Tyrell, with a heavy bag on his shoulders and his phone in hand, walked through the city on his way to school. He walked past a big building filles with windows and banners, being rented out by an MMA academy. He looked through one of the windows, seeing people being knocked onto the ground, minimizing the impact by hitting the ground with their arm and standing up immediately afterwards. He shook his head, walking past the academy's entrance, but the doors were swung open with incredible force. Tyrell put his hands in front of his face but got pushed backwards, stumbling and falling on his bottom. As he looked up in frustration, he saw Alfonso eating a banana, his beanie was covering half his face with only one of his eyes slightly peeking out. It looked like he was rushing and struggling to put on his backpack. Tyrell stood up and brushed the dirt off of his clothes.
"Shit, I'm gonna be late again." He said before looking down and seeing Tyrell cleaning himself up. He put his arm around Tyrell's neck and grinned.
"Yo cobarde! What were you doing on the ground?"
"Are you kidding me? You knocked me on the ground. Why are you in such a rush anyways?"
"I promised my trainer that I wouldn't be late for school anymore, and I intend to keep every promise I make." Alfonso put his beanie on correctly and took a few more bites out of the banana.
"So, this is where you go to practice MMA. But why does your trainer care so much about your attendance?"
"You sure ask a lot of questions cobarde. There's not a lot of time left, let's walk a bit faster!"
"I got some time left, we're not in the same- wait, you keep calling me that, what does it mean?"
"It means coward, genius." He said snickering. Tyrell rolled his eyes. They kept on walking straight towards the school grounds. Upon arrival they saw Tyler and Carmen waiting at the gates. They approached them.
"Hey guys, are y'all alright?" He directly looked in Tyler's direction, Tyler responded with a quick nod and smile.
"Yeah, my mom wasn't too harsh on me yesterday. She understood that even when you're in control, your anima can act without you giving the orders. She still took away my phone though." Carmen said as she shrugged. "Are you okay Ty? I heard from Tyler what happened at the hospital with your dad."
"Yeah, just a little case of repression going on, but there's nothing to worry about." Tyrell responded, he rubbed the back of his neck and looked averted his eyes from Carmen.
"Repression? There's nothing small about something like that! Tyler, talk to him before i smack him across the face."
"He wouldn't even listen to his dad, he's not going to listen to me. Look, Ty you need to summon it before it gets worse, think about yourself once in a while." Tyler said as he put a hand on his shoulder.
"No."
"See!?" Tyler said pointing at Tyrell. Alfonso laughed loudly as he walked through the group towards the main entrance.
"Good luck with that, cobarde." Alfonso entered the school, making it just in time for the school bell to ring. The group walked onto the school grounds, their schedule didn't start until an hour after their arrival. They walked over to the school's lake, seeing a girl with a hood over her head, eyes closed and a lollipop in her mouth laying down against one of the bigger stones surrounding it. Tyler walked up to her and tapped her on the head playfully. She opened one of her eyes and looked up, seeing him standing over her. He waved at her, his eyes closing the more the smile on his face grew. She lifted the hood off of her head and pulled the lollipop out of her mouth. Tyrell opened his eyes with surprise, it was Abigail, the girl from the day before.
"Yo, how can I help you?"
"Hey, I don't think we know each other but since you seem quite comfortable, we'll probably be seeing you here more often. We chill here almost everyday! I'm Tyler, that girl over there is Carmen and that next to her is Tyrell." He got a bit closer to her, trying to turn down his voice's volume. "They're kind of dating." Tyler said as he giggled. Abigail, with a peculiar face, still snickered due to what Tyler sneakily told her. Carmen narrowed her eyes and rushed towards Tyler. He playfully laughed at her while running away, they ran all around the lake. Tyrell laughed along with Tyler, stepping closer to the lake. As he got close enough to see his reflection, he gulped down any saliva left in his mouth of fear, he turned his head away and walked towards Abigail.
"Sorry for my friend, he can be a bit extra."
"And your girl?" Abigail said, sticking her tongue out. Tyrell started blushing a bit, trying to cover his face with his jacket.
"It's not official yet..."
"Huh? Speak up! I can't hear you over your denial." Abigail said, putting her lollipop back in her mouth. Tyrell kissed his teeth and sat down on the stone she was laying against.
"You know, I saw you yesterday when you were using your anima to earn a little money with betting."
