THE JOINING: The Cycle of the Shards Book One
Chapter 4

Kyle Edison preferred quiet days. Days with nothing to do, no major requirements upon him, and as little strife as possible. Unfortunately for him, this Tuesday was not shaping up to be one of those days at all. The morning had passed without much interest. His father had went back into work early, leaving him alone to face the day. As usual, this was what he preferred. The morning classes went as well as he could expect, with nobody calling on him, and nothing of any great challenge to accomplish. Then it was time for lunch, and everything went to hell.

He had went through the lunch line and for once, he hadn’t seen Brian Boyd at all. Which was fortunate for the extra reason that he was pretty hungry and would enjoy actually eating his lunch for a change instead of seeing someone else eating it.. Once past the very nice underpaid lunch lady, he found an empty table outside to claim for himself and whoever else from his small circle happened by, and settled in with his tray of square pizza, milk, and a vegetable that he couldn’t quite identify, and went to take his first bite when suddenly he felt a strong push and found himself on the concrete ground. The momentary pain was replaced with dread as he looked up at his attacker. It looked like Brian Boyd was at school after all.

“You forgot me? Started eating all by yourself? I’ll forget this time, but I’ll need enough to get my own lunch. Hand it over.” Kyle slowly rose to his feet. The money he had used to pay for his lunch was all that he had.

“You’re too late, I don’t have any left.” Kyle felt a little rebellious all of a sudden. He knew facing off with the bully was a mistake, but he almost couldn’t stop himself. Maybe it was just the angry rush from being pushed down unexpectedly. “You’re just going to have to go after some kindergartners or something.”

“Heh.” Brian wasn’t used to someone talking back to him. “Well, I guess nobody’s eating today.” With that, he took one of his large hands and swept the lunch tray to the ground, scattering its contents across the hard concrete.

Kyle would never know why he did what he did, but instead of backing down from the larger boy’s challenge, he actually took a step closer to him. He was fed up. Tired of dealing with Brian’s nonstop aggression, tired of putting up with all the nonsense that came with growing up and school and everything else. Inside he had been slowly building an anger that had no real reason for being other than the regular injustice of being who he was and where he was in life. Now it was all bubbling to the surface in an arena that he was unfamiliar with. He stared Brian straight in his eyes, despite having to look up six inches. “Why did you do that? Why do you always do this?”

Brian wasn’t used to being questioned by his prey. He wasn’t smart in the sense that would have helped him succeed in school, but he did know enough to look out of the corner of his eyes to make sure there were no teachers close enough to see him shove Kyle back, almost knocking him over. “Get out of my face, ass.”

Kyle, however, was not smart enough to assess his surroundings, and so when he inadvisably stood up and delivered a return shove to Brian, Mrs. Smith had glanced outside at the unexpected motion and saw him deliver the push. Brian was surprised at the shove, and at the same time he caught the teacher with a glance. He quickly decided to fall backwards, selling his fall to make it much worse than it actually was.

Brian’s ploy worked as Mrs. Smith moved briskly through the double doors that led to the courtyard. “What’s going on out here! Explain yourself!” She sounded as if she was addressing both combatants but she was staring straight at Kyle.

“He pushed me! I didn’t do anything, just came out here and talked to him!” The sale was still working as Brian held his arm as though in pain, though the bully had really never felt better.

“That’s a lie you shit!” The lit fuse had gone off, and Kyle couldn’t hold back his language, which even in this day and age still caused the grey haired ex-kindergarten teacher to gasp and place a hand over her mouth.

When she regained her composure, she stared daggers at Kyle. “Get to the principal’s office right now. We will not have this here!”

Kyle thought about challenging her, about going after Brian again while he was still playing up his fake injury. But with the added attention and the new fear of punishment, his anger was fading, and quickly being replaced with dread.

Kyle had faced a lot of humiliation, but essentially being frog marched by a teacher fifty years his senior into the main office was rising to the top of the list. Even worse when he realized who was assisting in the office. Daniel was there, but as he had had his own list of problems that he had to work through over the last couple years Kyle knew that he was the last person that would throw stones. Next to Daniel was the last person he wanted to see him like this. Shanna Ewing.

