The Mean Boys (Book 1)

Author's Secrets: Chapter 41 (Grounded)

Calum Hood

Once everyone had tried to sort out their problems in the hall, Ms Laker had us write out apologies to people that we'd hurt in our lives, and no one really apologised for what they had done. In fact, most people didn't even try to apologise. I, for one, didn't care about apologising to anyone. I hadn't done anything wrong to anyone other than Luke, and I apologised for that. After people had apologised, they had to do a trust fall.
          "Greg, I'm sorry I called you a gap-toothed dick. It's not your fault you're so gap-toothed." A jock apologised. He fell onto people.
          "Michael, I'm sorry for telling you that I wasn't really dating Calum, even though everyone kinda guessed, but you didn't know and people thought you were stupid for that, but I'm sorry that I lied to you," Ashton bit his lip. "And I'm sorry for repeating it now." He fell onto people.
          "Wait, you fucking lied to me?" Michael asked. "I didn't know that. I thought people were laughing because of you."
          "Are you serious?" Someone in the crowd of students asked.
          "Fuck you!" Michael yelled, huffing.
          "Trace, I don't hate you because you're fat. You're fat because I hate you." He tried to kill people by falling onto them.
          "I just wish we could all get along like we used to in middle school. I wish that I could bake a cake made out of rainbows and smiles, and we'd all eat it and be happy." He fell on- Wait, who on earth was that? Don't even ask me.
          "He doesn't even go here!" Autumn yelled in manly voice because she was supposed to be hidden.
          "Do you even go to this school?" Ms Laker asked the boy.
          "No, I just have a lot of feelings."
          "Okay, go home." The boy left.
          "Josie, I think you're doing a great job." Mr Hensley told Ms Laker.
          "Thanks. I feel like I'm getting through." She replied.
          "I'm sorry that people are so jealous of me, but I can't help it that I'm popular. Oh, and, I do know who wrote the Burn Book, but you can all find out for yourselves. I'm so done with the high school. I mean, I'm clearly smarter than all of you and much better looking, so I'm sorry that you're not me" Michael fell onto Ashton.
          "Oh, my God!" Ms Laker yelled.
          "Ouch!" Ashton cried.
          "Okay, walk it off. Walk it off." Ms Laker told them, trying to help Ashton stand.
          "Okay. That hurt." Michael winced.
          "What the hell, Michael?" Autumn yelled a question at her friend, rushing towards Ashton's side. "Why didn't you look?"
          "Hey, I'm hurt, too." Michael pouted.
          "I wish I had muscles," Ashton pouted. "Then I would be okay."
          "Autumn, you're not supposed to be here." Mr Hensley scolded.
          "I'm here to support my boyfriend."
          "Are you two okay?" Ms Laker asked Michael and Ashton.
          "We're fine." Michael answered.
          "Don't send Autumn away." Ashton ordered.
          "Fine." Mr Hensley sighed.
          "They're okay. They're okay," Ms Laker told the teachers and the students. "Oh, boy. Okay, who's next? Who's next? Keep it going."
          One of the jocks, Jamie, I think, was supposed to go on stage next, but Autumn decided to run to the front and go on stage. It was my fault, I guess. I was the one who gave her a hopeful look. Why? Because I wanted her to speak her mind.
          "Oh, my God. It's his dream come true, diving into a big pile of boys." Luke joked, which made the other students laugh.
          "Okay, yeah, I've got an apology," Autumn scoffed. "Besides apologising for brother being dick and being the only girl here, I have another apology to make, actually, a couple."
          "Autumn, get off the stage." Michael sighed.
          "Don't tell her what to do." Ashton scoffed.
          "I'm a teenage parent," Autumn admitted. "Yeah, I didn't wait until I turned twenty one to have sex and have a child. I don't care about age and I don't care about what other people think about this. I don't need to know what a condom is to be safe and I don't need to have a guide in relationships to be in a relationship. I am pregnant and you know what? I thought about getting rid of my child, killing a human being, and how dare I call myself a murderer, a murderer of my own child. That's so disgusting and I am choosing to live with the decision of having a baby with my boyfriend, Ashton Irwin. So, everyone who fucking hates me and that decision, fuck you, I'm so fucking sorry."
          "Autumn, stop now." Mr Hensley ordered.
          "No, let her speak." Ms Laker mumbled.
          "So, I have this friend who is a new student this year, and I convinced him that it would be fun to mess up Luke Hemmings' life, who in which is my brother. So, I had my friend pretend to be friends with Luke, and then he would come to my house after and we would just laugh about all the dumb stuff Luke said. We gave him these bar things that would make him gain weight, and we turned his best friends against him. And then, oh, yeah, Calum, you know my friend Calum, he arse-fucked Michael's ex-fuck-buddy, Mary, and then convinced her to not be with him, but then he changed his mind to stop Michael from hating on him. And to make Luke jealous, Calum dated Ashton as a joke, but they actually did things together that Luke doesn't know about. Oh, God, and we gave you foot cream instead of face wash." Autumn laughed.
          "No, Autumn." I mumbled and sighed, shaking my head and putting my hand on my forehead, my left arm holding up my right arm.
          "God, what has she done?" Michael asked.
          "I'm so sorry, Calum." Ashton apologised.
          "I have to make things right with Luke." I bit my lip and stared at Luke from the other side of the building.
          "God! I am so sorry, Luke. Really, I don't know why we did it. I guess it's probably because I'm suffering from mood swings. Suck on that!" Autumn cheered, falling back.
          "Autumn! Autumn! Autumn! Autumn!" The crowd chanted.
          Luke left the hall. I went after him. We both ran through the halls until we found ourselves standing in front of the school. Luke's sister waved to Luke as she couldn't speak to him since she was on the phone. I tried to get Luke to stop running, but he just wouldn't stop.
          "Luke! Luke, wait! I didn't mean for that to happen." I admitted.
          "To find out that everyone hates me?" Luke asked. "I don't care."
          "Luke, please!" I called after him. "Luke, stop!"
          "No!" He turned around, standing in the middle of the street. "Do you know what everyone says about you? They say that you're a home-schooled jungle freak, who's a less-hot version of me!"
          "I-"
          "Yeah, I thought that, too, and I was making a fool out of you, but do you really think that hurting me was going to make me love you?"
          "You do love me!"
          "Of course, I fucking do!" Luke yelled. "But when I'm with you, people say mean things to me about you all of the time and it kills me. I know what I did you to was bad, but you've embarrassed me in front of the entire fucking school!"
          "That wasn't me who did that, Luke!"
          "Don't think that you and I will ever get back together after what you did. Fucking Ashton, are you serious? Mary? You're a slut!"
          "I'm not! I liked Mary, okay? I didn't know that she was with Michael at the time."
          "But you still fooled around with Ashton. Fooled around with him even though he was with Autumn. He's not gay, Calum, he doesn't want you. No one will ever want you now."
          "I didn't fuck him."
          "Yeah? Then what did you do?"
          "You don't need to know."
          "Exactly, Calum. You did do sexual things with him because you both started to like each other, even when you had me."
          "You were with Michael!"
          "To get to you, Calum! To make you jealous!"
          "I'm sorry, Luke!" I cried, looking around because I was too afraid to look at Luke.
          "Yeah. So, don't try to act so innocent!" He spat, walking across the road. "You can take that fake apology and shove it right up your hairy-"
          And that's how Luke Hemmings died. He was hit by a bus. No, I'm totally kidding, but he was hit by a bus and he did get hurt. A lot. Some boys say that they saw his head go all the way around, but that's just a rumour. Some people swear that they saw me push him in front of the bus. That was an even worse rumour, but Autumn, Ashton and Michael were watching, and they knew that I'd never hurt him like that.

