Monday, September 26th. . .

About two dozen pairs of eyes fall on me as I step into the classroom.

I carefully keep my face impassive and emotionless, even while my chest grows tighter and my stomach rolls, my back unconsciously straightening as I automatically scan each individual and every corner and window in the room without moving my head.

My attention snaps over to the lady behind the desk as she clears her throat. She gives me a kind smile, urging me to move further into the room as she stands up. I force myself to move in her direction, keeping my gaze on her but leaving my senses open to the whole room.

It seems I'm about forty seconds late for my first class of my first day at school. Classic.

Mack and Polly assured me that I'll only be participating in about three classes without at least one of them also participating after they glanced at my schedule as they escorted me to the office ten minutes ago.

Though I can't help but mentally berate myself over the fact I don't want to attend school without hiding behind someone I know like the pathetic wimp I am now days.

My jaw clinches and I make myself pay attention to what Mrs. Grant is saying as I stop next to her desk.

"You must be our newest student." Her smile falters, so small no normal person would be able to notice. But I do. I'm sure getting a random new student three weeks into the semester isn't that common around here, or anywhere really.

I give her a curt nod, holding my schedule out to show her as proof. She nods in affirmation, "Please tell us your name and where you're from." She retakes her seat as she looks back out at her students, her smile charming.

My gut clinches at the same time my chest spasms in a flurry of nerves, and I dry my sweaty palms on my thighs as I slowly face the classroom. I avoid all the curious and glowering stares that are all focused on me, keeping my face straight.

"Alex Rider. I'm from-" I break off, focusing down on a specific spot on the floor about twenty feet in front of me.

I could lie. Tell them I'm from somewhere else. I'm sure Mrs. Grant would know though, and I'd rather not be called out on it just for an even more embarrassing moment.

"London," I say, keeping my voice steady and even despite the twinge of guilt and sadness that hits my heart.

I can immediately tell that that piece of information has stirred up even more curiosity about my abrupt start to their school, my fellow classmates all the more riled up about me than before seeing as I'm even more the foreigner than they'd originally thought.

Mrs. Grant motions towards an open desk near the back, and I quickly walk up the isle towards it, eyes scanning out the windows to my right as a precaution I've drilled into my mind.

I take a seat, quickly stuffing my backpack down beside my feet as I pull out my history textbook. Flipping open my notebook, I tap the end of my eraser on the bare sheets as Mrs. Grant starts up her lecture.

I slow my breathing as my eyes repeatedly flicker around the room, pausing for only a millisecond before moving to something else; the flick of a hand, a pencil falling, notes being passed between a few students, the clock above Mrs. Grant's desk ticking away.

