THE FINAL FIGHT

 A Short Story by the Rossman (written waaay back when he was 15)

[Yes, it sucks... That's pretty much the point... Jeez.. After re-reading it myself, it's kinda a wonder that I actually turned out as well as I did. Wait, what? Oh, and just remember that it turns from a real-life, non fiction narrative (names changed because... honestly, I don't remember why) into pure fantasy at one point, due to an overactive imagination and slight retardation caused by one too many hits to the cranium. I think it was originally supposed to be a dramatic story, but I laughed my ass off after recently reading it again. Enjoy!]

Matt DePaul was what kids would call a "nerd". He was small, he was smart, he had moussed-solid hair with a razor sharp part, and most importantly he was intimidated by anybody and everybody who thought that they were better than him. And in his mind, that included everybody he had ever met.

Matt was trying his hardest just to make it by without being noticed by anybody, except for his teachers who provided him with his only necessary sustenance: good grades. His only goal in life was to make it through his last two years of high school, and maybe even become valedictorian of his class. It was not, however, as easy as it sounded. For little Matt DePaul went to an all boys prep school run by Jesuit priests.

As if an all boys school wasn't bad enough, the Jesuits who ran it had a crueler philosophy than the "rule by fear " boys who attended it. The Jesuits believed that all slacking, tardiness, inability to turn in homework, or any problem for that matter could be fixed by one simple thing: corporal punishment. They, unlike the boys, actually believed that slapping and whipping their students would fix the problems that they exhibited. The students themselves, however, didn't believe this way of thinking. They just liked to fight and see the crap kicked out of fellow pupils who could actually fight back. This was probably the main reason that they hated their mentors; they couldn't slap them back. Nobody, not even the tough seniors who truly ran the school dared to do anything to a Jesuit who decided that the wrath of God needed to be handed to them in the form of a beating. They just grit their teeth and beared it.

To get back to little old Matt, all he hoped for was to make it through two more weeks of school alive, and finish his sophomore year. Everyday for him was a true living hell where in which he even dreaded getting up in the morning, knowing full well that both teachers and fellow students would have it out for him, and where he'd practically live on Tums and Pepto Bismol just to keep his nerves and stomach in line.

Matt had just finished his first period Honors Biology class and was now going back to his locker to get his materials for his upper level English for juniors class (it was considered totally uncool to carry a book bag with all of one's books for the morning or afternoon in it, so Matt just did what everybody else did; visit his locker before and after every class, even though this time consuming ritual came close to making him late almost everyday). He had just found the combination and opened his locker when it suddenly slammed in his face.

"How's it going, Four-eyes?" Jason Kaine removed his hand from the now closed metal door.

Matt desperately wished he had remembered to bring more Pepto tablets at that moment. "I have contacts now....Cocknocker." It didn't come out as well as he had hoped though, as it sounded more like a question than a put-down.

Kaine's buddies decided to make their presences known at that moment, by forming a loose circle around the now quaking nerd. One in particular started tapping on Matt's head. "Yo, Jason! I think that Dupee here is wearin' a helmet or sumtin'. Look," he was all excited, "I can't even seem to make a dent in it."

Matt built up his courage and tried to swat the punk's hand away. "Stop it Asswipe!" He missed the hand, but he at least emphasized the insult that time.

Without a warning Kaine grabbed Matt by his uniform black tie and shoved him with some force into his locker. "What the hell's your problem, Helmet Head? Your fag classes pissin' you off? Don't take it out on us, ya little shit. I could waste you in a heartbeat!" He then tightened the knot on Matt's tie and turned away while starting his obnoxious strut down the now almost empty hall. "Come on, guys," he shouted over his shoulder. "We don't want Dupussy to be late for his buttfucking class, do we?"

They followed their leader to the stairway and up to the third floor while Matt just fell to the floor and hugged his knees all the while trying to hold in the tidal wave of tears trying to burst out of his eyes. He considered going to the main office and going home sick, but he had already used that line too many times this year, and all of the secretaries knew him by name now. With a heavy sigh, he pushed himself off of the floor, wiped the dirt off of the butt of his pants and went back to opening his locker.

