Memories of Emily: The Power Brokers Part 3

Spear & Ararat (cont)

A week before the end of ninth grade, I left school headed for martial arts, and for the first time, life felt better as most students kept their distance after the fight with Ronnie. People stopped screaming DS in the halls, and I could reasonably walk to class without people smacking books from my hands or trying to start fights. While this did not include jocks and popular people, most people in the lower castes ceased ridiculing or did it from a distance. With my parents no longer hitting me, life finally began shifting in a positive direction, or so I thought. 

Having time before martial arts, a stop at the convenience store yielded a soda and a magazine to enjoy before class. Looking at the magazine’s cover as I exited the store, my head jerked violently with a "zick" sound from my nose crushed by a fist. The magazine and soda fell as my hands went to my bleeding nose while stumbling back and striking the store’s window from the unknown assailant's push. Coming off the window, the return of vision revealed the unknown jock along with Gil and Lathan laughing as they sat on a car’s hood behind the attacker. Gil pointed to me. “Damn! That was hard.”