FOR YOUR FRIENDS

Benedict Eggsworth rubbed his head as he wrote in his workbook. He had to get incredible grades, unless he wouldn’t become his dream. His head began to get heavy, and he started to drool out of his mouth. As his head hit the table, someone tapped his shoulder from behind. 

“Benny, make sure to stay up.” 

Benedict looked behind him and saw his best friend, Huevos Rancheros. Huevos was a young boy with good looks. Auburn hair, caramel skin, sparkling brown eyes. His skin was clear and he had all the girls talking about him. But he had an incredible flaw: He was a troublemaker and made all of the teachers around him irritated. 

“I’ll try, Huevos . . .” Benedict replied lazily. “The thing is, Mr. Gyeranppang has such a droning voice sometimes. Literally, look around the class. The only people awake are Mr. Gyeranppang and you.”

Huevos looked at Benedict with a questioning glance. Huevos was the only one at Nestington’s School for the Gifted. The only reason Huevos got accepted was because of the fact that Benedict begged Headmistress Nestington to allow Huevos into the school. 

Huevos wasn’t intelligent in the slightest, but he had fighting prowess, which led him to be known in the Scramble Ciudad as the “Whisk Fist.”

“Mr. Rancheros!” Mr. Gyeranppang cried. This outburst awoke all the children in the room. Huevos’ cheeks burned red as he looked at the teacher, and stood up. 

“I was called, sir.” 

Mr. Gyeranppang was sweating profusely and his hair was wet to his forehead. “How dare you talk in my class. I come here to teach you miscreants the Laws of Foi Tong, but all you want to do is sleep and talk.” 

Huevos sat down and looked at his hands under the table. The whole class knew that Mr. Gyeranppang loved to bully Huevos because of his fathers status, but Huevos couldn’t do anything about it.

“You know what, Mr. Rancheros? Go to the Headmaster’s Office. This is unacceptable, child. How dare you?”

Huevos took his bag, and stormed out of the room. As the kids laughed at him, all Benedict could do was watch as his best friend of all his life went to feel the wrath of Headmistress Nestington.

Benedict shed a tear for his friend, because he knew that as soon as he was to get home, Huevos would be forced to confront his strict older brother, Cilbir. 

No, Benedict though. This can’t be. Huevos was talking to me, but because I am the son of the Lord and Lady of this city, I can’t be punished. I have to stand. Huevos is my friend. 

So Benedict did something that would get anyone else twelve lashes on the arm. “Mr. Gyeranppan, your theories are incredibly bland and puerile at best!” Mr. Gyeranppang turned around slowly, eyes wild, glasses on the tip of his nose in sweat. 

“What did you say, boy?” the instructor said with malice. “I don’t expect you to think that because you’re an Eggsworth, you’re free of punishment. You shan’t talk to the noble Nixon Gyeranppang with such insolence.”

Benedict was scared out of his mind. This was something he would never dare do. He was an Eggsworth. He had a reputation to uphold. But Huevos was more than that. 

Benedict was racking his mind for schemes that would get him sent to the Headmistress. That’s when an idea came to him that would guarantee an immediate sentencing to her. 

Mr. Gyeranppang was known to be sensitive about his nose. It was a large nose due to the fact that he was half Booga Bird. Because of this, he would give out detention to anyone that would even mention that blasted bird.

“Mr. Gyeranppang . . . .” he took a deep breath. “Your beak is so immaculately large that I think you would be the winner of the Most Wet and Sharp Nose Contest in the Custard.

Mr. Gyeranppang’s eyes were so bloodshot that it could look like he had poured red liquid into his eye. His cheeks were so red that it was steaming a little bit. He crushed the chalk in his hand. He let out a shriek that erupted from him like a flood. 

“Young Eggsworth, Headmistress’, NOW!”

As Benedict was walking away, he couldn’t help but smirk a bit before walking into the hallway.

“ . . . I’m coming for you, Huevos.”

Next Chapter: The Black Paper