After a few weeks of teachers holding meetings back and forth on what to do about Ryl, Hans and Kuil they eventually found
All the students that got beat up by these three started stepping up and started telling the teachers what the trio had done to them.
All the teachers then decided to sent Ryl to a psychiatrist, concluding that there was mentally something wrong with him.
The school already had a psychiatrist, so they could start right away the next day.
Kuil was oddly timid after being sent to Principal Tursus
Hans was suspended for 4 days
All in all, none of it was a surprise to the young Cale
But it wasn't like nothing was gained from it
Reputation was important and everlasting, it may seem like manipulation at first but Cale did not view it that way when attempting to prove you were actually the victim was already outrageous in itself
The next day came and Ryl beat up the psychiatrist so badly they transferred him to another school and also suggested to his parents that he gets a private tutor
Kuil the next day disappeared mysteriously all of sudden, prompting people to be happy at first
Hans after receiving bullying and harassment from the students transferred out
The ones still clueless of the situation were filled in with their friends telling them that the three waited in the restrooms, waiting for unsuspecting to appear and beat them up
Whenever they would ask why those three would do something so dumb and childish
The response was always this
'I don't know'
No one knew why those three (minus Ryl) just refused to grow up and have a karma-free life
The days passed and the story distorted into Hans influencing Ryl into beating up people saying things along the lines of 'Don't you want to beat up someone till you break their skull?' This only made them even more furious and led to some jumping in groups to inject those words back into him
Everyone had forgotten about Kuil since then
"...."
And people treated Cale like a high-profile man (that keeps on getting beaten up)
"Come on Cale! Next time you have to fight back! Don't let them walk all over you!"
"Haha I will keep that in mind.."
"Not keep! DO!"
Many were concerned but a few also respected Cale for not escalating the situation
'This attention...not too bad'
Cale suppressed a grin from forming, he was obviously happy that he was treated like this and the pain from yesterday had all but since faded away
Nothing was lost while the others only lost more and more
A euphoric experience, but that was short
"Man Cale now that I look at you, why are you so handsome?"
"???????????????????"
The world of whispers in his brain clogged and stopped like traffic, he turned to face the boy who said that
"True~ Not only that, he's got nice cur-"
"?!!?"
The boy next to him started saying disturbing thoughts with no filter, every word defiling and beyond weird, it was safe too say that he felt uncomfortable
Only when he got sneakily dragged away by the chuckling Gabriel could he get away, of course they were only joking or were th-
'Yeah no, nevermind those three had to go'
Cale of the present swiftly returned back to the dilemma at hand
'He also blamed me that I caused his transfer'
After a lot of harassment, he blamed Cale for all of this but no one at that point even entertained his words
'Maybe he was always the mentally ill one'
He sarcastically thought, but being mentally ill was no joke, so he quickly retracted and resolved to not make a joke out of it again
"Listen, I don't know why I'm suddenly being accused of pushing you off the stairs, forcing me to defend myself for something I didn't even do but"
Furrowing his brows, he narrowed his eyes in a confused but dissecting gaze
"Despite being 'pushed' of the stairs, you still look fine? That doesn't make sense, does it? Given the context you've told"
Immediately, Hans became flustered
"That's only because my arm got caught In the railing!"
He looked back at Bringam.
"Sir Bringam, when classes ended yesterday,"
Dramatically, he pointed at Cale
"He was the one who pushed me off the stairs on the second floor, my 'friends' can vouch for me!"
Cale chimed in nonchalantly
"Woah woah, Sir Bringam I wasn't even In the school building, I had already left with my friend when the bell rang"
"...?"
"?"
They both looked at the same figure, this time they were confused instead of him.
"Wait what do you mean by 'weren't In the school building' ?"
"Exactly as I said, I had already left the school the moment the bell rang, you can go ask my friend"
'Wait'
Memories of the news flashed and flickered in the vice principal
'Isn't it... exactly like that incident?'
Bringam massaged his temples, looking at the student that made the whole drama in the first place.
Teachers knew somewhat about what happened, he didn't know much but enough to get what's happening
'Didn't know he was this petty'
Hans was slightly sweating, his face paled by the second.
Tsk
Bringam clicked his tongue softly.
'He couldn't make it more obvious that he created this whole drama for no reason'
Bringam looked at Cale who was wrongfully accused of something he didn't do
'Should I lighten the mood a little bit'
He cleared his throat
"Why were you outside of class then?"
He skillfully skipped the subject and made a random question that seemed like a trick question at first
"..?"
'Why is he asking me something like this?'
Cale attempted to dissect the question skillfully but it didn't seem like there was anything wrong with it
"I was supposed to have English classes right now, but the teacher didn't show up and there wasn't anyone else that could substitute, so they let us go outside, weren't you the one who announced it as well?"
It was his job as vice principal or at least part of
"A-ah I see"
Bringam then swiftly told that Cale can go on his way and told the Hans to stay
'I thought he had a different name...'
He didn't have a good memory remembering names well of strangers, because who would remember someone so forgetful? So, he wasn't confident if 'Hans' was really his name, for some reason Cale kept on dragging those kinds of thoughts like he didn't have anything better to do other than doubting facts that were proven to be true
"I was somewhat worried that Bringam might fact check what I said, after all someone might have saw the doppelganger go somewhere else other than outside"
'like my locker....'
