1 | The Clash of Gods

I sat twirling my pencil in French class. Fifteen more minutes and I'll have a glorious two weeks to myself, no more Ms. Beckett, no more French, but most importantly no more school for two sweet, sweet weeks. I wondered what I would do for the two weeks of Christmas holidays, sure, I can sit in front of the TV and play Rocket League all day, but then again sitting in front of a TV for two weeks non-stop can get pretty boring, especially when your siblings all have some new toys and you have to sit there playing a three years old game while watching them mess around with their new game, toys or whatever expensive stuff Mum agreed to get them this Christmas.

And of course there's Christmas Day itself. With Big Cousin Sinead and Big Cousin Laura coming around. I'm sure getting bullied by the twins is going to be Quality Entertainment, they are also staying over for the last week of the holidays and aren't leaving until that Sunday. I looked outside the window, the weather was pretty good, especially for a Irish Winter, where it would rain ninety-one out of the ninety-two days of Winter. And I'm not even joking, go ask any Irishman and they'll reply with the same answer.

As I was daydreaming about the Christmas Holidays Ms. Beckett asked me some question about French verbs that went straight over my head.

'Anyone else know the answer to question six?'

I looked down on my copybook. The page was snow white.

Oops.

The rest of the class raised their hand. Of course, if I'd knew what the question was I would've known the answer. We've been doing French verbs for so damn long that I have a slight suspicion that we know more about them than the actual French do.

'Ms. Goodwall.'

Emilia Goodwall, the teacher's pet. She's that one person in every class who listens to the teacher teach, no matter how long we've been on a subject for. Last year we spent a whole month on fractions and percentages and she took down every. Single. Word The teacher said. For an hour, for a whole month. That's a superpower in its own right. But to be honest I was probably the only one who didn't take down at least one note in an entire month, so I shouldn't be the one talking.

'Sam se dirigea vers la boutique. The verb is dirigea. Which can also mean directed, or headed towards.'

'Well done Ms. Goodwall. And Mr. Monroe, be sure to take down what Ms. Goodwall here said and revise over the Christmas break.'

Yeah, like hell I would.

I nodded my head, pressed my pencil to the page and pretended to write. Two more minutes.

Ms. Beckett was an old teacher who's been teaching in the school for more than thirty years. She's that typical teacher. Emotionless, talks in a drone and boring. She is said to have three kids. God I feel sorry for them.

Sure, she's nice enough in her own little ways, like never giving written homework and never giving out. And once you get your classwork done you get to play on your phone.

But here's the catch. I don't have a phone. And Ms. Beckett gives so little work that even I can get it done under ten minutes. I usually bring a book or something to keep myself company, but today was different, I left my book at home because no one was expecting lessons on the last day, every other period up until now has been Movies and Popcorn, and I thought French would be the same. In fairness though we did get little work to do, but class is still class, I can't shout across the room and have a conversation to Ethan can I. And either way Ethan is too busy scrolling through Instagram under the table to notice me. Even I scream straight into his ears.

The bell finally rang. I shoved my copy and my French textbook in my bag, stuffed my pencil in my pocket, signaled to Ethan to meet up with me and Julian beside the Hazelnut tree and rushed out of class.

Ethan Nakamura. One of my best friends. I'm jealous of Ethan in many ways, he's tall, sporty, smart, has perfect blonde, curly hair and striking blue eyes. Not to mention he's packing a six pack. Basically every girl's dream man. He's also outgoing and strikes a good first impression on anyone and everyone.

Julian Pepper. My other best friend and a year younger than Ethan and me. Julian is also hit on by many girls. But not because he's tall, sporty and good looking like Ethan. It's because girls often think he's "cute", Julian is a boy of moderate height, has jet black hair, dark green eyes and a slim build, he's also pretty smart, but spend most of his time learning about anime plot and arguing with random thirty year old men online, so his results isn't as outstanding as ours. He's very shy and often blushes when talking to a girl for more than five minutes (exceptions are our mothers and Ethan's younger sister, Helena). He often stutters when talking and fidgets around with his fingers. Oh and did I tell you he is completely unable to look you in the eye unless you've known him for longer than six months. I don't get how many girls in my year find that "cute".

Yuck.

But don't let Julian's cutesy appearance fool you, when it does come down to it, that kid can really fight, he might have a voice of an eight year old and he might be a weeb, but he can throw them punches really hard. Mainly because he's been doing Kickboxing for the past seven years.

I met up with Julian under the hazelnut tree outside of his German classroom, and a minute later Ethan showed up. 'Sorry for the wait lads. I got held up by a few first year girls.'

Julian laughed his girly laugh. 'Of course. You are the Ethan Nakamura. Every woman's fetish, every girl's Prince Charming. The captain of the Gaelic team, the impact sub of the basketball team, the ace of the volleyball team. But, no worries mate.'

The three of us made our way out of the school gates and over to the Primary School where Ethan's sister, Helena went to school. Since we go home at three thirty on Fridays Ethan is required to go and pick up his sister from St. Josephs.

According to Ethan's sister. I'm actually quite good looking and would be pretty popular, and I tend to agree, Although I might not have a six pack, I still have a pretty nice build. I also have chocolate brown eyes and an cute smile (according to her), but it's my greasy black hair that ruins my image. (again, according to her, I'm actually quite fond of my greasy black hair). But since I'm friends with her, Ethan and Julian, I'm often overshadowed. Because like what they say, in a battle between the strongest men, only the strongest of the strongest will prevail. And Ethan, Julian and Helena just look overall more attractive than me. Feelsbadman.

We waited for Helena, but unlike her usual self, flirty, sarcastic and logical, she ran up to us looking worried

Ethan hugged her. 'Helen, what's wrong?'

'These older kids are cornering Alex, Nina and me, they keep on trying to put their hands on us. I ran away from them, but i think they are still trying to touch Alex and Nina.'

Helena is like Ethan in many ways, they are both tall for their age, both have golden blonde hair and lightning blue eyes, her two friends Alexis and Nina are pretty good looking too, and I'm 99.99% sure that Julian has a crush on both of them.

'Where are they?' Ethan asked.

Helena pointed to an alleyway to the side of the school.

Ethan, Julian and I ran to the alley, five grown men were cornering Alexis and Nina and flirting with them. I can hear some of their disgusting remarks from here.

We looked at each other and a silent agreement passes between us. I glanced down at Ethan's fingers.

Three.

Two.

One.

Ethan threw his schoolbag at the one who was hitting on Nina, it hit his back and he looked back, but before he can react Ethan brought a metal rod to the side of his head.

I realised he wasn't joking when he said he always comes prepared.

Julian was already fighting two of the men and I realised I was the only one not fighting. I saw the last man trying to grab Alexis and Nina and run away, but I put a quick end to that by delivering four consecutive hook kicks to his head.

Ten years of karate does come in handy.

Julian wasn't slipping up either, he was executing perfect dodges and finding his two opponent's weak points, he even once dodged the two men's punches at the same time, with them punching each other's face cartoon style.

Ethan wasn't having such a good time. His man was at least twice his size and strength, and was blocking his kicks easily, not to mention he keeps on forgetting there's an unconscious body lying on the floor and he keeps tripping over it. But his man made a mistake in charging at him. Within a period of five seconds Ethan: Ran up the wall behind him, launched off, did a backflip, brought his heel onto the back of his man's head and landed perfectly on his feet.

Show off.

Alexis and Nina ran off and Ethan recovered his bag, that's when we heard clapping behind us.