Chapter Text
It's been months since Gary was sent to Happy volts. Months since the school was turned into a fiery hellish landscape that, of course, Jimmy had to clean up.
For once, everything seemed normal. All the cliques seemed to be okay with him now, and on top of all that he didn't have to worry about Gary over his shoulder plotting complete takeover. All he had to do now was finish his homework and bike around town to look for quick jobs. But honestly? If Jimmy was being honest? It made life at Bullworth kind of boring.
He and Petey were still friends, but in hindsight they didn't have that much in common without Gary around so they didn't hang out nearly as much as you'd think. He had Zoe, and they were way closer, but after they broke up they hung out way less than before. Usually only seeing each other when they shared classes or when Zoe was bored and wanted to vandalise bullworth vale.
He was friends with loads of people now, more than his old schools combined–but he felt like he didn't really get as close to them as he wanted to, no matter how hard he tried.
Say what you want about Gary, but there was something about him that made everything so much more interesting. He was probably the closest thing Jimmy ever had to having a best friend, and he couldn't even tell you why. Gary was never trustworthy, never ‘comforting’, he was never even nice either.
Maybe instead, it was because of some fucked up sense of familiarity Jimmy had on the kind of meanness and psychopathy he exhibited. Maybe, it was because the way he and Gary fought reminded him of how his Mom and dad argued back when they were in love.
He didn't really know, but when Gary betrayed him he couldn't say he was surprised by any means.
Jimmy got up, digging his science textbook from under his bed. He didn't have time to think about anything other than Dr. Slawter, and or the rabbit they were going to dissect.
By the time he got to class, everyone (besides the ones that always skip) was already seated, so he dropped his textbook on the desk and sat next to Petey.
“Has he said anything yet?” Jimmy asked.
“No, just that we had to be careful with the rabbit because if we mess up he wasn't gonna give us another one.”
Dr Slawter cleared his throat, “Alright children, listen up. I assume that you are already seated next to your lab partners, so I will call your names and you will come to the front and pick up a shoe box that contains your rabbit.”
He unravelled the attendance sheet, “Beatrice Trudeau and Cornelius Johnson," “Trent Northwick and Kirby Olsen,” “Casey Harris and Damon West,”
Petey fiddled anxiously with their dissecting instruments as they waited for their name to be called,
“Jimmy Hopkins and Peter Kowalski.”
They both got up, Jimmy holding onto the box and placing it on their spot, opening the lid. Petey opened Jimmy's textbook, one of the pages already dogeared; “It says here that uh, a-–after we pin the legs down we need to uh, use the blunt edge of the scissor to cut the belly. Make sure that we don't rupture any of the organs.”
Jimmy nodded, “Got it.”
“You pin it down, ill…” Petey paused for a second, “Slice it open.”
Petey gulped at the thought.
He didn't really like Biology. He hated cutting things open. Especially today, considering they were cutting open a bunny of all animals. Which brought up bad memories of Halloween. But he felt like he needed to be the one to dissect it. He didn't wanna look like a pussy in front of Jimmy, knowing that Jimmy already kind of viewed him as a dork.
“You sure? I can be the one to dissect it if you want.”
“No, it's fine, I promise.”
After Jimmy finished pinning the legs down and drawing the cutting points with a blue marker, Petey carefully grabbed the scissors. Trying his best not to look at its eyes. He glanced at the textbook one last time, before watching as the edge of the blade punctured through the layer of skin, and he sawed through it until the organs popped out. He felt sick. He pinned the skin to the board.
“Want me to take over for a bit?” He could see Petey's hand shake.
“....Just remove the intestines, ill do the rest.” Petey said. “I'll write down some observations for now.” he used the time to calm himself down. It was stupid, he could do it. He wasn't a coward, no matter what Gary said.
He knew Jimmy didn't really care. He knew exactly who Petey was, but he had something to prove. He didn't know what that was, but something tugged at him that refused to be pitied.
Jimmy grabbed the forceps, carefully inching to grab the intestines before—
“Jimmy Hopkins, please report to the principals office. Now.”
The sound of Miss Danvers' voice rang in his ears, what the hell? He just got here.
“Fuck. Petey you're gonna have to do the rest of this until I get back.”
Petey put his pen down, “Why would Miss Danvers call you to the office?”
“The hell if I know, I didn't do anything.”
“Well you better go, before the prefects drag you down there or something.”
“Yeah yeah.”
Jimmy dropped the forceps and peeled the latex gloves off his hands, the gloves making a wet thump onto the table. He pointed to Petey before walking out the door, “Leave the intestines for me yeah?”
Petey smiled, “If you get back in time before the bell rings, sure.”
Jimmy closed the door, leaving Petey with the responsibility of removing the organs. Jimmy wasn't even watching this time, damn it….
Jimmy made his way to Dr Crabblesnitches office. Probably needs him to ‘do him a favor’ like fix the toilets or run out to buy printer paper like he usually does. Because to him, ‘Hero of the school’ might as well translate to ‘Bullworth Busboy’.
“You called me sir?” he said as he neared the door, his face dropping when he saw Dr Crabblesnitch and….Theo….Happy volts. Theo. Orderly. Theo.
“What the hell is he doing here?”
“No need for foul language my boy.” Dr Crabblesnitch said sternly, “I think you ought to sit down.”
“What is this?” Jimmy asked.
