DYLAN WATCHED, HER FACE scrunched up at she watched Hawk's handshake with Bert. Mitch stood next to him, grinning between his friends. She shook her head and walked fully through the doors. They didn't seem concerned about anything — not even the possibility of getting into more trouble with the district.

"If I have to see those people for more than five seconds I'm ditching my citizenship and calling it quits," Dylan grumbled. Moon smiled sympathetically, looking in disappointment as her ex-boyfriend slammed a kid's pile of textbooks out of his hands.

"Hey Dylan!" Demetri's voice came booming across the room. Dylan watched with a frown as she took in the situation before her.

Demetri and Chris were facing a tense and riled up group of Cobra Kais, with Hawk at the very front of it, as he always was.

"Nice face, Oakes." Hawk nodded at her injured face, egging her on. She flipped him off with a bored look.

"You wanna match?" She grinned as he scowled. Demetri laughed louder than he usually would at her joke, and she looked at him in suspicion. Demetri usually wasn't this confident in himself, but after he'd thrown Hawk into a trophy cabinet, he was probably still riding out that high.

"Bite me," Hawk said tensely. He was itching for another fight. Dylan watched as their councelor made her way over to them, looking nervous as she looked between the students. "All this security isn't enough to protect your scrawny ass."

Demetri bit down, his jaw tensing. Dylan nodded her head towards him, silently asking if he was okay.

"I don't need security," Demetri replied. "Dylan and I are fine on our own."

"Get some better threats, Moskowitz. And a better haircut. Then we'll talk, cool?" Dylan asked, smiling for Counselor Blatt as she eased herself away from the boy who was about ready to pounce on her.

"Everything alright here?"

"Oh! We're all buddies here." Demetri slapped Hawk on the shoulder, putting his arms around him and Mitch with a cheeky grin on his face. Dylan stifled a laugh. "Isn't that right fellas?"

"Yeah," Hawk gritted out, a smile plastered on his face. He slapped Demetri on the chest, hard, causing him to wince.

"Don't you all have somewhere to be?" Their counselor asked them firmly. Dylan stepped up from behind her line of sight.

"If I may . . . honestly, I think we're all just trying to get to where we were before, you know, the fight," Dylan said, faking a look of far off sadness. "It's been tough, and we just don't wanna burn anymore bridges, counselor Blatt."

Blatt's eyes softened as she looked at her. Like Demetri, Dylan had also moved closer to the Cobra Kais, pretending to be friends with them as she mussed up Mitch's hair and pinched Hawk's cheek. She heard his intake of breath and watched his eye twitch dangerously.

"Of course, Dylan. I can agree with you on that," She said, laughing nervously as she eyed Dylan's stitches.

The school was narrowly avoiding getting sued, and everyone was expecting Dylan Oakes to be the next person to take legal action against the high school. Miguel's mom was already talking about the steps she could take for Miguel's injury, and the school was fully expecting Dylan to be next up in line to consider those options. She wasn't, considering her grandmother was on an island, but they didn't need to know that.

"This might be too much to ask, but I thought I would anyways . . . " She trailed off, looking at her counselor. Dylan had made herself appear more shy and weak than all of the boys behind her knew her to be.

"Oh, please ask, Dylan. Whatever it is, I'm sure it's fine," Her counselor was falling for it faster than Dylan could believe.

"Do you think Demetri and I could have the decision to leave during lunch if we wanted to? It's kind of hard to be back in this environment, and I'd like a friend to be with me so I'm not alone. You know, if it's possible." She winked at Demetri and flashed a toothy grin at Hawk when Blatt turned her head.

"That would be fine. Whatever you need to do. Just come to me if you need any other periods off," Blatt told her symathetically. "Whatever we can do to help you here, we will."

"I will, thank you."

Blatt turned to look at the other boys, skipping Demetri as Dylan had made sure she would by including him in her little performance.

"Don't you all have somewhere to be?" She questioned them carefully. It was clear to everyone that the adults at the school were more tense than any of the students were. They couldn't afford another showdown like the one before.

Literally. The school was still trying to pay for the repairs for the trophy cabinets and cracked tiles from the amount of kids that had been thrown into them. And it was taking a while for the community to cough up their spare dollars.

"Yes, counselor Blatt."

Dylan dragged Demetri with her as Blatt left, making sure that by the time the woman was out of sight, they would be out of Hawk's before he could rage.

"Incredible! One of the worst performances of my career, and she never doubted it for a second," She stated proudly. Demetri laughed.

"Have you heard anything on Miguel?" Demetri asked her, worried for the boy that had become friends with them. "I know that he's still in a coma, but I'm just hoping that maybe the doctors are figuring something out."

"They haven't said jack," Dylan told him honestly as they walked to their first class. "I'm serious. But I know that it's bad enough. I don't even think that they know what's up with him. They can't . . . not until he wakes up."

