"Are you okay, man?" Lyle puts his hand on my shoulder and sits next to me. We're sitting at the sidewalk in front of our classroom, because, of course, Eugene stood us out for being late.

"I'll be fine if we manage to fix this mess."

Which, as it stands, seems unlikely. Half the school read the messages Potato wrote on the forums, and the other half heard from someone else. In the end, the whole rally thing against Amanda was a disgusting success I had to douse all on my own, and with Abigail starting a fight with Amanda first thing in the morning? My story got pretty hard to believe.

Whoever did that dung, it went just the way they planned it.

"What about you?" I ask him, nodding at his nose. It might not be bleeding anymore, but I'm sure it hurts like a bitch. "What happened?"

"I got caught in the crossfire," he replies.

Corrine, who also shares our fate, places an arm around him. "Can you at least tell me what's going on?"

Lyle inches forward and kisses her cheek. "You may very well be the one and only person who still doesn't know, love."

"Love, huh?" I tease.

Lyle looks back at me, narrowing his eyes. "Is there a problem?"

"Much on the contrary, my good friend," I reply. "Glad to see you suddenly became bold with your girl."

"I'll take the compliment before you say whatever you're trying to say."

"I was just going to say that the two of you look good together."

"Sure you were," he retorts, snorting. "You're full of dung, as usual."

"I was!" I say, and Ms. Higgins comes out of classroom two and starts shaking her goddamned bell. All three of us stand up, dusting our pants and getting ready to finally enter our classroom, but Eugene comes out of there first, and he stands in the doorway, blocking our way.

"All three of you, come with me."

We follow him in silence to Ms. Higgins' office, and then he proceeds to make a whole scene out of taking a seat in Ms. Higgins' usual place. We stand in the doorway until he finally gestures for us to take the two chairs in front of him. All three of us look at each other and, still in silence, we decide with nods I'm the one who should stay on my feet, so Corrine and Lyle tentatively take their seats and I stand behind them.

"I'm listening," Eugene says, lacing his fingers together and leaning on his elbows.

He's clearly in boss mode now, so I have to be very careful with my words. "We got caught in a riot outside in our way here," I offer. "Turns out that half the school knows about the forum thing."

"Amanda and Abigail got in a fight..." Corrine elaborates, but she doesn't even know why or how it happened, so she stays silent after that.

"Is that why half my class were either late, or skipped classes altogether?" Eugene growls, taking turns to look at all three of us dead in the eyes.

But yeah, it's been a pretty damn complicated day already without Zeus being a total ass about it. And, just like that, pushover John is out the door and nowhere to be found, so I return the stare full force. "It's amusing how you're asking us about it like it was our fault," I shoot, crossing my arms to my chest. "Because, truth be told, it didn't get any worse just because we were there to stop it."

"He's right, sir." Lyle adds. "I even got punched trying to stop the fight."

Eugene, however, doesn't pay attention to Lyle. He's too busy gauging me. "The problem, Mr. Foster," he starts, "is not whether or not you had anything to do with the fight, or the reason why half my class isn't here or not. The problem is that you have become extremely defiant and violent in the last few weeks. I may have saved you from getting expelled, and I sure looked the other way when you almost break Mr. Harrison's fingers the other day, but make no mistake: you're not above consequences for your actions."

"Ohhhhh, so this is about yesterday, right?" I say acidly.

"Yes, it very much is, Mr. Foster, because when Mrs. Carter calls to let us know her son is having panic attacks and refuses to come to school, I really need to think if saving you from expulsion was the right thing to do!"

"Well, that's one less piece of shit to worry about!"

"See?! That's exactly the attitude I'm having problems with!" Eugene roars, and this time he makes me flinch. "You're doing your own thing, bullying other students instead of letting me deal with them the way you should!"

"Oh, let me get this straight. So Rude having the entire school in check and bossing everyone around was fine, but when I do something to stop their shenanigans, I am not to be trusted?"

"You're not doing things any different from them, so what's really the change you're making, John?"

"I am not done, Eugene!" I snap, and somehow he actually lets me speak, and therefore, I continue. "Newt disappearing from town last year due to Rude's gang wasn't a problem, but now that fucking Potato is crying like a bitch because I warned him to behave, it's suddenly one hell of a big deal, right?"

"It is, because you're too busy doing that, while you neglect the one thing I asked you to do, which is to keep an eye on Charles Newton! And, correct me if I'm wrong, he's currently not with you, is he?"

"Wait, wasn't he in class?" Lyle asks, and looks at me. I barely had time to leave home before the whole thing between Abby and Amanda exploded, so Newt didn't even cross my mind for a second.

"Charles didn't come to class today, and I was hoping for him to be with the two of you, which clearly isn't the case."

"I overslept today..." I say vaguely, wondering where the hell Newt is. "I thought he would be coming to school without us. I guess I was wrong?"

"All three of you go to class. I'll call Mrs. Newton," Eugene says. "I'll let you know whatever I find out. And, Mr. Foster?"

"What, now?" I turn to him, and he points a menacing finger at me.

"Straight to class."

I feel like arguing against it, but I can tell it's not the best idea right now so, instead, I'm the first out the door, already taking my phone out of my pocket and calling Newt. It rings three times before he picks it up.

"Heeeeey! Who's there?" The cheerful voice on the other side of the speaker isn't Newt's, which is an immediate red flag.

"Who is this? Where's Newt?!"

"Come on, Foster. Don't be so dumb. We were expecting your call sooner or later." There's a slight silence on the line, and then there's a painful scream that undoubtedly belongs to Newt.

I feel the blood boiling and rushing through my veins. I clench my jaw before answering, "I don't know who you are, and I don't care, but you better be really good at hiding, motherfucker..."

"Yeah, yeah. So scary and whatever," he says, and someone else chuckles. "You think you're all tough, but you're just some noisy tenth grader who doesn't know better. And while you're strong enough to beat Rude in a fight, you're fighting alone."

"And that's all I need to bring a poor bastard like you down," I say, although I feel completely helpless just threatening this unknown person through the phone. I need more than this. I will destroy these assholes. I'll make them—

"You should come pick up your boyfriend at the old factory," the guy says, giving me the info I needed. They better say their prayers. "Better bring some Band-Aids, though! This little bitch is pretty roughed-up." I hear laughter on the other side of the line, and then they hang up on me.

"Dude, what's wrong?" Lyle asks, but it barely registers over the ringing in my ears. Was he standing next to me the entire time? "What happened to Newt?"

"There's no time. Take care of my stuff, and let Zeus know, I guess." I take off my backpack and drop it on the floor. "I'm off to the factory. Newt is in trouble."