“Bruh, these fuckin’ breakfast burritos be hittin’ different on Mondays. I don’t even care that the shit came out a gas station microwave like two hours ago. We need to start a hustle on these things so we ain’t broke when we get to a university.”
Devin ignored Hasan’s ramblings about breakfast burritos as he sat at the second to last red light before getting to Terrebonne’s student parking lot. His hands gripped and released the steering wheel and his left leg bounced against the floor of the car.
“You did that shit for Mrs. Patin class?” Hasan asked.
Devin shrugged, but didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure what assignment their history teacher had given to the class and he wasn’t concerned about it. He had no problem taking the zero. It was the furthest thing from his mind at the moment.
They passed under the last light and merged into the traffic inching down the street in front of Houma Junior High. Usually, the wait didn’t bother him, but today it was making him want to pull over in the old community college parking lot and just leave his car there.
“You alright, bruh? You unusually quiet.”
Devin only shrugged again as they inched forward. He glanced at the clock on the dash. 7:03. Still about ten minutes before students would have to be in their homerooms.
He’d never done what he had on his mind, but he was going to do it anyway.
He waited until the cars in the opposite lane passed and turned onto the road that led into the student parking lot. As usual, it was mostly full save for a few spots on the far edge. Hasan grabbed his bag from the floor as Devin navigated toward an open spot.
He looked to his right and saw Caesar laughing with his friends. It seemed like he was regaling them with some humorous tale that they were all engrossed by.
Devin swung into an empty spot and barely put the car into park before he hopped out and started walking toward Caesar.
Hasan got out of the car. “You forgot your shit, bruh!”
Devin ignored him and pulled off his uniform shirt, tossing it on the ground. He heard footsteps running up behind him and looked over his shoulder to see Hasan had discarded his bag and was following him.
Turning back, he could hear Caesar’s laugh as he got closer. He balled his right hand into a fist, his nails digging into his hand.
He shoved Bentley out of the way and threw his entire body into punching Caesar square in the jaw. Caesar fell onto the trunk of his car, taken off guard by Devin. Seizing his opportunity, Devin put his left hand on Caesar’s neck and swung with his right, landing solid shots to his face.
“What the fuck are you doing, King?!” Ron shouted, grabbing Devin’s arm.
Before Ron could try to pull Devin off Caesar, Hasan tackled the quarterback to the ground and the two of them began fighting as well.
A crowd quickly formed being treated to not one, but two fights now.
The momentarily pause in Devin’s assault when Ron grabbed him gave Caesar an opportunity to grab him around the waist and flip him onto the ground. Being a good bit smaller, Devin was basically powerless to stop it from happening.
He hit the pavement hard, the air being forced from his lung. White exploded in his vision as Caesar punched him in the face. The second and third punches had his head swimming. By the fifth one, he was starting to regret his decision to get into a fight with an overgrown man child. He covered his head as best he could with his arms.
It was a good thing he had as the smell of pepper took over thanks to the SRO macing all four of them. The officer pulled Caesar off Devin and put a knee in his back as a few male teachers yoked up Devin, Hasan and Ron.
“Y’all going to enjoy your stay at the booty palace since you want to fight early in the morning!” the cop yelled as he struggled getting his handcuffs out to slap onto Caesar’s wrists.
“I was fucking defending myself!” Caesar shouted, spitting blood out of his mouth as if to show he’d been attacked.
“Shut up and put your hands behind your back.”
Devin rubbed at his burning eyes, catching glimpses of the crowd of his fellow students who’d formed around them. He could already feel his face beginning to swell and he cringed when his hand brushed a cut under his eye.
He was yanked to his feet and shoved toward the school by the teacher next to him. He and Caesar caught each other’s stare and Caesar spat at his feet.
“Your bitch took the dick like a champ, motherfucker,” he said.
Devin lunged at him but the student resource officer held up his can of mace threateningly so Devin backed off.
“This isn’t over,” Devin said as they were all led to the assistant principal's office to get confirmation of their suspensions.
…
Devin, Hasan and Ron sat outside of the offices, all nursing bruises, cuts and the lingering effects of pepper spray despite using a chemistry lab’s eye wash to flush their eyes. Caesar was inside with Mr. Hebert, the assistant principal, loudly pleading his case despite the district’s zero tolerance rule.
Hasan tilted his head back and held his shirt up to his face to staunch blood coming from his nose. He glanced over at Devin who had his head in his hands. Then he looked at Ron. “You caught me with that one left. I ain’t gone lie.”
“I caught you more than one left and a few rights,” Ron said as he inspected his torn shirt and the grass stains and mud on his pants. “For what it’s worth, King?”
Devin glanced up.
“At least you can say you fought for your girl even if it got your and your friend’s asses whooped.”
Devin shook his head and looked back down at the floor.
“We can go for round two right now if you think you won,” Hasan said.
Ron laughed. “You don’t want these problems, man. I know you’re coming this time.”
-*****-
For the next two days rumors swirled around Terrebonne High regarding the early morning throwdown between the mild-mannered Devin King and the boisterous Caesar Jenkins. The person in the middle, of course, hadn’t been to school the entire week.
Devin and Caesar avoided each other when their suspensions were over and they’d returned to school, but there was one place that they couldn’t avoid one another.
“Count it out, Thaddeus!” Coach Hill shouted, walking through the lines of the team as they went through their pre-practice stretching.
There were some grumbles about Trigga leading the exercise as that was a captain’s job and the backup quarterback was not a captain. Of course, missing three of four practices in a week made a player ineligible for Friday.
Caesar straightened up and waited as the rest of the team completed the stretches.
“Why aren’t you stretching, Jenkins?” Coach Hill asked. “You’ve been at home the last few days, you should be ready to work.”
“Fuck all that, coach. This isn’t a yoga body. I don’t need to stretch to dominate these chumps in practice.”
There were a few snickers around the team.
“Sounds like Caesar wants to earn everyone stadiums until the sun goes down. We’re a team after all and where one of us deserves discipline, we all deserve discipline.”
Bart stood up and looked at Caesar. “Fucking do the shit, nigga. I’m not trying to run for your bitch ass.”
“Who asked you to open your mouth?”
“Respect to my boy, Devin, but I ain’t him. I’ll knock your stupid ass out.”
Everyone oooh’d and aaah’d and looked back at Devin who only shrugged, not caring about Bart’s comments.
“That’s enough of that. Count them out,” Coach Hill said.
Caesar stalked over to Bart and shoved him. “Nah, you aren’t King. But just like I fucked his bitch, I fucked yours, too, motherfucker. Don’t worry, that ugly ass kid is definitely yours. Jamie was calling me daddy though.”
Bart tackled Caesar to the ground and the two of them started trading blows. The rush to separate them sparked a chain reaction of other scuffles sparking off around the field. Guys who’d had problems with each other all season took it as an opportunity to hash it out with their fists.
Members of the marching band practicing on the other side of the stadium rushed over with their phones at the sound of the commotion, soon joined by the dance team. And almost instantly, dozens of videos of the undefeated Terrebonne football team fracturing into two on the field popped up on social media.