"Thirty-seven. Around to twenty-one. And back to-." The second period bell sounded at that moment and caused his already distracted mind to lose it's place. Without a word, he just put his head up against his locker and let the floods loose.

***

He was fifteen minutes late to his class and took his knuckle-slap like a good student, and then sat down and wondered what he would do. Worried about what he would do was actually closer to the truth. He didn't hear a single thing that Father Vleiss was saying, and he didn't care. He already read all of the novels that were going to be on the final, and Vleiss' tests were always easy for him, so he didn't care what his teacher was blathering about. The only thing on his mind was what to do to Kaine. It had taken Matt a good ten minutes to clean the tear stains off of his face, and Matt hated himself when he cried. He hated those that made him cry even more, though. He promised himself that Kaine would never do that to him ever again, but he was unsure about how to make that happen. Should he try harder to avoid him? Should he try harder to strike back?

He had it! He knew Kaine's schedule better than probably Kaine himself. Kaine's next class was right down the hall from his own next class, History. If Matt could get to his class in time, and wait for Kaine to pass and say good-bye to his toadies, he could then ambush him!

The bell sounded at that time and even though he was slow to awaken from his thoughts, Matt was the first one out of the classroom, even before Father Vleiss could stop him to collect his homework from the previous night.

"Big, fat, hairy, deal," he yelled in his mind. "Like it'll hurt my grade." He made it to his locker and to Mr. Kenny's History class in record time. He placed his books on his desk and then waited to the side of the entrance for his prey to walk by. BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! His heart was so loud he was surprised that nobody else who entered the classroom had heard it. BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! Seconds ticked by like minutes, and the minutes like days. He didn't know how long he had been standing there. Had the class started yet? Was the teacher there yet? He wouldn't allow himself the pleasure of turning around to look, for he might miss his prey. No, class hadn't started yet, he would have heard the bell. From the corner of his eye he saw him. Kaine's stupid looking crew cut was visible a mile away. It seemed to take forever for him and his groupies to walk down the hall, but they were almost at the door to Matt's class. Just then, Mr. Kenny walked in.

"Hello, Matthew." He stopped in the doorway. "I see that you've decided to show up early for my class. Splendid! "

What was that supposed to mean? Had he and Fr. Vleiss been talking in-between classes? Was he just making small talk to his star pupil? Matt didn't care. His adrenaline was really pumping now and he had a mission to accomplish.

"Excuse me, Mr. Kenny, but I forgot something in my locker and I have to get it." He tried to push himself past his overweight teacher, but to no avail.

"Looking at your desk, I'd say that you brought everything. And what's your hurry, do you expect to catch a train out there?"

"Did he just ask me if I was going to beat up Kaine?" Matt hazily thought. "How could he know?" The adrenaline was now messing up his hearing and vision, but not his speech. Matt blurted out "No, never!" as he squeezed past his teacher and ran down the hallway towards his departing prey.

Kaine was in sight, just about to enter his third period Algebra class. All of his friends were already gone. Matt would make sure that Kaine would never pick on him again. As he bolted to catch Kaine before he entered his class, Matt looked around him at all the faces looking back at the skinny dork jogging through the hallway. From where he was, Matt could see at least three other people who deserved what he was about to give to Kaine, but an example would have to be good enough for them.

Matt began to slow down as he reached his prospective victim. His hand moved slower than he thought that he was moving it as he reached up to tap Kaine on his left shoulder. Everybody in the packed hall seemed to know what was about to happen as all eyes focused on Matt and Kaine. Jason Kaine slowly turned around half expecting to see one of his followers and fully surprised to see a skinny nerd throwing his fist at his face. Instinct caused Kaine to move his head out of the way as Matt's first punch ever went wide to the side. Matt was more confused than his enemy. Wasn't his fist supposed to connect with the other guy's face? All he could think of doing at that painfully intense moment was smile and say, "How about that. I missed."