"Shit . . . " Demetri whispered. "Hawk's not helping, as always. He keeps bragging about how he's going to raise as much money as he can for Miguel and his family, but he's probably just talking straight out of his ass."

"Of course he is," Dylan laughed. "Hawk's got almost no money to his name after his hair appointments and his tattoos. Shit's expensive and we both know it."

"Yeah." They threw their stuff down in pre-calculus and picked the pair of empty desks right next to each other. "Are you seeing him soon, for sure?" He questioned her.

Dylan had excitedly ranted about how Carmen Diaz was going to take her to see him after school, and both of them had been over the moon. He had told her that even if they weren't allowed to bring anything in, he had a comic for Miguel that she could smuggle in. She hadn't so much as hesitated in saying yes.

"Dude, I'm actually getting in. I'm just worried about what I'm gonna see. He's gonna be all . . . vulnerable, and shit. Like, he'll basically just be sleeping," She said, thinking about it.

"Make sure you tell the All Valley champion that he looks vulnerable, when he wakes up. I'm sure he'd love to hear that," Demetri said sarcastically. Dylan swatted his shoulder and swore at him quietly. "He'll be able to hear you, you know. So maybe don't leave your ringer on. In case SlipKnot comes on."

"Hey! I think that that could actually be great! What better way to bring someone out of a coma than by playing Psychosocial in their eardrums?" She joked — partially.

"Just think about the medical accidents that could occur if you did that. He could potentially go into cardiac arrest. At the very least, lose all of his hearing," Demetri pointed out seriously. Dylan rolled her eyes.

"Lighten up."

By the time their first period was over, the only chatter that remained was the occasional remark to a friend about Dylan's face, or the fact that Sam LaRusso had apparently come back to school as well, and was already making new friends — if you could call it that. She'd argued so far with multiple freshman over what they'd been whispering about her.

Dylan smiled at Moon as they passed each other in the hallway, who quickly greeted her and Demetri. Then, Dylan's shoes squeaked against the floor as she noticed the presence of one of the people she'd thought she'd finally escaped.

Yasmine scowled as she looked at them. She didn't seem happy with the fact that the exact people she had bullied before she'd gone off to Paris were higher in the social hierarchy now than she'd ever expected.

"I can't believe this. A year ago you guys were some of the most pathetic losers I'd ever seen," She said, looking at them with disgust. Her freshly manicured nails were pressed into her palm as she held her designer bad in the crook of her elbow.

"Guess I'm finally on your level now," Demetri said coyly, wiggling his eyebrows at her suggetsively. Dylan slapped a palm to her face.

"Ugh, as if!" Yasmine whined. "You and me," She pointed between them, "will never happen. Got that—Moon, stop laughing!" Moon was failing to hide her laugh.

"Let's go, Yas. Bye guys!" Moon waved at them, and Demetri and Dylan returned the favor. They watched to the two old friends walk away.

"You know, I still think that she could spit in my face and I would thank her," Demetri said, starstruck.

"That's absolutely disgusting and I'm a firm believer that I'm going to have to hold you accountable for that statement," Dylan told him, shaking her head. "I will be pressing charges."

Demetri squinted his eyes as he looked over at her.

"You say that as if you wouldn't let Miguel—"

"Don't even finish that, Dem." Dylan shook her head, holding up a hand to silence him. "I'll kick to you to curb in five seconds. I swear."

"You're no fun," He grumbled.

"I am who I am," Dylan shrugged. She shoved on a pink White Sox baseball cap her late father had given her when she was three for her to 'grow into,' to quote the man. It still barely fit, and Demetri had always gotten a kick out of it.

"MAYBE THIS IS a bad idea . . . " Dylan said to Carmen, looking over at her awkwardly after staring through the glass to Miguel's room.

"No, no, no! This will be good for both of you!" Carmen shook her head vigorously. "Besides, I need my son to wake up and this is how I know he will." Carmen wagged her finger near Dylan's face, though she wasn't looking at the girl. Instead she stared at her son, his chest rising and falling steadily.

At least he was breathing normally.

"That seems like you'll kill me if he doesn't," Dylan said dryly. It was meant to be a joke, but part of Dylan felt like Carmen Diaz's hopes were riding a little bit high. Besides, Dylan was only Miguel's friend. As far as she knew, Hawk might be able to speak to the boy who was so far unable to wake up quite a bit better than she would.

It went unsaid to Carmen that Samantha LaRusso was most likely Miguel's best bet. Because if he was going to wake up to anyone's voice anytime soon, why wouldn't it be the girl he'd been in love with at first sight?

No matter how much her brain told her to tell Carmen Diaz that maybe the LaRusso girl was his best bet, she found her heart betrayed her. The thought of Sam and Miguel made her ill, though she pushed the feeling away. After all, it was only because they didn't get along well enough, and because she wanted to look out for her friend.

