Chapter 3: The Plan

January 18th, 2017, 23:00

While Ray lies senseless in his bed, I inscribe my battle plan...

Step 1: The voices.

"What are the voices?"

"Classic evidence of a mind plagued with schizophrenia."

"How do we do that?"

"The audiovisual club, Terri"

"Why them?"

"The vents around the school. The AV Club is a few doors down from our dorms. So we take a small recorder...leave it in the vents above Frankie's room."

"And only play the voices when he's in his room..."

"Exactly"

Step 2: The shadows

"Explain this one..."

"When you first appeared...I was plagued by shadows for weeks. Night terrors, daymares, all of it."

"So...How do we convince Frankie he's seeing things?"

"Trick lights, a bit method acting late in the day."

"Right...and the last step?"

Step 3: An attack

"I like the sound of this one.."

"Of course, you would enjoy this one..."

"Now, lay the plan..."

"Well, what you won't enjoy is the fact we are the victim..."

"Are you just a coward or I am I the only one of us with balls in this body..."

"Listen, Terri, the only way to get rid of Frankie is to make him look dangerous...seem insane."

"As insane as we are..."

"Criminally insane, you do see what I'm getting at"

"Sure, shall we enact our plan tomorrow."

"No, we need to gather our materials first, for now, we rest."

January 19th, 2017, 06:00

A peak of sunlight awakens me from my slumber as Terri runs over the details of our plan through our mind. Stepping out of my dorm, I trudge down the hallway with a towel and toothbrush in hand towards the bathroom.

I am soon joined by Raymond, trudging in a worse state than mine, it always astounded me how different we were, but I always appreciated the difference.

The two of us are caught in a short line to the showers, it appears some of our fellow gentlemen need a bit more time than the others.

After an eternal wait, we eventually wash up and return to our dorm to get dressed.

On our way back I was stunned to find the word 'Freak' brandished across our door as the misfits snickered in the corner.

I bowed my head in shame as the collective dorms stared at me, some concerned others laughing. Raymond approached and ripped the tape that held the sign across our door.

"Real funny guys...don't let them get to you Terry, their just dogs chasing their own tails" Ray leered at the misfits as they scoffed and walked away.

I smiled at Raymond before entering our dorm room and flopping onto my bed.

"There's no need to let their actions trouble you"

"I know, just what about the others. Do they actually think that about me too?"

"Of course not, we're probably just some quiet nerds to all of them"

"I hope you're right."

"Okay we need to go, Ava will be waiting in the library"

I sprung up from my bed, quickly getting dressed while Raymond stood there chuckling

"Every time"

07:45

The two of us emerge after some time and walk towards the library.

Inside are a few students looking up materials while Tyler and Sandy read books close together. Raymond and I take our usual seats

"Where's Ava?" I queried

"No idea, we're about as surprised as you two are that she's late" Tyler answered

Ray and I shrugged before perusing the collection of books in the light novel section.

Soon Ava arrived, although her welcome was not as warm as it always was.

Along with her was none other than the bane of our collective existence, Frankie.

The table grew more silent as they took their seats, Ray and I exchanged a look before continuing with our books.

Tyler scoffed and turned away, Sandy generally paid him no mind as Ava looked at us all in horrid disappointment.

Frankie stares at me intently, his unfortunate gaze is hard to ignore. Breaking the awkward silence, I begrudgingly drop my novel on the table.

"If you plan on sitting here with the various nerds and freak you find yourself in the company of, the least you could do is pick up a book."

Frankie shrugged and sauntered over to the comic book section. Ava glared at me with a tinge of disenchantment before burying her face in a large novel.

08:15

Our time in the library ends as we all leave for the first classes of the day. Ava maintains her silence on our way. As we arrive she trails off toward the group of girls she talks to, while we take our seats.

"She's entirely pissed off at us...man, " Ray mumbled

I calmly sit down studying Frankie recant the tale of how he ruined my morning today.

"So...what were you doing last night?"

I look at Raymond stunned by his question

"What do you mean?"

"You were up seriously late last night, scribbling in your notebook, you obviously weren't cramming for some test so what were you doing?"

My lip quivered as I tried to craft an excuse, though it would seem obvious I was lying if I kept my line of communication. I pulled my notebook from my book bag and showed Ray the plans.

"This...is...extreme...I love it."

Raymond looked at me with excitement in his eyes.

"I want in..."

"In?"

"Yeah...I want in. It's pretty obvious you can't do this alone. Besides, how could you do anything without your famed partner in crime? We're a package deal you and I"

"Ugh...fine I'll let you help, but Ava can never know about this."

"I know that...if she knew about half of this she'd seal us both out"

"Agreed..."

"So...when do we complete step one?" He enquired

"Patience Raymond...first we gather our materials."

As I say this our teacher walks in and our conversation is cut short.

09:30

Today our Physical Education lesson is conducted on the school field. Coach Hastings strides in front of us.

"Today, we're doing full sport tests. Everyone line up by the baseball diamond"

He barked.

Ray and I took our places around the diamond. Frankie stayed outfield. The girls were up to bat.

Several minutes later, Ava took her position. Ray was pitching and I held the down the third base.

Ray threw fast, Ava hit it directly at him.

Ray caught her out and it came time for us to bat.

Frankie stood at first with Ray on the second and I was up to bat. The pitcher tossed fast and I hit hard. The ball swung away from me and hit Frankie square across the face...

Everyone Froze

While the coach and Ava went to check on him, the rest of the guys burst out in laughter, I managed to contain myself. After Frankie stood up and verified he was okay the coach ended the lesson and sent us on our way.

'Very nice Terrence, your first act of revenge...I'm so proud of you.'

