The inside of Woodruck Middle was surprisingly quiet without hordes of gacha wandering its halls. Discontented murmurs about the administration spread among the children who, less than happy about their decision, invented clever insults regarding the staff members’ mothers.
Kevin didn’t participate in the mudslinging. He was just disappointed. He sighed as he grabbed the Social Studies book from his locker, lingering to look sadly at the relatively well-drawn, “anime” style drawing of Matt he had hung on the inside of the door. I need to be strong, he thought. Matt would be strong here. Even if he didn’t have cool sonic powers, nobody would ever get the best of him. I need to be like that, even if it’s just me.
“I didn’t know you played guitar,” a feminine voice lilted from behind. A chill shot up Kevin’s spine. Her voice was like flowers in a koi pond in the pale light of a full moon, he thought. It couldn’t be--he spun round and, oh no--it was.
The little mental “oh no” was not an exclamation of dislike, mind you. Kevin liked Cecilia immensely. He found her even more stunning and alluring than the waitress at the Italian place the old detective had taken him the evening prior. Cecilia was wearing an elegant white silk dress that contrasted gorgeously against her light brown skin, drawing out the explosive beauty in her shimmering ochre eyes. The glaring fluorescent lights above brought out the reddish undertones in her well-toned calves, which Kevin found himself focusing on when he recoiled from the piercing gaze of her eyes and subsequently tried to avoid focusing on her chest. “Th-thank you,” he replied, before turning beet red and realizing that wasn’t a proper response to a question. “Oh, n-not really. I’d like to, though. This is Matt’s. I’m just... trying it out, I guess.”
She grinned, genuinely charmed by his awkwardness. “That’s really cool. I’m sorry he can’t come to school anymore. I know you’ve gotta be bummed out about it, you two seem really close.”
“Yeah, he’s…” just talking about Matt brought a little bit of courage back to his heart, and Kevin actually made and maintained eye contact. God, her eyes were gorgeous! The color of a sunrise, like twin stars shining in the galaxy of her face. He was so glad he’d looked. “...he’s more like a big brother to me than a gacha at this point,” he finished, disguising the pause as one of thought and not of frozen admiration.
“Good. I don’t really know your situation, but, if I’m not overstepping to say it, it seems like you go through a lot. I’m glad you finally got a win.” Cecilia blushed a bit and glanced away. “I’m sorry, that was way out of line. I don’t mean to condescend. I’m sure you don’t want some spoiled rich girl giving you pity points--”
“You’re good. I appreciate it. I’m sure you miss having your Matt around, too.” Kevin’s Matt and hers had never actually interacted, but he’d seen hers around before, and he seemed to be much more soft-spoken and gentler than his own glamorous, bombastic specimen: perfect for Cecilia.
“Yeah… he’s not much as far as combat, but just having one nearby keeps the haters at bay, and he’s a good friend...” She smiled sadly, adjusted her glasses in a dignified fashion to hide that it was a nervous tic, and continued, “but, honestly, I think knowing who my father is is the real deterrent.” Though there was nothing ominous about these words, there was a frost to her breath as she said them.
“Well, uh, hell yeah,” Kevin agreed, “I would imagine so!” He actually had no idea who her father was, but he knew she was wildly rich and so far out of his league that the distance Matt had launched the Fridge Horror wasn’t even the halfway point.
Silence pulled the conversation down. Though Kevin desperately wanted to break it by asking her to hang out, it had taken all his courage for the day to even speak to her and spent his entire week’s supply to maintain eye contact. His heart was already pounding out of his chest just from interacting with such a goddess. Surely, he had made a terrible fool of himself, doing something awkward with his hands, or saying the wrong thing, or showing that he was terribly flustered just from a casual conversation with her…
The bell for second period rang, saving Kevin from the prison of awkwardness he’d accidentally built around himself. “Catch you soon,” he finished, taking great care to sound as casual as possible as he shot dual finger-guns in her direction. It’s what Matt would have done in this situation, he reasoned, assuming Matt was 13 and suddenly into women. Cecilia giggled and waved goodbye to him as he dashed to class.
Kevin gasped for air through his ragged breaths as soon as he was out of range. That was too much excitement! Kevin was afraid he was going to be the first 8th grader to ever die of a heart attack. Had anyone ever died at 13 of a heart attack before, he wondered? Probably not. Not before gacha came, at least.
Classes went fine, but after third period, Brian always encountered Kevin. He’d always wait until Kevin emerged from the Science Lab, lurking just outside the door. Kevin used to wait for him to leave, but no longer how long he’d wait, Brian would wait longer. Kevin was a mouse in the wall trapped in an unwinnable battle of attrition with a cat.
It had been ten minutes since class ended. Even the teacher had left, after being reassured that Kevin was “just chilling behind to finish some work.” The fourth period bell had already rung: even the hallways were deserted. Kevin had no class fourth period, but neither did Brian. Kevin took a deep breath and gazed into the seemingly abandoned hallway, its silence and stillness mocking him. He knew Brian was right around the corner. He always was. His reason for living was to make Kevin wish he was dead.
