Babylon 5: 'Cole and Co.' by DD Agent

No one is actually probably reading this now, but i just want to finish it. This is the product of two days of not paying attention in lessons. Particularly French. Enjoy.

Chapter Two - The Teenage Troubles

Arisia Colony 2 was slightly more stable than 3 was. It was on that colony that the Preparatory School resided. Children came when they were eleven and left when they turned sixteen. It was here that the Cole children went to school, and it was here that they were made or broken.

Edward was adored. Sporty but intelligent. A ladies man but loyal. He had been the big man on campus, never picked on, when he went there. Unlike his brothers, Edward had his hair trimmed short and gelled back in a mild side parting. His uniform was always neat and his tie and blazer was always ironed to perfection.

Fabian had his moments. He was into writing, poetry mostly and tried to keep out of the spotlight. Sometimes, he had been asked by the boys in the older years to write their coursework and he took it on with great satisfaction. With a 10 finders fee for Edward of course. Fabian went with the whole writers look and had his brown hair cut to his shoulders.

William was always getting picked on by the older boys. He was a wild card and a mild braniac who was always picking fights with those that were bigger than him. Will's hair changed rapidly per week. One week it was deep black to match his brothers. The next, it was bottle blonde and the one after that was deep blue.

Eleanor was a sweet and innocent child with a mean streak that came out after spending time with her friends. Her black hair hung down to her waist and her green hair was always framed with a thick coat of mascara. She was thirteen when Marcus left school, and she had her own group of miniature 'plastics'. Dressed in short skirts and even shorter blouses, they proved that no matter what century you were in you still had the 'cool' people.

Marcus, on the other hand, was an enigma. The girls in the younger years adored his sweet good looks and his sense of humour. The girls in his year sometimes looked at him like he was a particularly gruesome sort of bug. But there were others who viewed him as a particularly sexy knight in shining armour. The boys in his year viewed him as a weirdo and a freak. The boys in his year hated his guts.

"Whoopsy Daisy Cole!" mumbled Paul Rose as he tripped his arch rival onto the linoleum floor. Marcus' books went spilling onto the floor. English, Theatre Studies, History and Culture exercise books went flying three metres down the corridor. His other books only fell a few feet. Charles Dickens, Stephen King and his own thick pad full of his own observations about his year group.

Paul picked up the thick was of paper and started flicking through it. Notes on his teachers, the kids in his classes. Every incident where Paul and his group had picked on him was in there. And in between the words in inky copperplate was pictures and notes about Leila Matthews, Marcus' unrequited love.

Leila Matthews was beautiful. Blonde hair with natural brown highlights topped off with bottomless blue eyes made her irresistible to the opposite sex. Smart, especially in Maths and English Literature; and talented, in Drama and Dance: she was Marcus' ideal woman. She was also Paul's girlfriend of two years.

"What the hell are you doing with pictures of my girlfriend you perverted weirdo?" Paul yelled.

Scrambling for his school books, Marcus didn't see the bully hoist the back of his collar up and push him up against the row of chrome lockers. A sharp right hook with thick knuckles struck Marcus' cheek and knocked the future ranger unconscious.

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Waking up two hours later in the medical room, Marcus was greeted to the faces of his older and younger siblings.

"Little brother, what have you got yourself into this time?" Edward asked, ruffling his baby brother's hair.

"I fell in love with a beautiful girl, but her boyfriend wasn't too impressed," Marcus grumbled, shifting himself to a sitting position.

"Who's the girl?" Eleanor asked, flicking her hair back. She wasn't really paying attention, she was trying to insert her data crystals into her music player. Cursing his sisters need for detail, Marcus gave her the name.

"Leila Matthews"

Eleanor, as this point, burst out laughing, her crystals spilling on to the floor. Will also started to giggle but he fell off the bed. Ignoring this rather painful fact, he then began to roll around on the floor.

"Who's her boyfriend?" Fabian asked, comforting his little brother by rubbing his shoulder.

"Paul Rose,"

"Prick," came the hyperventilated reply of Will Cole.

All the Cole's then gathered on the bed and started joking with him, trying to make him laugh. Their parents, Daniel and Abigail Cole had not arrived to pick their children up from school. But for that moment in time it was just the Cole children. Just family.

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The last day at school was marred with Marcus' and Paul's fight. They had completed their exams and the year was having a party at Francesca Morgan's house. She was one of the richest members of the school and her family was the lucky one that owned Arisia Colony 2. The redheaded rugby star was one of the most popular among the year group and has been chosen to host the party. Her parents were good friends with a Centauri, Lord Refa, and had been invited to stay for a week with his house. And so the party had begun.

Paul Rose, Ashley Cox, Adam Wiseman, Mauricio Fenn, Tim Walker and Dean Davies, the popular boys in both smarts and sports; were in attendance. The year 11 plastics: Natalie Beckett, Laura Galion, Melissa Kiel and Gemma Fox were also present. Eleanor Cole was also there with her junior plastics, against her fathers orders. Leila was there too with her art and culture gang. They were reminiscent of the nineteen seventies beautiful people. In fact, Leila's best friend Dickey Clarke mildly resembled Terence Stamp. Marcus mildly resembled King Arthur.

That was probably because it was a fancy dress party.

Marcus had only a few friends in his year group, and they had all come as members of the Camelot court. Jasper had arrived with real chain mail and as Sir. Bedevere. Mason had come in an old tunic and was pretending to be Sir. Lancelot. Fabian, Marcus' older brother who wasn't in their year and shouldn't really be there anyway, was Merlin. Will and his bunch of year 9 misfits (who were about to gate crash the party) were dressed as Earth Force officers.

