Outmatched: Survival among the Powerful

The day the world ended was an average day. The sun shone, hiding now and then behind a few clouds. Kieran was sitting through the last days of class before the exams that would decide whether he went to university next year. Not that he was worried. His grades had never dropped below an eight, except in math, and he was aiming for cum laude again, as he had every year.

His English teacher anxiously pranced around the room, trying to squeeze every bit of information in before the bell. Sweat rolled down the face of the pale, weak-looking elderly man. Kieran watched him with fresh disgust. The man’s skin had a sickly glow, and a trail of old-man smell followed him wherever he walked. Even his name was pathetic: Mr. Wheatley.

The view outside wasn’t much better: white stone buildings rising out of the grey stone ground, with a depressing, a view as bland as his teacher’s face. The bell rang and he was first to the door, shoving aside one of the many whiny kids in his class.

He made his way through the halls, pushing aside freshmen who, as always, had managed to form a clot. Their backpacks stuck out like camel humps, far too large and stuffed to the brim with books. They gave him great leverage to shove into, knocking the kids off balance.

“Damian!” he yelled at the tall blonde boy ahead of him. Damian had really grown in the past year, now standing a head above the rest. It was nice to finally be able to see eye to eye with someone Kieran was friendly with.

Kieran put his arm around the shoulders of the now-smiling Damian. “At least we’ll have economics together, eh?” Kieran said. “English was boring as usual. The man was hurrying through his lecture and still managed to sound slow. I’m so happy I won’t have to see that snot ape Wheatley again.”

Damian chuckled. “I am so going to fuck his up car as the end-of-year prank. I’ve already welded some parts for it in art class. Just imagine him having to walk all the way back from the parking lot. At the speed he goes, it’ll take months.”

“Nice, dude.” Kieran smiled broadly and bumped knuckles with him.

Before heading to economics, it was time for break and to collect their lunch. They walked down the stairs as the freshmen and most other students made way for them, like a school of fish parting for a pair of sharks. Not that they had ever pushed anyone down the stairs on purpose, or eaten someone. Walking into two almost fully grown men wasn’t the best idea for a fourteen-year-old two heads shorter, especially on stairs this ridiculously steep for a school.

In history class, Swanson had mentioned that the building used to be a large steel factory. Most of it had been rebuilt, but the frame had stayed the same. As a consequence, the stairs had to be a lot steeper to fit. The city hadn’t really cared, after all, it wasn’t a profitable region anyway.

They reached the toilets quickly, just before the larger storm of people made their way to the canteen.

“They are late,” Damian remarked, leaning against one of the walls next to the stalls. He crossed his arms, rather unamused.

“They’ll be here,” Kieran said confidently. He was already looking around the room, rattling some of the stall doors to check if anyone was in there. Two were locked.

With a bang, Kieran smacked one of the doors. “Stay the fuck inside till we leave,” he yelled. A slight yelp came from inside and Damian snickered. “And shut up!” Damian yelled.

Kieran walked over to stand beside Damian, not leaning against the wall but with his hands in his pockets.

“So, are we still going to the gym after school?” he asked Damian.

Damian nodded. “Of course, we’ll hit chest, right?”

“Mhm,” Kieran hummed in agreement. Damian was a great partner in crime, but had never been much of a conversation partner. So, Kieran didn’t really bother much anymore. It was a lot easier to just enjoy the fact that someone had his back and stood beside him.

Kieran grinned and moved to stand next to the toilets’ entrance door, on the side where he would be hidden from anyone stepping in. He winked at Damian with a devious smile.

The moment Damian smiled back in agreement, the door opened and a group of three freshmen walked in. “To your knees!” Damian yelled.

They immediately dropped.

“Why are you late?” he asked the boys.

The middle one was first to open his mouth. “The teacher didn’t let us leave.” He bent his head to the ground and placed it on his clasped hands. “Please forgive us,” he said, a slight whimper in his voice.

Damian let out an annoyed sigh. His hands ruffled through his own medium-length hair. “I am not really in the mood for entertainment today, so do you have all the money and the food?”

The boys nodded quickly and took the packages out of their backpacks. They bent over and held them in front of them, just like they had been taught.

Damian picked one of the boxes up and scoffed. “Good enough, I guess,” he said as he took the rest of the packages and held them in one arm. “You can leave.”

The boys jumped at this cue and the middle one tried to run out so fast that he bumped into Kieran, who was now blocking the door, grinning.