Kevin took the Les Paul out of its case and held it tightly. He had no idea if this would work, but it was his only hope. Matt wouldn’t hesitate, so he couldn’t either. Kevin swallowed hard, tried to summon his inner Matt, and strode through the doorway, his pulse skyrocketing.
“You kept me waiting, street-rat,” the familiar, grating voice called out. Sure enough, Brian unstuck himself from the doorway and faced him, crossing his big arms. He was a full four inches taller than Kevin, a human tower of pain. Kevin stepped away defensively with each steady, powerful step Brian took forward, a rotating dance of self-preservation. “That’s a bold move after you killed my Fridge Horror. Do you know how many pulls I had to go through to get him? How many hundreds my family spent? You do all that to me, and then you still have the nerve to make me wait to beat you to a pulp. Incredible.” He cracked his knuckles before adding, “I’m not complaining, though. There are no witnesses, now!”
“Yeah,” Kevin replied, smirking in spite of himself and planting his feet. The electrifying wave of fight-or-flight energy and panic spread through his body, but for the first time ever, he was choosing fight. “It’s great. Nobody will be around to see you cry when I kick your butt this time.”
“Big words from such a small kid,” Brian snapped, faking a punch at Kevin. He flinched but didn’t step back. “What, are you taking guitar lessons from your boyfriend? Do you think that somehow makes you cool now?”
“Matt isn’t my boyfriend,” Kevin replied, “he’s my brother.” They had never had the discussion, but it sounded right, and it filled Kevin with confidence to view him as such. He hoped he could live up to the association.
“Wow! You replaced your dead family with a One Star!? That’d almost be sad, if it wasn’t so fucking pathetic.”
“Don’t test me, Brian. Leave my parents out of this.”
“Aww, it’s really fucking sweet of you to defend them now, since you let them die when it actually mattered. It almost makes me feel bad about the rearranging I’m gonna’ give your face.”
“You know what? You’re right,” Kevin finally snapped, shouting now. “I couldn’t stop the tractor trailer that smashed them on the way home from church, just like you can’t stop what’s about to come.” He wasn’t sure where this courage was coming from, but it felt great. He just hoped he could back it up.
“Oh yeah?” Brian softly replied, grabbing Kevin by the collar and lifting him to his tiptoes.
It was all or nothing. Kevin pressed the guitar’s neck to Brian’s chest. He had no idea how to play a guitar, but he started strumming the strings really fast like he’d seen Matt do. The sound it made was pure noise, but it had the desired effect. A massive shockwave emerged and grabbed Brian like the palm of an unseen hand, dragging him backwards through the air at alarming speeds. He careened down the entire hallway before slamming painfully into the metal lockers at the end, chipping a tooth with the impact. The lockers up and down the entire hallway trembled as the shockwave dissipated, and the Brian’s back connected with the solid metal with the sound of a sledgehammer on a tin roof. He fell to his knees and writhed, hardly able to straighten his throbbing back out enough to move.
Kevin approached him slowly, glaring down at him for the first time. “How the tables have turned,” he said, his voice sounding a little deeper than usual. Brian pulled himself to a seated position and scrambled back until he hit the lockers. He watched with primal terror as Kevin neared, weeping profusely. Kevin wasn’t smiling like Brian always did when he’d beaten Kevin to the point of tears, which somehow only made him more frightening. “Listen here, Brian,” Kevin said, placing the neck of the guitar on his bully’s neck as his crying grew ever louder and more panicked. “I’m not enjoying this, dude. I don’t want to have to hurt anybody. But you’re threatening me and my family now--” he smacked Brian in the face with the neck before returning it to position, “--and yes, Matt is my family, and if you hadn’t been trying to hurt me with your stupid fridge man, he wouldn’t have had to kick its butt. If you think you’ll get away with treating me like this just because he isn’t here in person, you’re dead wrong. Because he’s a part of me--his courage, his strength, the fact he doesn’t take crap. And all you’ve been giving me is crap, Brian.”
Brian tried to croak something, but Kevin interrupted. “If you leave us both alone, I’ll leave you alone. But even I don’t know what would happen if I played this thing when it’s pressed to your neck and you’re pressed to a wall. I don’t want to get suspended, but if it’s between that and letting you break my arm again, I’ll take it in a heartbeat.”
“I’m s-sorry,” Brian whimpered.
“No you aren’t, you--” Yeah, this was a justifiable time to drop the F-bomb for the first time in school. “--you fucking bully. If you were half as tough as you act, you’d pick on someone other than the homeless orphan kid. Now, listen up. I better not catch any shit from you in the halls again, or else you’re going to be the one wishing you hadn’t stepped out of your classroom. Got that?” No response, so he pressed the guitar’s neck in further into the bully’s throat. “Got that?”