"Ah, yeah that little stunt got me in trouble with miss Falconer. But to be fair, the others participated, and they didn't do anything about them. Kind off unfair if you ask me."
"But it was you who used it right?"
"Yeah, still feels like detention was a bit harsh though." She sat up straight and rested her right arm on her right knee. Tyrell blankly looked at her from the side.
"It's funny that they didn't see Jamar or Alfonso using theirs. Even though the teachers were a little busy with you." He looked up at the sky as a slight breeze covered the lake area, Abigail's hair moved with the wind as she looked up at him.
"I heard that something happened from a few classmates, never met the guy but he always seemed a little aggressive when I saw him in the cafeteria. I never really noticed you up until now or heard about you." Abigail said, closing her eyes, smiling as she felt the wind flowing around her body.
"Why would you hear about me in the first place?"
"Well, I have a few connections. What class are you guys in anyway?" Tyler and Carmen stopped running around and walked back to Tyrell.
"Me and Carmen are in Class 2-B, and Tyler is regular so he's in class 1-B. What about you?" Tyrell asked Abigail.
"2-C." She said as the school bell rang once more.
"Let's go before we're too late. Maybe we'll see you later Abigail. I'll keep an eye out at lunch. Try not to get yourself in trouble again." Tyrell said, he started walking into school with Carmen and Tyler at his side. Once the three of them entered, Tyler split away from the group and waved goodbye to them. Moving further into the school, Tyrell suddenly exclaimed a loud groan.
"What's wrong?" Carmen asked.
"We got gym today. I forgot."
"Oh, come on. It's not that horrible." She said nudging him in his side.
"I don't even get to do the exercises because they're anima related. This sucks."
"You're used to it now anyway. Just stop complaining and do something about it if you want it to change pendejo." Tyrell kissed his teeth. They took the stairs to the basement of the school, after a moment they arrived at the bottom of the stairs where a big door was located. They opened it, seeing other students jumping onto large objects, swinging on rope, running in circles and balancing on thin beams. The teacher, walking around in the middle of the room, whistled and clapped his hands. The students stopped with what they were doing and marched over to him. Tyrell and Carmen looked at each other worriedly, they both ran into the locker rooms they were supposed to be in. As he entered, he noticed Jamar changing into his gym clothes but avoided eye contact as he walked further into the room. He took off his backpack and grabbed his gym shorts, shirt and shoes. Tying his shoes on one knee before thinking about running as fast as he could into the main room, he felt a presence slight over tower him from behind, the shadow of the person behind him crept up over him. The atmosphere of the room suddenly felt ten times heavier. Tyrell got up off of the ground with his fists already clenched and took a deep breath before turning around. He looked Jamar straight into his chest, then narrowed his eyes and looked up to see his face. Veins could be seen on his forehead, as well as his neck and arms. The frustration he held inside of him had gotten bottled up to a point of almost bursting out of him.
"You were lucky your friend was there." Jamar groaned, his eyes narrow and fierce.
"And I guess you were lucky that he stopped before things got ugly right?" Tyrell answered, his face as serious as ever, trying to keep his composure and not let anger take over.
"Tough talk coming from someone who hides behind others. Without your friends backing you up, you ain't got nothing. Without your little puta girlfriend to help you, you can't do shit." He stepped closer to Tyrell, looking down on him. Tyrell clenched his fists harder, feeling the pain of his nails almost going through the flesh of his palm. His eyes got filled with anger, he gritted his teeth to hold in more anger and frustration the more Jamar kept talking. Tyrell's breath started to get shaky and so did his hands.
"Don't you dare talk about Carmen like that, you don't know her. Just shut up and leave me alone already. What reason is there for you to keep aggravating me over and over again?" He kept looking him straight into his eyes, his deep blue irises starting to lighten up in color. He blinked, seeing that the room got engulfed in water. Taking a look at Jamar, his eyes were in the back of his head, his mouth was wide open with blood streaming out of it and his body was lifeless. The ceiling of the room broke and a huge mouth with razor sharp teeth fell through, biting him in half, leaving the water filled with blood.
"What the hell's up with you?!" Jamar shouted. His voice echoing through Tyrell's head as he blinked, and everything went back to normal again." you're a fucking weirdo, pathetic excuse for an anima user." He said before storming out of the room. Tyrell looked around, his breathe now getting worse than before. His breathing became shorter and shorter, his legs were shaking and he stopped clenching his fists to put both of his palms on his face and shaking his head.