There was this time that one of the trouble boys from my class got into trouble with some dangerous guys from nearby. I never got the details right, rumor was that it was about stealing someone’s girlfriend, or just flirting with the girl. We were all 16 at the time.

Anyway, this one day, after classes ended and everyone was leaving, I was hanging outside school with my friends when we saw the trouble boy sprinting madly back inside, with a group of 4 following behind - all of them looking like late teenagers. The pursuers stayed outside for ~10 minutes before leaving and it seemed like one of them had a gun, as he wouldn’t take his hand off his hip (this is Brazil, btw, where gun possession is illegal).

Trouble boy skipped school the entire following week, which looked like it was enough to let the dust settle. Of course, rumors went wild, like one saying that he was ambushed and killed, but his younger sister was also at the school and kept coming, so it was easy to know the truth: he got grounded for the week and, to avoid being expelled for absences, got a magical medical “1 week off school” report.