Walking down the halls and keeping his head down Kosi felt two figures loom over him.
"Cough cough" "cough cough" two large boys emitted as they got uncomfortably close to Kosi's face. "Cough, ah Rue help me" the larger of the two continued as they both snickered.
"Yeah funny" Kosi said monotony. "See Jay told u he could take a joke" the larger boy continued. "Oh no your jokes are terrible, it's just funny that you can't get this close to Rue without her wanting to throw up" Kosi retorted avoiding eye contact and speeding up.
"Pfft" Jay let out a laugh before stopping himself at noticing his friend stare daggers through him. "My bad Dell" he muttered under his friend to his clearly annoyed friend.
Thud!!! Dell aggressively palms the wall in front of Kosi stopping him in his tracks. The arm being wider than Kosi's leg meant he was understandably now absolutely terrified.
"Oh..." Kosi mutters calmly despite being internally terrified and trying to control his now rapid heart beat. "C..come on man last week of school" he continued now facing up to Dell's snarled up face. Beady eyes disproportionate to his large face and shaven head filled Kosi with dread as ro what he'd gotten himself into."So what" the now fuming bully said.
Bereft of options Kosi decided to bluff "I..alright, day five after class we're both done here I'll kick your head in then" he said now looking Dell in the eyes to distract from his now shaking legs.
"Pfft you can't really be.." "Shut up Jay!" Dell barked interrupting his now confused friend.
Wrapped up in their squabble the teens had not until now noticed the crowd forming around caused by their commotion. Upon realizing this Kosi decided to double down.
"Your not really gonna tell me you need your buddy here as backup to beat me up right!" he said projecting his voice to the entire crowd.
"I mean come on I'm by myself, I'm the kid who needs a mask to breathe cause I can't take the dust down here" he continued pulling his mask down to project his voice further.
"And yet big bad Wardell White needs backup to fight me" he said now confident knowing he'd backed Dell into having to let him walk away.
Eyeing up the now unsure pair he capitalized "So... what's it gonna be Dellie, you gonna show everyone you need a 2 on 1 advantage over someone half your size or u gonna fight me after class last day of school. One on one man to man." He finished off looking to everyone and then locking eyes with Dell.
Looking at each other the two bullies were now caught between a rock and a hard place. Mutterings from the crowd were split between calls for them to damn a fair fight and destroy Kosi right then and there and some saying that beating him up now would be a sign of weakness.
"Hmph" Dell huffed as he turned and walked off now embarrassed and confused with Jay scurrying behind him.
Confused and disappointed murmurs filled the fast dispersing crowd as Kosi was left patting himself on the back for a bluff well done. "What was that about K" a stunning boy said walking up to Kosi.
"Oh just the usual...wait you just getting here now?" Kosi said as he turned to face his still tired friend Jude.
"Yeuhhh...what gave it awayy" Jude said yawning before moving his dirty blonde hair out of his face tying it into a ponytail.
"How do you manage to always get here so slowly your moms a teacher" Kosi said eyeing his friends unkempt clothes.
"Shh it's a skill" Jude replied adjusting his clothes. "Alright come on" he continued turning in place.
"Stop" Kosi said grabbing Judes shoulders and pulling a bit of his shirt he'd left tucked into his pants. "By the way your shoes untied" he added
"Good looking out can't get another dress code violation" Jude said bending down to tie his shoe.
"Heyy Jude" girls passing by said enthusiastically. "Hey babes" he replied springing up.
His deep brown eyes glinting he gave Kosi a mischievous smile before saying "catch you later man lunch is on me today" he finished with a wink before leaving with the two swooning girls wrapped in his arms.
Kosi put his mask back on before simply walking into class. Seeing Dell and Jay he remembered his earlier challenge. A sense of dread needing to devise a plan on how to get out of this next fight as he has the previous.
In his clearly panicked state he had mindlessly walked to his seat where he was disrupted by the sound of his teacher.
"Now now settle down there's an announcement straight from mayor's office." The bespectacled man stated.
Disinterested Kosi decided to try looking at Rue to get her attention. He was surprised to see her visibly tensed at the note that it was from the mayor.
"What's..." he muttered under his breathe. "No interrupting Mr Blue" the teacher said sternly causing Rue to look over to Kosi lips twitching unable to speak. "Sorry" she mouthed silently.
"Now as I was saying this may be a sensitive subject to some but the mayor's office has recently decided to relaunch the "Exploration Project."
Silence fell at the mention of the tragedy that had left the whole city terrified of traveling to the surface.
Eyes fell on Kosi as he sat with a pit in his stomach at the mention of the name. Mouth drying up he asked to be excused.
Moments later Jude asked to go see if he was ok, knowing the significance of the event he steadied himself for the worst once he found Kosi.
To his surprise Kosi was right outside the classroom sitting on the floor, mask off and smiling.
"Hey...you ok man?" Jude said unsure what to make of his friends state.
"Yeah...well great actually" Kosi replied grinning. "Wait really?" Jude said surprised by his almost jubilant demeanor.
"Of course I am... I finally get to do what my parents died for" Kosi said with tears beginning to stream down his face.
Still confused Jude simply leaned in closer and put an arm around his weeping friend.