~Edwin

  It's a good thing the athletic, yet  short hispanic boy has a very good balance, or otherwise, he would have been toppled and trampled over by a crowd of over a hundred students entering the 900 hall. He suppressed a sharp sigh of impatience from escaping his lips, trying the best he could to ignore the snickers of the taller students in front of him. It wasn't easy, though.

  He trudged over to his homeroom classroom, in which he was immediately greeted by the clashing and shattering of science lab materials as they plummeted on the ground, and the shrilling screams of girls having water squirted over their shirts.  Edwin groaned out loud, not in the mood to deal his class's silliness, which is unusual for him, since he loved to mess around.

  He was never much of school person. Especially not science.

  He stormed off to his desk and threw his two bookbags down onto the cold, marble floor. He took a second to glance up, and he saw that the the teacher wasn't here yet. He narrowed his eyes towards his desk while slowly cocking his head side to side with a peculiar look on his face, as if he were trying to look for Mr. O inside the clock.

  Mr. O is always here when I'm here! Where is he?

  Amid his pondering and his attempts to block out the racket that was coming out of the classmates in the back of the room, he heard the screeching of a seat right next to him, which caused him to spin around. He turned his head around and saw Rocío Roseanna Torres sitting herself down next to him. She dropped her pencil down on the wooden desk and whirled her head around to face Edwin. She giggled and smiled brightly.

  "Why, hello, Edwin! You seem like you are in deep thoughts today. What's up? You're normally with Ronald and Simon in the back showing off your soccer skills with paper balls, or doing stuff boys usually do, ya know?" she began with a flirtatious giggle. She smiled her cute smile and got closer to Edwin, making the hispanic boy back up a little bit.

    "Um..nothing? I just- uh- want some time to myself. I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone right now..." Edwin said, hoping she would leave him alone. He sighed softly to himself.

  I hope Alfonso comes soon, or I might actually lose myself today...

  Rocío just kept looking at Edwin, but with an intensifying gaze; she kept her green eyes locked on Edwin as she got even closer to him. Edwin felt extremely uncomfortable now.

  "Rocío, you're getting too close. Back it up a bit, would you?" He asked in the sweetest tone he could afford. She always did this when she talked with Edwin, which annoyed him to bits! If she had a crush on him, she should at least tell him in a diligent way that wouldn't pester him or make him uncomfortable. And if she was trying to seduce him or flirt with him... it definitely wasnt working.

  He took notice of Rocío biting her lip constantly, as her fingers drummed rapidly on top of her desk. She lowered her gaze, seeming to focus her eyes at the ground now.

Awkward.

  Edwin took a deep breath in attempt to relax himself. What could she possibly want now? She would normally ask him to do stupid girl things, like take selfies or dare him to wear her perfume for the whole class period, but it looked like she had something else in mind. Something she had been planning to ask Edwin.

  And he might know what it could be.

  He gathered himself together and quietly muttered under his breath, "Keep yourself together; if she says what you think she may say, just calmly respond. You don't want to make her mad, even though it is pretty tempting."

  He cleared his throat, which made Rocío jump in surprise. He looked at Rocío in the eye and took some quiet breaths before beginning to askm

  "Well, is there anything you want to tell me? Or did you come here to pe- I mean-" he caught himself before he said something that might reveal his annoyed, curt, and snappy attitude with her.

  Luckily for him, Rocío cut him off and answered his question.

  "A-Actually, yes, E-E-Edwin," her voice stuttered uncontrollably as she tried to keep a straight face; it took all of his guts to prevent himself from rudely turning away from her, or making an excuse for her to shut her mouth.

  Silence filled the gap between them.

  After a while, Rocío broke it up with a soft shallow, yet very shaky breath.

  "Edwin, I think-"

  "Hey! What are you doing so close to my best friend! MOVE IT!"

  And just like that, Rocío's attempt to- if she was going to- confess her feelings to the poor, stressed out Edwin, failed. Alfonso, the short, tan hispanic who interfered with Rocìo's confession, threw his heavy bookbag on the ground and pushed Rocío vigorously to the side. With a shriek of protest, she fell hard against the hard floor on her chest. She shrieked again, but this time, in pain, thus causing everyone in the room, especially the drama queens and the bad boys, to turn their heads around and stare at the fallen voluptuous hispanic. Laughter and mockery spread like a wildfire throughout the entire classroom. Ronald and Simon snickered and praised Alfonso for his action, in which Alfonso gladly accepted.  Even Rocío's friends started to point at her and giggled uncontrollably; this continued for a while, unfortunately for poor Miss Rocío, until the ear piercing whistle of a bald headed beast forced the entire class to drop to a dead silence.

  "What's all this racket for?! You guys will be getting extra homework for this rumbustious behavior. What are you guys, animals?!" He huffed sharply and shook his head in disappointment.

  "Begin your warm up while I'm away, or you all know what happens!"

  With that, he slammed the door shut and walked off, muttering something unpleasant about the class in a low but audible voice before heading out. The science class groaned with a tone of laziness and frustration; nonetheless they took out their notebooks and began to write the warm up that was written on the board for almost half an hour ago, it seemed.

  Rocío brushed any dust off of herself and shot a dirty look at Alfonso. She turned around with a 'hmph' and stormed off to her seat, which awaited snickers and pointing fingers from her classmates. Edwin took out his notebook and pencil, but before writing down anything, he smiled gratefully at Alfonso.

  "Thanks for saving me back there. I really needed you," he said with a chuckle. Alfonso patted his back and smirked widely.

  "No one tries to flirt with my best friend, especially not her! Who does she think she is?" He said quietly but  audible enough for Edwinto hear.

