The Wrong Kid

‘Close your eyes, baby.’ The motion of the four-wheel car remained fast in the long highway run. ‘Ain’t you gonna say something?’ Horn sounds from the other vehicles on the busy road are visibly heard, even with all the limousine’s windows are shut closely. His eyes remained shut, as he let the sweet voice singing from the car’s device occupy his senses. ‘You better not look at me If you’ll look at me like how you looked at-‘ “Oh, hell!” the driver squeaked, hitting the brakes all in a sudden. Esteban opened his eyes slowly as he lifted his head up, looking out at his driver, Jules, from his seat at the back. “You just don’t hit the brakes like that, Jules!” the other guy beside him, Gideon, yelled at him after he gave Esteban a quick glance at the back. Esteban, without saying a word, or even leaving a dreadful stare at them, leaned back his head again towards the window glass of the car and closed his eyes, like nothing happened. “Come on, Gi. It’s not like I always do that thing. I just did not notice that scumbag in front of us!” Jules defended himself, as he's slowly pressing the accelerator when the car ahead them moved ahead in motion. “You did that plenty of times.” Gideon even glanced at him from the back, looking like sleeping as a rock. He still wonders how this man could manage peacefully sleeping and had the motivation to attend school. Like nothing happened. Is the young boss a psychopath? “Gideon.” Jules called him and he quickly had his attention. He found his mate’s eyes on the road, before he gave him a quick glance. Gideon found how he tightly gripped on the driving wheel and knew what is possibly contains his mind right now. “Young master, we are just a kilometer away from your University.” Jules said, without taking his glance off the road. They both did not glance back, but knows Esteban heard them. They silently listened how the rattling sounds of his signature weapon occupied their ears as he took it off of his coat. Images of the incident last night flashed back into Gideon’s head as he heard those. But it did not last. “Gideon.” Esteban’s voice rang. “Yes, young master?” he automatically shifts his attention to him at the back, and the boss was not looking at him. He was busy looking for something in his bag. “Re-check the courier’s testimony about the recent transactions. If they fail to give you all the details you wished to have, ring me immediately.” he replied. “Yes, young master.” He saw how the young master tied his medium-wavy hair at the level of his nape and put his glasses on. “Finish the traitors up before my dismissal. The boss would never be happy hearing them still alive, and so am I.” He continued. “Yes, young master.” this time, the two guys in the front seat, said in unison. Soon, they arrived at the University Gate and went for a stop. Esteban shortly gets out as Gideon watched him do that from the closed limousine. He knows how badly this young master of them hates it when someone from the gang shows themselves into the public with him. The gang that he leads. The String 99. After a series of seconds within Esteban walking off to the giant students’ gate, Jules managed to hit the accelerator swiftly. “Do you think the young master is still sane?” Gideon asked Jules. “I know you are on drugs, Gi. But your question still makes you something different today.” Jules laughed. “Ugh. That is not my point!” Gideon groaned. “My point is, he was trained by the mafia boss himself. And he, Sr. Roman, is a psychopath himself.” He continued. “Hmm.” Jules nodded his head lightly. “Is this about how he behaves around?” Gideon shifted his gaze towards the outside view, through the window glass beside him. “I never heard him raise his voice on us. Or to innocent people who are not acting mean towards him. He does not even revenge on those ‘classmates’ who shouts and insult him. But clearly, his cruelty against people who are involved with him and the mafia is at the highest point. It was just confusing. His personality is confusing.” “That was not the most confusing stuff around, Gi.” Jules caught him to that. Gideon glanced at Jules. “It has been a massive mystery for me on why does the young master impulsively decided to attend law school. It has been five years when he graduated from High School, and he was the one who actually insisted not to get a college degree when the boss asked him about this thing.” Jules continued. Gideon went silent, as he shifted his gaze away from Jules, realized he had nothing to say about what his mate said. For him, it was not confusing anymore. He luckily had the chance to be the most trusted ‘string’ among 99 members of the gang, of the