Survival Of The Fittest

"Oh, Hell no. She did NOT just say that!" Mariavel yelled to herself as she followed Jenna into the restroom.

((Continued in: Bank on This, Bitch))

Elizabeth frowned as she left the classroom to enter a hallway filled with sounds of fueding females blaring from within the restroom, much to the amusement, she noticed, of most other students present. She didn't have to ask who it was, she had watched the two enter from within the class and besides, it was all too obvious, only two girls were mindless, senseless, prideless and just less in general than any one else she knew to do something so...pointless, as to fight eachother in a toilet.

The busy-body in Elizabeth demanded she step in there and break it up, and she probably would have done, where it not for the fact that Jack was now right behind her, still standing in the doorway, almost craning over her shoulder in a way that made her feel both uncomfortable, and like falling back into his arms and allowing herself to feel his warm breath on her neck again. She did none of the above however, but proceeded to step a little to the other side of the classroom doorway, to watch as Mariavel, in a highly comical fashion, exited the restroom.

Elizabeth had to fight the urge to laugh at her. All the previous activity regarding Reese and the others seemed to have come to a distinct pause whilst everyone held their breath and waited to see if Jenna was likely to come storming out to finish off Mariavel, because it looked bloody likely that she had come quite close to doing that already.

Jack eyed her up, one eyebrow a little raised. It seemed Mariavel was not only confusingly slutty yet childlike, she was also a brawler. She only further intrigued him now, as she proved there was a lot more depth to her than to a common school tramp. Yet he still didn't feel ready to confront her again.

As for Panom, he stil held back in the classroom, watching from afar. He couldn't understand what was going on, not because of any language dificulties but because even in the slums back home, girls would never fight, they certainly wouldn't attack men and they definately, under no-situation, would get away with it.

The three now formed a sort of triangle, Jack on one side of the door, Liz on the other and Panom between them, further back, still in class. Perhaps Mariavel could be included to make it a diamond.

With tension so high and the school trouble-maker, busy-body and trained attack puppy all being present now, arranged almost into a neat formation, it seemed that the path from now could wind in any direction.

((Continued from: Bank on This, Bitch))

Mariavel exited the bathroom and took a look around her. Everyone was staring at her with wide eyes. She couldn't blame them either, she looked like shit.

"M-my head hurts..." she said as she fell face first to the ground, losing consiousness as she did so. Guess she hit her head harder then expected.

Jack and Elizabeth looked one another in the eye, then Jack looked to John and nodded to him meaningfully. Then he and Elizabeth procceeded to rush into action.

Jack turned her over and checked her breathing, pulse and other vital signs to ensure she was alright in those senses. She was, thankfully because Jack had little knowledge of resuscitation techniques, and would have had no idea of how to act if, for example, Mariavel was to have stopped breathing.

He noted the position of Lavender nearby and hoped that John had understood by his nod to make sure that anyone likely to stir up a fuss, her being a prime suspect, was kept at bay.

Elizabeth went straight for Marivels semi-closed eyelids and checked for consciousness. None. She called Mariavels name, loudly but calmy, so as not to shock the girl awake. She went to tap Mariavels cheeks to stir up consciousness but decided against it, considering how much she had already been slapped about by Jenna.

Panom at most showed mere recognition to the fact that the girl  had fallen but when he saw Elizabeth rush to help her he was stirred in his heart to re-act.

He was an un-inteligent boy in a foreign country and thus wouldn't have been much help were it not that he faced situations like this every day back home.

He fell down beside Jack (too shy to do so besides Liz) and grunted to spur his rarely used voice to utter a few simple words:

"Second degree complex consussion. Someone get a ambulance."

Most people were shocked at discovering Panom even knew English, let alone anything about medicine, though in hindsight they would reflect that in truth, he hadn't really helped the situation by merely stating medical terminology.

Jack took Liz's place whilst she pulled out her cell-phone with the intention of phoning an ambulance direct, rather than going through the fuss of school procedure, a small victory against the system she hoped to accomplish through this, and he proceeded to call her name as Liz had:

"Hey Mariavel, remember me, Jack, you look worse than I did love, you wanna wake up now though huh?  Come on."

In mild distress, he turned to look at Lavender.

He was about to walk off and get high, maybe chase some kid for being a giant rat king? But then the commotion of mariavel and jenna had caused him to stop. He watched fopr a while as the people crowded around her.

