"You're dismissed."

I sighed and got up from the chair.

"I hope this will be the last time I see you in here, Mister Lacy," said Principal Landon, eyeing me from behind his desk.

"But you'll miss me," I replied, daring to smile.

Of course he would. I kept his job interesting. Without me, he'd be bored as fuck being stuck here all day dealing with whatever shit he dealt with. I was actually doing him a favor.

He stared at me for second before he turned his focus on the papers in front of him. He raised a hand and gestured toward the exit.

"Close the door when you go."

Shrugging nonchalantly, I marched out of his office. I nodded to Mrs. Beanie, Principal Landon's secretary, on my way out. The old woman gave me a what-am-I-gonna-do-about-you look. I almost chuckled. She'd been giving me that look since freshman year. She also gave me hot cocos while I waited back then. Not much else she could do, to be honest.

I flashed her a grin, before walking out.

When I got to the hallway, I saw my friends waiting outside. They straightened up as I walked towards them. I nodded in greeting.

"What's the verdict?" asked Kurt.

"What else?" I snorted.

They waited, their eyes on me.

I smirked. "Innocent."

At that, they breathed out in relief, whooping under their breaths. Connie leaned back on the lockers as she hugged her books against her chest. Frisco ruffled his hair, panting as if he just ran a marathon. Alfie and Kurt grinned to each other, fist bumping.

"We gotta stay low key for a while, though," I told them firmly.

I glanced around the students nearby. Multiple eyes were on us, obviously already hearing about what happened yesterday. But none of them were really close enough to hear our conversation.

"I mean, weeks," I cleared up, looking back at the crew with a serious face. "We need to let this shit with Cameron die down."

Connie pursed her lips, while Frisco scratched the side of head.

Alfie nodded. "Got it."

I switched my eyes to Kurt.

He shrugged. "Whatever you say, man."

We all stayed silent for a moment, recalling the events from yesterday. Only Connie and Frisco bothered to go to the hospital. Not sure how Cameron's parents got informed, but I heard they arrived around mid-afternoon.

This morning, Principal Landon called for us in his office to ask a few questions. More like, interrogated. But as we expected, it couldn't be ruled out as anything but an accident.

Alfie's face split into a wide smug smile.

"But that plan was fucking brilliant, right?" he grinned.

"It was," I agreed, letting out a small laugh.

"I got to hand it to you, Alfie," started Connie, smiling crookedly, "I didn't think you'd come up with something like that."

Alfie bowed. "My pleasure."

"Don't you think we went overboard?" asked Frisco, with a worried frown.

"We didn't plan on it," I reminded him.

The original idea was to only sprain a body part. But that clearly shot out the window the moment he opened his piehole and yapped some stupid shit instead of keeping quiet like a good little boy he pretended to be.

So if you really think about it, it was the cocksucker's fault he had a dead leg instead of only a sprained whatever.

"Dude, he deserved it," said Kurt, putting a hand on Frisco's shoulder.

None of us spoke. For a second, I wondered if what we were doing had a point. After we extracted our revenge on all those responsible, what then?

Are we just gonna continue our lives like nothing happened?

I vaguely shook my head. Not the time and place to reflect on this. I wanted to laugh. Me, reflecting and shit. That wasn't my style.

Alfie clapped his hands together, and asked, "You know what I think?"

"No," shrugged Frisco. "But I'm sure you'll tell us."

"I think we need to unwind. Get the bad mojo outta our system."

Connie raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. "And what do you have in mind?"

"Let's have a beach party!" proposed Alfie excitedly.

Kurt chuckled. "We have a game tonight."

"I know that, fucker," laughed Alfie. "I meant tomorrow. You in?"

"You need to ask?" snorted Kurt.

I shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

"I'm in," replied Connie a-matter-of-factly.

Frisco smiled. "Me, too."

I suddenly caught sight of a girl with a black hair just as she passed us. She wore an army jacket over a white dress. I only realized then that the jacket might've belonged to her late dad. Without thinking, I followed after her.

"Hey, Oz! Where're you going?" yelled my best friend.

"I'll catch up with you later," I replied over my shoulder.

"Make good choices!"

"Alright, mom!" I chuckled.

Then, I chased after the black-haired girl to a different corridor.

Just as she arrived to her locker, a random gangly dude blocked her from my path. He was oblivious to the fact that I was trying to get to my girl here. Shithead.

I hung my head and stood in front of him, waiting for him to notice me. He continued to rummage through his shit so I cleared my throat. He looked up and saw me, causing him to automatically take a step back like I was Darth Vader or something.

Did I mention I have that effect on people?

"Beat it," I simply said.

He immediately scampered away. The dark side of the force was strong.

I wandered my eyes to Halo and realized that she watched the whole exchange. Shit. Was I too much of a dick? It wasn't like she didn't know already.

"Hey, dork," I greeted, stepping closer to her. "What's up?"