Kaine's shocked expression was wiped off of his face as if by sandpaper. He threw his right hand up and grabbed Matt's throat hard. Matt was now the one in shock. "I thought that people were supposed to punch in a fight. What the hell is he doing?" he wondered to himself. He was brought back to reality by the throbbing crush of his throat, as well as by a bloodthirsty senior spectator who yelled, "Hit the Bastard!" from behind him. He couldn't tell who the call was meant for, but he would use the strategy for himself. He formed a fist with both of his hands and delivered a light but effective left-right combo to the face of Jason Kaine.

Kaine hit the floor just as Mr. Kenny pulled Matt back to the classroom. The last thing he saw before getting pushed into the door and a group of students surrounded him, was Kaine's Algebra teacher laughing at his own student as he helped him up.

***

Matt was finally happy. Mr. Kenny proposed no punishment to him as he started the class. It appeared as if Mr. Kenny himself was happy about the whole fiasco, but Matt couldn't figure out why, nor did he care. It was over. Nobody would ever pick on Matt DePaul again. They saw what would happen to them if they did. History went by like a breeze as Matt's body came down from its nervous peak and adrenaline high. When the class was over, he took his time in going back to his locker and getting his Spanish II books. On his way to Father Martinez's class, he felt no terror or panic like he normally did (Martinez was one of the most sadistic teachers in the school), but he did feel like he forgot something. As he walked in the room, he remembered what it was.

"Hello, Faggot." Kaine's low voice seemed to take a bite out of Matt's heart. He completely forgot that Kaine shared Martinez's class with him.

He froze a little at the door, but soon continued to his seat when he realized what a fraidy cat he must have looked like. As he sat down, Kaine moved to the empty seat next to him. "Your faggy punches didn't do shit to me, Depussy. If you want a real fight, I'll give you one. Just name the time and place, faggot!"

Although Matt felt fear grabbing him and dragging him back down to hell again, he thought that Kaine was putting him on. Shit, all he could do in the hallway was grab Matt's throat! He thought that he could take him, and besides, the adrenaline rush was starting up again. There was no way that he was going to let that last any longer than he had to. It just drained him too much.

"Today, right after school," Matt responded.

"Where?" A crooked smile crossed Kaine's face.

"The playground down the road, on the other side of the highway."

It didn't look like Kaine knew where it was, but he still smiled and nodded as he went back to his seat. Matt himself didn't really know where it was, but he heard from several seniors that it was the place to have fights. Hell, Matt didn't even know how he was going to get there. He couldn't drive yet, and his carpool left as soon as the final bell sounded. Maybe nobody else would hear about it. Maybe Kaine wouldn't even show up. If that happened, then nobody would expect a loser like Matt to show. He was just a nerd.

Spanish class seemed to take forever to end, and when it did, Matt went directly to the school library to lose the world in his own little reading cubby. It was now lunch time and the library was packed with students cramming for afternoon tests, but one of Matt's only friends came in at that time and found him. Dan Rawles sat down next to him and looked curiously at his friend.

"Holy shit, DePaul, I didn't think you had it in you."

Matt looked up at his friend and replied, "He had it coming for a long time. I just did what everybody wanted to do. Besides, the teachers stopped me before I could do any serious damage."

"No, no, I'm not talking about the hallway scene." He laughed. "I'm talking about going back up against him in a fair fight after school."

Matt's jaw dropped. "How, how do you know about that?" he fumbled.

"Jason made a big announcement of it in the cafeteria just a little while ago. You do have guts, DePaul. There's no way I'd do anything like that. Good luck."

At that moment, Matt looked up at the entrance to the library and saw one of Kaine's toadies. The toady laughed and shouted, "Just makin' sure that ya don't take off early, DePaul!"

Matt wished that he could just curl up in some corner and die.

***

From that moment on, the rest of the day was just one big blur. All that Matt could think of was how much his stomach was hurting, how much more his beating was going to hurt, and how he only had two weeks left before summer break. Two weeks! It just wasn't fair. Fear and adrenaline pumped through him for the last three classes of the day. It seemed like each period was getting longer and longer, and when each was dismissed, he couldn't even remember having just sat through it.

