Bebo

Kapitel lesen

	Chapter 1 - The Unwanted Fighter
	Remember when I told you that the last one was the final version? Well, it wasn't :) Here is a revised version. This is the chapter I will be sending as my sample chapter so ANYTHING AT ALL that you think is wrong with it, even if its just a teeny-tiny thing like a comma placement. PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME. I need this absolutely perfect if I want it to get published, and this is the one that will hook the publisers in. OK, Here goes - Matt's bedroom, where he was currently sitting, only actually fit the criteria of bedroom because of the fact that it held his bed. He did not feel safe there, or comfortable. Bedrooms are where you went when you needed somewhere to think, somewhere to seek comfort. Bedrooms were a place of refuge and this was not a bedroom, it was a prison. It was one of the only rooms in the house he was allowed to enter and he hated it. He could have had a much larger room, because it was a large house with 4 bedrooms. The only thing keeping him from a decent sized room was, as usual, Belinda. She had purposely filled the largest bedroom with junk so that Matt couldn't use it, and the other bedroom was what she called her "beauty room". This was where she kept the make-up she plastered over her face, the tanning bed she used occasionally, and the exercise bike which was still in its box. There were many other seemingly pointless things used by normal women to stay pretty scattered in this room. Strangely enough they seemed to make Belinda much uglier. So, Matt was stuck with a small, claustrophobic room as his only reside, his only sanctuary, and as he sat on bed, doing nothing, he looked over at his shabby clock, something he had been quite used to doing recently. He didn’t know why, but he always had to know the time, it was a habit, but at least it wasn’t hurting him, like some other habits could do. His clock was an old one. He didn’t remember who bought it him, but it must have been his father because no-one was ever allowed to visit him, and Belinda wouldn’t have spared £3 for some useless old piece of plastic for her only son. It was worn for wear, and the face had been scratched but the hands still moved, and right now they pointed to 1:03. He would be at school now, if he still had a school, of course. He hated staying at home all the time, and even with all the bullies and over-dramatic teachers, it was a trip out of his room. If it had never happened, Matt thought, if he’d never been expelled, he might actually have something interesting to do now. He picked up “Letter-Writing – Who to and How to” but as he strafed the pages he’d read so repetitively, his mind drifted off. His thoughts strafed across the events that had gone wrong in his life. Number 1, he was born to Arthur and Belinda Prince. Number 2, he spent the first five years of his life believing that Arthur and Belinda Prince would actually want to take care of him. Number 3, He’d spent the next 3 years of his life looking for friends who didn’t want to be found. They didn’t want to be found by Matt, in any case. Number 4, He’d cared about what his new ‘friends’ thought of him. Finally, Number 5, He’d been expelled from his secondary school in only his second year there. * * * * * The first lesson that day was Art. Mrs Fenton was standing at the front of the classroom, just as she always was, screeching commands at the students who filed in, one by one, or in groups of about 3 or 4. ‘Sort out your tie!’, ‘Tuck in your shirt!’, ‘Spit out that gum!’, ‘Be quiet as you enter!’ Matt was last in as usual. He trudged in, walked over to his desk and took his art book from his bag before sitting down. “Glad you finally decided to join us Mr Prince” snapped Mrs Fenton. Matt looked up at her ugly face with resentment. Mrs Fenton hated him, and Matt hated Mrs Fenton. As he looked at her and muttered a ‘Sorry Mrs Fenton’, He wondered exactly how she had ever become a ‘Mrs’. One thing was for sure, she hadn’t found a husband with any help from her personality. Her looks weren’t exactly doing her any favours either. Her face was riddled with wrinkles and she had a long, stretched out mouth and a nose so hooked that could have been used for fishing. The amount of make-up she wore reminded him of Belinda, maybe this was why he hated her so much. “Now that we’re all here-” She paused for moment to shoot another sharp look at Matt, “I would like you to continue with the projects you’ve been working on.” Half the class groaned and reached into their bags to take their folders out. They were doing abstract work, which Matt didn’t see any point of. He opened his book to his work and drew a square, as shifty as he could. Doodles. That was all it was, just doodles. His work was mainly just different coloured squares and circles, he even had a triangle in the middle of one of them. He wasn’t in the mood to do much today, so he just drew lines. One line connected two shapes, he drew another, this one passed through three shapes. Within about 