Thursday: Fighting Like An Animal? Well, It Beats Fighting Like An Animal
*Drum Beat*
*Crickets*

Alex turned to the clock to see that it was two hours before Sherri's morning training usually started. After two hours of fighting with exhaustion, he sat up and looked around the empty black bedroom.

The image of Danny's black, bloody eye and Randy's grotesquely broken arm, spurting blood like a fire hydrant, flashed in his mind almost as sharply as the splitting migraine he had.

Alex looked out his window into the still blackness of the early morning only to discover a small light flickering in the middle of his backyard. He quickly and quietly threw on some clothes before walking through the back door and towards what he saw was a flickering candle.

That's when he saw the shadow of a figure moving in a strange way, the shadow dancing across the ground human-like, but the movements seemed more animalistic in nature, not simple or barbaric like what he had been learning.

No, these movements reflected a grace and stability that soothed Alex's mind and coaxed him to follow along.

The shadowy figure finished its movements and then fell to its knees.

As the morning sun began to rise, the shadowy figure came into focus.

Sherri turned and noticed Alex before springing to her feet.

"Wha-What are you doing there, you creepy little bastard?!" she exclaimed as she pulled her karambit from her pocket, ready to make her surprise audience regret spying on her.

"What was that?!" Alex exclaimed back, too shocked to be afraid.

The anger from Sherri's face quickly faded to be replaced by confusion.

"It's just a mix of some animal forms I learned in New Asia a long, long time ago," she said with a nonchalant shrug.

"So it's kung fu?!" Alex asked, beaming like it was Christmas morning.

"Yeah...I guess..." Sherri responded, not being used to her martial arts being questioned with astonishment instead of fear.

"Who taught you?!" Alex continued, now more interested than ever.

"A...friend," Sherri answered hesitantly, clearly not wanting to give too much of an answer that would bring on more questions.

"But you don't have any friends..." Alex noted with a cock of his little head.

Sherri's frown returned as she blew out the candle and walked toward the door that led back inside.

"Wait! Can you teach me that?!" Alex called after her.

"No."

"Why not?!" Alex whined as he chased after her.

"Because these forms are just pretty versions of what I teach you. If you wanna dance, go join a zumba class!" she snapped.

"I don't like hurting people and I don't like fighting, but that isn't really fighting! Please, Sherri!"

Alex was so busy begging that he didn't notice the small droplets of blood coming from his nose, but Sherri did and slowly walked over to wipe it away with a brief moment of sadness.

"Fine, but it's your funeral, kid" she sighed heavily.

• • •

Alex reached the school and looked at his watch. It read 8:15.

"Oh, no!" he exclaimed as he ran through the door only to be greeted by Mr. Travis.

"You better have a good excuse for being late," Mr. Travis said with a narrowed gaze and arms crossed over his chest.

"I don't have one, not that it would help me," Alex replied, catching Mr. Travis off guard.

"Well, I suppose you don't mind spending another afternoon in detention," Mr. Travis said with a raised brow.

"Nope."

Alex's sense of nonchalance made the principal even more annoyed.

"Well... W-Well, I guess you won't mind skipping another recess to study in--"

Mr. Travis stopped short of his intended threat and looked behind Alex with a look of dread mixed with sadness.

As Alex turned around, he saw the trio of Ivan, Randy, and Danny standing in the hallway. Randy had a cast on each arm, but Alex could see a slight shine coming off of them. It was only when he looked closer that he noticed the cast was covered in broken glass. He also noticed several sharp objects poking out as well.

Danny's eye was now completely black, almost like a shark's, and so bruised that it made the side of his face a sickly purple-ish color.

Ivan, with his usual amount of confidence, only wagged his finger, causing Mr. Travis to nod.

"Forget it, Alex... Just enjoy recess..." he mumbled and motioned for Alex to continue toward class.

• • •

Alex sat patiently in his seat during first period and tried to pay attention to his teacher, which would normally have been easy had Ivan not been absent. The fact that Ivan wasn't here troubled him slightly.

Mrs. Crow had trouble keeping momentum in her lesson as the sounds of fights constantly echoed throughout the halls.

Ever since Randy started his after school fight club, what was left of the student body feared of being "randomly picked" for the entertainment of the evening, so the unwritten rules were made pretty clear.

Learn to take care of yourself because nobody else, not even the teachers, cops, parents, or principal, would.

The richer neighborhood already had plenty of martial arts schools, but before their private school fell into its sorry state, these martial arts schools were just expensive daycares for rich parents to dump their bratty children when they didn't have school.