“I said sit down.”
Jimmy's face scrunched into a grimace, hesitantly sitting down in front of Dr Crabblesnitch's desk.
“You are aware that your–‘friend’, Gary Smith was admitted into the psychiatric hospital 4 months ago, correct?”
“Hes not my friend.”
“But you are aware.”
“Yea? But what's that got to do with me?” He said, rolling his eyes.
“Patience Hopkins! Patience! Retorts such as that are unbecoming for a Bullworth academic.”
“But regardless,” he sighed, “Mr Theo here has provided an update on Mr Smith that's…none too pleasant.”
“And what's that supposed to mean?” Jimmy said dismissively.
Theo finally spoke, “It means that his recovery isn't exactly going all too smoothly.”
And isnt that such a fuckin surprise? he thought to himself.
“And you think I care about his recovery? That his well being was important enough to me to drag me away from class? As far as I'm concerned, he’s in a tiny little box miles away from here going crazy over the slight crack of sunlight that peaks into his room and drinking milk with his meds. And I'm happy with that.”
He'd be happy never knowing anything about Gary. Ever again.
“Well, you should be concerned. You’ll be the one in charge of his rehabilitation.”
What?!
“Im sorry. I think I have wax in my ears. For a second I thought I heard you say that I was gonna be in charge of his rehabilitation.”
“You are.” Dr Crabblesnitch said without a hint of irony.
For once this school year he didn't have to constantly think about what Gary was up to. Where he was. Because he knew where Gary was, and he knew what he was doing. Giving a sob story to some psychiatrist and fucking knitting a sweater for cats or whatever psych wards forced patients to do. He didn't even have to think about Gary, and now they wanted him to make Gary a priority? Like Gary always wanted? No way.
“Youre–gonna set Gary free? Into the school he tried to burn down, and you expect me to babysit?” It took everything in him not to walk away and go back into biology class and rip out all the organs in that rabbit with his bare hands. Anything to ignore what crazy bullshit they expect him to do
“Heavens no, of course not.” Dr Crabblesnitch said as if it were common sense, “Obviously, if the asylum treatment isn't working we don't trust him to be around other students quite yet, no no no.”
Every second here seemed to just further confuse Jimmy more.
“We want you to become an Orderly at the Asylum." Theo said frankly, a bit sick of Dr Crabblesnitches vagueness.
Jimmy was dumbfounded. There's no way that this is what their plan was. But then again, competence was something rare in this town.
“Last time I checked, I was 15 and didn't have any medical experience.”
Theo folded his arms, “Look kid, we aren't stoked about it either. God knows I dont wanna train another snot nosed brat into learning CPR and dealing with the crazies. But you don't really need to do anything technical. Just, clean up around the Asylum, wheel around patients, help Gary with his therapy and give him his meds.”
He just. kept. talking. And it continued to not make any sense. Gary hated him. Why would they pick the one kid in this dump that Gary tried to…I don't know, kill basically? The one kid that hated Gary's guts more than anyone? And not only that, he had classes! He was a highschooler for fucks sake. Jimmy couldn't wrap his head around how this would benefit anyone in any way.
“Why would you want me? Don't you have anyone actually qualified?”
Theo leaned against Dr. Crabblesnitches table, “You were, well…Reccomended for lack of a better term for this position.”
Recommended?
“By who?”
“By Gary.”
He has to be lying. He's been in the nuthouse so long he's becoming one of them.
“I see you're skeptical,” Dr Crabblesnitch said, “But I assure you it's at least partially true.”
“Jimmy, you should be flattered. Gary can't stop talking about you.” Theo said.
Skeptical is a nice way to put it.
“Granted, it's mostly ‘Jimmy is a moron’ or ‘Jimmy is a fucking fairy’ but still.”
“Now that sounds a lot more like him.”
“Yeah? And were sick of it. Its always Jimmy this Jimmy that. But you know who he won't talk to about you to? You.”
So he was the sacrifice. Gary couldnt shut his fat fucking mouth and was so petty and pissed about how Jimmy humiliating him that now he had to change his diaper and rock him to sleep every night. Even trained professionals couldn't fix him.
Sure he knew that no one could help him. But still he wanted to believe that just maybe if Gary read enough ink blots and talked out his daddy issues that maybe he would've become slightly more tolerable. But no, and just like everyone else in this town they expected him to fix it.
“What if I don't do it”
“Oh you're doing it Hopkins. Don't worry it won't be tortuous. You'll be paid, granted less than a full time orderly–but paid. And you'll be granted an extension on all assignments from your professors.”
“What if I really don't do it.” He was close to Dr Crabblesnitch now. Tempted to take his anger out by stepping on Dr Crabblesnitches unguarded shoes.
Dr Crabblesnith leered down at him, “Then you'll be expelled. I'll make sure no school, no college, will ever accept you again.”
He didn't understand why Dr Crabblesnitch was doing this. Whether the Asylum paid him off, or Garys parents, or fucking whoever. But he didn't care. All he knew at that moment was that he fucking hated him.
“Youll be training with me tomorrow. I know you still have that uniform you stole from us. Wear that.”
Theo left the office, presumably to drive back to Happy volts in the van parked outside. Jimmy stayed for a second, angrily glaring at Dr Crabblesnitch as if it would accomplish anything.
“Run along Hopkins. You still have English.”