“G-got that,” Brian winced, his eyes shut tight. Kevin pulled the guitar back and let Brian collapse in a weeping, pathetic heap.
Though Brian had no visible physical damage, he still ran crying to the principal shortly after the incident. The principal, immediately smelling something fishy, called Kevin in.
“Sit down, Kevin,” Mr. Penzance insisted, adjusting his small spectacles on his nose. He had a lisping, nasal hiss of a voice, and the fluorescent light over his head gave his balding dome an unsettling, alien glow. “Now, Brian alleges that you used your guitar--” he motioned to the case on Kevin’s back, ”--to send him flying one hundred yards down a hallway with a burst of magic energy. Is this true?”
“Does it sound true?” Kevin asked, raising an eyebrow. He hated more than anything to lie, but it shouldn’t take one to get out of this situation.
“Well, it certainly did not to me, but these are strange times for our town. I suppose we’d best be certain, yes?” Before Kevin could react, the man had reached over him and rudely slid the case off his shoulder. He unzipped it and removed the Les Paul, eyeing it warily. Kevin tried to keep a cool face, but he was terrified of what would happen if his bluff was called. “It looks like a normal electric guitar to me,” the principal continued, before adjusting his grip, “but let me see if I can still play Smoke in the Water, like in my grad school days. Hoho! We just have to make sure.”
Kevin tried not to panic. A still-sniffling Brian shot him a vicious look, one that said, “when Principal Penzance destroys his office with a shockwave from your gacha’s stupid guitar, you’re gonna’ be double suspended.”
However, the old man uneventfully played a very poor rendition of the Deep Purple classic, and nothing else happened. Kevin barely contained his massive sigh of relief. Apparently, the guitar really was charged each time by Matt’s sonic energy--its latent charge just hadn’t been released by Matt yet prior to its strategic use that morning. Brian, of course, didn’t know this, and simply assumed Kevin was using some sort of evil magic to turn it on and off.
“I’ve seen enough,” the man mumbled, fiddling with his wiry salt-and-pepper mustache with annoyance. “Kevin, best of luck with your guitar lessons. Brian, spend more time improving your grades and less wasting mytime on these childish tales. You owe Kevin an apology!”
At the end of the school day, Kevin ran into Cecilia again. She didn’t notice him at first, but, still high with power and justice, he decided to do something he could never have dreamed of before--ask her out.
“Hey, Cecilia,” he said, trying to keep his voice in the deep half of its actively-changing register. It was stupid, but kind of charming. She had just finished returning her things to her locker and shut it, turning to face him with a quizzical expression. “Do you maybe want to… hang out later?”
God, what was he thinking? His heart sank down from his chest, through his legs, and through the concrete floor, all the way to the graveyard the school was rumored every Halloween to be built on top of. She was gorgeous, popular, smart, and the richest girl in school, and… he was literally homeless. He was having a great day for once, things were looking up--and he had to blow it. He had to ruin it all and spoil the entire day for himself, he should just--
“Sure,” she lilted, giggling and blushing slightly. “Where did you have in mind?”
Where did he have in mind?! He wasn’t supposed to get this far!! Kevin froze for a split second, then remembered what Matt had said earlier--they were supposed to meet at the arcade, anyway! “How about we hit up the arcade? We can bring our Matts. I’m sure they’ll get along and help make sure we’re safe on our…” he wanted to make sure he added this part to get confirmation she realized what she was agreeing to, “...date.”
“Sounds great!” She replied excitedly, eagerly flashing her perfect smile. Kevin thought his heart was going to explode. “Mind if we run by my place first and grab my Matt, then? You can meet my brother, too, then, if you haven’t yet. He’s… a little unusual, and maybe a bit scary at first, but he means well.
“Sure!” Kevin replied. They were walking down the front stairs now, and he was a bit concerned he didn’t see his own Matt waiting for him, but her limo was up ahead and he wasn’t about to miss a chance to spend time with her inside it. This was a dream come true! Many dreams come true, actually. “I don’t see my Matt, but I’m sure he’ll meet us at the arcade, worst case.”
“Perfect!” Cecilia chirped. A man dressed in an all-black suit nodded to her, opening the door without a smile. She nodded and smiled to him, entering and motioning for Kevin to join her, who did so with zero hesitation.
“If you haven’t met before, this is my Matt,” she said, motioning to the Matt beside her. He looked just like Kevin’s Matt, same design and clothing for the most part, but this one seemed a bit more delicate in his mannerisms, and a bit less… abrasive.
“I’m Kevin, nice to meet you,” Kevin said, waving awkwardly.
“I’m Matthew,” he replied. “Charmed.” The Matt took Kevin’s hand with a silk-gloved hand and kissed it like a peasant meeting a queen, which made the boy feel oddly powerful given his situation. Kevin thought how lucky he was that he’d been able to actually wash the few clothes he owned at Lashbrook’s the night prior. The doors closed, and the black stretch limousine headed for Cecilia’s home--the Blackmore Estate.