Okay, concentrating might be a bit harder than I'd originally thought.

~~~~
Polly's POV...

"So, Alex, our small school hasn't been too bad, right?" I tilt my head to the side, examining Alex from across our table situated in the far corner of the cafeteria Alex insisted we sit at. And I have a sneaky suspicion it has to do with the fact the exit doors are no more than ten feet to our left.

He stops with his hand still in his lunch-bag Lucy packed, a look falling over his face and disappearing before I can interpret it.

"No," he replies, sounding slightly hesitant. His steady eyes once again take in the busy cafeteria room, that's currently very loud and very smelly from the food baking at the front, taking in every small detail before they fall on the glass panel to our right that acts as a wall for the whole east side of the cafeteria, a wistful expression falling across his face.

Yeah, we'd be eating outside if not for the fact it's currently pouring down rain. I'm not a big fan of crowds either. Though, I get the feeling that, if he could, he'd go outside just to disappear even if it meant getting soaking wet.

Mack makes a noise from his spot next to Alex. "That doesn't sound too promising," he chimes in, taking a bite of his sandwich Lucy fixed up for him this morning. Alex shrugs like, "what can I say?" pulling his own sandwich from his bag.

"Well, PT is after our next class. I'm sure you'll enjoy that much better than sitting in a stuffy room with teenagers that have no regard for hygiene." Mack eats a pretzel, giving me a large smile.

I roll my eyes. "I'm assuming that included you," I state matter-of-factly, taking a bite of my own sandwich. Mack glares at me, though it doesn't seem very impressive to me.

More like a panda bear that's upset someone just took his piece of bamboo.

Alex just shrugs again, absentmindedly picking at his food as his eyes look past me and towards all the other people in the room.

That shuts both Mack and I up.

I blow a slow breath out, dipping one of my carrot sticks in my small container of peanut butter. "What is it?" Alex's gaze snaps back over to me, and he blinks. "What?"

I stare in his dark brown eyes for all the five seconds Alex allows before he looks down at the tabletop, and I move to the dark bags beneath them that signal lack of sleep despite the fact I know he's been doing nothing but hibernating all weekend, a frown across his lips and his hands now fiddling with a few bracelets on his wrists.

"What's wrong?" I repeat, trying to gauge his behavior as Mack shoots me a warning look. Alex shrugs again, glancing up at me from under his hair before focusing back down on his barely touched food.

"It's nothing," he hesitates again, something obviously bothering him as his hard shell he's had up as a shield all day cracks. "It's just. ." His voice fades, and he looks back around the crowded room. He blinks, looking almost. . . bashful.

"It's just there's a lot of people - more than I thought there would be." His eyes grow a little distant. "I'm not really used to crowds in a small space that aren't-" He abruptly cuts off, swallowing thickly as he looks away.

But I can finish that sentence.

That aren't yelling or trying to hurt him.

My heart squeezes in sympathy, and I reach across the table to squeeze Alex's hand. He looks up into my eyes, allowing a faint smile to cross his lips before he pulls his hand away.

Mack and I focus on finishing our lunches, fully aware that the time goes by faster than we would like, while Alex eats maybe a quarter of his sandwich.

It's hard to gauge whether it's his stomach problem or depression that's leaving him without an appetite. Or maybe, he's simply just not hungry? But either way, it's hard to watch without your heart breaking.

And, much too soon, the bell signaling lunch is over rings out around us.

Alex jerks like he's been shocked, back straightening. His wide eyes frantically scan the cafeteria, growing cloudy like he's reliving something. I suddenly realize he's stopped breathing, body frozen in place as both his hands grasp the tabletop in a white-knuckled grip.

Almost the same reaction he had to it earlier. And I believe we all know why it affects him. . .

Mack immediately moves to stand next to Alex, gently placing a firm hand on his left shoulder. Sitting across from him, I don't miss the way he flinches at Mack's touch or the way his hands twitch like he's restraining himself.

"Breathe, Alex," Mack tells him, keeping his voice low as not to attract attention from the crowd that's now gathering their things up. "It's okay."

Alex finally draws in a shuddering breath, and with it, his body somewhat relaxes. Mack pats his shoulder a few times, making sure Alex is indeed breathing normally before stepping away to gather up his own things.

I take a moment to marvel at this new behavior Mack has adapted since Alex came into his life. Basically, he's a faithful and protective older brother. And I can easily say it just adds to his charm.

Alex finally looks away from out beyond, not meeting our eyes as he quickly shoves his few items back into his backpack.

We all stand up, slinging our backpacks onto our shoulders. Walking together up towards the hall, I break off with them to head to my class. "Catch ya in a few," I call back to them, hitching my backpack further up on my shoulder.

~~~~~
Mack's POV. . .

Alex and I walk down the hall towards the locker room, our class immediately after lunch having just finished no more than a minute ago. And coach Harrison will not be happy if we waste even a second when we could be happily working our butts off.

Ugh.

I glance over at Alex, who's walking to my left, nearly brushing shoulders with me he's walking so close.

I'm honestly not sure if he's going to make it the last two hours. Every time I look at him he looks more worn out, more mentally exhausted. Being surrounded constantly all day seems to be taking a toll on him, keeping him on edge so he's basically to the point that every small sound, or slight scuff, sends him on high alert.

I frown as I suddenly notice the slight sheen of sweat on his forehead, skin paler than it was earlier, flush.

He looks like he's going to be sick.

"Alex," I start cautiously. "are you feeling alright?"

He glances over at me with heavy, guarded eyes, jaw noticeably tightening. "I'm fine," he mutters just loud enough for me to hear, immediately looking around him like he's afraid someone else may have heard him.

I know paranoia is a part of PTSD, but seeing him display it so obviously and so frequently still bothers me a little.

Knowing firsthand he won't admit to feeling bad, I leave it be.

We slow as we come up to the entrance of the boy's locker room, and an odd feeling of trepidation overcomes me for a split second before I can shake it off.

Eh.

Walking through the v-shaped hallway that leads into the locker room, it opens up into a large-ish room lined with blue lockers and benches. I lead Alex over to the far corner, where my locker is located, carefully avoiding the half-naked guys' joking around with their friends.

I stop in front of my locker, gently reaching over to knock against the empty one to my right. "This one can be yours, Alex." I smile over at him, pulling open my door. Alex steps around me so he has the locker and the cement wall to his back, barely sparing me a glance as he scans the surrounding.

