Chapter Text
The blackboard eraser made a soft swishing sound as it wiped all the knowledge away. A caress to unmake the chalk writing. Dust swirled up. It caught on Mr. Galloway’s sleeves, the brown suit permanently a little duller around the cuffs, dyed into a new chalky colour over the many lessons and through the infrequent washes. The just as deary February sun shone through the dirty windows. In isolation, all of these details were serene.
But this was Bullworth. Nothing here was meant to be serene.
Loud chatter in the classroom. An eraser expertly thrown at a friend or an enemy, the outcry that follows. Gossip and laughter. Boisterous positioning. Chaos, fueled by raw teenage hormones. Just like the powers that be pulled at some students to rise high above their seats, an equal power pulled other students down to their desks.
Because this was Bullworth. Keep your head down.
“There! Erased. Now I don’t want to hear any complaints, I gave you three warnings!” Galloway burped into his fist. “If you didn’t write all that down, ask a classmate, I don’t have time to go over this again. I wrote it on the board once, so you can’t say I tried, eh?”
Nobody laughed at his attempt at being funny. Or was he trying to be funny? Cornelius didn’t care. He sat over his desk with his arm firmly planted on the right side of his notebook. The left hand page was filled with all the text that had been on the board, and he didn’t want anyone to steal it from him. Knowing Mr. Galloway’s troubles, all this seemingly asinine information about journalism would become important.
“Fuck!”
“Trent! Language!”
“I mean- Shit!” The bully wrongfully corrected himself. Trent had been out, napping over his desk for most of the lesson, but now he was awake with a hungover look in his pimply face. “Uh, Mr. Galloway, I didn’t get the handout for today’s lesson.”
“No- you-” The teacher sighed deeper than usual. “As I said in the beginning of the lesson, all printers in the entire school have been broken . I don’t have any handouts until that’s fixed.”
“Ohhh… That must suck ass , Mr. Galloway.”
Giving up on ever correcting language, the English teacher turned back to the blackboard. Efficient, his dusty arms wrote new text. Instructions to be precise. Cornelius copied in on instinct, realising too soon what this meant.
“Your task is to write a profile story on one of your classmates. I need you to pair up, observe and interview each other, take notes , and then you’ll write the piece next lesson. Do you all understand what I’m asking? Is anyone listening to me?”
The few who had were already reaching for their friends. Cornelius turned in his seat. Blasted luck, he was too late. He had been too late from the start. Thanks to being pushed into a trash-can earlier he had arrived too late to sit near Melvin and Donald. Their hands were already joined in a sweaty handshake. Bitter, Cornelius bared his teeth in a deep contemplative breath in.
He could invoke the favour that Melvin awarded him for solving that puzzle in G&G. But that favour was unspecified. If he saved it, he could cash it in for something astronomically more valuable. Because what was this really? The comfort of getting to cooperate on a group project - no, it wasn’t even a group project was it? No, no, no, this was too petty to throw Donald under the bus for.
Fuming Cornelius looked back over his notes. Writing a profile seemed easy enough. Although, the end result would depend heavily on which non-nerd he managed to pair up with. No time to lose, he’d better find someone-
“Ahem…”
A tan hand, a suave lean, a call for attention that sounded a little bit too much like a cough to be smooth, and… An aquaberry sweater. The smug bastard Sanu was towering over his desk like a predator. What had Cornelius done to deserve this?”
“What?” he asked. He hoped to sound uninviting, like a hedgehog with his quills out.
“It seems…” Sanu dramatically stroked his cheek, looking out over the chaotic classroom. “That there are three nerds , and three preps , and we just got an assignment to pair up . You’re good at math, so wouldn’t that mean that you and me are… The odd ones out?”
“Great, you can count to six.”
“Pfshsh- Well-”
“And it’s you and I, actually.”
Cornelius was looking out over the classroom too. He squinted slightly through his glasses. There had to be a better option than this .
“Thank you! For correcting me!” Sanu said disingenuously. “I’m sure your grammar knowledge will help enlighten my spelling when we turn our profiles in… Together?”
“I don’t want to pair up with you.”
“Wha- Why not?!”
