"Great, effing great," Bry said. He looked at Tiff. "Do ya think you could not make it so dudes want to beat the snot outta me?"

Alex snickered and Bry swung to him. "What's so funny, Sims?"

"It's just that... you're sorta our tank."

Terran nodded and I put my hand in my face. "No WoW talk, Alex."

"What, Hart?"

Never mind. Brother.

"It's like World of Warcraft. The tank takes the damage so the other players can survive. You're our tank." John made it sound like an honor or something.

I could tell from Bry's expression he was thinking getting beat up every time we were together wasn't a point of pride.

"Argh!" Bry kinda yelled.

Mia slammed her car door, leaving the engine running and he looked at her as she came, all honey hair and deep eyes.

Eyes that a guy could learn to love.

"It's okay, she's the only girl in a house full of boys. How else does she survive?" she asked him, then put her perfectly manicured hand on his arm and he was lost.

"She's just so stubborn..." he said, staring at her.

Tiff began waving her arms above her head, back and forth, crossing the wrists. "Right here! I'm right here, Bry. And you're pretty GD stubborn yourself, jackass."

Bry finally woke from his reverie and glared at her.

"Crap!" Jade said, alarmed.

"What?" I asked, looking around, waiting for some Psychotic Event to appear.

Like usual.

I didn't see anything. Huh.

"It's my backpack! I left it at Tulle's!"

"What?" Mia and Sophie said together. I could tell that they thought she had gone temporarily insane.

Jade wavered. Finally, she relented. "Yeah. I just got distracted by the cops showing up and not finding that stupid sample." She huffed in exasperation.

Tiff asked, "What's the big deal? That pink thing?"

"That pink thing!" Sophie yelled. "It's a Coach, fashion-impaired."

Tiff narrowed her eyes on Sophie. "Ya know," she began, snapping her gum, "you'd do well in hoodies. No one needs a zoo lesson."

Oh shit.

Sophie was partial to animal prints and today she was wearing cheetah. Sophie walked over to Tiff, teetering expertly on her high-heeled boots (designer, I was sure). "A girl that wears hoodies to school and does not, by God, know what a Coach purse is needs to shut her mouth when discussing how another girl could misplace said purse."

Tiff had blown a bubble the size of her head and swatted it out of the way before answering Sophie. "Okay, when you're not wearing a zoo, and don't have weapons attached to your shoes, I'm gonna pay attention. Otherwise. No."

Jonesy looked on with interest. "Is this like, gonna morph into one of those awesome cat fights?"

They looked at him.

"What?" he shrugged.

John shook his head. "Stay out of it, Jones."

"No way, I think it was just starting to get interesting."

Jade sighed, "I gotta go back into the school. It has my pulse, everything. I wouldn't put it past Tulle to get into my pulse and..." she looked at me significantly.

Holy hell. I sent Jade some hot stuff.

Jones saw my face and I shot him a look.

Don't say it.

He said it. "Got some kind of porn thing goin' on, Caleb?"

Alex perked right up and Bry laughed.

Sometimes the merit of Jonesy's friendship was overrated.

Jonesy was nodding in an exaggerated way. "I knew you had it goin' on Hart!"

Tiff piped in, "Don't you have some shitty diapers to change or something, Jonesy?"

His face fell. "Thanks for reminding me, princess."

She grinned like a fool, really enjoying his discomfort. "Anytime."

Jade and I began walking toward the school with the gang close behind.

"Should you leave your tin can parked like that, Mia?" Bry asked.

We looked at the car, like a wind-up toy, out in the middle of the street. She shrugged. "We're just here to make sure she reacquires the precious and then we'll go. What will it take, five minutes?"

We walked in the double doors, a janitor at the top of the stairs, making his way down each step, sweeping as he went. He looked up. Jensen, his name tag said.

"You kids need to skedaddle. Busy cleaning here." His charcoal eyes challenged ours.

"I left my backpack in Miss Tulle's room," Jade said with a contrite voice. If that enticing female tone didn't get him to soften, nothing would.

It did. He said, "Okay, run in there and get it, but the rest of ya, stay put."

We waited at the bottom of the stairs. When Jade was about at the top, I saw her hand come out to grip the smooth, tube like handrail and she flinched, gripping it harder. Her face paled and her body shook.

I had never moved so fast in my life. I think I cleared four steps at a time on my way to her. The janitor backed up, not sure what to do. I sorta shoved him out of the way and Jade fell backward into my arms. She was clammy, a light sheen of sweat on her forehead.

"What? Jade... what's wrong?" I asked.

The group were all around me and she whispered, "Boys' bathroom..."

I looked at the guys. What was going on?

"They're hurting him... need to help..." she said.

Hurting who?

"I'm spoiling for something!" Jonesy yelled like a native before war.

The janitor hollered something about getting out of the school and we ignored him.

I scooped Jade up and hauled her underneath my arm, half jogging with her, football hold-style as I watched the guys sprint for the boys' bathroom as the girls jogged after, keeping pace with Jade and I.

I heard the shouting before I got to the door and knew who we were dealing with before I arrived.

Carson and Crew.

Marvelous.

Carson and Brett had some poor kid pinned to the cinder block wall, his nose crooked and bloody, one shoe off, his pants down to his ankles.

WTF? what was this happy horse shit?

Bry and Jonesy had burst through the door, the thing banging against the wall, Alex bringing up the rear.

I was almost stunned to silence that Christi was there, torturing the poor kid along with the sickness that was her brother, Brody.

"What the blue hell are you doin' to him, ya clowns?" Tiff roared at the group of guys as her gum plopped to the floor in a disgusting wad.

