Dead End High
Todd Makes a Move

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Nobody asked Adam how he was and nobody commented about his long absence. The teachers assigned fun activities, mainly to fill in time. Even Mr Ramsey, his maths teacher, who normally gave horrible textbook exercises, gave them fun maths puzzles. Mr Rahahahahamsey, as everyone started calling him, seemed rather subdued and said very little the entire period, not once scolding anyone for making fun of his name.

‘But you know Mr Rahahahahamsey,’ Scott said later. ‘He’s soft anyway, dude. He can’t control the class. The best he can do is shout at people.’

Adam paused from his worried thoughts about his missing friend and Brett Diamond. ‘Yeah, but he didn’t even do that this period,’

‘Gnarly.’ Darren smiled. ‘Looks like Mr Vennie’s rules are taking effect. I like that guy.’

‘Yeah, so do I.’

Scott stuck out his thumb. ‘He could very well be the best school principal ever.’

Adam managed to avoid Todd Spencer the entire day, but as he walked home from school, the bully intercepted him. He grabbed Adam roughly by the shirt and hauled him off the footpath and into a bush of Pohutakawa trees. ‘Braddock, you pile of sewer slush! You and I have some unfinished business to attend to.’

Adam shuddered. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you, Todd. Honestly.’

Todd pushed Adam back into a branch of the tree, which dug into the back of his neck. ‘What pisses me off is that you had to have Drake Radnor fight your battles for you. Are you that much of a wimp, Braddock?’

‘Hey, it’s not my fault Drake came along!’

‘Don’t give me that crap! You knew he was around. You were just waiting for him to come along and bail you out of trouble.’

‘No! He’s never stuck up for me before. He doesn’t normally even talk to me.’

‘You gotta start standing up for yourself, punk!’ Todd grabbed him by the shirt. ‘Why don’t you do that now? You afraid, Braddock? Think I can kick your ass?’

‘Of course you can! You know I can’t beat you.’

‘Damn right!’

Todd planted his fist into Adam’s gut, causing him to double over with a gasp of pain. His assailant’s firm hand grabbed him by the hair and dragged him to the ground. The smell of BO, overcame Adam as Todd hovered over him and rammed his face into the muddy earth. Still holding onto his hair, he rotated his face in the mud, pushing down, causing as much hurt as possible. ‘How do you like that, huh Braddock?’

Adam cried out, hoping someone would hear him. This was the time when someone like Drake was most needed, when there were no other students or teachers anywhere within shouting distance.

Todd pulled on Adam’s hair, forcing his face up. Adam spat mud expecting further suffering but then, from out of nowhere, Drake charged in sending Todd crashing to the ground with a rugby tackle; textbook style, just like Adam would expect from Pungaru’s star rugby player. He took Todd down into a heap on the ground, pulled him up, and sent his fist crashing into Todd’s face. Todd dropped to the ground with a cry of pain and groaned, clutching his jaw.

Drake proceeded to give Todd the same dose of medicine the bully had given Adam, smearing his face into the muddy ground, grinding it in, causing Todd to scream out. He then hauled him to his feet, giving him an evil glare. ‘You don’t learn, do you, Spencer? Why don’t you try picking on me, scumbag. Why don’t you?’

Todd coughed and spluttered and looked up at Drake, his face caked with brown mud and his eyes wide. Blood from his nose mingled with the brown. Adam wiped mud from his own face, feeling a certain amount of satisfaction as he watched. He didn’t want to think about what might happen next time he ran into Todd, he simply wanted to enjoy the show.

Drake shoved Todd back down to the ground.

‘You make me sick!’ He scowled, rose to his feet and kicked Todd up the rear, sending him staggering onto the footpath. Todd stumbled off along the street and soon disappeared from sight. ‘You ok, Adam?’ Drake stepped over to him.

‘Yeah,’ Adam wiped more mud from his face. Drake hadn’t solved the problem of Todd, but at least the terror was over for now. ‘Thanks.’

‘No worries. One of these days that ass-clown will get the message. You let me know if he causes you any more trouble, alright?’

‘Thanks.’ Adam forced a smile. ‘The last thing I want is to be in hospital again, considering how long I’ve just spent in there.’ He brushed mud onto the grass.

‘What, you were in hospital?’

‘Didn’t you know?’ Adam did his best to wipe off as much mud as possible. He even used a few leaves from a nearby tree as a paper towel. He flinched as he rubbed a little too hard on a scratch he had received.

‘Nah, I did wonder what had become of you, but nobody mentioned you were sick.’

‘I nearly died.’

’Really?’

‘Really. I’m surprised hardly anybody knows. I would have thought someone would have said something.’

‘Well, you know how it is. Unless it’s juicy gossip, news doesn’t travel that fast round here.’ Drake patted him on the back. ‘Anyway, I gotta go. Promised Daise I’d meet her at the domain. Catch you later.’

Adam, watched him go, feeling a pang of envy.

Satisfied he had most of the mud off his face, he set off home, but had only gone a few steps along the path when he noticed someone watching him from further down the street. It was that woman again; the one he’d seen that morning. Even with Adam looking at her, she continued to stare making no attempt to look away.

He hurried along the road.

Turning his head, he saw that she now walked along the same path, following him from a distance. She stopped when he turned to stare.

Adam moved off, quickening his pace still more. Glancing back, he saw the woman walking faster too, so he increased to a jog.

So did she.

Adam broke into a run. He darted down a walkway between two houses, scrambled into some bushes, and ducked down out of sight, trying his best to avoid being scratched by twigs. The woman stopped a few metres away from where he hid. He held his breath, afraid she may hear him if he panted too loud, but she didn’t see him there. She flinched, looked about some more, sighed and continued to walk towards a block of houses, soon disappearing from sight.

Adam slipped from his hiding place and inhaled several deep breaths. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and at a brisk pace, headed home.

He could see his house 100 metres further down the road; a small wooden three-bed roomed house, owned by the Dairy Company. It was a plain white building, with hedges surrounding three sides and a white picket fence at the front. The lot to the right was vacant and had been turned into a huge veggie garden by his father. On the other side was an old garage, which had old advertising placards on its wall advertising lubrication products. It had long ago been turned into a private workshop of some kind, but Adam had no clue what for.

The backyard provided a panoramic view of Mt Taranaki and Adam paused, as he often did, to admire the view, although, a cloud partially obscured the peak.

He stepped up to the backdoor and swung the door open, expecting to find his mother toiling in the kitchen, but instead found it completely bare.

’What the hell?’

All the furniture and household items had gone. Adam’s heart began to beat fast as he explored each room, becoming more and more disturbed as he went, a mixture of bewilderment and horror overcoming him.

‘This has gotta be some kind of joke!’

He looked at the corner the TV set once stood in the family lounge. He cast his eyes across to where the couch and the stereo system used to be. Not even a speck of dirt remained to show that anything had ever been there.

He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, wondering if perhaps his eyes were playing tricks on him again, but everything was still bare.

Even his own bedroom was deserted. All of his belongings gone.

He leaned his elbow against the wall of his bedroom and burying his head into the palm of his hand. There was no escaping the facts. His parents had gone. They had moved out…

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