Quickly changing into a short-sleeved shirt and running shorts, I throw my clothes in my locker before closing it and turning towards Alex. Only to see he's yet to change.

He's staring down at the floor, hands awkwardly down by his sides as he holds his backpack with his right hand, clearly uncomfortable.

I glance around the locker room that has about fifteen other boys scattered around, putting two and two together.

Yep.

"You can quickly change after everyone clears out," I tell him, turning back to face him. "I'll stand guard outside and wait for you."

Alex gives me a grateful hint of a smile, instantly looking relieved. That is until an obnoxiously loud voice cuts through the buzz of chatter surrounding the room.

"Mack-a-doo!"

I grimace as Alex stiffens in front of me, his eyes coming up to land on something, or rather someone, behind me.

Great.

Hiding my grimace with a forced smile, I slowly turn around. Chase Magnus stands a few feet in front of me, arms folded over his thick chest as he stares hard at me, a cocky smile plastered on his face. Two of his lackey's stand on either side of him, looking just as smug.

Yup, you guessed it. After Noah, the original bully of River High, moved away over the summer, Chase and his gang took it upon themselves to fill in Noah's boots.

Because we so needed that.

"Chase," I greet, trying to keep him distracted. "How's it hanging?" I reach up, rubbing the back of my neck.

Chase shrugs, like he's not really interested in my question. "Great. Real great," he says, then his eyes zone in on Alex behind me.

I feel my chest squeeze.

"Me and my buddies here," he motions to Conner and Rob, "couldn't help but notice your new friend there." He jerks his chin towards Alex, smiling ever so slightly. I shift my feet. "Um, yeah. This is Alex. Alex this is Chase, Conner, and Rob." I introduce, mentally crossing my fingers that this might pacify Chase.

"I hear you're a British chap?" Chase tilts his head to the side like he's genuinely curious. Alex, for his part, remains silent and still besides the slight nod of his head I see from the corner of my eye.

There's suddenly a commotion as boys begin to flood out of the locker room, most of them oblivious towards us.

Chase smiles once more, the action looking more like he just ate something unpleasant, giving Alex one more once over before gesturing for his lackeys to move.

"We'll be seeing ya," he calls back to us, the mocking tone in his voice only solidifying his challenge.

Crap. This is the fair and Noah all over again.

Once they disappear, I slowly turn back to face Alex, who's staring off towards where Chase and his crew disappeared out the door, a blank expression on his face.

"Sorry, I should've warned you about him earlier," I apologize. "Chase took up where Noah left off."

He shrugs, looking down to unzip his backpack. "It's fine."

Leaving him to change in the now empty locker room, I lean up against the wall next to the door, patiently waiting. Less than a minute later, Alex walks out, a navy blue hoodie and a pair of black sweats replacing his jeans, t-shirt, and windbreaker.

Leading him towards the doors that lead out to the outside track, that coach Harrison already judged to be dry enough even though it was raining no more than two hours ago, finding all the boys gathered around the man himself.

Another door to our right opens and an imposing woman sporting a baseball cap and a whistle around her neck stomps out with a herd of, about fourteen, girls behind her. They walk over to join the boys, and I spot Polly amongst the crowd.

Both of the coaches commence with each other, probably deciding what form of torture they want to use today.

Alex and I stop by the back of the ring around the coaches, earning us a wave from Polly when she finally spots us.

Coach Harrison and coach Melloni finish their debate, yelling out for everyone to take two laps for warm-up. As the crowd disperses and Melloni takes off chasing some skinny kid and yelling, I walk Alex up to Coach Harrison.

His tough face softens into a smile as his eyes land on me, and he leans back, placing his hands on his hips.

"Mack, what can I do for you?"

I smile, motioning over to Alex, who's standing next to me. "I'd like to introduce you to Alex. Alex, this is Coach Harrison, our PE teacher and soccer coach."

His smile widens as he sticks his hand out to Alex. "Alex, nice of you to join us."

"Sir," Alex nods politely, accepting the handshake before quickly returning his hand back down to his side.

Coach Harrison looks him up and down. "You ain't a soccer player by any chance, are ya?"

Alex takes a moment to answer, his eyes taking a quick survey of the surroundings. "I was back. . . home." His jaw clamps shut at the last word, eyes growing dark as he looks down at the ground.

"Oh, and where was that? If you don't mind sharing of course," he holds his hands up in defense, looking genuinely curious.

