"Jace!" He hollered the boy's name, his voice booming across the room with an edge of fury that couldn't be ignored. His voice laced with raw intensity that carried his frustration and anger.
His tone was more of a command than a call. The students instinctively recoiled, scuttling to the corners like startled mice. Desks rattled as they moved, some students clutching their books tightly with fear filled on their entire being,
Making way to where 'the Jace guy was seated'. Taya on seeing the still seated Wave, rushed and pulled her to move on the corners like the others.
"This is about to get messy!" whispered Taya.
"Why?!... I mean they're not just going to fight, the teacher's still here... RIGHT?!" Wave wondered which made Taya speechless as she looked at her as if she's dumb.
"That's not going to stop them!"
Immediately Taya finished her sentence, a fist was delivered to the Jace boy landing on his face squarely with a loud thud. The class went silent, hearts racing, breaths held, everyone frozen.
"Fucking Montgomery!" Jace, the boy with the mohawk hairstyle barked, gritting his teeth.
He aimed a flurry of uncoordinated punches at the blonde guy which were effortlessly blocked. The blonde guy with expensive cufflinks landed another solid punch to the mohawk guy causing him to double over in pain.
Collective gasps were the only sounds the onlookers made. They punched and pushed each other against the walls in turns. The fight didn't look like a small one.
Wave flinched when she heard the sound of something crack, not knowing who had broken a bone on their face or if a tooth was lost.
"I will fucking kill you for pulling that shit!" the cufflink boy growled.
As the physical fight continued, Wave looked back and forth, wondering why the teacher didn't care to stop the fight that had broken in the middle of nowhere.
The cufflink boy raised his leg, spinning it to leave a kick right across the Mohawk boy's jaw. He fell on the floor, hissed, feeling the cut on his lip.
"You look better as a carpet on the ground than a human being," the cufflink guy smirked, "that's where you'll always belong, below me! You pathetic little shit!"
Just as they all thought the fight had ended, since the cufflink boy had turned and took a few steps to leave.
"You think people fear you?" The Mohawk guy sat down wiping the blood at the corner of his mouth his thumb, "Look at you acting all tough," he laughed sarcastically, "Seeking validation and approval from others' fear so you can add to your fucking prideful ego that you amount to something when even as a mistress, your mom still chose her lovers and money over raising her own child, guess you're just a reminder of the one mistake she couldn't cash in on!"
The mohawk boy fiercely turned and viciously rained punches on Jace.
"Stop this fight at once!" Professor Gale finally intervened, raising his voice sternly to command the boys' attention who were on the floor busy tackling each other on the floor.
He moved to separate them which seemed harder than he thought but on seeing him approaching, Jace was quick to drop his hands to his side as he raised them leaving only the other guy clasping him by his collar and his fist in the air midway to become one with his face again.
"To the principal's office now!" ordered the professor.
Neither both the boys put up a word of protest. Soon after recollecting themselves and tuning down their anger, the two boys left followed by Professor Gale tagging behind them.
The classroom erupted in a cacophony of voices, students in the hallway and class in groups animatedly discussing what could've triggered the cufflink boy's anger. That's when Wave heard the name of the two boys, Hunter Montgomery and Jace Collins.
From what Wave learnt with the whispers in class and from Taya's words was that Jace and Hunter were actually best of friends before, then when they all came back from summer holiday, they didn't hang out together no more.
There were speculations of whether they are or not friends until they started fighting every single week and the jabs they sent to each other as they fought was enough to show their enmity.
The disagreement that happened between them was kinda big that it was yet to be solved. Wave then learnt that Jace was Taya's twin brother.
"Don't they suffer any consequences?" Wave questioned as she pushed her chair to sit down.
"Just a few days in detention and meditation class," Dream came and took a chair that was opposite Wave as Taya sat in front her.
"Or suspension that's a week or two long," Taya added, "perks of being from rich families."
"Don't tell me your parents don't care about your brother's disciplinary cases?" Wave was dumbfounded, she found it hard to believe that their families didn't care at all about their kids' school performance.
"During senior year everyone always has a clean academic record, the parents just have to pay a few dollars then they can have the best student!" Dream waved her hand nonchalantly as if it was something normal.
Wave's mouth's went agape after she asked, "By a few dollars you mean?" then Taya and Dream's responses were unbelievable.
"A million dollar or two,"
"It really depends, there was this senior, Flemont, he had so many misconducts, doing drugs, selling them... drugs, fights, skipping school, performing badly, missing exams. He just had his parents pay 3.8, then, he had the most satiable clean record ever with not a single stain and now he's studying at an ivy league campus. The heirs!"
"I think for Hunter and Jace, they won't pay. Given Hunter's family notable donations and investments. I even think they've already pretended like those fights never happened," she laughed, "My brother Jace, not so different considering our mom's the chair of the board of directors."
"This school guess is not much of a difference from things I heard about private schools!" Wave reasoned as she looked around the class with the students seated in groups gossiping.
"No offense Wavy but what did you expect from a private school, really? In Hartley, only money, family connections and social status talks!"
"None taken, but I still thought it'd be different," she sighed.
"Every private school is like that, or else how'd you think Hartley runs. It's from the investors who want their kid's academic record to be clen or those that want to throw something under the bus to hide a thing their kid did or overlook their children's cases. They're just so many reasons why investors keep investing or donors keep donating. If you don't have a backing, things aren't going to be peaceful here!"
"Don't be disheartened Wavy! we got your back!"
"On a serious note, this isn't things people say in public, they're things that happen behind doors. I know this because of my mom, if not I don't think I'd ever notice the shady businesses in Hartley."
The trio stood as they walked to their lockers and get their bags and head home as the drama of the day seemed over.
"Should I drop you off at home or at the bus station?" asked Dream caringly as she didn't see the reason not to since even Taya was going home in her car because she had to leave her car since they share a car with Jace and she just couldn't fathom waiting for him to be done with detention so she could go home since they shared their transportation car.
"Come on, let's just go, it'll save you time plus its quite a distance from here to the bus station on foot!" Taya tried convincing Wave when she saw her hesitating. They all got inside Dream's jeep and the driver drove them off. Minutes later, Wave alighted at the bus station and bid them goodbye.
When Jace and Hunter arrived at the principal's office, on knocking and entering they were met with the ever so strict, Brune Sterling seated behind his mahogany desk looking at them with his piercing eyes behind his glasses.
Professor Gale went and whispered something to Principal Sterling then left.
With a glare directed to the boys, "Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Collins why I'm I not surprised by your visit?" he pushed his glasses up, "This is your seventh time here when the semester is just beginning! It's unacceptable that you've made my office a must for your week to end graciously!"