Roman was walking to class when, hearing Patton familiar laugh, he looked up from his phone, freezing immediately.

On the other side of the hall Patton pushed off the wall he was leaning against beside his history class, laughing and waving at Virgil Jackson before entering the classroom.

Roman just stood there, fists clenched and eyes narrowed as he glared at the emo boy; he was not about to let that... that villain play his little brother like that. He heard the rumors. He knew how Virgil was and he was not about to let him taint Patton's innocence.

He followed the darkly dressed guy with his eyes until he vanished in his geography class, his mind going a thousand miles an hour. He had to find a way to make his brother see how much of a bad influence the other was.

Suddenly the late bell rang, making him jump; he groaned, already knowing he would get reprimanded for being late to class, as he started running towards English.

"Sorry I'm late, Mrs. Smith, I got distracted and lost track of time." He apologized to the teacher who was shooting him a nasty look for having interrupted her.

"As long as it won't happen again, I'm going to let it slide, Mr. Hall. Now go sit at your desk, the class has already started."

Roman nodded thankfully and immediately went to sit down, his mind going back to his previous train of thoughts before he could even reach his seat, making him zone out.

He knew that Patton would most likely not believe the rumors like he did, no matter how bad those were, unless he had proof and answers to each and everyone of his question, he was just going to say that it wasn't fair for someone to judge a person based on the rumors about them. Sure, he could argue that rumors always have a base of truth, but he would just fight back that even if fairy tales had a base of truth in them, but that didn't mean that they believed animals could talk, did they?

It didn't matter how childish Patton looked and sounded most of the time, it didn't change the fact that he was really smart and skilled in debates.

So Roman knew he would have to make a plan B, and he knew that that plan had to work and be mostly, if not completely, foolproof. That's why he spent most of his last classes planning and brainstorming like crazy, trying to come up with something that wouldn't end with him going to jail for murder, stalking or ending up in court.

When the last bell finally rang, Roman was way too focused on making a good plan to even notice; He just sat there, glaring at his desk with such intensity that he would have been able to drill holes in it had he had the ability, as every other student got up and left.

"Mr Hall?" The teacher called, after a few minutes, noticing he had yet to leave and was not even getting ready.

Receiving no answer, she decided to get closer. "Roman?" She called again, but just like before, he didn't even look her way.

So deciding to take a more... noisy approach, the teacher grabbed one of the dictionaries she kept in the class for the students to use, and dropped it right on Roman's desk, making him jump and finally zone back in.

"What the-!" He started, stopping immediately when he noticed his English teacher staring back at him and the empty around them.

"Oh. I'm sorry Mrs. Smith. I was lost in thought, I didn't even notice the school had ended." He apologized, a small blush covering his cheeks as he avoided her eyes.

"Oh don't worry, darling. But are you sure you're okay?" She asked, shooting him a worried look.

Despite not having the best grades in her subject, Roman was well aware of being one of Mrs. Smith's favorite student. She had always loved the passion and creativity he put in each and every one of his essays, and he often managed to get away with little to no effort in lessons. The only thing that ever managed to get her to glare at him was arriving late and interrupting the lesson.

So the boy let a small smile slip on his lips, momentarily forgetting about his masterplan to protect his brother. "I am, but thank you for worrying, Miss." He said before quickly grabbing his bag, "I have to go now. My brother is waiting for me."

With that he speed-walked out of the room, with only one thing in mind: if his words weren't enough to convince Patton to not be friends with Virgil Jones, then he would have had to make a call to the school's' local "Snake" to settle this business.