"..."
'The locker was on the second floor, so that must have been where 'I' pushed the guy off the stairs'
'The reason why 'I' would go to my locker In the first place was obvious'
'It tried to get my backpack...'
Cale was cautious of the doppelganger because he didn't want some of his stuff to suddenly disappear when coming back from Gardenia
But because of the lack of trust, the doppelganger had done something completely unexpected and almost got Cale in trouble.
'I don't like this'
Being forced to trust a variable that one couldn't control would make anyone sick, not that Cale had a kink for wanting to control something to his intentions, his life was in danger so he should in all rights try to control those variables that connect to his life
But it wasn't as if he could do anything about it. If the doppelganger had all of his stuff from the get go, It would have tried to leave the school building instead.
"..."
'I don't know... the letter said that It would act In a way I would but I wouldn't throw someone off the stairs' It wasn't guaranteed that the contents of the letter would all be correct after all, It was Cale's fault in the first place for trusting all of its contents
"Or maybe...He lied?"
That was also something to consider but now it didn't matter any more
Cale could only hope that something like this doesn't happen again.
Thoughts abruptly stopped as feet stepped outside and followed a mental trail at the basketball court where Gabriel and Catrina were probably at, eventually Cale reached it and of course in classic cartoony bullshit
"Gabriel the ball!"
Every hair on his body stood on end, as if they were predicting what will happen next.
"!!!"
Gabriel had shot the ball, but watching the ball's trajectory Cale lost hope and his face paled.
The hoop had been utterly and completely missed with the ball-
Tok!
Crossing over the fence and started rolling away from the school as if retaliating.
"This bastard!"
Ruffling his head, he ran towards the fence and started climbing it at an Incredible speed as If something like this had been done multiple times before.
"Cale?! where did you come from!"
Catrina looked astonished as he came from out of thin air in her perspective
"Where is the ball!"
He shouted at Gabriel and Catrina.
""It's over there!""
They both said at the same exact time. None pointed where the ball actually was
"You think that helps?!"
""It's to your right!""
Looking to his right, the ball rolled away.
'Wait that road!'
The road where the ball was rolling towards was steep.
It wasn't long but If the ball rolled towards it and reached it.
'It would pick up speed!'
And Cale might lose the ball or worse It might crash Into a car. Forcing Cale, Catrina and Gabriel or the school itself to pay for any damages occurred
Cale frantically started running towards the ball. Lungs burning, eyes focused on the ball but it had already started rolling and picked up more speed when it reached the steep road by the time he reached it.
Cale followed it towards the steep road, slowly catching up but
'It's going to hit that van!'
As if it weren't bad enough
"!"
The ball hit a bump in the road, causing it to launch In the air. Damages were sure to happen if that ball crashed into it
However Its speed also slightly decreased, he didn't waste any time and threw his body towards the ball In the air
Grasp!
He caught It, just barely
Thud!
"Ugh!"
But his body fell to the ground and crashed Into the back of the Van the ball was going to hit
"Whew"
Relief filled him but also slight surprise
"I'm faster than I thought?"
Dusting of his clothes he looked behind to see If he damaged the Van In some way.
Cale had hit the bumper and realized that he might've damaged the Van more than if the ball had hit it which only made him look more carefully If it had been damaged by him.
"No visible damage?"
His body crashed into the Van with a lot of force behind it but there was no damage on the Van whatsoever.
"Strang- Ow!"
A lot of pain In his back which had hit the bumper struck in pain like needles
"I am more injured than the damn Van!"
Hand rested on his back bending forward slightly while his other hand held the basketball
He looked around to see if anyone saw this embarrassing moment before opening his mouth in defeat
"Let's just go back..."
He started making his way back to school groaning as he tightly held the ball In the forearm making sure It didn't fall again.
***
"Uh... you okay?"
Deadshot asked if Cale was okay, but Cale only glared needles at him whilst leaning against the railing, suffering in silence.
"Do I...look okay to you?"
"..."
"Sorry"
"I'll only accept that apology if you start getting better"
Words were just words after all, anyone could say they were sorry but not all could apologize through actions.
Gabriel lowered his head feeling guilty that Cale had gotten hurt because he had missed a shot.
Catrina tapped on his shoulders.
"Don't worry too much, It could've ended a whole lot worse after all. So be glad that the worst didn't happen"
Catrina didn't say this just to cheer him up, she said this because it truly could have gone worse
'I guess I got lucky'
That's the only way he could explain it, there wasn't any other way to explain that other than luck.
However the more he thought that It was luck, the more his stomach churned, whispers denying his words
"I'll go sit over there while you guys play" He pointed to a bench at a distance that his eye caught
Gabriel and Catrina looked at each other before Catrina opened her mouth.
"We should go to the other side of the court"
The other side of the court didn't have any fences nearby where the ball could go over.
"We should have done that from the start..."
"Come on, don't beat yourself up, you're not the only one who's worried you know"
"You don't look worried?"
Gabriel sharply commented.
"Does someone have to bawl their eyes out to show they were worried?"
"..."
When Catrina calmly retorted, Gabriel shut his mouth all while Cale laid on the bench