Somehow, without even saying anything, Patty was catching stray insults left and right. He would have been furious at this, but he was too lazy to be angry. He just wanted to sleep.
"Listen, let me give you a piece of advice," the Professor said to Grammo. "Even the most talented musicians are not guaranteed to even get a thousand people listening to his music."
Grammo stood up, indignant at the fact that not even the Professor believed in his ability to achieve his dreams.
"What makes you think that you can make the whole world listen to you when your own classmates don't even want to listen to you?" the Professor said harshly.
Oooooohhh
They didn't know the Professor could spit bars like that. It was a diss that they never expected to come out of a professor's mouth. Even Griff was impressed at the professor's ability to bully a student.
But despite the jeers and sneers that came his way, Grammo, with his red curly hair and freckles on his nose and cheeks, stood completely straight and with an eye that never wavered.
Even when the whole classroom was against him, he still believed that he would achieve his dream. Even if the world itself and his body was telling him that he sucked, he still believed that someday, it would all work out.
"I admire your courage." An unrelenting resilience and arrogance in achieving your dream was a characteristic that the Professor admired in any person. That kind of thinking would go a long way in the journey of dreams. It was unfortunate that Grammo was the one to have it.
"Your dream is to sing to the whole worldâ€""
"Yes. I will sing to the world until it spills over to other universes."
"â€"BUT, how are you going to sing if you are tone deaf?"
Grammo's response was silence. That was his one weakness and insecurity. It was absolutely detrimental for an aspiring singer to be unable to hear the tone and pitch of his own voice. It was a death sentence to their career.
He gathered all the strength in his hands and faced the Professor and his classmates.
"Even still. I will succeed. I will make every single one of you listen and love my tone deaf voice. That is my ultimate dream!"
The Professor sighed. Accomplishing a normal dream was hard enough, but why do they make it harder for themselves? An impossible dream is called impossible for a reason.
"Grammo, at least you have talent in writing. Don't be like Patrick. Do not waste your life. He wants to have everything without doing anything. That is literally impossible. He is helpless but can be saved; change your dream to something easy."
But, it seemed even Grammo was stubborn. "No, I will take a stand at my dream."
Griff finally couldn't take more of this clown and forced him to take a seat. With his feeble body, Grammo fell to his seat with just one push.
"You," Griff pointed to Grammo. "And you," now, he pointed directly at the half-asleep Patty whose head was propped up by his hands.
"Both of you are worse than dirt. You are wasting the oxygen in this world that could have been used by much better prospects like me. Be honest, only people like me have a chance to be at the top. You'll probably fail school. The best outcome for any of you two is to serve at the bottom of the feet of those superior to you."
Griff's angry and harsh words were mostly meant for one personâ€"the one who was drifting in and out of consciousness, not even listening to the slander he was receiving. It just made Griff even angrier.
He couldn't wait until he had the chance to teach Patty something about Physical Education, something he clearly knew nothing about with his lazy body lacking the muscles and definition that Griff had.
"It would be better for all of us if you'd just disappeared. No one wants your impossible dreams. Professor, can't you expel them already?"
The Professor was silent. As the proper authority in the classroom, he should have been the one to stop Griff, especially since he was disturbing the peace of the classroom, but he didn't. He kept quietâ€"a silent but clear agreement with Griff's opinions.
But of course, he couldn't show his true feelings to the whole class.
"That's enough, Griffin."
Seeing the tension in the classroom, Professor Mortimer Wraithborne decided it would be best to end classes a little earlier today. He dismissed the students and quickly left the classroom just like that.
He didn't force Griff and the other two to kiss and make up. A proper teacher should have done that. It would have eased the tension between them and lower the chances of the fight turning physical.
But the Professor did nothing, knowing that Griff's anger might turn into a physical fight. Was that on purpose? No one knew.
Grammo sat back down in his seat and took a deep breath. He steadied himself. If he faltered now when his journey hadn't even started yet would mean that the professor's words would be trueâ€"that he wouldn't achieve much.
"Don't worry, we'll achieve our dreams. I don't think we've introduced ourselves yet. Hi, I'm Grammo."
Patty slowly raised his head and gave Grammo the smallest nod of agreement he had ever seen.
"I really think I can achieve my dream. I think you can too. Your dream was to become lazy, right?"
Surprised that Grammo knew the essence of his dream, Patty finally answered him properly. "Yeah, I just want to be lazy."