  Edwin could only laugh along with Alfonso. He picked up the pencil and wrote down the answer to the warm-up. If he were really honest, he would have never had responded to the prompt, but he decided a couple of weeks ago that he was going to try and change that, and see if that helps him get through school a whole lot easier. Sometimes, it worked, and he felt much better and confident in the  academic area.

  Other times, there were people like Liam who would taunt him and discourage him from continuing.

  Like, right now.

  "Say, twig, what's making you turn into a goody-goody nowadays? Mommy gave you a good whipping with a belt, muchachito?" Liam said in an ugly, mocking tone. The students in the back laughed loudly at his taunt. Alfonso widened his eyes and immediately stood from where he sat.

  "Bro, do you wanna fight? Cuz' my friend ain't no twig, and he ain't no muchachito either! And neither am I," he stated harshly at the white male while making his fists into tight balls; he daringly held them up in front of his face. But as he said those words, Edwin noticed he instantly grew less energized and a bit... concerned? What was backing Alfonso down? Almost nothing frightened that man!

  Edduin didn't bother thinking about it. He stepped in front of Alfonso, shaking his head.

  "Come on. Don't tell me your scared, Liam," Edwin spat out in the same, rude tone Liam spoke to him with. Normally, he would be silent and meditating inside his head to cure the anger boiling inside of him, but he honesty couldn't care anymore. Liam grinned and and stepped closer. He stared down at Edwin, examining every little detail. This only infuriated Edduin; he felt like he was doing something gross and perverted, making him clench his fists into small balls. Liam just grinned.

  "So, you're eager to do this, aren't you? You'll regret this, midget. You really will," he said, shaping the tone of his voice to sound deadly, something to make you not want to mess with him. Edwin wasn't afraid, however. When Liam saw he failed in frightening Edwin he scowled in bitter hatred and swung his arm  around. Edwin had not time to blink before he hit him in the side of his head.

  Edwin definitely wasn't prepared for that; Edwin was, for sure, shook and surprised by the sudden motion of his opponent, but he couldn't say much of the impact. This is probably because there wasn't much of an impact! Yes, such a powerful, and a sincerely incredible blow, yet Edwin couldn't feel anything but a slight burn on his cheek due to the impressive contact. What's also peculiar? Why, he didn't even move a single inch! He saw it happen in movies before, but what about real life? Could it be something extremely rare? Once in an eternity, perhaps? Or could it be because of his time of tremendous workouts and body building.

  Liam blinked a couple of times, trying to see if Edwin would move, fall, cry, or just about anything that would give him pleasure. Instead, Edwin let out a laugh, and stepped towards Liam, until he was only an inch away from the bully.
 
  "Looks like your blow didn't do anything to me? Weird? Hm, I think not," Edwin taunted.

  Alfonso, who was munching on a piece of chocolate he brought with him, laughed along with him.

  Liam became furious; he screamed a curse at Edwin and punched him square in the nose at an even faster velocity. Edwin did manage to blink due to the speed of Liam's second attempt to hurt him, but in reality, he just couldn't feel anything. Edwin looked down at his feet to see if he even budged.

  Of course, he didn't.

  Seeing his best friend unfaltering and proud, Alfonso let out a snort. In a snarky tone, he shouted, "Maybe Liam's actually weaker than the skinny boy himself? Ain't that right, Eddy?!"

  Edwin chuckled back to his best friend and replied, "Let's test that out, Fonzie!" In under a second, he stepped foward with his left leg and smacked Liam on the side of his head with his bare fist. Liam hilariously stumbled back upon the row of desks behind him and slammed his head against the border. He plummeted down to the ground shocked and petrified, which, known by some of his closest friends, is VERY uncommon.

  Everyone, even Alfonso remained shock.

Five seconds....

Silence.

Fifteen seconds...

Silence.

Thirty seconds...

 
  "Eddy, that was...one heck of a move right there," Alfonso whispered. Rocío and her friends Jill and Ana Rosa nodded silently, their eyes filled with utter shock and, if he wasn't mistaken, a tiny gleam of fear.

  Edwin chuckled lightly

  "Yeah, well, Liam shouldn't have ever undermined me to begin with."

  Liam rose up from the floor and stared at Edwin; he said nothing to him, but there was no need for him to say another word. The red look on his face said everything Edwin wanted to know: Defeat, surprise, envy, and hatred, and all of those four feelings were, indeee, directed towards him. Footsteps were heard a moment after, causing everyone to scamper like squirrels to their seats. Liam cursed him in a low, dangerous voice one last time before storming off to his seat. Alfonso waited until he began to write on his notebook before tapping Edwin's shoulder.

  "Make sure no one tells about this, Eddy, or you could get yourself in loads of trouble. Like Christian," Alfonso advised quietly so no one would hear. It was Edwin's turn to be surprised and fearful.

  Christian?! W-What did he do?

  Alfonso began to explain what he was able to perceive from the scene to Edwin. He felt his heart beginning to sink and break apart like the Titanic at the words 'Ace tried to beat him up' and 'Christian got sent to the principal's office.'

  "Not fair, fonzie! Why should he be the one in trouble? It's Ace's fault.." Edduin began to whine, but he let his words trail off right when Mr. O opened the door. He was so sure he was the only one who jumped at the sound of his arrival.

  "Hello, class. I see you guys are silent. This is a change," Mr. O analyzed as he examined the class. He then glanced at Liam with peculiar, wondering eyes.

  "Uh, Liam? What's happened to you? It looks like someone punched you near the side of your head while you slammed yourself against a wooden table!" The science teacher exclaimed.  "And why are you all so silent?!"

  That's when Edwin cleared his voice and spoke.

  "It sure has been one heck of a morning, Mr. O."