Ten

About thirty minutes later, Mrs Maxwell had finished cleaning up the injuries Tyler and I sustained.

"I need the numbers of your parents, so they can come pick you up." She informed us.

"Um... our parents are out of town." I lied.

I was not willing to discover what my mum would do if she heard I was involved in a fight. Also, Tyler was already grounded for a week because of the fight with Jake, I didn't think he would appreciate more weeks being added to the punishment.

"We would just walk home." Tyler added.

Mrs Maxwell eyed us suspiciously, from above her eyeglasses.

"If your parents are out of town, shouldn't you be in the custody of a guardian?" she asked finally.

"That is so true." Tyler said, turning to me with a distressed smile.

"Yes, Mrs Maxwell, we are in the custody of my older brother."

"Then give me his number." Mrs Maxwell said, handing me a paper and a pen.

I collected the paper and pen, wrote down my older brother's number and returned them to Mrs Maxwell.

Mrs Maxwell went into her office to make the call, leaving Tyler and I alone in the room.

"You just had to involve yourself, didn't you?" I  asked, turning to Tyler.

"You would have done the same thing, Jason." Tyler answered.

"No, I would not have."

"Wow." Tyler said flatly. "That just goes on to show my point."

"What point?"

"You never do anything, except you are sure of the outcome."

Anger welled up inside me, mostly because what Tyler said was the truth.

I struggled to come up with a reply, but my efforts were futile, so I decided to distract myself with other thoughts.

I wondered if Claire and Ashley were still waiting for us outside the clinic. Mrs Maxwell had stopped them from going in with us earlier, she told them to wait outside or go home.

A little while later, Mrs Maxwell walked back into the room and informed us that my older brother would be coming to pick us up soon.

I said a prayer of thanks to God in my heart, I couldn't wait to get out of here, I had been in school way too long for a Friday.

A few minutes later, the door of the clinic swung open and Alex walked in. He glanced at Tyler and I with a venomous look before exchanging pleasantries with Mrs Maxwell.

"Are you their guardian?" Mrs Maxwell asked.

"Yes, I am, but only for a period of  time."

"Well, they were attacked by a group of boys in the hallway, and were brutally beat up. I came across them by chance. If I hadn't seen them, I wonder what those boys would have done to their poor bodies."

Our poor bodies?!!!

"Thank you so much, Mrs Maxwell." Alex replied.

"I'd advise you to take it up with the school authorities and ensure that those miscreants are punished."

"I'll speak to their parents about that."

"Very well, you can take them home."

"Thank you so much, Mrs Maxwell." Alex said, rising to his feet. "I really appreciate your kindness." he added and stretched out his hand for a handshake. Mrs Maxwell shook his hand briefly, with a smile.

Alex turned to Tyler and I and jerked his head toward the door. Tyler and I rose and walked out of the room with Alex following closely behind us. We walked silently for a while before Alex stepped in front of us with an angry look on his face.

I almost bumped into his hard chest.

"Why are you stopping?" I asked.

"What is wrong with the both of you?" He asked.

"Aside the excruciating pain on the left side of my ribs, nothing else is wrong with me. I can't speak for Tyler though."

Alex glared at me. "You very well know what I mean, Jason."

I remained quiet, deciding against another witty reply.

"Why do you guys keep getting into trouble?" Alex continued. "Earlier in the week, it was Tyler who got into a fight, now both of you got into a brutal fight."

"It was not a fight, we got beat up." Tyler said in defense.

"People don't just get beat up, Tyler. What did you guys do?"

Tyler and I remained quiet.

"That's what I thought. You better pray our parents don't find out."

"They won't." I replied.

"And what makes you so sure?" Alex asked.

"Aside the nasty bruise on my abdomen, there is no other obvious injury. And aside the insignificant cuts on Tyler's arm and the bruises on his neck, there are no obvious injuries." I retorted.

"Oh, so what if mum does this?"

Before I could understand what he was saying, his hard fist jabbed into my abdomen. I groaned and staggered a few steps back.

