"So this is your dumb a**school, is it? I was expecting more for the amount of stuck up snobs that run around this place, it's a piece of sh*t. Nat, you've got no worries about me wandering off anywhere, as far as I can see Keelan and I have the best looking girls in the entire town." I laughed at Cal's complaining, sure it was hugely exaggerated but there was some truth to it.

School was decent enough but the people in it, Maggie was prime example of what basic could produce. "Cal you're not going to make friends with that attitude." Ilyse chimed in happily as we made our way through the front doors, we were escorting Cal to the front desk so that he could pick up his timetable and locker stuff.

I guess Nat could have showed him the way and then shown him around the school, but Cal being my best mate I figured I better tag along too and Ilyse...well I think she was of the same mind. We'd been dating for a few weeks now and if we weren't hanging out with Nat and Cal then I was either at her place or she was at mine.

Things with her dad were starting to get to some sort of normalcy and once a week Ilyse was allowed to go an stay with her aunt B. I went over one night and looked around her house with new eyes, when I'd first gone over all I'd seen was this two story piece of sh*t building.

But now, I looked at it properly.

It was the house Ilyse loved most, her childhood stories were there and I let her show and tell me everything. From the place she knocked her first tooth out to where she always stubbed her toe on the fireplace hearth that stuck out at a weird angle. She showed me everything and I went with her because when I took her to my parents home she asked about my life since coming to live with them and I told her everything.

We shared every memory that was good, bad or ugly.

You know when you walk into school that first day back and you expect someone to comment on your summer? Or you expect your bit of news to be the biggest bit of news to happen all summer? I think Cal and I were expecting something like that, we had two of the hottest girls in school and yet our news paled in comparison to what was plastered all over the walls that Mrs. Gasfell was trying to remove.

At first I thought it was some welcome prank but when I looked closer I realized it wasn't and my blood boiled a little at what the flyer's said.

They were aimed at Brock and had all sorts of derogatory names on it, there were pictures of him and some guy making out. No wonder why Mrs. Gasfell was trying to rip them all down, she made a beeline for us almost as soon as she saw we were approaching the main office.

"Keelan, Ilyse, Nat...you too. Go rip these down and hurry! The last thing this school needs on the first day is a message sent out like this, like it's okay to torment people for being who they are. Go, I'll excuse you all from from class this morning." We didn't really wait for her to finish and raced around the school to pull every single poster down before more students came in and found them.

I had a fair idea who had made and distributed the poster, she was one of the most vindictive people I'd ever met and as two faced as they came.

When we'd ripped most of the posters down it was nearly the end of the second period so at least a few people would have seen the posters...well most of the school had probably seen them. But when we came back into the office to grab Cal's papers and timetable we stopped in the middle of the doorway.

"Please! No, mom I'll do anything. Please!" It was Maggie begging, for some reason she sounded hysterical from the principals office. We probably shouldn't have eavesdropped but the secretary motioned for us to take a seat. He had a smile on his face like he knew we wanted to listen but only said that Mrs. Gasfell wanted to see us after wards.

"It's too late Margaret. We've pulled you from this school, you'll be attending boarding school once the baby is born and you're going to get up on stage at assembly this afternoon and apologize to everyone for your disgusting behaviour. How dare you do this to that poor boy to cover your own mistakes, there is nothing wrong with admitting a fault. Your father and I have always been tolerant of you but no more, we should never have brought you to this school." My mind was having one of those 'sh*t bricks' moments, Mrs. Gasfell was Maggie's mom? Who would have thought? I mean, sh*t I thought Maggie's surname was Chester or something...not Gasfell.

"I hate you. You're ruining my life." That was Maggie's last grouse, which kinda made me scoff a little at it.

"Yeah well, I hate you too. I rue the day your father died and sent you here to live with me, that stupid man leaving Satan's child for me. Let's hope your child is more well mannered than you, I never raised you but by god if I did you wouldn't be doing half the sh*t that you've done. Gavin is here to watch over you until you've written your full apology, give me anything else than an apology Margaret and you will be thrown out on the street." I'd never heard Mrs. Gasfell talk like that, it was harsh, it was cold and delivered in such an even voice that I wondered if Mrs. Gasfell was human in that moment.

I assumed it was Gavin that walked right past us into the principals office, he didn't knock and he looked like a man on a mission.

"Gavin darling, can you take Margaret to the staff room and sit with her until I'm done here? Margaret, no more fighting now or you'll stress the baby." When Gavin walked out of the room followed by a very red faced, swollen eyed Maggie I kind of felt sorry for her. All the fight had gone out of her, I honestly wouldn't have recognized her then as being Maggie.

"Keelan, you lot get in here now." No one argued or even dawdled when Mrs. Gasfell yelled out for us to come into her room.

