Anagnorisis (noun)

- the point in a play, novel, etc., in which a principal character recognizes or discovers another character's true identity or the true nature of their own circumstances.

~*~



The practice was unmerciful and I couldn't contain my giggling when Jeremy tumbled over his own feet and barrelled into Simon. He was so used to being benched that it seemed like he forgot how to play soccer. 


It was the fourth practice of this week and the closer it got to the Martelle game, the more brutal practice became. It was the end of the school day but I stuck around to watch the boys. The cheer squad went home because we'd already mastered our routines.


"If Jeremy falls one more time, he's going to get a concussion," Tammy giggled, lounged on the bleachers alongside me. She was the only other cheer member with me, wanting to watch practice as well.


There were random students dispersed around, some waiting for clubs to start and others just hanging out, enjoying the sun. I was elated to admit that the cliques were still fraternising, which meant that Mattia hadn't come out with any of his claims yet. I scowled at the thought of Mattia, and you know what they said - speak of the devil and he shall appear. 


"You little bitch!" Mattia roared as he suddenly blocked my view from the practice. Jillian followed closely behind, looking apologetic. She must've let it slip that she was meeting with me later. And Mattia didn't look too happy about it. "Did you really think you could trick Jill into believing you? You and your friends are all the same," he spat. "Manipulative."


"What is wrong with you?!" I practically fumed, thin fingers wrapped tightly around my backpack as if I was envisioning choking Mattia. "You speak as if all of us aren't humans." 


I was hoping that someone from the soccer team would intervene but we were too far from them. And Caleb wouldn't just call off practice. I had to wait until they were finished so that meant I had to calm down this situation.


"Apparently you aren't!" Mattia seethed, teeth grinding in absolute rage. "You all think you're higher than everyone else as if we're supposed to worship you. You popular kids think you're the shit."


"Mattia, please stop," Jillian infringed softly, looking unsure about what her friend was talking about.


"No! It's time she understood that she's nothing but a bully," Mattia said in a deadly tone. Oh, here we go, finally. "You put everyone else down so that you could use them to climb up the social ladder," he boiled, pointing an accusing finger at me. "Jill was bullied because of you and that skank Maya."


The pure hatred in his voice when he uttered Maya's name astounded me. Coffee would've been excellent right about now. At least it would've had me prepared for Mattia's tantrum. 


I visibly shuddered as students began paying attention to what was happening. They tried being subtle but it was considerably apparent they were gawking. I could feel my heart hammering vigorously against my ribcage. "You have no idea what you're talking about."


Jillian turned to glare at her friend. "I told you that I'd handle this privately, Mattia. There was no need for you to get involved-"


"I am involved –"


"No you're not, asshole," Tammy cut Mattia off, eyes flaming with fury. "This is between Jillian and Charlie. It all started with them. You had no role in this so stop trying to make yourself a fucking main character."


Mattia scoffed. "Really? Who was the one Jill turned to when her supposed friends abandoned her? Me. She turned to me."


"Look, I-" I took in a deep breath to restrain myself. "Mattia, I know for a fact that I didn't do anything to you. As far as I'm concerned, you're of no relevance to me. And I'm sorry for Bella pissing on your shoes. But as Tammy said - this is between me and Jillian."


"No it's not!" he snapped at me, snubbing the exasperated look on my face. "This involves me too. If it wasn't for me, Jill would've never found out about the rumours you were spreading about her."


I gasped. "What the hell are you talking about?" Jillian looked genuinely hurt and I discerned that she bought what he was saying. She had to believe him because he'd been preaching it for the last four years. "Jillian? What is he talking about?"


Tammy growled. "You're like a little girl, Mattia. Why are you butting into other people's business?"


"Back off, Tammy," Mattia snapped before shifting back to me. "Don't act so clueless. We all know how you and Maya used to gossip about Jill when she wasn't around. I always knew Maya was weird, the way she stared at the other girls. She might as well just have written lesbian on her forehead."


Growling, I stepped closer. "You homophobic piece of trash!" Tammy lurched for him but I yanked her back, both of us glowering at him as Jillian looked uncomfortable with the entire situation. Some students prompted Tammy to tackle Mattia and the latter snarled at them.


"Protective of your girlfriend, aren't you?" he probed with a raucous smirk, looking as if he was putting on a performance for the attentive students. He relished in their attention. "We all know that Finn is just a mask. You're gay. Gay for Maya the whore."


