Chapter 2: The Apprehension.

I stared at the scalpel Samson gripped in his hand, my anger chameleoned to fear. The blade protruding from the handle was only two inch long but razor sharp. He could hurt me bad, and I didn't stand much of a chance defending myself.

Samson's arms were as big around as my thighs. Only one thing I could do was..... .

Run! .

I tried to, but Samson was too swift and

grabbed the back of my shirt collar.

I yelled,

"Tm sorry, Sam, let me go!"

That finally got the teacher's attention. "Hey, stop that! Both of you"

The few kids in the class who bothered to look our way wore blank, vacant

expressions, their eyes half closed as if our little drama bored them.

"He's going to cut me with the scalpel," I

cried to the teacher.

Samson chuckled. "You scream like a virgin boy."Now pressing and pulling my neck really hard intermittently.

I yelped. Gasping for breathe at the same time.

"You feel light as a paper. Despite your love for food, all these years you never weigh more than half a kilo. You wasteful Foody!" He said.

He glanced around the classroom. "We are calling him 'food' henceforth. Do we agree?"

Most of my classmates nodded numbly. Nobody dared stand up to him. The teacher stepped toward us and addressed Samson.

"Let him go."

Samson yanked me around, putting me

between himself and the teacher. "Mind your own business, Sir. This here is between me and Foody."

The teacher stopped and gawked at the

scalpel Samson held. "Put down the scalpel. Think about what you're doing."

"I know what I'm doing. Mister."

"He threatened to cut me up,"I interrupted, hating the thin, reedy sound of my squealing, little voice.

Samson yanked me backward in the direction of our lab table. "That's a lie. I never said anything like that. What I told you was that I was going to spill your Spaghetti, not cut you up."

As terrorized as I felt, that distinction made little or no difference to me. Looking at the teacher, I blurted, "Do something Sir, he meant it."

But I doubt it. The man was old, scared, and had a reputation for being cowardly. He's the kind to stick his head into the hall and yell for school security.

The teacher looked back at the other students randomly.

As if telegraphing his intentions.

"No need to bring in outsiders," Samson said in a voice low and cold.

"Like I already told you. This is between me and Foody"

In his eyes, I could see that Mr. Teacher wished he was any place other than here. He took a step back and said in an unconvincing tone, "Put down the scalpel Sam, and Do it now!."

"No! I can't do that, Mister. Not until I settle my scores with this foody"

"There are over twenty witnesses in this

classroom Sam."

Samson laughed and waved an arm. "Them?... Them?... Hahaha! Nobody here is going to say nothing against me. No one dares!'"

As he made eye contact with the other kids in class, they all looked away. Turning his attention to the teacher, he said, "Besides, you can't lay a finger on me, you know better. And I don't have to do a damn thing you tell me to. You're not my father, and even if you were, sure enough, I don't listen to him, either!."

The teacher seemed to consider for a

moment and tried another approach.

"All right Sam. I won't presume to tell you what to do. Instead, I'm going to ask you nicely. Would you please put down the scalpel?"

Samson let go of my collar while knocking my head forward.

"Okay, Teacher, since you ask so nicely, that saves the day."

"Now, hence these two are done messing around I suggest we all proceed with our activity." The teacher said.

Samson patted me on the shoulder like I was his little brother or something. "You heard the teacher, foody. Let's proooo-ceeeeed with the lab's activity."

The teacher continued watching us, backing

slowly towards the front of the classroom.

I swallowed hard and tried to still my racing heart. After taking a few deep breaths, I let out a trembling voice.

"See Sam, I don't mean to disrespect you." I said. "It's really important to me that I do the dissection, Please"

Samson looked down at me and tilted his

head as if considering my request. His lips

curved into a smile. "Sure, Runso-Foody. Since it's that important to you, I'll let you do it."

He paused.

"But after me is you. Right now, it's my turn!."

He raised the scalpel over his head.

I screamed." Noooo! "

"That's right, foody" Samson said. "Scream like a virgin Boy in puberty, nice and loud."

I covered my face with my arms and shrank

back. Samson let loose with a charge cry, "aaahhhrrr "

brought down the blade, and buried it into

the middle of the pig's eye.

