I approached the school building and gave it a quick glance over before a disgusted sigh escaped my mouth. I continued on through the large, wooden double-doors. The floor was a polished white marble engraved with intricate works from Ancient Greece, including Andokides, Sokles, and Nikolaos Pavlopoulos, my personal favorite. The works were great choices, they weren't what I was disgusted by. What truly did disgust me was proudly boasting these works and having a school filled entirely with idiots. This school's average GPA was a 2.3, which for any non-Americans reading this, just know that is a TERRIBLE score. I looked around and quickly found the principal's office. I walked in and was greeted by a young lady who looked no more than 26. She was pretty, had blond hair, very defined facial features, a white blouse, and blue jeans from what I could see. I approached her and introduced myself.
"Hey, my name is Fredrick Stevenson." I gave a polite smile and stretched out my hand.
"Ahh, hello, Mr. Stevenson. Welcome, we'll start you off in room A-142." She returned my smile and shook my outstretched hand, a very weak handshake, I noticed. From what I was able to read on her pulse, it was a bit high. Nervousness? Stress? Whatever the reason, I decided to store that in my brain for when the time was right. I took the schedule she had just passed me and exited the door, and gave her a quick wave goodbye.
As I walked around the school, I decided to use this time to draw a map of the school in my head, and to explore. I would conveniently run into my classroom right before the next bell rings in ~42 minutes according to the schedule I had just been handed. Walking around the first floor did give me a lot of insight to how the school works. I saw a couple of hidden passageways that were likely used for illegal activities, which I would report to the ASCU later. A short 30 minutes later, I had completely mapped out the first floor and put it into my long-term memory. With the spare time, I decided that I should head to class earlier than planned for a better first impression, and to establish better relationships. I made my way towards the homeroom, but on the way there I saw a dude just leaning on the side of the wall, taking a vape. I thought this was pretty bold, so I decided to approach the guy. The guy looked 6'2 roughly, was pretty built, was wearing sunglasses, a red baseball cap, a leather jacked over a white tee, and a pair of blue jeans. Dude wasn't bad looking either, however considering he vaped, he was likely doing that to cope with something. His hair was made, he was freshly shaven, and his clothes were clean so he wasn't grieving, which led me to conclude it was because of a girl.
"Hey, my name is Fredrick Stevenson. What are you doing out here?" I asked him politely. The man gave me a weird look and gave a motion to his vape.
"Yo, dude, I'm Chad. I think it's… uh… pretty obvious what I'm doing here." He responded pretty nervously. I figured he was likely trying to figure out who I was, and if it was safe to be talking to me.
"Hey man, no need to be worried around me. I'm new here, and I'm not a snitch, in fact… Would you mind if I get a hit?" I figured that if I got this guy on my good side, it'd be a good idea, especially since I need to figure out how all the inner circles work here. This guy definitely seemed to be socially anxious, one that always worried about being caught for his bad habits, makes me wonder what else he was hiding. He appeared quite taken aback at my request. He looked me over and determined I wasn't lying and meant no harm thanks to subtle body cues I gave off.
"Alright man, whatever you say." He passed me the vape, and immediately, I pocketed it.
"Seriously, get some help. If you ditch, I won't snitch." I said and calmly walked past him.
I heard him screaming and knew he'd run after me. I was able to calculate his exact distance through hearing his steps, and right when he was close enough, I jerked backwards, barely missing him, then immediately side stepped and tripped him. He crashed headfirst into the wall and fell unconscious. I walked away, suppressing an evil chuckle that attempted to escape me. I knew I couldn't make it look too easy, since there were cameras actively surveying the halls. The Chad guy wasn't as dumb as I initially thought, in the regard that his hiding spot was one of the three blind spots I found upon visualizing the cameras in my head. Now that that ordeal was taken care of, I decided to finally head to class.
I walked into the classroom and every eye, including the teacher's, locked on me. I was expecting this, but I did not expect the teacher to stop mid-sentence, just to stare at me. I decided in a split second that in this class I should act like a modest man who knew what they wanted and nothing more.
"Hey guys… I'm the new student. My name is Fredrick Stevenson." I gave a weak smile and decided to observe the surrounding room.
It was a very dark room, with the only light source being some cheap lanterns that I've seen on sale at Walmart for a couple of bucks. The desks were cramped together and were paired up, one boy and girl. I internally sighed and thought, Oh great, time to get paired up with the most annoying white bitch on the planet. I observed the room and no one seemed like they were important in any way, although it was hard to get a cold read on the people who were just staring at their phones. Although, only one person did not look up from their phone when I walked in.