He was sure he had known she was in the office. He cursed his stupidity as he was moved past her quickly, and she looked on with a strange look on her face. He could only imagine what was going through her head, though the look surprised him. Was she upset with him? Would she move chairs now in Computer Science? Or was she...concerned? A million paranoid thoughts rushed through his brain as he was quickly sat in the principal’s office. With a sniff, Mrs. Smith spoke. “Mr. Tompkins will be in shortly. Don’t touch anything.” Satisfied with her work, she turned around and walked out of the room, leaving Kyle alone in the office. The door was open so it wasn’t like she was leaving him totally alone, but he was surprised at the amount of freedom that he was being given. Or was it a test, hoping that he would run out of the room? He was worried enough about what kind of punishment he was going to receive. Lost in thought about the myriad possibilities ranging from expulsion to some kind of reward for standing up for himself, he nearly jumped out of his skin when he suddenly heard a whisper.

“Hey, what’re you in for?” Daniel was standing right outside, technically breaking the rules but since the office was so busy this time of day nobody was noticing.

Kyle sighed. “Brian came after me. Pushed him. Mrs. Smith saw me.” He wasn’t trying to make it sound any bigger than it was, but it did come out like something he should be proud about, which is exactly how Daniel took it.

“Really? Brian, huh. Good for you. I wouldn’t mind taking a crack at him myself. Asshole’s going to get into a fight he can’t power his way out of someday. ” Kyle smiled. At least someone was on his side. He chanced it and glanced around the corner of the door, and saw Shanna looking at them. When she saw Kyle’s face, she waved, which caused him to instantly pull his head back into the room, his face reddening. Daniel looked at him, then back at Shanna, who had returned to helping the secretary file the day’s absences. He muttered something unintelligible. “You know, John’s right. You really should say something to her. It’s getting a bit annoying watching you dance around her all the time.”

Kyle put his head back, hitting it softly on the wall. “Considering the only thing he ever talks about is how screwed up Claire is, I kinda tune him out.”

“...Watch it.” As Daniel walked back into the office suddenly, Kyle remembered that Daniel had recently gone out on a few dates with Claire. He sighed, wondering how else he was going to mess things up today.

He didn’t dare take a look back outside into the office. He was surprised that she had waved at him. Why did she wave at him? As he was sitting there lost in his own thoughts he heard a sound of stomping feet moving closer to his direction. He turned and saw Brian enter the office, smirking, and sat in the seat on the other side of the office. Right behind him was Principal Tompkins, stern as ever, who closed the door behind him, then crossed to his desk. He sat down quickly, swiveled around, and peered out the window at something for moment, leaving both Kyle and Brian in an uncomfortable silence. Then he swiveled back around, and looked at Kyle.

“I’m very disappointed with you.” He swiveled slightly. “And you, Brian. How many times does this make this school year so far? Five? Six?”

Brian exploded. “It wasn’t my fault! The little jackass pushed me!”

Kyle went right back at him, his trepidation forgotten in favor of his earlier anger. “He threw my lunch on the ground! And he’s been taking...”

“I DON’T CARE!” Mr. Tompkins bellowed suddenly, then seemed to remember where he was, and cleared his throat, placing his fingers in a pyramid under his chin. “I will not have this in my school. Do either of you know what the words zero tolerance mean?” He paused, but not long enough to actually let either of the two answer. “It means that we do not put up with these types of issues here. There will be no fighting, no pushing, no anything. Now as this is the first recorded infraction between the two of you, I will happily let this one pass as a learning experience. Be friends! I’m sure you’ll replace you have plenty in common despite this disagreement.”

Kyle gave Brian an angry look, who just grinned.

Mr. Tompkins continued. “I also believe that the best learning comes from the parents, not the school. I will personally notify each of your parents, who I’m sure will have something more to say to you about this. Now this is your one warning from me. Next time I see EITHER of you in here for any reason, you’ll be sent home immediately with a nice pamphlet of my favorite reform school. Do you understand me?”

