|A/N| Sorry for the EXTREMELY long wait, guys. I've been having a serious case of writer's block. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to slow down even more now with updates but, rest assured, they're still coming. =) Also, sorry if this chapter isn't as good as the others, I kinda lost interest around 75% through. =/

|Gwen.|

With at least five minutes remaining in class, I decided to text Duncan. I took out my phone and scrolled down to the name 'Delinquent'. The text read: "Hey Delinquent! This is Gwen. :) What happened today? You're the popular topic of discussion at the moment, just wanted to see if you were okay."

I sent the message and placed the phone back into my pocket, waiting and hoping for Duncan to reply. I knew that he wouldn't reply right away so, once the bell rang, I gathered my things, said goodbye to Bridgette and LeShawna, and began to head home. Little did I know, things were about to take a turn for the worst.

Luckily, it was unusually warm for a November afternoon, so I didn't have wear my heavy hoodie. I tucked it under my arm with my books and continued to walk. Once I finally reached the block that I live on, I noticed something unusual. My mother's car was in the driveway, she's not supposed to be home for at least another ten hours! Something must be up. However, if something was up, I didn't want to seem too concerned, especially if there was nothing wrong.

I fiddled the key into the lock and pushed open the door, once I shut the door and threw my stuff onto the nearby couch, I called for my mom.

"In here, Gwen." I heard my mother reply from the kitchen, she sounded somber and upset.

"What's the matter, mom?" I asked, being very concerned. I've never seen my mother upset or anything of the sort, she was an extremely tough woman, especially after my father decided he didn't want anything to do with the 'family' he helped create.

"I got a call from your principal today, not about you, but it was for your brother. He's failing almost all of his classes, and he's not even going to some of them..." she replied, starting to tear up.

I began to feel mixed emotions when I saw the tears well up in my mother's eyes. Sadness was one of them, obviously, since seeing my Mother distraught was always something that bothered me way more then the average person. However, I was also a bit confused, since I knew my Mother would be upset but, this upset, was a little out of character for her. Before I could speak, my mom continued.

"...Is it because I'm never around? Is it because I'm always at work? Do you think that he thinks I don't care? This made me realize I wish I had more time for you guys... I feel like a bad Mother." she finished before looking up at me.

I quickly sat down next to her and began to speak, hoping that I could cheer her up.

"Don't say that, Mom. I wouldn't have or want any other Mother besides you! While spending more time with you would be totally awesome, the fact that you sacrifice time with your family at work, so that Nathaniel and I can live more comfortably is the exact opposite of a bad Mother." I replied wholeheartedly, before sitting down next to my Mom and giving her a big hug.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and put on a smile, before hugging me back.

"I'll go up there and talk to him, and see what's going on." I said.

"Sure, I've always known how close you two were." she replied before getting up and grabbing her cellphone, ready to make a call back to work.

Making my way upstairs, towards my brother's room, I could hear him talking on the phone.

"No way, man. I just got a phone call home from the principal about cutting school. My Mom is really upset and I'm not gonna put her through that again, bro." he exclaimed to whoever he was talking to.

"We'll still hang out and have jam sessions, bro. It'll just have to be after school. Later." Nathaniel finished before hanging up his phone.

At the exact moment he hung up his phone, I walked through his bedroom door and plopped down on one of the lounge chairs in his room that he sat in to play video games.

"So, I hear you're cutting class, Nate?" I asked in a friendly tone. Nate and I were very close, and we trusted each other with all of our personal problems and dilemmas, even if we could help the other.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I was. I didn't really mean for it to get out of hand, it was only so we could get a jump on our jam sessions." he admitted.

"Then you realized how awesome it was to be out of school early, and you got carried away?" I replied with a smile, knowing that when I was given my schedule during the start of my senior year, i was excited for getting out at 1pm instead of 3:30.

"Yeah, pretty much." he replied with a slight chuckle. "I don't plan on doing it again... that much."

I slightly snickered when I heard him say that. "Just don't do it enough that it's noticable."

I lazily got up from the comfortable lounge chair and made my way to the door, about to go lay down in my own room, when my brother spoke again.

"Play a few rounds of Mortal Kombat later?" he asked.

"Sure thing, and I call that chair!" I replied jokingly as I left his room.

Once I reached the edge of my bed, I outstretched my arms and slowly fell backwards on to my bed. I let out a long sigh and as soon as I closed my eyes, the ring that indicated I have a text message went off. It was Duncan...

|Duncan.|

The same period Gwen had Art, I had Math. Once again, I was late for class and school, and after trolling the security guard a bit, I decided to head off to yet another boring class. Unfortunately, I remembered that it was Math class. Once the realization hit me, I groaned in protest and begrudgingly continued towards the class.

Once I reached the wretched room, I swung the door open obnoxiously and fixed my gaze upon one of my most hated people of all time, my math teacher, Mr. Canale. He saw me and the rageworthy smile spread across his infuriatingly annoying face, but I ignored it and made my way to my seat.

"Ah, right on time, Duncan! 30 minutes late as usual!" he said in fake amused tone.

"Should be used to it by now." I replied dryly, looking at the other students who saw me turn in their direction and would immediately stare back down into their notebooks.

Honestly, and I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but everybody was afraid of me. I couldn't tell if that was a good or a bad thing at times. I mean nobody fucked with me, ever. If they did, and managed to kick my ass, which was rare, they'd have my brothers to contend with and nobody wanted that. However, I often scared people, even when I was trying to be nice.

