Aaron Minors had a kid pushed up against the lockers pinning him there using his left forearm. Jake Manfield had been his target since middle school. He liked to pick on his target because the kid wore dirty clothing and smelled bad. Not that Aaron fared better. His clothes were also worn and tattered. His parents never bought him new clothes and his kind neighbor, though poor, was nice enough to buy him second hand clothes when she had money. However, being an elderly woman, that wasn't often because she was on a small pension. Jake didn't have it easy either, but he did love his life. His family rented an old small single wide trailer that was out of code from a farmer. The farmer never wanted to rent it out because, technically, the county could come in, force the family living there onto the street, and condemn his whole farm and fine him until he moved the trailer out to be demolished. But, Jake's family was desperate. Though his mom and dad had college degrees, their degrees did little to land them a decent job causing them to have to pay off exorbitant student loans on a minimum wage budget. And so the farmer reluctantly rented the trailer out to the family for $200 a month. Even though it didn't have hot water or a stove, it was better than living out on the street. And so, Jake was grateful to the farmer and in return helped out the farmer cleaning the animals' pens in the morning. That left Jake with no time to change, shower, and get the stink off of him before getting onto the bus for school. Aaron's parents were alcoholics. Though his family was a small bit better off living in public housing, his father, having PTSD from the Iraq war, shifted from one construction job to the next as a day laborer. His mom, a cashier at a small corner store, also made minimum wage. Her employer wanted to give her a raise, but couldn't because after paying off his suppliers, rent for the building, utilities, and his monthly point of sales machine (cash register) installment, he barely broke even. He should have let the woman go long ago, but in this economically depressed county, it was highly unlikely she'd find a job worth going to due to the distance to the nearest large economic center because the county was the largest, poorest, and most rural county in the state. Principle Mathews, prowling the halls and looking for trouble makers was actually a decent fair and honest man who wanted the best for his students. However, the best possible outcome for his students, was this damned experiment. He hadn't wanted to do it, but he needed to save his students and the county's one of only two high schools. Without Lockwood, Overland High School would become even more overcrowded than it is right now and would deteriorate both from an educational standpoint as well as from a building maintenance standpoint. There would also be increased friction because the two schools were rivals inside school as well as outside due to cultural differences. In his mind, country music and rap were practically the same thing. Both talked about hard times. It didn't matter if you drank Busch in the trailer parks or Colt 45 in the projects. And so, he watched the two worlds collide as rap dominated over country in his halls by shoving country against the lockers. He didn't have to say anything, both boys stopped their "dance" even before it started. They knew they were in trouble and was about to be disciplined regardless if either had been innocent or not. Principle Mathews did his best to discipline his pupils before they got into trouble so that they would know ahead of time how to find an "out". These two boys clearly didn't get that memo, though. Both boys instinctively knew what to do and followed the principle into his office. After everyone was seated into the office, The principle spoke," You boys are going to have to put away your differences and get along if you plan on making it as adults. If you haven't noticed, there aren't many jobs around here and you may have to one day rely on each other to improve your lot. Arron, I'm not going to punish you today as I'd prefer to discipline you than punish you. I'd have to call your folks and I'd rather not do that." Jake became extremely upset, but didn't want to cross principle Mathews. Jake on the other hand, was relieved. "However, starting tomorrow, I'm going to relieve you two from your third period class to deal with your anger management issues, they're just electives anyway. You will, and I stress will, meet me at the front door entrance of the special education building. Before you two go crazy on me for making you go to special education, no it's not a special education building anymore. It's now a place where students can go to get help in solving their problems both inside school and out." The principle pulled out two pins in the shape of a kawaii red panda. Aaron secretly loved red pandas but would never admit it while Jake had never seen a red panda a day in his life. It's not like he had internet or a computer at home or his own personal cell phone. His folks just didn't make enough coin for that. The principle handed the cute pin to each student, though both students were disgusted with its cute juvenile design. "Boys, if you don't wear that pin starting right now, I'm going to expel both of you from school. I realize that the pin is too cute and girly for your taste in fashion, but the agency running the class has decided that the panda was the best representation for the class. They want everyone in the class to wear the pin in order to identify each other if they need help, advice, or a kind word. Congratulations, you two, you're the first to join the class. It'll teach you go get along instead of fighting." finished principle Mathews. Both boys were really upset about having to go to the "retard room", but what choice did they have? They didn't want to get expelled. Jake loved his parents and the farm owner and didn't want to disappoint them while Aaron didn't want to live in an unending nightmare of psychological and physical abuse. Both boys applied the pin to their shirts, silently left principle Mathews' office and sullenly separated their ways to their second period class. That night, for the first time in years, Jake randomly slept with his disused teddy bear. He loved that bear even though he'd outgrown him and so the bear had developed a home for himself on top of the digital converter box Jake used to watch television on his CRT television set. His dad found both in a dumpster and had repaired the TV to give his son as a gift. The digital converter box had just been a working bonus despite the dent on top. Aaron, got tired of his parents yelling at each other and decided that it was a good time to go entertain his little brother. His little brother always got scared when his parents fight, but Jake would usually just go to his room instead of protecting the young tyke. However, on this night, both boys got together to build a monster out of Lego to pick up their parents in Lego form to teach them a lesson.