“What took you so long, useless?! Get your green ass over here and give us the goods!” Opening his eyes, Kael looked around. Trying to identify the source of the disgusting voice. He quickly spotted a group of boys around his age sitting at one of the stone tables meant for people to eat at. The resting area was hidden behind a few trees, out of view from the entrance, explaining why he had not seen it before.
The shout seemed to have come from one of the three boys occupying one of the tables. Listening closely, Kael could make out scraps of their conversation, letting him identify the one that had shouted. He, just like the others, wore a burgundy colored school uniform that would have made them look quite distinguished were it not for their sitting posture and the nasty look on their faces. Before Kael had a chance to inspect the group in more detail, the recipient of said shout came into view.
Wearing the same uniform, a shorter boy was rushing towards the tables, his arms filled with two big bags. Almost tripping over himself, the boy soon reached the others. He placed the bags down, trying to catch his breath. “Here they are. Haha! Sorry guys, the store was full and it took a while to get all the different drinks.” Somewhat surprised by the volume and tone of the response, Kael listened a little longer. “Whatever. Just be faster next time green. Now where were we. Right, and then that stupid bitch of a teacher told us...”
He stopped listening at this point. His curiosity not enough of a reason to endure the grating voice of their leader. Deciding to ignore their presence, Kael went back to rest. Sadly the group seemed to have decided that they could only communicate in shouts, making it hard for him to ignore them. Forced to listen for a good ten minutes, he got a good picture of what kind of people they were.
“I did tell you though. We really should not have copied after all. You know that miss Ta” - “Oh shut up green. What the fuck do you know. If you hadn't fucked up in math, none of this would have happened. But noooo. You had to go and use that stupid formula no one ever heard about. AND THEN! And then you tell them that you were just trying to help us. Now even that idiot Simmons is checking. Fucking useless you are.” - “I already apologized for that didn't I? Come on Jacob, let me treat you guys to some karaoke. That'll make you feel better, yea?” - “You better make it up to us idiot. I don't even know why we still hang out with you anymore.” - “Haha yea, well at least he has money right. Good for something at least.” - "Uh yea! Let's go!"
The last two comments were the first thing he had heard the other two boys say, placing them straight into goon territory. When he heard the kid called green laugh with them as they were making fun of him, Kael almost lost it. Not only was he throwing money away to hang out with such trash, but he also could not even claim ignorance as they did not even try to hide what they thought of him.
A wallet, that's what he was to them. A walking, talking ATM. He had felt bad for the kid at first, knowing how cruel school could be. Now, he had lost all respect and pity for the idiot who did not even want to defend himself.
Slowly he closed his eyes again, waiting for the group of scum to leave the area so that he could rest in peace. The last hour had helped a lot in calming down his nerves, and he felt that he might be ready to head home before it turned completely dark. Alas, his hope for a quick and painless resolution of the situation was crushed, when footsteps and a voice he had been forced to listen to for a while now rang out from somewhere behind him.
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“Oh! What do we have here?! A disgusting piece of trash pretending to be human that thinks it can spend the night in this high class area? Why don't you go and spread your stench in the sewer where you belong to.” The snarling voice of Jacob was quickly supported by his cronies. “Yea who does this garbage think he is?!” - “Let's kick him out, and show him just what happens to his kind when they go places they are not worthy of.” Spurred on by his friends, Jacob continued. “Uhh why don't we invite our new friend here to come 'train' with us? We could always use a good target dummy. HAHA!”
His friends joined him in their laughter, almost drowning the voice of the human atm. “Come on guys. Why don't we just go? Weren't we going for karaoke? It's not like he is hurting anyone, right?” Despite getting quieter and quieter as he spoke, Jacob had apparently heard what his wallet had said. “Shut up green. Be careful that we don't have you join him in his new job.” The shocked intake of air made Kael wonder what exactly they meant when they were talking about playing dummy, not that he had any interest in finding out.
“So what do you say, refuse? We will even throw in a moldy sandwich. See! Don't let anyone say we are not charitable.” A cold shower ran down his back as Kael listened to Jacob. There was something dangerous in that snarly voice that set off alarm bells in his mind. For the first time since his first cursory look from afar, he inspected the group.
While sloppily worn by Jacob and his two cronies, the uniform of burgundy and black looked very well made and expensive. The uniform was made up of suit pants, a dress shirt, blazer, dress shoes, and a tie, all cut elegantly and colored in black and different shades of dark red, only adorned by a strange symbol on their chests. There was even still room for individuality, as all four of them had short but differently styled hair in varying shades of brown.
Another place for them to show off seemed to be the accessories. Aside from Jacob, all three of them wore wristwatches, and some wore small necklaces of silver, fitting well with the rest of the outfit. Then, there was Jacob. As if someone had told him that gold was supposed to be the third color of their school, his giant watch, shirt cuffs, and three necklaces were all gleaming yellow from where they were strategically placed to show off.
With the gold as the foundation, the sneer on his arrogant face helped bring out his asshole rich heir persona even more. Still, Kael would not underestimate the youth before him just for that. In the end, it was the eyes that made his heart stop for a second. Hidden somewhere deep in that human's soul there was something ugly and very, very dangerous.
He needed to make a decision, and fast. There was no way that he would leave with the group, but how would he go about making sure they left him alone? The beginnings of a plan came into being as he observed his would-be 'benefactors. However, before he had a chance to act, the ATM intervened. “Let's go, yea? If we don't hurry, Rolly's won't have a room for us anymore. Then we have to go somewhere else and who knows if their food is going to be good.”
That seemed to be enough for the group. "Fuck. Right you are green. Let's leave a present for our new acquaintance so that he will remember his visit for a long time. A few expletives and three kicks to his ribs later, they made their way out of the park. Slumped over on the ground, Kael had his eyes shut tight until he heard the group leave.
Opening his eyes a little later, they met the ATM's when the boy looked back at him, and Kale could see pain, anger, and helplessness reflected in them. After a quick soundless apology, the boy turned around again and followed his 'friends' out of the park.
Not quite sure what to make of the evening, Kael waited a few more minutes for the group to be far away, before he headed home. Holding his hurting chest as he walked, he cursed his life again, just like he had thousands of times before.