S2 Chapter 9 - Not Knowing Who You’re Messing With

The night before the first day of school in Ronnie's bedroom, the glow of the old scratched-up box TV illuminates the room while Ronnie Everst, who is wearing some blue striped pajamas, looks through the cardboard box of VHS tapes. They are all "self-defense" tapes recorded by his late father, Reagan Everst, that star a peculiar man by the name of James Lewis teaching people how to fight.

At first, he only was able to get a hold of four of the tapes, but over the summer break, Ronnie managed to convince his mother to get the rest of them from storage.

Now with all nine tapes; he looks through the box trying to figure out which one to watch.

"Here we are," Ronnie remarks as he takes out the tape titled 'Five'.

Ronnie puts the tape in the VHS player and the TV begins to play it.

"-ah that's what I thought, so now let's get into it," The man on the TV asks.

"Uh James, we weren't recording then," The man behind the camera states.

"Really Reagan? Oh come on," James Lewis sighs.

In the tape, James Lewis is a young white adult with long black hair in a ponytail, gray eyes, and a toothpick in his mouth. He's also wearing a jean jacket over a white-&-red striped shirt, black cargo pants, and white slip-on shoes. He and the cameraman, Reagan Everst, are standing atop a hill next to a tree

"Okay let's start from the beginning," James says as he clears his throat, "So you already heard me give you the advice about using your opponent's momentum against them, riling them up with insults, gaining better stamina, and to roll with the punches….YET YOU STILL WANT MORE?! How greedy can you get?"

James walks over to where a punching bag is tied to a tree branch and he lightly taps the punching bag.

"Now since Reagan over there didn't want to be used for a live demonstration, we have this punching bag here to show you the lesson," James says with a smile on his face, "Now then let us punch the bag."

James takes a step back before sending his fist at the punching bag. The punching bag sways back and forth, but it's still perfectly fine.

"Now what did you think I did wrong?" James asks the camera.

Reagan tries to answer but James responds with, "The answer is I punched at the bag, my fist made contact with it but it didn't do much damage. If you really wanna do some damage you want to aim for behind your target, pushing them back with your attack. Like so."

James gets back into position and sends his fist flying into the punching bag, only this time the force of it is so strong that his fist makes a hole through it on both sides.

"See how much of a change that can do! And it's all thanks to a difference in momentum!" James remarks as he tries to get his arm out of the punching bag, "Uh Reagan I think I'm stuck."

Reagan pans up to see that the tree branch that the punching bag was tied to is also bending.

"Uh, Reagan?" James asks.

"This is why I said we shouldn't have taken the punching bag outside," Reagan sighs.

"REAGAN A LIL HELP-" James yells before the branch snaps sending him and the punching bag to fall onto the ground and roll down the hill.

Reagan makes sure to record James rolling down the hill until he's stopped, then ending the recording.

With the recording done, the tape gets pushed out automatically from the VHS player and Ronnie sets it back into the box. He then turns off the TV before resting in his bed thinking about it. While punching through someone is impossible he got the gist of the tape; if you're in a fight don't slow down your fist when it makes contact with someone.

THE MIRACLE CLINIC: SEASON 2

Now in a classroom where the only people in there are himself, an unconscious senior, and the other three conscious Seniors who have been picking on him and his friends these past two weeks. Ronnie figures that it's time to see if the fifth fighting tape he watched holds any meaning in a real fight.

The first senior rushes toward him as he yells, "THIS IS FOR MY FRIEND!"

The senior throws a punch towards Ronnie however Ronnie tilts his head, dodging the fist before grabbing onto the senior's arm.

"What a coincidence," Ronnie remarks as he makes a fist, "Because this is for my friends!"

Ronnie sends his fist slamming into the senior's stomach, and the senior gags for air as he falls down.

"You should treat your upperclassmen with respect!" A senior yells as he tries to slap Ronnie but Ronnie keeps dodging, "Be careful kid, my slaps are so powerful that they've crushed every bug I've hit with them!"

