"The end of the world is coming. It's the apocalypse. Prepare yourselves!," a short chubby young man was shouting out repeatedly while walking down the halls of Misty Hills High School.
Most of the students glanced his way but acted like he wasn't even present. Despite the predictions of doom, the other students did not take any of the rants seriously. However, those students could not really avoid Cornelius Carmelo for obvious reasons. He was a seventeen-year-old young man with quite a large figure. And he always tended to be pretty loud and obnoxious.
"Fatty! Shut up! You're scaring people," a buff blond haired student in a football letterman jacket said as he moved forward to try to contain his panicked friend. He pulled a few candies out of his jacket pocket and tried to pass them to his buddy.
Fatty was Cornelius' nickname. He couldn't remember when he earned the moniker but he didn't consider it insulting at all. To Cornelius, the nickname sounded really pleasant to his ears. He actually preferred to be called Fatty over his real name.
The tall, handsome fellow trying to sedate the hefty teenager with candy was Nick, Fatty's best friend. The unlikely pair had been best friends since Fatty first moved to the small City of Misty Hills around 11 years ago. The two guys lived next door to each other ever since Fatty moved in with his Uncle Timothy. Since they started school, Nick looked out for Fatty and Fatty helped Nick with his school studies. It was a fair trade friendship and the two generally got along really well.
As Nick looked at Fatty's current appearance, he let out a chuckle. Besides the crazy rants and disheveled appearance, his plump friend looked like an absolute lunatic. Fatty had unkempt hair, he was slovenly dressed and he even had some spaghetti sauce on his shirt from the school lunch. Fatty was the definition of a human mess. If Fatty's looks and crazy antics didn't deter people away, his general attitude of mistrust and aggressiveness certainly didn't help to build healthy relationships with the other students.
"It's not funny, Nick. You all need to head my warnings. I know everyone thinks it is just going to be a normal solar eclipse today, but I can tell something is wrong. The seismic stations around the world have been sending wavelike tremors, there have been numerous reports of electrical malfunctions, animals are acting odd all over the world....it is all building up to something. Those signs coupled with the eclipse today....it is going to be the end of us all," Fatty said in an almost breathless rant to his friend as he chewed on a piece of candy. Fatty seemed to have a legitimate concern for his friend's safety.
"Quit being overly dramatic," Nick quipped while still trying to calm his friend down, "I read the news on my phone this morning. They said everything was going to be okay when the solar eclipse rolls through here this afternoon. Nothing bad is expected to happen. Your crazy imagination is just getting carried away...You read way to many of those online fantasy novels."
Nick had muttered that last bit under his breath. He friend didn't just latch onto general conspiracies....he also chose to propagate some really out there topics.....like aliens.....or zombies.....or human cattle farms.
"No, I'm telling you that something is different this time. I know that I have freaked out before....but this time something is going to happen," Fatty said desperately trying to convince his friend as he entered the classroom.
Nick just looked at his buddy and sighed. How could anyone believe any story that came out of Fatty's mouth?
Fatty was the novice oracle of Misty Hills High School or at least that's what he seemed to think of himself. Nick's pudgy pal made all sort of predictions of disasters that never actually happened. The more appropriate characterization of Fatty was 'chicken little' or 'the boy who called wolf.' Practically the entire Town of Misty Hills had heard about his antics at one time or another. His repeated predictions of catastrophic events led to him being disregarded as a troublesome trickster in the eyes of most people. There were too many stories working against him.
He had once run for student council president based solely on a platform that the school was part of an alien simulation and he could help everyone escape to freedom by selling them some odd looking hats lined with aluminum foil. Although he managed to miss getting in trouble for his aggressive business tactics, his overt call for a student rebellion against the teachers had promptly landed him in a few weeks of after-school detention. It also caused the school to ban him from running for any class political position.
