The day after the fight, it was clear a good portion of the school had already heard about it.

Although the real dispute had happened with no witnesses, practically the whole team had been present for the first altercation. In their school, all it took for news to spread was one pair of eyes attached to a mouth, and they'd had several. Plus, when one of the football team's captains stopped being one of the football team's captains, word was bound to get around fast.

Nonetheless, Carter and Seth sat at their usual table at lunch. Joey was sitting directly in front of Carter, but he hadn't quite met his eye yet. Jenna and Mel sat at his side, deep in conversation with a few other girls from the cheer squad. The boys' sour mood had yet to transfer to them. The same thing applied to the rest of the table. Especially Bobby and Scott.

Chaz sat in a far end of the table, surrounded by cheerleaders, with one of them sitting on his lap. Bobby and Scott, though, were sitting way too close for Carter's comfort. He could hear them holler and laugh, like their day couldn't be going any better.

At some point, Scott looked at Carter with a sneer on his face as he said something to the guys around him. Carter glared at him, but Scott didn't look away. The side of his face, especially bellow his eye, had swollen considerably. He looked even worse than Bobby, who had a broken nose and a bruised chin.

Scott laughed at something Bobby said, without peeling his gaze away from Carter, and he lost it.

"Do you have a problem?" He snapped. "Besides your face."

Everyone in a six-people radius quieted down to look. It wasn't usual for Carter to snap like that, let alone in front of so many people. When a few heads started turning, the whole table gradually stopped their conversations to look.

Scott smirked. "Not at the moment," he answered. "Do you?"

"At the moment," Carter repeated, "I have two." He looked between Bobby and Scott pointedly.

He felt Joey staring at him through furrowed brows. Jenna put her phone down, ceasing the tick-tick of her long red nails on the screen, to shoot Carter a curious look. Mel bit back her lip as she took in the intense hostility in Carter's look.

"Maybe you should get Nancy Mason to suck you off. Get that chip off your shoulder," Scott scorned.

"Did somebody told you homophobia was a personality trait? Or is your skull too thick to even grasp the concept of a personality?"

There were a few 'ooh's and 'damn's around the table, and Jenna whistled. In other tables around them, people from other groups were slowly starting to take notice of the tension.

"Calm the fuck down, Parrish," Bobby spat. "People might start thinking Coach's son really did turn you into a sissy."

Carter felt his blood boil. "He didn't turn me into anything."

Scott snorted loudly, leaning back on his chair as he laughed. "So you were a faggot all along?"

Carter stood up, feeling his chair screech against the floor behind him. "Better than being a brainless bigot who overcompensates with the size of his ego," he hissed, before taking his tray and walking away.

He was halfway through the cafeteria when he realized he had absolutely no plan and would wind up eating in the toilet or something, if he didn't come up with an impromptu one quickly.

As though on cue, his eyes fell on a table to the corner with most of its seats empty. The ones that weren't free were occupied by three kids. A dark-skinned sophomore with a shaved head, a raven-haired girl with her combat boots propped on the chair next to her, and Frankie, with his lips parted and eyebrows raised. 

Carter stopped in front of them.

"Can I, er... sit here... please?" He asked quietly.

Frankie looked between his two friends, and the biker girl let her feet slip off the chair to her right. Carter smiled through a tiny sigh of relief, sitting down next to her and opposite Frankie. Just as he did, he saw another tray drop next to his on the table and the chair to his right being pulled back. He looked up to see Seth, taking a seat by his side.

"You don't have to follow me."

Seth raised his eyebrows. "I only sat there, because you did. And now I'll only sit here, because you did."

Carter gave into a small smile. He was a little startled to hear three more chairs being dragged on the floor noisily as the three empty seats to Frankie's left were occupied.

"That was a very public statement right there," Bella mused, maneuvering her tray with a little difficulty, with her fingers covered in ketchup and ground beef. "You could have given out some sort of warning so we would be ready, though. Sloppy Joe Thursday is a very impractical day for this."

Carter couldn't keep the snort of laughter in, as he watched his stepsister grab her sandwich so she could take a huge bite, with little to no grace. Seth laughed too.

"I have to say, I did love the theatrics," Lauren Santiago, Bella's blonde friend, said.

"Very early 2000s teen drama," Roy O'Brien, Carter's AP Calculus partner, agreed.

