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Mason Maloney

No one tried to hide the fact that they were staring at me when I walked into school the next morning. Nathan walked by my side, glaring at everyone we passed.

When I looked at myself in the mirror this morning, I finally got a good look at my injuries. Purple and brown bruises littered my face that looked as painful as they felt. The cut underneath my left eye was red and swollen along with my nose. I looked completely broken and defeated and I suppose I was.

"Stop following me," I commanded Nathan, shifting the strap of my backpack on my shoulder.

"I'm not," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

I shook my head while shooting him a glare. At this rate it seemed like he was never going to leave me alone.

By the time we got to my locker, it was obvious that Nathan was indeed following me. He never stopped at my locker, especially not in the mornings when he usually went to throw a football around with his friends before classes started.

I was about to reprimand Nathan, but a loud, high-pitched gasp cut me off. The two of us turned to see Bella with both of her hands covering her mouth in astonishment. Her eyes were wide and glossy as she walked over to me a placed her hand lightly on my face.

"What happened?" she asked, her voice so soft it was nearly a whisper.

"I don't want to talk about it," I answered seriously.

Bella turned to Nathan for an explanation, but I shoved him lightly on the shoulder, signaling that I wanted him gone. He sighed before turning and walking away, undoubtedly going back outside to where his friends were.

Ross and Pete were quick to make their way over to Bella and me, both with wide eyes.

"What the fuck?" Pete said.

"Mason?" Ross asked worriedly. "What the hell happened?"

I had never seen Ross look so worried.

"Don't worry about it," I said, brushing off their concerns.

"How can we not worry about it?" Bella asked in disbelief.

I just shrugged and pursed my lips together tightly.

"Just don't."

***

Sam Knight

There were a lot of things I never imagined I'd see in my lifetime, like seeing Freddie Mercury perform live and viewing Earth from space. Needless to say, I was surprised when I noticed Nathan Maloney leaning against my car, glaring at everyone who spared him a glance.

I stopped suddenly, Christo and Jake on either side of me. The three of us watched Nathan curiously, as if afraid of what he was going to do. Without waiting for the others, I began walking over to my car confidently with my head held high. I wasn't going to let Nathan Maloney make me look weak. Not in this lifetime.

When he noticed me walking toward him, he pushed himself off of my car and stomped over to me with his face set in a hard expression. His teeth were clenched and his hands were in tight fists.

"We need to talk," Nathan demanded coldly.

I didn't know what to think, but I kept my offensive stance up. I wasn't about to let him come after me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked through clenched teeth.

Just being in the same area as Nathan was enough to make me tense. I could tell he felt the same way, neither of us taking our eyes off of the other. Christo and Jake eventually made their way over to me, looking ready to pounce on Nathan if needed. Nathan's eyes looked as if he was killing each of us with just a glance.

"I told you, we need to talk," he said again.

"You should go, Na–" Christo started.

"Shut up," Nathan spat, not even looking in Christo's direction. "I'm talking to Sam."

My teeth were grinding in my mouth as I did my best to keep calm. Nathan and I seemed to bring out the worst in each other. I stood tall and tense, Nathan mirroring my actions as we stared each other down.

People stared at us as we walked by, letting out shocked gasps and intrigued whispers. It was appalling to everyone that Nathan had even dared to step foot on this campus alone, but to me, it just showed how unafraid he actually was. By the look on his face, I could tell he wasn't leaving until he got to talk to me.

"Make it quick," I said. "I have to get to work."

"Sam–" Jake started.

"It's fine," I cut him off. "Go."

Christo and Jake left us, glancing back at us warily as they did. Nathan and I moved back over toward my car and it looked like it was taking all of his strength not to shove me against the vehicle. He was breathing heavily, looking down at the ground.

"What do you need to say?" I asked, trying to sound casual but failing.

"You need to keep your team away from my brother," Nathan seethed in almost a whisper.

"What are you talking about?"

Nathan's head shot up at my words, a look of disgust on his face. "Like you don't know."

I tried to piece together his words in order to make sense of them. From my knowledge, no one on the team had ever bothered Mason, but according to Nathan, that wasn't the case.

"I don't," I answered honestly. "What are you talking about?"

Nathan stared at me suspiciously, as if trying to decide for himself if I was telling the truth. I noticed out of the corner of my eye other members of the team making their way over to us with looks of anger on their faces. I waved them off, signaling to leave us alone, though I knew they would be lingering in case anything went wrong with Nathan.

"I don't know who, but some guys from your team jumped Mason last night," Nathan admitted coldly.

His words were enough to cause my breath to hitch in my throat. Anger instantly consumed me, my face heating up as I tried to remain calm. My head all of a sudden felt hot and I had the urge to punch something.

