Iced ✓

Chapter Four | Hunt

The school week was coming to an end and Cyprus decided he was going to ask Estella if she would be willing to meet him after school hours so they could work on their school presentation. It was just another ordinary day at school. Estella had gone to her locker and found a dozen roses. The were fully bloomed and very expensive to get at this time of year. She didn't open the small card or wonder who it was from. She didn't do more than take a quick whiff of the fragrant flowers before grabbing her books and leaving her locker for the next class. 

Across from the hall, there was a group of boys watching her. She didn't take note of them, because it was nothing new to her. She held her head up high and walked away. This group of boys always took particular interest in Estella's affairs. The watched her walk away before approaching her locker. There was three of them and they had taken it upon themselves to make her gifts disappear.

First they grabbed the flowers and ripped the small card open. One of them read the contents out loud. Some poor fool had signed his name innocently at the bottom of a generic message about her beauty and grace and left it with the flowers. He probably thought he would be the one to melt her frozen heart. The secret admirers were left alone because they were harder to find but this one was going to be easy one. He was soon going to be shown how wrong his thoughts were. The flowers were crushed and torn to shreds by them before tossed in a dustbin on the other side of the school, where they were sure Estella would not be. They kept the crumple note as proof.

This then lead to the hunt for the poor soul. These boys would go around asking about him. They would bully people for answers, or blackmail or do worse but they always got what the wanted. They would find out about his timetable, any gossip that had visited the gossip mill and the way he looked. No one would ask any questions in fear of being caught in the crossfire. They would find a place to corner him all alone. They always found a way to get them alone.

The poor boy scurried away from them as the trapped him in a dead end corridor. The school halls were relatively empty due to school being over for over an hour. They found out he did an extracurricular activity that day and plotted to get them where they wanted him. They sent a fake note with a unsuspecting person, telling him that someone wanted to meet him here and he rushed out to get here early, with high hopes. Too bad they were going to be crushed.

"So you thought you could simply send her flowers and get away with it?" One said, intimidating him from the front. He was the tallest of the lot and the whole plan were simple and general. The other two guys cornered the boy from the left and right. Their formation had been perfected a long time ago.

"What do you mean?"He tried to deny any knowledge of the flowers he had sent.

The boy held up the crumpled card and waved it in front of him.

"Does this ring a bell or do I need to read out loud?"

"N-no, I remember...I'm sorry, I won't do it again," he pleaded.

"Of course you won't do it again. What would make you think that she would want you? A wimp. A fool. A little twat, who too dumb to even tie his own shoes properly," he started. The list of of insults grew taller. The words sharper than daggers. Slowly killing his confidence and leaving him vulnerable. They made sure he wouldn't look at her or any other girl for the matter, completely killing his confidence.  

The smiled viciously at the end of it all. They knew what they had done and bathed in the pieces of shattered confidence of the poor soul. The best part was they didn't have to face any consequences, seeing as the ringleader was the nephew of the principle. He used that power always muttering how no one would believe his victims over him. That he was always right. That he would always get away with it.

They were pleased with the power they felt when they attacked this boy and countless boys before them. They usually loved it when they broke down into tears but today's victim had been stronger than they had thought. Oh well, there was always tomorrow.

Meanwhile, on the other side of school, Cyprus rushed after Estella. He tried stuffing his notebook into his bag at the same time, crinkling the edges of the paper.

"Hey Estella! Wait up!" he called out and he jogged to catch up with her. She paused at the door, waiting for him. The corridor was empty and they had both left the science lab after some extra practicals. Cyprus caught his breath, as he finally got his books into his bad.

"Estella, let's meet up for the project this weekend." They didn't have much time to work on it on class and knew they had to meet up after school. However, he doubted that Estella would take the initiative to set up a meeting, which left him to ask.

"Okay, meet me at this place." Estella had already decided to meet at a public library and had written the details down neatly, on a piece of paper for him. She just didn't know how to ask him. She was glad he had asked, otherwise she would've posted the note in his locker.

"Oh cool, I'll see you later then," he opened the note and read the contents. Just as he expected, she didn't reply and left the building, allowing a cold breeze to take her place.

~*~

Meet the Goblins, aka bullies.