"Wow I didn't know this school had a bug catcher," Ronnie teases as he keeps on dodging.

After more and more failed slappings, the senior's breathing gets heavier as he's tired out. Yet Ronnie hasn't even broken a sweat yet.

"My turn," Ronnie remarks as he slaps the senior across the face.

"Th-that slap," the senior moans as he falls to the ground, "it was… beautiful….,"

Ronnie and the other conscious senior look at one another in disgust.

"I'm just gonna let you know that we don't tend to hang out with that kid," The senior explains.

"I feel like I need to wash my hands after that," Ronnie groans in disgust, "But first…"

Ronnie begins to walk over to the last senior standing as he says, "It's obvious you guys aren't behind this, so tell me who is and that 'grand prize'."

"And why should I do that?" The senior asks.

"Did you not see what happened to those three?" Ronnie remarks as he points to the three unconscious seniors behind him,

"Yeah, fair point," The senior shrugs, "I'll tell you everything I know."

__________________________

Ronnie exits the classroom with a list of names as the other senior quickly walks the other way. Ronnie looks at the info the senior wrote down on a piece of paper.

"So the seniors are hosting a game where whoever does the most egregious act of bullying gets a grand cash prize?" Ronnie murmurs to himself, "Victor's a part of this, but the organizer of this is the student council president Evan?"

The others on the list are interesting too; the vice president Georgia Gibson, the head of the cheerleading team Trisha Bernstein, and the head of the baking club Bernard Ginger. But still, Ronnie finds it strange that three would also go along with what Evan & Vincent are doing.

"Wait, head of the baking club," Ronnie ponders before realizing something, "Hamster's in danger!"

"No, I'm not," Hamster remarks.

Ronnie looks at Hamster confused before realizing that Ronnie is standing in the middle of the hall, during the passing period. And the club Hamster happens to be in only occurs once school ends. Bennet the hamster, who is standing atop Hamster's head, shakes his head in shame.

"Oh right, well you will be in trouble soon," Ronnie remarks, "So you mind if I visit the club you're in after school?"

"Sure!" Hamster says happily.

_________________________

Once school has ended, Alex is on his way to the gym when he gets a text from Ronnie.

'One of the people involved in all of this is Georgie Gibson.'

Alex looks around and spots Georgia entering Mister Jefferson's classroom.

Alex texts Ronnie back and says 'don't worry, I'll handle this.'

______________________

Elizabeth, Marcus, & Selina are walking out of the school when Marcus gets a text from Ronnie, after reading it he smiles.

"Hey sis," Marcus remarks.

Selina looks back at him with confusion on her face, "Nobody calls their siblings that, just say Selina."

"Oh my bad," Marcus apologizes before asking, "Where you work, it has a printer, right?"

"Uh yeah, why?" Selina asks.

"What's the biggest thing it can print?" Marcus asks.

___________________________

In the gym at Starlight High, Sammy is standing in there alone as she dribbles a basketball. The setting sun lighting the whole gym in an orange glow. She's wearing a white one-shoulder crop top under a red jacket, green cargo pants, and blue tennis shoes. As Sammy is spacing out, she notices someone else enter the gym; a fellow sophomore Christopher Wrinkle.

"Oh hey, you're the transfer student right?" Christopher asks, "I'm Christopher, I didn't know you liked to play basketball."

"Name's Sammy and I'm not the biggest fan, just playing it because I'm bored," Sammy remarks.

"I see, do you play any sports?" Christopher asks as a few other people enter the gym.

"I was on the hockey team at my old school," Sammy remarks, "I've been meaning to join the one here but tryouts are in October."

"I see, hope you do well on that bro," Christopher remarks.

However before Sammy can respond, they hear someone clear their throat. The two look around them to see that they are surrounded by seniors from the basketball team and cheerleading team with the two people who brought the group to them being Victor Dunnerman & Trisha Bernstein.

"Oh hey bros, what are you guys all doing here?" Christopher asks.

