What did not go wrong today? What brand new shirt wasn’t bleached accidentally? What heat wave didn’t suddenly pass through Texas? What puddle wasn’t in the way of his walk to the bus? The humidity alone was killing Kirk, ever so slowly but surely. Pushing his way annoyedly through the ever-intrusive crowd of loud, irritable, and rather smelly teenagers, he marched towards his first class. Hopefully French II would be the highlight of his day so far…

Opening the door, Kirk was struck by a wall of heat, with a smell that could only be burning rubber. After dragging himself and his growing temper through the door, the teacher, Ms. Pilly,  looked up from her seat next to a small fan. She had a small tie-dyed bandana wrapped about her nose and mouth, combined with her white and blue dress, giving her the appearance of a ‘70s house maid.

“Oh bonjour Kirk,” she squealed in her regularly high annoying voice. “I’m sorry for the smell but it seems the AC … how did the mechanic put it … spontaneously combusted? It will be a little hot in here for now but they’ll be here to fix it within the month!”

At a loss for words, Kirk quickly strode to his desk, throwing his bag to the floor, and sitting directly in front of the once operational AC, where now here only the repugnant smell protruded, making his eyes water.

Dipping his nose under his shirt, he thought, ’Deep breath Kirk, deep breath. You can do this …’ Letting air slowly fill his nose turned out to be a mistake however, as even as the smell of rubber was gone, he had somehow forgotten to put on deodorant this morning.

Gripping the edge of the desk harder, he breathed deliberately through his mouth as his knuckles turned white, holding in his growing anger. Students began filtering into the class, each pausing at the door as the smell smacked each of them in the face. Kirk ignored each of them adamantly, until the last person, his least favorite person, slammed the door open on his way in.

“Wow it smells like crap in here!” Josh commented stupidly as he sauntered over his desk, which of course was next to Kirk’s.

“You let one loose in here Kirky? I told you to lay off the cheese bro!” Josh pushed at Kirk’s shoulder annoyingly. A few girls across the class giggled at his remark, which only pushed Kirk farther towards the edge.

First and foremost, he hated, when people called him ‘bro’, and second, the joke wasn’t even that funny, yet somehow Josh always had an adoring crowd to laugh for him.

Tensing his arms against the desk, Kirk muttered something about how he was lactose intolerant and so didn’t each cheese.

Josh only heard the first part.

“Ooooohh!” he raised his voice over the rest of the class, ”someone’s got the runs!”

Kirk’s face turned red. His hands clenched into fists as the class burst into laughter. Standing to his feet, he tore the broken AC unit out of it’s hole, raising it over his head. Josh looked up at him in sudden fear, but all Kirk saw was red, and all he heard was laughter.

The 40 pound AC killed Josh almost instantly, smashing against his nose with a loud crunch. Kirk only continued to flip his desk over, and reach for the next guy in his row who he saw laughing, wrapping his trembling hands around the teen’s neck.

Three shots rang out, and three holes of scarlet red sprouted from Kirk’s back. With shaky hands, Ms. Pilly watched her straight-A student fall to the floor, his face a mask of confusion and pain as his light faded.