“To write a good profile story I need to pay attention to you, and to be frank, you preps like attention a little too much. It would feel weird. I’d rather be with…”
He was faking it. Cornelius saw the last few stragglers. Would he rather be with a bully? No way. A jock? Riveting journalism about sweat stink and getting beat up by your subject. A greaser? No, it’s too late, they were already at Galloway arguing to be a three-man-group, since the class was an odd number anyway. Sanu might just be his only choice.
But before Sanu called his bluff he slammed the desk. Slammed his whole body on it. Cornelius startled, pulling his notebook away as a protective measure. Crouched in order to sprawl, Sanu looked up at him with wet puppydog eyes. He whispered something.
“Say what now?”
“...” He still couldn’t tell what Sanu said.
Then a single finger caught in the knit of his green vest. Sanu pulled Cornelius closer. It felt threatening. Fearing the worst, Cornelius hesitantly turned an ear to the prep’s quiet lips.
“One hundred dollars.” was the secret message.
“You serious?”
“Yes. I’ll pay you. Just… Do this assignment with me.”
All of that whispering so tight together left Cornelius with a shiver. He escaped the intimate proximity by leaning back in his seat. Arms crossed, he mulled it over.
It was so fucking suspicious .
Whatever was wrong had to be really wrong. Or really stupid. Perhaps a bet within the preps? It would be pretty humiliating if Sanu failed to get a nerd to do as he said. Or maybe the resulting profile story was meant to be a humiliation in itself. But why one hundred dollars ? It’s too much money, even for a rich brat.
Wait… Cornelius didn’t have the best grasp of interpersonal relations in other cliques, but wasn’t this guy kind of disliked by his peers? The inbred bastards had a talent for pretending to like each other, but surely Cornelius remembered hearing about Sanu being talked down to like they meant it?
He looked at Sanu with new concern in his eyes. Was this guy lonely ? “One hundred dollars to hang out with a nerd” kinds of lonely?
The prep was still low, leaning on the desk. Begging him with every means of communication except words. Cornelius sighed.
“Fine, I’ll bite.”
After all, it would net him one hundred dollars. For whatever reason…
To be frank, it didn’t take long to wonder if he had bitten off more than he could chew. Since English class was their last lesson for the day Galloway avoided a student riot by letting the class go early, “to start their interviews wherever they wish”. Sanu didn’t suggest any spot to do that. He just… Followed Cornelius with a dopey grin on his face.
The tried and true method of ignoring a bully wasn’t working. All three nerds from English class were in the library, awkwardly rounded out to four around the table thanks to this intruder. Sanu was overtly observing Cornelius’ every move. Still trying to not pay it any mind, Cornelius already had his college math book out for some free-study equations. His red pen was effortlessly scribbling away over the page.
“So… Uh…” Donald wiped his dripping nose. “Why is he here?”
“Because I had to pair up with someone for the profile story.”
“Oh.”
“Not that you two even discussed it with me.”
“Ever so sorry Cornelius, but look on the bright side!” Melvin gladly gestured at Sanu. “You managed to catch one of the less terrible preps!”
“Hah, why thank you, Grotto Master Melvin~”
“No, no need to butter me up, Sir Sanu.”
“Right!” Cornelius snapped his fingers and pointed at Melvin. “He does play in the open sessions sometimes!”
“And you hadn’t noticed?” asked both Sanu and Melvin at once.
While they shared a surprisingly amicable cackle for being so in sync, Cornelius took notes in his small spiral notebook. Although he usually had it for on the go thoughts and maths, it felt very proper to write these details down in this type of medium. Playing the role of a true journalist. On the side of all this, Donald was rolling his eyes.
“Yeah, isn’t he the rules lawyer, my mom’s a lawyer , bribes the GM guy?”
In a flash freeze Sanu didn’t seem as friendly. His immediate anger at Donald was held in a tightly clenched fist, moving fast, but never making it across the table. The threatening gesture still made the nerd flinch in fear. Melvin broke it up by putting his arm out, obviously not wanting to discuss his own bribeability too much either.
“Ahaha, Sanu, one moment-” Melvin pulled the others in to huddle.