Alex shoots me a look like, 'you knew this would happen', focusing back on Harrison.

"London, Sir."

He raises an eyebrow up at Alex's answer, letting a low whistle out. "That's quite a ways of there, son." A twinkle shines in his eyes. "You wouldn't by any chance be interested in joining our soccer team, aye? We're short a few people."

Alex grinds his jaw, preparing to answer.

Only I beat him to it.

"He'd love to."

Alex immediately snaps his gaze over to me, glaring. I ignore him, continuing to smile at Harrison. And if he notices Alex's glare, he doesn't show it.

"Great! Practice starts on Wednesday right after school."

Yeah, Alex might kill me later.

*Time Skip*

"Hey, I hope you're not too mad at me for practically volunteering you for soccer. . ." I trail off, risking a look back at Alex, who stands behind me with a wall of lockers behind him, an opening to his right that leads to the other side of the locker wall.

He looks up from the ground, studying me a moment before opening his mouth. "I was at first," he looks back out over the locker room that's beginning to thin out as people head to their last class of the day. "But not anymore." He smiles faintly, causing a large grin to grow on my face.

I turn back to my locker, throwing my shirt in. My eyes automatically glance to the left, at the small mirror I have hanging on the corner of the door. The air leaves my lungs as I spot Chase abruptly come around the corner at Alex's back, an evil glint in his eye as he reaches forward towards Alex.

Before I can even muster a word up out of my mouth, Chase grabs Alex around his middle like he's giving him a big bear hug, only this one isn't one of good tidings.

Chase is known for sneaking up behind people and engulfing his victim up in a bone-crushing embrace that lifts them off their feet, which is easy to do when you're 200 pounds of pure muscle, and squeezing them until they beg to be released.

It's weird, and frankly, unorthodoxy, but he craves for attention. And this just happens to be how he gets it. . . Or at least one of his ways.

Only, before either Chase nor I can blink, Alex reacts with lightening fast reflexes, shoving his left elbow back into Chase's stomach. Chase reacts by all his air exploding out his lungs, eyes bulging out of their sockets.

Alex then, not wasting a second, reaches back, grabbing Chase's right arm with both his hands and pulls him forward with so much strength Chase flips over Alex's back, landing with a smack onto his back in front of Alex and Me.

I stare down in astonishment, having turned during some point of the fight, if you can call it a fight, vaguely recalling when I was practically ninja flipped a few months ago.

Chase lays on the floor, gasping for breath as he grimaces through misty eyes, watching Alex in disbelief.

Alex, in turn, stares down at Chase with bewilderment, eyes wide like he can't believe he just did that. "S-Sorry. . ." He takes a step back, then another until his back hits the locker wall.

Chase swings his head to his right, landing on the last two kids in the room besides us, his lackeys. Embarrassment floods his face, and he struggles to quickly rise to his feet.

"You'll regret that," he spits, reeling on Alex. He points a finger at him. "No one, and I mean, No. One. Makes a fool out of me." He clinches his jaw, glancing over at his group.

"I'm going to make your life here a living hell!" He seethes, sending Alex one more death glare before his head snaps over to me. I almost flinch at the livid expression splattered across his red face, needing to remind myself not to step back.

"And you!" He shouts. "You and your British twit better watch each other's backs from now on!"

And with one more look, he marches down the row of lockers and disappears through the doorway with his lackeys on his heels.

The room gets so quiet I can imagine crickets chirping.

Alex slowly slides down to the floor, all his exhaustion suddenly seeming to all become too much for him to stand. He pulls his knees up to his chest, hands up at his head as he tugs on his hair in some agitated tick. His eyes stare at the floor beyond his knees, vacant.

I step forward. "Alex-"

He flinches like I've physically slapped him, face filling with panic.

"I'm-I'm s-sorry," he pushes himself further back against the lockers, completely avoiding eye contact. "I didn't-I didn't m-mean to." His voice turns frantic, and his body tenses like he's expecting a blow.

I lock my jaw in anger, mentally cursing all the people that had a hand in reducing Alex to this.

Ben deserved something worse then death.

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A/N

Yay! Another update relatively close to when I last updated! :-) And a long one for my lovely readers. 💝

Alright, I need 29 VOTES before my next update!! So bring on the ⭐️⭐️⭐️!!

Leave a comment and tell me what you're thinking! Feedback is always appreciated! What's up with this Chase guy? Do you think attending school is too much too soon for Alex? What's running through your mind as you're reading this?

Teaser: Another dreaded therapy session for Alex.

Maggy