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Kyle walked down the hallway, stopping at his locker He opened his locker when he felt his pocket vibrate, he reached in and pulled out his phone. He looked at the screen to see a text message from his mom.

"How was the assembly?" it read.

Kellie stood in her office, a giant stack of files stood on her desk, she pulled her glasses down from her forehead onto her nose. Her phone sat next to the pile of folders, it lit up and began to chime.

"Alright I guess...got to get to lunch, talk to you about it later" the message from Kyle read.

"I love you" she wrote back to him when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in" she said as the door opened.

"Hey" Melissa said appearing in the doorway with a white plastic bag. "Brought you some lunch" she said setting the bag down on Kellie's desk.

"Oh thank you so much" Kellie said setting the file down and putting her glasses on top of it. "Didn't think I was going to get to eat today" she said opening a styrofoam box and grabbing a fork wrapped in plastic.

"Did you watch the guys this morning?" Melissa asked as she poured dressing onto her salad.

"No, I've been buried in paper work thanks to this new case we're working on, I'm lucky I've had a minute to breathe" Kellie said as her phone once again lit up.

"Love you too" the message from Kyle read.

He walked further down the hallway, pushing the cafeteria doors open and stepping inside. The cafeteria filled with students, the lines to get food were stretched across the room, Neilson sat at his table, his sketch pad still relaxing in his lap, Natalie came in and set her bag on the table.

“Neilson” she sighed.

“What? I told you this for my art class!" he said to her as he colored in the picture.

“Oh please, more like for the personal collection of Neilson Carter" she said to him.

"I like that" he said to her.

Adam sat down next to Neilson and glanced at his sketch pad "Nice" he said to him "Life like too" Adam said as he began to eat his lunch.

"See? Adam likes it!" Neilson said gesturing towards him.

"There are so many ways to point out what's wrong with that statement" Natalie said to him, Adam smiled sarcastically at her. "Come on let's go get lunch" she said as she took his hand and lead him to the lunch line.

“Hey there you are” Harry said to Kyle as he ran up to him in the lunch line “I still need a statement” he said holding a pen and pad in his hand “So come on, let’s hear it”.

“Can I tell you later?” Kyle asked.

"It is later! Come on I told you I needed this by seventh period, we're going to press soon" Harry said to him.

"God Harry it's a high school newspaper not the New York Times" Kyle said to him.

"I still have a deadline, so come on just make something up" Harry said to him.

Damien stumbled through the cafeteria doors. He wobbled, making his way towards the lunch line.

“Damien?” Kyle asked.

“What’s wrong with him?” Harry asked.

Kyle stepped out of the line and approached Damien “Damien, hey, you alright?” Kyle asked.

“Hey! Look who’s here!” Damien yelled out grabbing everyone’s attention “Look everyone! Hilridge High School's golden boy, Kyle Richardson, come on give it up for the guy” he said clapping.

“What are you doing?” Kyle asked.

“What? Nothing just helping congratulate the MVP, the quarterback, the star, the apple of coach's eye" Damien said angrily.

The cafeteria fell silent as they watched the spectacle before them.

“What's with him?” Natalie asked Neilson.

"Are you seeing this?" Adam asked Bradley as Bradley sat down at the table.

"Kind of hard to miss" Bradley said to him "He's wasted off his ass" Bradley said.

"Shh...I want to see what happens" Adam said to him.

"Are you drunk?" Harry asked.

"Okay Damien, I don't know what's going on with you but I think we should get out of here and talk..." Kyle said putting his hand on Damien's shoulder.

"Don't touch me" Damien said grabbing Kyle's wrist and squeezing it tightly and glaring at Kyle menacingly, Kyle looked at him with fear as a wicked grin crossed Damien's face.

Kyle freed himself from Damien's grip as they stared each other down “Okay look I know you’re upset alright, I get it” Kyle said to him.

“Aww…you do? Well thank you so much!” Damien said “Hear that everyone? Mr. Perfect 'gets it' " Damien said.

“Okay you need to stop this” Kyle said trying to remain calm.

“Oh and why’s that?” Damien asked.

“What is this about? What do you want?" Kyle asked.

Damien laughed at him "You even have to ask?" Damien asked.

"You got to be kidding me" Kyle said in disbelief "This is about the award?" Kyle asked.

"Ding ding we have a winner!" Damien said.

"Okay" Natalie said going to Kyle's side, she stood between him and Damien "Damien look I know that you’re really upset right now, losing something is never easy but you can’t blame Kyle” she said. “Why don’t you go talk to coach Reinhart? Maybe he can shed some light on this” she said to him.

Damien smiled at her “Aw Nat, so you got Richardson in your bed too huh?” he asked.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“It’s funny, I always thought if you were screw around behind Carter’s back it’d be with his BFF Bradley” Damien said.