"What does this have to do with Jillian?!" Tammy interposed, marking the astounded look on my face as people began to murmur about Liam and me. My hand instinctively went to the necklace I wore and I clutched it tightly. 


Mattia simmered, the vein in his forehead looking like it was about to pop. "Everything! It has everything to do with Jillian!" He bellowed, pointing to the girl in question who looked like she wanted the ground to consume her. 


Her being bullied was a traumatic experience and Mattia was making it worse by bringing it up in front of so many people. At that moment, Jillian looked exactly like the frightened fourteen-year-old she was four years ago. 


"You better shut your mouth, Mattia," I declared in a firm tone, leaving no room for reasoning. I was terrified that Jillian would have a panic attack. She needed to get out of here. "You've got your moment in the spotlight. Congrats, you're the main character now."


"No. You don't get to walk away so easily," he resumed and I pouted, eyes drifting to a shaking Jillian. The more students that came closer, the glossier her eyes became. "I made sure that no one ever spoke about Jill again," he said this in a fond tone, making it clear that this was all about Jillian. "But it's time that people saw the real you, Charlie James."


I rolled my eyes. "I see the real me every morning when I admire my good looks in my floor-length mirror." Tipping my head, I motioned for Jillian and Tammy to follow me. "Let's go."


I needed to speak to Jillian without Mattia around. She was clearly conflicted and I'd bet my ass that he fed her lies. It was time that we finally worked through our misunderstanding. The crowd parted for me. Tammy marched away first and I knew that she was going to get someone to deal with Mattia.


"You were jealous that Jill and Maya spent so much time together!"


Halting, I pinched my eyes shut as the crowd began to mumble. I turned around, making sure to convey my confusion. "Excuse me?" Jillian didn't move from Mattia's side and I apprehended that I needed to let this play out. She needed to see that Mattia was serving her words out of his ass. 


"Yeah, that's right," Mattia told the crowd, chortling to himself. "Little Charlie had a crush on Maya. She was jealous because Maya preferred Jill over her," with each word that tumbled from his mouth, I became more and more astonished. "So she made up a rumour that Jillian was the gay one. And Maya just went along with it."


At his words, Jillian let a few tears escape but she swiftly rubbed it away and I felt frustrated. Because she was truly hurting. She'd truly gone through this. And all this time I presumed she just walked away from us. But it was all just a tremendous misunderstanding.


I wasn't going to argue that Maya and Jillian were best friends but I was never jealous and definitely not in a romantic sense. I was fourteen years old. The only thing I was worried about was having a good time in high school. Maya and I were both hurt when Jillian stopped hanging out with us and so was the rest of our friends.


I'd never heard this rumour about Jillian being gay, either. Mattia must've done a good job to ensure that no one ever spoke about it. And it must've been tough to be bullied for a rumour that you're gay at fourteen years old. Maya and I were in eleventh grade and old enough to handle backlash for those two weeks that we dated. Jillian was fourteen when the rumour about her started. That must've been tough.


Crossing my arms, I made sure I was staring at Jillian when I stated, "that's a load of bullshit if I've ever heard any. I never started any rumour about Jillian. I didn't even know it existed."

Jillian's behaviour the past few years made sense, how she was always calling me a hypocrite because I called her a bully when in reality - she believed me to be a bully herself.


"Liar," Mattia chuckled. "But I'm thankful actually. Maya was starting to corrupt Jill with her ways. No matter how many times I told her, she wouldn't listen. You wouldn't listen, Jill," he said as he faced the trembling girl. "But then Charlie helped show you that both of them were bad influences. You're doing great without them. There's no reason to get rid of the clique rule. You know that we're doing okay separated. You know that."


"It was you," I whispered, eyes wide as everything hit me full force. It was obvious in the way that he was speaking, how he was convincing Jillian to think what he wanted her to think. "You created the fucking clique rule."


Mattia snorted. "I gave her an idea but Jill was the one who came up with the whole thing all on her own. Right, Jill?"


"No," I shook my head. "That's what you wanted her to think. You knew that she'd only take ownership of an idea if it felt like it was her own. It was the only way that Principal Rooney would accept it - because it was her niece's idea. But it wasn't. This was all for you, Mattia."


Jillian cleared her throat, wild eyes glimpsing around at the staring students before settling on Mattia. "What is she talking about?"


