Sink or Swim

Nash’s pov
I ended up losing Brandon in the hallway so I just left to find Bug. He was walking up the stairs with Alex so I didn’t mind tagging along.

“We’re fifteen, Bug. We are men.” Alex spoke.

I raised my eyebrow at them, “Ugh, what?”

They both turned and looked at me, Bug smiled, Alex smirked.

“Bug here needs to learn how to be a man.” Alex informed me.

I nodded and let them continue.

“I don’t feel like a man.” Bug shrugged.

Alex glanced over at me then answered, “No man actually does. You have to fake it.”

Bug and I both made the same confused face, “Fake being a man to become one?”

Alex nodded, “Absolutely. You can’t run when you’re scared. That’s bad faking. You have to face it like a man even though you’re not. The better you fake it, the better man you are.”

“Bug, you’re a man. You just need time to grow into it.” I ruffled his hair a bit.

“Just fake it.” Bug pondered on the words.

I rolled my eyes and sent a small glare towards Alex.

“Fake it good. Same for getting hurt. Tell whoever did it to you that it feels good. It makes them nuts.” Alex grinned.

“Now I see why I’m a girl, you guys are morons.” I laughed and made my way towards the lockers.

“We are not morons.” Alex protested.

Bug just shrugged and opened up his locker, not minding if I called him a moron or not.

“Well maybe not Bug as much as you.” I smirked, using the old mean flirtation.

Bug left for class leaving us as the only two in the hallway.

“And that means?” Alex crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the locker next to mine.

“Girls like it when guys are able to express their feelings and thoughts to them. They don’t want a man made of rock they want a guy made of chocolate.” I smiled, grabbing my text book.

“Chocolate?” He questioned.

I nodded, “Let’s compare this to food. Girls like guys who are like nice, soft, and sweet like a caramel filled candy like Milk Duds. We don’t like guys who are just like a hard piece of crap candy like Kit-Kat.”

“I like Kit-Kats” he mumbled.

I shrugged and turned away to walk down the hall but he followed right after me. I had to really work to keep my cool and not blush like a maniac. He grabbed a hold of my arm and spun me around.

“I could be a Milk Dud.”

I guess I was learning from watching Brandon because I used his smirk and flirted.

“Prove it.” I whispered and raced off the class leaving Alex in the hallway with a confused look on his face.

***

Alex’s pov
Damn, girls are confusing, especially Nash. I grabbed my notebook and ran off to Biology before Mr. Kaiser got pissed.

“Good to see you made it on time, Alex.” Mr. K said once I got through the door.

I grinned and saluted him on the way to my seat right behind Miss Christian-I-talk-to-god-girl, Penelope. Like usual she was zoned out (probably ‘talking to god’)

“Okay class, as you know we’re nearing the end of our reports on living creatures. Dogs, sheep, honey bees and so on.” Mr. K started drowning on with his introduction then talked a bit about Brittany’s presentation on butterflies or something like that.

“Today’s presentation will be by… Adam Heller. Are you ready, Adam?” Mr. K asked pulling me out of my thoughts.

I looked over to Bug to see that he was pale.

“Adam?” Mr. K repeated.

Bug jerked awake and cleared his throat, “Yes, Mr. Kaiser.”

Bug walked towards the front of the class, with me following behind him dragging the sock puppet on steroids. I was still sort of sore from my birthday present from Quint and the eight from Brandon, but I was just going to fake it and fake it good.

“I will be assisted in today’s presentation by my associate, Alex Dunkelman.” Bug’s voice shook a bit as he spoke.

“Dumbfuckelman.” Brandon snickered, causing Mr. K to send him a glare.

I ignored Brandon and opened the bag so that no one could see what was inside.

“My subject today is a bird.” He faintly spoke.

Mr. K sat on the edge of his desk and crossed his arms over his chest, “Just a little louder, Adam. Those in the back would like to hear.”

Bug took a deep breath and looked over at me.