She avoided my eyes and went back to getting books from her locker. I cocked my head to the side in wonder. Did she just not hear me? Did I somehow get the wrong girl?

I looked around, making sure I was at the right place. And I was. Then, I peeked at her face. Yeah, it was Halo. Oh-kay. Maybe I should try again.

"Halo?"

Nothing.

She still ignored me.

What the fuck is going on?

"Are you mad at me?" I asked slowly, frowning.

That was the only possible reason I could come up with. Now the problem was, I didn't know what I did wrong. Girls always got mad for shittiest reasons.

But this was Halo. It wouldn't be a shitty reason.

She refused to acknowledge me at all. With an expressionless face, she went on doing her business as if I wasn't standing right here. I didn't even know she was capable of doing that - being expressionless.

Sure, there were times when I couldn't read her. But her face was so expressive that it didn't matter. All I could think of then was how adorable she looked.

The fact that she was giving me a cold shoulder now spoke volumes.

She. Is. Pissed. Off.

Think, man. Think.

Or I should just ask.

"What did I -"

And then, it all just clicked.

"You heard about Cameron Wood," I stated, nodding. I looked away and licked my lips. I needed to come up with an excuse right the fuck now. "That wasn't intentional."

She stopped what she was doing, turned to me, and raised a skeptical eyebrow. I met her steely gaze, my blue eyes staring back at her purple ones. I've never seen her this stern.

It was weird. It gave me a bad feeling.

"Okay, maybe a little bit," I admitted, giving up. She faced her locker again. "Seriously, it got out of hand. We didn't mean -"

She sighed, shaking her head. Then, she flashed me a weak smile for a brief moment before turning her attention back to her locker.

"You really don't need to explain," she said, sounding like she meant it.

I don't? Wait, is this a trick question?

"But isn't that why you're mad at me?" I asked, confused as hell.

She didn't even send me a dorky selfie today. I've been wondering about that. Now I knew why. Stupid Cameron Wood and his inability to properly defend himself from a tackle.

I heard he'd be in crutches for the next few weeks. He could still play in the future, but he wouldn't be able to play for his team in time for play-offs. Not that it changed anything. Their game sucked ass.

Huh. I wonder when Scout would come after me? Probably lunch break. He won't dare skip class just to hunt me down.

Halo closed her locker, bringing me back to the present. Her hand stayed on the metal, her whole body unmoving. It was like she was trying to decide something. She looked down and shut her eyes closed. As soon as she opened them, she turned to me.

A slight frown appeared on my face while I tried to predict what she was gonna do. But I came up short. My girl was unpredictable as she was expressive. Still ain't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

"I'm only your girlfriend, Oz," she said, shrugging as if it wasn't a big deal.

My frown deepened at that.

"I can't tell you what to do," she continued, shaking her head. "I won't. It's your life."

I leaned closer and studied her.

"You're still upset, though."

Well, what the fuck did you expect, doofus? You just injured someone on purpose.

Sure, the grown-ups couldn't pin it on us. But everyone who used their brain knew we planned it. Halo was clearly was one of those who was smart enough to figure it out. Even worse, the victim was a dick from her grandfather's team.

I shouldn't have expected that I'd be able to keep her out of this when she was already somewhat involved. But seriously? I didn't think that was the point here.

Knowing her, she was more likely mad at the method we used rather than the act. I had to admit, we were pretty brutal yesterday.

Halo pressed her lips together and took a deep breath, before saying, "You make your own decision, but it doesn't mean I have to support it."

She sounded so damn calm that it was making my head spin.

My eyes narrowed. "So are we cool or not?"

I am so fucking lost right now.

"I have to get to class," she told me, running away before I could say anything more.

I rubbed the back of my neck, letting out a deep breath. I stared after her, watching as she skillfully dodged people while she hurried away from me. Oh, yeah. She was a runner.

Damn.

"Do my eyes deceive me?" chuckled my jackass best friend, suddenly appearing beside me. "Or did I really just see Buckley blow you off?

"She's pissed at what we did," I said.

"That didn't look 'pissed' to me," argued Alfie. "It was more along the lines of 'cold.' It totally gave me the fucking chills. And I was standing like, twenty feet away."

"Fuck," I grumbled, rubbing my face in frustration.

"Did she yell at you?"

"No."

"Did she tell you what her deal was?"

"No."

He whistled, patting my shoulder.

"Good luck trying to solve this one."

I wasn't used to the silent treatment, so I had no fucking idea how to fix this.

Whenever I did something in the past, Snow just usually gave me an earful. She would tell me exactly what the problem was, and we'd fight it over like a debate from hell.

Halo was different. She'd brush me off and give me the cold shoulder, letting me figure out shit on my own. No. She would say nothing, which drove me fucking nuts.

What the hell was I supposed to do?

_____________

In real life, would you be Snow or Halo?

Next chapter: A certain redheaded girl will appear. ;)