"You wanted there to be an actual rule because it was the only way you could keep Jillian away from Maya," I proclaimed and his eyes flickered for a second. I held back a smile, gotcha. "No matter how much you pleaded, Jill wouldn't leave her friends. Even when you started a rumour about Maya and me being together, Jillian supported us, didn't she?"


"You were my friends," she supplied in a small voice and I frowned. "Of course I supported you."


Taking a step forward, I spat at him. "That's when you created the rumour about Jillian being gay and pretended that Maya and I came up with it. You made Jillian feel like we didn't care about her. You made her feel like Maya, her best friend, didn't care about her. The only way you'd succeed with the divide was if Jillian wanted the divide herself," I scoffed. "And you succeeded, didn't you?"


He laughed incredulously, scorning the wounded look Jillian flung him. She was finally seeing him for what he truly was. "And why exactly would I do that?"

Memories of Mattia hovering around Jillian all the time entered my mind, his weird hatred for Maya - a girl who never even looked at him twice.

"Because you like her," I smiled as his grin plummeted and the encompassing students whispered again. "You were jealous because you thought Jill liked Maya. But what you didn't realise was that they were just friends."

Outside of school, Jillian didn't get out much. When I ran into her at the grocery store it was the first time in a while. I noticed that the way she dressed and carried herself was different compared to who she was at school. But I'd come to realise that it wasn't the school that was the reason behind it - it was Mattia.

With all of the lies that he fed her, it wasn't surprising that she acted a certain way around him. It was as if he had her on a leash. Her hatred for us grew stronger with each lie that he told her.

There was a reason Jillian didn't listen to him when he initially tried to separate her from us, because she was our friend. When that didn't work, he turned to lies. It was the same with a frog. If you put it in boiling water it would jump out immediately. But, if you put it in cold water and slowly heated it up - it would stay and boil to death.


Jillian moved away from him and his eyes swelled, starting to beckon her back but she didn't listen. Her eyes were wide but I needed to get her away from the crowd. If she was going to talk to him or wanted answers, it needed to be done in private. Tammy arrived again, still on her own. She escorted Jillian over to me and told Mattia. "You're insane."


"Shut up, slut," he hissed and Tammy lunged for him but both Jillian and I held her back.


"Tammy!" My voice was loud and sounded absolutely terrified. I was so scared that Tammy was going to get in trouble, she didn't need that. What was happening here was between me, Mattia and Jillian. "You better leave Tammy out of this, Mattia. Haven't you hurt her enough?"


He barked at me. "What are you gonna do, James? Huh? Start a rumour? Do some cartwheels around me, is that it?"


"Get your head out of your ass, Mattia," Tammy hissed. "You have no idea what you're getting at. Charlie will have you on your bony ass in a second." Some students watching laughed and Mattia bristled in humiliation. 


Mattia took an intimidating step towards me, looking as if he was about to jostle me and one of my brothers noticed, faltering as his grip loosened slightly on his sports bag. He was slowly making his way over. It seemed like soccer practice was over. 


Mattia reached forward and shoved Tammy back by the shoulders. When I went to intervene, I felt a stinging sensation in my right cheek as he struck me. I blundered into Tammy. My brother gnarled.


His sports bag sank to the ground with a thud and the surrounding people marked as his face stiffened and his fists clenched. In 0.1 seconds, Christian surged at an unsuspecting Mattia, propelling him into the bleachers and then onto the ground. Before Mattia could even react, Christian was on him, landing a bone-shattering punch on his jaw. 


"You hit girls now, huh?" Christian grunted as he clutched Mattia's shirt.


"Get off!" Mattia keened, his usually gelled hair becoming messy. "Get the fuck off of me!"


Christian snarled and landed another strike to his jaw. "You're a little bitch." He held Mattia's arms down with one hand before grasping his throat with the other. "You like to mess with girls, don't you. Think you're so strong. Well, come on. I'd like to see you take me on right now."


"Fuck," I muttered to myself. Placing a hand on Jillian's shoulder, I whispered, "Christian's not going to back down." 


She shook her head furiously, shaking as she took in the scene of my probably red cheek. "Charlie. I'm so sorry. He-"


I pulled her into an embrace and held her tight as I watched her eyes begin to water, threatening to release tears. "It's okay. Don't worry. It's not your fault." She was as much of a victim as I was. Mattia manipulated her. He used her vulnerable state to get what he wanted.


