A/N – It's a bit shorter than the last couple of chapters, but here's a new one for you. Thanks for reading.

Disclaimer – Read chapter one's disclaimer.

December 1, 1997

Why did we need to learn cursive writing? Anton thought as he wrote the same sentence for the fiftieth time. The only thing he'd ever need to write in cursive was his name, so why did he need to write down 'The dog swam across the pool' over and over again?

The people and things in this room were starting to annoy him. There was a boy in the back of the class who was tapping his pencil repeatedly, the class's pet rat was awake and digging around his the cage's bedding, and the teacher was chewing on her pen. There was too much noise and it was making it hard to concentrate.

Anton raised his hand.

"Yes Anton? What is it?" The teacher said, sounding as though she were annoyed. Anton was always asking questions and complaining, and to be honest, it got quite annoying after a while.

"Can you please stop chewing on your pen?" Anton asked, looking at the teacher with pleading green eyes.

The teacher sighed and nodded, "Yes Anton, I can stop chewing on my pen."

A kid behind the boy scoffed and said, "Dork."

Anton looked over his shoulder at the boy as the teacher scolded him, "Jeff, that's enough."

Jeff rolled his eyes and smiled smugly at Anton before he went back to work. Anton did the same. He started writing the sentence again, just wishing this would be over. After a minute of writing and flipping a page, he felt a light thud hit the back of his head.

He turned around and saw Jeff smiling at him and the boy mouthed, 'read it.'

Anton furrowed his brow and reached down, picking the rolled up paper ball off of the ground. He looked back at Jeff and saw the boy was still smiling at him, his hands folded over each other and resting on his desk. Anton looked towards the front of his class and made sure his teacher wasn't looking before he quietly unfolded the paper.

On the crinkled white sheet of paper was a word. A single word. Written largely and boldly. It was a word he'd heard before, and he knew what it meant, it just wasn't a word generally thrown around.

On the paper was the word 'faggot.'

His family had a dark sense of humor and it was sometimes thrown around. The word was offensive to gay people as far as Anton knew, but his family never used it in that way and it wasn't said often. Sometimes his dad would call someone he knew this word, usually Eric, but it wasn't all meant to be taken seriously. Leah said it once and his dad got onto her and told her she shouldn't get used to throwing that word around. Anton would surely never say it, but he wasn't one to look for trouble.

Anton felt hurt by this note. Jeff has always picked on him, since he first met him in the second grade. He had called him many names before, but never one like this.

"Anton, what is that you got there?" The teacher, Mrs. Applegate suddenly asked.

Anton looked up his, his eyes wide with alarm. Oh no.

"It's nothing," Anton said, balling the paper up again and trying to hide it. But Mrs. Applegate wasn't having it.

"Let me see that," She ordered gently, coming to stand in front of his desk and extending her hand for him to hand her the paper.

Anton shook his head, "No."

"No?" Mrs. Applegate asked, raising an eyebrow. Anton never said no to her, and he certainly never talked back, "Anton, give me the paper. Now."

Anton looked over his shoulder at Jeff, who was sort of smiling at him, as if to say, 'how are you going to get out of this one?'

Anton looked back up at Mrs. Applegate and she spoke again, more sternly this time, "Now."

Anton sighed and frowned, his eyes displaying fear and sadness. He gently handed the paper to the woman, who quickly unfolded it and read what was on the page. She looked down at Anton, seeming upset.

"Anton, did you write this?" She asked, hoping that he hadn't. This wasn't like him.

Anton didn't know what to do. Should he tell her the truth? If he did he'd surely get beat up. But if he didn't he'd be known as a wuss to the whole class who knew exactly who passed him the note.

Maybe they could help him though?

"It was Jeff! He did it!" Anton cried, his green eyes fearful.

"I did not! He's lying!" Jeff quickly responded, slamming his hands onto his desk and standing abruptly.

"Anton, Jeffrey, come with me. Now," Mrs. Applegate ordered.

Jeff stood first and walked past Anton, glaring at him as he passed. Anton slowly stood after Jeff passed, shaking slightly. Why was he so scared? Anton walked over to his teacher and let him pass ahead of her and follow behind Jeff as they left the classroom.

0-0-0-0-0

"So, what happened to your brother today?" Eddie asked as he sipped on his soda he just bought from a local Pizza Hut.

"Somebody called him a name," Leah responded, crushing the ice in her drink with her straw.

"It seemed pretty serious. What was he called?" Eddie asked, leaning back in his seat.

Leah didn't want to say this here in public, so she had to lean forward and whisper it to her best friend, "He was called a faggot."

Eddie's eyes widened, "Jesus! How old's your brother again?"

"He's ten," Leah responded, leaning back in her chair again.

"Damn," Eddie said, sipping on his drink again, "When I was ten, the worst word I knew was 'stupid.' I didn't start throwing that one around until at least seventh grade."

Leah smiled, "Oh yes, middle school. When we thought it was cool to cuss every other word."

Eddie smiled and nodded, "I die a little on the inside whenever I think back to those days. I was such a dork."

"You still are," Leah cracked sarcastically.

"Ha, ha, aren't you just full of jokes today," Eddie said back, smiling a tad.

Leah giggled and tried getting the rest of her soda out of her cup. She heard the bell on the door jingle, meaning someone had come in. She cast her blue eyes up and saw a familiar face. Brandon.

