The next day, in class, Rich was teaching history class. Half the class was either asleep, spaced out, or passing notes. Ryu felt like he was on fire. He felt like he had all this energy was trapped inside him, and buring him from the inside to get out. He was sweating profusely. Brieanna was doodling on her notebook.
"In 1930, the Republicans controlled the house of representatives in an effort to elevate the effects of the... Anyone? Anyone? The Great Depression. Past the...? Anyone? Anyone? The Tariff Bill. The Smoot-hawley Tariff Act. Anyone? Raised or lowered? Raised tariffs. In order to collect more revenue for the federal goverment. Anyone know the effects? It did not work and the United States goverment sank deeper into the Great Depression. Today we have a similar debate over this: Anyone? Anyone know what this is? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before? The Laffer Act. Anyone know what this says? It says that at this point on the revenue curve you will get exactly the same amount of revenue as this point. This is very controversial. Does anyone know what Vice President Bush called this in 1980? Anyone? Something D-O-O economics? Voodoo economics." Rich explained. He seemed to drone on and on for hours.
Ryu's hands began to shake. He tried to stop them, by concentrating on the his notes, but they just wouldn't stop. He looked over at Breianna as if crying out for help, but she wasn't paying attention. He fingers begin to twitch spastically. He put his hands on the curb of his desk, trying to hold on for dear life.
KRAK! Ryu ripped his desk open with a huge spastic movement.
"Son...?" Rich asked, shocked to see the spectacle or the desk on the floor in pieces.
"Oh! Ha ha hah! Oh my God! You are the hugest spazoid!" Fred laughed.
"'And for my next trick, I shall actually trip while sitting down.'" Charles chided in.
"Hey! How about you shut that stupid face of yours or I'll shut it for you!" Ryu snapped.
For a moment, Fred and Charles were silent. They hadn't expected this out of Ryu at all. He was just some nerdy kid. Ryu was shocked himself, at the fact that he had the guts to say that.
"Ha ha ha ha!" Charles laughed.
"Did he just...? No. Ha ha ha ha ha hah!" Fred laughed.
"Okay. That's quite enough. Ryu, please. Just, just go cool off and see if you can't find another desk." Rich said, helping Ryu too his feet.
"Heehee, man, he is constantly entertaining." Fred chuckled.
"That's about enough, Thalamus." Rich snapped.
"Yo! He almost kicked your butt." Charles added jokingly.
"Guys!" Rich said.
"I know, I'm... I'm so very frightened..."
"That's it, Thalamus: that's a five dollar fine!" Rich said.
Fred stopped laughing and turned his head immeadietly.
"What? Why? What'd I do?" Fred asked innocently.
Ryu was in the bathroom, his head lowered, looking at the sink.
What the heck is wrong with me now? I mean, one minute I'm flying and the next minute I'm doing the spaz dance. But... but, now... now I feel great. Totally great. But all this from one cicada bite? There's gotta be more to it. There's gotta be, Ryu thought.
Ryu lifted his head and looked at himself in the mirror.
Gotta be someone I can talk to without being locked away in a freak farm... Grandma's head will just shoot right off her body, Ryu thought.
Ryu lifted his hand up examining it as if to find some clue as to what was wrong with him.
I should talk to someone. A doctor, maybe. Maybe I'm dying. But I can't be, I feel great and I...
Ryu pulled back his sleeve and lifted up his arm.
"Now where'd this come from?"
A basketball, bounced off the rim of the basket.
"Well, glad all that practice is paying off, Micheal. Next! Oh great! Son. Somebody call guiness... ...I give you credit, Son, you always show up no matter how futile the gesture. Let's go." the coach said.
Ryu had the ball in his hand. He stepped up to the three point line. There people everywhere. Either waiting in line, or talking and not really paying attention at all. Brieanna was leaning against a wall off in the corner. Fred had his hand leaning against the wall. He was talking to her. Fred pinned Brieanna up against the wall.
"Come on, so... Yeah, I know there's more goin' on in there, Brainy Brie. I been checking you out." Fred said, steadily getting closer to Brieanna.
"Son, please. While I still have a will to live..."
Ryu wasn't paying attention to the coach though. He was watching Fred.
"Have you? Well, do me a favor and..."
Ryu narrowed his eyes as Fred thrust into Breianna, and their lips met.
SMACK!
"Oh!" Brieanna screamed.
Ryu had thrown the basketball right at Fred's face, and it made it's mark. Ryu quickly walked over to Fred, who was slowly getting to his feet. The coach followed him.
"Whoa there, Son!" the coach said, trying to stop Ryu.
"What the... Ow!" Fred muttered.
Ryu stood over Fred, glaring at him intensely.
“You keep your hands off her, Thalamus. Just leave her alone,” Ryu threatened.
Fred got to his feet and was ready to pound Ryu.