'Your enjoyment is making me regret doing anything even though it was just an incident.'

'Whatever you say...'

Entering our next class, we were informed that our teacher was put in the infirmary with a head injury, apparently, the janitor forgot to put the wet floor sign out last night. Anyway, this gave Ray and I time to properly run over the plan while Ava was away tending to Frankie who's condition has 'drastically deteriorated'

"So, do you have any idea how we can get a recorder?"

"I know someone in the AV club who can give us a broken recorder"

"Ray, we can't use a broken record..."

"Hold on, before you shoot me down. Hear me out."

"Okay, I'm listening."

"We want him to seem insane right?"

"Yeah..."

"So why play a recorder with the likelihood his roommate might here him..."

"I...didnt think about it like that..."

"So what I was thinking...is we play a recorder at low volume with only one speaker in the vent right above his bed."

"That way only he can hear it and believe he's hallucinating..."

"Exactly."

"I forget how smart you are..."

"Now why would you do that?"

"Cause you act like an idiot all the time."

"Shut up..."

Ray pouted with puffed cheeks as I chuckled lightly.

12:00

'Finally...Recess.'

'Tiring isn't it...plotting someone's demise'

'Hush...I just want to enjoy this moment in peace.'

Ray left the class to go talk to some girls. Ava is with a few others and Frankie and his misfits left to go play some meat-headed game of sorts. So it leaves me in my classroom with assorted others.

It was nice for a moment. Then she arrived

"Well if it isn't my little French Fry..."

She strode up to my desk with an air of arrogance and clear intent, then firmly planted herself atop it placing her directly in front of me as she attempted to kiss my forehead as I backed my head away.

"What's going on, Miko?"

Mikoto Komatsu, daughter of a Japanese tech giant. She's a computational and mathematical genius, she's also convinced we are destined to be together.

"Is it wrong for me to visit my beloved?"

Miko and I happened to be in the same class at some point. I had a mild obsession with French culture at the time and spoke French whenever possible. Unfortunately, Miko took this a few words out of phrase, assuming I was learning the 'language of love' to impress her. Barring the numerous times that I've denied this, she continues to persist and insists on calling me her French Fry. Thankfully we aren't in the same class again. But her presence is unwanted.

"Beloved huh? Why exactly do you like me?"

"You, My dear aren't like most of the other guys here...in your eyes, I see a tender heart bursting with affection, unlike the brutish meatheads around us"

Honestly speaking I feel quite offended for my fellow male students, most of them are perfect gentlemen and engage in quite studious and artistic pursuits, like poetry and music, pursuits of which have been converted into various serenades and sonnets professing love for others. I personally find these annoying but this proves most of the guys here aren't meatheads.

"Miko, that's not true and we both know that. Besides what if I turned out to be different than what you expected"

"Then I will change to fit your ideals..."

I continue to speak with Miko just as Ava walks in. She glared at us with a look of arrant jealousy in the curve of her lip. Just as the bell rang Miko hopped off my desk and kissed my cheek before skipping out the room. Ava took her seat and kept her gaze away from mine. Ray took his seat noticing the obvious tension between us

"It's only the second day, what did you do?"

I shrugged and continued with work which only succeeded in infuriating her even more.

14:00

Ava left the class in a huff as Ray and I proceeded to the AV room to meet with Tom Rosten, the young leader of the AV club, who provided us with an ancient-looking voice recorder.

"Used to be a virtual diary or daily log as they said it... anyway keep it... it's taking up space here."

Receiving the recorder provided me some slight joy as Ray and I walked back to our dorm room.

"Alright, we have the recorder. Now how do we put it in his room?" Ray inquired

"A picked lock and a misfit away..."

"What?"

"Ray...I need a favor"

Down the hall was Frankie's room. Outside the door waiting were one of the misfits.

"Terry, I'm not bugging this idiot. He'll eat me alive."

"Stay calm, Ray...I just need you to distract him. Use this..."

I hand Ray a bottle of Sandy's perfume.

"What is it?"

"Perfume..."

"How's this going to help?"

"Simple...toss it over his head and wait"

Ray shrugged and threw the small bottle over the boy's head. It landed with a small crash as the aroma broke from the shattered pieces. The boy began sneezing violently before running out to get some air as we quietly snuck in and dropped the Recorder off. We left quickly to our dorm covering our faces.

"Dude, What was that?"

"An old perfume Sandy used to use, highly allergenic to pretty much everybody."

"So we got the recorder in...how do we connect to it."

"We use my phone, I patched them with Bluetooth so I can send a message with voices at any time."

"What about the battery?..."

"We don't need to use the recorder long, Just enough to convince him he's hearing things..."

"So what now..."

"Now we wait..."

"Oh...cool. Cause there's this Girl I really got to introduce you too"

"Ray..."

"Don't worry...I'm not replacing Ava. I'm just widening your horizons, my friend"

"Fine..."

The two of us leave our dorm toward the main halls for a while and talk with a few girls.

18:00

Lights out...

Perfect time to give a wake-up call to Frankie.

I picked up my phone and sent a small message to the recorder.

"Hey...Hey...Hey...listen...HEY!"

After a few minutes of collective silence, the entire dorm is woken up by a commotion between Frankie and his roommate.

He berated the man as he stood while the dorm watches "STOP TALKING TO ME! I'm trying to sleep!"

"I haven't said anything!"

"Well, who did?! Cause it's only the two of us here!"

Ray and I chuckled at the sounds of his despair as we retired to bed.

'Tomorrow begins a new step in this plan of ours'

'And I'm going to handle it...'

'Yes...Terri, you are...listen. Just don't do anything stupid'

'No promises...'