She had people there for her, she would be ok but something in him made him walk to her, that instinct to protect his own maybe? or get a sneak peek up her skirt? Which im sure is what all the boys were doing.

He crouched down beside mariavels head, and stared down at her with a smile, He pulled her eyelids up and laughed at how fucked up her eyes looked. "Yeah shes fucked up alright" He gave the girl a small slap around the face "Come on girly you've taken worse beatings, get the fuck up".

He didnt know what to do but he had to something, other wise he wouldent feel right smoking a reefer knowin he didnt help a friend in need. he moved his hands out, pushing the other students back a bit before putting his arm underneath her head, He proceeded to put his other arm under her legs before slowly picking the girl up. "You guys phone an ambulance, do what you want but im gonna take her to the medical room, better than you lot loomin over her get free feels."

"Real fucking smart slapping her mate, I read somewhere that thats exactly what you do to someone with a consussion." Jack grunted and stepped back, his shoulders thorwn forward, his arms slung back and a look of indignation on his face. "Yeah, and I'm sure knocking her head about in her skull by running up and down the school hallways is gonna help her out a bunch as well." He had not enough sense under situations such as these to act in a way that would not (most likely) result in a bunch of guys stamping his head into the cermaic bowl of a school lavatory. He didn't think about his actions but merely allowed his re-actions to flow free, and his instant re-action to a guy who obviously knew more about consussions from the perspective of putting someone into one rather than handling someone already in one man-handling someone in such a state so roughly was to switch on him.

Elizabeth chimed in:

"I highly doubt you of all people would know where the medical room actually is Seth, I mean I know you've put your fair few girls and perhaps the weedier half of the years male members away in that room, well done by the well, great work, but with a skull as thick as yours I doubt you've ever had to pop down there to get a bumped head sticker or any other such trophy for all your troubles. So now you've picked her up and already rattled what little brain the poor girl still has in that infinitisimal cavity of her's (and believe me I mean the one in her skull) how about you pass her over to a sutdent who might actually know where to go from here?" She raised an eyebrow.

Whilst Jack felt no fear because he didn't think about consequences in the heat of the moment, Elizabeth's absolute morality gave her strength enough to stare down even the toughest of men, and in her view, Seth was not even close to attaining such a title. She had no interest in his reputation, it was unlikely any man, no matter how fucked up, would attack a girl anyway, and the female member of his gang whose responsibility that was was, well, not too much of a worry to Elizabeth just now. However had Seth been Ivan the Terrible or Vlad the Impaler or any other such man whom any inteligent woman would fear to verbally reprimand over any matter, Elizabeth lacked this fear. perhaps she was not as smart as many people believed, perhaps the physical protection of Jack made her confident, there were many different opinions held by the majority of the school over why Elizabeth could behave how she did to whom she did, in truth not even she would be able to fathom one true reason, all that was certain was she did.

Panom merely stood by and watched.

The sinner tries to be the saint for once and is given bullshit for it. A simple, 'thats just gonna hurt her more but we appreciate your help' would of done but everyone has to be a smartass.

He shook his head and sighed as he placed mariavel back on the floor slowly. To be honest he couldent care what the girl said, she was to stuck up for him, to smart aswell. Even if he did come out with a witty comment it was very likely that she would come back with one just as witty, then what? knock her out. No it wasnt his style.
But the boy on the other hand.

He slowly raised and looked at jack and walked up to him. His hand was raised and shoved into jacks shoulder as he grabbed a clump of his clothing. "Now the girl i can handle, but you, i dont like your tone, You should watch your fuckin mouth kid, Maybe i might find it smart to slap you around instead, hell it would be a lot more satisfying." He smiled at jack as he pushed him into one of the lockers. His head slightly cocked as he waited to get a punch in the jaw, then things would get interesting.

John watched as everything went on, he felt sorry for Mariavel. She must have a tough life being part of a gang. He cringed as Elizabeth spoke to Seth, it didn't hurt that he was trying to help. But things quickly changed as Seth slammed Jack into a locker.

John stepped between Jack and Seth and stared the latter in the eyes.

"You have two options, either you go away and we all forget this or I do something I don't want to do." John said firmly as he rolled up his sleeves. If things got ugly he was gonna thank his aunt for making him take those martial arts classes.