Leah smiled and set her drink down as the boy spotted them. She threw her hand up, "Hey Brandon, what's up?"

He looked nervous, his hands were stuffed in his pockets as he quickly approached the table, "Hi Leah, I need to talk to you."

Leah furrowed her brow, "How'd you know I was here?"

"I went by your house and your dad said you and Eddie sometimes come here after school," Brandon replied, "Please, it's urgent."

Leah nodded, "Yeah, okay. I'll be right back, Eddie."

Eddie nodded, "Alright, don't keep me waiting."

Leah rolled her eyes and followed Brandon outside away from Eddie. After they were out of the way of the door, Leah crossed her arms and looked up at her new friend, "Alright, what's up?"

Brandon sighed and looked around before he spoke, "Did you talk to my mom about what happened yesterday?"

Leah was quiet a minute before she nodded, "Yeah… Why? Is that a problem?"

Brandon nodded, looking angry now, "Yes, that's a huge problem! Now Dan's mad at me!"

"Why?" Leah asked irritably, not understanding. If his dad wasn't guilty of telling Brandon he wasn't allowed to express his feeling then he shouldn't be angry at him.

"Because he knows I told you that now!" Brandon snapped, throwing his arms about.

"Well, did he really tell you that you can't show your emotions, or are you just saying that to get attention?" Leah asked, trying to get a rise out of him. Maybe he'd open up?

"What? Why would I say that to get attention? That's ridiculous!" Brandon snapped, hardened his gaze at Leah.

"So your dad's just a dick?" Leah asked.

Brandon pointed a stern finger at Leah, "He's not my dad."

Leah seemed surprised by this, "He raised you, didn't he?"

"Yeah, if you could call what he does raising me, then yeah," Brandon said, "My real dad died when I was a baby."

Oh. She didn't know that.

"Oh," Leah said, softening her features now, "Sorry."

"Its fine, I don't even know him," Brandon said, acting as if this wasn't a big deal or even a bad thing. I guess if you don't even know your own father though it's kind of hard to miss him.

"Brandon, does your dad—Dan, does Dan yell at you?" Leah asked. The way Brandon always talked about him, not even referring to him as a father figure, it made Leah curious. She just hoped this question didn't offend him.

Brandon was quiet though. So Dan does.

"Does your mom know?" Leah asked, taking a tiny step towards Brandon.

"No," He shook his head before he pointed sternly at Leah, "I swear, if you tell my mom…"

Leah shook her head, "I won't. I won't."

She couldn't. This was a big deal. If it ever seemed to get too bad though, she'd be compelled to do something.

"Please," He said, softening his features now.

"I won't, you can trust me," Leah said, wanting him to warm to her.

Brandon nodded, but he didn't seem to believe her, "I hope so."

He had to trust her. Why else would he have told her what he had so far?

0-0-0-0-0

"Happy Birthday dear Tyler," The family sang to the four year old, "Happy birthday to you!"

Everybody cheered for him as he blew out the candles on his birthday cake, a big smile on his face. His mother kissed him on the cheek as Dan took the cake so he could cut it.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart," Jackie smiled, her hands on Tyler's small shoulders.

"Happy birthday, squirt," Brandon said, ruffling the kid's dark hair.

"Stop calling me that," The child giggled, pushing his brother's hand off of his head.

Brandon smiled at the boy as he sat back down in his chair. Jackie was happy to see him smile, she hasn't seen him do that genuinely in a while.

"Alright, the big piece goes to the birthday boy!" Dan cried happily, handing the slice of cake to his son.

Tyler grabbed his fork and quickly starting eating, frosting already smearing across his mouth and face. Jackie giggled at her son's messy eating habits as Dan continued passing cake around the table. He placed Jackie's slice down in front of her chair, but before Jackie could sit down, the phone rang.

She furrowed her brow and licked some cake frosting off of her finger before she started towards the kitchen, "I'll be right back."

Dan continued talking with his kid's and Brandon sat back in his chair silently as Jackie left the room. She went into the kitchen and grabbed the phone, answering it.

"Hello?" She greeted, curious as to who was calling at this time.

"Hey, it's Hyde," Steven's voice said quietly on the other end.

"Oh, hi Steven. What's going on?" Jackie asked curiously.

"Well, I don't really know actually," Steven replied, sounding as if he were unsure of himself, "Leah's been acting a little off tonight, it might have something to do with Brandon going to see her earlier."

"Brandon went to go see Leah earlier?" Jackie asked. This was news to her.

"Yeah. You didn't know?" Steven asked, surprised himself.

"No," Jackie shook her head, "That's odd. Why wouldn't he have told me?"

"I don't know, but he came by looking for her earlier," Steven went on, "He's seemed to be in a hurry, but he didn't tell me anything was wrong, so…"

"Well, Leah came by yesterday to talk to me," Jackie said, shrugging her shoulders, "She came to talk to me about something that happened at school. Maybe that has something to do with it."

"She came to see you?" Steven asked, "If she was having trouble at school she could've came to me."

Jackie shook her head, "No, it wasn't about her. It was about Brandon."

Steven was quiet for a second, but eventually he said, "Something's going on here."

Jackie nodded. She was back at square one, "Something's going on with him. I'm going to find out what it is."

"Do you need help?" Steven asked.

Jackie thought for a moment, biting her lip before she replied with, "That'd be great, yeah."