"Did you manage to take all the posters down? Thank you, Margaret won't tell me who else helped her so please keep your eyes open for anything. Brock was only made aware of the posters before you finished your task. I would like to ask that you all keep an eye out for him, I imagine his sexual orientation has come as quite a shock to many students but I'm hoping the thre...four of you have no issue with it?" Mrs. Gasfell corrected herself when she looked at Cal, Ilyse, Nat and I were all shaking our heads. I don't think any of us saw anything wrong with Brock being gay.

"I wouldn't even care if the guy hit on me, I'd take it as a compliment. If anyone bullies him I'm probably going to punch them, so just warning you now ma'am...you might be seeing a lot of me in the office." I couldn't help the smile, Cal was always honest and if anyone had a problem with him or something about him then he figured it was their problem not his.

It was weird, but when you hung out with Cal enough then his self confidence sort of rubbed off on you. I can't say I ever was a self confident kid but after a few months with Cal I guess I was and had continued sort of being that way since then.

"Right Mr. Arnold. I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that and caution you with a warning, we don't tolerate violence in the school but neither do we tolerate bullying of any kind." I don't know if Mrs. Gasfell knew that she more or less gave Cal the go ahead so long as no one went running to her, which I'm guessing some students wouldn't if they got caught bullying Brock.

"Off to class now, I'm sure the bell will be ringing shortly." And just like that, it did. We picked up Cal's timetable and found that he had many of the same classes as me, which I think kinda made Nat a little jealous. We all had to laugh at it though, I think Nat had been looking forward to showing Cal off to all her peers that had teased her previously.

"See you girls later, we'll save a table at lunch!" It was at least another two periods before lunch, Cal and I only shared one class in that time and I think I was alone in my second. I didn't really care, I was still on a high from everything that had happened since the start of the summer break and I wasn't going to let anything get me down.

But before we could even get to class we came upon a commotion in down a quiet corridor, it was Brock and some of the football team. At first I thought they were helping him out and giving him a pep talk, but the closer Cal and I came the more I realized they were roughing him up.

"Hey! Hey, leave him alone!" It was Cal that yelled out, I don't know if he expected the group of guys to leave but they didn't. They turned to us instead like it was none of our business and blocked our view of Brock while one still beat him. Brock wasn't taking it laying down, he was fighting the other guy more than what the other guy was giving him.

"Hey Cal, what do you say about letting off some steam before class?" I asked, my eyes not leaving the three guys that were standing guard over the fight. There was just something about the way the three stood, Peter and Seth were there too and so was Owen and they all looked like they weren't leaving without a good fight.

"I bags those two, you can have the small one." Cal said, pointing out Seth. I think though that Seth only had eyes and fists for Cal, who had no idea that Nat had been into Seth at the start of the summer break.

Before we even knew it though Cal and I were dodging punches, I wasn't going to hold back and slammed my fist into Owen's stomach. He doubled over almost till his face was touching the ground and I left him there. I'm not the worlds best fighter by any means, but if you put enough force behind a hand it'll knock something over.

"Dude, don't make this not fun! My first day at this sh*t hole and I get into a f...ow! That hurt bro," Cal was cut off mid-sentence as Seth punched him in the face, I don't know what Seth was expecting but he probably wasn't expecting the 'football kick' that Cal squared at his balls. He doubled over pretty fast, which just left Peter standing there looking like he was going to sh*t bricks.

Before I could even reply I felt a fist to the side of my head and went down, blinded by the sudden impact. Looking up I was kinda surprised to see Brock standing over me breathing heavily with a murderous look on his face.

"What's the matter with you man? We were helping you out," Cal said as he shoved Brock away. Cal wasn't the biggest guy in the school but he was tough enough to take care of himself, Brock seemed to snap out of it soon enough though and looked down at his fists.

"Helping the queen of queer out, you two must be queer as well." The snide remark was delivered by Pete. When I stood up the other three guys were standing too, the fight seemed to have been knocked thoroughly out of at least two of them but Pete and Owen at least looked like they could fight for the rest of the day.

"Do you want a vagina like short stack over there? Keep talking and I'll happily kick your balls up into your throat too." I laughed at what Cal said, it was so unexpected in the situation that I couldn't help but react that way.

"Might as well give you a vagina, you can't keep a girl satisfied anyways. She has to go looking somewhere else." When it looked like Cal was getting ready to kick Pete in the balls he instead let his fist go and hit him square in the jaw, knocking a tooth loose as he did so. I heard the crunch and the swear from both Pete and Cal.

"Man come on, I'm over this. Let's get to class. Brock, you're with us." I had to admire Cal, he looked calm but I knew he was anything but. He was going to have a bruised cheek and probably a bruised shin but it wasn't as bad as what the guys on the team were going to have.

For a few moments Brock just kinda stood there, looking between his former team mates and Cal. I watched as he shrugged his shoulders and fell in beside us as we made our way to class.

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Okay, so I had a bit of free time to post a new chapter...here it is :)