After about twenty minutes, I slipped into the sweet embrace of sleep. I must've started snoring because I awoke to the vile stench of Mr. Canale's breath, due to the fact he was in my face now. Apparently he was fuming due to my snoring, because the class was dead silent, but I was too groggy to notice at the moment.

"Even when not aware of it, you still manage to disrupt my class to no end!" screamed Mr. Canale.

"My bad.. Take a chill pill, dude..." I replied, still half asleep.

"How can two parents have such an excellent student in Ezra but, such a failure in you!" screamed Mr. Canale in fury.

When I heard him spit his venomous words in my direction, my eyes snapped open. My brow furrowed and my upper lip twitched with rage. I could feel it coming, I was going to explode with anger. I HATED being called a failure, I heard it enough from my douchebag father to the point where I could predict when he was going to say it, every time. This pansy ass bitch had NO place calling me a failure. None. Another thing that really brought my piss to a boil was being compared to my brother. Ezra had my back no matter what and also hated when I was compared to him but, I couldn't help but let it bother me. Suddenly, I began to rise from my seat slowly, until I was face to face with the motherfucker.

He backed up a little bit as I stood up, wary of what I was going to say or do.

"Care to repeat that? I didn't quite catch what you said." I spat threateningly through gritted teeth.

Mr. Canale swallowed the massive lump in his throat, his face riddled with worry but, soon manned up when he realized he was about to be embarassed in front of his whole class, and he wouldn't have that.

"I said... How can two parents have such an excellent student in Ezra but, such a fai-"

He didn't get to finish his repetition.

BAM! My fist connected with the lower part of his jaw, making it go slack and Mr. Canale slumped to the floor in a stupor.

Once my fist connected with his jaw, I knew I made a mistake. To make things worse, another teacher had been walking by and watched the events unfold.

"Mr. Hawkins! Are you out of your damn mind? Get your butt to the principal's office now!" screamed the teacher.

There was no way I was getting out of this, so I growled slightly in frustration before slowly heading off to the prinicpal's office with the random teacher following me a few feet behind.

After a few minutes or so, I reached my principal, Mrs. Horowitz's office. She was informed of what I did before I got their so, when I took the seat in front of her desk, she was already glaring daggers, even moreso then usual. I was actually slightly intimidated.

"I'm speechless, Mr. Hawkins. For the lack of a better way to say it, you've had some major fuck ups in the past but, this is by far the worst." she stated in a low, and shocked tone.

Granted, I made a mistake but, I wasn't just going to sit there and let all the blame fall on my lap.

"For the of a batter way to say it, he fucked with me first." I said with a heated intensity.

"Be that as it may, striking a member of the faculty is, obviously, not allowed." she replied sternly. "I can't believe I even have to tell you that. Also, I've already called your parents before you got here, they'll be arriving shortly to pick you up"

"Whatever." I replied dismissively. However, I was dreading my parent's arrival. Mostly my Dad's. He was just going to side with the teacher, he always did.

After about five or so minutes, my parents finally walked into the principal's office. I didn't even have to look at them to realize they were probably the most disappointed they've ever been. I got up from the computer chair, grabbed my shit, and followed my parents out to their car.

Once we reached the car, and my father started it, I sighed and layed down in the back.

"I don't even want to know what possessed you to do something so stupid, until we get home." my father spoke, clearly not joking around.

I didn't reply and decided to rest my eyes for the fifteen minutes it took to get from the hellhole to my home. I sighed again as we finally entered the house, and decided that I'd try to stealthily ninja my way up into my room. I got to the top of the stairs before my father realized I was gone and demanded I come back downstairs.

Conceding defeat, I lazily lumbered down the stairs to the living room couch and plopped down onto it, bracing for the inevitable. My mother usually stayed quiet during these sessions, only speaking up whenever my father would go off on one of his notorious tirades, which was quite often.

"Striking a teacher, and even knocking him out. This is a new low for you, Duncan. I didn't think you could sink any lower, but you have. Well done." said my father, who was still eerily calm.

His words stung but, that wouldn't keep me from defending my actions, even if they were stupid ones that I had felt were right at the time.

"Hey, he started fucking with me first, what he said was uncalled for." I retorted.

"What did Mr. Canale say?" asked my father quizzically.

I contemplated lying, due to the fact that my father would agree with the teacher, and merely reiterate what that prick said. However, I just decided to go with the truth.

"He called me a failure and compared me to Ezra, deliberately trying to start a confrontation. I didn't do a fucking thing to warrant that." I said with rising intensity but, I kept a sense of calmness as well.

I looked to my mother, to see if she had anything to say, but she didn't and then, she looked to my father, to see if he had anything to say. My father's eyes never left me, and he gave a small chuckle before speaking.

"Your actions today have done nothing to help the matter, they've only helped prove Mr. Canale and myself right!" shot back my father.

His words stung earlier, but these hurt.

"Robert, that's enough!" my mother said quietly but, still threatening.

"You know what? Fuck this." I said in a gloomy tone, before quickly picking up my skateboard and heading out the door.

"Duncan! Wait!" my mother called after me but, I continued down the street, pushing off with my foot, hoping to pick up as much speed as possible.

"Let him go, Michelle." my father said in reply. "He'll come back."

About twenty minutes later, I met up with Nikki, Jonesy, and Jude at one of the secluded beaches we hung out at. I was going to smoke and drink my anger and sadness away with my best friends, one of my favorite things to do.

As i reached the woods that lead to the beach, a thought popped into my head. I texted Gwen to see if she wanted to chill, hoping she would say yes. I had a feeling that spending time with her would make me feel better than any kind of drug or alcohol.