The New Guy
Disclaimer: I happen to use a lot of stuff that I don’t own, like air for example, and pokemon.
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Thud! The crowded hallway gasped as one as Ramon’s fist came down. They groaned as they saw the cute red-headed boy slide down against the wall, crouching into a sitting position, covering his face with his arms.
“Man, I feel sorry for him. He’s gonna feel that one for a while.”
“Yeah, no one can stand up to Ramon; he’s the oldest kid in Level 1.”
“Do you think he’s still alive?”
Whispers rang around the hallway. They echoed strangely in Mick’s ears. Apart from the initial shock of seeing a huge fist coming towards his face, he hadn’t felt anything at all. Wow, he thought, is this what it’s like to be hit? It’s not that bad at all; I don’t feel a single thing! He opened his eyes a crack, lifted his head, and looked around.
“What the? Look, the new kid’s okay. He isn’t even scratched.” Shocked and confused voices replaced the ones from before. Their owners watched the reaction on Ramon’s face, eager to see what he thought of this sudden turn of events.
What Mick saw when he looked up at the place where his head had been surprised even himself. He could tell that Ramon was not that smart, but this? He couldn’t help it. He started laughing.
“Whoa, look at him. He’s insane, poor kid, I guess the shock of facing Ramon really shook him up.” The tone of the whispers in the hall changed yet again. That is, until Ramon turned around, and most of the spectators got a look at him themselves.
He was mad, that was obvious, his face was burning red and he looked like he was having trouble containing himself. But the thing that caught everyone’s attention was his fist, or rather, where his fist had been.
Judging from the hole in the wall, Ramon had missed Mick’s head by a solid five feet! The whole hallway erupted in laughter.
“What’s all the commotion about? Why aren’t you all in class? The bell rang two minutes ago.” Cried an annoyed Mr. Robbert, having been attracted by all the noises outside his empty classroom. Upon seeing the fist in the hole where the wall was supposed to be, he got really angry. “What happened here? There is no fighting in school. You, tell me, what happened?!” The teacher pointed to Ramon, who had calmed down a bit now that there was an adult around.
“He…he started it.” Ramon whined, pointing his remaining hand at Mick, who was still sitting cuddled against the wall, shaking with laughter.
“No excuses. I thought I told you to show Mick around campus, not try and make him part of it. And while we’re at it, take your hand out of the wall now, young man; you are showing disrespect towards this school.” Mr. Robbert knew Ramon’s reputation of being a school bully; after all, he had been his teacher for the past four years. “Everyone else, go to your next class, NOW!”
The students still standing around to watch what would happen all ran to their classrooms, they knew not to mess around in a situation like this. Most likely, the principal would be called. Ramon’s friends also scattered quickly, not wanting to be caught.
“Except you, Ash. You can stay. When this is all sorted out, I want you to show Mick around. I don’t expect anything like this to happen again, got it?” Mr. Robbert nodded to the young boy leaning against the wall, who had an amused look on his face. Apparently, Ash had had no thought of going to class anyway. Mr. Robbert turned around to find Ramon’s hand still in the wall. “I told you to pull your fist out of school property! What is it still doing there?” He practically screamed at the frightened boy.
“But…it…I…its stuck.” Ramon looked totally embarrassed as he stood there, one arm hanging limp by his side, the other still stuck in the wall. He was glad only three people were there to hear him, but why the heck did one of them have to be Ash of all people? Ash, the leader of them, the only group of people in this school that he was scared of, though he would never show it.
“Well, it’s not my problem is it? Mick, go get the principal.” The grooming teacher asked the young boy, who had finally stopped laughing and was now standing next to Ramon.
“Sure,” Mick replied, running down the hall in the direction of the Principal’s Office.
“Now,” Mr. Robbert continued, facing Ramon, “you are going to tell me everything that happened. No lying, I’m sure that young man over there saw exactly what occurred.
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Mick felt unusually happy, as he knocked on the same door he had came out of just an hour ago. He had escaped Ramon by some weird miracle and been reassigned some other person to show him around school. Judging by his height, his new mentor was probably a couple of years younger than him. There was also the fact that Ramon seemed to be scared of him, as he had seen Ramon avoiding the boy’s eyes.
“Come in,” came the same voice from before. Mick wiped the smile off his face and entered the room. It looked exactly as she had left it, except that Principal Dude was now snoring away on a ratty sofa. Quite loudly, too, he thought. He turned to where Ms. Hackers was typing something on her computer. “Um, Ms. Hackers, there’s been a fight and someone’s hand is stuck in the wall. Mr. Robbert wants Mr. Dude to come.”
“Hmm, Ramon again, huh? This always happens when there’s a new kid at school, except this is the first time he got his hand stuck in a wall. Usually, it’s the new kid who’s unconscious.” Still typing away letter by letter, she didn’t seem to notice the queasy look on Mick’s face when he heard that. “I’ll send Mr. Dude down right away.
Mick stood patiently nearby as he waited for Ms. Hackers to wake the young principal up, but to his surprise, Ms. Hackers did nothing of the sort. She walked over to the vending machine and got another Twix bar. Mick watched, curious as to what was going to happen. Suddenly, he blinked. Wait, something isn’t right, he thought, utterly confused. There was no sign of the principle anywhere on the old couch, though Mick could have sworn he had just been sleeping soundly on it a moment ago. Confused, he looked to Ms. Hackers, to confirm that he wasn’t having daydreams. What he saw made him blink again. Where Ms. Hackers had stood holding a Twix just a second before now stood Principal Dude with an empty wrapper in his hand. Mr. Dude smiled at him, “Would you like a Twix?”
