Why Arney Didn't Do It

-“Hey Albert... We got this right?”

-“We got this Arney. We got this.”

Year: 2288. A few days before Arney and Albert got injured. Albert is taking photos of Crysty standing in front of the school’s entrance, using a very old camera.

-“You are... A real natural at this...” Albert says. He mumbles relatively quietly as he is being very shy.

-“Come on... It’s all about the artist!” Crysty tries to hype him up.

-“I mean... The model is also an artist.” He adds.

-“That’s a good point. It is just, I view myself as a musician for the most part so I guess I’m not used to these kind of things. Maybe I should be a model too! Teehee.” She laughs a bit, jesting.

-“You could be, but aren’t you a bit young to be making decisions like that?” Albert asks genuinely.

-“What do you mean? I’m practically an adult.” She replies. It’s unclear if she means it seriously.

-“You are not even 10 years old yet!”

-“Well... You are all children in comparison to me, hee.” Crysty puts her leg at the door on that narrative trying to close itself. “But I really do plan on becoming a famous musician.”

-“Anyway, thanks for helping me with this project. Let me print it. I think this one will be greehh...” His sentence is interrupted as another kid bumps into him and his hold of the camera is lost. The camera is sent flying in the air and crushes down to the floor.

“No!... The camera!” Albert agonizes, as he lowers himself next to the remains.

-“Your problem for standing in our way. Get lost.” The kid says. He then keeps walking with his four delinquent friends.

-“HEY! What the hell is your problem?” Crysty yells at them. -“Crysty, don’t...” Albert whispers. “Don’t mess with them!”

-“What did she just say to me?” He says as he turns back to them.

-“Wait, wait, WAIT!” Albert stands in front of crysty. “She didn’t mean it! She was just trying to pruu...” Albert gets knocked from a punch to his jaw, coming straight to his left side, sending him flying backwards, sharing a similar trajectory to his old camera.

-“Come on... Let’s go.” The kid says to his group as they leave the scene.

-“Oh no! I’m... I’m so sorry Albert!” Crysty starts crying. “Are you okay? This is all my fault!”

-“Crysty, this is definitely NOT your fault. It’s obvious this guy is bad news.”

-“Hey Guys!” Arney says as he suddenly shows up. He looks much thinner compared to his future muscular self. “What... Happened?”

-“Albert was taking pictures of me as this kid bumped into him and made his camera break. But he didn’t apologize. When I tried to put him in his place - he punched Albert, who just tried to protect me.”

-“Do you know who it was?” Arney asks.

-“No.” Crysty says.

-“Yes. I do.” Albert says. “Those are the same bastards that always bully someone around here whenever they show up. This time only their leader messed up with me though.”

-“Have they ever bothered you in the past, Albert?” Crysty asks.

-“Y... Yes.” He mumbles quietly in defeat.

-“Don’t let them get the better of you albert. They messed with me too.” Arney says.

-“Oh, I didn’t know that.” Albert replies. “I already forgot about them. Evil little bastards. I’ll try to see if the school has another old fashioned camera like that... Aaa what a waste of a treasure.”

-“Don’t we have a mutual class now?” Crysty asks.

-“You guys go without me, I’ll join later.” Arney says. He then leaves all of a sudden.

-“Albert, let’s go to the infirmary first, okay?”

-“It’s okay, I’m fine. I’ll go after class, I don’t want us to be late.”

Crysty offers her hand to get him up. He takes her hand, stands up and they walk to class.

They get to class and sit down. Other students arrive in the very last moments before the class starts. Finally, the teacher arrives as well. The class begins as usual and yet Arney is nowhere to be seen.

-“Where is Arney?” Crysty asks.

-“Could he have entered and we just missed him?” Albert suggests.

-“Then why wouldn’t he sit next to us?” She says as she points at the next sit being vacant.

The class eventually ends and the two of them go to the infirmary. They walk in and they see quite the commotion.

“What happened?” Crysty asks into the crowd.

-“A student was injured, it’s really bad.” Says the school nurse.

Some students leave. The commotion seems to be over. Albert and Crysty fully enter. They keep walking forward to where the commotion was. They see Arney beaten up all over, bleeding with bandages all over his body.

-“Arney!!” The both of them scream together.

-“They got me good, those little bastards...”

-“What? Who?!” Crysty ask. “Are you talking about the delinquents from before?”

-“It’s my responsibility. I started it this time. Although I wouldn’t really call this unprovoked.”

-“Did they provoke you?” Albert asks. “Come to think of it, you did mention that they messed with you before, right?”

-“Not exactly what I meant.” Arney says. He then coughs and starts explaining: “I was looking for them. It took a while although they were still around, I just didn’t know where they went. I challenged them head on and they went all against me together. I didn’t mean to say they bullied me in the past. I meant that...

💪🏻if they messed with you, they messed with me.”💪🏻

Albert is tearing and is trying not to cry. Crysty starts crying.

“Isn’t that what Arnold Shwarzenzen would have done?” He asks with a huge smile, all bloody and beaten up. “Eventually I’m gonna be able to pronounce that, haha. For now I gotta be the person I wanna be, before I work on my acting. In fact, maybe it’s a good time to start working out. I have to become strong enough to protect my friends, or being an actor will just be...

🔓an excuse to not be myself.”🔓

-“That’s it!” Crysty yells and runs away like a storm.

-“Albert, you have to stop her, she probably wants to find them! They are older than us and I doubt they go easy on girls!”

Albert then remembers how he took a punch that they may have very well prepared originally for her. He runs out of there as well, trying to get to Crysty. He is not sure what to do if he loses track and finds her too late.