It was basically kindergarten with kicks, but soon after the private school fell, the martial arts instructors saw an easy way to make money. Soon a multitude of weekend self defense classes were started where kids could learn all the dangerous, crippling, deadly parts of the arts without all that pesky personal growth or responsibility.

The result led to an even larger amount of fights in the halls, most of which led to serious injury and an ever lower amount of kids in school. Essentially, only the most deadly psychopaths and criminals were left.

Alex couldn't help but get the song "kung fu fighting" stuck his head as the bell rang.

When the bell sounded, the handful of children exited the class and Alex began doing the same.

"Alex, can you stay behind one moment, please?" Mrs. Crow asked, getting Alex before he left.

Mrs. Crow had always been a very strict, no nonsense teacher, who many kids called Mrs. Scarecrow due to her skinny and pretty scary appearance.

She sat at her desk in front of Alex, which was odd considering she usually stood all day and never used her seat.

"You're a good kid, Alex, even when you had your treatments, you never took it out on anybody," she said with a soft smile.

"Um...thank you, ma'am," Alex responded, not sure what to say.

"Please...just stay down...cover your vital areas, and...don't get up..." she whispered, tearing up slightly before turning her back to a confused Alex who preceded to walk out the door.

The other two classes flew by in a flash. As few as seven kids actually went to class and even the teachers didn't seem to care, showing up just as late as the students.

For the most part, Alex sat alone in the empty classroom for an hour before either the teacher stumbled in to take a nap at their desk, a single student popped in, or the bell dismissed him.

Before Alex knew it, recess was in session. He didn't usually participate due to his inability to fit in with the other kids, but today he had a feeling that his attendance was mandatory.

The first thing Alex saw was the large crowd of kids on the playground and gathered around the basketball court.

The second thing was the trio of Ivan, Randy, and Danny standing in their usual intimidating pose in the center of the crowd. Only this time they weren't alone.

Standing behind them were two adults in their late twenties. The man was tall and muscular with several chunks missing from his nose. The woman was also tall, but thin, and had dramatically oversized, fake breasts and enough make up on to mistake her for a clown.

As Alex stood in front of the three boys, Ivan looked up at the man as if waiting for instructions. It was then the man gave him a nod.

"Don't fuck this up, son," he said as the three boys began to surround Alex.

Ivan immediately dived for Alex's legs, but a quick shift in stance from Alex caused Ivan to stumble to the ground. However, before Alex could move to finish him off, Randy charged at him, swinging his sharp casts out like clubs.

Alex was trying to find a way to counter attack without getting cut, when he felt the throwing star whiz passed his face. He barely had time to register the event before the same star bounced off the wall beside him and embedded itself into his shoulder.

A pained cry escaped his lips as he quickly pulled the star out and dodged more of Randy's blows before another star flew by, cutting his side. When this one bounced back, it cut the side of Alex's right arm.

Ivan once again ran at Alex, but unlike the others, Alex simply side stepped and flipped him onto the ground before barely dodging Randy's punch that grazed his cheek, ripping the skin and sending droplets of blood staining the pavement below.

Alex only had a few precious moments to think about his situation, but what he did know was that he was very quickly tiring out, not to mention bleeding at an alarming rate.

He definitely wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer.

Strangely enough, his mind kept drifting to his video games.

'I wish this was more like the final fight in Fable...or Megaman...or Mario... Every games' boss always has a weakness put in, some pattern that is set up to take advantage of...'

Alex dreaded that his final moments would consist of missing his games and not his parents, but as he thought of those games, his brain instantaneously spotted the pattern.

Ivan stumbled...
Randy drew his arms back...
Danny threw a star...

Ivan stumbled...
Randy drew his arms back...
Danny threw a star...

"Gotta time this just right..." Alex whispered to himself as Ivan and Randy both charged from behind and in front.

Alex dodged Danny's star and just before it bounced back, he pulled Ivan into the path. The star found its mark in Ivan's cheek, sliding through the flesh and the kid's tongue like butter, before Alex pushed the boy's face into Randy's sharp blow. Randy tried to pull back, but the extra weight of his casts added to his momentum made it impossible.

His deadly casts slammed into Ivan's face, sending the boys tumbling to the ground in screaming pain.

Alex used the confusion to snatch up another star and toss it into Danny's blackened eye, causing even more damage.

Randy, perhaps fearing retaliation from his friends, quickly got up and threw one final haymaker at Alex, who ducked, sending the punch into the wall where the sound of shattering glass and bone travelled over the crowd of watching children.

After all was said and done, Alex scanned the three down bullies.

"If this were a movie, this would be where all the other kids carry the lone underdog away on their shoulders," Alex blinked, sort of amazed by what he did as he watched the crowd of angry, leaderless children begin to focus their bloodthirsty tendencies on each other.