Fall of the Guild

The Barbie project and the masks

I zone out as I usually do, I am brought back to reality with load noise of students trudging out of the hall on their way to freedom from the hated opening ceremony. As I walk, I gaze at the faces to see if I do not see Charlotte, I still need to talk to her about the ‘terrorizing her brother’ part. I walk all the way to Wilfred house without seeing her, I decide to just go to my room, I will do damage control tomorrow. I walk to my room to be greeted by a familiar face, I guess my roommate is going to be Elijah Stanfield, I have never really spoken to him so in all honesty I do not know what to expect.

“Hey Elijah, I guess we will be roommates this year” “Wait why do you know my name?” “We have been in the same class since the third grade, why will I not know it?” “You are James the James” “Come on Elijah, you mean the James hated by everyone?” Elijah laughs “No I mean the James that I have feared since the third grade, I don’t know why you have just always scared me” “Well hopefully that can change this year, I hope its okay Noah chose a side of the room for me” Elijah sits on his neatly made bed “All good, do you know why my fridge is filled with Mountain Dew and water? Did Barton get some weird dew sponsorship?” I sigh and open my fridge to see that it too is filled to the brim, neatly stacked with dew and water. “I think I gave him too much money” “So this was Noah’s mistake?” “Yeah, I find him and ask him to unpack your fridge, or you can just live off water and dew for a week or two” Elijah stands up and takes out his wallet “How much do I owe you” I grin and point at his fridge “Clearly I don’t know what these costs, so it is a gift.” Elijah lays back down “Thanks”.

I walk to the door, “I am going to find Noah, you need your grade 8?” “Nope is all good”. I walk down the corridor again and I am starting to regret that we got the room at the furthest end of the corridor. As I get outside across the lawn, I once again see the vision of beauty, a lone Charlotte sitting and reading under a tree. I walk over, do I even have something to say to her? “Hey, want some company?” she looks up at me and smiles, she smiled at me! “Yeah sure.” The last time a girl smiled at me was, well, uhm never. I sit next to her under the shade of the old tree shielding us from the afternoon sun. It starts feeling awkward so I just blurt the first question I can think of “Where did you come from?” wow smooth dude come on do not sound so harsh. “Well, my dad got a job Charlestown, so we moved there from York.” “What is in Charles town?” “Absolutely nothing” I laugh, and I lay down next to her “if you are there, I bet the town gets a whole lot better” my attempt at flirting clearly involves me making vague compliment. She giggled I will count that as a win.

I stare at the sun coming trough the leaves and softly caressing my cheek, “Describe yourself in four words”, she silently thinks for a while “Fish out of water”. She looks proud of that one. “Well, when I am with you, I would say, in my element” she smiles and bites back “that’s three words?” I sit up, and stare into her eyes as I lean closer, “definitely in my element” she backs off, so I laugh it off. “I think I scared your brother, do not look at me like that, I had to make a point, and I scared him so much he even filled my roommate’s fridge for me. “Yeah, he is an over achiever, or he used to be” she looks at the ground trying to avoid eye contact “What is wrong?” I say trying to sound concerned, we sit in silence, do I say something? Do I wait for her to respond? Why did I decide to be anti-social and not get the knowledge I need to know what I need to do, after what feels like an eternity of me over thinking she says with a whimper in her voice, “He use to be an over achiever until my mother died, he stopped caring, so its good that you scared him, hopefully he does in his school work as well.” She laughed, should I laugh too? Will that be weird and hurtful? Think what do I do? Ill take the show no emotion for five hundred, why am I this bad at human contact? “Ill keep an eye on him if you want?” “There is no need” “Yes, there is I have to make sure he stays scared; I have never seen anybody make a bed as neat as him” “Hierarchy and all?” “No, I prefer to think of it as forced child labor, a bit of slave labor like that which this school was founded on” “Speaking of this school why do they make all of you take a year off between seventh and eighth grade?” “So that you can grow up, before the brain washing begins”. Over the lawn I see Noah approaching, my heart sinks to my feet, what if he spoils the nice guy act, I have been running? Wait no I that act was me being a d**k to him? Here I am confusing myself instead of thinking which act to uphold. What am I going to do?

“Noah!” I sounded surprised to see him even though I saw him two minutes ago when he started walking this way. He looks like he was not happy to see me with his sister, I respect that, it shows he has back bone, so it is the nice guy act, I will be nice to him. “You get around, okay?” he sits down and sighs “No, everyone here is so stuck up” I laugh at him “And you thought I was going to be the worst of them huh?” his sister looks at him and then at me “What did you do?” I look at him and is see his still neatly tied tie, so I respond unsure “I tied his tie?” “I am not talking about that!” she bites back. “His deflated demeanor, that is the effects of the toxic cesspool know as Barton” “and having to fill two fridges” he says making me look bad. His sister looks at me furiously “You made him do what?” “No, I told him to fill mine, I got back, and both were filled” “You gave me too much money, I didn’t want to keep it” “You just wanted to make it appear like slave labor?”

