Entry 16: Preparing a Performance [01]
Arc 2: To Receive One’s Just Desserts (Part 2)
Sat on his seat beside the window during a rather monotonous biology lesson, Samuel’s thoughts inadvertently trailed back to the time he had spent with his mother the night prior. After eating dinner, Samuel spent the evening browsing through the tele with his mother. The television was a luxury that Grace was willing to splurge on since neither of her children had a mobile phone to tinker with.
In an evening spent with little interaction between the pair, Samuel understood that his mother would just appreciate his presence. Samuel didn’t even like watching television, just because of the way content consumption had changed over the next two decades which had fucked with how he viewed the activity. And yet, his 38 years as a lonely man had given him the wisdom to understand that his company alone would be an easy solution to restoring his relationship. It even enabled him to sit through the rather mundane task that was shitty crime dramas- programmes that were all the rage in the 2000s.
Without much else going on, in due course, they’d bid each other a good night and departed to their respective rooms.
‘I was lucky to get to the sports shed when I did though.’ Thinking back over the little episode in the morning where he had arrived just as the sports assistant was opening the door, Samuel thought of how risky the situation had been. But despite the risk of detention for breaking the rules, Samuel’s mental faculties allowed him to disregard the risk since in the grand scheme of things a reprimand or detention would affect his future very little.
‘It’s quite amazing how horrible a detention can seem as a teenager, whereas as an adult you realise such a punishment is trivial. Hm… but I guess for an adult the equivalent would be being detained in a police station, which I imagine most adults would be terrified of, huh.’
Having secured the props, Samuel immediately made his way to a room he could recall was abandoned, and where he could safely carry out his plans. The old art rooms were on the second floor of the main building and had locks that locked from the inside out. It meant that a lot of students would use these rooms for indecent purposes just as Samuel was planning to do later that day.
After dropping off his props, he made his way to his form room where he found a lone girl doing the morning duties. She’d probably been paired up with one of the popular kids since she was here all alone, which made for quite an awkward sit in the class together before classes started.
Samuel just lay his head on the desk while pondering over the cleaning duty timetable. If he could remember correctly, he was scheduled for Thursday afternoons with one of his neighbouring desk mates; he hadn’t listened to who he’d be doing it with.
And now with the short break in between lessons, after the 50-minute biology lesson was over, Samuel had the pleasure of entertaining two of his classmates at his desk side.
“Oi, fuckface. Heard you grew some balls over the summer, huh? What’s with that?”
Samuel turned his head to look up at the standing figure of Daniel Gray who looked down on him with a condescending smirk from his towering position. Despite his attempts at looking intimidating, Samuel failed to express the desired frightened look, as he continued to look into Daniel’s eyes.
“The fuck?”
“Is this guy broken or something? We’re talking to you, fucker.”
Daniel’s confusion and Jun’s assertions went over Samuel’s head, as the boy continued staring at them as the classroom grew silent. It wasn’t so much the fact that everyone was tuning in on the bullying since this was a usual occurrence most in the class had learned to look over already. It was because someone had noticed the nonplussed expression on Samuel’s face and figured there’d be some drama going down.
Finally, Daniel snapped and he brought his hand to the crook of Samuel’s shirt and grabbed it. Then, he slowly drew into the indifferent Samuel before coming right up and into his face, to the point that their noses were almost touching.
‘Fuck… was he gay?’
“Listen here motherfucker, don’t act up because we haven’t been around for the summer. We’re going to fuck you up real bad this year. Just you wait, punk.”
After shoving Samuel against the wall, and turning away, Jun threw one last kick at his bag to drive home the message. He, however, ended up limping back to his desk since Samuel’s bag had most of his textbooks in there since he didn’t bother putting them away in his locker.
‘Is this a movie or something? What a bunch of wankers. Now I’ve definitely got to have my revenge.’ Samuel was a vindictive person, and the ounce of reluctance in his heart was quickly replaced by self-assurance. The young man smirked when he thought about the fact that they’d just delivered his resolve to him on a silver platter.
Shaking his head to rid the thoughts and fixing his ruffled collar, Samuel, who was leaning against the wall on the side of his chair, noticed from the corner of his vision the black-haired beauty behind him looking his way. He didn’t turn to look and decipher her actual expression, but he knew she had seen and probably heard what went down.
‘What of it? She’s irrelevant in the grand scheme of things anyway.’ Shrugging off the feeling of being watched, Samuel patiently sat through his next two periods, just waiting for lunch to come around so he could finally begin.