young master, making him trustworthy, even though he feels like he is nonsense. “This is the only way to see her and be with her. Even in a short span of time.” “Gi? Why became quiet in a sudden?” Jules called. “Ah.” He laughed. “The young master is confusing. But whatever his prospects he had for the gang, I will always trust and go with him.” He, instead, said. Jules smirked. “I honestly wanted to ask him how does it felt that that certain girl in a rival gang is his section mate.” “What made you think about that?” Gideon glanced at him. “I mean, we are all men, and it was just Barbara who had the chance to get close with him. Surely, that particular girl is gorgeous in person as the way she snaps on TV. Am I right?” Jules answered. Gideon chuckled lowly, “Maybe it was not that bad to ask him one day. Ask him.” Then, they went very silent. Gideon and the rest knew that the String 99 will always be the rival gang of that Blood N’ Berries mafia group. They also know that the young master knows their heir—, but the heir is, for sure, does not know the String 99’s young master. “Esteban Ruiz?” He soon picked himself up from the seat as the English teacher, pulled his identity index card. “What do you know about the compound type of sentence?” All the disgusted and judgmental stares went onto him as he spoke, “It is a sentence structured with an independent and dependent clause or phrase connected with a relevant conjunction.” Most of the classmates felt more disgusted as the teacher smiled at that, especially Strawberry Milan, a celebrity girl, and hates about being teamed up with Esteban in the room. Like seriously? I am too pretty to be paired with someone who is much poorer than the insects living in my giant mansion! She could easily tell herself and her friends. Everyone hates the arrival of him, as he looks so plainly boring with his usual outfit, black loose long sleeves, plain trousers, his medium-wavy hair tied lowly and a graded eyeglass that makes him look like a nerdy genius since he also does not speak at school grounds. Never knew that this certain guy had the deepest personality outside the campus. String 99 was a founded mafia group since 1970s, run and organized by some manipulative and egocentric type of businessmen up to their death. They are a deadly group since those years that has reportedly murdered up to thousands of people for their benefits, such as fund manipulation, treasure illegal mining and involvement in heinous crimes across the country. But the most signature crime the String 99 got involved in was the gang r**e and illegal drug usage that happened and took place before the current mafia boss time, named Senior Roman Valerio. He was indeed the leader killer of the gang that time and numerous people had gone very frightened about his believable existence after the gang r**e of a beautiful woman named Aurora Clarkson, who believed to be just a visitor of the Presidential family that time, happened. And since that day, the String 99 known and had the cruel impression of being ‘the gang r****t’ of the country even the old members had died and replaced with younger ones. And the leader killer was also replaced with the particular monster killer named ‘evil orthodox’ known for its dark killing plot since his first kill. “Right!” The teacher said, as she went into the whiteboard, continued explaining the certain topic while writing the details with her black marker on hand. Strawberry Milan, together with her two friends, Andrea Contis and Ysabel Dionisio shifted their gazes towards Esteban as he seats back to his seat with disgust on their face. “Why would this University accept a car wash boy and let him join our section? Like he can’t even have a haircut for being so poor!” Ysabel said in disgust. Esteban knew those glares, but never mind glancing back to those young women. He does not even have any interest in giving them an eye because he has to focus on what he needs to get done today. ‘I’ll see you later, Estella.’ He even never minds it, faking his ‘doing for a living’ thing in his application in the school to get in. He answered the registrar that he was just a car wash boy in the town and wanted to be a lawyer someday. Furthermore, he also managed to pass the entry exam for a University scholarship just to make it all ‘like it’ and receive scholarship money even if he has a lot of money better than those celebrity students in school. The young master also got gold bars at home. “We had to do something to scare him.” Strawberry murmured. For the last time around, they glanced back at him, and he was still looking in the direction of the white board, faking the attention he was giving.