41. Skirmish

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water …

I remember reading that the tagline for Jaws 2 was one of the most popular ever. I can see why.

The phrase pops up in my head as I’m washing my hands and see the figures approaching in the mirror.

It’s Gus and his boys.

I tried to talk with Jocelyn after second period, but she gave me the complete stranger treatment. She didn’t know I had a letter for her, a letter I’m seriously contemplating throwing away.

The splotchy skin of Gus stands out under the cold, white light.

“You ever been hurt, Chris?” he asks me. “Like hurt really bad?”

Oli stands behind him, guarding the narrow passageway to the door. Oli is short for Oliver, I have learned. Newt told me.

Not that that’s going to help anything at this moment.

I see Burt and Riley flanking Gus. They’re average guys who get all excited when Gus pushes their buttons. Otherwise they’re pretty harmless.

Gus, however, isn’t.

I’ve been expecting this for a while.

“What are you going to do now, man? Where are you going to run now?”

My notebook and a couple of textbooks sit on the edge of the sink. I think about using the doorstop of a English book on Gus’s face but know that I won’t get far.

There’s no window in this bathroom, not that I would have time to open and climb out of one.

The door opens, and Oli slams it shut.

“You’re not looking so brave now, are you?” Gus says.

The bathroom isn’t that big. There’s a narrow entrance, which Oli is blocking, then an open area with five sinks in it, then a half wall that leads back to the urinals and a set of four stalls.

Burt moves toward the back area.

I dash over to him, scaring him and slamming a shoulder against his puny side as I scram to the stalls. I don’t have a plan. I’m just running.

I get in the last stall and lock it. The door is flimsy, and I know it will just take a good kick to open it. You can reach in underneath the door as well as get in above the walls.

This only gives me time to think.

Come on. Do something.

I hear them scampering behind me.

Gus curses at me, calling me names. The other guys are laughing.

I look at the white plastic seat. It takes two good jerks to pull it off.

“You really want to be hiding in a john, do you? You wanna know how gross those toilets are? Do you really want to know what that water tastes like?”

I’m holding the light toilet seat, and then I put it on the floor. Not sure what I’m going to do with it.

Gus taunts me some more, then says something under his breath to one of the guys.

I pick up the tank lid. It’s heavy, white, ceramic.

Then I stand firm, a little ways back so the door can’t strike me.

“Go ahead, Oli,” Gus orders.

This isn’t going to be pretty.

The door blasts open and slams against the side of the wall. As Oli regains his balance from kicking the door in, I rush toward him with the tank lid as a battering ram. It hits him square in the chest and sends him backward with a gasping cough.

The next few seconds are a blur.

I ran Oli into one of the other two—I think Riley. Burt doesn’t know what to do and just stands there.

I wouldn’t know what to do either if some crazy kid holding a tank lid from a school toilet came barreling out of the stall at me.

That leaves Gus, who looks at me still holding the lid and then backs off to find something to hit me with.

He launches a garbage can at me, but it simply rolls to my side. Then he grabs my stack of books and flings them at me.

I follow him because I want to get out of this bathroom with my teeth in place and my face intact.

Gus stays over by the sinks as I drop the lid on the ground in a loud crash and then rush out the door into the mostly empty hallway.

On my way to my next class, I realize my books are still in the bathroom.

So is my letter to Jocelyn.