The Legion of Nothing

The kick didn't do as much damage as it could have -- by which I mean that it didn't make his knee point the wrong direction. On the other hand, it did do what it was supposed to.

Sean fell over, landing in the snow next to where Jody held my arm down.

He didn't stop talking either. "I can't stand on my leg. I can't stand on my fucking leg..."

I felt Jody's grip on my arm loosen and I pulled it out of his hands, using the momentum to roll toward Dayton and punch him in the face.

I didn't hit him hard enough to take him out, but he let go of my right arm.

I pushed myself up, trying to avoid stepping on Sean as I stood, moving toward Dayton's car. Because Lee pushed paying attention to what you're standing on, I choose to move over the sidewalk and stand on the other side of a particularly slick section of ice.

Neither Dayton nor Jody moved.

"If we're all done," I said, "I'll just go home and you guys can... do whatever. I mean seriously, why fight?"

"Don't just lie there," Sean said. "You see what he did to me? Remember your car, Dayton? You could take him down by yourself. And Jody, didn't you say you hated guys like that?"

Oh great. A pep talk.

Dayton stood up, reminding me just how big he actually was. With football season over, I'd heard that he gotten into bodybuilding.

Crap.

"Hey," I said, "you don't have to listen to him."

Dayton didn't say anything.

Jody got up. "Who do you think we should listen to? You?"

Dayton stepped onto the sidewalk.

The key point in fighting someone like Dayton was to make sure it didn't turn into a wrestling match. In a wrestling match, strength helps, and I wasn't going to win that contest.

I waited for him to get both feet on the ice.

Then I punched him in the face.

His feet went out from under him and he fell sideways onto the sidewalk, hitting his head against it.

Remembering the last time I'd knocked him down, I turned away from Dayton's fall to face Jody.

Jody's eyes were still on Dayton's body.

"Hey," I said. "We don't really have to fight. Seriously. I've been training for years now, and I'm actually pretty good at it."

"Stick your training up your ass, bed wetter."

He charged me.

I threw him like I had Dayton in the beginning of the fight, my reasoning being that now that I was only facing one opponent, I could do that all day. Eventually he'd get sick of eating snow and stop fighting me.

I'd forgotten about something though -- the car. I had been standing in front of it and he hit it with a solid thump. Unconscious, he lay next to the back tire, face scraped by the rusty metal.

I wondered how recently he'd gotten a tetanus shot.

"Holy shit." Sean had pulled himself up on the fence. "Someone get Mr. Sledge. Tell him Nick just beat the fuck out of us."

He wasn't talking to me.

During the fight a small crowd (maybe ten people) had formed on the other side of the fence -- which made sense given that I wasn't even off school property yet. I'd been walking next to our parking lot and it wasn't even half an hour after school.

How had I managed not to notice the people?

From the crowd, Kayla said, "Nick, are you okay?"

She stood next to half the girl's basketball team. They had a game against Grand Lake North today.

"Fine," I said, but then I drew in a breath. It hurt. "Wait, I don't know. I think I might have a broken rib."

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"Does anyone know the number of the office?" She said to the person next to her, a short, dark-skinned girl I didn't know. The girl shrugged.

"I'll run in," Kayla said. "We've got that much time."

"I've got it." A boy two cars over from her pointed to his phone. I didn't know his name, but I knew he was a freshman.

Less than a minute later, Mr. Sledge came running out of the school's front door. He didn't look happy.