— — —
“Yo, where are yous going for lunch?” Asked Daniel, as he got up from his seat and stretched out his numb legs.
“Should we jump out?” Jun replied, as though leaving the school grounds was but a normal occurrence for the group. Unlike most other Polarian high schools, LGHS was quite adamant about ensuring students remained on the premises for the entire day.
“Hm… Nah, not feeling it. Canteen it is, I guess. Tara, let’s go.”
“Coming.” Tara chippily replied, unbothered by the authoritative way in which she had been invited.
“Jun? Mai?”
“You coming Mai?” Jun looked at his girlfriend who seemed slightly lost in thought. His question broke her out of her reverie but ultimately lead to her shaking her head in refusal.
“You guys go on ahead. I’ll be there in a bit.”
“Did something happen?” Slightly concerned about the way she was acting, Jun asked.
“Nah, I’ve just got something to do real quick. I’ll see you there.”
With that final remark, the group of three left for the canteen with a few of Tara’s cheerleading posse joining them along the way.
Mai Matsushita, on the other hand, was left pondering over something that had troubled her during the prior lesson, which left the athletic girl confused and irritated. The chubby kid had the nerve to constantly stare at her throughout the lesson. Despite having sensed the gaze and flipping him off, he continued to stare at her as though in provocation.
She didn’t bother to inform her boyfriend of the fact because she knew he was in a bad mood for some reason or other after the little episode with Samuel earlier.
Looking around the class to spot Samuel so she could get back at him somehow, she couldn’t find him in his seat. She swivelled her head around and finally found his form as it was about to leave the classroom.
Jumping out of her seat, the 5’5 lass gave chase to the speedily-walking young man. As the stalker turned the corner where Samuel had evaded her sight, Mai abruptly felt a hard slap on her nape, which lead to the lightly tanned girl instantly blacking out.
— — —
“Oops. I stuck on the tag a bit too hard, didn’t I?”
Watching as Mai’s body regained its balance after Samuel’s slap on the neck, he noticed an empty and lifeless look in her eyes as though she was under some sort of spell.
‘Huh, so it works like that. I was slightly sceptical about this one but I guess I should trust the system more.’
[Mind Control Potion (Grade 1)]
[Effect: Recipient will accept any 1 command of the administrator for an indefinite period. The potion’s effects will wear off over some time.]
[Side effect: Administrator will feel an inclination to do as he commanded.]
[Available: 0]
[Cost: 10 SRP]
‘I fear no man… but that side effect… it scares me. I need to remember to never mind control someone to suck my dick with this. My straight male pride would not take well to feeling inclined to suck my own dick.’
Internally recoiling at the thought, Samuel began to relay the command he had planned out. His command would have 0 negative consequences on his end since he was planning to do as he commanded anyway.
“*Enter the old art room through the back stairwell of the main building.*”
Four staircases lead up to the second floor of the main building. The first was located right at the entrance of the building, which staff would frequent. The second and third staircases were situated on either side of the square and so were the busiest. The final staircase lead right to the entrance of the old art room and subsequent corridor and was around the flank of the building, where a near-abandoned car park was situated.
The duo promptly made their way through the school, but Samuel was in for a small shock as he hadn’t accounted for the ‘drowsy’ feeling to wear off and had thought the potion’s effects were over when Mai looked over her shoulder and squinted her eyes at him.
“Why are you following me, fatso?”
“Huh…” Stupefied, Samuel continued to trail behind Mai as she too did not stop walking.
‘Oh, maybe their clarity returns during the effective period but they’re still following the order until it’s complete. I don’t know… but I’ll have to change a few parts of my plan to accommodate this sudden revelation. Hm… actually, this could be more fun in the long run.’
“You’re still following me?” Mai asked. Samuel didn’t bother to reply to her question, and watched as she, though disgruntled, made her way up the stairs and finally entered the room.
‘The potion’s effects should wear off right about now.’
Samuel quickly slipped into the room behind her and turned to lock the door. Then, while Mai was looking around confused as to why she had wanted to enter the old art room in the first place, she searched around before feeling a smack on her nape… again.
For 10 SRP, Samuel bought another sleep serum and put Mai to sleep. He had also spotted an anti-potion among the bunch of potions in his beginner pack, which he could potentially use to make his drugging plans more versatile.
[Anti-Potion (Grade 1)]
[Effect: Remove all grade 1 potion effects.]
[Available: 1]
[Cost: 5 SRP]
— — — — — —