"Jumped him?" I croaked out, my voice cracking slightly.

Nathan nodded. "He's busted up pretty bad."

My heart fell to my stomach. This was my fault. I should have driven him home last night despite his protests.

"So look," Nathan started again. "You better keep your team in line because if anyone even thinks about touching Mason again, you're all going to pay."

"I'll talk to them, find out who did it," I said affirmatively. "They went too far."

Nathan nodded and looked as if he was two seconds away from exploding. He bit his bottom lip and looked straight at me.

"Never again," he said, pointing a finger at me.

I nodded with a serious expression on my face. Nathan glanced at me one last time before turning around and angrily stalking off.

***

Mason Maloney

Ross sat at one of the tables at the bakery, doing his homework. When he saw me this morning, he felt so bad about cancelling our run that he decided he wasn't going to let me out of his sight for the rest of the day. And so, he vowed to sit in the bakery for the entirety of my shift and drive me home later. I had told him it wasn't necessary, but he wouldn't listen.

My eyes shot to the door when I heard the bell chime. Sam walked in later than usual, his hair already almost completely dry and a look of anger on his face. His jaw was set tightly and his posture was rigid and tense. I had thought about what I would do when I had to face him, but none of my thoughts had actually prepared me.

Sam walked straight over to me, paying no mind to Ross who was shooting him daggers.

"Who was it?" he asked icily, his voice quiet and sounding like he was trying hard to hold onto his composure.

"I don't know," I answered.

Sam shook his head and took a deep breath. "I'm going to find out who."

He was beginning to sound like Nathan. "Don't."

Sam stared at my face with his mouth slightly agape. His expression softened as a look of sadness crossed his face. His eyes were dull and his lips pulled into a frown. Sam's hand twitched at his side as if he was aching to touch my face.

Sam's lip quivered slightly, but he quickly recovered.

"You look terrible," he said.

"Thank you," I replied with a smirk.

My smirk quickly vanished when I remembered what had happened the night before. I stepped back, putting distance between us. Sam clenched his jaw, pulling his lips together tightly when he realized what I was doing.

"Stop," he said quietly. "I'm going to take care of it."

"Your team doesn't want me near you," I reminded him, motioning toward my face. "They made that pretty clear."

Sam looked as if he was going to start yelling, but I held my hand up to silence him. We couldn't talk about this here, not with anyone around to hear us.

"Please just let it go, Sam," I pleaded, my eyes growing wide.

He let out a deep breath and shook his head slightly.

"We'll talk later," he said before walking to the register, his shoulders tense.

***

Sam Knight

I sat at my usual lunch table in the center of the cafeteria, glaring at everyone around me. The team was acting normal, as if none of them were guilty of anything. A cheerleader I couldn't even remember the name of leaned toward me, rubbing her hand on my thigh, but I paid her no mind.

I looked around at my team, trying to figure out who had jumped Mason and would face my wrath later on. They probably didn't think anything of it. They thought because they were Knights they could do whatever they wanted, especially when it came to messing with the Warriors. This time they went too far.

"Dude," Jake snapped me out of my thoughts. I turned to him, pushing the desperate cheerleader's hand off of my leg.

"What?" I asked blandly.

"You look out of it," he said, taking a large bite of his burger and chewing with his mouth open.

I shook my head and looked down at my fully occupied tray. Everyone at the table had sent me a curious look during lunch. God forbid I wasn't joining in on conversation or acting like I cared about anything they were saying. It was like since I was the quarterback everyone thought I had to be involved in everything. It was bad enough that most people in this school followed me around and treated me like I was some sort of superior. I didn't want to have to submit to what they wanted me to be.

"Dude," Jake nudged me.

I looked over at him again with a scowl on my face.

"Can you at least pretend to be interested in Mercedes?" he whispered under his breath.

"Who?" I asked at full volume.

Jake sent me an annoyed look and whispered again, "The girl that's basically throwing herself at you."

I looked to my left slightly to see the cheerleader who was previously rubbing my leg before Jake smacked me on the arm, causing me to look at him.

"Why should I?" I asked in an annoyed tone.

I couldn't help but wonder if Jake had been one of the guys to hurt Mason. He was never too fond of him and he had voiced to me before that he thought I shouldn't hang around with him.

"Because," Jake started, "I like her friend so we need to keep both of them happy if I have a chance with her."

"I don't see why I have to go out with a girl for you to get with another girl," I said quietly.

Why did girls have to make things so complicated? It would be so much easier if they just got with the person they wanted to be with instead of playing some stupid game. Maybe that was why I was never too invested in girls.

"Do you know anything about chicks?" Jake asked rhetorically. "Taylor won't go out with me if you ignore her best friend. Girls do everything together."