"Oh! Why, hello, Mr. Stevenson. Please a take seat next to Emma over there, Emma, kindly raise your hand so Mr. Stevenson can see." The teacher said as she scuttled over to her desk, likely to add my name to the seating chart.
The girl named Emma finally raised her head and stared at me, she was the one person who didn't look up from her phone. With this, I induced that she was a person used to attention, and in fact craves it, and that she would be my key to success. She quickly glanced up from her phone and locked eyes with, gave a quick hand raise and drew her attention back to her phone. Oh, perfect, she's exactly as I thought she'd be. Upon observing her behavior, it was very likely my original induction has been correct. I made my way over to her desk and sat next to her. I decided that the first part of my plan should probably involve communicating with her.
"Hey, Emma. I'm Fredrick." I decided to keep the introductions simple, she seemed like someone who'd babble on relentlessly given the chance. She looked up and gave a real nasty look.
"Hey." She responded. Well, this might be harder than I thought. I'm positive now that my conclusions about her were correct from her body language. She was going to be a tough cookie to crack, but I realized a perfect opportunity would arise shortly.
"Mr. Stevenson, why don't you stand up and tell the class about yourself, I'm Mrs. Johnson." Mrs. Johnson was a very small women with skin withered from age. She looked about high 60s, and had her small amount of gray hair combed over to her left. She wore a magenta robe over her black shirt which had BEATLES written in all capital letters, and a tan dress skirt that went down to her ankles, which might've been the most disgusting outfit I've ever seen. I stood up and gave the room another glance over.
"Well… Hey guys, I'm Fredrick Stevenson, you all can call me Fred. I like to work out in my free-time, I am fluent in 7 different languages, my dad is a world-class detective, and I really like cheese." I decided to include only minor details of myself in order to keep my true intentions as hidden as I could, but open up, so people are more likely to trust me and want to get to know me more. I looked down at Emma to see if she had also taken the bait, but she was still glued to her phone. Worth a try, I thought with an inwards chuckle.
"Very impressive, Mr. Stevenson, would you mind demonstrating some of your language proficiency to us?" I, of course, knew this was coming, so I prepared in advance for this.
"Oh of course," I took a deep breath and decided that showing off a little wasn't a huge risk. "Salut, mon nom est Monsieur Stevenson et j'aime le fromage, me gusta comer queso, todos los dias. Mi mama tiene cuarenta y dos años, y mi padre tiene cincuenta y dos años. Minha família era originária da Venezuela e cultivávamos terras para sobreviver. Uprawialiśmy wtedy wiele odmian owoców i warzyw. Makemake au i ka hoʻokani piano a me ka hana caligraphy. Είμαι επίσης μαύρη ζώνη στο καράτε και εξασκούμαι στις πολεμικές τέχνες. And that is all folks, all 7 languages I speak fluently. French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Hawaiian, Greek, and English. For who want to know what I said in English only, I said, 'Hello, my name is Mr. Stevenson and I like cheese, I like to buy cheese every day. My mom is 42 and my dad is 52. My family was from Venezuela, and we cultivated our land to survive. We grew lots of varieties of fruits and vegetables back then. I also like to play the piano and do calligraphy.' So.. Yeah, hopefully everyone is convinced I am not a fraud now." I sighed a sigh of relief and sat back down. This, of course, was child's play compared to what I could actually do, but I was instructed to not horse around.
Everyone was, again, left speechless from the performance, even Emma was now staring at me in disbelief as well. I gave a quick chuckle.
"Okay… that was really impressive, Fred. I didn't know you could do that…" Her words were genuine. I knew that if this was something that caught her attention, then my plan should work without a hitch.
"Why thank you… Eden, was it? Sorry, I'm really bad with names." I said as I gave a sheepish smile. I purposefully forgot her name to psychologically trick her lowering her self-image around me, so it'd be easier for communication in the future.
"Oh, It's Emma, Fred." She said, with less resolve this time, meaning my trick had worked.
"I'm so sorry, I promise I won't forget it again." This time, I meant it. Forgetting her name again would signal ignorance and unintelligence on my behalf, which, judging off Emma's reactions to events so far, were factors she wasn't a fan of. I took her free hand and clasped it in both of mine and looked her in the eyes. "Hey, I want to be your friend, and friends are there for each other. If you're ever in need of any help at all, you can count on me." I put a lot of effort into that performance, and luckily for me, it looked like she bought it.
"Wow…" she started, her lip almost quivering a little. "Th-thank you Fred, really, I can't tell you the last time someone has said something like that to me. I really do appreciate it." Perfect, everything is going swimmingly thus far.