He blinked yet again. Ms. Hackers was back at the computer, typing as if she had never left her seat. “Um, how did that happen?” He wondered aloud to himself. “Oh well, no time to figure that out, there’s more important things to take care of.” He turned towards Mr. Dude to tell him that he was needed by Mr. Robbert, and was relatively unsurprised to find him gone. Well, I suppose I should be going too. Shouting a hasty thank you to Ms. Hackers, Mick ran out the office after the 17 year old principal.
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Ash stood with his arms crossed over his chest watching the one-sided conversation between the teacher and the culprit in front of him. Ramon’s sure in for it this time, he thought, raising his hands to fix his tie, which had become very uncomfortable. He gave a small smirk when he saw Ramon glance at him from underneath Mr. Robbert’s arm, hatred and embarrassment showing in his eyes. He checked his watch. Hmm, it’s been 15 minutes since that kid went to get the principal, I wonder why they aren’t here yet. Barely had he raised his head when all of a sudden, a young man about 17 years old appeared, munching on a candy bar. He must be one of the level 7’s, Ash noted, what’s he doing here? To his surprise, Mr. Robbert stopped berating Ramon and turned toward the young man.
“Dude.” Was all he said, patting the young man on the back. Ash watched on, not sure what was happening.
“Yo Kyle, what’s up?” The young man took a glance at Ash, standing to the side, and Ramon with his fist in the wall. “I don’t see anything wrong here.”
Kyle? Was that Mr. Robbert’s name? Why would a student be calling him that? Not to mention that he seemed to be telling Mr. Robbert what to do. Who was this guy? Tons of questions ran through Ash’s mind. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the new boy running up, panting as if he’d just finished a marathon. That reminds me, I’ve still got to make his acquaintance, he seems different from the rest, and it wasn’t just the way he stood up to Ramon today. Ash turned his attention back on the grooming teacher.
“If you say so.” The teacher turned toward the two boys. “Ash, you can show Mick around now, I’m sure Mr. Dude will excuse you from your classes. Oh yes, I don’t believe you’ve met him yet, he’s your principal.”
Surprised, Ash nodded dumbly and motioned for Mick to follow him, but not before asking, “What’s going to happen with Ramon?”
The newly acquainted principle smiled back at him through a mouthful of candy, “He’s gonna have to make up all his classes. It’s his own fault he’s stuck in the wall; we’re not going to anything about it. Come on Kyle, I believe this is your prep hour, lets go to my office and pig out on candy.” With that, he and Mr. Robbert walked down the hall, not even glancing back once at the sputtering, bewildered Ramon.
Ash walked the opposite way, with Mick trailing not far behind.
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Their steps echoed off the empty corridor, bouncing back toward them in the awkward silence. Passing by several closed doors, Mick watched the back of his new mentor in front of him. Mentally, he chided himself for getting in a mess on his first day of school. Ramon was sure not to forget him, and he was still on his own since he didn’t know anyone else here. Feeling kind of strange all of a sudden, he looked up from his gaze on linoleum floor to find the younger boy staring at him, coming to a stop.
“You’ll find that you won’t know this place any better if you keep staring at your feet like that.” The boy said. “My name’s Ash Ketchum by the way, I just started Pokemon Institute this year, too. Ramon and his friends are trouble, they’ve been here for four years and they’ve flunked every year. They’re the oldest kids in Level 1. You want to avoid them if you can, but it seems impossible now.” He gave a wry smile, taking his cap off and sweeping his fingers through his raven black hair.
“I kinda noticed,” Mick smiled
back, “Great, just my luck to be branded a troublemaker on my first day. Anyway, my name’s Mick Waters, I’m from
“Yeah? I don’t really know. My mom got a brochure for this school from our neighbor, Professor Oak. His grandson was going to come here and he thought I might want to come too. Of course, my mom agreed and sent me off; I’m from Pallet town. Did you say you came from Cerulean? Have you ever seen the Waterflower sisters? All the Level 6’s and 7’s talk about them. They’re supposed to be really pretty and talented and stuff.” Ash seemed to be studying his face very intently; Mick fidgeted uncomfortably.
“Um, yeah, you know, I see them on T.V. a lot,” Mick stuttered, wondering what Ash was thinking about. “Say, where are the student rooms?”
“All the living quarters are located on the west side of campus. The Level 1’s get the crappiest rooms of course.” Ash grimaced and laughed, “you wanna go see them?”
“Sure, the room I got was 135, what’s your room number?” Mick wanted to know more about this boy whom Ramon was afraid of. It wouldn’t be so bad if I can make friends with him, he thought.
“I’ll tell you when we get there, come on.” Ash started running, with Mick trying to keep up, they ran laughing all the way across the almost empty school campus, bowling into a teacher on the way.
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A/N: I know, boring chapter, not much going on, but hey, they’re still getting to know each other. At the rate I’m going, this fic could end up anywhere, so if you have an idea you want to put in, I’d be happy to consider it. By the way, if any of the characters and/or plot seems kinda weird to you, well, they’re supposed to be, and there’s no reason why, so bear with it. Thanks for the reviews and I’ll try to have the next chapter up sooner than it took me this time.