Beware The Water

New Look and Consequences

"You think I won't do it?" Sing shoved Lux farther behind him in case things were to escalate.

Lux's heart began racing. Where the heck did Sing get that knife from? Why did he have one in the first place? There's no way he was really going to stab one of these boys right?

"Try me." Sing instigated.

"You know what?" One of them towered over him, "We'll see you around." They both laughed before getting back into the car and driving off.

Sing scoffed, flipping away his blade and putting it back in his back pocket. "You good?" He asked Lux who was frozen in place. "Hey?" He snapped his fingers in her face.

Lux shook her head and started freaking out. "Why do you have a knife!?" She screamed.

Sing covered her mouth, "Shut up!" He whispered.

"Do you carry that with you in school?" Sing didn't respond. "You know how much trouble you could get in by having that?"

"I'll be fine." He assured.

"Where did you get it from?" She angrily interrogated.

"My brother." Sing answered truthfully.

Lux wasn't surprised at all after the information her parents told her about Lao. Little did she know that Sing was gifted the weapon as well as a gun after being initiated into Shorter's gang. "Why would he do that?"

Sing shrugged uncaringly. "Protection."

"Protection from what?" Lux worriedly asked. Knowing what she knew, the last thing she wanted was for Sing to wind up like Lao. He's worked too hard to squander everything away because he wants to be like his big brother. Lux wouldn't allow him to go down that path. "Do you need help?"

Sing rubbed his hands down his face in an irritated way. "Listen. I appreciate it, okay? You're one of the only people who has shown how much they care about me. But get it through your head that not everybody needs you to try and save them from whatever you think is looming over their head."

"I just-"

"That's enough." He cut her off. "Let's just get our food before your nerd debate starts." Lux remained quiet and nodded, refusing to press the situation any further. She really didn't have a good feeling about this.
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Lux's team was stressing. They really underestimated the other contenders, but on the bright side they had the two smartest girls in school as their captain and co captain so that was the confidence boost they all needed. Little did they know, Lux and Xia were racking their brains right about now.

Sing was leaned back in his seat, half asleep with an airpod in. He told Lux he'd be there for moral support be not once did he promise to be conscious the entire time.

Thankfully there was a 15 minute intermission for the two teams to rest, but they all chose to strategize instead. "Alright." Xia whispered as she leaned in. "So a source of mine said that the next subjects after the intermission are going to be precalculus, environmental science, and anatomy."

"How'd you manage to get that information?" a teammate asked.

Xia crossed her arms, "Had to agree to go on a date with the guy who was printing out the course sheet."

Lux gave herself a face palm, "Why am I not surprised that you had to resort to shortcuts and cheating yet again?"

"Hey, do you want to win or not?" Another boy on their team asked.

"Obviously but I want to do it the right way."

The team groaned. "Listen." Xia said, "If you have a problem with the way things are being done then take a backseat and let me handle this. Because I already know my brains are what's going to get us to the end, Captain."

Lux tensed her jaw and sighed, knowing her team was turning against her. Might as well work with the information that Xia gathered and not let it go to waste. "Fine." She agreed. Lux instructed the two boys on their team to take the lead on precalculus since that was their strong suit, Xia would focus on environmental science and Lux would finish it off with anatomy. Each of the teammates would excel in their best subjects, leading to a quick finish.

They all stood at their podiums, awaiting for the near ending intermission. As people started filing back in, the principal discreetly made his way over to a sleeping Sing and shook him by the shoulder. Lux couldn't hear what was said but all they saw was Sing being escorted out of the classroom.

"Wonder what he did this time." Xia side eyed a worried Lux. "Hey!" She shoved her to regain her attention, "Focus on this first." Lux nodded in agreement, but her mind betrayed her thinking about what could possibly be happening to Sing.

It was the end of the decathlon and it was up to Lux to lead her team to victory. Her mind was racing yet it was blank on answers. The questions weren't making sense and she couldn't remember anything she had studied. The looks her team were giving her weren't doing any favors either. Lux had to accept the fact that her team lost because she was hung up on something else.

"Thanks a lot, Lux." Her team shook their heads and walked out in disappointment.

Lux looked up from her feet and finally stared up to see Xia still standing there with a scowl. "Safe to say you traded your brains out for male attention." She assumed, referring to Lux's new look. "You were too fixated on a stupid boy and you cost us everything."

"I'm sorry." She apologized, trying her best to hold back tears. "I didn't mean-"

"Save it!" Xia angrily cut her off. "Look on the bright side." She said using air quotes, "You're not the only one who looked like an idiot today." Xia huffed before storming off.

Lux didn't give herself the chance to wallow in self pity. She needed to find Sing.
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After turning a sharp corner to go to the principals office, Lux had ran into someone coming out of the door. "Ouch." A boy huffed.

"Oz? Did you see Sing come in here?"

"Yeah." He answered with a heavy exhale. "It was bad, Lux. The police showed up."

She smacked her forehead in frustration, "I told him to ditch the knife before coming back to school."

"Knife? What knife?"

"Didn't those boys tell on him for having a knife?" She assumed that was the case since they walked off with smirks plastered on their smug faces. Their plan of revenge must have been to snitch in order to get Sing in trouble.

"Lux... I saw a cop searching through his stuff. Sing had a gun in his locker..."
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A/N: aaaaaaaand the drama begins