A Day without Scott

The next week in school, Jim, Dwayne and Natalie all meet in the cafeteria eating their lunch staring at each other. They were all silent without Scott being in school.

"This is awkward. Scott is usually the one who starts our conversation." Natalie eating her egg salad sandwich.

"Where is he? Didn't he say that he would bring Laura to my place to help with her conditions?" Jim eating his chicken pasta.

"Aw man. He didn't come yesterday. I guess I brought my air mattress for no reason then." Dwayne eating a turkey leg.

"Also, this turkey leg tastes a decade old. I knew I should've brought my own lunch."

"Dwayne. You brought an air mattress, I spent a whole weekend without sleep trying to study every disease in every medical book I have and also learning how to use medical supplies. So don't think you are going through the worst."

"Sure. I think we both were suffering from this whole situation. I took a hit for you during our fight with Drake and his goons and I still feel it in some moments. Jim, I think we should stop our argument over brains versus brawn. We're all unique for who we are and it's best for us to move on from it."

"Yeah. I think so too. Scott would be proud if he sees us getting along more."

"Want to shake on it?" Jim offers a handshake.

"Yeah." Dwayne shook his hand.

Noticing someone walking past her, Natalie sees Bryan and Liam walking together.

"Hey guys, look, it's Bryan and Liam." Natalie sees them.

Natalie walked towards them. "Hey Bryan. Do you know where Scott is?"

"Don't care. Never care." Bryan and Liam walked away from her.

"Oh man. Please don't tell me Bryan is still upset at Scott." Natalie looked disappointed.

Natalie walked back to her seat. "Guys, do you think the reason Scott didn't come to school today is because of Bryan? He might be a bit upset about losing a friend."

"Most likely not. He wasn't fully bothered when we last saw him." Jim put away his lunch.

Suddenly, the bell rang.

"Well, it looks like our lunchtime is over, maybe we should text Scott. He's either sick at home or something." Natalie putting her lunch away.

"When the school day ends, we should contact Scott and..." Jim was then interrupted as there was a noise of drums heading towards the cafeteria.

"The hell?" Jim saw where the noise came from.

"HERE'S THE KING OF HIGH SCHOOL! JOHN DECKER!" John shouted out as he entered the cafeteria room.

The students in the cafeteria cheered as the King of High School returned to school from his one month hiatus.

"John?" Natalie, Jim, and Dwayne all said at the same time.

"I hope yall missed me. I went through a big loss after losing my best friend, my best man, and I want to thank you all for supporting me through this hard time. Today, I decided that no student gets harmed as me and Principal Dover are planning an association known as the 'No Student gets Harmed' to honor Troy's legacy of Sunshine High. He was known for winning us the big gold for our football team for our school and although our team won't be the same without him, we can at least prevent the death of other students with our new association starting up next year. But anyways, with me and my beautiful Laura, we can still make the school a better place right babe?

"Of course! Troy was my best friend too! It would be nice that the King of High School would do anything to prevent other student's deaths! Also, I hope yall can watch our last cheerleading performance for our next pep rally next week as our season comes to an end!"

The students cheered again from John's big speech in the cafeteria.

Walking towards Natalie, Jim, and Dwayne, John gave them a big and happy smile.

"Well if it isn't Jimmy Wilson, the school nerd, Natalie Simpson, the theater girl, and Dwayne the captain of the football team! I hope you guys are enjoying lunch!" John putting his hands on Natalie and Jim.

"Don't touch me." Jim calmly told John.

"What's the matter, school nerd? Aren't you happy that I'm finally in school after missing out a full month?"

"Sure." Jim being sarcastic.

Dwayne looked behind John seeing that it was Laura smiling boggling her head.

"Uh Laura. We've been trying to see you." Dwayne approaches Laura.

"EWWW! Get away from me you tube of lard!" Laura takes a few steps back from Dwayne.

"But Laura, me and Scott were trying to find you. We're worried about your conditions."

"UM worry about those greasy hands you have because you ain't touching me with those things!"

Dwayne looked at his greasy hand from his turkey leg.

"Good girl Laura. You know not to talk to others besides me." John gives Laura a cheek kiss.

"Laura, Scott wants to help you. We want you to come to Jim's house and…." Natalie was interrupted.

"Scott? Who's Scott? I never heard of that person at all." John spoke.

"Yeah, who's Scott? I never heard of that name before." Laura followed.

"Wait what? John, don't play stupid. You know Sc….." Jim was also interrupted.

"Did you really? Did you call me stupid? Oh how horrible."

"Wow Jim! Nerds, never thinking before speaking! How horrible of you to do!" Laura followed again.

"Also, where's that faggot or gay friend that you have? I thought he should be with you guys. Welp, I'll deal with him later." John laid his arms on Jim and Natalie's shoulders.

"But you two. After spring break, we should have a long talk. Jimmy Wilson. You looked a lot different than you were on the first day of school. Your clothes look slick, a fresh hairdo and what do I smell? Arctic vibes body spray." John gives a menacing stare at Jim.

"That's not how nerds are meant to be. You should be having those glasses of yours, those suspenders and those worn out clothes, and you are not wearing any of those."

[I don't mind during or after spring break where I'll put you back in that electric chair and worse, never get to see that family of yours]

"And Natalie, my favorite drama kid, I saw that you were feeling happy and less...emotional. That's not how you do your role. I also know that the school bully was your ex boyfriend. You should be happy that I got rid of him. So in exchange, you should be acting emotionally unstable like you always were."

