After Riv’s command, Immediately, the two behind John went to the front and pulled his arms. They held them, so his palms were flat on the floor by the wrist.
“From your form, I can tell that you’re a boxer. You had a good stance and your punches seemed to pack some power. Well, you hit one of my guys, so this is only right. Say goodbye to them.” Riv started lifting his foot just above John’s hands.
“Wait!” A deep voice bellowed from the crowd. When the students looked at who it was, they could see it was their large teacher, who was as big as a tree in his red tracksuit, Mr. Root, the P.E teacher and Rugby coach.
“It was me, I was the one who planned that attack. Don’t hurt the students because of me!” Mr. Root shouted. Riv’s foot stayed hovering over John’s hands, he looked at the students one more time before making a decision.
“Fine then. Bring him in!”
The other gang members stepped into the crowd of students and held Mr Root by the arm. Their heads only came midway up to his arms, due to how tall he was. However, the coach willingly came to the front.
All the students, including those that were beaten, knew that Mr Root had taken no part in the plan that Josh had made. He just couldn’t bear to see his students hurt when it was the adults’ jobs to protect them.
The red colour gang members threw the others that were hurt back into the crowd of those sitting down. Some of them looked at those who hadn’t stuck to the plan with disgust, while other students were looking at them, thinking that if they hadn’t attacked, then their teacher wouldn’t be in this situation right now.
They forced Mr Root to get down on his knees in front of everyone. Four people now held onto Mr Root just in case he tried anything as well. In all honesty, most believed that if Mr Root would defend himself, he might even take on the four holding him down. Alas, the adult man knew it was useless, as there were far more of the gang members that he could take. Besides, there was also the risk that they would involve the other students if he did anything.
“You see, we need to teach you all a lesson, so you don’t try to act out just like those idiots did! If you had just all listened, then this would have been a lot easier.” Riv smiled, seemingly enjoying the ‘justification’ to hurt another human being.
At that moment, the red colour gang members held Mr Root steady so his head and chest were out slightly, and another large member who was as big as Mr Root himself stood in front of him. He kicked Mr Root in the stomach as hard as he could, and a loud grunt resounded throughout the main hall.
Another punch was delivered right to his face and blood from his mouth fell to the floor.
“Oh, he looks like a tough guy, it might take a lot to hurt this one.” Riv started to smile.
The punches kept on coming, hitting his arms, his body. They had stopped hitting the head, as if they just wanted to do as much damage to Mr Root as possible.
‘No…no it’s my fault… this is all my fault but then why…’ Josh thought with tears running down his face and gritting his teeth hard. ‘Why can’t I say anything?’
“Hey… if they keep hitting him like that, they’re going to kill Mr Root!” Tom whispered, unsure what they could do.
“No.” Kai shook his head. “Their hits are just aimed to hurt him. He might come out with a few broken bones, but since he doesn’t show any signs of resisting, Riv should become bored by it soon. They won’t kill him in front of us all. We can see his face. I hate to say this, but the best thing to do now is just to stand ba-“
As Kai was in the middle of telling Tom how to behave, he could see someone next to him stand up.
“Hey, you…sit back down!” One of the members shouted, but he was ignored, as the student walked forward and passed the rest of the students who were sitting down. Each one glanced at the one who had decided to walk forward.
‘So you’ve decided to act.’ Blake thought, who had been staying at the back of the room, looking at the exits and windows.
“Do you want to get hit as well? I said stay back!” Another member shouted, as the student had finally walked past the rest of the students and was now in front of the whole group. There was only one person who had stood up out of everyone there. One person couldn’t make a difference in a situation like this, so nobody felt hope seeing this person.
Lifting his head, Mr Root looked at the student who was standing up right now.
“Gary…”He muttered. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be okay… you stay back… you’re our star player… don’t let these guys hurt you and ruin your future.” Mr Root smiled when saying these words, his mouth, and teeth stained red with his own blood.
Gary clenched his fist.
“I don’t think I can.” Gary replied. “You see, I kind of like you as a teacher and our coach.”
The red colour gang member had lost his patience. He stepped forward, picking up his bat, and swung it towards Gary from the top downward towards his head.Clenching his fist tight, the high schooler threw his fist right towards the bat. His fist connected with the bat, breaking it in half, and continued forward.
“ARGHH!” Gary screamed, his fist planted into the attacker’s face. A cracking noise was heard as the gang member’s face was pushed into itself by the fist, a tooth was seen flying through the air landing on the ground.
“Get the f*ck out of my school!” Gary shouted.