***

"Everybody done?" My mum asked.
          "No," She took my plate away from me. "Mum, I didn't do it."
          "I don't know what to believe anymore."
          "Mum, believe me. I'm your son."
          "You're not the son I raised. Bringing you here was a mistake. Letting you go to high school was a mistake. Letting you make your own decisions was a mistake."
          "Is this because I'm gay?"
          "No, it's not." My mum sighed.
          "Mum, I didn't push Luke. Why would I push my boyfriend to his death?"
          "Don't say it like you killed him."
          "I didn't!" I cried. "Why would I do that?"
          "Because teenagers do stupid things, Calum!" My mum yelled back.
          "I'm not a stupid person, Mum. I wasn't raised bad, but people make you do bad things."
          "Like writing a book about people you don't even know?"
          "I didn't write that book."
          "But you added to it?"
          "I wrote something about my maths teacher." I answered, sighing.
          "Calum, you need to stop thinking that you're right all of the time. Mr Hensley told us what you did. It's not even your friend's fault, Calum it's your own."
          "That's a bit rich coming from you," I scoffed. "You kill animals for a living and cook them to eat."
          "But that meat when to starving children who couldn't kill those animals."
          "Well, it doesn't make it right. That's why I don't eat meat."
          "Why are my tribal vases under the sink?"
          "Huh?"
          "My tribal vases," My mum held the vases. "Why were they under the sink?"
          "I don't know."
          "This is the fertility vase of the Ndebele tribe," My mum held the fertility vase. "Does that mean anything to you?"
          "No."
          "Who are you?" My mum asked, walking away.
          "Great. All my friends hate me, and now my mum hates me."
          "Your mum does not hate you. She's afraid of you. I don't know, maybe we mainstream-schooled you too soon. Maybe you should come back and be home-schooled again for a while." My dad suggested.
          "No," I shook my head. "Only thing worse than going back will be not going back."
          "How bad's it gonna be tomorrow?" My dad asked.
          "Remember when we saw those lions fighting over the wart hog carcass in Africa? I'll be the wart hog."
          "You're not a wart hog, you're a lion," My dad complimented me. "Just focus on your studies for a little while. You're still an excellent student, right?"
          "Oh, yeah. I need you to sign my calculus test."
          "Why?"
          "I'm failing."
          "Okay. You are... What do they call it?"
          "Grounded?"
          "You're grounded."
          And, for some reason, I had never been so happy in my life. I was grounded. I felt like a real teenager. I was being punished for my bad actions, and I was in love with the idea of it. I was, finally, no longer that goody-two-shoes teenage boy that everyone thought I was. I was Calum Hood. The boy who ruined Luke Hemmings' life, but was gonna fix it.