Diego nodded, grinning like a loon and I put Jade into Sophie's capable embrace as John flanked my side. I slid my eyes to Tiff, who I knew first hand to be an underdog lover. This was so up her alley.

If she survived it.

Buddy was there too, just for shits and giggles. This was becoming a colossal cluster and I wasn't sure how to fix it but first things first.

"What's going on?" I asked levelly, hoping to keep the tension down.

Diego straightened, giving his full attention to Tiff. "You're an abrasive little bitch, ya know that?"

"Yeah," she bellowed back at him and he flinched, unprepared for Tiff.

Join the crowd.

His fists clenched and he looked at Bry.

Bry looked back at him, eyes steady. "Don't even try it. You touch my sister and I'll break your hand off and wipe my ass with it."

Diego smiled. "What do you care? This faggot was asking for it. Checkin' our junk out during suit up?" He turned on the kid. "Weren't ya?" he screamed in the kid's beaten face.

I knew that kid, Lewis Archer. He was in my... damn, couldn't think of it now.

He clenched his eyes closed and waited for more blows. I was figuring he was about done suffering through it all.

"Alex?" I said, real calm.

"Yeah, Hart?"

"Go get... Lewis from these gang-beaters and we'll let them get back to what they were doing."

Jonesy added, "Looks like a circle jerk to me. Manned by Christi."

Oh. God.

All hell broke loose. Brody came at Jonesy to defend Barbie's dubious honor while Carson punched Bry in the face as he was advancing and Diego ignored the guys and went straight for Tiff.

"John!" I screamed.

"I'm on it!" Terran yelled, racing in a clumsy waltz over to where Diego was trying to grab Tiff, all six-four of him.

I glanced back at a pale and trembling Jade and had just enough time to prepare for the punch to my bread basket when I did a retaliatory strike to Brett's throat. He choked, a surprised, gagging sound that was partway between a gurgle and a strangle and fell on his ass. Not to be outdone, and you gotta admire his tenacity, he swept his foot up and glanced my nut sack. I fell, the urge to throw up a burning need in the back of my throat.

This was so outta hand I didn't know where to begin. I watched Alex, struggling to overcome the throbbing thing that were my balls, to see him take a hold of Diego as he threw him through one of the bathroom stalls and the door broke off its hinges, crumbling under the six-foot, two hundred pound Diego. Alex turned, obviously in a rage and set his sights on Buddy.

I held up my hand and choked out, "Leave him!"

Alex straightened just as Buddy turned on him and Carson leaped on his back.

That solidified my opinion of their utter brainlessness. Wow.

With a roar, Alex literally shrugged the pair off of him and they flew into the opposing walls. Sliding down until their butts hit the floor. I looked around at the fallen bodies and my eyes fell on Christi.

She looked even better than I remember. I didn't let that bother me. "What were you doin' to him Christi?"

Lewis is the one that answered, and even on the floor, holding my throbbing balls, with my enemies piled around me, I could see the kid's beauty. He had one of those faces, like an angel. "That sadistic bitch was hurting me," he said, the words totally not in sync with his looks.

"Where?" John asked, giving her the look she deserved.

"They didn't want to touch it!" she wailed.

Of course, Christi was willing, I thought uncharitably.

Bry looked at her like she was a pariah.

I looked at Lewis, his light gray eyes flinching, the lashes like black lace. "You know where," he said in a low voice filled with shame.

I hated these guys.

Jonesy trained his eyes on Christi, giving a good kick to Buddy as he strolled past, who groaned as his sneaker made square contact with a rib.

"Let me sum this up then. You," he pointed a finger at Christi, "did a pecker-pull on Archer here while the losers with you beat him up?"

She just stared at him. He strode over to where she was and screamed in her face, "Is it true you stupid slut?!"

She yelped and I said in a low voice, "Cool it , Jonesy. We all know what a scumbag she is."

"Yes, we do," John agreed and Alex nodded, his glasses hanging off one ear. As I watched, he adjusted them and they slid down his nose.

Bry said, "Don't hurt her Jones. She's horrible but she's a chick."

"She isn't a chick," Jones said with real feeling. "She's female." He walked over to Tiff and dragged her over to Christi. "This is a chick. You're nothing..."

He began to turn away, Tiff looking at him in stunned adoration that he had finally tipped his hat to her when Christi chilled us to the bone with, "You're just a fag-lover, Jonesy. Deep down, that's why you go out with girl after girl. It's a put-on. You actually want to travel the Hershey highway." She smiled at her little pun.

Jonesy whipped back around and I knew he was going for it when Bry launched at him, Jonesy fighting him like a barracuda. "Not. Worth. It. Jones!"

Christi pushed herself away from the wall and strolled around a foaming-at-the-mouth-Jonesy. "Yeah, my brother's told me about you guys. Your little hideaway. Where you all meet. The AFTD and all you other weirdos. It's all a front. You came here to save your little friend." She reached out a hand to touch Lewis, who was looking at her with horror and he shrank away from her touch.

Not to worry, Tiff balled up her fist and hit Christie square in the nose. Her hands went to her face but not before a jet of blood like lava shot out of her nostrils in a literal stream. Tiff wasn't done by a long shot and grabbed her shoulders and slammed her knee into Christi's fashionably flat abs. She made an oof! sound and keeled over in a bleeding heap on the boys bathroom floor.

Lewis looked up at Tiff, her hands on her hips, blood all over her hoodie and said in a whisper, "Thank you."

"Welcome," Tiff said, jabbing a new stick of gum in her mouth.

Cripes-on-a-crutch.

CHAPTER 6

I scrambled to my feet and went to Jade. It was at that point that I heard an ominous clicking in the hall, approaching on a stiletto rhythm, I'd know it anywhere.