Both gave fairly non-committal grunts of agreement.

“Good!” Tompkins finished. “Now get out of here, it’s almost time for the next period.” He swiveled back around, and obviously expected them both to leave quickly. Kyle quickly stood up to get out, but Brian pushed past him, whispering to him as he moved.

“Tomorrow.”

As Brian walked quickly out of the office and down the hall, Kyle found his legs turning into lead. He knew it wasn’t an idle threat. Tomorrow he was going to be forced to make good on his earlier aggression, potentially with an audience. This on top of his dad having been called so he was going to have to deal with that tonight. He sighed heavily, and slowly moved down the hallway. For once, he had completely put Shanna out of his mind before he heard her voice calling after him right as he hit the doorway.

“Hey, Kyle!”

If anything could have made Brian, his dad, and every other source of strife in his life disappear, it was her voice, and as he turned he saw her walking towards him. Today she was dressed in a medium-length dress, well within school dress code regulations, yet to him it seemed almost too distracting. He almost forgot to answer her.

“I, um, hey.” He sputtered out. She smiled at him and despite all the things that were happening to him today all he could do was smile back.

“You headed to the Computer Lab?” She sweetly asked.

“Yeah...?”

“Can I walk with you? I hate going all the way over there by myself, and I never get to talk with you outside there.”

“Uh, yeah, sure!” Kyle’s inside were on red alert. What was going on! Why did she want to walk with him, and to talk with him? This wasn’t making any sense.

The two began their path from the first floor, up the stairs, to the second floor right across from the library on the east wing. As they walked, Shanna was talking a mile a minute, and Kyle was smart enough to let her go on, just fascinated at her talking. She was never like this in Computer Science.

“So the secretary forgot Eddie’s name and got it mixed up with Elsie and for the rest of the year all the paperwork had him being a girl. I thought we were going to get sued, it was hilarious.” She laughed loudly, and he chuckled along with her. “So what was that all about in there? I don’t see you much around the office. Or...well, anywhere, really.”

Kyle was less than enthusiastic about sharing his lapse in judgment with the girl he couldn’t stop thinking about. “Eh, just a disagreement with Brian. Nothing really.”

She raised an eyebrow. “That’s disappointing.”

“Disappointing?”

“Well, you’re either lying or hiding things, and neither is very fun. Disagreements don’t cause Tompkins to call parents. He hates parents.”

“...Sorry. Wait, the principal hates parents?”

“Yeah. Well, talking with them. Or seeing them. Pretty much everything about them. All he does is moon over that stupid car...” She was cut off by the alarm of the warning bell. “Shit. Let’s go in. We’ll have to do this more often.” She smiled brightly again, then turned around and moved into the lab. He wanted to follow her immediately, but he was frozen in returning the smile. She talked to him. And now they would spend the rest of the class together. What had looked like the worst day ever was now turning into possibly the best.

As he went in and settled into his chair he realized he was sitting down in the beginning of a discussion already in progress between Shanna on his right, and Jim on his left. Jim’s distinctive southern drawl, absent from his twin sister despite both of them having lived in Texas before moving up north, overpowered the room. “What’s wrong with liking a car. If I had a car, I’d love it! I’d have pictures of it everywhere.” Apparently Shanna had Principal Tompkins still on her mind, or at least his Mustang.

“It’s not just liking with him. He spends half his time just staring at it out the window. You were in his office, Kyle, did you see him?”

Kyle thought back, though it was difficult getting used to speaking normally to Shanna. “Uh, yeah. Looked out at it before he started in on me.”

Jim looked taken aback. “You were in his office? You actually did something? What’d you do, come up with a murder list? Set fire to the locker room?”

Shanna looked worried, but Kyle and Jim laughed. Kyle wasn’t happy with his lot in life but there was a pretty big difference between being unhappy and being angry enough to do some real damage. Which never stopped teachers and other authority figures from sometimes watching him. The phrase ‘It’s always the quiet ones’ just meant that the quiet ones got watched closer, which caused Kyle and Jim to come to the conclusion that was what drove the quiet ones crazy.

