Dreams Or How I Live My Life in Daydreams

Afternoon Delight

For the rest of the class, Autumn couldn't focus. The thought of having to spend detention with Mad Zach left her stomach twisted in knots.

She didn't expect them to dance around the room à la The Breakfast Club. She hoped that the time would fly by. It's not that she hated Maddox. Hate is too strong a word. She just didn't like him.

She thought him to be a kiss-up, desperate to be a part of Timothy's revolting clique.

His pranks, however, is what gained him popularity.

It was a particular prank that he played on Bart Oakley, the biggest bully in middle school, that earned him the nickname Mad Zach.

With a physique of a bodybuilder, ironed clothes, and a shaved head, Bart looked like he belonged in a military academy, not middle school. A delinquent, Autumn was sure that one day Bart would end up a prison inmate.

He bullied anyone who came across his path sex and race didn't matter. One afternoon, in the cafeteria, he swiped Nara's lunch box, pushing the redhead down onto the grubby floor when she tried to take it back. Livid, Autumn rushed after the bully, grabbed him by the arm, and demanded that he return it.

Leveling her a death glare, he snatched his arm from her grip and threatened to punish her before stalking off with Nara's lunch box.

He kept his word.

After school, Autumn opened her locker to put her books away, when her head collided with the shelf, her tiny frame almost in the entire confined space. Seeing stars while trying to regain her bearings, she felt a sharp pain in her back; the wind knocked out of her.  A balled fist struck her, the impact feeling like a cannonball.

In a knee-jerk reaction, she swung her elbow back, hitting the perpetrator in the ribcage. Swiveling, she kicked the bully in the family jewels.

He doubled over. 

Rage fueling her, she kicked him again in the face, knocking him to the floor. A rowdy crowd gathered around them. Amid the discord, Autumn imagined herself as a warrior suited in body armor fighting an ogre. Besting the adversary, she wielded the gleaming sword triumphantly in the air.

"That's enough," she heard an imposing voice yell followed by clomping footsteps. It was Mrs. Darcy, the school principal. A former model, the curvy principal, dressed in a navy blue pencil-skirt suit, stomped down the hall in black low heel pumps.

Moving swiftly, the gym teacher and math teacher restrained the bully.  Grunting like a wild animal, the veins in his forehead protruding, he lunged at Autumn.  The two men held him back.

Autumn pointed a trembling finger. "He started it," she said. "He pushed me into my locker. He threatened to hurt me earlier in the cafeteria."

"It's true," a meek voice said. Nara, her eyes red-rimmed and puffy, stepped forward, fidgeting with her flower-patterned shirt. "He stole my lunch. Autumn tried to help me get it back."

The hard lines on her forehead softening, the principal placed a manicured hand on Autumn's shoulder. "I have to inform your parent's about this," she said.

"Will I be expelled?" Autumn said, her eyebrows raised with worry. The principal shook her head, her curly blond locks flapping with her movements. "No. You'll spend a day in detention, however."

Bart suffered no punishment. His uncle, the mayor, advocated on his behalf with the superintendent so he would not face expulsion, undermining the principal.

Bart showed up the next day at school cockier than ever. While Autumn spent the day in detention, the troublemaker lurked in the cafeteria. Scanning the crowd, he targeted his new victim, Maddox, a quiet kid who sat alone.