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.17.

There they were.

Eight boys - and girl - with tissues up their nostrils and ice packs on their heads, bandaids plastered all over their faces. They all sat in the school office, waiting to be called in. The lady at the desk was typing away, occasionally taking a break to give the kids a glare.

Eventually the principal stepped out of his private office, looking over the students. "Zelk, Finn, and Zak, I would like to speak with you three." The three boys stood up uneasily, walking into the private office.

Darryl watched the door close behind them and stared worriedly at the ground. He guessed that the principal had chosen those three since they had started the fight originally. Plus everyone knew about the party scandal at this point, so he was probably going to discuss those matters with them privately.

After around thirty minutes, Zelk and Finn left the private room and sat back down in the chairs next to everyone else. "What happened?" Jack asked them curiously.

"We're suspended for a week," Finn growled.

"You're fucking kidding me," Dave said with surprise. "Are you serious? For getting into a fight? That's ridiculous."

Zelk shook his head. "No, it's for what happened at the party too. You guys are probably going to get less of a punishment I bet," The host explained. "He said, and I quote, 'you guys are lucky that we are not turning you into the police right now'. He's kind of an asshole."

"So why is Zak still in there?" Darryl couldn't help but ask.

"I'm not sure, he just asked to speak with him privately," Finn answered. "There he is."

Darryl turned his head to see that Zak left the office, looking super angry. His face was red, his fists clenched at his sides. His eyebrows were furrowed together and he was clenching his jaw as if to keep himself from lashing out. It was the first time Darryl had ever seen Zak so pissed off.

"Zak?" Finn asked worriedly.

"Shut up!" Zak snarled out of no where. "This is all your fault! This is all your fucking fault!"

"HEY!" The lady at the desk snapped. "Do you want to get your suspension extended? Sit your ass down!"

Zak glared at the lady but sat back down next to Darryl anyways.

"There's only one thing that can make him this mad," Darryl heard Zelk murmur.

Finn's eyes widened. "Holy shit, you're right."

"What? Why is he upset?" Darryl asked the two, still confused as to what was going on.

"I'm kicked off the baseball team," Zak muttered, covering his face with his hands. "I have two weeks of in-school suspension as well."

"At least it's not actual suspension," Finn pointed out.

"Jack, George, Brianna, and Dave, please step inside." Darryl turned to see that the principal was calling in more students. The four kids obeyed, standing up and walking into the office with terrified faces as to what their punishment would be.

"They can do that?" Darryl asked Zelk after the four left. "They can just kick a kid off of the team? Skeppy's the best player! There's no way they can do that."

Zak just simply sniffed, rubbing under his nose with his thumb and avoiding eye contact with everyone. Zelk shrugged in response to Darryl's question, fidgeting his hands together nervously as he looked back at the principal's door.

The four waited there for a while, maybe another 30 minutes. The bell rang in between those times, reminding them that classes were still happening outside of the office.

Finally, the four kids walked out of the classes, looks of disappointment and relief on their faces. "Only a month of lunch and after school detention," Brianna told everyone as they sat down.

"Darryl?"

Darryl stood up nervously, his palms sweating profusely as he walked into the principal's office. The principal closed the door behind him, making Darryl even more uneasy about the situation.

Mr. Simmons just stared at the senior for a little bit, as if he was debating with himself. "Darryl,"  He finally stated after a few moments of silence. The word caught the boy's attention. "You're a good student, Darryl. A great student in fact. I know you really care about your reputation, as it is perfect, which is why I hesitate to punish you for what you've done."

Darryl raised an eyebrow, not really sure what the principal meant by his words. "You wouldn't do something to risk your reputation unless it was the right thing to do in the situation. Tell me Darryl, why did you join in?"

The boy sighed. "I've been spending some time around Zak," He admitted. "Enough time to figure out that he's more than just some kid that pulls pranks on people. Yeah, he laughs at his friend's pain, but afterwards he helps them clean up and he's there for them when they need him," Darryl explained to the principal. "My point is, he has a soft side that not many people know about. So when I saw two kids teaming up on him like that... I couldn't just stand there and do nothing!"

Mr. Simmons nodded. "Right. You could've ran and grabbed a teacher."

Darryl shook his head. "No, it wasn't like that. Zak wasn't standing a chance, the two kids were slamming his head into the locker and throwing him onto the ground. By the time I got a teacher, he could've been seriously hurt. I felt the need to protect him, so my brain chose 'fight' instead of 'flight'."

The principal shook his head. "You're a good kid, Darryl. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I tell you what, if you get in twenty hours of community service around the school, I'll let you get away without anything permanently on your high school record," Mr Simmons decided.

Darryl brightened up. "Seriously?!" He exclaimed.

The principal smiled.

Darryl's smile instantly faded. "You know you practically ruined Zak' when you kicked him off the baseball team, right?"

Mr Simmons sighed. "Yes, I knew it'd hurt him. That's why I laid off the suspension portion. But he should've known that interacting with alcohol illegally is one of the violations of the sports code. No matter what sport, what time or place, any illegal interactions with alcohol will get you suspended or expelled from teams."

Darryl furrowed his eyebrows. "That's not fair, everyone in sports was at that party."

The principal shrugged. "But not everyone got drunk and beat another student up until the police arrived. You are dismissed, Darryl."

The student frowned, standing up and walking out of the principals office.

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while, school and shiz

Sorry if this chapter is crappy, I got a random spark of inspiration but wrote it out sleepily lmao