“Worse. Pushed down Brian Boyd.” He forgot that he hadn’t said anything about that to Shanna. He and Jim would commiserate on their shared dislike of him while they were talking about their school lives, usually at lunch or in this very spot. Shanna’s sudden inclusion into their quiet discussions had him off guard. As both Jim and Shanna looked stunned at his admission, the conversation was cut off by Mr. Lyon announcing the lesson plan, a coding worksheet that was being passed around the room that was intended to take the entire period but from experience Kyle knew would take roughly fifteen or so minutes. It was simple, outdated Basic language stuff, something that he had down. As they got their worksheets, the three got to work, Jim finally replaceing his voice.

“You got into a fight with Boyd? YOU?” His voice almost got too loud for the class. There were a few “Shhhh” sounds around him, but Shanna picked up where he left off.

“What the hell are you thinking?” Shanna hissed, looking like she was...disappointed in him? Kyle couldn’t make out the expression on her face.

“I don’t know, all right!” Kyle exclaimed, and the chorus of “Shhh” came again.

“Calm down, this isn’t the library!” Jim exclaimed to the shushers, and looked at Kyle, bidding him to continue.

“Sorry, sorry...He just bothers me every day. Hell, if it wasn’t for John, I wouldn’t have anything for lunch half the time. And the one time I actually do what people say, stand up for myself, I get thrown to the office. Gonna call home. So now I’ve got shit here, shit there. It’s all shit.” Kyle ranted, and finally came to a stop. He’d went off on rants before to Jim, and expected a comeback of some sort. But to go off in front of Shanna. God, he hadn’t even got to the point where he could start anything and now it was over!

But she responded in a way he could not have predicted. She just looked at him with her big blue eyes, and put a hand on his shoulder, which amazingly instantly calmed him, though he thought her touch was pretty much short-circuiting his brain.

“I’m sorry Kyle. But you know what? He’s nothing. He’s always nothing. He’s always going to be nothing. No matter what he does now or what happens to you now isn’t going to change that. You’re going to be great somehow, I can see that. ” Shanna smiled a little sadly at him and his flabbergasted face. Jim’s mouth had dropped, but he quickly recovered.

“So...when you get out of here, you’re going to be a counselor then?” He smirked.

“Hell with that. Too much school. I’m going to be famous!” She laughed as she typed another line into the computer.

Kyle smiled. “I bet you will.” She grinned, as Jim continued.

“Famous how?”

“Don’t know yet, but I’ll get there.”

He nodded, and started typing at his own computer, and spoke again, jokingly. “So, Kyle. Boyd #1 on Murder list now?”

Kyle sighed. Horrible joke. Insensitive as hell. And yet Shanna smirked at it as she worked on her program. The conversation stalling out for now, he joined the two in typing.

The worksheet itself was a bit more complex than the three had planned on, and for once it did last until the end of the class. Jim had filed out quickly, winking at Kyle in the process as he left him and Shanna. Shanna smiled again at him and she moved to head out to her next class when Kyle suddenly had another burst of confidence that seemed to come from nowhere. He didn’t know why, but now was his moment. “Hey, Shanna?”

She stopped at the door, and turned around, moving out of the doorway so the other slow moving students could file out to their next destination. “Yes?”

“I was, um, wondering...You wanna hang out sometime? Just us? No computer labs or Jim or principal with Mustang or...” He was starting to ramble and had momentarily forgotten how to finish a sentence. Fortunately, Shanna could finish it for him.

“Sure! You come up with a time and a place, I’ll fit it in!” She winked, then headed out of the room again, leaving Kyle to wonder how the hell he just pulled that off, and what the hell was going on today that fit so many seemingly important life-changing events into such a short time. He smiled to himself, probably the first time to be happy on his way to phys ed.