Lauren's eyes widened. "Totally, baby. I could definitely see Lindsay Lohan do an analogue of that scene, in low-waisted jeans and one of those outrageously short tops."

Carter's lips parted, but he didn't know what to say. He didn't even know what to think. 

Before he could even begin to choose the words, Mel pulled the chair next to Seth, setting her tray in front of her. Jenna sat to her right, holding just a single salad-filled Tupperware in her hands, while Joey borrowed an unused chair from a nearby table to sit between her and Roy, at the head of the table.

For a while, the sound of Jenna's nails clicking against the screen of her phone was the only thing to fill the air immediately around Carter. He was a little confused, a little dumbstruck, and a little moved.

"Babe, can I have your carrot sticks?" Roy asked, breaking the silence, as he propped his chin on Lauren's shoulder to eye her lunch tray. "I'm not enjoying these fries as much as I thought I would."

Lauren huffed. "You know I'm trying to cut down carbs," she whined.

"It's useless buying carrot sticks at lunch if you're just going to hit the taco truck after school with Bella," Roy argued.

Lauren's glare made it awfully clear those words should have never left her boyfriend's mouth.

"I'll trade your fries for my apple," Joey piped up, waving the fruit in front of Roy's face.

The kid grinned. "Deal."

Next to Carter, Seth leaned back on his chair, arms crossed, to shoot Joey a weird look.

"What?" Joey asked. "Season's over and I'm coming back from a break up. I need the carbs."

Seth rolled his eyes, but raised his hands to show him he was surrendering the argument right there.

Joey dropped his apple on Roy's tray, taking the plate of fries for himself. He gobbled down a few, making Jenna pull a disgusted face as he chewed loudly.

"I have a question."

Jenna rolled her eyes when Joey raised his hand, even as he said that.

"Yes?" Lauren asked slowly.

Joey smiled at her, seeming pleased, before turning to Carter. "Is this, like, our new crowd, or is it just a temporary arrangement?"

"Hope it's temporary," Jenna muttered. "Or we'll need a bigger table."

"Preferably some other table," Reggie, Frankie's biker girl friend, mused. "One refugee is fine, but eight is pushing it."

"Yeah, the dumpster table was kind of our thing," Frankie agreed, pointing his thumb at the giant disposal bin behind Joey. "It repels shallow idiots. Or, really, all sorts of idiots."

"How'd you end up here then?" Bella asked, licking some ground beef from her lips.

Frankie scoffed. "We took you in. This is your token of appreciation?"

"Shut up, little Santoro," Lauren said through a grin.

"I'm only three hundred and eighty-eight days younger than Bella," Frankie exclaimed. "And I'm six-feet-one!"

Lauren shrugged innocently. "All I hear is 'Hi, I'm baby'," she said.

Reggie and Frankie's other friend, the quiet one, laughed.

"I'm sorry, Bella—would you mind taking smaller bites?" Jenna chimed in. "I've been training this one to eat like a person and you're shaping up to be a bad influence." She nodded her head at Joey.

Bella shot her an unimpressed look as she finished chewing an impressive mouthful of ground beef and hamburger bun. Once she swallowed, she said, "Something tells me you wouldn't mind so much how others eat if you had something more substantial than lettuce and cherry tomatoes for yourself. Ever tried the school's Sloppy Joes?" 

Jenna winced. "I'm vegetarian."

Bella grinned, grabbing her plate. "Want my chips?" She offered, waving it temptingly in front of Jenna.

Carter knew that scrunched up look on Jen's face. He expected the bitchy comeback. It never came, though.

"Sure, why not. Season's over."

"'Atta girl," Joey cheered, as Jenna took Bella's chips and dumped them on her salad bowl.

Carter was still a little dumbstruck, but somehow he didn't feel confused anymore. That feeling lasted for a few blissful seconds before somebody approached their table. He turned to see Scott and Bobby standing near Joey and Jenna. 

Scott crossed his arms over his chest.

"You're gonna leave our table for him too?" He asked, sending a look of complete disdain at Joey and Jenna. "I know Jones is, like, in love with him, but you two used to be smarter."

Joey cast his eyes down to the fries he got from Roy, while Jenna tilted her head in thoughtful reflection. A mean little smile formed on her lips.

"I'm sorry. What was that? I don't speak homophobe."

