Page 113 of Knox Academy Omnibus
“And why do you care about them all of a sudden?” I place my hands on my hips and wait, trying not to get mad.
“Paying my dues.”
“A favour.”
He nods. I can respect that. That’s our bread and butter back home. Smalls owes me a massive favour for taking the fall for him with the weed cookie teacher‘s death now. I’ll never call it in or use it against him, though I am sorely tempted to make him break up with skank-face Sarah. He’d have to if I asked.
I sigh. I can’t do that either. Regardless of everything, I do love him and want him to be happy.
“I’m still not going, so you either join me or leave.”
Baxter gives me his psychopath smile and my insides flutter a little. I don’t like him likethat, but his darkness does call to me. We could burn this place down together if I let it happen.
“I’m not fighting,” he says. “And neither are you.”
“Please,” I scoff. As if I’d fight. My speciality is hiding. “Why would I want to fight rich pretentious assholes?”
“You’ll see.” He smirks.
Crowds start rolling in, and one kid even has a whole entourage following behind him.
“That’s Chester Banks, his father is some big Fortune 500 dude, sent his kid to the best Elite school in the world that would take him. He is also undefeated.”
“If he’s undefeated, why don’t you take him on?”
“Why? What do I get out of it? Bragging rights. I already know I would wipe my ass with that kid.”
“Up yourself much,” I scoff. One thing I have noticed about the guys here in England is that they all have loads of confidence.
“So what’s the point in the fights then?” I ask.
“For the rich kids? Just boredom. For the lower class kids? A shit load of money. One fight could set them up for a while. Would depend on who they’re fighting though. Beating Chester right now, I would guess would bring in about 50k.”
“What…” I say flabbergasted. “Fifty thousand dollars to knock him out?!”
“Pounds,” Baxter corrects me. “Closer to 100k if we’re talking about Australian dollars.”
“Fuck.” That blows me away. “I changed my mind. I could use that kind of money.”
“Okay, Mike, calm down. There is no way you could beat that kid, he has more money than God, and probably had lessons in the ring since he could walk.”
The kid I came here with takes to the middle of the makeshift ring, he’s talking to a few girls surrounding him. ‘Sucker for Pain’ byImagine Dragonsplays at a deafening level, and I relax back into the atmosphere of expectation. I love this song. It always gets me going.
“Who's that again?” I ask Baxter.
“That’s Taco, he runs these fights and is also the bookie.”
“Bookie?”
“Yep, the kid has cash, so he loans money to people who need it. If they can’t pay up, he has a few friends to help recover the cost.” Baxter doesn’t elaborate on who he has to clean up his mess – though I expect Baxter could be part of that clean up crew – as the lights dim and only one shines on Taco.
“Welcome, welcome! Tonight is already shaping up to be one for the history books. We haven’t had a Knox here for a while, so just for fun, it’s double or nothing. Get your bets in while you can! My main man, Legs, is over in the booth, bets close ten minutes before each fight. Fighters are listed on the board as of now.” My heart is beating erratically. A Knox? It has to be Onyx. Explains why Baxter made a joke about me wanting to fight. I search the electronic board that holds all the fighters’ names and low and behold Onyx is the main event fighting against Chester.
“What the fuck?!”
“Told you it’s going to be good, not many are game enough to fight a...Knox, because beating them doesn’t end well.” For a minute I thought he was going to say something else but then he said Knox. What the hell are these guys into?
“What does Onyx get from these fights?”