All three nerds tightly packed together smelled a little off. It didn’t stop them from whispering fiercely amongst each other.
“I want him to
leave!
”
“Donald, I understand what you mean, but we did leave Cornelius to find a group-mate of his own.”
“You really did, Donald.”
“But why that guy? Why’d you ask him?!”
“He asked me, actually.”
“ Oh. ”
“The heck you mean oh, Melvin?”
“Well, he has been trying to…How do you say…”
“Stalk you?”
“No, Donald, I wouldn’t go that far-”
“And I haven’t noticed? Then he’s good at it, I guess.”
“Don’t praise him while he’s listening!”
Off to the side Sanu was playing with Cornelius’ discarded pen. He didn’t appear to be listening.
“Fine… But stalking?”
“He’s often asking for your attention.”
“And then there’s the play !” Donald grimaced. “We meant to never tell you, but at this point you need to know.”
“What? Romeo and Juliet?”
Donald nodded gravely. Melvin harked his throat.
“We didn’t notice it in the glum darkness of the auditorium, but Miss Peters' attendance records brought it to light.”
“You wouldn’t know this because you were an actor-”
“But all other students were obliged to view the play for their grades.”
“Hence why they kept records.” Donald gulped. “Now don’t ask why I got a hold of them, but…”
“Why not? That seems interesting.” Sanu interjected, having listened after all. The pen in his hands might as well have been a knife to frame his ill-intent smile. “It’s not like you would ever have done anything against the rules , would you, Donald Anderson?”
Bristled by the threat Donald actually stood up to retaliate. His shrieking voice filled the library silence.
“Actually, this is an A, B and C conversation, so could you please leave?”
“I think you could use some D.”
“Ha-ha, very funny, now go!”
Like clockwork they were all struck by the whiplike “Sshhhhh!” of Mrs. Peters. Fighting in the library was unwise. Cornelius liked the librarian when she was happy, and at this moment it felt like he was the only one who could make her happy… Well, as many people as possible happy. In a personal trolley-problem of his own, he pulled the lever.
“Sanu, if you wait outside I’ll catch up with you. I won’t be long, okay?”
Sacrificed as one to please many, Sanu knew when he was outnumbered. His nearly obedient behaviour, just sighing and rolling his eyes while doing what he was told, made for as smooth of an exit as one could hope for.
“Don’t bring these losers with you, okay? I want to do our interviews in peace.”
“Sure.” Cornelius blinked. “Right. The interviews.”
Melvin waved goodbye apologetically. Donald glared for all that he was worth. Cornelius scratched at his hair, unsure what was going on.
“What’s got you looking so stupid?”
“Never seen a prep this serious about school work.” Cornelius replied, deep in thought. “It’s all super suspicious.”
“That’s what we’re telling you!” said Donald. He crossed his arms. “So about the records-”
“I know.”
“What?”
“I know all the students were made to attend by the teachers.” Cornelius clenched his fist near his face. Hide the pain. “It’s not like Bullworth’s acting talents could ever make the plebeians interested in amateur Shakespeare productions. So you’re not telling me anything new.”
“We are, if you would just listen. Sanu attended four shows .”
“Four- ... You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Nay, what he says is true.” Melvin cleared his throat. “Donald showed me the attendance records he stole- Ow, don’t hit me! As I was saying, I saw the records. Sanu’s line was an aberration among the rows of single dot marks. I swear Cornelius, he came four times.”
“We’ve speculated as to why… I think he’s a pervert.”
“A shakespearean pervert?”
“Think Cornelius! You were the most vulnerable, a-and the best on stage! You were in a dress, remember?”
“Of course I remember.” he groaned in response. “I just feel like you’re jumping to conclusions. He could have just liked skipping class and slept in the auditorium seats or something.”
“Hmmm… More likely than any perversion…” Melvin adjusted his glasses. “It still doesn’t explain why he plays G&G with us.”
“He might just like the game!”
Donald and Melvin exchanged a knowing glance. That was the last drop. Cornelius was sure as hell not telling them about the hundred dollar prize for this madness. He huffed and puffed, angrily gathering his books to leave. Shit, his pen was missing. Did Sanu still have it?