We go on to banter like this, until I see the students walking to the cafeteria “Shall we go for dinner or?” Charlotte thinks about it and says, “You two go I want to go to my room and read, as I clearly didn’t get any reading done this afternoon.” So, Noah and I stood up and started walking in the direction of the cafeteria. As we walk past Wilfred house, Noah points to the next building “That is where I stay” “Ahh Darwin house? A weird metaphor for their idea of evolving you, I guess. Noah, have you made friends yet?” “No, I haven’t, I don’t like talking to new people.” “Well how about you sit with me for dinner then?” “Wont that be social suicide?” “No, it will boost your street cred. You will make them wonder why I haven’t killed you yet.” “Yet?” “You better make my bed as good as you did today, and it will never come to that.” I take a tray off the counter and give it to him, and right there in his eyes I saw him, I saw my brother Liam. I shake off the idea, take my own tray, and walk past the entire line to get my food, the row of hungry pupils not saying a word.

I see Noah at the back of the line, he apparently did not follow me, I look for a place to sit and there it is the empty table I have sat at since the eight-grade. Its kept empty out of everyone’s fear of me, I sit down on the opposite side of the table with my back to the wall, never be unprepared for anybody to attack. I make eye contact with Elijah as he hesitantly walks over towards me, “Is this seat taken?” we both laugh because we both know its not “Yeah, by you”. He sits down “Killing your social status?” I ask “Tired of the Barbie project and the masks” he responds, this refers to an essay I wrote in grade 10, titled the Barbie project and the masks, I was forced to read to my class just how fake I thought they all were. “Well welcome to the Breakfast club” “A club of one is quite sad, isn’t it?” “Don’t tell me you haven’t seen the movie?” “I have just never thought I would willingly join the outcasts” “Well welcome, you are now a lifelong member!” “That bad?” “Hopefully, I don’t kill you with, what was it?” “Rabies?” “Yeah, can humans even get it?” “Yeah, if an animal bites you, and that horse did bite you”. Noah walks up to us unsure, “Noah!” I exclaim “Sit down” I pull out the chair next to me. He sits down. “Is this the infamous Noah?” Noah nods at Elijah. “Noah Elijah, Elijah Noah. Is that all the formalities I apparently forgot?” “No, you should tell me why you invited Noah to the suicide squad?” “I didn’t want him to be a Mr. Nobody” “So he may learn the perks of being a wall flower?” “That instead of being a maze runner?” Noah looks confused “Are you talking in code? Or just using the titles of movies, and isn’t Mr. Nobody a poem?” Elijah laughs “So James, Noah has stated me as the winner?” “Who said it’s a competition?” I lift my shoulders while waiting for his response. Elijah looks proud of himself “Me, it is always a competition!”

This was when I heard the voice of a guy, I would like to leave in a shallow grave somewhere, Benjamin Luciano, “I see the loser circle grew” I stand up and stare him down “Do you want an ass to eat your tongue, or just kiss my arse, Benjamin?”  “Do you know who I am?” “Other than an insecure little boy who daddy doesn’t love? Not really you don’t seem interesting.” “You will regret doing this James.” “All I regret doing is you!” he storms off and I sit back down and eat. After quite some time Elijah is first to break the silence “I see you still have that fire James”, Noah still looks shocked an unsure what to say, “I thought you were flirting with my sister and now you… you did him?” I laugh and Elijah joins in “No I just said that cause I have been shutting him up with that statement since like grade 7, and for some reason it still works. The bigger the ego the harder they fall”

Noah goes back to eating without thinking much of it, Elijah and I share eye contact, he nods as if he says I will keep your secret. I nod back to say thanks. We both continue to eat. The secret I am referring to is not at all what you think. I did him in, as in we played a fight scene in the seventh-grade play, and I got to kill him in the fight, and he has never gotten over it.

I finish my food, put my knife and fork on the plate wipe my mouth and wat for Elijah and Noah to finish. I start to gaze at the face in the cafeteria, I observe the fake laughter and the masks people put on to hide the truth, “Toxic cesspool” I say to myself. “Noah don’t force feed yourself; the food is always good and the portions always big” Elijah and I both laugh at him as he seems to struggle to eat his food, “Okay fine I am full” he says after like two seconds. Elijah has been done for a while and his troll, the name for the grade-eight group this year, has already taken his plate. I stand up take my plate and walk to the counter to thank Susan the lunch lady like I have done every meal since I saw my dad doing it a restaurant one time. Imitate till you perfect the art. I meet up with Elijah outside, he waited for me, “We going to wait for Noah?” he asks, “Well I did make him a target earlier so yes I think its best” “He will be fine, there are rules against hurting students” “Yes and the children of crime syndicates follow the rules why?”

Yes, I lied I know what we do, we are not all trust fund babies, we are the most important children of the underworld, if your parents are somebody you are here. That is why I get paid hush money, not to run my mouth to the competition, and the people here fear me, because the last person to try and even touch a hair on my head has still not been found. Mess with the guild and, I do not even know what happens to you. The only son of the Eldest son of a crime family, he is royalty, I am royalty.