Jack saw the wide opening, but was not wise enough to spot it for the invitation that it was. Caught in the heat of the moment he planned on witholding no punches, he even smiled as he pushed John aside and brought his fist back to his chin then through in a right cross, the full weight of his shouler behind the strike. His arm was loose, his front two knuckles aimed forward, the weaker, recessive knuckles held back, to prevent breakage and to intensify the pressure of the fist's own strike. He was not a novice when it came to throwing a punch.

However the strike never met its target. Even as Seth waited to take it, even as Jack as mere inches away from giving it, even as Elizabeth held her breath, with little time to do anything else, a hero threw himself into the throng. Of course, to him, he wasn't being heroic, he was doing what came natural, protecting his own, a commitment of which Seth would know all too well about.

Elizabeth and Jack, however they tried to hide it, were clearly close. In Elizabeth, Panom found something, a ghost almost, of someone he had long left behind him. Whilst he could never recapture what he had once had with that girl, he still felt he had an obligation to her. Raised as a Buddhist, though hardly a true believer, from childhood he had had no reason to disbelieve the existance of Karma, he was too uninteligent to challenge such a firm belief which almost all his people held to be self-evident just through looking at the world around. Elizabeth reminded Panom of the one he had left behind because she was an embodiment of his Karma, yet to come full circle, of his unfulfilled duties to that person.

Panom did not like Jack, but Elizabeth did, and that was what was important to Panom in fulfilling the cycle of his Karma, and if he did not do so, his mother told him, he would continue to suffer as he had ever since leaving Thailand.

So Panom caught Jacks wrist in his own right hand and used the force of Jacks own strike to force him aside, out of the way of Seth, who had already prepared a counterblow, which struck up, hard, into the abdomen of the boy now standing before him, Panom Ning~Tom.

Panom felt no pain, in Thailand fighters train by having people walk upon their stomachs before they even reached double figures in terms of age, and long ago his abdomen had acquired the strength of six finely packed bricks. He breathed out as the strike hit home, as he had been trained to do, in order to absorb the blow. Both externally and internally Panom was entirely protected, and the force of Seth's strike was converted into a puff of thin air emmitted by Panom as Seth withdrew his fist.

Emotionless, stoic, strong, Panom held his gaze with Seth whilst Jack stood beside him, rage in his face but also confusion that prevented further action.

Panom's left leg moved forward, bent slightly and he stood upon the balls of his feet.  His shoulder came up to protect his chin, his fists were placed a little forward of his cheeks, left one forward, right held slightly back. His torso was loose, his abs were tensed, like a cobra he stood ready to strike. He invited Seth with is eyes to make a move.

Now it was Jack and Elizabeth who stood and watched, shocked, and with baited breath. Jack took a few seconds to look apologetically at his friend, John, and holding up his fists and nodding, he assured him what happened from here on in, they would fight together.

((Continued from: The Hallways of Bathurst High))

Bryan woke up. He had fallen asleep at his desk (not at the back but somehow directly in the middle of Gussie's blindspot) and now his paper was clinging lovingly to his cheek. He shook his head once or twice and blinked. Then, realizing how much of an ass he looked like with his sheet on his face, he peeled it off and slammed it on his desk (leaving a short-answer question regarding Voltaire's Candide on his temple). Everyone had already left the classroom, not bothering to rouse him from his slumber. Not even Mattlock, his...well, not friend, but associate...I dunno...had given him a nudge on his way out. He wasn't too close to any of the students in his class; he was always seen as some idiot who failed 10th grade English. Whatever. Stupid little bastards. He grabbed his pencil (the only one he had left out of a pack of twelve) and his bag and headed towards the door, leaving his paper on his desk. What class did he have next? It felt like this was the only one he could remember...

 Ok. Trying to walk through the door here. Outta the way, faggot. Bryan gave his head one more good shake to snap out of it and finally realized that something was going down. He glanced around the two guys blocking his path and noticed Mattlock. And some chick. And Variella (on her back as usual). He recognized the chick and one of the guys from Gussie's class, but the other guy in the way he hadn't been remotely aquainted to. He did however recognize that stance. Feet facing twelve and three o' clock, weight equally distributed on both legs, front leg bent and on the ball of the foot...Neilson ran over it identically to every new student. That was Muay Thai. This was a Muay Thai fighter. Or, like...someone who knew the stance well enough to--no, this was a Muay Thai fighter. Bryan was thrilled. He dropped his backpack on the floor and began to raise his fists, calling excitedly to Seth: "Yo Mattlock, you want some help then?"

