~A~

"She's going to be a handful."

"Aw, come on, Owen. You like her. You know you do."

Owen scowled. "Mr. Coleman is right to call her trouble. We're not going to see anything but trouble from her."

"But she told you about what's happening today. You like her more." Sean smirked.

Owen pursed his lips and his gaze narrowed as he stared at his best friend. "You don't seem to understand what I am saying." He stated coolly. "She's trouble, they aren't focused because of her." He said, running his hand over his hair, pressing it back into place before he crossed his arms. "Not one of them has bothered to let me know that they have detention or why… or explained just what they're thinking in doing it."

"Obviously they are protecting her." Sean shrugged. "And maybe they're going to tell you at lunch or after all of them have secured a seat in detention."

"Mr. Lee has had a detention since first period." Owen scowled. "Because he ASKED for it. He's family lead but still reports to me and I did NOT authorize detention this early in the school year."

Sean leaned back against his desk, his own arms crossed in front of his chest. His green eyes sparkled like crazy with amusement. He just adored it when Owen got all worked up about something. It was funny. Eventually he calmed down and everything came to a very smooth plan but the work up part was hilarious. "Okay, so they're bad boys for not mentioning it. Let's talk instead about the fact that McCoy has it out for Miss Sang."

Owen rolled his eyes, huffed a sharp, short sigh and nodded slightly. "He does. Question is, would she be so on his radar if we hadn't intervened?" he asked. "I hadn't wanted them to get any detentions, it works at cross purposes for our assignment."

Sean nodded slightly. "Okay, fine, I can see that this doesn't fit our purpose. First step then is to get ourselves in charge of detention today. I'm pretty sure that the 8 of them are the only ones on the list today."

"Yes. Good place to start." Owen said, shifting and starting to pace slightly in the small space between their desks, his hands on his hips as he thought and paced.

"Second…" Sean paused, running his hand though his hair, messing up the curls. "Miss Sang totally would have been on his radar. Before I walked up, he was about to make her go home and change … at REGISTRATION… simply because he thought her skirt was too short. So why was he even looking at her legs…?" he scowled.

"Again, another reason we have to keep an eye on him." Owen muttered under his breath.

"Third, how are we going to play this?" Sean grinned as he looked at Owen. "Are we going to be, aw yeah, boys… good job protecting Sang and getting detention… rite of passage… yada yada yada, frat house style?" He asked excitedly.

Owen glared at him with an icy cool glare. "NO. We are not going to be "proud" of them for doing this." He said, pushing up the edge of his glasses. "That would give the entirely wrong impression."

"Okay, I can see that." Sean nodded. "So good cop bad cop…" He nodded again. "You be all stern and disproving and silent and I will act properly solemn but be the one that talks. We'll take them and Miss Sang somewhere…"

"And get a point across that she has done their job far better, impressively and remarkably better than they have done." Owen said softly.

Sean blinked at him. "You do like her." He breathed, his eyes wide.

Owen rolled his eyes at him. "Knock it off and get serious." He said. "Or I will only answer to Mr. Blackbourne for the foreseeable future."

Sean rolled his eyes. "I am always serious when it comes to Miss Sang." He stated, pressing a hand to his chest. "How dare you suspect otherwise, Owen." He smiled. "Okay, point noted. She'd been doing their job for them and impressing you. So what is our next step? If we put them in those damn uniforms Hendricks wants, she's in danger … more danger than she is right now."

"And that is not what we want at all." Owen said. "So I think we'll have to tell her that she has to stay away from them entirely at school." He said.

Sean's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "But, won't that just result in her getting into even worse situations?" He asked.

"It's not ideal." Owen inclined his head slightly, pulling his glasses off and pinching the bridge of his nose. He was certainly going to have more headaches this year if the amount of headaches he'd had in just three days of school was anything to judge by. He cleaned the lenses off and put them back on before looking at Sean. "But it will answer the question if McCoy and Hendricks remain interested in her if we… they… are not with her all the time in the halls, before and after school and at lunch."

Sean looked skeptical. "I've heard they can't let her go to the bathroom on her own or even just take the trash across the yard to the garbage can without her getting accosted by the Neanderthals at this school." He commented. "It seems risky to put her safety at risk." He leaned back again against his desk and crossed his arms.

"Situations we're here to monitor." Owen shrugged slightly. "Tomorrow's Friday, let's at least just see what happens with the distance tomorrow."

Sean sighed and made a face. "Well, I don't like it… I know they for sure won't like it…" He said, still frowning.

"We may not have much choice if we don't try now." Owen said with a sigh. "You'll take her away from the group while they work on a few mini assignments we need them to do… uniforms etc. and talk to her. I think she's scared of me."

Sean snorted. "Yeah, you're one hell of a scary dude." He teased. "Fine fine… we'll do this your way."

Owen shook his head before smirking. "Of course we will." He said before taking his seat behind his desk so that they could put their plan in motion. They had to get control over detention first after all…

(Fade…)