And there posed a problem as they had nicked the uniforms from one of the Earth transports docked at Arisia 3. Bringing up the rear of Marcus' friends was tomboy and Marcus obsessed historian Gwen. She was wearing a Centauri Dress that she had borrowed off an old friend of hers. Gwen was dressed as Lady Guinivere, and was extremely happy that she was Marcus' wife.

If only for tonight.

If only for pretend.

If only he didn't want to impress that goddamn Leila Matthews.

Leila's triple damned boyfriend Paul was dressed in his fathers old GROPOS uniform. He had fought under General Richard Franklin, and had been highly commended. It was Paul's last night as a civilian, as he was applying to Earth Force in the morning. And to celebrate that fact, he was going to get his arty girlfriend in between the sheets.

"Hey baby, how you going?" Paul asked his girl. Leila turned round and he could see that she was dressed as a mild mannered hippy, including peace signs.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Guess what? I got accepted into Proxima Community College!" Leila squealed with joy, linking her arms around his neck. Paul really didn't care about whether she got accepted to college or not. All that mattered was screwing her in the here and now.

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Marcus was a little bit tipsy. He had drunk quite a lot of punch, and was absolutely sure that Fabian had spiked it. He was even more sure when his elder brother with the two foot long beard dragged his sister away from the punch and made her spit the ribena coloured liquid out.

Mingling with his peers, Marcus was on the look out for Leila. Seeing Ballet dancer slash pyromaniac rebel Dickey Clarke, Marcus asked him where his unrequited love interest was.

"Sorry Cole, Leila went off with Paul Rose 'bout an hour ago. I'm sorry man, I'll let ya know if I see her again,"

Just as the conversation was ending, they passed Paul's bunch of lackeys and Ashley Cox joined the conversation.

"They went upstairs. Paul wanted to pop her cherry before she and he parted ways. I think they're in the master bedroom,"

But Marcus didn't hear the end of his speech. He had started up the stairs just as Ashley had said the word cherry.

Upstairs, Paul was trying to romance Leila in, as Ashley had so correctly identified, the master bedroom. He had taken up a couple of glasses of the spiked punch and lit a few candles. And now, he was kissing her neck and trying to remove her tie dye t- shirt from her torso.

"Paul, I don't want to," Leila mumbled. They had kissed, gone to second base a few times but nothing like this. She wasn't ready, nowhere near.

"Sure you do,"

As his touch turned rough, she started to fight back at him by attempting to push him off her. It was at that point that Marcus burst through the door and tackled him to the plush carpeted floor.

"Leave her alone!" Marcus yelled, his outdated code of honour not impressing anybody, least of all Paul. In turn, he pushed Marcus into the wardrobe, and started beating him with one of the broken glasses.

"You retarded arsehole! Why the hell did you have to interfere, huh? HUH?" Paul yelled, smashing the glass over Marcus' face.

"PAUL! STOP IT! JUST STOP IT!" Leila shouted so loud that even the guests downstairs could hear her. Leila gave Paul a nasty kick to the groin and ran out of the trashed room. The amateur rapist followed, leaving Marcus to crawl bloodied and full of glass fragments out of the danger zone.

Downstairs, everything was calm. This was mostly because six members of Earth Force had sat all the members of the party on the sofas and had called the police. When they arrived, Paul was charged with attempted rape. Will and his ragtag bunch of friends were charged with theft and trespassing on Earth property. Fabians charge didn't have a specific name, but it was in relation to spiking drinks. Many of the kids were charged with under age drinking and drug taking. Marcus was taken to hospital.

xxx

Marcus awoke to find his arms and legs aching and the left side of his face covered in a thick pink gung. Flowers adorned his room, and present too was his father.

"I see you're awake. About time," Daniel Cole spoke, his voice and tone thick with adoration.

"I'm sorry," Marcus replied, his voice a mere croak. Paul had cut near his jugular vein and close to his voice box.

"You tried to protect a young woman from being raped, son. I'm not disappointed in you," his father reassured, stoking his sons head. "The other three is another question entirely,"

Fabian, Will and Eleanor entered at this point, their heads hanging low. Will looked resentful at their father, with the angriest eyes he had ever seen. Edward had mentioned on one of his less frequent visits that Will had been kept under house arrest by their father. Fabian had to wait another year before he could go to university on Earth. Eleanor had banned from shopping and from seeing her boyfriend.

When his family had left, Leila had turned up. She was dressed a lot more modestly than usual in jeans and a baggy black jumper. She brought the plastic chair near to his bed, and that's when he realised something. He didn't love her anymore: she had changed. He knew it shouldn't matter what she want through, but it did. She wasn't the same strong untouchable person she once was.

"Paul can't join Earth Force anymore, not after an attempted rape charge. He's going to have to try his hand at medicine. His father practically crucified him. Paul's dad was so looking forward to having another soldier in the family," Leila updated, still not looking directly at him or his injuries.

"If you're trying to make me feel sorry for him, you're wasting your time. He attacked me and tried to rape you. I hate him more now than I ever did at school."

"His life has just been ruined!" Leila exclaimed.

"And if I had come in just a few minutes later or not at all, the same would have happened to you," Marcus shot back.

Leila looked ashamed at this revelation. She patted his hand and made to leave when Marcus, tearful and croaky, made his last speech to her.

"I loved you, you know,"

"I know,"

She went out the door, and left Marcus with the fragrant smell of wilting flowers. That was the last time he ever spoke to Leila, and the last time he ever spoke to many of his old school friends.