"What would you do?" he asked,  completely ignoring my groaning.

I looked up at him with nothing but anger, letting go of my abdomen, I walked past him, slightly brushing his shoulder.

"Jason!!" he called after me, but I ignored him and continued out of the school building.

I almost collided with Claire, who was walking into the school building.

"I thought you had left?" I asked.

"No. I just stepped out to see Ashley off, her mum came to pick her up. Are you okay?"

"Yes." I glanced behind me and saw Alex and Tyler approaching. "C'mon." I said taking Claire by the hand and pulling her down the stairs.

"Are you avoiding something?" She asked when we had reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Someone, actually." I replied and continued pulling her out of the school  compound.

"You know, you do not have to pull me." Claire informed me.

"Oh. Sorry." I said and let go of her hand.

In a few seconds, we were out of the school compound and heading down the street.

"Is it Tyler?" Claire asked.

"What?"

"The person you're avoiding, is it Tyler?"

"No. It's my older brother."

"Okay."

Claire and I continued walking down the street silently. I occasionally glanced at her in an attempt to read her facial expression, but all my attempts were futile. Her brows were furrowed and she squinted at the ground. The look on her face was similar to the look she had on Monday, while we were waiting for Tyler.

"What are you thinking of?" I asked finally, tapping her shoulder gently.

She jerked and turned to me. "What?!"

"What are you thinking of?" I repeated.

"A lot of things." She replied.

I was about to speak when I heard someone yelling behind us. Claire and I turned, and our eyes were greeted with a sweaty Tyler.

"What are you doing here?" I asked in surprise.

He placed his hands on his knees for support and breathed heavily through his open mouth.

"You guys... walk really fast." Tyler said when he finally caught his breath.

"Where is Alex?" I asked.

Tyler straightened. "His car had a flat tire, so he had to change it."

"Were you running?" Claire asked.

"I had to. Both of you walk extremely fast."

"I had no idea." Claire replied.

"Well, I just wanted to say, I'm in."

"What?!" Claire and I chorused.

"I mean, I'm in."

"You have clarified nothing." I informed him.

"I mean Claire's plan."

"Seriously?" Claire said, allowing her eyes to widen in joy.

"Yup." Tyler responded.

"Yes!!!" Claire exclaimed with utter joy.

"Wait, what?!" I asked in disbelief.

"You heard me." Tyler replied.

"But I thought you were not interested?"

"Yes, but the happenings of the recent past have succeeded in changing my mind."

"How about you, Jason, are you in?" Claire asked, turning to me with a wide smile.

"No!" I replied firmly and continued walking.

"C'mon Jason, please."

I glanced at Claire's pleading eyes.

"No." I repeated.

In no way were they going to drag me into this.

"Why not?" Tyler asked.

"Because, none of us are certain that whatever plan Claire has is foolproof."

"So?!"

"It could fail!" I retorted.

"And what difference would it make if it fails? We would just remain the unpopular bullied eleventh grade students we already are." Tyler said.

I remained quiet.

"This just goes on to prove my point." Tyler concluded.

I stopped abruptly.

I very well knew what Tyler was talking about.

Nothing but rage surged inside me. "I'm in." I said in a low firm voice, glaring at a smiling Tyler.

"Sweet!" Claire exclaimed.

Just then, Alex's car pulled up beside us. "Get in." Alex grunted, from the drivers seat.

The look on his face made it clear that we had no other options. All three of us hurried into the backseat of the car, and the car swung into motion.

"We'll have to meet tomorrow." Claire said.

"Where?" I asked.

"There's this restaurant not too far from my house, 'Casa del cibo'. We can meet there." Claire replied.

"What kind of restaurant is that?" I asked.

"It's Italian."

"We can go see a movie when we're done." Tyler said with excitement.

"No." I replied.

"C'mon it would be fun." Claire persuaded.

"What movie?" I asked Tyler.

"The fallen dynasty." Tyler replied grinning.

"It sounds interesting." Claire said with a wide smile.

"Trust me Claire, it won't be."