5 minutes he got bored. He held his pencil over the paper and just pretended to move it about, stared out the window and started to daydream. After sitting there for 30 minutes, his daydreaming was interrupted as he heard his name mentioned behind him. “Just look at Matt, did he actually think about sorting that wig of his out this morning” “Yeah, How greasy it that thing” “That is the scruffiest ball of fluff I’ve ever seen!” “I’m not even sure it’s his real hair, is it a wig?” “I dare you to pull it at break time”. “Are you crazy, I’m not touching that, it looks like it’d eat me, you pull it!” “No, I’m not pulling it; my hand will come out like a chip pan!” “I’ll pull it!” said one courageous kid. Unfortunately for the boy who was to pull it, he wasn’t aware that Matt had heard them. Matt was vigilant for the whole lesson, but the boy made no attempt to move towards him. The bell sounded for the end of the lesson and Matt practically shovelled his things into his bag and was out of the lesson before anyone else had even stood up. The next lesson wasn’t as bad. He had math with Mr Gaze. He didn’t like math very much, but Mr Gaze was possibly one of the only teachers in the school who was reliable. Then there was the added bonus that he wasn’t in the same class as any of the boys who usually tormented him, so he could concentrate on his math work without having to worry about paper aeroplanes whizzing through the air into the back of his head, or paper balls being projected across the classroom onto his work. They were working on shape properties today, and Matt remembered the Art lesson he’d just come from and laughed to himself as he sat in his seat. * * * * * Breaktime came after second lesson, and Matt drifted out of his calm mood and back into the state of vigilance he’d gotten used to adopting by now. If the boy wasn’t going to do it in art class, he’d almost definitely do it at break. He went first to the library, in an attempt to hide from the boys who were no doubt waiting outside for him, but his heart sank when he saw the sign on the door. “LIBRARY CLOSED DUE TO BOOK RESHELVING” The sign was written shabbily on a piece of paper and taped to the door. Matt was stupid to forget this, he told himself. The librarian had told him about it yesterday, they were having new shelves installed and the library would be closed for the next few days. “Hey, you!” Matt jumped, thinking it may have been the boys, but he was relieved to find it was actually a prefect. “Get outside. Now!” Now he wasn’t so relieved. This was it then, Matt thought, no more running. He was in for a fight. He held his head up and walked out of the door directly opposite him, which led to the playground. Stepping out, he looked around for the group of boys. They were almost directly opposite where he was standing on the playground, and they had seen him come out. They started walking over to him and he just stood where he was, bracing himself. They were talking to each other, loudly, but they were still too far away for Matt to hear what they were saying. One boy said something and the rest burst out laughing. The group was closing in on him now, and every pupil in the school must have sensed that there was going to be a fight, because everything went silent. He could hear them clearly now, and they weren’t saying anything nice. “Hey, Grease-head!” shouted the boy in front. Matt knew him instantly, he was Jamie Foley and he had gone to Matt’s first school, Loweswick Primary. Since Year 1, Jamie had taken an immediate dislike to Matt, and tried to fight him on many separate occasions, failing drastically. Over the 6 years, however, he had gathered quite a platoon of followers, and Matt had stood no chance against them when they were all ganging up on him. Only 3 of these ‘followers’ had gone up to the secondary school with him, but that didn’t stop Jamie tormenting Matt. He had gathered a new group of friends since they’d started and now he was just as mean, if not more so, than he was before. “Stick your ‘ed in the chip-pan this mornin’ did ya?” “What do you want Foley?” Matt said coldly, although he knew exactly what he wanted. “Oi!” Screamed Jamie “I told ya to treat me with respect, ma’ names Jamie, I’m only Foley to ma’ Buds” “Whatever you say Jamie” Said Matt, placing particular enthusiasm on the last word. “Don’ you come cocky wi’ me Chip-head.” said Jamie, his face turning bright red. “Marcus, get here an’ teach this freak a lesson in respect!” A boy came out from behind Jamie with a huge grin on his face. Matt recognised the boy as Marcus James. He hadn’t seen Marcus with Jamie’s ‘gang’ before, but it appeared he wanted to be popular, and he didn’t care what he had to do to get it. Matt knew that Jamie was just using him for a bit of amusement. Marcus would have been told that if he beat Matt up, he would be really popular, everyone would want to know him, all the girls would see how strong he was, everyone would want to shake his hand. It was half true, except for the one thing that Jamie would have neglected