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Max took a deep breath and relaxed against the top of the bleachers in the gym. He felt akin to a God looking down upon his kingdom. Just below, he could hear others cowering beneath him. Nerds tried, and failed, to hush themselves so the monster of Hatchetfield High wouldn't beat them up again. His team practiced on the court, save his most loyal devotees sitting just two rows down from him. Cool kids sat at the edge of the bleachers by the door, well within his vision. Other groups gathered around each other in assigned spots, rarely intermingling but often nervously glancing up. The teacher, technically in charge of supervising the crowd, excused himself to not repeat his own extensive list of Jagerman based traumas from high school years in the modern day. This left Max as the reigning authority.
The blare of a megaphone refused to recognize that authority.
Max jumped up and ran down the bleachers, ready to attack the source of the noise. He quickly scanned the gym to find the source of the noise only to find it sounding off in the hall. If not for her height, Max could have mistaken the girl holding the megaphone for an elementary kid with her pigtails and pastel clothes. She chanted something ridiculous about wanting the school to teach abstinence only.
“Who the fuck is that?” He asked, equal parts angry and confused.
Stephanie Lauter replied, “Grace Chastity. Usually, she sticks to the cafeteria or the library. IE she's the reason people avoid the cafeteria and the library. What’s the crusade today?”
A cheerleader answered, “She’s mad about the sex ed class.”
Steph gave a low whistle. “That girl is gonna be preaching all day.”
Max scoffed. “The one class about something interesting? That’s what she’s complaining about?”
Jason groaned, “My parents go to her church. The whole family’s fucking prudes.”
The front office sat across the hall from the gym. Inside the office, two admins looked at Grace while talking to each other. A deep anger seethed in Max. He knew from extensive personal experience, school staff could be very susceptible to loud bullying.
Max stomped toward Grace. The small crowd of cool kids stayed back to avoid the blood splatter. When Grace noticed Max approaching, she smiled and handed him a flyer.
“Hi there! Are you interested in helping remove inappropriate classes from the school?”
Max snatched the flyer before crumpling it and flicking it at Grace’s head.
“No prude!”
With one large step forward, Max cut the distance between him and Grace in half. Lowering his head to be at her eye level, he stared daggers. Not a foot from her face, he growled at her. “Who gave you permission to be such a prude in my hallway?”
Grace blinked a moment and a deep silence lingered past them to the crowds watching. Not an inch removed, Grace replied, “Oh! Ms. Mulberry approved my protest for lunch period. I appreciate the concern for school rules though.”
No screams. No apologies. Only a smile and a steady hand holding her protest sign. Of all the responses he expected, not one included her being nice. Max responded with the only thing he could think of.
“What?”
In short order, Max learned why you do not give Grace Chasity a blank check question while on crusade. Between their two faces, Grace shoved another of her fliers.
“Oh well you see I was reading up on my assigned classes next semester and saw this abomination on my sheet. I don’t believe a sin instruction class should be forced down our throats. I mean, I’m only seventeen. Some of my classmates will only be sixteen! We should be taught how to get into heaven, not marched down a road toward hell-”
“Stop!” Max shouted. To his own surprise, Max stepped back first. “I get the picture. Jesus.”
“Exactly! He is our savior and his teachings should be on our syllabuses instead.”
Max stood there with his jaw open, dumbfounded. How dense could a girl get? How was he supposed to bully a girl that couldn’t even recognize when she was getting bullied? He couldn’t just punch her. What good would it do if she didn’t know why and just did this shit again tomorrow? Worse, if she did after that he could look weak for not being able to control one fucking prude. Max stood as the unstoppable force that mowed down everyone in his path. In Grace, he met his immovable object.
Having stood silent for too long, Grace took the opportunity to do as she often did. She assumed everyone agreed with her due to being obviously right. Nodding solemnly, Grace placed a hand on his shoulder. “I know. It’s scary facing teachers, but even they can be wrong sometimes. That doesn’t mean they won’t listen to reason though! With your signature, we can be one step closer to cleaning up this school.”
A collective held breath hung in the air. A nerd, a prude, as big as they come, touched Max Jagerman. The slow turn of Max’s head toward the hand appeared to be the calm before the storm to everyone watching. From behind his looming figure, no one saw that just for a moment, his face softened. The moment felt tense but a simple gentle gesture, worked as intended to calm his nerves. Worrying about being able to punch her in the face or not, sure, but still. Showing for the first time an ounce of social awareness, Grace removed her hand.
“Sorry. Should have asked before touching you like that. I just get so excited talking about God,” She apologized.
Max’s eyes followed the hand from his shoulder to her side. In a moment of oscillation between, ‘What the hell do I do?’ and ‘Hey, I liked that. Give it back.,’ an idea struck Max that in any other circumstance would have made him puke. Desperate times called for desperate measures. He had to fight fire with fire.
Leaning down, Max whispered to Grace, just quiet enough only the two of them could hear. “I’d love to sign it next time, but me and my buddies are trying to study for a test next period. Is it ok if you protest outside tomorrow? The megaphone is just very loud.”
All color left Grace’s face and her sign fell. “Oh shoot! That’s why everyone's staring. They’re just too polite to say anything. I didn’t even think of that. I am so sorry. Yes, yes I’ll do this outside tomorrow, but you’ll stop by?”
A quick glance past Grace to the glass windows behind her showed Max a crowd buying the charade, just putty in his hands. They all heard Grace’s apology and her begging to see him, not a word more. He’d walk away as in control as ever. Security in hand, he ran down the field.
“Of course! I’ll catch-” Max snapped his teeth. “-you then.”
Without another word, Grace packed up her things and headed outside. Her chant continued there but outside it didn’t matter. All anyone thought they saw was a nerdy prude running scared and hitting on Max. If Max deemed you hot enough to flirt back with, that meant certain leniencies, including being weird as long as it remained out of sight and ear shot. All in all, as normal as things got at Hatchetfield High. Max turned around to see the other cool kids, relieved at the prude having left, and him succeeding. Touchdown.
Walking past the cool kids, Max went back to sitting on his throne atop the bleachers. Still, something lingered, a scent. Without arising suspicion, he took a quick sniff of his jacket. The distinct smell of strawberry hand sanitizer came through clearly. The noise of the crowd faded, and Max’s vision became unfocused as his mind drifted.
'Strawberry. Cute. Her hand felt nice. How do I get her to do that again?'