The rest of the day passed pretty uneventfully, especially in comparison to the way it had started. Really, what could compete with Shanna, let alone having things come to a head with Brian? As he sleepwalked through a volleyball match which saw him rotate in and out twice with the ball never coming near him, he reached study hall none the worse for wear. He had little in the way of work to do, so he put his head back and allowed himself to daydream for a short while. Mostly about Shanna. The elation of finally making contact with the girl of his dreams was blocking the other potential crisises that were brewing just behind his subconscious. What was going to happen with his father that night? And then with Brian the day after? Every so often thoughts about those events would intrude on his otherwise pleasant dreams, but he pushed them away. He wanted to concentrate on something good for a change. And so he did up until the end of the day, and for the walk home.

Once past the front door though, and in an environment that only he and his father shared, the reality of the situation struck him with a growing nervousness in the pit of his stomach. Hoping to head him off at the post, he quickly went to grab the phone, it only being plugged into the landline in case of emergencies that Kyle didn’t want to even consider. Checking the included answering machine and past phone calls, he was relieved for a moment to notice that there had been no calls to the house that day. But his happiness was dashed when he remembered that the office had his dad’s cell phone number. Kyle thought as quickly as he could about alternate options he had. Guessing his dad’s password on his phone so he could intercept the voicemail? Calling the phone company and posing as him? Nothing seemed feasible, and he felt helpless. By now Tompkins had almost certainly called, and if his dad had gone on break, then the message would have been received. Kyle slumped into the computer chair and stared at the blank screen. What was he going to do?

Interrupting his morose thoughts was the sound of a message being received. He reached out and hit the monitor ‘on’ switch, and the computer screen displayed, showing a blinking box and the sender of the message: Claire McClane, tormentor of John, and sister of Jim.

“’Sup, turd.” Her terms of endearment were always the highlight of his day.

“Nothing.” Kyle was not remotely in the mood to talk, which recently seemed like a beacon to attract everyone to his side.

“Heard you laid out Boyd. Nice going.”

Kyle shook his head, exasperated. “No! I pushed him. That’s all.” The last thing he needed was a story going around that he had beat up the bully. He was still hoping for a solution to this that didn’t result in his getting pummeled, and a story such as that would just end up making Brian madder.

“That’s what Jim said. Or what he’s telling people, anyway. Anyway, need a favor, I was out ‘sick’ today, in case you haven’t noticed.” Kyle hadn’t had time to notice her absence considering how much John still complained about her. “What’s the reading for History?”

“I’ll tell you if you lay off of John. I’d like to know if he knows how to talk about anything besides you bothering him.”

“He took me for fast food tacos! On a date!”

Kyle thought for a moment. “A year ago! What do you like on a date?”

“...Are you asking me out? I’m going with Daniel. I’m flattered though..”

“NO! I mean...” There was no good way to come back to that, and he hoped that she knew better . They’d known each other for a long while, and while both were friends, neither had any romantic inclinations towards the other. “For John.”

“You’re asking out John? I didn’t know!”

“Oh for the love of...” He typed furiously, getting frustrated at either her lack of intelligence or her incredible ability to get under his skin just as easily as she did John. “So I can tell John what he did wrong so he stops wondering. If you people would just talk to each other it’d make it a lot easier for the rest of us.”

“Ah, okay. ” A beat passed between that message and the next. “So it’s not about Shanna Ewing, then?”

Kyle didn’t type a response. He didn’t want to have a conversation with her about Shanna. He knew exactly what she would say. Unfortunately, he didn’t have to say anything, she just continued on her own. “Let me give you some advice, kid.” He was about to type a reply that he was older than her by a few months, but she didn’t give him a chance. “Stay away from the redhead. She sits at the wrong table. Only thing you’re going to get by chasing after her is sore legs.”

“I don’t want to talk about it. Reading is through page 125. Goodbye, Claire.” He signed off quickly before she had a chance to respond. Claire could be so stuck up sometimes. So what if she was a cheerleader? So what if they likely wouldn’t have too much in common? So what if they didn’t have any friends together other than Jim, and he probably didn’t classify to her more than just someone to talk to while typing the latest menial task or surfing the web through the school’s restrictive web filter. At least he now had a chance. Avoiding the chat option entirely, Kyle lost himself in the internet for a while, feeling his eyes glaze over until he was interrupted by the sound of keys in the door, and he was reminded suddenly of all his dread. His father was home.