In elementary school, Fatty also tried to convince other students that the cafeteria was putting illegal mind control medicines into the school lunch to make them more compliant students. The rumor had actually made its way back home to some parents. The parents panicked and a full investigation was launched into the school cafeteria. There were even news reporters and everything.
With crazy events like that happening frequently because of his paranoias, Fatty was quite famous around the small city of Misty Hills. He was actually really well known by the population and thought to be an aggravating miscreant by both teachers and students alike. Most of the people just ignored him these days, but a few still seemed to get bent out of shape at his rants and disturbances.
"Cornelius, what are you screaming about today?" a bald-headed older man looked at the overweight teenager as he entered the classroom.
"Mr. Bald...win, don't call me Cornelius. My name is Fatty....get it straight.....and all the signs point to....this day has a high likelihood of an apocalyptic event. I am only trying to help you all by giving a warning," Fatty said trying to sound a studious manner. He also managed to take a cheap shot at his English teacher, Mr. Baldwin, by emphasizing the 'bald' part in his name. Fatty didn't like when people questioned his judgment on these sort of dire situations.
His little joke about the teacher's appearance didn't go unnoticed by the more quick-witted students and a few muffled laughs sounded out in the quiet classroom. Mr. Baldwin's face turn red and he glared at Fatty.
"Now, now...Little Corny! You need to watch yourself before you get sent over to the principal again. I think they even called the police on you last time and your uncle wasn't very happy with the whole incident," Mr. Baldwin said with a bit of anger in his voice.
"Humph," Fatty grunted as he sat back in his custom oversized desk. He didn't like when they brought his uncle into the mix. He still was on weekend house restrictions over the last event. He hadn't been able to catch up on any of his favorite novels or play his favorite games in over a month.
About a month ago, Fatty was distraught over the possibility of a militant attack on the school. He had read an article online that listed criteria for militant attacks...and he thought his small city fit all the criteria perfectly. After he ran around instructing everyone about how to survive an attack, the school actually had to take action because several threatening rumors started to spread throughout the campus. The school principal had notified the police because she couldn't disregard a potential threat. Fatty's Uncle Timothy, who just so happened to be the town's Police Chief, showed up with the entire the police force in response to the call. To sum up the outcome, the whole incident didn't end well for Fatty.
So when his teacher mentioned the threat of his uncle, Fatty just sat back in his desk, stewed in his anger of being disregarded, and loudly crushed the remainder of the candies in his mouth.
After the brief student-teacher conflict settled down, the class continued as usual. Not listening to a thing that the teacher was saying, Fatty just kept running through possible apocalyptic scenarios in his head. He imagined every potential type of apocalypse he could think of...he really wanted to be prepared on how to react.
The odd thing about Fatty was that he wasn't particularly worried about his own death. Fatty just had anxiety about everything....and he felt it was his god given duty to let everyone know about the possible threats....for their own safety.
———————
As the class was nearing the end, a special announcement sounded over the school's intercom system.
"All students are to report to their final class of the day for roll call. Each class will proceed to the football field to begin watching the solar eclipse. Everyone must bring their eclipse viewing glasses. If you do not bring your special glasses, then you will be sent back inside to wait in the gym," the principal's soft womanly voice echoed down the hallways.
The announcement ended and Fatty left the classroom with Nick. His anxiety levels were through the roof now that the eclipse was almost upon them.
"Hey Fatty," Nick said in a serious tone, "Mr. Baldwin seemed pretty mad that you made fun of him in front of the other students. You better watch out. Didn't you Uncle say that he couldn't have you ruining his job and that if you got the police called again....he would send you off somewhere far away to finish out high school?"
Ignoring the question, Fatty asked, "Hey man.....you got any more of those candies?"
"Ya...here are a few more. You going to calm down now?," Nick asked Fatty as he handed him a heaping handful of crunchy sugar candies.
"I'll calm down, but you still need to prepare yourself. I have a feeling something really bad is going to happen today and I don't want to see my best buddy get hurt....I just hope it isn't a zombie apocalypse.....those really scare me," Fatty said while patting his friend on the back.