“Not so fast. Did I say I was satisfied, too?” he asked in a sinister tone.

The middle boy answered again. “Sorry, master Kieran. Are we allowed to leave?” Kieran pressed a finger against the boy’s forehead and pushed him back to the middle of the room.

“What did they get us?” he asked.

“Sushi rolls, chicken and rice, and some noodles with beef,” Damian responded, checking out the boxes. “Oh, and thirty bucks.”

Kieran smiled, opened his bag and took out a roll of cookies. “Well, good behaviour always gets rewarded,” he said, smiling like a crazy person as he dangled a cookie above their heads.

The boys dropped to the ground and started barking. “Woof, ruff, woof,” they went, bringing sparkles to Kieran’s eyes. He broke the cookie into pieces, letting it crumble in his hand, then let them lick the crumbs out of his hands.

When they were done he groaned in disgust, looking at his hands, now slimy and wet. “Now I’m dirty.” He looked at the boys again. “Any of you have something important to do today?” he asked. “Be honest about it, or you will receive a punishment.”

“Jamie is asking Misha out,” the leftmost boy blurted out, nodding at the middle one. Kieran stood perplexed for a moment and then burst out laughing. “Really?” he said, his voice shaking through the laughter, which Damian joined in on.

“Well, that should provide entertainment enough,” he said, refraining from running his dirty hands through the boy’s hair. He slowly turned on the faucet and let the cool water run over his hands.

The change of pace was noticeable. The only sounds in the room were the water running over his hands and the occasional toilet paper rip coming from one of the stalls.

“When will you ask her out?” Kieran asked the middle boy, adjusting his hair after washing the soap off his hands. He winked at himself in the mirror, admiring what he saw before him.

“Next break,” the middle boy whispered.

Kieran had finally stopped adjusting his hair. He had gone for a slightly off-centre middle part this time, his black hair swooping over his cranium. Dark brown eyes pierced through the boy as he approached.

“Interesting. I’d like to see that. Make sure to meet here again before you ask her,” he said, crouching down and lifting the boy’s face up by the chin. “When you ask her out, do it confidently, smile, and take rejection like a champ,” Kieran said gently, as if he were the boy’s older brother.

“Off you go,” Kieran said, when the boys had nodded and yelled, “Yes, master!”

When the freshmen left, Kieran and Damian waited for a bit, barely containing their laughter. Before they left the toilets, they slammed their hands on the stalls that were being used. “Count to ten before you may leave,” Kieran yelled.

As they made their way to the canteen, Damian started complaining. “Why did you not mess with them even more? That was a perfect opportunity!” he said, confused and slightly frustrated.

Kieran tapped his friend’s shoulder and said, “That is not an event for us to interfere with. You know how much I hated the third years when they messed with my first relationship.”

Damian shrugged. “It would have been funny.”

Kieran shook his head. “Oh, it will be. And if it isn’t, then it will at least be surprising.”

They entered the canteen, where everyone was already seated at tables and only one was still free. In the corners and against the walls, dozens of first years had taken their place on the cold floor, carefully ignoring the free table. Upon arriving at the table, Kieran and Damian pointed to a few boys standing nearby, three of them the boys they had messed with earlier, and waved them over. Then they sat down themselves.

“Sit,” Kieran said, as he had done so many times before. The boys bowed slightly and sat down at the table, continuing their conversations with each other. They couldn’t let a table sit empty when people had to sit on the floor because the canteen was too small. The school was simply accepting too many students. Kieran did not understand why they wouldn’t just change up the schedule for a few classes, to empty out the buzzing canteen.

They opened their backpacks, Kieran’s stomach rumbling as he had skipped breakfast to save a few bucks. He took out the cutlery and Damian shoved the rice with chicken in front of him, kindly taking the sushi for himself. Not that Kieran minded, sushi was sub-par according to his taste buds.

Before Kieran could even take a bite, the room started to brighten. Curious to see what was causing this, he looked up, watching lights shimmer and dance over the walls. They were coming from the window, reflected onto the walls. He turned his head to look outside, through the window that was projecting the lightshow. The sun was gone, the sky was black, filled with streams of light shooting through it. Towards them.

More people had started to notice something was wrong. Children pointed at the windows, and chairs screeched as they were pulled back so people could stand. Some of the teachers who oversaw the canteen that day took notice of the disturbance.

Lights, like a thousand falling stars, were raining down upon them. Kieran’s eyes stood wide, like a deer caught in headlights. Was this the end?