He shot out of his chair quickly when his father entered, a taller, rounder, bespectacled version of Kyle. Richard Edison stopped when he saw Kyle standing awkwardly by the chair, expecting him to say something. He ran a hand through his brown hair, and simply said, “...Hi?″

Kyle was surprised that there already hadn’t been an accusation, an argument, something about his earlier lapse in judgment. Instead Richard, still appraising him strangely, walked to the kitchen to put his briefcase down. “What’s for dinner?” Richard asked, leaving the choice up to him. This wasn’t too much different than most nights, which was what was worrying him.

“Uh, spaghetti?” It was easy, nothing that took a lot of work to do, and besides, Kyle liked spaghetti. If he was going to be shortly marched to the firing squad he might as well have a good last meal. The water was heated, the sauce and noodles cooked. All through the preparation Kyle kept an eye on his father to try and discern his mood; to prepare himself for what was coming. Richard gave no sign whatsoever that anything was out of the ordinary. Finally the pair sat down with their bowls, and began eating.

Richard looked up at Kyle. “Anything exciting happen at school today?” There was a pregnant pause. Was this all just a game to him?

Kyle challenged him to make the first move. “Nothing out of the ordinary. Anything exciting at work?”

Turning the question around was a new tactic for Kyle, and it left Richard a little unprepared. “Uh...No. The usual paperwork.”

“Good...Good.” Kyle suddenly found his remaining spaghetti incredibly interesting as Richard looked down at his plate. He was about to dig back in when he glanced back up and saw Kyle glance at him like he was waiting for something.

“All right, what’s going on? You’re acting strange tonight.”

Kyle sighed. “I’m fine, everything’s fine. Nice and normal.” The waiting for his father’s anger was too much, especially with how calm he was being. Was this a trap? Was he waiting for an apology? Instead of asking questions, just letting him come to him for forgiveness? Kyle decided that he wasn’t going to do that. He had nothing to apologize for. He looked at his father, saw him still looking at him oddly, and finally couldn’t take it any more. If his dad wasn’t going to say anything, then he would.

“Why haven’t you said anything about today?” Kyle stared at his dumbfounded father.

“What about today?”

“C’mon, stop it. Brian? The school calling you?”

“I didn’t get any calls from the school today.” Richard sat back in his chair and folded his arms, looking at him over the lenses of his glasses. “Should I have?”

Oh shit, Kyle thought. “Uh, I thought I heard...” Well, he had done it now.

“What happened, Kyle.” He hadn’t meant to sound so stern, and the words came out more as an accusation than a question.

“Brian Boyd. Big guy threw my lunch on the ground. I pushed him. We both got sent to the office. Got out with a warning but they said they were going to call you.”

“Oh for...Kyle, we’ve talked about this! How many times have I tried to tell you, you can’t stop a bully with more violence. If you leave him alone, he’ll...”

Kyle wasn’t in the mood for this particular lesson. “‘Leave me alone?’ I’ve been giving the guy my lunch money for a year! Just handed it over like nothing and ignored him like you always said and all I am is hungry all day!”

Richard was quiet. “Kyle, I didn’t know...I’m sorry, if you would’ve said something...”

“What would you have done? You didn’t care, just send me off and go off and work or whatever the hell you do and just come home whenever you like. Just leave me alone! All right!” Kyle pushed his plate away and ran off to his room, the door slamming shut behind him. He fell onto his bed, not remembering the good things that had happened that day, not remembering Shanna, or talking to his friends however briefly. Just the disaster with Brian, and the disaster tonight, and the disaster yet to come with Brian tomorrow. He didn’t give a thought to what had happened with the phone call that never took place. It was a while before sleep took him, and while some nights he had pleasant dreams, tonight’s were not reassuring at all, with the worries of the day carrying over into the night.