Threats of Kaine ambushing Matt, or of a bunch of Kaine's followers planning to trash him circled the entire school that day. Even the seniors were following this fight (this was unheard of, as seniors usually only lived in their own high and mighty world). Some sophomores that Matt barely knew offered to be his bodyguards that day to prevent any enemy attacks. Matt couldn't care less. He knew that they would leave when he needed them most, right before the fight. He was screwed.

***

The dreaded last bell rang at 2:45 on the dot and the only thought Matt could muster was that he was going to be killed. He slowly dragged his adrenaline exhausted body to his locker to get his books to take home. "Maybe everybody will forget," he thought. But as he was closing the locker door, his junior carpool driver was right there in his face.

"Come on, DePaul! We're going to be late"

Saved by the driver. This would be his excuse. He had no transportation to get to the fight site. He might be humiliated the next day, but at least he'd be alive. "Right. Sorry, Alan," he muttered. "Don't want to make you late."

"Me?!" The junior exclaimed. "No, little buddy. I'm talking about you and that shithead, Kaine. Come on, everybody's already there."

Once again shock overtook Matt as he glanced around to find that the hallways were in fact empty as everybody was gone. How long had he been standing at his locker? Did they really all go to the fight scene?

Matt shook his head to escape what felt to be a blackout and opened his eyes to see that he was in Alan's beat up old Chevy pulling into a crowded playground. There had to of been at least 500 high school students gathered around a small circle in the parking lot. "Well at least I picked a good spot, people seemed to have found it... But wait a minute! This many people can't of come to see me fight Kaine!" he thought. "There must be another fight going on."

But as Alan's car pulled up to the circle, Matt could easily see that Jason Kaine was in the center. He was waiting for Matt. BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! Matt's heart was in his throat as he opened the door and stepped out of the car. He was startled when the door behind him opened and the rest of his carpool got out. Had they been in the car the whole time?

"DePaul!" Kaine shouted. "Get your ass over here and let's start your beat down!"

Matt looked around at the crowd of teens standing all around him. It had to be half of the whole school! Their mouths were all moving as if they were shouting but Matt couldn't hear a single thing they said.

BA-BUMP! As fast as he could, but slower than he thought, Matt headed across the blacktop battlefield towards his enemy, as Kaine took of his shirt to reveal a body that was no stranger to the gym.

BA-BUMP! As he got closer, Matt couldn't see any damage from the punches that he had thrown earlier that day.

BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! He was almost there when the whole picture went into fast forward. Within the blink of an eye, Kaine had covered the two meters of space that had remained between himself and Matt, and had started to smash Matt's face in with a couple of well placed left jabs and a final right uppercut.

Matt hit the asphalt hard. Sound came back to him, but he couldn't understand a thing anybody was saying. He did catch his friend Dan on the sidelines offering him the use of some brass knuckles that he had somehow acquired.

Matt forced himself up and cringed when the pain hit. Was his nose broken? He couldn't tell. How would he know, anyway? He forced his attention back onto Kaine.

"Are you ready for more, DePaul? Are you really that ready to die?" He smirked.

The shouting from the crowd got louder now. Matt didn't know how to answer. Should he answer? Why did his head feel like it was going to explode? Or would it implode? He dodged another quick punch, and then tackled his opponent to the ground. For a second Matt didn't know what to do. Had he just taken Kaine down? Why was it so goddamn hard to hurt this fucker when all it took was two wussy punches to knock him on his ass earlier in the day? Matt then felt Kaine trying to get up from underneath him, and he unconsciously started pounding his enemy's hate-filled face back into the pavement. Punch after punch after punch, he heard Kaine's skull connect with the hard surface. The crowd went ape shit.

Kaine was still very much in the fight though, and after a few seconds he was able to shove Matt off of him. It took them both a little while to get back on their feet, but Kaine was quicker than Matt in regaining his stamina. Matt couldn't focus his thoughts in time to either stop or dodge Kaine's next attack. With a fluid roundhouse to Matt's face, Kaine continued with some hooks to his stomach, a left jab to the face again, and one more uppercut that forced Matt to actually lift off of the ground and spin twice in the air before he hit the blacktop with his chin.

