Chapter 2 of Necessary Evil

February 21st, 20XX

These worthless goddamn idiots. I wish they’d all just disappear. It truly baffles me, how some people can sleep at night knowing how disgusting they are; the bar for human decency is so low that it’s practically a tripping hazard in Hell, yet here these degenerates are: limbo dancing with the devil. I wish they would suffer just as much as they make everyone else suffer. Someone really needs to teach them a lesson…

Once again, the school bell rings. The bell echoes through the halls, alerting all of the students inside that their first class was about to start… woohoo. Students filed into their classrooms, a dull thrum of chatter echoing through the school. Somehow, it’s as if the echo itself was loud enough to drown out the students’ words. Rager and Chaser separated from their friend, heading to English, while Stalker headed to Biology. The trio somehow almost always ended up being separated in some way, which was something that deeply irritated them.

“Alrighty, everyone! So who can remind us what we’ve been working on recently?” A saccharine-sweet voice asked from the front of the class. Mrs Slate, one of the few English teachers, was always very high-energy. She was also one of the few teachers who seemed to actually like their job. One or two hands raised, and a few muttered responses floated around the classroom.

“We’ve been discussing Shakespeare’s play Macbeth.” a volunteer said, loud and clear for the class to hear. Mrs Slate’s smile brightened impossibly more.

“Spot on, Teddy. Today I will be putting you into teams of two or three, and you’ll be given a scene from Macbeth to perform!” she explained, and a burst of voices suddenly erupted through the classroom.

“Can I be with Theo?”

“No! I wanna be with Theo!”

“He’s like- my best friend, right, Teddy?”

It seemed like everyone was arguing over who would be put into a group with this golden student.

Theo laughed awkwardly at all of this sudden attention that he was being given, before everyone was silenced by the angry redhead who sat beside him,

“Theo and I already agreed to work together! You guys know we always work together!"

Mrs Slate nodded,

“So we have Theo and Ceres as partners, now everyone else, you can either calmly discuss this amongst yourselves without arguing, or I will have to choose groups for you.”

“They piss me off… ‘specially the idiots who claim they’re your best friend just ‘cause you’re good at this shit and they want to use you for good grades.” the redhead, Ceres, grumbled.

“Yeah, I know.” Theo laughed. “They are kind of idiots, aren’t they? Then again, Rager, I think you think that everyone, besides me, yourself, and Stalker, is an idiot.” He replied, only for the redhead to gasp in mock offence, before thinking about it for a moment, and then nodding in agreement,

“Yeah, I kinda do.” she replied. The two were silent for a moment before simultaneously bursting into laughter.

Over in another classroom, chaos ensued.

“Alright, new seating plan, since you are all going to act like immature children.”

The classroom broke out into panic, the students not wanting to be moved away from their friends. The classroom was organised fairly neatly, with four desks fitting two people in a row, and five rows of desks. Ghost was fairly nervous, understandably. He was separated from his friends, Ceres and Theo, or as he better knew them, Rager and Chaser.

"Alright. We will have Mr Becker and Miss Williams in this first row, then Mr Davies and Mr Walter, then behind them we will have.. Mr Hall and Miss Loomis." The teacher began. Ghost sighed, lowering his head, before he heard a voice speaking over the teacher.

"Actually, Mrs Newman, I think it's Mr Loomis."

Ghost's head practically spun as he turned to see who had spoken, before his eyes landed on a blonde girl with a sweet smile. Ghost felt his cheeks tingle with a gentle warmth.

'Cassy! It was her! She corrected the teacher!' was the only thought racing through their mind on repeat as Ghost made his way to his assigned seat. A soft groan of annoyance pulled Ghost away from the memory of Cassy correcting the teacher, a memory that had already replayed many times in their head.

“Can’t believe I’m stuck with you.”

Ghost turned, remembering that he had been placed beside a “Mr Hall.” He knew all too well who this person was: the same Narrow Minded to block Ghost's path the day before, along with his girlfriend.

