1 The Monsters

This always happens in the end of the English period, everyday, at Beverly High, whether it's a day of destruction or a day of utter boredom, there is no way this tradition will be skipped.

"I want the assignment to be submitted next week, or you are losing your credits" said Mrs. Taylor and the bell rang in acceptance. But what will happen next day is Mrs. Taylor will be repeating the exact same words for an assignment she gave last week, they never submit it. And Mrs. Taylor loves not to be rude. She walked out of the classroom making sure her prominent heels made proper noise hitting the floor. Right behind her the whole class flooded out to the hallway, and dispersed into groups.

The smallest out of these groups was made up of three sixteen year olds, wearing exactly same colored shirts and shoes. They call themselves the "Bulldogs", a name that was always getting them into trouble.

"Any progress with the science project Crawlin? How is your partner helping you with it?" asked George sarcastically.

"I decided that I'll complete the project on my own" replied Crawlin with frustration.

"Well that is a good idea, I wouldn't want any of the monsters in my vicinity, knowingly! But have you ever talked with him dude?" George was interrupted by Kaden, "George we all have, we have asked him to stop beating us up at times, I think we can consider that"

Crawlin surprisingly said "I have!"

The faces of the other two boys exploded into shock. "You have! You have talked with the monster?" Kaden and George yelled with perfect sync, making the whole hallway stare at them.

It took a while for Crawlin to reply, because the heads staring at them had to turn back to their lockers, "Thank you for embarrassing me! And technically I haven't, he texted me, I texted back, that wouldn't be talking"

"The monster texted you!" Kaden replied in awe, "And texting is technically talking, but what did he text?"

Crawlin remembered the text that he received, something he would never forget, something that he will never be able to erase from his mind. "He ordered me to complete the project, and I said yes, that was it. And since it's been a while, and today is Friday, I am expecting to get beat up today"

"Dude expect not too, anyhow we'll meet up at Kaden's after school" said George who was late to his class, and ran away. Getting beat up wasn't a big concern for the Bulldogs, their first day of freshman year started with it, and they will go through it every week. Beat up is a critically highly violent adjective for bullying, it is not literal beating up, but what it does is beat the kid up mentally. The Bulldogs have been resilient with it, they've been together in enduring it.

"Meet you after school" said Crawlin and pushed Kaden into the classroom in his right. The last period is the only period the Bulldogs are separated in the school. And that too is only this year, right from kindergarten they've been together in the same schools, the same classes every period, but this year they made changes with their subjects.

George always wanted to live in France, so he chose to learn French, Kaden decided to learn Spanish, and Crawlin decided to become a Japanese expert, and luckily he had that available in the school. The Bulldogs were very firm with their choice of languages that they decided to be separated during the last period everyday. George and Kaden have classes everyday, but the Japanese tutor that the school hired visits the school only on the first three days of the week. So Crawlin is free on Thursdays and Fridays, and he has the liberty to go home, but he waits for his friends everyday in the library, only to send them off in their cars after the school is done.

Crawlin was heading to the library, the hallways were empty, suddenly he heard a voice, "Where are you going Bulldog?", he turned around to face the monsters. They were standing near the lavatory. "Come here bulldog, it's been a while", Crawlin wasn't fast enough to runaway from chasing monsters, he walked towards them. He was immediately smashed into the lockers, and the lavatory's door opened. Another sixteen year old walked out of the lavatory. "Hey, let go of him!", and the sixteen year old walked to the crowd and released Crawlin from the clutches of the other boys. "What is up with you dude?" a guy from the group asked.

There was a few seconds of silence, and then the sixteen year old replied, "He's gotta complete my science project, I want him to live until that", just like that, the monsters left. Crawlin was standing there in shock, staring at the monsters who were walking away. One of the monsters turned around and looked at him, for a second and walked away.

Confused Crawlin dragged himself to the library just to sit down and think, what really happened. Time flew, and the bell rang! "Mr. Bleu you've got to leave, cause I've got to!" said the librarian. "Sure" said Crawlin and he left the library. He walked through the hallways to the school's parking lot to meet the other two Bulldogs.

The moment Crawlin reached them, George asked him, "Did you get beat up?"

"I did, but didn't, they decided that today wasn't an auspicious day!". "Really, but…", Crawlin interrupted George, "Let's meet at Kaden's and I have to tell you guys something"

Crawlin walked away to his car...