Sang's P.O.V.
The next day, I'm just as nervous as the previous day about school. Not about the classes or most of the students, but about Mr. McCoy.
I focus on pulling my hair up, trying not to focus on the vile man.
It's one class. If I can survive my Mother, I can survive this.
I start to walk to my door before I remember something. I walk to the attic space and open it, pulling the stun gun out.
I contemplate it momentarily, before sticking it in my bookbag. It can't hurt to bring it just in case.
I walk quietly out of my room and down the stairs.
I quietly make my way out of the room and down the stairs, ignoring my aching body from yesterday's punishment.
Before I know it, I'm at Axel's car.
Out of all the guys, he's the one I'm most nervous around. He doesn't make me uncomfortable and he hasn't been rude, it's just hard to tell what he's thinking and he just has this aura of dominance around him.
I get in the car and tell Axel good-morning. He does the same and asks, "Are you feeling better about school today?"
I shake my head without hesitation, "No. But I'll be fine."
I watch the road as he takes off. Suddenly his assertive voice fills my ears, "Hey, look at me," my eyes meet his as he says, "If you need anything let us know. We're here for you through this."
I start feeling slightly guilty at keeping the Mr. McCoy incident from them and I make a promise to myself in this moment.
If anything else happens with Mr. McCoy, I will tell them everything.
I nod and thank him.
We sit in silence for the rest of the short ride. But it's not awkward. It's almost peaceful.
When he pulls up to the school, he hands me a similar bag to one Marc gave me yesterday.
I smile at him, "Thank you guys... for doing this. I mean- you don't have to do-," Axel interrupts me.
"Maybe we don't. But we want to. Besides, somebody has to and I don't believe I'm far off by saying your family doesn't do this."
I shake my head, "No, you aren't."
His passive face alters slightly to now show a hint of anger, but his voice is controlled, "That's what we thought," his tone softens and he cradles my face gently in his hands, "We want to do this. Maybe that's hard for you to believe that we just want to, but we do. And that's all you need to know about it."
I nod, "Okay. Thank you."
He takes a moment just looking at me before placing a kiss on my forehead and pulling away, "Have a good day. And like I said, if you need anything, let us know."
"I will," I tell him honestly.
I get out of the car and walk towards the school.
I arrive to home room and see North and Luke are already in their seats.
"Hey, Sang!," Luke calls my name and I notice Greg look over when he hears my name.
I turn my gaze from him and walk to my seat.
I sit down and smile at Luke, "Good morning Luke."
I turn to North, "Good morning, North."
He grunts but sends me a small smile.
I turn back around and Luke's face changes from happy to serious. He puts a smile back on his face, but it seems forced, "So, how did you like your classes?"
"I liked them for the most part," I tell him.
"Well, if you don't like any of them, like your Study Hall for example, we can help you switch if you want," he laughs awkwardly at the end.
I raise an eyebrow at this. He just so happens to suggest the one class I would change on his first guess. The fact that we are even having this conversation is slightly suspicious enough.
I turn to North, who is glaring at Luke over my head. When he notices my curious glance he quickly stops glaring but just shrugs nonchalantly.
I turn back to Luke, "Why would I want to switch my Study Hall?"
Luke's fake grin seems to be splitting his face at this point, "I don't know. Why would you want to switch your Study Hall?"
When I just stare at him, his face drops, "Alright, we just noticed you were kinda freaked out after Study Hall yesterday and figured it had to do with something that particular class. We can get it done by the end of the day if something about it bothered you."
That makes sense. North did notice something yesterday even though I tried to hide it. But, I'm no good at hiding things, so it makes sense that the others noticed too.
I grin, "That would actually be great. Thank you guys. But is there another Study Hall I can switch to?"
Before he can respond, the teacher tells everyone to quiet down.
Luke winks at me and whispers, "Don't worry, we'll figure something out."
I feel assured and happy at his words. If I can avoid Mr. McCoy this year, then I can make the school year without any incidents.
The rest of the school day goes by smoothly, for the most part, up until the last period of the day.
Nathan wasn't in class and when I asked the others why, they told me he is sick.
Nothing terrible happened in Study Hall. I watched and waited as other students filled the room before entering myself. Other than the looks from Mr. McCoy and Greg, it was pretty uneventful.
Lunch was nice with the boys and Luke informed me that I would be given permission during Gym to go change my schedule. This Mr. Blackbourne informed my Gym teacher that I would be going to his room to change my schedule. All I would have to do is check in with my teacher, I guess to assure that I was where I was supposed to be.
Japanese went well. It might be my favorite class.
Gym is when things went haywire, to say the least. Or at least, the time period of Gym class where I was supposed to meet this Mr. Blackbourne.
I just finished checking in with my Gym teacher to assure her I was going to be where Mr. Blackbourne said I would be, when I hear it.
"Hey faggot! Where you going in such a hurry?," the voice reverberates through the hall.
Normally, this would be the point that I duck my head and run in the opposite direction. But this guy's words make me angry.
I may not know a lot of things, but I know what that word means and I don't like it. Who cares about who somebody loves? There's so much evil in this world. Love is a beautiful thing. Why would anybody want to defile it with the very thing that makes up a lot of this world's evil? Hate.