"Caramel Corn, quit rambling off all your nonsense. No wonder your parents abandoned you in the woods," interrupted a bittersweet sounding voice from in front of Fatty and Nick. A pretty blond girl with bright blue eyes sassily walked down the hallway towards the pair. Her shoes clicked on the hard floor as she walked over to stand in front of Fatty.
Before he even saw the girl, Fatty instantly knew who it was walking up behind him. Janine was the only one who would use that horrible nickname and insult his missing parents. The little bitch thought she was special because she was the Mayor of Misty Hill's daughter.......and she was Fatty's archenemy growing up.
Cornelius was a mouthful of letters, so Fatty had always had different nicknames since he was a little kid. He never really cared for his original name...he had always gone by Fatty.... but everyone seemed to like to use his real name or some variation of it as a nickname.... 'Corny'... 'Mello'.... 'Mel'... then infamous name that Janine invented...'Caramel Corn.' He always got the urge to choke someone when they called him by that name.
"Janine, who asked you for your opinion? You can go fuck yourself....if fact...why don't you just stop breathing," Fatty said as his eyes twinkled with the hint of violence. He really didn't like the prissy little
"Alright, Fatty," Nick said getting between Fatty and Janine, "I want to hit this bitch just as much as you....but remember...you aren't supposed to get in trouble anymore. We need to head out to the football field.... let's go get a good spot to watch the sky.
Nick grabbed Fatty by the sleeve of his shirt and pulled him to the side of Janine. Fatty could only sneer at the girl as he went past her. He knew that he couldn't deal with his Uncle if he finally unleashed on the pink shoed entitled bitch.
_____________________________
Nick and Fatty were standing on the school's football field that sat to the side of the school campus. Actually, the entire school was standing out in the middle of the football field looking up at the sky waiting for something to happen. Teachers were scattered about the field supervising the group of around 300 teenagers.
To both Fatty and Nick's disappointment, Mr. Baldwin was standing right behind them. Apparently, he had been placed on "Fatty Duty" to make sure the young man didn't cause any trouble at the school assembly.
"I sure hope the apocalypse doesn't cause everything to explode instantly...that would suck," Fatty said to Nick.
"Ya.....that would suck. But I am sure we are going to be alright," Nick said still trying to calm Fatty down. In fact, he was trying to calm himself down a bit too. Fatty had a way of inciting panic in people sometimes and his firm thought that something bad was about to happen.....had Nick on edge even though he didn't really expect something to happen.
"Be quiet and don't cause any trouble," Mr. Baldwin's voice sounded from behind the two.
A megaphone sounded across the gathering of students and faculty as the principal began her announcement, "Alright everyone. Please put on your specially tinted glasses. You don't want to have eye problems for the rest of your lives because you didn't put on the glasses. The eclipse will start in two minutes. Please quiet down."
After a few seconds, everyone on the field had put their viewing glasses on and had their eyes pointed towards the sun.
The eclipse started right on time. The blackness that was slowly creeping over the sun cast all sorts of weird looking shadows across the ground.
Most students seemed to think the astronomical event was interesting and couldn't help but say things like "Cool" or "Neet."
Then unexpectedly...the sky started to develop a pinkish-purple sheen that looked otherworldly....and hundreds of meteors could be seen falling from the sky.
The field full of students and teachers became absolutely quiet at the sight of the falling meteors. This was completely unexpected. It looked like a rain of purple fire plummeting towards the Earth.
Before anyone had a chance to react to what was going on, a guttural laugh sounded across the entire high school football stadium. The sound echoed off the fields stadium seating back into the crowd over and over again. The laugh was eerie and sent shivers down the spines of all in attendance. Almost as if rehearsed, the entire school turned to look towards Fatty as he finished his laugh.
"See fuckers...I told you the apocalypse was going to happen today," Fatty said with a look of satisfaction on his face. He was proud of himself....he finally right for once.