No Lie.

Three.

Maia shrugged her bag up her shoulder, finally willing herself to just knock on the door. Once she had, a silence settled. An very uncomfortable, loud silence. Until the locks began to rattle and the door swung open.

"Hi! Please don't shut the door, I just..." Maia spoke all at once, trying to get her words out before Miguel's mother slammed the door on her, not that she'd blame her. After all, she and her father delivered her son in pieces last night. "Um, I just wondered if I could maybe speak to Miguel and uh, apologise... maybe say thanks."

"Thanks?" She scoffed.

"There's this guy at school and he follows me around all the time trying to get my attention and last night he, he cornered me and I didn't know what to do and he was towering over me and I know you probably don't even care but I don't even wanna think about what might've happened to me if Miguel hadn't've followed me into that locker room and I'm never gonna be able to thank him enough but I... I don't know I just... I feel like I owe him and... I don't know." She shrugged, taking a breath. Again, a silence settled, and Maia had never known her heart beat so loud.

"Who's at the door?!" A voice called. It was Miguel. His mother pouted for a moment, and God knows what was going through her head.

"It's for you!" She finally called. "It's Maia!" Not even a moment later, he appeared at the door.

"Hey." He smiled, only to stop upon seeing Maia's frown.

"God, look at your face." She breathed, reaching up and gently caressing the bruise on his face.

"I'm okay." He told her. "Besides, a little bit of bruising was probably the best outcome, right?"

"No-"

"It was me or you, Maia. And there was no way I was gonna let you live with that for the rest of your life." She shook her head, letting out a sigh. "Are you headed to school?"

"Um yeah, I was on my way but I thought I'd stop by." She shrugged.

"Oh, great! Wait there, I'll come with you." He said.

"Oh, uh..." She muttered, making eye contact with his mother, who just gave her a slight smile. "Yeah, okay." She then nodded, as he disappeared from sight.

"Y'know, maybe I judged you too soon." She spoke, leaning against the door frame. "He's a good friend to you?"

"The best. And I hope you know that I would never wanna do anything to-"

"I know. I can tell." She nodded. Miguel then reappeared, his bag on his back.

"Good to go?" Maia smiled, and he nodded.

"Just about. See you later, mom."

"Have a good day, my darlings. Maybe see you later, Maia?"

"Totally."

-----

"Hey, Maia-"

"Shh!" She hissed, practically shoving her hand in Dimitri's face. They had gathered in the library for a while, and Maia took this opportunity to finish the book she'd been working on for the past few days. Dimitri sat in silence for a moment, before she finally put the book down.

"Maia-"

"No! I need the next one." She said, pushing out her seat and disappearing into the shelves. If Maia loved anything more than this particular series of books, it was irritating Dimitri. She traced her fingers along the book spines, smiling at the familiar smell of ink printed on paper. However, her search for book three had to be postponed as Kylers voice suddenly echoed through the shelves. She made her way back to the table, seeing Miguel had backed right up, Dimitri's bag was now covered in yoghurt, and Kyler had his hand gripped on Eli's chin.

"Look at it. No girl is ever gonna kiss that." Kyler laughed, like he was the funniest thing to ever walk the earth. Maia let out a sarcastic laugh, catching his attention. "I knew she was here." He scoffed, getting right in Eli's face. "Why'd you lie to me?"

"Excuse me." She spoke, and he turned to look at her. "Yeah, hi! So, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and, uh, take your fucking hands off of him, 'kay." She said with a sweet smile.

"Or else what? Daddy's not around to protect you this time."

"True, true." She nodded, turning to one of Kylers little followers. She practically ripped the baseball bat from his backpack. She rolled it around in her hands for a moment, before nodding once again. "This'll do." She said, before pushing her way out of the library.

"Looks like even Maia doesn't like you." Kyler laughed, but it quickly died down when the faint sound of a car alarm filled the room. "'This'll do' for what?" He wondered, and suddenly he bolted into the hallway. Dimitri, Miguel and Eli followed, worried that Maia was doing something stupid. And their worrying wasn't for nothing. When they got outside, Maia was using the bat to smash through the windows of Kylers car. "What are you doing?! You psycho bitch!"

"I'm so tired of you pushing me around!" She snapped, smashing the back left window. "You harrass me. You beat up Miguel. You bully Eli. And generally, Dimitri thinks you're an asshole. And I'm sick of you getting away with it. All the time!" She continued, whacking off his wingmirror. "This is what happens when you make people miserable for sport!"

"Maia, stop!" Miguel called, but it would seem she was blinded by rage.

"She's gonna be in so much trouble." Dimitri said, in utter awe of her outburst. "Someone should do something." When he heard this, Eli was very conscious of the eyes on him.

"Me?"

"She seemed to head straight for you last night, clearly she trusts you." Dimitri pointed out and he sighed. Reluctantly, he began approaching the angry girl. She was still bringing the wooden bat down against the car, and there was a clear pain in her eyes that weighed heavy in her chest.

"Maia-" Eli spoke, placing a hand on her shoulder, only to jump back when she abruptly turned, her stance telling him not to do that again. "Hey." He said, softer this time. "I think... I think you've proved your point but you... you need to stop now, okay." She didn't drop her guard, but allowed a tear to roll down her face.

"I don't know what to do now." She said under her breath, a slight laugh escaping.

"Just... just, gimmie that." He slowly reached for the bat, and she allowed him to take it from her hands. He then proceeded to lace his fingers through hers, and lead her towards the others. Kyler was still whining over his car, but they couldn't care less about him, even if they really tried.

-----

"Mr Lawrence, I understand that you're confident about your daughters behaviour, but recently she's been having spikes and if there's another incident like it, we might have to talk about exclusion." The principle said, and Maia slumped down in her chair.

"No, my daughter is a good kid." Johnny argued.

"She vandalised another students car. She's very lucky he's decided not to sue."

"Who's car?" He asked, looking to Maia. She muttered something, and he leant towards her. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that, Mai, you wanna try it again, but louder."

"Kyler." She huffed. "It was Kyler's car."

"Maia, oh my god... I'm so proud of you."

"What?"

"Yeah, that little asshole has been giving you hell for too long. You stuck up for yourself, you little badads."

"Mr Lawrence-"

"I'm not gonna punish my daughter, you're free to, but we're actually late for a thing so... have a nice day."