Ghost lowered their head, suddenly remembering the lie he had told yesterday.

"Calm down, Rager. It was just uh.. whats-her-face, and.. whats-his-name, y'know, the ones who never stop sucking each other's faces." 'Stalker' tried to explain.

"For someone who knows everythin' about everyone, you suck with names." 'Rager' teased,

"Nah, it's just the Narrow Minded, I try to block them out as much as possible." Stalker replied with a small laugh.

Ghost wished he could block out Mr Hall, they wished that they really knew nothing about this boy. Unfortunately for him, he knew Mr Hall well.

He opened his mouth to speak, though wasn't given the chance.

"Don't talk to me." Mr Hall, Thomas, had said suddenly. His glaring eyes almost bore holes into Ghost's skull from the sheer amount of hatred behind them. Only a single sigh managed to leave Ghost’s parted lips. He nodded once, in acknowledgement, before lowering his head once again and remaining silent for the rest of class: 50 painfully long minutes of pure silence from the pair of them. Ghost was counting down each minute, each torturously drawn-out minute, almost driving him into insanity. Once the bell finally rang, meaning that class was finally over, Ghost rushed to shove his folder and pencil case into his backpack and get the hell out of there, however his path was blocked.

“Hi Ghost!” a sweet voice called. 

Both boys turned to see golden curls and beautiful blue eyes. Her eyes were like circular mosaics, mimicking a peacock’s feathers, flecks of a beautiful green splattered through pools of a deep ocean blue, hypnotic enough to convince you to sink down into its depths and lose yourself forever.

Or at least… that’s how Ghost saw them.

“I was just wondering if you wanted to come and sit with us at lunch? Mark has something he would like to say to you.” Cassy said, emphasising the name of the boy who stood across the classroom, catching his attention and causing him to pout, almost like a spoiled child who had been told no. Ghost was too blinded by the shock of this kind act to truly process the idea, so simply nodded his head,

“Sure, I’ll come find you at lunch.” they agreed. Soon enough, everyone filed out of the classroom, making their way to the next class of the day.

Ghost found himself repeatedly checking the clock, waiting impatiently for lunch to roll around. While he was excited to speak to Cassy, he also was slightly worried about how Rager and Chaser would handle the idea of him going to sit with the Narrow Minded. He doubted they’d be too happy about it.

He was quite right.

Ceres and Theo sat patiently at their usual lunch table. Usually it was Theo who was late, so this was quite a change.

“What class did Stalker just have?” Theo asked, and Ceres hummed as she tried to remember.

“I think.. science?” Ceres replied. Theo winced,

“Yikes, he was stuck with the Narrows.” he said, resulting in Ceres sighing dramatically, shaking her head,

“Oh god… so he’s dead.” she said. “He will be missed.”

The two laughed, playing on the joke for another moment, jokingly paying their respects to their friend who was still nowhere to be seen.

“No but seriously, where do you think he is?” Theo asked, only for Ceres to be stunned to silence. She frantically smacked at Theo’s arm, her eyes wide with an unclear emotion. Theo looked around, bewildered by Ceres’ sudden swatting, and what he saw had his expression matching Ceres’.

The sight before them practically knocked the breath from their lungs.

Ghost was sat with.. the Narrow Minded?! They couldn't believe it, hadn't they just been picking on him yesterday? Ghost looked over, and saw their shocked expressions, quickly hopping up from his seat to go and explain, only for a pair of arms to wrap around Ghost's own arm, pulling him back down to sit.

"It's fine! I'm sure they'll understand." Cassy said, before gesturing to Mark. "Now. Apologise." she told him.

Mark muttered something under his breath, that Ghost couldn't quite make out, but guessed it was probably some sort of bigoted insult. Then, he sighed and turned to the white-haired boy.

