***special thanks to Filthy_Undead_Maggot for helping me with this chapter.
**any grammar errors please let me know and I'll fix them tomorrow.

The next day both Molly and Dani wore their matching footy pjs to school. Everyone gave them funny looks but they didn't care, all they cared about was getting through an entire day of testing.

"Ugh I am so not ready for this stupid chem final!" Dani groaned then slammed her locker shut. Her brow furrowed as she stared down at the pile of books that sat at her feet.

"I've got it." Molly bent down quickly and shoved all the books into Dani's backpack then slung it over her shoulder.

"You don't have to keep-"

Molly held up her hand to silence the brunette, "You got shot, I become the pack mule." She smiled and linked her free arm through Dani's. "You should really be trying to milk this out for as long as you can."

"Not likely." Dani shook her head. "I don't like all this special treatment that everyone's giving me, they act like kids don't walk through these halls in even worse condition than me."

Sadly Molly knew exactly what Dani was talking about. A lot of kids in their school were involved with the local gangs and they would show up to school sometimes bleeding from a stab wound cause they got jumped on the way. That had to be the only thing she hated about the school, and town. Nobody cares about you unless you're considered beautiful or famous. Or even if you're a war veteran they still don't care. It's pathetic honestly; practically makes Molly want to vomit from how bad it sickens her.

*snap...snap*

"Hello, earth to Molly?"

"Oh sorry, I just got lost in my own mind."

"You're telling me, I had to keep you from knocking over the sign language teacher."

"Oh my god." She let her head drop into her hands to keep people from seeing the bright shade of red her face was now turning.

A loud squeal escaped from Dani when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist, followed by a deep voice saying, "You called for me?"

"For gods sake George! Don't do that!" Molly scolded her brother, George just laughed.

"You okay babe?" He asked Dani. She nodded slowly, her hand pressed to her chest.

"For real though, don't scare me like that!" She turned around in his arms to smack him upside his head.

"So abusive..." He let his words trail off as he walked her backwards until her back was pressed up against the lockers. "..I like that." He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers for a quick kiss then moved to her neck.

Dani rolled her eyes and pushed his face away from her, "Now is not a good time to be horny."

He pulled away from her, a frown settled on to his face, Dani laughed and pointed at something that was behind him. Soon the distinct sound of Principle Brown's voice was calling George's name.

"Mr. Ragan when was the last time that you had your eyes checked?" Principle Brown reached out and grabbed a fistful of Georges hoodie and pulled him back off of Dani.

"Uhm probably when I was in middle school sir."

Principle Brown nodded once, "And was your vision 20-20?"

"Yes sir."

"So then you are fully aware that this is a school and not your pig stye of a room yes?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. And keep your filthy hands off this young lady and get to class. One more failed report and you will not be graduating Mr. Ragan." With that said Principle Brown turned and walked back towards his office.

"Way to go dip shit." Molly grumbled and pushed Dani towards her class. She loved her brother but he could be a complete imbecile at times. "Okay, I won't be able to take you to third period so Jorel will be the one to walk with you."

Dani sighed and took her bag from Molly, "Got it, not the hot headed Irish woman but the tatted Italian."

"You're even more special than George."

"But you love me so it doesn't really matter."

"Go to class." Molly shook her head in exasperation then left for her own class.

-----------------------------------

"Hey Dani," Jorel leaned across the aisle and passed her a new notebook. "How ya feeling?"

"Okay I guess." She shrugged and took the notebook from him. "What about you and Vanessa?"

"We're good, I'm actually going to meet her parents tomorrow."

"You look nervous." She stated and pulled her sweater off.

He scoffed, "I'm more than nervous, I'm freaking the fuck out!"

"Try and calm down okay? If you want to make a good impression just be on your best behavior."

Jorel nodded, "Should I bring anything?"

"Not your board. Just bring a bouquet of flowers for her and her mom, but make sure that they're different."

"Got it. Thanks."

"You'll do fine Jay." She patted him on the back quickly.

"Want me to get you the notes that you missed?" He asked pulling out his first semester notebook. She waved him off. "Alright then."

-------------------------------

By the time that the second warning bell had rung everyone had taken their seats, all that was missing was the their teacher. The room had fallen silent, a couple kids would try and sneak glances at Dani, but she caught them each time. "Ugh, fantastic." She groaned and buried her head in her sweater.

"Well you don't look so good."