After the bell had rang signifying the end of class and the thirty minute break period that followed, Tanesha had been slow in gathering up her items and turning her incomplete packet in to Miss Gussie.  Didn't really matter, anyway.  Tanesha was never the brighest student in school.  Not dumb, persay, but her parents were expectant of "C"s and the occassional "D" from her.  In terms of grades, Tanesha'd always been pretty average.  Seemed like she'd gotten the short end of that stick, too.

She'd silently stood by and watched as Jenna and Mariavel began their altercation outside of the classroom, and Tanesha'd found it absolutely hysterical that the slut who'd been running her mouth far too much got just what was coming to her at the hand of Jenna.  However, when Mariavel passed out in the floor afterward, Tanesha literally felt like she was going to be sick.  She stifled another laugh and muttered something under her breath, pretty much sure that nobody would hear her comment anyway.

Stupid skank.  She's just doing it for attention.  She wants more guys to look up her skirt or something.  They've all probably done her by now anyway.

Tanesha scoffed at the idea.  It honestly wouldn't surprise her, the girl was trash, in her point of view anyway.  The kind of person that Tanesha Lexx strived not to be.  Sure, she was pretty and supposedly "popular" (even though Tanesha found it funny that most of her so-called friends seemed to talk about her behind her back), but she was still nasty, and she was still a wanna-be gang whore.

The African-American girl continued to muse her thoughts right up until the ongoings outside suddenly took a turn for the worst and got real interesting, real fast.  What caught her attention the most was when a certain Thai student by the name of Panom Ning~Tom jumped in on the unfolding action.  Tanesha'd had a bit of a crush on the Thai boy since he'd come to Bathurst High, and now she approached the doorway and stood against the frame, watching with quite a bit of interest as to what would unfold next.

Attic started collecting his things, one of his books for Biology  in his arm. Nothing much was on his mind except for his ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends. He was always involved in drama with his ex's. Something he needed to stop. he already had 16 ex's in total. The whole thing just tired him out, but he won't stop until he finds the right one.

The emo kid continued to pack up his backpack and then stood up and went his way toward the door. He stopped seeing a Taneasha one of the big girls in his class stand in the doorway. Now Attic was nice but even he couldn't resist making fun of her in his mind. He wasn't much for making fun of people out loud only in his mind.  "Ummm, excuse me...." he said in a plain boring voice.

((Continued in: Every Rose Has its Thorns))

Daniel Price half ran, half-skidded through the hallway, "missed class already and I only just started school today, that must be some kind of record" He thought to himself as he  went along, humming the tune of 'Pink Cloud Assembly' to himself, orange goggles bouncing at his neck.

And where had Richard Kingston, who loved to be one of the first people at the scene of any fight in Bathurst, been during all this? The nurse's office, getting some rest after a coughing fit and a terrible pain in the stomach and head. He had been enduring it all day up to now, when his period teacher insisted he go down to the nurse's, which he did. He did not know it, but he woke up around the time Mariavel went into her concussion. Wandering dazedly through the hall, as his head still hurt, he eventually found himself in the middle of the chaos, with Seth and Brian over an unconscious Mariavel facing down the Thai boy he never learned the name of and some other kids. Judging from the boy's stance, he was just like Brian Calvert, a Muay Thai fighter. The others didn't seem noteworthy, though his pain addled mind thought it saw the frame of Jack Bexley along with Elizabeth Waters.
 "Hey Brian, boss. We in another rumble already?" he said, his eyes turning into a deceptively alert look as he clenched his fists and raised them in front of his face, shifting his feet to be roughly parallel to his shoulders to complete the boxers' stance. Anyone who took the time to analyze Richard's fighting style knew what him going into a boxing stance meant, it meant he'd be on his guard and defensive, or at least would start the fight that way.
What bad timing for a fight! One good shot to the skull and I'll probably be down for the count. Well, the Thai should go down easily enough if I go for the throat, but maybe I'll leave him to Brian. That kid over there...what was his name? John something or other. Anyway, he seems open enough, maybe I'll go for him. Might take out a few teeth at least.

Slayer @ Jun 17 2006, 07:37 AM wrote:  Well, the Thai should go down easily enough if I go for the throat...

OOC:Just a pet peeve really, but in full Thai rules the throat is game, so they have to defend it. In proper defensive position the shoulder protects the chin and throat and just almost every knockout area on the face and the hands cover the rest of the head so its pretty much impenetrable until they attack. There's no way an actual Thai would leave his throat open for attack.