Monday Evening-

"So, how was everybody's day?" Elliot asked his family as they sat around the dinner table ready to eat.

"Fine," said everyone except Maureen, who stayed silent.

"Maureen?" asked Kathy.

"Uhh…fine, I guess."

"Well, what happened?" Elliot asked.

"Nothing," she said.

Elliot gave her the look he always gave her when she was hiding something, the look that told her he knew something was wrong and that he would be listening if she needed to talk.

The truth was, Maureen was having a terrible time at school. Some guy in her grade was always picking on her, and only her.

Dean Williamson was the rebellious type who went completely against what everybody said and did. He hung out with other rebels and all were avoided as much as possible at school but recently, Dean had been singling out Maureen as his newest target.

Maureen wasn't scared of Dean -she wasn't afraid to stand up to him- but that seemed to make him more than willing to dominate her. Maureen was his new "project".

Still, she hated him focusing exclusively on her. She wanted him to leave her alone.

"Nothing, Dad," she said again. "It was just a totally normal school day." She did her best to smile up at him so he would forget it.

Tuesday Morning-

"Hey!" someone yelled. Maureen turned around to see what was happening. To her surprise it was Dean, striding across the school grounds towards her. She wondered what she could have done this time.

"Your dad's a cop!" he said, completely out of the blue.

"And?" Maureen asked. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Yeah, maybe I do! He arrested my older bro! Last year!"

Maureen had no idea that had happened but wasn't surprised-she was certain Dean's older "bro" had an attitude just like him and a criminal record to match.

"Well, that's your brother's problem, not mine, and it's not my dad's problem either," she retorted. She began to walk off, sick to death of all the crap she was getting, but in a sudden movement, Dean grabbed her and pulled his fist back, ready to strike. A fraction of a second later, his fist connected with her face as if driven by a magnetic force. Maureen stumbled for just a second, but quickly retaliated. She summoned up all of her energy and got him in the stomach.

Suddenly, Maureen realised what she'd just done. What if her parents found out she had hit someone? Even if it was Dean, who was moaning on the ground in pain. She was suddenly hit with a burst of paranoia- so what if some guy was constantly irritating her? It wasn't like it would go on forever…

Maureen felt terribly guilty for what she had done. She wondered what she should do…but Dean was getting up. She thought he would hit her again as payback, but instead he just walked off, after glaring at her for what seemed like five minutes.

She suddenly had an urge to throw up her breakfast. She was worried about her loss of control- what if she got mad and hurt someone else?

Just then, the bell rang, signalling the start of school. Maureen, shaking, picked up her bag from the ground and headed for homeroom.

Tuesday Afternoon-

Maureen was relieved when the final bell rang. Her fingernails sore from biting them from anxiety, she walked out of school without saying goodbye to any of her friends and began to head home.

"Oi!" a very familiar voice called out to her. It of course belonged to Dean.

"So," he said as he sauntered up to her. "Wonder what your dad would say if he knew you'd been using your little girl knuckles to try and beat me up, huh?"

"Dean- I…I didn't mean to…" she began awkwardly.

"Yeah, you try and apologise now," said Dean. "But you can't turn back time. I know what you did and perhaps I may…let it slip…" his face was close to hers now, so close she could smell his putrid breath, "accidentally to a certain detective who goes by the name of Stabler."

"Dean!"

"Unless of course you make it up to me," he added casually, as if the thought had just occurred to him. "Then your dad will never know."

Maureen thought fast. Dean was playing games to get back at her.But if she didn't do a couple of things for him, he was sure to tell her dad.She didn't want him involved; she didn't want him to know. All she had to do was a few favours and the whole thing would probably blow over.

"Fine," Maureen said. "What do you want me to do?"