to mention. Matt was no push-over. He could out-fight most people one-on-one, and Jamie would get pleasure out of watching each kid who came to him asking for popularity as they got beaten by Matt. Matt knew how to defend himself against every kick, punch or bite he ever encountered. Before his opponent had even got there, Matt would be around the back with a powerful downwards elbow, or digging into the ribcage with his fists. Then afterwards, Matt would have to take the punishment. That was the way the teachers worked at that school, the kid who sat in front of them with a sling and a black eye got off free, while the other was awarded hours of detention. Marcus came up to Matt and swung a punch aimed for his jaw. Matt didn’t really want to hurt Marcus, because he used to be Matt’s friend during years 1 and 2 of primary school. He was a good kid; he’d just got in with the wrong crowd. Matt ducked out the way. Marcus stood there, shocked, with his hand still outstretched. Matt jumped up for it from his duck and held it while he kicked Marcus hard in the knee. He held Marcus’s arm firmly in his grip and twisted it so it was behind his back. He bent down, putting Marcus in an awkward position, and Matt pushed hard on his arm, forcing him to the floor. Now Marcus was down, and unable to fight back, that was it, Matt had won. Matt stood up, facing the crowd of onlookers. They were silent for a second, but then they erupted into cheers. A boy came out from the crowd and patted him on the shoulder, but quickly retreated back into the crowd as he saw it parting. In the gap that formed, Mrs Fenton walked through and grabbed Matt’s arm, dragging him off to the principal’s office. She had a very distinct smile on her face, considering she was supposed to be annoyed with Matt. “You again, is it Prince? Oh, Mr Brailey will be glad to punish you!” The tone in her voice made it seem that the reason she went into teaching wasn’t to teach kids at all. She got too much satisfaction from punishing kids to be a normal teacher. He looked back to see everyone staring at him, but the person he noticed the most was Jamie. He just stood in front of the crowd and waved mockingly to Matt, never taking his eyes off him until Matt was inside the school. Matt knew that as soon as He’d gone in, Jamie would turn round to the crowd, shout out some insults at Marcus, kick the dirt in his face, and then run off laughing with his ‘gang’. Marcus was just lucky Matt hadn’t decided to fight him properly, or it wouldn’t just be mud he’d have to wipe off his face. * * * * * Matt spent the rest of the day alone outside the principal’s office with some work to get on with, he wasn't allowed to talk to anyone, but more reassuringly, no-one was allowed to talk to him either. He was being punished with the one thing he craved. Solitude. The next day didn’t go so well. * * * * * He walked onto the playground at the start of the day alone. His parents had never brought him to school, from year 2 upwards he had had to find his own way to school and his own way back and even before that his parents didn’t take him. He had gone with the family who had lived down the road. He didn’t mind the fact that they couldn’t take him anymore when their child moved up to secondary school. They never spoke anyway, and Matt knew the way well enough. By the time he’d moved up to secondary school, though, they had moved away, and Matt had had to find his own way there for the first week. During the day he had learnt, through the rumours that passed around the school, and it had been confirmed by Marcus’ bragging, that the boy who he’d fought yesterday had an older brother. This older brother wasn’t going to take kindly to his little brother getting ‘beaten up’ and was going to be waiting outside the gates for Matt at the end of the day. His last lesson on that day was German, and his teacher was Mrs Hëissen, although she preferred to be called ‘Frau’ Hëissen. Matt copied down the words on the board with half a heart. ‘Pferd – Horse’ ‘Hund – Dog’ ‘Katze – Cat’ He wasn’t really focusing on the work, he couldn’t, he just sat with Kaman by his side and together they thought long and hard about how he was going to get himself out of the mess he’d got himself into. As he sat in his seat, now having copied down the words and waiting for Frau Hëissen to put more up, he strained his ears for the sound of the bell. It didn’t come before Frau Hëissen had got up to put more words on the board, so Matt copied down the new words, it seemed that they had moved from animals finally, as the new words were all foods. Unless Frau Hëissen had a pet cheeseburger, Matt joked to himself. ‘Käse - Cheese’ ‘Karroten - Carrot’ ‘Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte – Bla-‘ Matt never actually found out what a Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte was though, because the bell rang and Matt rushed to the door. His first instinct was to get out, preferably before Marcus’ older brother could get to the gates. He was a fighter, but he preferred if