"Chris, stop!" A deep voice thundered and we turned to see Caleb making his way over and grimacing at the sight of his brother hitting Mattia. "Christian!" He didn't pay him any attention and proceeded to asphyxiate Mattia. "As your captain, I'm telling you to stop!"


Caleb understood that Christian wouldn't get into a fight for no reason but he also didn't want his brother getting in trouble and suspended from the Martelle game. Christian pushed up and stared at the bruise on Mattia's face. "If you ever touch my sister or any girl again - I'm going to make you regret it."


"Shit," Caleb swore looking to where the rest of the soccer team was heading over. They all saw their captain yelling and wanted to know what was going on, the fact that there was a crowd definitely didn't facilitate their curiosity. 


Liam took in the sight of what was most plausibly swelling on the side of my face. Nonchalantly, he turned to face Christian, watching as my brother pulled Mattia to his feet before elbowing him to the front whilst keeping his arms behind his back. Christian nodded at Liam.


"Oh no," Jillian grumbled, no doubt seeing the murderous expression etched onto Liam's features. I couldn't even find it in me to panic when I heard a student whisper about needing to go and get Vice-Principal Samuels - I was too busy panicking about what Liam would do.


Liam walked forward, a deadly look in his eyes. He stopped in front of Mattia, taking in the wound on his face. Liam tilted closer until he could stare him in the eyes. His voice was dark and sounded dangerous. 


"I don't want to assume things," Liam seethed before scowling. "But I'm guessing that you laid your filthy hands on my girlfriend. And that doesn't sit well with me."


As if choreographed, Christian freed Mattia and leapt to the side just as Liam tilted back and delivered a revolting punch to Mattia's nose. He fell to the ground limply. Yet, Liam wasn't done with him yet. He bent down and threw another three punches on his face. 


I removed myself from Jillian's hold and stepped towards Caleb on precarious legs. Tammy followed closely behind me, scowling at the students who urged the fight.


Caleb had to physically hold Jeremy back as the latter wanted to join the fight. "Jeremy, no!" He bellowed, Luke and Ethan, helping him restain Jeremy yet he still went ballistic.


"He fucking touched them!" Jeremy screeched, almost succeeding to break free but then Donnie and Gabe joined the hold too, managing to take him to the ground. "I'm going to break every bone in his body!" He roared out, even though he was being held to the ground.


"I'm not sure there's going to be bones left to break," Simon grumbled, eyeing Liam in respect. 


I watched as Liam delivered blow after blow to Mattia all whilst Caleb tried to intervene but Christian kept him back, wanting to see Mattia suffer. It was nauseating to watch the cuts split open and the bruises develop. The rest of the students were no longer cheering, instead, they were terrified of the scene before them. Liam looked like a mad man.


"He's letting his anger take control," I whispered, terrified. And it didn't look like he was going to try and calm himself down like he usually did. He might've been feeling angry at that moment but I knew for a fact that he was going to be ashamed of himself for losing control.


Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.


"I know," Nolan responded as he stopped beside me, sharing a look with Caleb over my head. 


"What is going on here?!" Thundered the voice of Vice-Principal Samuels as he took in the spectacle before him. That student must've snitched. He glared at Christian, Liam and then at Mattia, "You three. In my office. Now!" He looked to me and raised his eyebrows in shock, staring at the bruise. "Miss James, come with me. You too, Miss Rooney." 


Without another word, Liam let go of Mattia and the latter struggled to push to a standing position, his face bloody and bruised. Caleb swore as I made to follow Vice-Principal Samuels. I sent him a diminutive smile. 


Liam marched until he walked next to me and enveloped my hand in his bloodied one. Mattia stumbled as he walked and I smiled in satisfaction. There was a cut on Liam's lip where Mattia managed to land a punch of his own. Jillian walked ahead of us, still shaking and Christian walked at the rear.


"Are you okay?" I mumbled, speaking quietly so that no one else could hear.


Liam scoffed. "Am I okay? You're the one who got fucking slapped." He growled as his gaze strayed to the bruise. He squeezed my hand and I understood that he was trying to restrain his anger. We entered the school doors and followed ahead to Samuels' office. 


Once arriving in the office, Vice-Principal Samuels stared at Christian and Liam before saying, "I have the right mind to suspend you both from this weekend's game."