Chapter 12: School fight (Part 1)

Days passed by since the day when Barry was in a good mood and smiling the whole day.

Barry's peaceful days were once again numbered as Barry enjoyed his normal days without realizing that something terrible will soon occur. His peaceful, normal school days will soon come to a halt as chaos silently approaches.

Finally, the day of chaos has arrived. The mistakes that were made these past few days have piled up into a grave problem. This is what awaits for these two boys, Barry and Ethan.

"This is… a totally crazy idea!", Barry thought to himself while panting.

Barry runs frantically to Ethan's aid while he brings his sling bag to where Ethan is hiding.

Now, Barry has reached the staircase on the far end of the school block, which leads to the boy's toilet.

Before Barry proceeds down the stairs, Barry scans his surroundings for any potential signs of danger, which could threaten his safety and the peace of the school.

When he notes that the coast was clear, he breathed out a sigh of relief and thought to himself. "Great. Everything is perfectly fine. Now, let's do this."

In order to not attract anyone's attention, he puts on an act to show that he is calm in front of others, whom he might pass by as he goes down the stairs.

At first, everything went smoothly, as he planned. Then, someone caught his attention.

It was one of the members of a group of bullies in the school, whom are notorious because of the bully cases in school, such as verbal bullying and physical bullying with one of his friends.

As Barry recognizes the face from a case that happened a while ago, he keeps his head down so that the person doesn't realize him.

Luckily, the person and his friend were so focused on their conversation. This gave Barry an opportunity to slip away from their area of vision.

Finally, Barry arrives at his destination: the boy's school toilet.

He then tries to calm himself down after the chance meeting with the said person before he enters the restroom while clutching onto his sling bag.

After that, he walked towards one of the bathroom stalls at the bathroom stalls section where Ethan currently hides in.

Barry initially didn't know which bathroom stall where Ethan hides in, as there were 9 bathroom stalls with closed doors. There can only be one door which is locked by Ethan while the rest are unlocked.

As time ticks by, Barry is forced to push open each of the bathroom stall's door in order to find Ethan.

Barry tried his luck to push open by force the first two doors of the bathroom stalls which are closest to the wash area. But, it was to no avail.

When Barry tries to push open the third door of a bathroom stall, the sound of a lock being unlocked was heard.

Barry heard the said sound, which made him turn his head sideways to observe his surrounding carefully to search for the source of the sound.

Suddenly, a door on the opposite side swings open on its own. This sent chills down his spine as he was in the middle of observing his surrounding at that time.

Barry waits for a while to see what was behind the door, but nothing popped out.

This made Barry to inch closer towards the said door to see what is it was inside there.

As he got closer, someone leapt out from inside the bathroom stall and was about to strike him in the face, which made Barry to lose his balance before he fell to the floor.

Both Barry and the said person were confounded with each other's presence as the thought of crossing paths with each other didn't cross their minds at all, not even once.

Both of them then screamed and pointed fingers at each other. "It was you!?"

It turns out that the said person who was about to strike his fist towards Barry's face, was none other than Ethan himself.

As the truth has now unveiled itself, both let out a sigh of relief.

The two then talk with each other. Ethan was the first to start the conversation.

"For a while there, I thought it was the damned group of gangsters! You almost gave me a heart attack just now! Can't you please at least JUST knock the door?"

Barry, who doesn't know how to react, just said to Ethan in a calm manner. "Oh, okay then… Was that what I'm supposed to do? Wouldn't it cause the others to suspect me? Plus, I was in a hurry just now. So I did just that." He gave a nervous laugh as he said these words.

"What? How does it make you think it was suspicious to knock on a door? Hell, using force to push open a door is even more suspicious to me. And it's rude."

"Oh. Is it? I didn't think of it that way. Sorry."

When Ethan heard what Barry said, he facepalmed on himself and sighed. He then said to him. "Huh? Don't you 'Is it?' me… Fine, whatever. Let's just drop this nonsense already. This will waste our precious time for preparation to face the upcoming fight later."

"Yeah, let's end this conversation here.", said Barry.

After the conversation ended, Ethan let out his hand to Barry and said. "Come, give me your hand. I'll help you stand up."

Barry let out his hand and grabs Ethan's hand.

Ethan then pulls Barry up on his feet.

Barry brushes off the dust on his pants. Then Ethan said to him. "Alright, now let's get to the serious part. Did you bring me the weapon I brought in your bag?"

Barry nodded and said, "Yes, I have brought it with me. It's here."

He then shows it to Ethan, which he then nods back in response.

Ethan then said to him. "Alright, let's not stand here too long. We need to hide first. Later than, we can continue our discussion."

He pointed the place where they should hide. It was the same bathroom stall which Ethan had previously hidden in.

After that, Ethan went back inside and asks Barry to come inside the said bathroom stall to hide with him.

"Come here." Ethan said to him while he makes the Beckoning sign hand gesture to ask Barry to go inside it to hide with him.

Barry enters the bathroom stall in hesitation, as he doesn't feel comfortable with how things have progressed since then, and Ethan locks them both inside till the time comes.

Both of them then breathed out a sigh of relief and face the ceiling with the feeling of despair written all over their faces.

After a brief of silence between the two, Ethan then hesitantly asks Barry a question out of the blue, which took Barry by surprise. "Hey, Barry. Do you still remember why did this happen?"

Barry paused for a while to think about it before he nodded and said to him. "Yes, of course I do still remember it. All of it, in fact. It all began on that one fateful, tragic day. First, it took place at the canteen. Then, the incident took place at the school hallway on the next day. At last, it happened outside our class. And now, here we are in the boy's school toilet."

Barry was daydreaming about how all of this has happened from the beginning to the end, which led to the present state of situation they were in.

He then sighed in disbelief about how and why all of this happened.

He scratched his head until he had enough of it and said. "Why does this have to happen?!" Barry said those words in a tone of frustration.

Ethan saw Barry's reaction towards this difficult situation they were thrown in.

He lowered his head and said to Barry in a weak voice.

"I'm sorry that I brought you into this mess. I am a bad friend, aren't I?", said Ethan.

Barry heard this and turns his face towards Ethan.

After that, he said to Ethan as he sighs.

"Ethan, you can assume it's like that. But for me, I don't think of you like that. Actually, I followed you into this mess on my own free will. I am here to help you get through this adversity. I want to see this through all the way with you. To make sure things are under control and well. Is that enough reason for you to hear from me?" Barry said these words with a smile plastered on his face.

When Ethan heard what Barry has said, he slowly raises his head up to turn his face towards Barry.

He nodded and said to Barry. "Yes."

After that, Barry asked Ethan about the weapon in his sling bag. "By the way, what is this weapon in my bag? How did you get this?"

Ethan said to him. "It's a metal bat. It's an item that the police would use. I borrowed it."

When Barry tried to get some more answers from him, he refused to talk anymore than that. He then accepts his action.

After that, Barry asked him again. "So, how do you feel now? Good?"

Ethan nodded. Barry then smiled and let out his fist. "Hey, Ethan. Let out your fist."

Ethan was puzzled at first. When he saw what Barry meant by that, his eyes widens.

Barry said to him. "Let's do the fist bump."

Both of them did it. Then they both laughed.

Not long after that, multiple footsteps, which sounded like a group of people, were heard. They knew what it means.

Barry said to Ethan. "Hey, are you prepared for this?"

Ethan said to him. "You bet I am. Let's do this thing."

The sound of a lock being unlocked resounded in the toilet and out comes the two of them.

Ethan then said to the group of students in front of them in a loud voice as he switches into his battle mode. "We are here. Let's end this right here, right now. Kinslee!"