The next day, the orange glow of the beautiful sunrise felt warm on Tim’s face as Wallace pulled up to the school.”So… this is it” Wallace says. “You ready?” “As ready as I’ll ever be” Tim says with a sigh. He knew he had to do this, but he never read anywhere that he had to like it. “Hey, when the day is over, I bet you’ll love it here” Wallace says. “If you say so” Tim says, getting out of the car. “Love you” Wallace says through the car window. “Love you too” Tim replies, heading into the building. People were in every direction he looked. Some were eating, some were talking, and some were doing things he’s never even seen before. After a few moments of looking around, a boy about his age approaches him, his blue eyes giving off a welcoming gaze. “Tim Forrester, right?” he asks, his New Jersey accent making him sound strange to Tim’s ears. “Who are you?” he asks. “I’m John. John Lygar” “Why have you come to see me?” “Principal Ency asked me to show you around, and since we have the same classes, I figured that I might as well” Tim thought about this, then nodded. “Alright. Where to first?” he asks, looking away from John. “Looks like it’s chemistry up first” he reads from the schedule. “Great! Which way do we go?” “We go this way” John says, turning to a hallway. He freezes. “Oh boy, here we go” he says. “What?” Tim turns to where John was facing and sees a kid wearing ripped jeans, a yellow tank top, and black gloves walking towards them. “‘Sup newbies?” he says to them. “Who are you?” Tim asks. “I’m Toxin, king of this very school” “Self-proclaimed king” John mutters. Toxin glares at John, who tenses in reaction. “What did you say, newbie?” Toxin growls. John shakes his head. “He’s got a name, you know” Tim says, trying to defend John from bullying. Toxin scoffs and turns to walk away. “Do not turn your back, for the curtain has not yet been closed” Tim says. Everyone in the halls stops to see what was going on. “Then how about a challenge?” Toxin says. A few kids start recording on their phones. “A rap battle. I win, you two leave forever. You win, I’ll leave you alone” “I accept” Tim says. A student steps in to judge. “Battle begin!” they say. Toxin starts to “rap”, but in reality, he was just talking in rhymes. “You call that rap? Please, I’ll make you regret the day you ever opened your mouth” Tim says. Tim raps the fastest part of “Godzilla” by Eminem flawlessly, adding a line to the end to put his own little spin on it. He cusses at the end, everyone else cheering for him. John smiles as Toxin struggles to find words for his humiliating loss to the new kid. Toxin storms off, knowing he was no longer the “king”. The students kneel down before Tim. “What are you doing?” Tim asks. “We kneel before the king” a student replies. “You need not the ability to obey the strong, you must craft a path for the weak to follow” Tim says. “You all command yourselves, but beware. If I am notified of any form of bullying, I will find you” Tim and John make their way to chemistry, talking about what just happened. The chemistry teacher walks in and starts class. … “Alright, chemistry and history are done, now what?” Tim asks, walking out of history class. “Lunch” John replies. “I love lunch!” Tim says, smiling. They walk to the cafeteria and get their food, sitting down at an empty table. “I still can’t believe you can talk like that to someone with so much power” John says, still amazed. “My dad taught me how to overthrow rulers and rise to power” Tim replies, taking a bite of his mac-and-cheese. “Your dad must be very wise” “Yeah, he is” Tim picks up his fork, going to take another bite, then sees a sight that nearly stops his heart.