I whispered, “Fake it good.”

Automatically he stood up straight and raised his voice, “My subject today is the largest bird in the Americas, unchanged for fifteen million years and only recently rescued from extinction.”

I pulled the suit of the whole suit over my head with a swift movement, changing into a huge bird. Mr. K’s eyes widened and the class giggled. Right at that moment I saw the back door open and Nash sneak inside, taking my seat right behind Penelope.

“I present to you, the California Condor!” Bug announced.

I raised my arms straight out at the sides, unfolding the big wings. The class sat in awe while Mr. K mumbled something that sounded like, “Good lord.”

“The wing-span is ten feet wide, the body more than four feet high, and it weights as much as a sack of cement!” Bug looked confident and excited now.

Bug is getting louder and a bit scary. Once he gave the signal I started moving through the class, acting like I was gliding. The wings were so long that some students had to duck to avoid being hit.

The smile on Bug’s face was starting to creep me out a bit, “He can soar effortlessly for days until he find his food, which is carrion. That’s a dead, stinking body crawling with maggots! To him it’s ice cream!”

“Bug.” Mr. K spoke sternly.

Bug snapped out of it for second, “Just showmanship, Mr. Kaiser. He facts are pretty much correct.”

Once Mr. K sat back down he snapped back to the loud Bug.

“A California Condor can consume the carcass of a cow in one day, that of a whale in three!”

“Bullshit.” Brandon snapped, receiving a swift kick from Nash who seemed quite interested in the presentation.

Bug ignored Brandon, “And if anyone tries to harm it-”

As he continued I swooped in front of Brandon. No one in the class breathed. Brandon just laughed.

“If anyone even so much as touches one of it’s feathers-” Bug continued.

Brandon scoffed and reached out cockily and plucked one of the feathers out.

He grinned and leaned in close to my head, “What are you gonna do, bite me, asshole?”

Nash was about to say something to him but was cut off when I opened the beak and let the stream of disgusting green fluid shoot straight into Brandon’s face.

“The bird will vomit copiously on its tormentor!” Bug shouted excitedly.

The whole class went into pandemonium. Girls were screaming, guys were knocking shit over trying to clear away from the spray. Mr. K jumped up as Brandon attacked me obviously enraged. He tackled me to the ground, sending us over a table first before crashing to the floor.

“And if that doesn’t work, the great bird has another defense! Bottle two!” Bug shouted.

Mr. K tried to get order back in the class, “Bug! Stop!”

Brandon was pummeling me with his fists, I could barley even see let alone fight back.

“It will poop on its tormentor!” Bug laughed.

I released bottle two and let the ‘shit’ splatter all over Brandon’s new shoes.

“that’s why no one should ever screw with the California Condor!” He laughed loudly.

Nash somehow joined in the fight, trying to control Brandon. It took Mr. K five minutes to get Brandon off of me but sixteen minutes to get the siblings to stop fighting. It was crazy, Brandon punched Nash so hard that she should have been falling over in pain but she stood tall and hit him back just as hard until Mr. K pulled them apart.

“Our team would be pretty lame without its star quarterback all season, don’t you think, Brandon?” Mr. K asked.

Brandon scoffed and said a, “Whatever.”

“Those kicks felt good, Brandon. Thank you sooo much!” I grinned.

Bug snapped out of whatever phase he was in and mumbled, “Alex and I thank you for your kind attention.” before barfing the trashcan.

“Here is a hallpass you three go get cleaned up.” Mr. K groaned shoving the hall pass at me before shoeing Bug, Nash, and myself out into the hallway.

Bug looked green, and Nash looked horribly angry.

“You okay?” I asked reaching out to touch her arm.

“Do I look okay?” She snapped before heading into the girls bathroom.

She didn’t have much facial damage besides her hair being messed up but most likely she was going to have bruises on her torso from Brandon’s abuse, but on the other hand he was probably going to have some too.