he could avoid fights the best he could. When he reached the gates, he felt all of the colour drain from his face, as he saw that he couldn’t avoid it. The boy was standing at the gates, much taller and heavier than Matt was, he must have been about 16, which made him 3 years older. His dirty brown hair hung down his head, just passing his shoulders, and his he wore a thick leather jacket with baggy jeans and he had a cigarette in his mouth. His eyes were scanning the children coming out, presumably looking for Matt. Matt hoped there would be a teacher standing around somewhere, but this was the day they had the after school staff meetings. Matt’s second thought was that he could stay concealed among the other students, but the whole crowd around him knew what was going to happen, and he was forced out like a rat in a trap. “That’s him Kev, that’s the little git who hit me!” he heard Marcus shout from somewhere behind him in the crowd. Kev ran for Matt with eyes that reminded him of a furious tiger. Within seconds he was firing powerful punches at Matt, who miraculously managed to dodge some of them, though how he did it, he wasn’t quite sure. Three punches hit him. One hit him in the chest, one in the face and last drove into his shoulder. He grabbed his shoulder, and turned to face the other way instinctively. Matt felt a sharp pain in his back where ‘Kev’ had obviously kicked him. The sheer force of it sent him hurtling forwards and he landed flat on his face. He felt blood coming from his forehead where he’d hit it on the pavement. The crowd cheered and he knew that it was all over, Matt was on the floor, Kev had won and Matt had lost. So Matt just stayed where he was, battered, face down in the dirt. Matt’s senses went into overtime when the crowd stopped cheering. Something was wrong, very wrong. Another surge of pain overcame his right leg, this time so intense and sudden that he couldn’t prevent himself from yelping in pain. This was not some simple playground fight anymore, this was much more dangerous. This realisation hit him hard and fast, and he knew that he had to move, but with his now more than likely broken leg, that wasn’t going to be so easy. He managed to turn himself over, and as he did so, he heard a clanging near him where something metal had been dropped. He searched frantically to see what made the sound, and his eyes met with a small metal pole, about the length of his forearm, rolling towards him. He had no time to think about it, so he reached for the pole and grabbed it with his right hand. He got up slowly and painfully, and saw a group of people were standing around a girl who was lying on the floor with a bloody nose. Kev was standing over the girl, shouting things at her which Matt couldn’t make out. This girl had obviously come out to give Matt the weapon, and then stood between him and Kev to give Matt time to get up. Well, it had worked, but it had cost her. Now it was Matt’s turn to help her. “Oi” he shouted “didn’t your mother ever teach you never to hit a lady?” This got Kev’s attention and now he was bounding towards Matt again. This time Matt was ready. He stepped back just as Kev was about to hit him, and Kev stumbled forwards in the shock of missing the punch. Matt took the pole and swung it up towards Kev’s chin using the back of his hand and caught him before he managed to regain his composure. This startled Kev even more, and Matt took his chance. He swung the pole round into Kev’s ribcage and thrust his knee firmly into Kev’s chest. This took the wind out of him and Matt ran around the back of him and slammed the Pole into the back of his head, causing him to fall on the floor, presumably unconscious. Matt didn’t want to take any chances. He raised the pole and drove it into Kev’s leg and through into his arm in one fluid motion. Kev was on the floor, motionless and unconscious, and Matt had put him there. All the time he was ignoring the constantly insuring pain that was slowly creeping up his leg, but now he could bear it no longer. He collapsed on the spot. * * * * * When he came around, he was expecting himself to be inside the health ward of the school, lying on a bed with a bandage on his leg. He was disappointed at how the school laid it’s priorities out however. He was actually inside the principal’s office next to his Father, with his mother sitting across the room from them. He looked down at himself and saw the horrendous state he was in. He was wearing his uniform still, and his once white shirt was stained with blood and dirt. Judging from the state his trousers were now in, Matt guessed that he was just dragged out, straight here. His leg was still in pain, and he had obviously not had any medical care. He was just brought in here and left until he woke up so he could be punished. His Father noticed him starting to come around and as Matt looked up into his face, he thought for a second that his father was looking at him with care in his eyes, but then his father lifted his hand up and slapped Matt firmly around the back of the