"Sorry for yesterday. Won't happen again." he said, before folding his arms and scoffing with utter disbelief at what he had just had to do. What a dickhead.

"Thank you. Was that so hard?" Cassy asked rhetorically, a smug look on her face.

Ceres and Theo were beyond confused.

"There has to be a reasonable explanation for this, right?" Theo asked,

"For sure, he definitely wouldn't just abandon us. 'Specially for them." Ceres agreed.

Ghost was nervous. All eyes were on him.

The eyes of the Narrow Minded who seemed like cats ready to pounce on the small mouse that was Ghost.

The eyes of the other students who wondered why a total nobody was sitting with the popular kids.

The eyes of his friends, who seemed so confused and frustrated, even a little hurt. He understood why they felt that way.

“Alright, that’s it. I’m gonna go ask him what he’s doing.” Ceres stated, standing suddenly. Despite Theo’s protests, Ceres approached the table of the Narrow Minded, letting the air fill her lungs, only to push it back out in a heavy sigh as she tried to calm her nerves. Almost immediately, a specific pair of eyes were on her: the judgemental brown eyes of The Womaniser himself, Mark Levin. Even after having his ass kicked the day prior, not a single ounce of cockiness or arrogance was bashed out of his body.

“Well I hope you’re here to apologise.” He said, a smug grin across his lips.

“Now listen, ya’ fuckin’-” Ceres began, before a cheerful blonde spoke, silencing the others.

“I’m sorry about him! Mark! Don’t be a pest.” Cassy said. Ceres let out another sigh, folding her arms over her chest, while Mark had the expression of a kicked puppy.

There was a small, stifled laugh from a few seats over, followed by the click of a shutter, and the tapping of a screen. Ceres looked over, her face paling a shade when she saw a phone camera pointed in her direction.

“I’m sorry! Your clothes are just.. really cute! Thrifting has been all the rage lately. You should totally hang out with us some time, we can be besties, and you can show us where you get those clothes.”

Sevena Jenkins. The Sharpay Evans of Narrow Point. Nobody even really knew why she stayed in such a shithole town with the amount of money her family had. Probably to maintain her superiority complex fuelled by her idea that being rich makes you better than other people.

“That fake shit might work on some people, but it ain’t gon’ work on me.” Ceres replied without hesitation, catching the other quite off guard. Most often, when Sevena would make such comments, she’d reduce her victim to a flustered, giddy mess, so eager to be seen as cool by a popular girl, willing to do anything to impress her, even going as far as humiliating themselves, only to discover what a cruel person Sevena really is when she turned around and ruined them. The girl was a spider, in a wicked web of lies and flattery, getting each victim wrapped up in the temporary high of backhanded compliments, only to end up devoured.

Ghost was horrified by what was happening. Was this their fault? All eyes were on the table, Ceres seemed to be getting more irritated by the minute, and Theo.. he looked so confused.. and so hurt. Ghost stood up, awkwardly moving from his seat and tucking it under the table.

“I’m just gonna go for a minute.” he said, before rushing to make a break for the doors leading back to the hallway.

A while passed, and lunch ended with Rager sitting, waiting outside of the boys’ bathroom on the second floor, while Chaser was inside, comforting their friend.

“Stalker, I promise we aren’t mad at you. We were just confused, that’s all.” Chaser’s voice echoed through the bathroom.

“And worried! Those guys are assholes!” Rager called through the slightly ajar bathroom door.

“Look, how about this. We only have one class left. I doubt our teachers will even notice we’re gone, so why don’t we leave and go get some ice cream?” Chaser suggested, causing Rager to gasp with delight.

“Yeah! Can we go to that dessert place in town?”

There was silence, before the smallest of sniffles, and a choked out,

“Yeah that sounds nice.”

Chaser and Stalker came out of the bathroom together, Chaser carefully wiping Stalker’s, now red and puffy, eyes.

“Ice cream it is, then. Let’s go.”