[For you, after fixing Jimmy, I'm also going to fix you by psychologically breaking you like I did when you first came here. I'll call you racial slurs and make all the students of Sunshine High call you that until I desire that person you are]

John then stepped back from Natalie and Jim and looked at Dwayne. "And Football captain, do you job or else."

"Luckily for y'all, there's still time to correct our mistakes and once I have you all, including that one friend, things will go back to normal and my role of being the King of High School will be magnificent. So anyways, I suggest you guys should go back to class while me and my girlfriend will have lunch. Now shoo." John waved goodbye to them.

Outside of the cafeteria, Jim, Dwayne and Natalie were all shivering knowing that John was watching them.

"Guys. I can't go back to that chair. He's going to do something even worse than when I first got here. He might not only staple glasses on my face, but probably starve me to near death again. I can't go back to that shack he calls 'my home.'"

"Besides that, he will use his manipulation to psychologically torture me with his racial slurs and those following him. Don't the other students know not to say that word to a black woman?"

"I still don't get how you guys are getting harsh treatments from John, but he only gave me a slap to the wrist." Dwayne is feeling bad for Jim and Natalie.

Looking in front of him, Dwayne sees Isabelle running towards him holding a child's hand with her.

"Isabelle?" Dwayne is excited to see her.

Isabelle approached Dwayne, Jim, and Natalie.

"Isabelle, do you have any idea where Scott is? We haven't seen him anywhere this week and were expecting to bring Laura to Jim's place. So you have any ideas?" Dwayne asked her.

Isabelle was nervous as she was shaking a bit and had difficulties raising her voice.

However, the child shook her hand. "Don't be scared big sister. You can do it."

Suddenly, something unbelievable happened.

"Scott is in danger." Isabelle spoke.

Dwayne, Jim, and Natalie were in shock as she finally spoke.

"Y-You can speak. You can speak!" Dwayne was excited.

"T-Thank you Dwayne. But do you guys mind if we talk outside the school? John might be listening." Isabelle walked with the child outside.

"Yeah." Dwayne followed as well as Jim and Natalie.

"Hey Isabelle, whos' this child?" Dwayne questions.

"Our child." Isabelle jokes.

Outside the school, Isabelle explained the situation last week from finding the child crying in an opened locker to shooting down a flying robot willing to kill Scott.

"After shooting the robot, I ran away as John almost noticed me. He expected all members of the archery club to be dead so I didn't want him to notice me."

"But do you have any idea where he is now?" Dwayne asked.

"I do. After Scott was beaten up by Laura and him, a teacher picked him up, brought him to his car and drove off."

"That must be Mr. Cheung. Scott mentions that he had a close relationship with him, so it must be him who saved him." Jim figured the context.

"We need to see him asap. He must know where Scott is." Natalie said.

"I'll go. I know when his office hours are. For now, let's all head to our classes and meet up after school." Jim said.

"Alright. Let's meet at my car and then we can go from there." 

"Right." All said, then heading to their classes.

Bryan on the other hand all saw Jim, Dwayne, Natalie, and Isabelle as he was still thinking about him and Scott's friendship. "Was it wrong for me to get mad at Scott?"

In the last period of school, Jim went into the teacher's lounge seeing Mr. Cheung graded some quizzes from last week.

"Mr. Cheung?" Jim spoke to Mr. Cheung.

"Well if it isn't Jim Wilson. Welcome to my office hours! Care to have some Korean snacks from my snack basket?"

"No. I was wondering if you know where Scott was? He hasn't been in class this week and I'm a bit worried for him."

"Oh him. Yeah, he told me that he was SICK, so he's probably at home right now. Is that all you're here in my office for?"

"Yeah. Thanks Mr. Cheung."

"Mr. Wilson, another thing." Mr. Cheung brought out a small stack of homework as well as a quiz.

"This is for Scott. Tell him he still needs to finish these up before the deadline on Friday."

"I will." Jim put Scott's homework and quiz in his bag.

After seeing Mr. Cheung, Jim waited until the bell rang for class to end. As school was over, Jim met everyone else outside at Natalie's car, where he would explain Scott's whereabouts.

"He's at home? I guess I was overthinking about the situation.

Natalie in relief.

"Let's head to Scott's house. I still remember where he lives. Natalie, do you mind taking us there?"

"It would be my pleasure Jim." Natalie getting her car ready.

Approaching Scott's household, Jim knocks on the door. The door was then opened by Mrs. Smith.

"Oh hello! You must be Scott's friends. And a lot of them too. I'm so happy he's making a lot of friends besides you Jim."

"Thanks Mrs. Smith. So is Scott home?"

"Of course he is. He's in the backyard training with his 'tutor.'"

"His '"tutor?'" They all questioned.

"Yep. The backyard fence is open so you guys can meet Scott there." Mr. Smith showing the gate at.

"Thanks. Mrs. Smith." Jim waved as the gang all walked towards the backyard.

Heading to the yard, Jim, Dwayne, Natalie, and Isabelle were all in relief as Scott was doing okay. Scott, shirtless, was doing pull ups on their tree even though his wrapped bandages were still on his knuckles.

"Ninety eight, Ninety nine, and one hundred." Scott finished his workout.

Seeing his friends, Scott came down from the tree branch as he was sweating from his intense workout approaching them.

"Hey guys." Scott panting heavily.