“Are you out of your mind, Son? I will squash you like a…”
“Fred, get out of here. Hit the showers! You’re done,” the coach said putting a hand out to stop Fred. Ryu’s hands balled up into fists.
“He hit me!” Fred exclaimed.
“I’ll deal with it. Hit the showers, Thalamus,” the coach ordered, pulling his hand away.
Fred moved his face so that it was inches away from Ryu’s face.
“Three o’clock is only one hour away,” Fred said gritting through his teeth.
“Really? What’s five minus four?” Ryu asked.
“One hour,” Fred said through gritted teeth again. Fred threw his hands up into the air and walked away. “This sucks man! I didn’t to anything.”
“Well, Son, looks like you can throw when you want to…” the coach muttered.
But, Ryu wasn’t listening. Instead he turned to Brieanna and said: “Sorry, Brieanna, that… That wasn’t…”
“Ryu. Thanks…” Brieanna said, cutting Ryu off.
Ryu closed his eyes and smiled gleefully.
Fred swung a right hook at Ryu, but Ryu ducked and dodged it.
“Come on Flash, bring on the pain!” Charles shouted.
“What’s gotten into you, Son? Huh?” Fred asked.
“What did I say? I said I don’t want to fight,” Ryu said.
“Gotta get up in my business?” Fred asked swinging a left hook at Ryu.
But, Ryu took a step back dodging that one as well.
Fred and Ryu had been in the parking lot of the school fighting for five minutes now. Fred throwing all the punches, and Ryu dodging them. 11 people were watching it from the sidelines. Charles had heard what happened, and rounded up a group of people to watch. And (surprise, surprise!) Charles was cheering Fred on.
“Beat his butt!” Charles shouted.
Fred threw another right hook, but Ryu ducked, and ran past Fred. Fred turned around and jabbed into the air when Ryu sidestepped him. Ryu noticed that Fred was sweating profusely, and his face looked as red as a cherry. Ryu smiled.
“I’m serious, Fred, I don’t want to fight you…” Ryu said.
Fred drew his fast back, preparing for a mighty blow.
“Well, you should have thought about that before you…”
Unfortuanetly for Fred, he never got to finish his sentence. Fred shot his fist out. Ryu put out one hand and spread his fingers out. Fred’s fist hit hard against Ryu’s palm, and made a loud… CRRRRKK!
“NNGG… AAHH!” Fred screamed.
It was like hearing a wounded animal scream for help just before it died. Fred grabbed his wrist and dropped to his knees. He bent over so far his nose was almost touching the ground.
“Oh God! Oh no… Ggllg… My hand…” Fred muttered.
“I… I told him… I said… I didn’t want to fight,” Ryu stuttered.
Ryu began to cry, but wasn’t sure wether it was out of grief, or fear.
“AAAHH!” Fred screamed again.
“Yo! You shoulda seen it. Fred is all ready to break out the can on Son and what happens… Son breaks his hand.” Charles said.
“Wait, what?” Ategev asked.
Charles was at Ategev’s place in the kitchen. They were eating chips, and coca-cola. Charles of course, was gossiping about the fight between Ryu and Fred.
“Son breaks Fred’s hand,” Charles answered simply.
“Son breaks Fred’s hand?” Ategev asked skeptically.
“He just broke and said: What he say? ‘Next time, I’m gonna kill you!’” Charles explained.
“He said that?” Ategev asked.
“Yeah, said it was payback time and all that,” Charles answered.
“Wow. Broke his hand.” Ategev said, astonished.
“Yeah, it was all mangled like this. Dude went to the ER,” Charles said stiffening his hand and trying to form his fingers like hooks.
Someone was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, but neither Ategev or Charles saw him, because he was standing in the shadows. It was Ategev’s father.
“Guess he’s out of the league,” Ategev assumed.
“No doubt. Less he can learn to dribble with his nose,” Charles laughed.
“Wow, Ryu beat up, Fred,” Ategev said, trying to regain some of his composure.
“Laid the smack down!” Charles exclaimed.
“Huh,” was all Ategev had to say.
“That guy is like a scary alien freak, man,” Charles commented.
“Who?” Ategev asked not aware they were still on the same subject.
“Son, first, what? Like he doesn’t say two words all year. Nothin’. Just all in full geek mode, right? Then all of a sudden he’s all… He’s breakin’ his desk in half, then he’s all up in our face. Then he’s smackin’ Fred down,” Charles explained.
“You guys should lay off him anyhow. I always said it,” Ategev said.
“Yeah, you did,” Charles said.
“Ategev, come here.” Vegeta Jr. said finally speaking up.
Vegeta Jr. led Ategev into his private office, and closed the door behind him.
“Ategev, are you friends with that Son kid? The one who had the accident on the field trip?” Vegeta Jr. asked.
