[center][b]March 10th, 2020
Hub City Secondary Learning Academy[/b][/center]

Man, today had started out so ordinary. Get up, put on the uniform the maid pressed and laid out the day before, rush through breakfast alone as usual for Tuesdays while the driver reminded him what time his parents would be home at (His father was working late, as usual, his mother would be back sooner) and whether there was any change in plans that'd throw off his pickup time for school or anything (No, but would Tim at least try to be out front early so the school didn't make him circle the car around while he waited?) then spent the remaining time reading [i](Mostly switching between Dune and a history Ebook on ancient Egypt)[/i] and toying with his phone [i](random animal videos, obviously.)[/i] until it was time to go.

The first class of the day had been typical too, and Tim had gone through all of it almost on autopilot, or at least it seemed like it, because now-

"What are ya gonna do about it, pleb?"

Now Lloyd Johnson had just knocked the new scholarship kid onto his back over a stupid water fountain, and Tim felt way too angry to not give the situation one-hundred percent of his attention. 

Teachers at the SLA didn't have their own rooms to teach out of and kids usually stayed in an assigned homeroom, so between class rotations you got breaks where you were allowed to hang out in the hallway, go talk with your friends, have a drink or a snack or whatever. There were even little nooks with couches or something at the corners of the halls for it. Tim had been sitting at one with his tablet when the scholarship kid...Tim thought his name was Ellian? Elios? Anyway, when he'd got stiff-armed onto the ground in the middle of using a drinking fountain by Bargain Bin Malfoy.

Lloyd Johnson was apparently the kind of tool who earnestly used terms like 'pleb' out loud along with being richer and more spoiled than a fourteen-year-old jar of mayo. He was one of those guys who grew a lot and early too, so he was built like a blond gorilla. Tim figured Lloyd probably had a brain to match, but King Kong Senior had the school board and the principal in his pocket, and everybody knew it. 

Elijah- no, no that probably wasn't it- anyway he'd only been here since the end of Christmas break, for winning a raffle or a scholarship award and then passing some kind of test. Tim had heard he was from Hell's Corner or maybe the Wedge, but he didn't think anybody really knew. He kept to himself too much for anyone to know. They just knew he was poor- well no, just poorer than everyone else-and that he was smart. So now Lloyd Everybody-Knows-That-Name-Means-Penis was making a big show of pushing him around and hogging the fountain. Tim could hear Lloyd spewing crap since the eighth grader was making it easy on purpose.

"Can't imagine what you'd want with the water anyways. I'm sure you wouldn't understand, but it takes a more refined palate to appreciate the quality and unique taste of excellent water like this!"

"You mean the kind that tastes like shit?"

Tim hadn't even realized he'd moved from where he was and said it until Lloyd turned around and glared at him while the crowd paused to ooh and ahh. Stupid, stupid mouth. He didn't regret doing it, but why couldn't he have come up with a better line? Tim could see the rusty, thrown-poop-crusted wheels turning in Lloyd's Big Ape Brain, he probably wasn't used to being mocked.

"Who are you? I wanna know your name before I feed you your teeth!"

At least they were both guilty of cliche one-liners. Tim wasn't on Lloyd's radar, that was good. Outside of school he'd won some fights with rich middle school D-bags, but this was probably the Dark Overlord Final Boss of rich middle school D-bags. Tim was going to need every advantage he could get.

"That's Tim McClellan! He knows kung fu and he's gonna kick your ass!"

Well, so much for that. He'd have to try and figure out who was being 'helpful' later. Right now he had Screw-The-Rules-I-Have-Money stalking toward him all slow and angry and menacing. Tim shifted his one leg into a better stance and waved his hands around like a guy in an old chop-socky movie and Lloyd put his own up and stepped back, hesitant and probably expecting some kind of knife hand chop or palm thrust or secret pressure point strike. 

So Tim kicked him as hard as he could in the balls. When Lloyd started to doubl over, Tim grabbed him by his uniform, pulled him in and twisted to throw him to the floor.

Then went over and grabbed Elliot's hand- Elliot! That was his name!- and ran back toward the classrooms with him before Lloyd came to his senses enough to beat the tar out of both of them. Just in case. He was going to be in crazy amounts of trouble later.

But it was worth it to stop someone like that.