Chapter 1

The first day of school was always interesting. It has always been and will forever be. No matter what happens in the future, like if they come up with some fancy school system nothing like we have today, the first day of school will always be interesting. This was my junior year. I had just turned 16 the month before and was proud to be a junior. I was so glad that I wasn't one of the insignificant people on campus anymore and really hoped the harassments and beatings I had received since about 6^th grade would stop. I was about to find out just how wrong I was.

However, before I continue with the story I'll take a moment to tell you a little about myself. My name is Luke Browski and I'm about 5'11" and weigh around 150 pounds. Most of it is muscle because I often work out in the gym I work at after it closes at night. I have never liked any of the tight shirts and pants some guys like to wear and have always worn loose fitting clothing. This clothing, however, never showed my body at all so I was never included in the athletic crowd at school. Although I loved to play sports, preferring water sports like swimming and water polo, I knew what the important things in life were and so had never participated on any teams, club or school.

Because of this, no one at school had any idea that I was into sports and instead chose to see me as a loser and a nerd. Even though by the way I act and how seriously I take school it may look like this, I seriously detest being called a nerd because I dislike most of the subjects that are taught. However, I put my mind to what I do and get good grades in school in order to have options when I grow up. Of the major subjects taught in school, math, language arts, history, and science, the only one I like is science.

My other preferred subjects are computers and foreign languages. Because I loved computers I had to be good at math in order to be able to program but that doesn't change the fact that I hated math. Like I was saying, thought, I simply put my mind to whatever was given to me and don't procrastinate. This is why I am labeled a nerd. In truth, I was anything but a nerd. If people knew more about me they would probably call me a geek but even that wasn't true.

Perhaps I should tell you a little about the city I live in, Grand Island, and the high school I go to, Grand Island High. Grand Island is a small city in Southern California, the OC to be precise. Now since I haven't watched the show I can't tell anyone who hasn't been to the OC if it's anything like that but I can say that it is the only place I wish to live. It is a beautiful balance between the hustle and bustle of New York City or LA and any of those small Midwest towns.

I live with my mother there. My mother works at an insurance agency and brings in a rather nice paycheck. In order to keep close we eat dinner together every night and often talk about whatever happened that day. I'm really glad that I have this kind of relationship with my mom because I feel I can tell her anything.

My father and I were very close, he died a year ago in a car accident, and almost ever weekend since I had turned 14 we had hiked out into the mountains where he had taught me almost everything I needed to know. He instilled the work ethic I now lived by in me and taught me many things. Being an ex-navy seal he was able to taught me all about weapons and fighting. He kept me in shape and made sure I never gained too much weight by keeping the family on a well balanced diet.

I learned how to fight with him. He taught me street fighting, wrestling, boxing, and even fencing. From him I learned how to look at my surroundings, how to analyze situations, and how to think like my opponents. During our expeditions I learned how to survive on very little food and how to find food were ever I was. I had hoped to find a job working for the CIA, FBI, or military after college and knew this stuff would make me qualified for the job so when he died in that fateful car accident I was devastated. Every now and then I will remember him and invisible tears will wet my cheeks.

I know what you're thinking, that with all this training I should have been able to defend myself against bullies? Well your right I could have, if there had only been one or two. As of right now I was no Jet Li or Jackie Chan and therefore could not take on multiple dozens of enemies. The varsity football team consisted of multiple dozens of enemies. I still don't know what pissed them off. Something I had done my freshman year, before that it was random bullies that would terrorize me because of my unpopularity. Maybe it was an accidental look I gave one of them or something I said but right now I had no clue what I had done.

The stores are large, the houses are large, the grass is green, the women are beautiful, and there isn't a cornfield for thousands of miles. The beach is about thirty minutes away and I often go there or swim in my back yard pool. The school I go to isn't as nice as some I have seen while traveling the country. Its actually rather run down but that's more because it's a very old school with to many people going there and not enough room. My classes rarely suffered from over crowding because I had chosen the honors classes.

Anyway, my school had a nice mix of Hispanics, blacks, whites, and Asians and there is rarely any racism unless if is a joke between friends. This doesn't mean we don't have any black or Mexican gangs running around. There's even a white supremacist group that walk around in their tattered and patched punk clothes. I often wondered why these people were never the ones to get beat up.

All this being said, I'll get back to the story now. As I said before, the first day of school is always interesting. This first day held a surprise more surprising than I would have guessed. I had arrived early this day in order to beat the morning rush to get locator cards, and was now heading for my first period class. The kid working the desk this morning had been a big fellow. I thought I had recognized him from the year before. He had given me a weird look when giving me my card. I remembered him now because blocking my path were six rather large guys. I instantly recognized them as the football players and knew I was in trouble.

The path I had chosen to take to my class was an out of the way hall that ran next to the science building. They were remodeling the buildings, which were old, among the first made, and desperately required repair to get rid of the mold and rot. I did the math in my head: six guys to one. I added in my ability to fight, then decided to take it away after looking at my opponents and seeing the way they stood. I quickly came to the conclusion that the odds weren't good and decided to run for it. Hey I had been doing it for the past 3 years, why not one more? As I turned around I realized that there were more guys behind me. Now I was surrounded by about 10 big guys, the smallest weighing more than me. I'm screwed, I thought. It was the last thought that entered my mind as they charged.

In a flash I was in combat mode. My entire thinking changed and I dropped into a crouch before bolting towards the nearest opponent. Fast. I have to be fast. Don't let them gang up on me. Keep them separated. Always moving. I moved like a mad man with the grace of a dancer. Kicking, punching, and jumping all with lightning speed. I screamed and swore but still they came, one after another. I singled out the ones that knew how to fight and took them down first. Quick movements and accuracy that only came from hours of repetition brought my opponents to their knees or in some cases their backs.