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Austin
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“I have to what?!” She shouted, standing up, her hands clenching at her sleeves. “That’s fucking ridiculous!”
“I know.” Austin said, his voice small. “but I know you don’t want to take 9th grade again-”
“School? School? They’re worried about school?” Sienna’s voice got higher and higher with each shout she emitted from her mouth. “Why would they even-I can’t-what the fuck?” She turned on her heel and stormed from the lounge to her bunk. Austin watched as she jumped up and pulled herself into the bunk. He could hear her bury her face into her pillow and start sobbing louder. He felt an insane amount of guilt in his stomach.
Alan walked into the lounge after giving Sienna’s bunk a longing look and plopped down next to Austin. Austin placed his head in his hands and sighed. “She hates me.” Austin mumbled quietly.
“She doesn’t hate you.” Alan replied, giving him a small smile. “What makes you think that?”
“Did you see how she yelled at me?” Austin asked, extending a hand towards her bunk. “She’s so fucking pissed, man.”
“I would be too.” Alan admitted. “I mean, what teenaged girl would like to be told that they had to go start school up again? Not to mention her mother’s passing too.”
Austin nodded, pretending to understand. Alan smiled gently and patted his friends arm. “You should go talk to her.”
“I don’t think she wants to talk to me.” Austin sighed, pushing Alan’s hand away from him. Alan gave him another small smile.
“You’ll never know until she tells you that she wants to be alone.” Alan warned. “Remember what happened last time?”
Austin fell silent as he remembered finding his daughter on the ground. He never wanted that to happen. He didn’t want anything to happen like that again. He nodded and patted his friend on the knee and stood up, scratching his head. “You’re right.”
He walked to her bunk and knocked on the wood. “Si?” He asked, pulling back her curtain. She looked flustered as she turned over slightly, hugging the blanket to herself. “Can we talk?”
“What is there to talk about?” she grunted. Austin sighed and rubbed at his head again. He scratched at his eyebrow and cleared his throat.
“School.”
“I hate school.” she mumbled, facing the wall. Austin bit his lip and sank into his bunk, right under hers. He knew that there was a little bit of space between his and hers and he poked his phone up hers. He had written something out for her and hoped that she would read it. She took it and Austin waited anxiously and silently. He heard her snort and soon his phone was being dropped back onto his chest. He quickly read her response.
School’s stupid. And it’s stupid you’re making me do this right now.
Austin sighed and sank his teeth into his lip before typing a reply.
I know you’re upset. But I’m trying to help you out by not making you take 9th grade again.
She read this and he heard her take a deep breath.
I know what you’re trying to do. I can’t do this. I can’t do work on a tour...
Austin grinned. He knew she would come around the corner.
We can help you, Sienna. Promise.
She stood up from the bunk and walked out, but not before handing Austin his phone. If you help me, I’ll try my best. I’ll check my email for a notification.
Austin cheered and leaped from his bunk.
“Yay!” He said happily and he could hear Sienna laugh. He would help her with anything...except math. Math was Alan’s job.
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Sienna
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She had agreed to do schooling again and Austin was cheering. She stood up and walked off the bus. Vic had offered to go for a walk with her and she accepted.
She grabbed her infamous sweater and told Austin that she and Vic were going for a walk. Aaron gave her a knowing look, but she just shrugged it off. Vic texted her to tell her to meet him at ATL’s bus, which was a little bit of a walk.
She sighed and rubbed at her shoulders and walked to the bus where Vic said he’d be at.
She had done it again. Vic probably could tell from her tone in her texts that she wasn’t okay. The way Austin tried to explain that he didn’t have a choice to make her do school again. She hated school and it was hard for her to even read a book on the tour bus. Let alone do homework.
“Hey!” said a bubbly boy. Sienna glanced up to see Vic walking to her, a grin on his face. Sienna smiled at him and he gave her a hug. “Let’s go on a walk?”
“Okay.” She linked arms with Vic and he led her along side the street.
“How have you been?” he asked, trying to initiate eye contact.
“You know.” she said distantly, her mouth slightly frowning. “the normal.”
“Sienna.” Vic said sternly. Sienna only looked innocently at Vic.
“Vic.” she replied mockingly. Vic only sighed and looked away.
“Sienna, I know what you did.” he gave her one of those looks and closed his eyes. “I thought you were gonna tell me before you did anything like that.”
“It just happened.” Sienna protested. “It was on impulse-”
“Ow! Stop! Get off me!” snarled a voice. Vic and Sienna glanced up in unison at the voice. They saw a guy being shoved into a wall by two more guys. “Seriously? I’m sorry, Dake! I’m really sorry!”
“I don’t give two shits about how sorry you are or you aren’t.” answered Dake. The victim was whimpering slightly and Vic raised his eyebrows with concern.
