At the exact moment the stone gave him CTS, Derek was still walking home from school (his head hung downward, causing his long emo hair to hang down over his face, as usual). As he walked, he passed Chesapeake Park, where a group of guys were playing basketball. He looked up towards them and immediately recognized them as Tom Welles and Danny Foster (both from the high school football team), Nick Lachey (from the high school swim team), and Jason Knight (from the high school basketball team).
They seemed to be really involved in their game, until Tom spotted Derek, that was. They stopped immediately, tossing the basketball aside, and then approached Derek.
Why does everyone always have to pick on me? he thought, hanging his head low again and quickening his pace.
"Hey, fag! Where do you think you're going?" Tom yelled. Then the other guys began to laugh.
I mean, it's bad enough my life is hell. Why do they have to make it worse?
He heard footsteps coming up from behind him, then suddenly his body lurched forward and he fell to the ground. Derek looked around and saw Tom towering over him, with a grin on his face. Derek’s eyes went wide with shock, knowing what was coming next. As Tom glanced over his shoulder at the others who were starting to crowd round, Derek took advantage of the distraction and scrambled to his feet, adrenaline giving him a much needed surge of energy.
“Oi, get back here fag!” shouted one of the bullies and all four gave chase. Feet pounding on the pavement, Derek managed to keep ahead of them and ducked down an alley behind some houses. From the sound of it the bullies had ran straight passed the alley, but he wasn’t about to stop running just in case, which turned out to be the right move as he ducked into a cross alley and heard someone shout “Wait I think he went this way!”
Cursing his luck, Derek turned a corner, head down, not paying attention to where he was going and ran into...
