Heat.

| Chapter 3. |

"This was an assault," Aaron winced as Miss Lulu came over to him, a bag of frozen peas in her hand. He took it, placing it on his jaw. "I want to file charges."

Agent Black chuckled behind him, Agent Hill hitting her partner dramatically in return as she turned back to the teen she was in charge of protecting. It was currently 6 in the evening and Aaron could still feel the pain from getting punched in the face by Maurice King hours earlier. But to him, it felt like no one seemed to care that he was hit on his first day of school and that made him even more irritated.

"Aaron, are you sure you want to do that? Drawing attention to yourself will only make your situation worse." Agent Hill responds, adjusting the scarf wrapped around her neck, as she watched Aaron try to move his jaw. It was tough, though.

"No, he doesn't want to do that," It was Agent Black's turn to talk. "Look, kid. Like we already told you, you need to keep a low profile while you're out here for the sake of your safety. So no, we're not pressing charges. We got bigger fish to fry. You got hit on your first day and you're telling me the other guy went unprovoked?"

"Are you trying to say I provoked him? Who has the bruise here, me or him?" Aaron glared at him, the front door to the house swinging open and revealing Imani. She looked to Aaron, then the agents and said nothing, before she made her own way into the kitchen. Cracking open the fridge, she grabbed a can of soda and turned to him at the table. He was shocked that she even acknowledged he was there when she said...

"Heard you got punched in the face by Maurice King today." She snickered a bit, sipping her Pepsi.

"How do you know that? You don't even have that lunch." He snapped back, she shrugging her shoulders in response.

"Doesn't matter. News spreads fast around here, especially when it involves someone like Maurice." She retorts, making her way back towards the living room.

Aaron's voice made her stop dead in her tracks. "Well, since you know everything, tell them how he hit me for no reason."

"It wasn't no reason. You disrespected him."

Aaron could feel his temperature rising. "I did not!"

"Maurice has a reason behind everything he does. You did something."

"He spent the entire day calling me racial slurs and I did something?" Aaron scoffed, wincing again. He didn't know his jaw could hurt so much.

Agent Black's voice boomed. "Alright. He called you names. And what did you do?"

"Okay! By the end of the day, I may or may have not called him something in return," Aaron sighed. "And told him to leave me alone. But he still hit me. And now, I have a swollen jaw that I can barely move and he's talking about 'don't look at Cristal'... As if I know who Cristal is."

"Wait," Imani interrupted, her interest clearly poked. "You looked at Cristal?"

"Who is Cristal?!" Aaron whined, getting more frustrated as the conversation continued.

"His ex. He gets really in his feelings about her. Matter of fact, all his peoples. If he said you were looking at her, that means you were instantly a target from that moment on. He don't like shady motives."

"I wasn't looking at her, though," Aaron remembered Shianne and coughed awkwardly. "I wasn't looking at anyone."

"Okay, so," Imani threw her soda away. "You're new, white, eyeing his lady- so he thought, and then got reckless at the mouth... Yeah, I'd justify the punch."