Before The Bell Rings - Spencer White

episode X

"Welcome to the Interschool Basketball Semifinals! Give it up for the Hartley High Ibis!" Mrs.Woodsy yelled in her microphone while the mascot entered the court running.

The crowd went wild. Everyone was clapping and cheering. I just felt self-conscious about returning with my peers. But Quinni was right, they seemed to have forget all about it. I stayed silent. Only Sasha and Quinni were encouraging our school's mascot. A fucking Bin Chicken. With this emblem to represent our school, no wonder why we were a joke to the other schools.

"I hate this school." Darren said, repelled.

"I still can't believe they have a bin chicken as our mascot." Quinni declared, shocked.

"I know! It was a landslide." Sasha laughed.

"It makes sense. This school is a bin." I stated. Amerie agreeing with me.

"Where's your school spirit?" Quinni reached out, grabbing my knees.

"Left it at home. With my dignity."

The cheering faded as Mrs.Woodsy started speaking up again.

"Just before we kick off, it's time to announce the winner a little clean up competition that we had here at Hartley High."

Quinni's face lit up.

"Not that it needed cleaning up or anything like that. It's just a little friendly-"

"Cut to the chase." Quinni yelled, eager to know the winner, interrupting our principle. I smiled at her excitement, I really hoped she would win.

"Okay. Thank you, Quinni. Um, so the winner of the PlayStation gift voucher is Jenny Pitcher."

Sasha tried to cheer up Quinni but she was clearly more upset than she let on.

"Okay lets her it for the teams!" Mrs.Woodsy finally announced, putting the microphone down for the rest of the evening.

Once again, the crowd went berserk. People screaming, clapping and handing their signs out. The team ran on the court, hyping each other up for the game. Of course, Spider was number 69. It made so much sense.

"Jesus Christ, Malakai looks how I feel." I said to Darren and Amerie.

The game started strong, our team was doing good on the court. We looked at each other, worried. We could all see something wrong was going on with Malakai. He constantly looked out of breath and his head clearly wasn't in the game. There was something up and I somehow knew he was still dealing with the cop's assault. He certainly hadn't processed his trauma. The buzzer sound rang and the team all went into the locker room for a break. Malakai jogging behind the rest of them. Amerie started shaking her legs, she was distraught. Darren noticed it too.

"C'mon, let's see if he's okay." Darren proposed. I joined them and we all left the bleachers to go find Malakai. We wanted to reassure our friend. We reached the lockers' door and entered. We stood behind the coach.

"What'd you just say? Malakai heatedly asked to Spider.

They both started strutting towards one another.

"Okay, okay."

"Go fuck yourself!" Malakai yelled while pushing Spider against the tiled wall.

He pushed him back.

"Hey, hey, hey! That's enough." The coach ordered but that didn't matter. The two boys went at each other's throat. It all escalated very quickly. Before anyone was punched, the other players had separated them. Good, I thought.

"What's gotten into you mates?" The coach yelled.

Malakai got out of their grips.

"Fuck you! Fuck all of you!" He shouted and turned his back on his team. Now, noticing that the three of us were standing there. Noticing Amerie had seen it all. "I'm done." His voice broke. Just like that, he walked away. Amerie knee he wasn't just referring to the game but also their relationship.