"Just teaching you kids a lesson about how you shouldn't fuck with us," Victor remarks.

"We didn't do anything to you though, so why are you getting so pissy?" Sammy asks, confused.

"Because if we don't then you'll get too big for your britches," Trisha teases, "We're just trying to be 'helpful' to you all."

"Yeah we're just trying to help you out," Victor remarks as he looks behind him, "I don't want you to end up acting like that kid. He talked so much smack only to be so weak."

Christopher & Sammy look over to where Victor is looking to see that they dragged in an unconscious and bruised Randy Buzz.

"I was the top dog at my middle school," Randy murmurs in his sleep.

"You managed to knock out the Buzzing Brawler?!" Sammy asks intrigued.

"How could you do such a thing to a freshman!" Christopher yells upset.

"Yeah at least give the man a blanket," Sammy remarks.

"I'm sorry, what are you gonna do, fight back?" Victor teases.

Despite being upset, Christopher stands still, after all, he's a pacifist, and he doesn't want to fight someone. If he just tries to talk it out with them then maybe–

"Sure, I'm game," Sammy remarks as she walks over to Victor and Trisha.

Everyone in the gym looks at her confused before laughing.

"Don't laugh at her!" Christopher shouts to no avail.

"That skank is gonna try and fight all of us!" Trisha laughs.

"I didn't know we had a female comedian with us," Victor chuckles.

"Yeah, or maybe she's just talking shit," A senior laughs as she walks over to Sammy, "Maybe what she really wants is to show why she's called 'eagle' by spreading her–"

Sammy places her hand on the senior's head and firmly grasps onto it.

"What do you think you're–"

Sammy slams the girl's head into the metal bleachers.

"Huh-"

Sammy lifts the senior's head up and then slams it back down.

"Stop-"

Sammy lifts the senior's head up and then slams it back down.

"Please-"

But Sammy doesn't stop, she keeps on doing this again. And again. And again. And again.

_____________________

"You wanna know why Sammy transferred schools?" the physical education teacher Jolyne Joggers questions.

She, along with the biology teacher, Sam Penningberg, are standing in the teacher's lounge. Jolyne has a bagel with cream cheese on it while Penningberg was grading some papers before they started chatting.

"Yeah, from what I heard event the Principal at Seastar was a part of the committee that got her expelled. But she seems like a decent student so far," Mister Penningberg remarks as he mixes some sugar cubes in his tea.

"Well it all really stemmed from her time on the men's hockey team at Seastar," Jolyne Joggers, "She was placed in there due to not only her skill on the rink, but because of the unspoken rule of hockey."

"Unspoken rule?" Penningberg questions as he sips his tea.

"Well, unlike most sports, hockey has a ton of fights that happen since the referees hardly ever intervene. It's part of the unspoken rules of hockey," Jolyne explains, "But whenever Sammy would get into a fight, she'd always take it too far and would always need to be restrained for the fight to end."

"I see, I can see why she'd be expelled," Penningberg remarks, "Though she kind of reminds me of a friend of mine."

"Yeah, on the time Starlight & Seastar had a hockey match together, the ice rink was so bloodied after the game because of her that it took an hour to just clean that up," Jolyne remarks, "I can still recall the nickname those kids chanted at her whenever she got violent."

"What was it?" Penningberg remarks.

"It was 'The Big Bad Wolf of Seastar High'," Jolyne recalls.

____________________

In Starlight High's Gym, Vincent and Trisha along with the other seniors in the room all look in shock at Sammy Becken who's finally stopped beating up one of the seniors.

"That fucking bullshit of a rumor has been pissing me off for a while," Sammy remarks as she undoes her ponytail and then wipes the blood off her chin, "So I hope you don't mind if I blow off some steam real quick, would ya?"

"Wh-what even are you?" one of the seniors asks.

"Me?" Sammy questions as a twisted smile grows on her face, "I'm The Big Bad Wolf."

See You Next Chapter!~