Just then, a loud POUND come from the door at the back of the room, the entrance door. I recognized the voice that was hollering outside of it, and it was none other than our golden boy, Chad himself. I decided it to be best if I blend in, so I told Emma to huddle in with me, so I just looked like another student. She was confused at first, but decided to go on with it. When I leaned into her, I honestly found myself enjoying it a little. She smelled really nice, and definitely easy on the eyes. My guess is every boy in the school has a crush on her.
"NOW WHO DARES TO KICK MY DOOR?" Mrs. Johnson screeched like a demon. I swear she looked like she was about to light the entire room on fire. Chad then decides it's better if he opens the door, he quickly apologizes to her and begins scanning the room. I felt Emma tense up around me.
"You know him?" I whispered.
"Yes, unfortunately so." She replied. "He tried asking me out once, and I rejected him with a few.. Erm, choice words, let's say."
"Got it." I replied. Oh perfect, oh perfect! This plan suddenly just got so much easier, oh I know exactly what to do now, oh it's too easy! Chad bust in the room looking for me, but luckily Mrs. Johnson wasn't a fan of Chad, so she just told him to hurry on out and back to class. After Chad, was gone, I decided to tell Emma about my encounter with Chad earlier. After I was done telling the story, her eyes were wide with surprise.
"Woah… you really are a martial arts master, aren't you? So wait, does that mean you still have his vape, don't you?" She wondered aloud.
"Precisely, want it?" I replied, offering it to her.
"Ew, no, I'm not going to use someone else's vape."
"No, I meant just have it, to toy around with him?"
"Oh, well, in that case, I wouldn't mind taking it for funsies." She said, happily snatching the vape from my hand.
"Alright, nice, now if you'll excuse me," I said as I raised my hand. "Mrs. Johnson, I really gotta go, would you mind letting me head to the men's room?" I said, twisting my legs inwards to show how badly I had to go.
"That's fine, Mr. Stevenson. The bathrooms will be to the left, down that hall on the left." Mrs. Johnson replied with a smile.
"Thank you so much." I took off, her directions were not needed as I visualized the map I had constructed in my mind earlier. On my way back, I saw just the man I was looking for.
"Hey, Chad!" I called out, wearing a smirk on my face. I tried my best to walk in a cocky manner, my entire goal here was to make him mad. Before he responded, I decided to take complete control of this situation. "Chad, remember your vape?" His eyes widened with shock when he heard that, and he stopped in his wake. "Yeah… you know Emma? She's been orchestrating this the whole time. Once I talked to after once I retrieved your vape, I realized we've all been dancing in the palm of her hand. So, I want to offer you a proposition, I'll try to get her over here, and you can do what you want in your little blind spot here." Chad took a moment to process this, and finally looked back at me.
"You know what, I understand. I will help you."
"Thanks, man, I'll be right back." I turned and walked back to the classroom, everything was going according to plan.
I walked back into the classroom, and sat back down next to Emma.
"Hey, Emma, about Chad. I actually ran into him in the hallway, and he said he was honestly really sorry for treating you the way he did. He said that he'd like to make amends for what he's done, and try to improve as a person. He said he wanted you to keep his vape, as a token of his new self." I decided to appeal to her emotions in this one, since it just made sense, he wasn't bad looking, and Emma had already said he had made a move in the past. So, with all these variables set in place, my plan was finally entering into it's final stages.
Emma agreed to meet up with Chad right then and there, which worked for me. She asked to use the restroom and head out that way as well. I suspected their conversation went something like this:
Emma approaches Chad and says, "Hey, Chad, I really think it's good that you're doing all this, and I'm glad to hear you've changed, and honestly, I forgive you." Chad, enraged, would likely respond with something like, "I'm sorry… WHAT!? You're saying that after all you've been doing!? You stole my vape, and created this entirely little scheme to try to torture me, knowing my feelings. Well, you know what? Fuck you! That's right, I don't care anymore, you're nothing but a little whore who sleeps around all the time." The conversation likely would devolve into more remarks and shouting over time, with Chad having all this stress build onto him, and letting it out the way he reacted when I stole his vape, with violence.
I decided it was time I stepped in. I exited the classroom and made my way down the left hall. It was very likely now that the classes from the lecture hall and other nearby classes had gathered around to watch this spectacle, as that is typical behavior for a school filled with sheep-brained idiots. I quickly walked out onto the scene and saw an intriguing duo standing on the other side of the hallway. I had a feeling they would pose a threat down the line. I saw Chad winding his arm up for the blow, and finally decided to step in. I would like to mention, before I left the classroom I had changed my hoodie into a different color, and now wore a hood over my head, so that way it'd be harder for Chad to recognize me. Back to the present, I shot forward and threw myself in front of Emma, and before Chad could stop himself, I thrust my palm to meet his hand and…
WHAM
"Who the fuck are YOU!?" Chad roared, rearing back in confusion.