"I don't feel good either." She mumbled before picking her head up. "Stephanie!" She shot up from her desk to give the younger girl a hug. "What're you doing here?"

"Relax, I just transferred schools so I could keep a better eye on my idiot cousin."

"Oh okay." Dani's face fell slightly. Part of her had been hoping that Stephanie had transferred so that they could hang out more, but of course with everything that had happened she understood why she would come here for her cousin.

Stephanie gave a light laugh as she took a seat next to Dani, "Oh don't be so down on yourself, I also wanted to see you and everyone else." 

"Aw, I'm so flattered." She pretended to wipe away a tear and fan her face. Stephanie shoved her shoulder playfully.

"Drama queen." She muttered.

"Only for you." Dani gave her a wink before turning to listen to their teacher, Miss Evans. Dani had never really been too fond of her, but she did respect her mainly because she was the only teacher who had been able to improve Dani's test scores last year.

"Ah I see that our head cheerleader has finally made a full recovery," Miss Evans announced loudly. "Hopefully now you've learned your lesson."

A few students turned to see how Dani would react while the others gave a chorus of "Ohhh." She glanced over to Stephanie, and she too didn't look too happy with their teachers greeting. Before Dani could stop her, Stephanie shot up out of her desk and slammed her textbook on the ground.

"Is there a problem Miss Erlichman?"

"Yeah actually there is, what exactly do you mean by lesson?"

"Steph just let it go." Dani whispered to her, but Stephanie just waved her off.

"Well Miss Erlichman, being as you are new to the school I will explain. Miss Rose's boyfriend is someone I would like to call a lowlife wannabe gang member, along with the rest of his 'friends'." Her eyes flicked to Jorel quickly then back to Stephanie.

Now Dani was pissed off. She glared up at Miss Evans while she just smiled back at both girls with a smug smile spread across her face. 

"Come with me, both of you." Jorel said quietly and ushered both girls out of the classroom.

"She has no right to say that about George!" Dani's brow furrowed and a look of disgust settled into her face.

"Or just in general!" Stephanie added on. "Jorel how are you not pissed off right now?"

He sighed and motioned for them to follow him out to the small courtyard. They all took a seat under one of the trees. "Me and the guys have grown up listening to that shit from every teacher we've ever had. Kind of used to it by now."

"You guys shouldn't be used to that though, it's not right nor is it fair."

"You're right Dani, it's not fair." He paused and waved his arms around at the building. "But if you think about, we all made it to the end of our senior year. That's gotta mean something right?"

Dani stayed silent as she had thought about this. She had never thought about it like that before. "All those insults pushed you guys to become something greater didn't it?"

Jorel nodded his head, "Basically. Not a lot of kids make it through school anymore, most of em drop out or end up in jail. Teachers here give up on us, but you know who are the ones that I feel like make it?"

"Who?" Dani and Stephanie asked in unison.

"The kids with a dream." He said simply. Stephanie arched a brow at him. He chuckled softly. "Think about it, no one gives a fuck about a kid from the streets who dreams of one day making a name for himself. We get pushed away and told that we can't do what we dream about so often that all the negativity becomes like fuel for us to keep trying to prove everyone wrong. Honestly I think that  it's the kids who are always praised for their talents that feel the most pressure and end up losing. They have too much pressure to be perfect, but us? We don't have that pressure to fit in the mold of perfection. We have all the room we want and need to shape ourselves into our own mold perfection."

"Damn, I never thought of it that way before, you're right about all of that."

"Thanks Steph, I've had a lot of time to think about that." He smiled softly at her, "You okay Dani?"

She shook her head to try and mentally clear her mind. Too many things seemed to be clouding her head and causing her to space out more often. Was she okay? Relax, you just need to breathe. "Yeah I'm good Jay. You know you have a really good way with words."

"He's like a poet almost." Vanessa called from the doorway. All three of them turned to see the blonde smiling back at them, neither of them had known that she had been listening to their conversation.

"How long were you standing there V?" Jorel asked hesitantly. It always embarrassed him whenever Vanessa would listen to him get into deep conversations.

"Long enough to hear how brilliant you are." She smiled and sat down in his lap. "Seriously Jay you could write poetry or even songs if you wanted to." He turned his face away from the girls. "Aw he's embarrassed now."

"Shut up." He mumbled from behind Vanessa's purple hoodie.

