“Class Vice President how good of you to come around to my neck of the woods,” I tell him smiling in a way that should creep people out,”What brings you to the gym during girls' practice?”
“Business, mostly. I need to bring you to a meeting after school, you and one representative from your group to meet with Kyle and one representative from his group,” Kiante tells me in a more official tone than I expected.
“Really? Why would I want to do that?” I ask politely.
“Because I’m asking you to. Despite the change of mood there are still people walking around scared only now it’s reversed from them scaring students to you scaring them,” Kiante informs me.
“Really, I’m scaring them? *We’re* scaring them?” I ask starting to laugh,” How are we scaring them? What could we have done to evoke such a strong response?”
“Listen, man, I’m not here to accuse anyone of anything,” Kiante says dropping his official tone and talking to me plainly,” I’m here because Kyle came before Yano at lunch and asked for her and I to sit in while you discuss some sort of a quick resolution to the fighting that’s been going on.”
“What is there to discuss? It’s not like we’ve done anything but stand up and not back down,” Jun says slowly standing up.
“What my associate means is there’s something going on and either you don’t know or you won’t say,” I tell Kiante leading him towards the door,” I will only meet in the cafeteria and I will only do so in public.”
I get a nod and head back to my friends at the bleachers and sit down before realizing that everyone is staring at me.
“I’m meeting him in the cafeteria. Think we can get everyone there in under an hour?” I ask my friends.
The phones come flying out and I even see Masha on her’s texting someone with the update on the day. I get through some homework while getting a pair of arms around my neck from Kori, who's in lovey mode since yesterday. It’s not a long wait till the bell rings and we head out to the cafeteria to see that it’s packed with students. I get my new treatment of people parting for me and my crew, but, see only Yano sitting at the table confused. I smile and sit down as my family takes other tables flanking me.
“Is all this really necessary?” Yano asks confused.
“Necessary, no. It’s fun, watch this,” I tell her before leaning back and raising my voice,” Can I get a round of applause for our class president for inviting you all out here?"
The cafeteria becomes deafening and after a minute I raise my hand and all goes quiet suddenly. Yano looks around and finally I have to laugh at the scene which gets everyone else to laugh. I’m waiting patiently for a minute when I see the crowd start to face away from me and towards Kyle and a bruised Hao. His nose has been reset and I can see his eyes got blackened by some great force; I casually turn to Devin and motion for him to get the crowd to part.
“Everybody clear a path and let them through. Guy has business with Kyle,” Devin bellows loud enough to make Yano jump a little in her seat.
I watch Kiante bringing up the rear as Kyle and Hao get to the table I’m sitting at. Kyle takes a seat across from me, but, Hao is looking around for his place with no luck until I wave Natsuko to have someone get him one. After sitting down and looking really nervous about having Natsuko so close to him Hao moves a little closer to Kyle. Kiante is seated to my left, and Yano at my right. Kyle's across from me and Hao's behind him looking worried; my crew's at my back and my believers surrounding us all. I feel so good, I pull my hood off and smile as Yano starts to speak.
“I was asked today to have two leaders of two decidedly different groups in this school meet so that a quick resolution to this tension could be resolved. Since Guy has decided to meet in a more public forum, I will ask that the students not at this table please remain as quiet as possible while this meeting takes place.” Yano starts looking between Kyle and myself.
“Well, I can ask them for quiet, but, sometimes they have a mind of their own,” I reply smiling and looking at the crowd while making a ‘shhh’ with a finger on my lips.
The whole time I’m smiling and making nice Kyle is sitting across from me with a serious look on his face. Not menacing but dire and desperate. I fold my hands in my lap and wait for someone to begin.
“A lot of violence and pain has been done to people on both sides from both sides…,” Kyle starts before I interrupt.
“Allegedly done by both sides,” I say smiling,” I don’t remember there being anyone caught when people were attacked over a week ago.”
“Fine, allegedly done by both sides. Now I’m here just to settle some differences and make some changes in how things work in my organization. Heather has been given a leave of absence until she is ready to take a more restricted role.” Kyle says barely choking out the words with his temper,”However, I’m here to see all this violence stop and to propose something very simple to end it all.”
“Ohhhhh, what’s that gonna be,” I ask with mock anticipation.
“We fight. Not our groups, not our friends, just you and me,” Kyle says taking a serious but aggressive tone,” You need someone to teach you some boundaries after bringing people in that had no business being involved in what happens at this school.”
"Do not try to tell me that I’m the first one to pull that. Look Kori in the eye and tell her that I’m the first one who went outside of our groups and decided to recruit some help. I did just what you did, Kyle...” I pause to bite back my growing rage before smirking,” ...but, I did it better.”
“Both of you need to calm down.” Kiante says intervening. ”So, we have a proposal for a fight, but, what are the terms?”
“Easy. I win, and he lets my people walk the school unhindered, we don’t bully, but, he leaves them all alone,” Kyle says plainly but with controlled anger,” You win, and the whole thing is disbanded. We all walk away and we don’t get bothered about it anymore as a result, since it doesn’t exist. You can say you officially destroyed the group.”
“Terms are set. Guy, do you have an answer?” Yano asks keeping a good level of decorum.
“'I win, you disband? You win, we let you do what you’ve been doing?' I’m not sure how I feel about this.” I turn to the crowd. ”Should I fight him?”
The assembled students start cheering "Yes!" loudly, and I can see even my crew smiling, but, I turn my attention to my three girls; they know where I’m going with it when I raise my hand to get the crowd to stop. I stand up from the table and stare Kyle straight in his eyes.
“No,” I hear a level of discord and unrest in my believers and I let them speak their piece before silencing them with a quick wave of my hand. ”I say 'no' because you have nothing I want. Your people won’t bully anyone ever again, period. We beat you. I beat you. I have nothing to prove and nothing to gain by it.”
I sit back down and see some of the crowd is working over what I said. However, I am watching Kyle’s reaction to my refusal. I’m watching the gears turn in his head when I sit back down and Kori squeezes my shoulder, lightly getting my attention. I turn and see her face; a light smile and wink tells me it’s time to make a move.
“But, there is something I want *and* there is something you want, isn’t there?” I tell him leaning back and looking at my hands,” and I’ll be the first one to say, she is a real beauty.”
“What…No. You will not even think about going near her,” Kyle says coming to his senses about my direction for the conversation.
“Here’s the thing, I think she likes me, and I have room for another tigress in my life and on my body...” I tell him rubbing my tattoo through my shirt, ”...but, I think I know a little bit about her and she’d like to see two guys fighting over her, so, here’s the bet. No clubs. No school. No bullshit. No holds barred. One on one. You and me. Winner gets Rachael. Oh, and for an added bonus you have to either admit defeat OR your girl has to throw in the towel when she thinks it’s been enough for you. Now, I like this game, what do you think?”
“Fuck you. I’m not putting her on the table just to fight you,” Kyle says standing up and pissed off.