“With the cicada? Uh… Yeah. We do science together. Lab partners. But, dad, y’know his family are, they can’t afford to buy a new spider or…”
“No. I want you to bring the boy to the lab after school tomorrow. I feel bad for what happened and I thought I’d make it up to him… Give him a personal tour. Do you think he’d like that?” Vegeta Jr. asked, cutting his son off.
“Are you kidding me? Uh... Yeah. He’d love that. He’d… Yeah,” Ategev answered.
He couldn’t believe his father was proposing this. This was like the total opposite of what his father was like. He was almost stunned.
“Good, see you kids after school,” Vegeta Jr. said, smiling walking out of the office.
“Okay,” Ategev said.
“Well, yes. Yes. I am sorry you feel that way about it. Well, that’s too bad. Well, the way I heard it is that your boy has been picking on Ryu for some time and he was just defending him… No. I don’t. No. I… Great,” Gohan said slamming the phone onto the charger.
Ryu sat at the diningroom table, while Gohan was talking on the phone. Videl was there too, but she wasn’t really paying attention to Ryu. She was listening to the phone conversation between Gohan and whoever called.
“What now?” Ryu asked.
His hands covered his face, and he was looking down at the table. Whatever little face that was left to see, that his hands didn’t cover, was covered by his drooping hair.
“Twenty-five hundred dollar hospital bill and if we don’t…”
“What?!” Videl asked almost shouting, interrupting Gohan.
“And if we don’t pay for it they’re going to sue us,” Gohan finished.
“Are you kidding?!” Gohan asked rhetorically, lifting his head up.
“Sue?! Oh my God! What are we going to do?” Videl asked.
“What can we do? Let a lawyer bleed us dry on top of paying the bill or just pay the bill?” Gohan asked.
“But…”
“Videl, he broke the kids hand. What can I do?” Gohan asked.
“Ryu, this is not the way you were raised. This is not how human beings behave,” Videl said almost crying.
“What are you talking about? I was defending…”
“I just don’t understand, you broke his hand?” Videl asked, interrupting Ryu.
“What am I supposed to do? I am so sick of being picked on all the time! For once I defend myself and what do I get from you? I get a lecture,” Ryu said.
“Ryu, that’s not what we taught you to…”
“Yeah, I know what you taught me… …YOU TAUGHT ME TO BE A WIMPY LOSER LIKE YOU TWO!” Ryu screamed running towards the stairs.
Videl put her hand on her cheek, astonished that Ryu would say such a thing.
“Growing pains. That’s all it is, Videl,” Gohan said, thinking Videl would lose her temper.
“That was horrible,” Videl said.
Gohan gave Videl a great big hug.
“He’s a kid and he had a traumatic day, and he came home to us lashing out at him when we’re really mad at those Thalamus’s, who, by the way, I would like to light on fire,” Gohan explained.
“What are we going to do? Do we have the money?” Videl asked, pulling away from Gohan.
“Do we have it? Videl, we don’t… No. No, we don’t,” Gohan answered sadly.
“Put it on a card?” Videl asked.
“We have to. But that’s it. I mean, we are… We are maxed out,” Gohan said.
“I should go up there,” Videl said.
“Let the kid be,” Gohan said, coldly.
“He didn’t mean it. The boy adores you,” Videl said.
“Oh, honey, I know,” Gohan said.
Meanwhile, Ryu sat on the stairs just out of sight, with his hands on his head listening to every word they said.
Later that night, Ryu woke up from a nightmare.
“AAHH!” Ryu screamed.
Foruanetly, Gohan and Videl, didn’t hear him. It was 3:04 AM. He sat up in bed for a moment, thinking. Then he got an idea.
Ryu leaped off the roof and onto the front lawn. He was wearing long, black pajamas, with a black shirt on. He ran down the street dodging the street lights. He ran three blocks until he reached an abandoned warehouse. There was a sign on the fence that said: KEEP OUT.
Ryu climbed over the fence and entered the warehouse. There was all sorts of junk inside. Ryu slowly rose into the air, and then shot up into the air like a bullet. He stopped just short of the roof so he didn’t bump his head. He looked down, he must have been twenty feet high. He dove towards the ground, and suddenly slowed, making a gentle, and elegant landing. Ryu noticed something behind him, as he was coming down. He turned around.
He saw a beat up, red, Palamino, and walked over to it. At first he hesitated, but then without a single diffuculty, he picked the car up with his bare hands. Then he chucked it, at a dumpster. CRASH! Trash flew everywhere.
“I AM… HERCULES! I LOVE THESE FREAKIN’ POWERS!” Ryu shouted, tossing his arms up into the air.
Suddenly, Ryu felt a sharp stabbing pain in his wrist.
“Damn it! What is this?” Ryu said looking at his wrist.
Thanx for reading
Sephistrife15
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