'I was stupid enough to expect things to go as usual,' mused Zack the next day. The only thing he wanted, was to avoid confrontation with any of the gangs, or standing out in any manner. But his passion for cars seemed to get him in trouble. Not only was the car now the center of attraction, but he also became the target for the gangs at school. The first time was near the locker, then twice before he reached his class. The fact that he owned the car is what seemed to piss off almost everyone at school. The first period was quite normal, but as soon as the bell rang, the four famous delinquent wolves surrounded him.

"So, You dare to show your true colors?" accused their leader, Victor. Though the school was well reputed, there were always small groups of delinquents. It seems the headmaster allowed such groups to exist, as long as they don't cross a limit. Zack blinked up trying to figure out what exactly are these guys up to. Before he could answer one of the guys spanked him in the head, it made his forehead smack hard on the desk.

"HOW DARE YOU TRY TO SHOW OFF EQUAL TO OUR ALP...I MEAN TO RYAN" he shouted.

"Hey, what's going on here?" someone yelled from the door. Everyone turned to find Sam at the entrance of the class. "Ah... Sam... I was trying to teach him some manners."

"Did someone ask you to?" Sam questioned, standing in the middle of the room, his hands folded across his chest in a menacing stance.

"NO...NO..." gulped Victor "We were just..."

"Just What?" interjected Sam coldly.

"Nothing, Nothing," Victor answered, raising his hands in surrender and backing off towards the door. Sam looked back at Zack and smirked, "Well, that bruise sure does suit your face," and walked out. Zack was rubbing his forehead where a purple bruise was forming. He found Alpha and others standing in the doorway glaring at him.

"Now, what was that about?" asked Lea standing next to Zack. She was rubbing her hands up and down her arms like she was shivering.

"It seems like the temperature has dropped to zero degrees here." Zack saw goose bumps on her skin.

"Yeah! It feels like winter here," said Joe. "Waoh!", "That's a pretty big bruise forming in your head. You need to go to the nurse's office."

Zack touched his forehead and sure enough, there was a big lump forming. Zack sighed, he took his bag and started getting out of the class without acknowledging them.

"You know it's because of this attitude, you get on everyone's nerves," Lea said standing in Zack's way. He ignored her and walked out.

Lea and Joe made it a point to keep pestering him with their presence. They were quite an unusual pair. They ignored his silence and kept chatting with him, dragging Zack into their conversation, though he was not responding, they continued without waiting for an answer. It was quite annoying, but somehow it made him a bit happier.

Once lunch finished, Zack was on his way to empty the tray, when someone decided to play a trick on him. Victor puts his leg out to trip him, he would have avoided it, if not for Lea pulling him back to answer her. The result was complete chaos in the cafeteria. Zack tripped, dragging Lea along with him and fell flat on his face, and because he tripped near the table, where the Alpha and his group were eating, his plate flew out of his hands and fell right on the Alpha's head, dumping half-eaten salad and coke. Lea's tray went flying and landed on Victor, making him fall back with his girlfriend. She was unable to maintain her balance and landed on her back over Luka along with Victor on top of her. The sudden weight behind Luka made him throw up the coke, he was drinking on Sam and two girls who were sitting opposite to him.

All this happened in a matter of a few seconds and the whole cafeteria had gone silent. If not for the seriousness of the situation, Zack would have burst out laughing, but it was like someone had died over there. He stood up to see a few lettuce and banana peal sticking out on the Alpha's head and the coke starting to stain his shirt, Sam and the two girls looked worse.

"Shit!" exclaimed Joe behind him.

"Yeah, double shit!" thought Zack and did the only thing that he thought was the best thing at that time. He caught Joe's and Lea's hands and dragged them out of the cafeteria, rushed straight towards his car and drove away. Both were too shocked to react and only realized what he was doing after he pulled out of the parking lot.

"Hey, wait. Where the hell are we going?" shouted Joe.

"And how the hell did we end up in your car?" yelled Lea.

"STOP THE CAR, THE SCHOOL IS NOT YET OVER, TURN BACK, TURN BACK... ZACK WHAT THE HELL ARE YO..."

"You two are sure you want to go back now?" asked Zack. The question seemed to shut them up.

"Actually, I did rather be anywhere than in front of that guy," Joe said.

"Yeah, Me too," added Lea. There was silence in the car for a minute, and then they all burst out laughing.

"Man! I never would have thought a day would come to see a banana peel on that guy's head," laughed Joe.

"And am so happy to see Luka throw up on Sam, and those two bitches always hanging around them."

Lea laughed with tears starting to stream from her eyes, clutching her stomach. "And we are going to die tomorrow," Zack added, there was a pause, and all the three started laughing harder.

"Since we are going to die, What do you guys say, we go and waste away today," he said.

"Awesome! Let's go to the beach," that's what they did.

**

Zack was not worried about the next day. 'A day should be enough to cool him off. Besides, it's not actually my fault, I got tripped,' thought Zack. Little did he realize how wrong he was. Zack was rummaging through his locker the next day when the sudden silence in the corridor alerted him. He turned around to find the hallway completely deserted, except for four people standing two feet from him.

A very angry looking Alpha approached him. Before Zack could open his mouth, Ryan's fist flew at his face and connected with his cheek, making Zack slam into the open locker. Pain exploded across his face, he could taste blood in his mouth. Ryan dragged him by his hair threw him across the hallway. He ended up crashing into the wooden bench placed on the side, the impact, making the wooden legs splinter and dig painfully into his back. Even before Zack could get his breath back Ryan's foot slammed into his stomach.

Zack clenched his teeth, the pain was making him see stars behind his closed eyes.

'DAMN!', He was not even holding back. Ryan caught him by his throat and pulled up bringing him to his eye level, holding him with one hand with feet dangling off the ground. Zack looked into the coldest eyes, he had ever seen. Ryan was ready to snap him in two, but was somehow holding back. He spoke barely above a whisper, a controlled rage emitting from his words, that he was having a hard time understanding, "You worthless piece of shit, I could kill you, you know that?"

"It... It was not my ffa... fault," sputtered Zack. He was choking and unable to breathe.

"SHUT UP," He snarled, slamming him against the wall. He was about to punch him again when someone stopped him.

"That's enough Ryan, you will only end up killing him," Luka was trying to hold him back. Ryan snarled at Luka and seemed like he was about to argue when Zack's choking sounds brought him back and dropped him to the ground. Ryan kicked him again and walked away.

Pain seared through his whole body and it was starting to get numb. Zack did not worry about the pain, but it was the shock that startled him. That was the coldest glare, he ever received in his life. He did not expect him to react so badly over a tray falling on his head. He smiled to himself, 'You need to loosen up a lot, you idiot Alpha.'

As soon as they left the students started pouring out into the hallway. It was as if they were waiting for the whole play to finish, before making an appearance. Zack was bloody and bruised, but they hardly glanced at him and those that did, only snickered. He saw a few people looking at him in pity, but no one stopped to help. Not that he needed any help. He was trying to pull himself up when two arms caught him and steadied him to the wall,

"We are really sorry."

"I couldn't help either," spoke Joe and Lea at the same time.

Zack realized they both were unarmed. It looked like the Alpha's anger was directed only at him. That thought brought some relief. Somehow both of their presence seemed to have grown on him, and the thought that they may have been hurt bothered him a lot. These two would not have survived that. They ignored the stares they got and dragged him to the nurse's office. The nurse refused to treat his wounds, saying he deserved it. Zack didn't want her to either. After patching up his wounds, he convinced Joe and Lea to go back to class and just pulled a sheet over himself and slept on the bed in the nurse's office.