1: girl all the bad guys want - bowling for soup

= [unedited]

©alum

"She wants me to do boxing!" I yelled. "Boxing!"

Luke shrugged, licking his ice cream. "So?"

"I play football! A non contact, peaceful sport. Not boxing. I'm not even a violent person." I glared at my best friend. Remind me why I ever decided to tolerate him?

"You haven't played football in ages," Luke laughed, not even noticing how annoyed I was. "And Calum, your temper got you into this mess."

"Are you referring to my life?" I asked defensively. "Because it's not a mess. It's just some things aren't going as I originally planned."

"Sure," he said sarcastically. "You planned to put a teacher in hospital for trying to help you?"

"He wasn't trying to help." I muttered. "He was poking his nose in where it wasn't wanted."

"That's his job, Cal."

"Look, who's side are you on here?" I flicked Luke's shoulder and he shrunk away jokily.

"I'm just saying, you're lucky he didn't press charges. And didn't your mum want to send you to counselling? Surely a perfectly harmless physical activity is better that talking it out with a complete idiot," Luke started eating the cone of his ice cream.

"I guess," I said moodily.

"Cheer up, Cal, it could be good fun!" Luke said cheerily. I rolled my eyes and gave him my cone.

=

When I got home from the ice cream parlour, I was greeted with my mother. I told her I was willing to do the boxing thing, and she was ecstatic. Sometimes, I really question her sanity. I mean, what's so good about boxing? She told me to ring dad and tell him my 'news' but I didn't want to. Minutes later, my phone rang.

"Sup?" I didn't bother looking at the caller ID, because I knew it would be Luke or Michael. Not either of them together, though, because they hate each other. I don't know why.

"Calum?"

I coughed, sitting up and straightening my back. "Dad?"

"Hello!" He laughed. "Long time no see!"

I laughed along lightly, because it was our little joke. He lives in Los Angeles, and has done since my parents split up years ago, which means I haven't seen him in, like, 12 years. He still phones, sends presents, and does all the dad things. I mean, it's not his fault, mum did kick him out. He's great, really.

"Yeah. Why are you ringing?" I asked, although I already knew the answer. My mother had obviously texted him saying i had news.

"Oh, come on Cal," he said. "What's your news?"

"Mum's making me take up boxing," I sighed.

I heard raucous laughter from down the other end of the phone. "Boxing?! What are you, rocky?" My dad laughed. I went red, but laughed along with him. I dint want him to think I actually wanted to do this.

"I know, it's crazy."

"You're a soccer star, Cal, you should be focusing on that," dad scolded, and it took me few minutes to get what soccer meant. I noticed, for the first time, that my dad had really picked up an American accent.

"Yeah," I said. "Soccer."

"The seasons starting up soon, right?" Dad asked.

I gulped. "I guess?"

You guess?" He grinned. "Calum Hood, you should know! A striker like you should always know when his next match is!" I had no idea to respond to that, because I knew it would be a bad idea to tell him I quit the football team. Luckily, I heard voices in the background, and my dad sighing heavily down the phone. "Listen, cal, I've got to go, your sister wants something as usual. I'll see you soon!"

He hung up, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I wish I lived in LA with my dad.

My dad would understand me.

=

I slammed my fist on the table, because Luke had gone to voicemail straight away. My mum was out with friends, and neither Luke nor Michael were answering their phones. I felt bad for Michael because he wouldn't have had anyone to sit with at lunch. And no doubt Luke's lot would be giving him a rough time. I was the guy that stopped Luke's school friends from beating the living day lights out of Michael.

Luke's friends are all jocks of some description, which is why they've never picked on me. Because of my football skills. No, picked on isn't the word, they see Michael as an easy target and make him the butt of their jokes. He doesn't really care, and it's just harmless banter. Michael has crazy hair and plays the guitar and hates the outdoors, which is the complete opposite to all the jerks Luke hangs with.

I don't know how Luke doesn't get picked on, because he sits with the sports teams, yet he can't throw or catch to save his life. He's so much like Michael it scares me. I try to tell them this, how stupid it is that they hate each other, but they never listen. Apparently Luke took the last slice of pizza from the canteen every day throughout year 7 and 8, knowing that the only thing the canteen serves that Michael can eat is that pizza. That when their pointless feud began.

Then one day, in year 9, they had a little bit of a fist fight. It was nothing major, but Michael was in a dicky mood because it was the anniversary of his grandad dying, and Luke unintentionally spilled a slushy down Michael's Green Day shirt. That's how I met Luke; he hadn't wanted to fight but peer pressure had gotten the better of him and he'd punched Mike in the face and it had all kicked off.

I'd had to give a 'statement' to our head of year, and Michael somehow ended up in isolation for the rest of the week, but Luke got off with a couple of detentions. Being the loving friend I am, I confronted Luke after the meeting and he felt so bad he offered to take me for ice cream after school. I think he must've drugged it, because we became best friends after that.

See, Michael's great, but outside of school he doesn't really have a life. He plays video games all day in the basement with the blinds closed eating nachos and listening to rap metal. If Michael's listening to rap metal, it's a sign he doesn't want to be disturbed. Occasionally he meets up with this kid he met on Facebook and they go skateboarding, but only at night. Michael's pretty weird, I'm ninety-nine percent sure he's a vampire.

So Luke is my out of school best friend, and Michael is my in school best friend. I sound like an 11 year old girl, but I promise I'm not. I can't help the fact my two best friends want to kill each other, and that I have to label them. Michael doesn't care that I'm friends with Luke, because I don't tell his parents that he meets up with the kid from Facebook at midnight at the skatepark. They think he's sleeping round mine.

My mum prefers Luke to Michael, because she knows Luke's mum from her Zumba classes. That's how she found out about the boxing; it's being run at the same place she does Zumba.

I hate Zumba. And I hate boxing.

My phone rang suddenly, snapping me away from my thoughts. "Hello?"

"Calum?" Luke sounded as though he'd been crying. "I've been involved in a little confrontation at school today."

"Oh no, don't tell me you've had another fight with Michael," I groaned. "Look, if me being excluded is endangering the safety of pupils, I'm sure they'll have me back," I added hopefully.

"I haven't had a fight with Michael," Luke said thickly. "I've had a fight because of Michael. And now he's disappeared."

"What do you mean, he bunked off?"

"No, he left school at the end of the day, was spotted getting on his usual bus and everything, but he's not at home. His parents are worried, because, you know, he's a social casualty and everything. He isn't used to the great outdoors," Luke breathed heavily down the phone.

"He'll be with that Ashton kid, the one he met online," I said, and Luke yelped out in pain. "Luke, where the fuck are you, I'm coming to get you. Have you bust your nose in again?"

"I'm at the skate park, I was looking for Michael. That's where he goes with Ashton, right? But I've just knocked my nose trying to scratch it and it's bleeding again. I can't call my mum, she'll ground me. She's going to ground me anyway, but I want to savour my last moments of freedom," he joked.

I sighed. "I'm definitely coming to get you. By the way, since when are you concerned about Michael?"

"It's to do with the fight," Luke said, before cursing loudly. "Calum, hurry up, I'm out of tissues!"

"I'm coming." I said, putting Luke on loudspeaker and grabbing my vans. "What was the fight about?"

"I'll tell you when you pick me up," Luke sighed. "It's a long story."

=

Ooh cliffhanger (kinda)

Um so this isn't just going to be about Calum boxing (that'll come in soon) it's about mike and luke and ash and everyone too

vote + comment if u like :)