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

"Oh come on Nat, you can tell us, you and Littrell over there have gone at it behind Carter's back at sometime or another right?” Damien asked.

Everyone began to stare at her and whisper to each other as she looked around the room.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked, tears filling her eyes.

"Damien, stop" Kyle said angrily.

"Back off of her now!" Neilson said coming to her side.

"Oh come on, don't you want to know if your girlfriend banged you best friend behind your back?" Damien asked
"Littrell? comments?"

Bradley glared at him angrily "You better shut your mouth right now before I come over there and shut it for you" Bradley said angrily as he stood up from the table made his way towards Damien.

“He’s baiting you, don’t give him what he wants” Adam said stepping in front of Bradley.

"Oh, right sorry, did McLean get lucky too?" Damien asked her.

"…Okay this dick is toast" Adam said standing up.

"What happened to not giving him what he wants?" Bradley asked.

"Oh fuck that I’m going to kill him" Adam said.

"Oh and here's an interesting concept, what about Harry? Huh? You do the dweeb too?" he asked her.

"Hey shut up!" Harry said to him, Damien then turned to look at him, glaring at him as Harry moved behind Kyle to shield himself.

“It’s a simple question, or maybe...Bradley J. and Neilson did you at the same time?" Natalie looked at him in shock, the cafeteria reacting as well.

She glared at him angrily as she drew her hand back and smacked him hard across the face.

"You bitch" he said grabbing her arm, grasping it tightly, she looked at him in fright.

"Hey! Let her go! Now!" Kyle yelled at him.

Natalie then ran from the cafeteria in tears "Nat" Bradley said as he ran after her.

“Oh there he goes, her knight in shining armor...so Neilson uh...I guess if you don't mind your buddies taking her for a ride you won't mind if I do it too..." Damien said as Neilson lunged at him, Kyle held him back.

“Neilson, don’t!” Kyle said to him “He’s not worth it alright, just stop" Kyle said “go find Nat, see if she’s okay.”

"You kick his ass or I will" Neilson said to Kyle before running off.

"Alright I want to know once and for all what the hell is your problem with me?" Kyle asked him.

"Well what is it?!” Kyle asked once more, Damien stayed silent, glaring at him through blood shot eyes. “Just what I thought, you are nothing but a self-entitled, arrogant son of a bitch!” Kyle yelled at him.

"If you don't shut your mouth in the next five seconds..." Damien said getting in Kyle's face.

"What? What are you going to do?!" Kyle asked.

"You don't want to know" Damien said to him.

"Try it and see what happens!" Kyle said as coach Reinhart stormed in, followed by Mr. Wexler.

"Break it up!" he yelled at them "What is going on?!" he yelled at them "Richardson cool off, and you!" he said to Damien "I want you in my office in ten seconds" Mr. Wexler said to Damien angrily.

"Just watch yourself Richardson, you will pay for this...I'll make sure of it" Damien said in a sinister voice.

Mr. Wexler yanked on his arm "Now!" he yelled.

"Don't touch me!" he growled as he left the cafeteria.

"You alright?" Adam asked as he and Harry came to his side.

"That sounded like a threat you need to tell someone" Harry said to him.

"Not like nobody heard him" Kyle said to him "Don't worry Harry he's not going to do anything, just a bluff" Kyle said to him.

"You don't know that, you saw him he's all drunk and angry, who's to say he won't fully go off the deep end?" Harry asked.

"I'll be fine Harry" Kyle said to him.

"Can't believe I'm going to say this but I agree with Harry" Adam said.

"Well you don't have to worry alright? I can handle Damien; just trust me everything will be fine."

"...Can I get your statement now?" Harry asked as Kyle and Adam turned to look at him in disbelief "What? You said not to worry about it!" Harry said to them. Kyle walked away and Adam turned to look at Harry once more before shaking his head "I have a deadline!" Harry said following Adam to their lunch table.


"Are you still out there?!" Natalie asked from the girls' bathroom as Bradley leaned up against the wall.

"No I left…want to come out now?" he said.

"Nice try" she said back to him.

"Hey, where's Nat?" Neilson asked appearing next to him.

"In there she doesn't want to come out" he said sitting on the floor by the lockers.

“What happened to your hand?" Neilson asked noticing Bradley's knuckles were scraped up.

"I ran into a locker...a couple times" he said.

“Trust me I was just about ready to do that to Damien’s face” Neilson said to him.

“Why didn’t you?” Bradley asked.

“Kyle wouldn’t let me, come on help me get Nat out here would you?" he asked "Nat?" Neilson asked.

"I don't want to talk to anyone!" she said from the bathroom.

"We're coming in" Neilson said to her.

"What are you doing? You guys can't be in here" she said to them.

"Come on everything's going to be alright" Neilson said soothingly as he held her tightly "It’s okay, it'll be alright" he said trying to soothe her.