It was mid-morning when the school siren chimed for the first break of the day. Patrick was exhausted already as he walked out of the mathematics class. He could not understand why he felt this way because he had a good night's sleep, free from dreams and nightmares.
Patrick hardly realised he had walked past the famous group of troublemakers, Victor and his friends. He must have been deep in thought or maybe the fatigue formed a veil over his eyes. He felt something wet on his hand. When he looked down, he realised it was mucus. At first, he could not understand where it came from, but when he looked down the side of his pants, he knew exactly. There was a thick line of mucus running down the side of his school pants as well. He knew it was Victor and his friends' style to spit on people. The brown parts between the white were probably the tar from the cigarettes they smoked. Patrick felt anger breeding inside. His rational mind told him that he should turn back and hit Victor repeatedly as hard as he could until there was no brain left in that thick skull of his. Once he has finished him off he could move on to the next until he had killed each one of them. Of course, he was outnumbered and they would most definitely team up on him. He was not scared of Victor, but he was not stupid. They were like a pack of wolves, but not man enough to have a fair fight. Patrick heard them laughing in the background as he walked towards their usual spot underneath the trees. On the way there, he broke off a small tweak from a tree and scraped the mucus from his pants. He threw the stick away with disgust.
'What's wrong,' Emily asked when Patrick approached.
'Those stupid guys spat on me,' Patrick said with little enthusiasm. 'I would like to bash that fucking Victor's skull in one day.'
'Just try to ignore them, Pat,' Delmar said.
'Well it's quite hard to ignore them when they spit on you,' Patrick said.
'I don't know why they are after you?' Bernard said. 'I mean what have you done to make them want to come at you every time? Bunch of pricks man.'
'Yeah, well it will blow over soon,' Patrick said.
Emily knew Patrick was more upset than he cared to show. She wished there was something she could do, but for the time being, she could at least try to change the subject. That was when she remembered the dream she had the previous night. Before she realised, she was telling Patrick about her dream. When she was finished, they were all looking at her with blank expressions.
'Wow. Where did that come from?' Delmar said surprised. 'What a crazy dream. What did you smoke last night?'
Emile chuckled, 'didn't smoke anything. I know it's an unusual dream. Anyway, that's what I thought when I woke up,' Emily blushed. She realised how crazy it must have sounded.
'So that's why I'm so tired today,' Patrick mocked. 'It was you who kept me up without me even knowing about it.'
Their laughter was interrupted by the school siren. Soon the scholars started moving back to their classrooms again.
'These breaks are too short,' Patrick said. 'See you guys later.' He headed back towards the mathematics class.
The classroom door was already open when he approached. He reminded himself to take his schoolbag with him next time. That way he could just grab it after the school break and head directly for the next class. He approached his school bag when he noticed it had been unclipped. Most of his books had been thrown out and scattered over the classroom floor.
'Fucking bastards,' Patrick sighed. He shook his head and started picking them up. When he flipped his schoolbag around, his heart sank. A medium-sized pentagram had been prominently drawn with thick permanent black lines. Patrick knew who was responsible for the work of art. It was going to be a long day. He could not walk around school with a pentagram drawn on his bag. He had to cover it up somehow. Patrick knew the black permanent ink would never wash off even if he had to scrub it for hours.
On the bus home, most of the scholars were quiet. Emily sat next to Andrew looking at Patrick. He was sitting alone on a seat next to them, staring out the window. She felt sorry for him. She wondered what went through his mind. She grew more concerned with the situation involving Patrick and Victor's team than she cared to show. Patrick got tangled up with the wrong crowd. She was not sure if there was an easy way out of the unfortunate situation. Emily had seen what they have done to Patrick's schoolbag. At least Patrick tried his best to convert the pentagram to a pentagon by colouring it the open spaces between the lines. Emily wondered why those boys were after him. What has he done to deserve their wrath?
'Andrew?' Emily whispered.
Andrew slowly looked at Emily expecting her to say something she felt embarrassed about. Instead, he noticed the concern on her face, 'what's up?'
'I think we need to talk to dad.'
'What about?' Patrick frowned.
'Patrick and those guys at school.'
Patrick sighed, 'what do you think dad can do?'
'I don't know, maybe he can talk to Mr Lenard.'
'Yes, but I think dad has a lot on his mind lately with the new job and all. Maybe now is not such a good time. I think this whole thing will wear off soon. Those assholes will get tired of hitting on Pat.'
'What if they don't and things get out of hand?' She glanced in Patrick's direction to make sure he was not aware they were talking about him, but he was still staring out the window like a zombie.
'I don't know Em. Let's give it a few more days and see what happens okay?'
Emily reluctantly shook her head in agreement. Andrew could tell she was hoping for a better response.
Emily thought about her dream again and could not help to wonder what it had to do with Patrick. Maybe it was a warning of some sort, but why was she dreaming about the same place every time? Emily knew that was not something normal unless she had the ability to see into the future, but even then, her dream did not make a single bit of sense. She knew there must be something to be found in her dreams. Maybe Patrick was destined for greater things after all.