Scott looked ready to froth at the mouth. "Bitch, you're wearing my jacket," he spat.

Jenna slipped off the sports varsity jacket laid over her shoulders, with an eye roll. Without a word, she scrunched it up into a ball and aimed for the open dumpster. It landed inside.

"Nice shot," Bella praised.

Scott started in her direction, but someone held him back. It was Chaz Wheeler.

Joey had shot up to his feet instantly too. "Move a finger in her direction, I dare you," he challenged.

There were eyes on them again.

Scott howled with laughter. "You feeling lucky, shorty?"

"Are you feeling lucky?" Seth countered, standing up, with a lot less flare or explosive drama. "I could make the left side of your face match the right one."

"You still talk a big talk for someone who got kicked out of the team," Scott spat, shoving Chaz off him.

Seth snorted. "You mean somebody with literally nothing to lose for breaking your face in school?"

Scott did stand down at that. He was still fuming, but Bobby shot him a look of warning. Scott was all loud words and animalistic demonstrations of strength, but Bobby was smarter. Smart enough not to forget Seth had been more than enough for both of them, on his own, just the day before; and now he was surrounded by people.

Chaz put a hand on Scott's shoulder. "Dude, come on. They're not even sitting with you anymore. Just leave them alone."

Scott jerked away from Chaz's touch, swatting his arm a little harshly in the process. "What? You wanna suck Parrish's dick now too? The whole fucking school gets on their knees for him!"

Chaz stepped back, rubbing his own arm. He shook his head. "I was looking out for you, you piece of shit. Don't fucking push everyone's temper to the limit."

And, with that, he left. Behind him, it wasn't just Scott who was shocked. Carter couldn't say he would have ever seen that coming. Chaz Wheeler had always been a bit of a... well, a pushover.

Bobby rolled his eyes at the incredulous look on Scott's bruised face, hauling him away from the dumpster table. The silence around them lasted only a single second.

"Very early 2000s teen drama, indeed," Roy mused when they were gone.

Mel was the first to burst into laughter, before everyone joined in.

After the most eventful lunch of Carter's life, he walked to class with Roy and Mel by his side. When they reached Mr Thomas's classroom, he found Johnny waiting by the door for him.

"Hey," Carter said.

Johnny smiled. "Hey." He glanced at Carter's company, before zeroing back in, on Carter. "Can we talk?"

Carter winced. "Did you hear already?"

Johnny looked puzzled. "Hear what?"

Mel put a hand on Roy's shoulder, pushing him forward. "We'll go inside," she said.

Roy was confused for a moment, before he seemed to comprehend with a not-so-subtle "Ah! Got it. They need privacy."

"What happened?" Johnny asked, once they were out of ear shot.

Carter shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Just lunch time drama."

Johnny raised his eyebrows. "Okay... We'll circle back to that," he promised, before continuing.  "I just wanted you to know I went to see the principal during lunch and he might call you into his office today."

Carter's eyes widened, and Johnny smiled feebly.

"I told him about what really happened yesterday in the locker room with Seth, too. He said he'd look into the accusations," Johnny said.

Carter didn't know what to say.

Johnny offered him a little smile, shrugging. "I don't really know what happens now."

It turned out what happened was that Carter did get called to the principal's office. And so were Seth and Coach Mason.

Carter was asked to talk about what he knew, in private, since Johnny had mentioned him as witness, and then he was made to sit with Seth and Coach inside the office to revise their version of the events of the day before. When they were done, Principal Trevino told them to leave. 

Bobby, Scott and Chaz were waiting outside to be called in. And so were their parents.

Bobby's leg was shaking irritably as a dark-haired stubby woman stood next to him, holding an overstuffed purse too tightly to her side. Scott was practically cowering in his chair, under the unforgiving burning gaze of a tall man who didn't look too pleased to be called in to his son's school. Chaz just looked kind of defeated, as he rested his head against the wall, with an impeccably dressed blonde woman sitting next to him, phone pressed to her ear.

When Carter left school that day, he felt light. It was a heavy contrast with just twenty-four hours in the past. It was amazing how much things could change in a single day. And, at the same time, everything that really mattered stayed the same.

***

Five chapters to go! It's really just tying loose ends and finishing up character arcs from now on. And maybe... one last surprise.

Thanks for reading!