I search for the voice and turn a corner to see a group of boys surrounding somebody. When one of the boys moves, I see who's at the center. Gabriel. The book bag I'm carrying by the strap drops to floor as I take in the scene.
My anger increases as I see my new friend in the center of all this. I don't know his preference, but I'm sure these guys don't either. Is it because he cares about his appearance? If so, that baffles me even more.
The words flow out before I can stop them, not that I want to.
"Hey! What's going on here?," I speak with a confidence I'm not sure I possess.
Every head in the huddle turns to me, Gabriel's face turning from indifference to shock, "Sang. Get the fuck out of here!"
I ignore his comment and the guy who has Gabriel by the throat releases him and walks over to me.
I see a flash of yellow as he grins, "Hey there, Sexy. Where'd you come from?"
I grimace at his words, "Why are messing around with him?"
Yellow teeth looks over at Gabriel, "Oh, you mean gay 'tard here? We are just having a bit of fun."
I slowly nod, "Right, so just pretending to be a bunch of homophobes?"
He looks insulted, "What? Pretending?"
I nod, "Yeah, pretending. See, maybe if I hadn't shown up, this would have lasted a few minutes. Maybe you beat him up. Pin him to the locker some more. Either way, this ends. Then, you go home. You laugh with your friends about it and you can't wait to do it again. To him or whichever "Gay" kid you pick on next. You laugh some more with your friends. You talk about it constantly, you think about the next time you get to do it. I don't know about you, but.... seems pretty gay to me."
Yellow Teeth's fists clench tightly against his side.
It's sad that he thinks being Gay is an insult. I'm sure he would have rather me talk about his rotting mouth than insinuating he likes boys.
Gabriel tries telling me once again, "Sang! Get the fuck out of here!"
And once again I ignore him.
Then Yellow Teeth grins, "I think she wants us to have some fun with her instead. What do you think boys?"
The other three look at Gabriel and grin before letting him go.
Big mistake on their part, I soon find out.
As soon as Yellow Teeth pulls on my blouse, making two buttons fly off, Gabriel is knocking him down from behind.
Gabriel's fist connects with Yellow Teeth's face.
Before I can do anything, I'm pulled back by one of the other boys.
The other two pounce on top of Gabriel and all I can see is blur of bodies fighting.
I can't focus too long on it as I struggle to get out of the hold I am in. The boy's arms constrict around my chest and I flail around, desperately trying to get out.
I rear my head back and my head connects with the boy's nose, making him drop his hold on me.
"Fucking bitch!," the boy yells at me. I scramble forward but suddenly the boy has his hands on me once again. I almost fly through the air before smashing against the locker and falling to the ground, barely noticing the radiating pain in my back.
I suddenly remember the stun gun in my book bag and try to crawl the short distance, but I'm stopped by the same boy grabbing my ankle.
I use my free foot to send a kick into the boy's throat and he releases me once again as his hands fly to his throat as he gasps for air.
I'm able to crawl toward my book bag and open it. The boy grunts and regains his composure before making his way over to me, just as I grab the stun gun concealed in my book bag.
I shove the metal tips onto his arm as he reaches for it, pushing the red button.
I hear the zap and he tears back from me.
"Shit! This bitch is fucking crazy, I'm out you guys!"
He turns around and runs away, ignored by his three friends as they continue to fight with Gabriel.
I shove myself off the ground before approaching the fight.
My finger hovers over the button before I press the stun gun into the neck of Yellow Teeth. I let go of the button and step away as he convulses from the shock.
It's quiet for a minute, before they all look at me and take off the same direction their friend did.
Gabriel stays on the ground, looking at me in shock. He looks between the stun gun and me several time before pushing himself up.
"Thank God, you had that," he says.
Then he does a double take at the stun gun in my hand, "Oh my fucking God! I don't even know where to begin! What the fuck were you thinking? Why do you have a fucking stun gun? In school?," he approaches me and rips it from my hand before tossing it to the ground and pulling me in to a hug, "I told you to fucking run. Next time you pull some shit like that, your ass is going to be bright fucking red. As for now, your perfect ass is grounded."
He hugs me tighter and I go to say something when he pulls away suddenly, as if I used the stun stun gun on him.
He looks down at his hands in confusion and says, "Sang, turn around right fucking now."
His eyes gleam dangerously and he seems very upset, so I don't ask why as I turn around.
"Fuck!," I jump at his booming voice, "Your shirt has a lot of blood on it."
I turn around around as I realize my stitches have ripped open while Gabriel paces, "I'm going to find those fuckers again. They got off too easy, I'm thinking of getting a shit ton of stun guns to stick up their asses and then I'll-."
"Gabriel!," I pull him out of his ranting.
"What?," he asks, looking frazzled.
"I have stitches, they got ripped during the fight."
He nods, looking relieved, "Right."
I go to grab my book bag off the ground before he says, "Wait! Why do you have stitches?"
I shake my head, "Not important."
He nods, "You're right. I need to get you to Doc right now."
He slaps my hand as I reach for my book bag once more before he picks it up himself, also picking up the stun gun and depositing in my book bag.
"No picking up shit when you have just ripped your stitches," he tells me.
He grabs my hand as he begins walking me to "Doc".
"This is going to be super fucking fun to explain," Gabriel moans.