I shook my head in annoyance and stood up from the table when the bell rang. My teammates and the cheerleaders followed behind me as I left the cafeteria after throwing my lunch away.

"Make sure you're at practice on time today," I said, stopping Jake before he walked away from me. "I want to have a meeting before we practice."

"About what?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

Christo mirrored Jake's look as he stood behind him, waiting to go to class.

"Is this about whatever Nathan talked to you about?" Christo asked, stepping closer to me.

"I'm not getting into the details right now," I said with authority in my voice. "Just make sure everyone knows to show up on time."

I walked away from my friends without another word.

***

The locker room was always loud while the team got ready for practice. Coach was in his office so no one had to worry about him overhearing anything they were saying. Today wasn't any different. Everyone seemed to have gotten the memo to make sure they were on time, but that didn't stop them from being their obnoxious selves.

Christo stood beside me as we stood at our lockers, my arms crossed over my chest as I waited for the late bell to ring. Our practices started during the last period of the day during football season, counting as our elective for first semester.

As soon as the bell sounded, I let out a high-pitched whistle to get everyone's attention. The talking stopped and all eyes were on me as I stared out to the crowd with a glare.

"Everyone listen up," I started sternly. "Some people in this room have gone too far to mess with the Warriors."

I looked around at every confused face in the room, trying to find a guilty one.

"Who wants to own up to it?" I asked seriously as my eyes continued to scan the crowd.

Christo turned to me with a confused glance while Jake walked forward out of the crowd to stand on my other side.

"What's going on?" Jake whispered. I ignored him.

"Someone is going to own up to it or I'm going to let Coach deal with this," I threatened harshly. I was only met by confused stares.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance, knowing that all of them were not innocent.

"Why do you care about what was done to a Warrior?" one of the players dared to ask. He was a Junior, second-string receiver. Definitely not someone who should be questioning me.

I stepped closer to him and stared him in the eyes with a glare. He stepped back slightly.

"We do not physically harm anyone on or associated with the Warriors," I said seriously. "That is not the team we are going to be."

The Junior averted his eyes from me, looking at one of his friends who was staring at the ground.

"It was you, wasn't it?" I asked, backing up slightly. "Who was with you?"

The kid looked like he was about to shit his pants. I would've laughed in his face if I wasn't dead serious at that moment. I was never really a super uptight captain and that was probably part of the reason why the team voted for me to lead them, but this I was going to be uptight about. I had to be.

"Don't make him ask again," Jake said coldly. I could practically feel his scowl from behind me.

"Yes, it was me," the kid abruptly admitted. "We thought we were doing you and the team a favor by getting that Maloney kid out of your hair."

"Shit," I heard Christo mutter.

It took everything in me to keep my anger in check. I was never one to get incredibly angry, but this had me testing my patience.

"You're lucky Nathan came to talk to me about this instead of just retaliating," I told him with my jaw clenched. "Who else was with you?"

More like he was lucky I wasn't going to kick his ass, no matter how badly I wanted to. I couldn't let any of them see how much I actually cared for Mason, and I knew Mason wouldn't want me to hurt anyone.

The Junior looked as if he was rethinking his entire life. His eyes darted from me, to his friend, and then back down to the floor. I turned to his friend to see that it was another Junior, one that I knew named Kyle, first-string.

"Own up!" I yelled, looking straight at Kyle. He sighed and nodded in confirmation.

"Connor was in on it too," Kyle admitted, pointing his thumb at the guy to his right who looked at him with wide eyes.

I nodded and held my lips together tightly for a moment.

"You three will run extra sprints until I decide you've had enough and you're on clean up duty for the rest of the season," I said, looking at each of them. "And you're benched the next two weeks."

"You can't do that!" Kyle exclaimed.

I raised my eyebrows at him defiantly. "I can do what I want. Unless you want Coach getting involved."

Kyle remained silent.

"And if any of you ever pull something like this again," I started, making sure every guy in the room was paying attention, "it's going straight to Coach and you'll be off the team."

The look of fear in their eyes was enough to tell me my message was received. I motioned for everyone to continue getting ready before turning back to Christo and Jake.

"Why didn't you tell us they messed with Little Maloney?" Christo asked curiously.

I just shrugged, though I knew exactly why I didn't tell them. I didn't want them to see how worked up I had gotten when I found out he was hurt. They would know something was going on if they saw me care so much about what happened to him. At least this way I could mask it as some moral belief for the team.

"What did they do?" Jake asked as he pulled his shoulder pads on.

"They kicked the shit out of him," I muttered through clenched teeth.

"No shit?" Jake asked as if he were stunned.

"Is he okay?" Christo asked.

He was always more sympathetic toward the Warriors considering his cousin was one of them.

"He'll be fine," I answered before slamming my locker door shut and trudged out to the field.

**

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