“Hey, guys, whats going on?” Vic asked loudly, causing the group to look at him.
“Get out of here.” warned the guy against the wall. Sienna felt her stomach twist as she tugged on Vic’s arm.
“Let’s go, Vic.”
“No, that guy’s in trouble.” Vic mumbled back. Sienna felt her heart race.
“Vic, please, I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
Vic didn’t answer, he only took a step towards the men. Sienna felt even more sick as she pulled out her phone.
Why she called Tony, she would never know, but he answered with a soft tone, laced with concern.
“Hey, Sienna! What’s up?” he asked. Sienna took a deep breath. Vic started asking the guy against the wall if he was okay.
“T-Tony, I don’t know where we are exactly, but we’re like...five minutes, three minutes away from the busses and I think Vic’s gonna get hurt,” she said this softly, but one of the guys from the wall heard.
“You hear that, Liam, I think she’s calling for back up.” teased Dake. “How cute!”
Sienna flinched back and took a step away. Vic now put his arm out in between her and the men and glared at the three guys. “Stay the hell away.” He warned.
There was a lot of sound coming from Tony’s side and there was a shout. “Okay, I’m coming! Give me a second. Okay. I’m coming. Keep me on the phone.”
Dake advanced on Vic, sending a quick punch to Vic’s face. Vic gritted his teeth and Sienna squealed as she watched the fist collide with his chin.
Liam must’ve noticed because he advanced on Sienna. Sienna screamed again and wrenched away from his grabbing hands. She kicked out and her foot connected with this leg. He cursed and grabbed at her again. They guy they were originally bullying was now long gone, now replaced by Sienna and Vic.
“Get off me!” she snapped kicking again. The man grabbed at her sweater and she screamed again. She heard Vic give another shout.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed at the back of her neck, pulling her away from her attacker. Sienna started kicking at them too, but then recognized Tony’s hand tattoos.
Tony set her down behind her and then lunged at Liam. Sienna started sobbing, watching as Tony slammed his fists into Liam’s face. A hand closed on her shoulder and she didn’t have time to scream as Austin and Phil passed her, followed by Zack and Jack. Mike tagged along, but he didn’t get the chance to join in the fight as Sienna latched onto him like a sock monkey.
Sienna had her hands over her mouth as Austin and Zack helped Vic out and Phil and Jack kicked at Liam.
She didn’t even notice the sirens until the seven men looked up at her, or behind her. Her hands were shaking slightly as she felt her knees go weak. Police men passed her quickly, grabbing at the men, making them lay on their stomachs, their arms behind them. One by one, they were hauled to their feet in cuffs being dragged to the cop cars.
When Sienna finally came to, she realized that Austin, Jack, Zack, Vic, Tony, and Phil were all being arrested. Mike watched this too and soon let go of Sienna and went after the cops.
“Hold on! They did nothing wrong!” Mike argued.
“We got a call about assault and public disturbances and we saw who the main causes were. We’re taking them in.” was the response. As Mike protested even further, Sienna wiped her tears away and stomped to where Austin was leaning against the car, waiting to be pushed in.
“No! No!” she shouted, stopping in front of him and wrapping her arms around him. “this isn’t right! What the fuck! No!”
She felt him laughing and she looked up at him, confused.
“Wipe your eyes,” He told her, shaking his head. “This is just a bump in the road. It’s fine. We’ll be on the road tomorrow.”
“No! You can’t be getting arrested-” A hand closed on Sienna’s arm and she yanked away from it. “No! Austin!”
“It’s fine.” Austin assured her, leaning down to plant a kiss on her forehead. “We’ll be fine. Trust me.” He looked down at her making a warm feeling go in her stomach. Then he glanced up behind her. “Okay, Mike.”
Mike closed his hand around her arm and pulled her back with a little more force. Before she could scream again, Austin was pushed into the car. Austin gave the cop a death glare and Sienna curled into Mike.
“Excuse me.” asked a cop, pulling out a notepad. Sienna almost screamed at the cop, but Mike hugged her tightly.
“Can she have a little more time?” he asked with a fake tone to his voice. “that’s her dad in there.”
“Some dad.” he snorted and turned away, giving Sienna time. Sienna frowned and Mike made a face at the cop’s back.
“If I wasn’t high as shit, I would punch him in the face.” Mike told Sienna, trying to make her smile, but she was too preoccupied by staring at her father who was sitting next to a beaten up Vic. When Austin noticed her staring at him, he grinned and nudged Vic. Vic looked up and waved as best as he could with his shoulder.
“C’mon, Si. Let’s talk to the cop idiots.” Mike smirked and nodded to the man in blue. Sienna gave Austin a small wave back as she wiped her tears away and tried her best not to cry.
It was so damn hard.
UH OH! AUSTIN IS IN TROUBLE! Vote, Comment! Love Y'all!
<7 Nina