"See you later at McFly's, babe” said Willow sweetly as she waved Tom off at the front entrance of Shermer High School, Willow joining her group of equally leggy cheerleader friends Krystle, Janet, and Juanita for their first class together. On the way to school, she and Tom had agreed to a dinner date later in the evening, as neither of them could afford the time right after school. Willow had practice and Tom said he had practice. In reality he had been planning to just wander around town and feel sorry for himself. Now though, now he had options.
Tom continued to stare at the utter perfection that was Willow Strasserman as she walked inside the glass doors. Lost in his daydream, the young man didn't mind his surroundings carefully enough as he immediately found himself surrounded by Big Jon Ingerman's gang, all of whom had seemingly dropped from the sky. Tom honestly didn't know how people that bulky and that slow were that talented at sneaking up on people.
“Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou is our fucking money, Romeo?” said the deep, unpleasantly obnoxious and arrogant voice directly behind him.
Tom snapped himself out of it remarkably quickly. If the voice didn't give it away, the looming shadow that cast itself over the front entrance to the school sure did.
“Hey Big Jon” answered the basketball star, not turning to face the bully. “Good to see you too.”
Big Jon snapped his fingers nonchalantly, and two of his intimidating looking underlings pinned Tom's arms and forced him to turn around and look Jon in the face.
“That's better” said the lead bully, appraising his quarry up and down with a predator's eyes.
Jon walked up to Tom and threateningly laid a hand on his shoulder. His blonde, rough hewn Nordic face was close enough for Tom to take a whiff of his breath. Jon smelled of lutefisk, a disgusting Norwegian dish, Tom remembered Bill telling him once.
“So punk, how much you got this week?” the bully asked him.
“I'm broke, Jon. Please. I'll have more money on Monday. I swear.”
Tom suddenly felt one of Jon's flunkies patting down his jeans and searching through his pockets.
“He's clean, boss” said the gorilla like teen Randall Jones.
Tom mentally breathed a sigh of relief, glad that the all powerful gemstone he had been carrying was still tucked inside his fist. None of the Junior Achievement Club seemed to notice it.
“You better have something by Monday, or you'll be leaving for summer vacation on a stretcher” warned Jon, his voice serious and deep. “Or worse. Maybe I'll cut your little slut's face, give her a little Glasgow smile for you two lovebirds to remember me by.”
“When you're busy sitting in jail?” Tom snarked. He instantly realized he shouldn't have said it.
“What'd you say, Ackerton?” said Jon, his face turning just the slightest shade redder.
Tom's heart stopped. He loved Bill. He loved Willow. He couldn't let anything happen to her.
“I don't like guys who hurt girls” Tom said, defiantly once more.
“What would do about it if I did do something, pussy?” asked Jon.
The question hung in the air for a long period of time before Jon spoke again. Tom just gulped. Magic rock or not, Big Jon was a scary dude.
“That's what I thought. Just a pretty face without any balls. Get out of my sight, you fucking dork”, lightly smacking Tom on the cheek in a show of dominance.
Jon's gang all pulled away from Tom, allowing him safe passage inside the building. Tom took two long strides towards the glass door when his impulsive nature came rearing its head once more.
He was furious at being shown up. Aggravated being humiliated by a sadistic freak like Big Jon. That's when he saw the stone in his hand glowing between the cracks of his fingers. Even if Bill had turned into a girl and he had never gone out with Gloria, he'd be damned if he still had to deal with harassment from this future death row inmate. Big Jon made him sick! This was his one chance to finally do something about him.
“I wish you'd punch yourself in the face for ten minutes straight” said the basketball star. He said it softly, but the tenor of his voice was anything but ambiguous. Tom Ackerton meant it definitively. The Stone flashed brightly and then extinguished itself. Smiling to himself, Tom walked inside. He didn't need to witness what happened next.
“What'd that asshole mutter to himself?” asked Rob Bolstrum as he saw Tom walk inside.
“He's probably just crazy” ironically added another bully, Leon 'Loco' Scarfo, who himself had a severe personality disorder.
Rob looked toward his reluctant boss as Jon immediately gave himself a self inflicted black eye with his own fist.
“What the fuck? Why'd you hit yourself?” asked Rob.
“I-I don't know!” yelled Jon, his other fist now punching himself in the mouth, damaging his teeth.
Jon's left hand grabbed his right wrist, attempting to restrain the almost sentient fist from punching himself again. He watched his fist tremble mightily in his grip. It was the most bizarre thing he ever saw. If he had been a movie fan, Jon may have been reminded of a famous sequence from Evil Dead II.
Out of sheer curiosity wondering what would happen if he let go, Jon did, and he was greeted by another painful black shiner.