Chapter 2

On what should have been Derek's 26th birthday (but was instead his 2nd), he finally managed to climb out of his crib by himself. Once on the floor, he felt like screaming "Freedoooom!" but he only did it in his head, since he had no way of explaining how he knew that reference and the noise would wake everyone in the house. He looked up at the door thinking "What the fuck do I do now?". There was no way he could reach the door knob.

He ended up sitting on the floor, waiting.

When his mother arrived to take him downstairs, he was still sitting there like an idiot.

"I out!" He screamed to share his pride. Look Mom, I'm old enough for a real bed now! Please…

"I can see that but why did you get out of bed?" She looked slightly worried. "You could've hurt yourself!"

Derek refused to listen to this. He was 26 years old; he should have been allowed to get up early if he wanted to. He walked as fast as his little legs permitted it, trying to avoid his mom's arms when he walked by her. She looked amused and let him go before following him to make sure he wouldn't try the stairs alone.

As usual, Mr. Hale was making breakfast while Peter and Laura were already at the kitchen table, waiting. Derek was put in his highchair (which was as far away from Peter as possible since the mashed potatoes incident.) and a few minutes later he had a sippy cup with what smelled like apple juice in front of him.

"Noooo!" He pushed the sippy cup away and looked up at his mom. Apple juice? I don't like apple juice, I never liked apple juice! Why are you doing this to me?

"Derek! Careful! What's wrong with you today?"

What's wrong with ME? You're the one giving me apple juice. "No juss!" What happened to orange juice? Orange was fine. I want orange juice! He tried to communicate through his eyes but all he got was an exasperated look from Talia. The puppy eyes didn't work either.

"He's such a whiner…"

And you're such a dick. Derek stared at his uncle, who was probably responsible for the lack of orange juice, the jerk. The 12 year old stared right back and the daily Derek and Peter staring contest started.

It was a Wednesday, so Derek stayed home with his dad while Laura and Peter were at school and Talia was at work. They were watching cartoons, which had become Derek's favorite activity, when the phone rang. Mr. Hale left the room to answer and then came back with an angry look stuck on his face. Still, he forced himself to smile when he told Derek they were going out for a bit.

"Out!" Derek squealed eagerly. He wanted to ask where they were going but he hadn't mastered "Where" yet. Actually he couldn't say much more than "Out", "No", "Mama", "Dada" and "A'hole". He was starting to get worried, but then again, his mom had always said he had been a late bloomer speech wise.

After 20 minutes in the car, and that was a very long time to be stuck in a car seat, they finally stopped in what looked like Beacon hills' middle school.

Oh... Peter got in trouble… Derek found himself unable to stop smiling.

Derek was put in his stroller, even after protesting vehemently for 5 minutes. Derek wanted to cry to make sure his dad understood how much he hated it, but Peter would make fun of him. Speaking of which, they found him on one of the seats in front of the principal's office. There was also a teacher and three other boys. All three of them had bruises and one had a busted lip.

Mr. Hale took Peter aside and started whispering. Derek could hear them talking about what had happened. According to Peter, the three boys started it and deserved it. He refused to say much more after that. They all waited until each boy had an authority figure with them before going into the office.

Derek already had a smirk ready for when Peter would get blamed; he had practiced it for days.

"First of all, I'd like to say that violence, for any reason, is not tolerated in this school."

Oh you are so going to get grounded Uncle Peter.

"But bullying a student is unacceptable. Mr. Thomas saw those three boys insulting and pushing Mr. Hale in the hallway long before Mr. Hale threw the first punch. It is understandable that anyone would feel the need to defend themselves when being attacked, and I do mean attacked because that's what it was, by three other students."

Oh.

"And this is not the first time your sons are caught tormenting other students, including Mr. Hale. I think, and Mr. Thomas agrees, that you three would benefit from a few hours of detention, every day, for two weeks. Mr. Hale will have detention tomorrow as well, for using violence instead of asking for a teacher's help."

Peter was bullied? I always thought he must have been the most popular guy in his school. When he looked up at his uncle, Peter had his head down. Derek could see tears falling before being quickly wiped.

The ride back was silent. Derek's dad looked like he wanted to say something but didn't know how. Peter wasn't crying anymore but he kept his head down. Derek never would have thought that his uncle had ever been bullied. They were werewolves, being popular at school was supposed to be easy for them. It had been for Derek. Maybe that's it… The thing that happened in Peter's life that made him the manipulative jerk Derek had always known.

I've been doing this all wrong…

When they got home, Derek wasted no time. He told his father "I play" before following Peter, who had run to his room as soon as the car had stopped. His father knew he'd lied but maybe he'd have enough time to execute the "Save Peter Plan".

He got lucky; the door was ajar so he didn't have to beg at the door until Peter caved in. Instead he pushed the door and walked right in. Peter was sitting on the floor, his back leaning against his bed. The 12-year-old didn't move or even looked up at the toddler.

Derek jumped forward; he stood on his uncle's lap to be able to put both of his arms around Peter's neck. They stayed in that position for a while until Derek's legs started to wobble and he fell backward. Peter caught him before siting him on his lap.

"I thought you hated me." Derek's heart broke; he couldn't believe he had refused to give a second chance to his Uncle when he got his without asking.

"I sowwy."