Chapter 16: Chapter 16

Cole and Tris stared at the spilled food on the ground.

Nobody seemed to care about what was happening over here. Everyone was just going on, chatting as they ate, and there was no teacher to supervise them.

Cole tried to hide his face, but he was too shaken by what just happened that he decided to have a good look at them.

There were three boys standing before them. The one on the left wore his blue cap backwards. The one on the right had a shirt that had the word "BULLY" written boldly on it, his teeth as yellow as the orange juice juice Cole bought for Tris. Their leader in the middle was holding a plastic baton, slamming it on his other hand with a stupid smirk on his face.

They all looked a lot older than Tris. They looked twelve or thirteen.

"Well well well... Who do we have here?," Their leader questioned with a smirk on his face.

Cole stared at Tris, who didn't even look their way. He took a look at the food on the ground and kept his eyes on the bare table, mute.

"For someone who refused to get my homework done, you're enjoying yourself a lot. Too much, in fact," he said.

"We told you we wanted out homework done, and the excuse you could come up with was that your mum forced you to go bed?," The one with the cap questioned. As he spoke, his bad breath decapitated Cole's sense of smell for a moment of two.

"Mummy's boy. You do everything your mum tells you to do, right?," The teeth-stained one asked.

"Tris baby, can you pass me the remote? Tris baby, can you get some water? Tris, it's time to eat! Tris, it's time to sleep! Tris, it's time to take a shit!!," Their leader made a mock imitation of what he thought Tris's mother would sound like.

"I'm sure that old hag control your stupid, miserable life!," The one of the right hooted and they cracked up in laughter.

Cole looked calm, but he was finding it hard to restrain himself from interfering with their banter, or worse, whooping these children's asses.

But he wasn't just angry because they were insulting Tris's mother. He was angry at the fact that Tris didn't do anything to defend or stand up for himself. Cole expected him to stand up for himself, but he just stared into the nothingness as they laughed at him and mocked his mother.

Their laughter finally died down, and they put on their serious faces again.

"Now look there, Little bitch. Because you didn't do our homework, we couldn't get marks, and that means our grades are going to be lower than planned. Tomorrow, we're going to have biology test. We'll go steal the question papers before the end of today. We'll give it to you, and you're going to give us the answers tomorrow. I don't want to look for you after the second period. Make sure you hand the answers to us before you enter the biology class. If you fail this time, I'll beat you up just the same way I did last two weeks."

"We would've preferred to seize your lunch, but your mum is so poor, she can't afford anything apart from raw bread," the one on the right snorted.

"If you like, give us another excuse about your stupid mother forcing you to go to bed. That old hag will have a lot of cuts to stitch tomorrow"

That was it.

Cole couldn't take anymore of it.

"You and your stupid mum-"

"Do you not have any respect for your elders?," Cole spoke up for the first time since they were showed themselves.

They got silent and exchanged glances with each other. All of a sudden, they began laughing hard like Cole had cracked a joke specially curated by Eddie Murphy.

"And who is the elders you speak of? You want us to have respect for who - you? A common janitor?!!," The leader asked and they began laughing again.

"He might even have it better than you, if we decide to check. How much does the school pay you?" The one on the left questioned.

"You don't need to respect for me. I was talking about his mom?"

"And who's she to you? Your girlfriend? Tris, is the janitor fucking your mom?!!," They questioned and broke down in another bout of laughter.

"Is it just his mum, or do you all call your mum's old hags and stupid bitches too?"

Their laughter faded off immediately and they shot a glare at Cole.

"Who the fuck are you to ask us that question?," The one with the cap asked.

"Did you just call our mum's old hags and stupid bitches?," The one on the right questioned, offended.

"By the way? What are you even doing here with him? Aren't you supposed to be licking some toilet seat and gaggling some toilet water? What are you doing here?," Their leader asked.

"There's only one explanation - that's his fucking son! He's fucking Tris's mother!"

"I give you both ten seconds to leave here, or you'll regret ever showing up for school," Cole warned through clenched teeth.

They began laughing again.

"What are you going to do? Hit us? You want to hit children? Do you want to lose your job? How will you provide for his mum?"

"Five seconds left-"

Their leader opened the bottle orange juice on the table and steadied it inches away from Cole's face. Before he could finish his sentence, the lad quizzed the bottle hard, causing the contents to fly out and splash at Cole's face.

They saw how he gasped, and they couldn't help but laugh.

Cole had had enough.

He turned to the mopstick besides him and took it out of the bucket. He picked up the bucket containing muddy water and in less than a second, they were all wet.