Wham!

Pushing Zach against the lockers, Anther hammered his face with his balled up fist, catching Zach off guard as the brown haired boy winced when the blue metal pierced into his back.

Feeling someone grip the back of her collar, Cathy gasped as she was pulled back by Kylie as Zach drew in a breathe before pushing Anther back. The enlarging crowd surrounding them turning into continues chants of, "Fight!" While a couple of students muttered their hate of violence before walking away.

"I told you," muttered Kylie with worry as two presumed friends of Zach pulled Anther back and held his hands in place while Zach regained his stance with a scowl and a red face.

And honestly, Cathy wasn't even sure if she was happy or not when Ryan lunged at Zach from behind before he could hit Anther. Falling to the ground on his back, Zach let out a string of curse words as Ryan threw bashes to Zach's already bleeding face.

"Isn't a teacher gonna come!?" Cathy hissed at Kylie as a group of boys sporting grey varsity jackets pulled a screaming Ryan off Zach.

"Let go of me you weaklings!" Yelled Ryan as the older and much stronger looking boys forced him into a kneeling position and locked his hands on his back.

A chorus of gasps and murmurs of disgust was heard as Zach tried to raise himself, the front of his shirt torn at places with blood leaking through it while his face was rapidly turning into bruising blue.

A "Damn Ryan sure is strong," was heard in the crowd as Zach raised his head to glare at the speaker before the girl's friend pulled her away.

"The office and staff room is in the opposite corner," Kylie whispered as she took retreating steps, her eyes fixed on Ryan as he kicked and struggled at the two boys holding him.

Finally raising himself from the ground, Zach still had the pathetic audacity to smirk.

But Cathy wasn't fooled by his facade. With the twitch of the corners his eyes, the biting of the inside of his cheek and the shallow breaths, she knew that he was hurting. Who wouldn't with that many wounds?

But at the moment Cathy couldn't be bothered to focus her worries on a bully, so instead she internally shook her thoughts away from Zach and focused on what was in front of her.

Both Anther and Ryan were still held in kneeling positions. And like Zach, they too had the audicity to glare at their captors. Even despite Anther having gotten a fresh smack in the face.

"Now, now this not any way to treat your king." Said Zach leering and advancing on the two boys. "Bow to me," he commanded.

"To a pig with earrings? "Mocked Ryan. "No thank you, we're fine,"

Cathy couldn't help but laugh at that. Like the description was true in a way...

Zach's eyes darted towards Cathy and she gulped as he glared at her before snapping his eyes forward to glare at Ryan.

"Think you're very smart Adams?" He said towering over Ryan.

"In fact I actually do think I am." Commented Ryan. "If I didn't then I would've thought you were my king like these idiots here," smarted off Ryan.

This time Zach's fellow gang members glared at Ryan.

"Not for long," Zach laughed as he aimed his leg straight for the Ryan's crotch. Turning to the side, he swung his leg back and let it go as Ryan squeezed his eyes shut. But as soon as it was about to make contact with him, Cathy saw a blur of of black hair before the thud of Zach's body falling to the ground rocketed off the hushed walls.

The girl placed a hand on her hip as she stood behind Zach's limp figure with a baseball bat perched on her shoulder. Turning towards the boys whose grips on Ryan and Anther were pretty much non existent in shock, she said;

"So are y'all just gonna to stay here? I mean, since your king is having his beauty sleep right now, don't you think he needs some help?"

The boys swallowed as they looked at Zach's limp figure and the bat in Alexa's hand, debating their chances, they let go of Ryan and Anther before going to help Zach.

Staring at Alexa like some lost puppy, Ryan blushed the slightest before getting up and thanking her.

"Now I don't owe you and Anther anymore." Said Alexa in reply. "And anyway his aim was pretty bad, by the angle he was waiting, it would have hit the edge of your hip." She said before dropping dumping bat into Ryan's and walking away.

"Always the smartass huh?" Ryan muttered to Anther as they watched Alexa walked away.

"You bet."