"Hehe, the Professor probably hated you for that,"
"Understatement of the century."
Being forced into the bottom of the social ladder, the two outcasts seemed to have found comfort with each other. They both had impossible dreams, and they both believed that they could achieve it. And most importantly…
"Hey, do you like Space Invaders?" asked Patty.
"I will scour the universe for treasure! Do I like it? Not really, I only watched all the episodes like ten times!"
And that was enough for the two of them to become friends.
However, not everyone was a fan of the two most unwanted people in the classroom to become friends. For Griff, it was like watching a single rat suddenly double in size and become two bodies. It was just disgusting.
"Well, well. Look at what we have hereâ€"the two peasants huddling together like friends. I wondered why the scent suddenly became more pungent."
Griff and his three lackeys approached the two with a swagger in their steps. Inside the confines of the classroom, they reigned king. No one would bat an eye if blood spilled on the ground.
"We're not friends," said Patty.
"Yeah. I don't have time for friends. I only have my guitar as my friend," agreed Grammo.
"I don't care if you're friends or brothers. I just don't want to see the two of you." Griff slammed down his fist on their desks with full force.
Grammo flinched. He thought Griff would hit him. Patty, on the other hand, didn't react. He probably didn't even register the threat because he was too slow to see it, thought Griff.
Bzzzt
Patty heard the buzzing again. This time, the buzzing was a little bit louder but it only lasted for a small period of time.
"My only friend is The Space Invader," Grammo said meekly. "If he was here right now, he would save me before the Naval Captain catches him."
"What? The Naval Captain survived their fight? Damn! Why did I have to sleep?!"
"Yeah, he did. I have it recorded on my tv, do you want to watch it some time?"
"Oh, that would be great. I can't wait to see their confrontation."
"It's super good. I got hyped just watching the intro."
Seeing that Griff was silent, Patty changed the subject. "Ahem, anyway Griff. We are not friends."
Grammo nodded his head in agreement.
Griff and his lackeys didn't know how to react to the two idiots. He wanted to ignore them and beat them up at the same time.
But seeing the lazy and sleepy eyes of Patty made him remember all the embarrassing and shameful moments that Patty made him suffer.
Patty dodged his leg and didn't fall for his trap. Then, he had the audacity to say that he almost kicked Griff's leg.
'If you kicked my leg, your whole shin and joins would be shattered into smithereens,' he wanted to say to Patty. But he didn't have the chance to do so.
Then he couldn't hit Patty with the eraser properly. It made him feel that he was incompetent in throwing, and he couldn't let that be. Griff was an incredibly perfect human specimen that had no flaws.
Now, standing just a few feet away from Patty, he had the chance to get back at him from all those times. This time, he wouldn't have the chance to dodge him. This time, he wouldn't be lucky enough to miss what's coming at him.
This time, he'll finally teach that son of a bitch a lesson.
Without giving him any time to react, Griff raised his handâ€"with his finger fully unfurled. He was going for a crisp slap in the face.
What would be the most humiliating thing he could do to Patty? He couldn't just simply break his bones to the point of him being a crippleâ€"if he wanted to he could, but he shouldn't because there were still a lot of onlookers witnessing the whole event.
The full body beat down would happen later in a place where no one was looking and where he could do the most damage without anyone knowing he was the culprit. How about Patty? Well, Griff would make sure he wouldn't be able to snitch.
Now, for an appetizer, he would be satisfied with a slap that would leave a large red mark of his hand. It was humiliating and painful enough without it being too serious that the school officials would be forced to intervene.
With full force of his well-trained body, Griff raised his hand and pulled it back to gather the most momentum. This would be the hardest slap he had ever given someone.
But just as he was about to unleash this devastating slap that would destroy the dignity of anyone it hit, Griff suddenly stopped.
His whole body suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. His hands were shaking like it was freezing cold outside. But that wasn't even the worst part. He felt his legs tremble so much that he was forced to do something that destroyed his own dignity. He took a step back.
He didn't know why he was feeling this way.
When he looked at Patty, for just a brief second, he saw a tiny little insect as small as a flyâ€"so small that it almost didn't register in his eyes. It was hovering just beside Patty's face, never wavering, never fluttering, just observing.
When he saw this 'fly', he was forced to take another step back.
And when he did, he blinked and the fly suddenly disappeared. He couldn't see it anymore.