Behind Our Masks

Chapter 8: Loser Battle

Penny

Daniel's eyebrows shot up in mild surprise at the sight of the classroom punching bag slinking in the door, obviously not having expected to see anything other than night owls or vagrants. Judging by the way his jaw fell slack at my entrance soon after, he apparently hadn't expected to see me either. I couldn't blame him; I was much the same, surprised he'd been able to discern my presence at all considering how short of a time we'd known each other.
I lifted a placating finger to my lips to make sure he got the picture before situating myself at the mouth of the first aisle, to the right of the door.

The whole snafu went about as I expected: Jiho, a cookie-cutter boy with a white picket fence family, clumsily snagged a charger off the rack and fled full speed like the rank amateur he was. With the burden of such a staunch conscience and his apalling lack of tact and finesse, I knew that he, like Daniel, wouldn't have survived a week on the streets.
Daniel gave a shout of protest and attempted to give chase as Jiho made a break for the door. Daniel was naturally slow due to his weight; had it not been for the obstruction of my foot at his shin, Jiho would have easily made it out without becoming so unfortunately familiar with the convenience store floor.

"Owww..." Jiho groaned weakly as he peeled himself from the filthy tiles. He froze in fear when Daniel's shadow cast itself on the floor beside him; Anyone who saw the poor boy's face might have thought that he was about to be arrested for battery, not the burglary of a ten dollar charger.
But of course, as usual, Daniel Park shattered all expectations, both Jiho's and my own.

"A-Are you okay?" The chubby boy asked, offering the awed would-be criminal a helping hand.

I shook my head, unsure if I was amused or frustrated at my friend. Apparently the knee-jerk compassion Daniel inherited from his mother applied to any and every situation.

I was curious to see how he'd react when the true perpetrators walked through the door in a moment. In three... two... one.

"The hell you doing?" Demanded the spiky-haired thug. It was abundantly clear that this one fancied himself the ringleader when Zach had better things to do.
"Didn't I tell you to steal it?"

I rolled my eye as his accolytes giggled like school girls behind him. I wondered how they'd react to a live recording of how donkeyish they really sounded.

Jiho scrambled to stand as the cadre of gangster wannabes approached, looking to the ground in an effort to seem as submissive as possible. Daniel was shaking in his boots as well. However, it was gratifying to see the beginnings of what might have been something resembling defiance behind those clunky glasses. That's the type of attitude that I aimed to cultivate.

"Look who it is! 'Sup, tubby? How ya been?" One of the others asked him jovially, as if their cruelty during their last visit was all in good fun.

"Who's the pig? Ugh, gross..." sneered the older girl trailing behind them who was just as chubby as Daniel. She wasn't at all dressed for the chill, wearing an ill fitting and outdated dress that was obviously designed with a younger, skinnier demographic in mind.

"Takes one to know one..."

Ouch. The fact that she'd attached herself like a clearly unwanted barnacle to these boys made me think that this was her pathetic attempt at reliving her glory days at her highschool peak.

"Well, that didn't work... now we gotta make sure the piggy shuts up too."
"Hmmm... hey, how bout a loser battle? Hehe."