“So you’re going? To hang out with him?”
“I suppose I am! It’s for homework, it’s not a big deal.”
“Before you go… Cornelius?” Melvin made him stop with that earnest timbre to his voice. “Have you truly never noticed how Sanu tries to connect with you before? In class? At G&G? Never ever, nowhere at all?”
The lanky nerd stood up tall. He breathed in. He thought about it. He breathed out.
“No. I don’t pay mind to bullies. They’re not worth dwelling on.”
“What if he’s not a bully?”
“Why wouldn’t he be? He’s a prep.”
Donald nodded in agreement with Cornelius. Still, Donald didn’t stop Cornelius from leaving. No more debate, no more discussion. Melvin and Donald let their friend go. What matters are their unfounded worries, when only one of the three had a chance to find out the truth?
Cornelius wanted the truth. This fierce storm of accusations and conspiracy had made him feel dumb. Nobody ought to make Cornelius Johnson feel dumb. He was going to find out everything there was to find out about Sanu [LASTNAME], and his motives to boot. If he was a rich pervert who had a kink for crossdressing and/or iambic pentameter, he would be the first to know. None of his friends were allowed to make him feel this unaware again.
And then he would get one hundred dollars.
For whatever reason…
Damnit! He pushed at the library doors hard enough for them to slam. He was so frustrated already, and that was not the mood he needed to go into a journalistic investigation. Looking out at the cold and wet library front, he saw Sanu beyond the arch. Obedient still, the prep had completely left the nerds territory behind. The path around school was thickening with students, the true end of class having rung out recently.
Ruby red in Sanu’s grip was Cornelius' pen. Sanu spun it with flair. By his side was… Beatrice? They laughed at some joke together. Where did that come from? Sanu spared the library entrance a glance, and noticed Cornelius with a sudden excitement. Dismissed, Beatrice said goodbye and headed into her true turf.
That’s why Cornelius had a chance to meet her before leaving their base behind. He touched her arm lightly and whispered into her big hair:
“Are you friends with him?”
“Yes, I’d say I am. Sanu likes me.” She said, as if there was nothing weird about it. Beatrice read the confusion on Cornelius’ face and smiled. “He likes you too, you know?”
“He does?”
Looking over at Sanu’s full arm waving, perhaps that wasn’t too unthinkable.
“Sanu said you’re paired up for an English assignment.” Beatrice made a face meant to mean something. “Or maybe going on a date?”
“Then he’s full of shit-” Cornelius caught his own knee-jerk reaction. “Or just really bad at telling me things.”
“Well, go get em, tiger!”
There was nothing about this that would make Cornelius feel like a tiger. Rather, he felt like the plushy rat-toy walking up to a very playful cat. Sanu’s excitement was cooling into something like that… Catlike. Flirty? Smug. The expression was mostly smug. With one last spin, Sanu handed the pen back.
“Sorry, didn’t meant to swipe this.”
“Thanks.” He said, and swiped it back.
“Is that pen special to you?”
“It’s an investment. It’s a special pen made for smooth and clear writing, with erasable ink.”
“Oooh, that sounds expensive!” Sanu said, sounding like a true prep for once.
“Not really.” Cornelius grumbled back. “The true investment was the mega-pack of refill ink cartridges.”
“Mega how mega?”
“Twenty six.”
“Pfsh-” The prep pinched his own lips. “That’s a bit much for a highschool student, isn’t it?”
“You’d think.” It was Cornelius’ turn to be smug. He held the pen up and leaned closer. “I’ve already used up seven.”
This left Sanu dumbstruck. The closeness of their faces, the light-hearted banter, it was somehow able to make the tall bitch shut up for a moment. Cornelius let out a bit of laughter through his nose. With a spin of the pen himself, he brought his spiral notebook up.
“You should be taking notes, you know? For the profile story?”
“Shit, right-”
Cornelius stepped off to let Sanu fumble with his bag. As suspicious as it was, he was starting to feel confident. He would get to the bottom of this investigation. Sanu wouldn’t know what hit him. Best thing about it? He’d get an A in English for the effort.
And one hundred dollars. For whatever reason…