Cathy twisted her fingers as she stood awkwardly pondering how she should approach Anther and thank him. Or how to apologise. She raised her head when she heard someone stopping beside her.

"You okay?" Asked Anther looking down at her.

"Uh, yeah," said Cathy nervously. "Shouldn't you be at the nurse's office?" She blurted out, regretting the damn words before they were even out. It was because of her big mouth that he needed to be there.

Anther's lips tilted upwards in amusement before he said, "do you mind accompanying me there?"

Oh hell no!

That was the last thing she wanted to do. She seriously did not want to spend any more time with him after what he did. I mean he did save her, that's exactly why she didn't want to spend time with him. By now his mind would have been fixed on the fact that she was some sort of damsel in distress. And she wasn't. It was just a bad time!

Cathy opened her mouth to politely decline the offer but ended up saying, "Mind if I ask Kylie to join as well?" She said befor hurrying off to grab Kylie who was in the middle of a heated conversation with Ryan.

"You need to act more responsible, how many times-"

"Mind if I grab her for a second?" She asked. But before Ryan could open his mouth in response, Cathy had already dragged Kylie upto Anther.

The blonde was about to open her mouth to protest when suddenly a yell made everyone's shoes screech against the tiles before the students hurriedly shuffled away. "Ms. Andrew's coming!"

Kylie, Cathy and Anther exchanged glances before mixing into the crowd and fast walking towards the nurse's office.

☠︎︎ ☠︎︎ ☠︎︎

"So... why did decide to you move here, all the way from Dankort?" Asked Anther, moments after the three of them had been walking in an awkward silence.

"Uh..." trailed off Cathy. She couldn't tell them that no school in the state wanted to take her so her mom decided to move to Kingswood. "My mom got a job promotion here, and the houses are amazing and actually have reasonable prices, so we thought we'd just move here."

"Well you didn't say that during class," said Kylie. "Everyone was wondering why you moved all the way."

"Wait we're in the same class?" Asked Cathy, puzzled.

"No we're not in the same homeroom, but if you haven't noticed, other than gym, Anther, Alexa and I are in your bio class, and I'm in your maths class as well," the 16 year old explained.

"Oh..." was all Cathy managed to say.

The rest of the way was silent except for echoing of their footsteps down the hallway as the rest of their peers were away in the cafeteria gossiping about the recent spectacle.

In the back of her mind Cathy seriously wondered what had happened to Zach. There must be only one nurse's office here, right?

"Yep there's only one," said Kylie opening the door to a white room as she stepped in.

Cathy's cheeks flushed red realising that she had voiced her thought aloud.

"Hey you okay?" Asked Anther from behind her as she walked into the office. His voice sending shivers down her spine. She raised her head up to see him looking down at her. A confused expression tilting his lips upwards.

"Uh yeah I'm fine," said Cathy moving away the slightest.

"Uh guys..." Kylie said after coming out of the back room of the office. "Ms. Collins isn't here...maybe she's at the cafeteria, I'll go find her y'all stay here." And with that, Kylie skidded out of the room before a word could be said.

Cathy heard the squeaking of metal accompanied by the sigh of a mattress as Anther sat down on one of the beds. She walked upto him and sat down beside him while keeping a good distance of at least six inches.

Seeing him raise his hand to his face, Cathy internally groaned at the blue eyed boy's failed attempts of wiping the blood of his face. Instead of taking the blood off his face, he instead smudged it everywhere else.

"Here," she said handing him a tissue. Not that she carried tissues every where she went, she pulled it out out from the tissue box on the bed side table next to her.

Anther took the tissue but ended up wiping different parts on his face.

And this time Cathy audibly groaned.

"Let me do it for you," she said as she took the tissue from his hand, scooting closer to him, Cathy gently wiped the blood off his face as she hummed in her mind. But after she'd forgotten the rest of the tune of the song  she realised how extremely awkward the silence around them was.

"Do you play any sports?" Cathy blurted out. Her face immediately turning red as Anther's body shook as he let laughed at her face. "Yeah I do play basketball," he said.