She giggled and picked up his hand in hers, her nails traced a few of his tattoos and watch. When she glanced at the time she jumped up from Jorel's lap. "I almost forgot why I came looking for you guys!" She exclaimed and pulled Dani to her feet. "You guys wanna catch an early lunch with Katrina and the rest of the guys?"

"Yeah I could go for some food." Dani held her hand out to Stephanie and pulled her up. "What about you?"

"Uh well my lunch isn't until after sixth period."

"Oh who cares, come on and have some fun." Vanessa looped her arm through Stephanie and Dani's. "What's a little rule breaking gonna do? Kill ya?"

"True... Ah what the hell. I don't give a shit!"

"That's the spirit Steph!"

-----------------------------

"Meatball subs or Tac-"

Behind her Jordon made an obnoxious gaging sound. Dani rolled her eyes and grabbed the taco just to irritate him some more.

"You are not human if you actually eat that thing."

"Dude you love tacos, why are you being so annoying about this?"

He scoffed and pulled out a greasy takeout bag from his backpack. Dani's nose scrunched up at the sight. "I love Del Taco, not this mystery meant bull shit."

"You are so fucking irritating."

"Love you too."

"Whatever." She reached into her coat pocket and paid for her lunch. Jordon followed behind her to their usual lunch spot over at the courtyard by the gym.

"You know you walk to fast." He complained as he tried to catch up to her.

"Well you bitch and whine too much, and maybe if you participated in gym you wouldn't be out of breath."

"I-I'm not out of...breath."

"Sure you aren't." She laughed and pushed the door open with her back and held it open until Jordon walked through.

When they reached the spot where everyone else was at Matt quickly pulled Jordon off to the side. Dani frowned but waved it off and continued to sit down with the rest of the girls. "What's up with Matty?" She asked no one in particular. None of them girls answered her or looked at her, this raised some questions in Dani's mind. "Okay, what the hell is going on? Why aren't any of you answering me?"

Katrina sighed and slid Dani her phone, on the screen it read: 'George got a call from an unknown # saying that if he didn't want you to get hurt even more then him and the guys would leave. Idk where they went tho. Jorel got the same message but for Vanessa.'

"Where's George now?" She asked quietly. All of the girls said that they didn't know.

"We'll be right back, just stay here!" Matt called to the girls as him and Jordon ran for the door.

"Unbelievable!" Harper cried out. "He promised me that we could talk during lunch."

"Somethings not right." Dani said, mostly to herself.

"Ya think?! Fucking Matt just left me here when he said-"

"No. Not that. The guys, somethings going on."

Stephanie leaned across the table and rested her hand on top of Dani's, "Whatever you're thinking just let it go. They'll be okay."

She wanted so bad to listen to Stephanie but something just kept nagging at her and telling her that she had to find George or else something bad would happen. She glanced around at the girls who sat around her, they all looked back at her, with the exception of Harper.

"DANI! VANESSA!!"

They all turned around to see Theresa running across the courtyard to them; She looked worried. Dani and Vanessa got up from the table to meet the short brunette.

"What's wrong Reese?"

"It's Daniel, h-he's gone!" She sobbed into her hands.

"Wait what do you mean he's gone? I just saw him last period." Vanessa wrapped her arms around the smaller female.

"He got a message from George and said that he had to leave, then he kissed me and said that he'll always lo-love me."

"I have to find them." Dani said then took off for the doors. Behind her she heard Stephanie telling for her to slow down. When she reached the doors she waited for Steph to catch up, "I'm going to find him and you can't stop me Steph."

"But you can't just leave, do you even know where to start looking?! And besides do even remember the last time you went looking for him? Or do I have to shoot you  in your shoulder again so you remember?" She cocked her hip to the side and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not letting you leave Dani."

"You don't understand Stephanie I can't just sit back while he's out there doing lord knows what and-"

"Possibly end up dead." Stephanie finished softly. She sighed heavily and rubbed her temples. "I get it, you love him and would do anything for him."

"Yes! Exactly!"

Stephanie pondered the possible outcomes and figured that she really wouldn't be able to stop Dani from leaving being as she was much smaller and not strong as Dani. "Alright," she threw her hands up in the air, "fine. But I'm going with you."

"Perfectly fine by me." Dani smiled and pulled the door open. "Now let's go. I've got an idea of where they could've gone."

"Where?"

"Crenshaw Boulevard."