Nick's POV:

Tuesday. Ugh. My ribs still hurt like hell from yesterday. Oh well, I have to get ready for school. I dragged myself out of my bed and made my way to the bathroom. I looked at my watch and noticed that I had 45 minutes until we had to leave. I took a quick shower and brushed my teeth. I walked over to my closet and stared at my clothes. What to wear? I grabbed my Yankees t-shirt and Black skinny jeans. I quickly realized that putting on my shirt was a painful process. I threw on my white converse, and brushed my hair. I checked the mirror one more time and trudged downstairs. I noticed that I was the first one up. I made myself a bowl of fruit loops and sat down and ate in silence.

Yesterday was so weird. I don't usually trip like that. I mean, I'm a professional musician, I have to be coordinated. Not once have I tripped on stage. So, why all of the sudden, would I trip over nothing? I think I felt something hit my foot though, causing me to trip. Now that I think about it, right before I fell I saw a flash of brown hair and a blue shoe at my foot. I knew I didn't trip! I was tripped! Now the question is who tripped me? I was about to ponder that when I saw Joe walk downstairs.

"Hey fro bro. How do you feel?"

"I'm better." I lied.

"Okay, that's good. Now we just have to wait for the girls to come downstairs. Macy slept over again and lord knows how long they take to get ready"

I chuckled. We sat there talking, mostly about our music and other random stuff, before the girls finally made their appearance.

"Hey guys." Macy said as she walked down the stairs. I waved at her and looked over at Joe who looked like his eyes were about to fall out of his head. I kicked him under the table.

"Ow! Dude, what was that for?!" He whisper/yelled.

"You look like your eyes are about to fall out of your head. Put your tongue back in your mouth too!" I whispered back. He turned bright red but listened to me. He walked over to Macy to give her a hug.

"Alright guys let's go!" Julie said. I looked at the clock and noticed that if we didn't leave soon, we were going to be late.

We all filed out the door behind Julie and began our ten minute walk to school. I walked with Julie, talking to her the whole time mostly because Macy and Joe were behind us whispering and being all lovey dovey to each other. Yuck. Julie and I talked about random stuff until we finally made it to the school. We had about 10 more minutes to get to class. As soon as we walked through the doors we were stopped by Adam and Tyler.

"Hey Nick! How are you buddy? Can we talk to you for a second in here?" Adam asked, pointing to an empty classroom.

"Um, yeah, sure, I guess." I answered skeptically. Just yesterday, didn't they hate me? This is weird.

I followed them into the classroom. "Okay what did you-"I was cut off by Tyler's hand coming over my mouth. While keeping one hand on my mouth, he took duck tape and taped my hands together. He then put a piece over my mouth. I could have run, but I was too scared. Once I was all taped up, Adam walked over and punched me as hard as he could in my stomach. I grunted, because I'm not going to lie, that hurt. Bad. I fell onto the ground, only to be met with kick after kick into my stomach, legs, arms, and back. Finally, after what seemed like hours, they stopped and picked me up by my curls and threw me into the wall. I felt like my body was on fire. I opened my eyes and saw them walking over to me. There was nothing I could do. I was trapped. Adam leaned over me.

"Okay little pop star. Listen up. You tell anybody about this and the beatings are going to get worse. You tell your stupid family and I will get each and every one of them. Even that slut Macy. Got it?"

What else could I say? I can't let them get to my family. I slowly nodded my head yes and they ripped the duck tape off. "Why are you doing this?" I asked hoarsely.

"You are such an idiot. My girlfriend and little sister loved you, Joe, and your stupid band. I have no idea why, but they did. They went to your gay concert. They were waiting outside the arena when you and your faggot brothers made an appearance. They just wanted to fucking meet you, but before they could do that. They were trampled. They died at the concert. The two people I loved the most in the world, died because of you! Now you and your family are going to pay!"

This was all the invitation I needed. I jumped on Adams back and started punching as hard as I could. I was in so much pain; it couldn't have been very hard. Tyler grabbed me off of Adams back and spun me around so I was facing him. He punched me square in the jaw. I fell to the floor. They started walking away, muttering things like stupid punk, idiot, and annoying little brat. I started seeing red. They can't just come in here, beat the living shit out of me, insult me and my family, and then just leave. Before I knew what I was doing, I ran up to Adam and kicked him, hard, where the sun don't shine. He grunted and fell to the floor groaning. I didn't even have time to enjoy my victory before I was shoved to the ground by Tyler. He kicked and kicked and kicked. It hurt so bad, I just wanted to die. It finally stopped. I opened my eyes and saw them leaving. This time I couldn't get up. I just laid there and welcome the darkness.

Joe's POV:

Where's Nick? I haven't seen him since this morning when he left with those two guys. He wasn't at lunch and he was never at his locker. Maddie and Julie didn't know either. We all decided that we needed to go look for him. It was almost last period. We had 5 minutes until next period.

We checked his locker, the cafeteria, his classroom, and the gym. No Nick. That's weird. We were walking down the hall when we heard a small whimper coming from the room that Nick went into this morning. I looked over at Julie and Macy. They had curious expressions on their faces. We about to keep walking past when we heard an even louder whimper this time. I looked at Julie and Macy this time, and now they had scared expressions on their faces. I stared at the door. I reached for the handle and slowly opened it. The sight inside was horrifying. Desks were overturned; there was blood on the floor, and papers everywhere. We heard another whimper coming from the far corner of the room. We walked over there, only to come face to face with a very beat up Nick.

"Oh my god, Nicky. What the hell happened?!" I yelled, sprinting over to him and sitting next to him. I looked back to see Macy with a shocked expression on her face and Julie with silent tears flowing down her face.

Nick didn't reply. He was unconscious.

"Shit. Okay Nicky. Let's get you to the hospital." I told him as I picked him up

I ran out the door with Julie and Macy trailing behind me.

"Macy, you drive us to the hospital. Julie, you call mom and dad and tell them what's going on. I'm going to sit back here and help Nick."

They both nodded and got into the car with us. Macy got us to the hospital in 5 minutes and there was no doubt in my mind that we broke about 5 laws.

I jumped out of the car before it even stopped. Macy slammed on the brakes and I grabbed Nick and ran full speed, with him in my arms, into the ER.

"He needs to see a doctor immediately." I told the nurse as she looked from me to my unconscious brother in my arms, to Julie and Maddy, out of breath standing next to me.

"Okay, follow me." She said, as we walked down a long corridor and into an exam room.

"Okay, the doctor will be here in about five minutes. I will be in here during that time checking his vitals. I'm going to need you three to please go wait in the waiting room and as soon as we have the diagnosis, I will come out and tell you.

We were all too tired and worried to put up a fight so we shuffled into the waiting room. We were there about 20 minutes, before my parents, Kevin, and Frankie barreled through the door. After spending another 10 minutes explaining to them what little we know, we had nothing left to do, but sit there and wait.