head. “Oh, It’s awake then” Belinda shot across the room at him. “Good” said the principal “Now that Matthew is conscious once more we can finally address the severity of the situation.” He paused to pick up a large black folder with ‘Matthew Prince’ Written on a label across the front of it. He opened it and pulled out a sheet of paper. “October 17th 1997 – Matthew Prince engaged into a fight with the student John Bowers. John spent the remainder of the day in the health ward, with heavy bruising to the right leg and the chest. Eye-witnesses claim Matthew approached him and started hitting him for no clear reason” Matt knew this was a lie, even in the early years at the school, Jamie could convince most people to say what he wanted them to say. The situation had actually been the same as it was today. John had been told to fight Matt by Jamie. “No, I didn’t, I mean, he was told to fight me by Jamie” Matt retaliated. “That is not what the eye-witnesses say, Mr Prince” “But it was, Jamie tol-” Matt was interrupted by the principal, who took another sheet from the folder and started reading. “January 26th 2000 – Mathew Prince engaged in a fight with the student Francis March. Francis spent the remainder of the day in the health ward with a sprained wrist, eye-witnesses confirm that Francis was talking with his friends when Matthew approached them and punched Francis in the back of the head, before tripping him over so he landed on his wrist”. Again, this wasn’t right. Francis was one of the first one who joined his gang, back in year 7. He had been the one who was always just behind Jamie, living off his reputation. On that day, Francis had been eager to get out of Jamie’s shadow, so he called Matt over, pretending to be friendly. Matt had been eerie to go over, and as soon as he did, Francis made to grab him. After that day, he’d crept right back into Jamie’s shadow again. “I didn’t do anything, he called me over and tried to hi-” Matt was once again interrupted by the principal. “Mr Prince, will you please stop interrupting me!” Matt could see the principal getting angry now, his face was turning red and his voice was getting louder every time Matt tried to speak. “These were not the only fights that your son has been in” he said, turning to Matt’s mother, who was sitting on the seat farthest from Matt. He saw her flinch; she hated it when anyone referred the fact that he was any relation to her. “There have been, in fact, 17 more fights in the short time that Matthew has been in this school, the most recent being yesterday, in fact.” He stopped once more and searched for another piece of paper, withdrew it and read, “June 26th 2000, Matthew Prince engaged in a fight with the student Marcus James. Marcus received no serious injuries from the fight, but has had to be withdrawn from lessons for two days, due to emotional distress. Eye-witnesses confirm that Mat-” “What eye-witnesses?” Matt shouted “Those people hate me!” he was close to shouting now. “Matthew Prince, if you continue to interrupt me, I shall have to expel you for improper conduct in the presence of superiors, and that’s only if I decide that you shouldn’t be expelled anyway for the countless amount of trouble you have gotten yourself into, not to mention all the innocent students who were sent into the health ward due to your inability to control your obviously problematic temper.” He was shouting now, and after taking a minute to calm himself, he turned to Matt’s father. “Today, he ran off from Mrs Hëissen’s lesson, only to go to the gates and assault another person, this time it was Kevin James, older brother of Marcus James, and ex-prefect at this school. Kevin was sent to the hospital today with a broken arm and a broken leg.” “I didn’t run away, Kevin was waiting by the gates to beat me up” “Matthew, listen to me when I sa-” This was it, Matt lost it. “NO, YOU LISTEN, All my life I’ve been picked on, and just because I can defend myself, I’m the one who’s in trouble. Why don’t you go and get Jamie here now, Jamie Foley” “Do not give me orders! Matthew Prince you have given me no choice but to expel you from this school.” Matt didn’t need any more encouragement; he stood up and limped over to the door of the principal’s office and pulled the handle. The door didn’t open. He stepped back, and the principal smiled. “You’re not leaving here until you apologise for your behaviour” “Oh really?” said Matt “Maybe you don’t understand me. You’ve just expelled me from your school, which means you have no authority to punish me anymore. You can’t hold me in this room against my will, and I am not apologizing.” The principal opened his mouth to retaliate, but it appeared he had nothing to say against it. He stood up and walked over to the door, took a set of keys out of his pocket, and mumbled under his breath as he tried to find the right key. Matt was amazed that it had actually worked. He had made most of it up. He walked out of the room triumphantly, with his parents talking to the principal behind him.
Geschichte rezensieren >>>