"I don't even know what to say. Should I rant about my day at school? No one wants to hear that," Dylan grumbled hopelessly to herself. Carmen rested a firm hand on her shoulders.

"Talk about whatever you want to, Dylan. He's in there, and he's listening. Whatever you have to say, he's going to listen, even if it doesn't look like it," She said convincingly. "Wherever he is in that mind of his, he'll hear you." She motioned for Dylan to step inside, and so, she did.

Her white sneakers squeaked against the floor as she padded towards him. She wrung her hands awkwardly, peering down at his body on the hospital bed. The only sound seemed to be breathing, from her and from him, and the sound of the monitor doing its job.

"Hey, Mig. Hope you're doing well." She cringed, and she could bet whatever god that was listening was face palming at her squeaky voice and her awkward statement that didn't seem to make any sense given the circumstances. "I don't know what you're dreaming, or thinking about, or doing right now inside your head, but I at least hope you're on a hot date with some chick. You deserve it, bud," She said with a sad grin on her face, trying to take the situation lightly.

She looked up at the window, and watched as Carmen talked to a doctor outside of their little room. It didn't seem to be anything pressing, but she watched for a moment as Carmen defended her presence with Miguel. Luckily, the doctor seemed to nod with sympathy. Dylan had no doubt that when she looked over, they could see the fatigue on her face.

"That's a bad joke and I'm genuinely sorry. I won't blame you if you don't wake up because of that. I wouldn't either. But, um, when you actually do wake up, I'll buy you ice cream and like, do your homework. It's okay, you don't have to thank me," She said blandly. She coughed uncomfortably. "Bad joke, again." She thought about what else to say. "I just want you to know that if you give up, and you die, I'll kill you. That's not just a threat, it's a promise. Cross my heart and hope to die," She said seriously, crossing her heart. She cringed again at how bad that joke was given the circumstance. "As much as it pains me to actually admit to myself that I have human capabilities . . . you are in fact one of my only friends, which means I actually happen to like you. We all need you to wake up. Things have been, weird, to say the least," She said, vaguely referencing the ongoing karate related tension. "Scratch what I said about everyone needing you. As much as they need you, and everyone misses you and wants you to wake up," She breathed out hesitantly. "I need you more than they do. That's not a joke this time, Mig."

The skin around her eyes pulled taut as her muscles constricted. She could tell that if she was going to be in there for too long, the dam would break and the tears would start flowing. And that was scary enough. Dylan didn't like to cry in front of people. Even if they weren't even conscious. She sniffled, trying to fight the beginning of a runny nose.

"You should know that I just cut up an onion, so this isn't because of you . . . " She squeezed her eyes shut and made a face, trying to bite back the grief. "Oh fuck it," She sighed.

Dylan picked up Miguel's hand, being careful not to knock off the device on his finger that helped monitor his vitals, or whatever it was the doctors always said it did. His hand was limp and cold. His pulse was there though. She thought she felt it jump when she dragged a shaky thumb over the specific point on his wrist.

"I really need you to come out of this Miguel. Forget everything and everyone else, because right now, all you need to know is that everything sucks without you here. I mean that more than I've ever meant anything in my life," Her voice jumped in pitch, to be about an entire octave higher than it was supposed to be. Her cheeks were rosy because of how upset she was, and she gingerly set his hand back down, quickly making sure it wouldn't fall limply off the side of the bed.

And for the first time in a long time, Dylan had cried for Miguel. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, and despite the part of her that whispered how weak it made her for showing that vulnerability, she couldn't help but feel it anyway. And feel it, she did.

Grief, anger, hope, love, hurt, were only some of the things that she felt in that moment, all coming together in a kaleidoscope of raw emotions. She felt all of those things in some way or another, and to some degree. Dylan Oakes wept for what had become of Miguel Diaz, and how in turn, the boy who she'd finally become friends with had impacted her. She didn't know what she would do with herself if he didn't come out of this.

Which was why Dylan had gotten the shock of her life when she looked up, glancing tearfully back at her friend.

Or more specifically, the cold hand that had instinctively reached to firmly grip her small wrist in a chilling clutch, unprompted and unexpected. Dylan couldn't help but notice the little palpitation her heart made.

authors note —

OH MY GOD ITS HAPPENING! anyways, sorry for the late chapter. shit has been going DOWN. but not really. i'm kind of just lazy and i've been slacking on my school work as much as it pains my pride to say.

i really hope you liked the chapter! tell me what you think!

personally i hated it which is why it took me a while to find motivation to finish writing this one. i didn't have much to write today except for the hospital scene. everything else was written like two weeks ago i just hated it and thought it was boring and not the best writing. but oh well. i think it ended pretty good.