The eye detonated like a burst water balloon, ocular fluid jetting out in all directions. One stream of the fluid hit a girl at the next table square on her ear. The fluid trailed into her ear like a lump of mucus. She screamed and ran from the classroom as if her head was on fire.

The rest of my classmates also rabbitted out of the class. So did the gutless hapless teacher scampered.

Samson patted the side of my face to get my

attention. He stood there, a triumphant

gleam in his eye, waving the scalpel around,

the pig eye still skewered onto the end of the blade.

"Your turn, foody." He moved the ruined

eye against my lips. "it's barbecue time! Eat it, now!" He ordered.

I turned my face and shrank backwards. While doing so, I lashed out and struck the side of his arm. I guess he hadn't expected that, because the scalpel flew from his grasp. The pig eye popped off the end of the blade and splatted onto the open page of my textbook.

That really pissed me off. My nice textbook,

now messed up.

The scalpel bounced off the wall and landed

on the edge of the lab table just out of reach.

Both of us dove for it. He was bigger but my

reflexes were faster, so I snatched the scalpel. Facing each other, samson started circling me. No way did I want that Ape to get behind me and put me in a choke hold, so I matched his moves, making sure we stayed facing each other. He closed in on me. I swung the scalpel in a circular motion, a defensive move to scare him away. The thing is, I didn't judge the distance very well and caught him on the chin, slicing into the dermis layer of his fleshy skin which began to drip blood. Samson touched his chin and examined the blood on his fingers tip like a vampire. Fire bloomed in his eyes. "You're a dead meat, foody. Hear me? Dead meat I say."

He may have been horsing around before,

but this time I knew very well that he

meant what he just said. That left me with two options.......

Fight or flight.

I was scared out of my mind. So scared that I couldn't think. I had no doubt that if Samson got a hold of me, he'd stab me ninety-nine times plus one for real.

I had a clear path of escape to the door, but in my head I saw a picture of him tackling me from behind.

So, I just stood there, hand tightly wrapped

around the handle of the scalpel, holding it

out in front of me, trembling, breathing hard, standing him off. My voice squeaked.

"Stayaway from me. You make a move toward me, and I'll stick you this for real." I said. I expected him to rush me, but then a strange thing happened.

Samson relaxed his stance and the corner of his mouth turned into a weird smile of innocence.

From behind, a strong palm grabbed

me, pinning my arms against my side. A

second palm twisted my wrist until I let go of the scalpel. It made a pinging noise against the tile floor. The guy who twisted my wrist kicked the blade out of reach. From the corner of my eye, I noticed they both wore uniforms.

School securities.

Finally. The hapless teacher must've blown the panic horn.

Seconds later the two security men had me face down against the tile floor. I heard the ratcheting of handcuffs as they secured my wrists.

Samson sat on the floor, his back to the wall,

holding a wad of tissue paper to his chin. He

appeared less threatening and very innocent that way.

He pointed a shaky finger at me. "Keep him away from me. That Runso is a bloody wolf. Just look at what he did to my face!."

I remember how indignant I felt, he's trying to turn the incident around so that it looked like it was my fault.

"You're a liar!" I shouted. Only this time, my voice didn't squeak, it sounded threatening instead. What a sad coincidence of unequal proportion.

Samson had tricked me, and I had fallen right hard into it. The securities hauled me to my feet. Trying to calm myself, I said, "I was just minding my own business sir. Samson started it."

Both security men grabbed me, one on each shoulder and guided me towards the door.

One of them said, "it doesn't look that way to me, boy. You were the one holding the scalpel and you obviously attacked your fellow classmate. Can't you see he's the one bleeding on the floor?."

Exactly Sir. that's right," Samson said, gradually trailing behind us.

I shot a glance over my shoulder. He was still wearing his devilish smile.

The Men marched me through the school compound and out the school gate.

Confused, I asked,

"Are you taking me home?....... Doesn't the principal want to see me first? The class teacher will back up my version of the story."

"Home?" one of them said spitefully. "Home is definitely not where you belong at this point in time, boy!"

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