"There, done," she said once all the blood was wiped away.
She was about to move away when Anther grabbed her palm and edged closer to her.

What's he doing!?

"First of all," Anther said as he raised Cathy's hand, where nail marks had been etched with droplets of blood. "Henderson's lady nails have wounded you. Second of all," he added as he easily wipped the blood away. "I'm not some serial killer so you don't need to be afraid of me," he said with a light smile.

The expression making Cathy's stomach twist with a strange giddiness.

"I'm not- you- it's not-nevermind." Cathy ended up finishing lamely as Anther laughed at her. Again. His blue eyes twinkling with humor.

And laughter was contagious. So soon, Cathy found herself laughing along Anther why she yelled at him to stop.

But then the laughter between them was broken with the arrival of a plump spectacled old lady probably in her late 70's who scurried across the room like a mouse and started squeaking out words.

"You!" She said turning to look at Anther. "Come with me. Those marks should heal in a day's time."

Is this woman mental?

Anther's face was almost completely swelled up. It would at least take a week for it to heal. At least being the key word.

"Apply this," the nurse squeaked before handing Anther a tube of cream. She then scurried over to Cathy who was biting her lip to prevent laughing at the woman's voice which was way too high pitched to be considered normal.

"Now what's wrong with you?" she asked impatiently.
"N-nothing, " stammered Cathy. Afraid she would start laughing if she spoke too fast. Catching Anther by the corner of her eyes, she saw his hand placed over his mouth, tears of laughter peeping out of his clamped eyes while his body shook.

And that almost set Cathy into a fit of giggles which she swallowed when the nurse stared suspiciously at her.

"No she does have a wound." Kylie piped up beside Cathy.

"No I do not," shot back Cathy.

"Here it is Mrs. Collins," Kylie said as she walked upto Cathy and flipped her left forearm, revealing a slight red mark.

Making a 'hmmph' noise the nurse frowned before walking away to the storage cabinet.

"Apply this," she said taking a tube out and throwing it to Cathy. Catching the tube, Cathy read the label out loud. "Proksileen Antibiotic, relives rashes, redness of skin and helps blood circulation...why do I need something so serious? It's just-"

"You can keep that," interrupted Mrs. Collins as she stopped beside Cathy. "Because that's gonna take some time to heal, what to else do you expect?!" she added when Cathy raised her eyebrows at her.

Yup. Totally mental.

But nevertheless, Cathy screwed open the cap of the tiny tube and gingerly applied it on the small bruise on her arm.

"Thanks," she said turning and walking towards the door to see only Kylie waiting for her.

"Where's Anther?"

"Oh he left," replied Kylie. "Something about doughnuts-"

But Cathy had already taken off when she spotted a blue hooded figure in the distance "Anther!"

Great Cathy, you don't thank him when you have a chance and now you're running after him like a psycho.

Finally catching upto Anther, Cathy grabbed his hand and pulled. Making him stop.

"Um... I just wanted to thank you for..." she began before stoppimg due to her shortage of words. 'Saving me,' would sound too weird so in the end Cathy settled out on, "You know...for earlier,"

"Oh, that was no problem." Anther replied while squeezing the back of his neck nervously as he glanced down at Cathy's hand on his arm.

"Oh er sorry." Said Cathy as she pulled her hand back.

"Erm, so you wanna be friends?" She asked after a while, sticking out her hand once more.

"Oh ya sure," said Anther taking her hand and shaking it with a smile. And for that breif moment, Cathy actually felt....happy.

Kylie cleared her throat loudly.

Cathy let go of Anther's hand and jumped a step back. "In case you'll haven't noticed..." said Kylie trying her best to hide her grin. "...the bell just rang. Which means that we're gonna be late for class if we don't hurry up."

"Uh yeah sure," said Anther turning to look each of them before heading towards his locker.

***

A/N

*Enter my screams*

I would have edited this chap at least a gazillion times but clearly, I haven't succeeded that well.

But meh I'm just gonna get an editor to fix everything.