He lay there for a few seconds while he felt around for damage. His face and stomach hurt like hell, his two front teeth were shattered, and one of his contacts was even missing. How the fuck hard was he hit to lose one of his soft contact lenses? He tried to rise once again, but pain overtook him and he collapsed with a thump. Kaine then started jumping up and down with his fists in the air to the cheers of some, and the boos of others while some of Matt's carpool friends started over to help him back to the car.

Thunder boomed in the distance as dark storm clouds proceeded to cover the sky.

The whole crowd was completely dumbfounded, however, when faster than anyone could see, Matt had pushed himself off the ground and onto his feet with his whole body in a martial artist’s fighting stance. His eyes were either almost or totally closed, and a dark shadow covered them as well as most of his lower face. His hair was all messed up and the cuts on his face were almost all gone, leaving only the blood.

Kaine stopped jumping and turned to follow everybody's stare to Matt. His heart stopped for a moment after seeing Matt's darker features and readiness to fight again. "Wh-what? Are you ready to get the crap kicked outa you again?"

With that, Matt let out a shrieking "YAAAAAAAAAAAA!" as his uniform, white blood-stained shirt ripped off of his body by huge, bulging muscles that had not been there before. A blue aura of energy surrounded Matt as he yanked the black tie and remaining shirt-collar from his now thick neck. He took a step towards Kaine that left an indenture in the asphalt.

"Holy shit! Stay away from me, man!" Kaine stood rooted to the ground out of fear, and a liquid stain appeared and grew in the front of his pants. The whole crowd was now quiet as they all stared at the transformed DePaul. His shocked carpool friends were still in the same position of bending over to pick him up before his new muscular form appeared.

Matt took another step towards Kaine and raised his head a little, although the shadows over his eyes did not lighten up a bit. He flexed his washboard stomach and rock-like pectorals as he straightened himself and demanded, "This is the last fight, Kaine!"

"Oh shit, man! Oh shit, man! You can't do this, man! I promise I'll--"

He didn't have a chance to finish as the blue aura around Matt turned red and he attacked. The only sound that could be heard was the, "YAATATATATATATATATATATA!" Matt was shouting as the blurring movement of his arms imitated those of a hummingbird as he blasted Kaine with a deluge of punches that turned his once solid body into a standing mound of Jell-O. And with a final, "YAH!" Matt's right fist connected with a solid slam into Kaine's skull causing blood to gush from his mouth, nose, and eye sockets, just before his lifeless form flew a good four meters backward into the silent crowd.

After what seemed to be an hour of deafening silence, Matt fell to his knees and was back in his pre-fight shape. The aura was gone and he began to breath steadily. The silence was shattered when three police cars, lights and sirens blazing, cut off the entrance to the playground parking lot. In the distance, lightning flashed, and its follower, thunder came round two seconds later. It started to rain, but Matt just kneeled there trying to catch his breath while muttering, "Just two more weeks....Two more weeks."

THE END

(Oh, and seriously, I sure as fuck ain't looking for any sympathy with this story. I mean, did you actually read it? I was a total weiner. This wasn't a cry for help [unlike most of you pussies out there, I actually took a stand and did my best to take a bully down]. It's basically a... Hmmm, Hell, I have no goddamn clue what it is, but I'm pretty sure it isn't a yelp for attention, nor is it really entertainment.

Hopefully, though, this will be a sign for all you faggy little bloggers out there who feel the need to share your "I was made fun of today by a bully *SNIFF*" sob stories with the rest of the fucking world. Throw down with the bully [no weapons though... Only fags need weapons to stick up for their pussy selves], THEN write your stupid little story about it. Oh, and yeah, the police really did show up, but my carpool was the only crew smart enough to bolt before we got blocked in and caught [mostly cause we were so late getting there that we were the last car in the lot, and the cops set up their blockade past our parking spot... But that's neither here nor there].)