CHAPTER 9: HOSTAGE SITUATION
The morning sun kissed the windows as its rays refracted to enlighten the classroom.
The class was filled with life and vigor as a woman stood in front of the classroom with her brown overcoat covering her tight uniform underneath. Her coat flowed as she moved about the class.
Riku smiled shyly as he introduced himself to the class but after finishing his name it was evident that the class knew something he did not.
As he walked towards his seat nearest to the window in the back of the class he could overhear the students whispering and pointing towards him.
“I heard he’s the first student in two years to score over ninety percent on his entrance exam.”
Riku ignored them as he took his vacant seat; his gaze went out the window observing the open space three stories down.
The teacher slipped back into her lesson as though having a new student in the second semester was a normal thing.
“John Booth, James Ray and Nathuram Godse, who can tell me what these persons all have in common?”
“They are all some of the most famous assassins in history, Miss Debeers.”
Abruptly answered a girl sitting a few rows ahead of Riku.
The teacher, without looking, threw her chalk at the girl hitting her hard enough to force her to sit back down as abruptly as she stood up.
“Wrong! They are the most infamous, they are the worst of the worst!”
The teacher's answer held a morsel of contempt as she continued
“As your history teacher it is my duty to ensure you learn from the mistakes of the past and the first thing you should know is, there is no such thing as a great famous assassin.
The very phrase itself is already contradictory. A true assassin is never discovered and takes his achievements to the grave in secrecy.
For this semester we will examine each case by case and learn the code of assassination from their mistakes.”
As quickly as it started the class had ended. Riku spent most of it trying to make sense of such a school and where he fits into this wide machine of assassins.
Eventually while pondering, Riku found the lunch hall which was a wide open area with a high ceiling.
The room was large enough to hold the entire school population two folds. Being the new kid to the school Riku was already the awkward one out while all the other students had already had an entire semester to build their cliques and social circles.
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He was a complete stranger sent to disrupt this delicate balance.
Sitting by himself in a crowd of closed circles made him easy prey.
Stepping over to him were three guys two of whom had two stripes on their uniform jackets left shoulder indicating they were already second year students, while the third had three stripes indicating he was a senior year student. Riku on the other hand as a first year didn’t have a single marking on his uniform shoulder showing he was a first year.
With an intrusive slam of his fist on the desk one of them declared
“I am Laath Mohamed and you little fucker will be my-”
Before he could finish, Riku had already twisted his hand around the students' own neck, turning him belly up on the table with his fork pointing at his eyeball
“The year you were born?”
casually Riku asked
“It's the only other information I’ll need to put on your tombstone.”
If these students had done a background check on Riku they would have known he had just spent the last year or so in prison. If there was one thing Riku had learnt in prison was that first impressions meant everything. It was the difference between the yard bosses and the maytags.
Riku was well aware the maytags never lasted… well unless it was in bed. He had to make it known he didn’t just have bark but his bite was worse.
It was obvious these seniors who were most likely at the bottom of the food chain in their own respective circles only wanted to take this opportunity to score some new points by bullying the new kid on the block.
The air became tense suddenly as a simple lunch session had escalated to a hostage situation.
The seniors were not willing to back down while their friend had a fork getting closer and closer to his eyeball. They tried to bait Riku thinking he was just bluffing but his blank expression showed that even as a first year this wasn't his first time scooping a guys eye out.
They eventually had no choice but to step back.
After they stepped back a few steps Riku used his fork and carved a small wound under Laaths eye and then pushed Laath off the lunch table and released him.
Laath screamed in pain holding his left eye that already started bleeding.
“You little fu-”
After seeing the rest of the cafeteria fall silent and turn around to observe the incident low chuckles and whispers flooded the cafeteria.
Laath and his friends looked around and saw the faces and the giggles, they flushed in embarrassment.
Laath and his friends were forced to concede, the seniors were fuming and embraced.
Meanwhile, Riku the entire time continued his meal as he ignored their raging expressions.
The third year stepped forward before he was abruptly interrupted
“That's enough he is with us.”
The third years’ step was halted by a calm voice, his deep dark hair and eyes conflicted with his calm voice.
His glare was enough to silence the entire room and on his shoulder his three stripes had a golden star above them. Behind him were two second year students; Nakita and above her two stripes was a blue star while Jose beside her had a black star above his two stripes.
Despite their fury Laath and his cohorts had to step back; they knew this cliché and this clique was infamous for always causing trouble wherever they roamed.
Moreover because of their high ranking and raw strength inside the school they were near untouchable and had already proven to be nigh unbeatable.
The situation had finally defused and the cafeteria returned to its usual bustle Riku now surrounded by his seniors whom he had worked with now felt a little more at ease.