Chapter 2

The following day felt tense to Sam. Danny and Tucker had that same spirit as yesterday and congrats to them for it. Now Danny wasn't the only target of Dash… While he wouldn't likely throw her into a locker or wall, he did want to do something to her—he wanted something from her. She'd bluntly told him no, she refused his generous offer, but he'd seemed very intent yesterday. It bothered her even into the day after.

She could've told Danny. Even if it seemed farfetched Danny would've taken this seriously and he would've done something about it the moment she told him. But…she didn't tell anyone. Danny had his own secret far bigger than this measly one that didn't actually affect anyone and to suddenly overpower one of the strongest boys in school would arouse plenty of suspicion. It wasn't worth it. Besides, Dash hadn't done anything all day and neither had Danny. Ultimately there was just no reason to get him all riled up over a clearly idle threat, and one where Dash had accepted her refusal.

Still she had remained unusually vigilant of her surroundings. She'd opened the floodgates to bad things, she could feel it inside her… But it was probably better than feeling something else inside her. She shuddered at the thought.

She jumped when she heard a cry and heard a thud around the corner of the hall. She and Tucker immediately ran to see what had happened. Tucker got there first. His jaw dropped. She got there next. Her jaw dropped.

There was Danny, curled up on the floor, tightly clinching his abdomen. His assailant was already walking away. She didn't fail to see the smirk he had when he looked over his shoulder at her. That one split second went unnoticed by the other two boys but her? This was Dash's way of beating her up, she didn't have a shadow of a doubt about that.

That one glance he gave her sent a very clear message and she knew for a fact that he would keep this up until Paulina came back and she would be released from the disgusting deal…hopefully.

She bent down and gently helped Danny sit up.

"Are you okay, Danny?" she asked, despite the answer being the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah…" he grunted. "I'm fine."

"What was that about?" Tucker rhetorically asked. "I mean I've seen him wail on you before but this is extreme even for him…"

She waited until Tucker was completely distracted by Danny to watch Dash's retreating form. Anger began to broil but she pretended to be calm anyway.

"He's just a jerk," Sam said.

A gross jerk with a consistently guttered mind…

She sighed and assisted Tucker in helping him off the floor.

"Let's just get you to class…" she said. "At the least there he won't touch you. Not much, anyway."

The trio moved on through the halls, the boys completely unaware of why Dash had been so much harsher than normal. It crossed her mind several times to tell either of them on the way to class, and she almost did, but kept her mouth shut. This would end after a few days and she could go about chastising Danny and Tucker on their immaturity. All would be right with the world. She would…eventually find some way to keep them from pranking Dash… So still no need to send anybody into a blind rage.

She sat down in the seat closest to Dash instead of her usual seat beside Danny. She had several messages of her own to send this bag of trash that she knew she could get across nonverbally.

At first it was merely a glare to catch his attention, which worked the moment he looked her way. He replied to this little glare with a casual shrug. She wasn't afraid to let anger fuel her next expression. He responded by putting one arm on his desk and leaning closer to her. She furrowed her eyebrows, crossed her arms, and frowned. He raised one eyebrow. She turned her head back to the teacher but kept her eyes on him. He smirked, shrugged again, and went back to focusing on Mr. Lancer.

She set her jaw and sneaked a quick look at Danny and Tucker, sitting side by side as usual, to see if they caught any of that. It didn't look like they did. Her secret conversation had gone undetected. Good.

But bad in that Dash had made himself just as clear as she did. Maybe it would stop in a few days but at least until then he would not relent on Danny; and if Danny kept up those pranks, Tucker would be just as much a target as he was.

And…she was given the chance to do something about that, to stop their pain, but Dash's little deal was too much to ask. If he asked her to pay him something, now that she could do, and she would've had no problem in accepting it. But this? No. She wasn't selling herself for anything. Somehow Dash wasn't quite understanding this.

She would just have to wait it out and hope things would get better by the end of the week, or maybe the end of next week—safer to say sometime in the near future.

Buuuut naturally, it did not. Due to the extremeness of Dash's request she'd been watching Danny suffer, and still had no luck trying to get him to stop being such a juvenile idiot. Tucker had begun getting the same treatment, when in the past he'd gotten either nothing or, in comparison to Danny, a slap on the wrist. It had been four weeks total, despite her planning of two weeks, and things had only gotten worse. She knew it would continue to get worse—Dash would find a way to make things worse.

She was surprised Danny didn't duck for cover in broom closets or save Dash the trouble by throwing himself into a locker, or giving himself a wedgie, or dunking his head in the toilet and give himself a swirly. It was gross, it was wrong, but it was what happened more frequently and more severely than ever before. Dash was a horrible person but he was an excellent football player—something that exempted him from most punishments, and something that allowed him to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and sometimes wherever he wanted. As long as nobody ended up hospitalized he was in the clear.

And she was getting sicker and sicker of helping Danny for the consequences of his own actions, but it was rippling to Tucker and not even Danny's foolishness should be met with this torture… She, on the other hand, was being tortured in an entirely different way…and Dash knew it.

She'd already tried acting like this didn't bother her but it was poor acting. She tried to laugh it off when Dash was around but anyone could see through that. She was too close to Danny and Tucker for this to not affect her in every way imaginable. Tucker was her brother in spirit and Danny was…kind of a crush, maybe? She wasn't too sure yet and didn't want to jump to conclusions about her own emotions…but lately she hadn't had the time or focus to sort any of that out yet. Even at night, even after school when Danny and Tucker were both safe from Dash and the rest of the football team, she still worried. It even brought her to tears sometimes because she knew exactly what was coming the next day.

Dash hadn't mentioned his deal since they last spoke four weeks ago…he knew he didn't have to. He knew she wouldn't forget it. He knew she would eventually start to consider it. He didn't even have to lay a hand on her for that to happen, because she'd bitten the line and no matter how much she fought it he was reeling her in little by little. Every punch the two took gave her two more reasons to say yes and now she was seriously considering just saying yes. That was all she had to do.

Then this would end.

A/N

Yup, also a short one. The rest won't be this way…I guess I consider the first two a half chapter, to be honest. I'm not sure yet if I'll make her say yes right now or procrastinate. From the summary we all knew she says yes anyway, I'm just not sure when.

This thing got a little more attention than I thought it would. I was kind of surprised. Lol

I also was told there was a similar story which sucks for me because I thought this was an original idea… ;-;