Zugzwang [COMPLETED]

Part II, chapter 6

- VI -

We couldn't find Johnny anywhere. It seemed like he and the Prom Queen had simply vanished. I knew that they were somewhere in the building, because Dante went into the parking lot and when he came back, he said that Johnny's car was still there. It was driving me nuts. We looked everywhere. We searched the entire freaking building.

"Maybe he is getting laid somewhere," Marie said finally. "Maybe it's all good."

"No way," I shook my head. "There is no way in hell for Tanya to even kiss him without planning something nasty... I mean, come on! You were with her for how long? Don't you know her by now?"

Marie winced.

"Yeah," she said gloomily. "You are right... Tanya can be difficult."

"Difficult?" I snorted. "Nurse Ratched was difficult. Tanya is beyond that!"

"Well, okay," Logan shoved his hands into his pockets. "Where did we not look?"

"We looked everywhere," Marie frowned.

"Apparently, not everywhere," Logan shook his head. "Come on, people! This is your building! You should know it way better than me!"

Dante frowned thoughtfully for several seconds.

"Janitor's closet?" he said finally, and I almost slapped my forehead.

Good God! We never bothered to look in the janitor's closet? The most likely place on the face of the earth for pranks and stuff?! What is wrong with us? Apparently, Logan thought the same, because he just winced and muttered, "Oy..." So we marched towards the janitor's closet, and when we got closer, I immediately knew that (A): that was the right place, and (B): we were desperately late.

There was a strip of light snaking from underneath the door, and we could hear laughter and muffled shouting. Then someone yelled, "Hell, yeah!!" and suddenly, I felt sick to my stomach.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing here?!"

Ah, here she was, the Prom Queen. She was standing not too far from the janitor's closet, her posture all excited, foot lightlytapping on the floor, as if she was listening to some silent rhythm. She saw us, and her eyes immediately grew huge and panicky.

"What..."

"Lookout, huh?" Logan muttered and pushed her away.

"Carl!!" she screamed, and I shoved her into the wall.

She slammed against it and let out a small "Ack!!" sound. That shut her up and she just stood there, glaring at us. Logan kicked the door open and someone screamed out in surprise.

"Oh, fuck me...!" Logan said loudly and all but dove into the closet with Dante following him.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to see what was going on in there – actually, I was quite positive that I didn't want to see it -- but I went there anyway. I hissed when I saw, and Marie behind me just muttered, "Oh, Jesus..."

Logan slammed Carl into the wall headfirst, and the Jock went down like a sack of potatoes. One of his moronic buddies was holding the Nerd down, pinning him against his knees, while the second one was slamming his bare hips into the Nerd's skinny naked ass. Dante screamed something unintelligible and grabbed one of the shovels that were sitting next to the unconscious by now Jock.

The rest was worse than a nightmare. Of course, almost the entire school could hear the screams and curses, and of course, almost the entire school came running towards the damn closet in less than ten minutes, after Dante slammed that shovel on the guy's head. Logan was beating the crap out of the dickhead who was holding down the Nerd, and it looked like he could kill him, and I couldn't care less. If Logan actually kills him -- good.

Marie and I tried to get the Nerd off the floor, but he started kicking and screaming the minute we touched him. Tanya was yelling something behind our backs, and I had a strongest desire to knock the bitch's teeth out. I probably would have, but then there were all those people, and they pulled Logan and Dante off the two fuckheads who were spitting their teeth out by that point, and someone held me back when I actually lunged at the Prom Queen...

Someone called the cops, and pretty soon, the whole place was swarming with the police and paramedics. Johnny was carried out on a stretcher, blood all over his back, and Logan, Dante, Tanya, Carl -- who was conscious by that point -- and his two sidekicks were detained by the cops. Marie and I went with them, even though all I wanted to do was to go home and sleep for the next five hundred years. But I couldn't leave Logan and Dante.

We spent several hours in the precinct, and finally, around two in the morning, they released Logan, Dante, Tanya, and Carl. Both of Carl's sidekicks were arrested. I was beyond pissed off when they released Carl, even though he had to sign a paper that said he was not to leave the town under any circumstances until the investigation was over. I wanted to kill him and the Prom Queen right there, in front of the cops. Of course, I didn't.

Dante looked like hell. I guess the whole scene was the worst flashback for him, and he kept shaking all the way home. When we finally got to my house, it was after three in the morning, and my mother was waiting for us in the kitchen. She looked up with a cheerful smile when we walked in. It was gone the minute she saw our faces.

"What happened?" she asked sharply.

And Marie started to cry.