player character in someone else's role-playing game. In this wretched, cruel, and brutal world, the only person who silently adored and supported him was his dear mother, Janis Baker.
Compared to boys his age, Tom was weaker with an underweight body. Even a strong wind could tumble this bully-magnet. All his life, the bullies, like a broken record, said one thing in common. With a shrug of apathy they would say, "No reason! I just felt like it." They felt like bullying him the moment he appeared in front of them. It was as if he was born just to be tortured, and they were carrying out their social responsibility. Despite having a weak and underweight body, Thomas was blessed with amazing lush black hair, hazel eyes, and long dark eyebrows that added to his average visage and transformed it into something more adorable and desirable to the opposite sex. These features were also the reason behind the bully's jealousy.
At the school where he transferred, Tom immediately caught the attention of two infamous bullies in his class: Martin, aka Pig, and Elister, aka Snake. It was a mystery to Tom how bullies snuff out pushovers like him from a large crowd. It was so easy for them!
“Hey, newbie! You strong?”
“Nnn…no..!”
"Are you good at studying?”
“Not really, why?”
“Play games? Good at it?”
At this point, Tom got suspicious. These seemingly innocent, friendly questions from Pig and Snake felt more like an interrogation. He loved playing games.
“No…I’m not into games.”
Right then, his fate was sealed. Pig grabbed him by the neck.
“Welcome, weakass! You’re my slave from today.” Pig was happy to see another prey.
But Tom resisted, not knowing what consequence awaited him. “What? Why would I be your slave?”
Immediately, a barrage of slaps decorated his delicate face with red marks, crumbling his confidence and bravery. The thought of that very first day still haunted him in his dream.
"Do I smell weak, or is it written on my face? Damnit!"
“What did I ever do to deserve this? Why me? Every damn time.” Tom thought as tears rolled down his cheeks. It hadn't even been a month since he transferred, and he had already been beaten, burned, and humiliated in front of his so-called classmates.
An early-morning-rich Tom became a desolate beggar by the evening as he lost all the money to the bullies. So Tom had to walk from school.
“Asking for a bike would be a foolish thing to do,” Tom thought. “They will just take or destroy the bike for fun, and I will be the one to get a serious beating at home. Better use the ancient method of stamina building—walking!”
Tom carefully separated his school and private lives. He didn't want to cause problems anymore. It was the third time he had to change schools within the past two years. He was thankful enough that his dad paid the money for the transfers. Tom was speaking to himself: "He is avoiding asking the obvious question: why the transfers?"
Tom continued his thoughts. “Perhaps he's aware? Then why doesn't he ask the obvious question—why the transfer? Why so many times?”
Tom pondered over the possible thoughts that would usually go through his dad's mind. “Perhaps me being a weak pushover would tarnish my dad's MIGHT EDMONT BAKER image! That alone is embarrassing to him. Maybe that prevents him from associating with his son's name!”
“What’s so special about that image?” Tom thought. “I only got the height from my dad; everything else came from Mom. Then what’s that image he is desperately trying to save?” Edmont was two inches taller than Tom. He was kind of sturdy and had a very bad temper that only showed itself in front of weaker opponents. He valued decorum and what people of high society thought about him more than family and relationships. He was merely a clone that his parents created. They were nothing but robots that followed rules set by others. Edmont was nothing without his so-called societal decorum.
Amid the self-reflection, Tom heaved a heavy sigh. The park was in the vicinity.
Hadiah
-- Hadiah diterima Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone