Dwayne did what Olive said. He got up five minutes early, and went out to Sheryl's garden to clip a rose before she woke up. He wrote out a note that said simply Sophie, I'm Sorry, please talk to me. – Dwayne. Not wanting to cause any sort of disturbance, he didn't break apart her circle of friends to make the delivery, instead, he put the rose and the note on her desk in their English class before anyone entered the class. He sat down and waited for the bell to ring, and for students to enter. He watched her in the crowded room as she picked up the flower and note. Sophie didn't smile, and she didn't look at Dwayne, instead, she silently handed the note to Arielle, who was also in the class. Dwayne read Arielle's face, then watched as she spoke to Sophie.

"Sophie, come on, you should at least talk to him after he went through the trouble of getting the rose and writing note. He apologized, really, you're actually being stupid." Arielle was arguing Dwayne's case, he couldn't believe it. Arielle had been nice to him, but he had thought that was just because she didn't want to lose Sophie as a friend.

"I know, but that stubborn side of me is winning out! It's not like I can help it, I'm still mad at him for some reason!" Sophie argued back, sighing.

"God, you hold a grudge like no other!" Arielle was slightly exasperated.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you could please settle down, put your things in the back of the room, we're going to start the test." The teacher, Mr. Vaughn, interrupted the conversation, and Dwayne looked to the front of the room so that Sophie and Arielle wouldn't know that he had been looking at them. That day, he sat through two finals, English and algebra two. Both of them went well, except for The Scarlet Letter portion on the English test. After both of the two hour long exams were finished, Dwayne walked home. At 2:30, he made the decision to take the bus and pick up Olive. Frank walked to work, so the car was available. He took the keys from the wrack in the kitchen, and went on his way.

"Hey," Dwayne said to Olive when she came out of the school. Her face instantly lit up at finding out that she wouldn't have to take the bus.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

"Don't be so glad to see me," he joked. "Half day at school, we have them all week, it's because of finals. Anyway, you have been being bullied; can you tell me who's been doing that?" Dwayne knelt down to Olive's height. She pointed to a boy just leaving the building, and connected to someone who looked to be his brother, a boy whom Dwayne recognized from his school. "Ok, you stay here for just a minute, I'll be right back." Dwayne left Olive and walked over to the two boys.

"Hey, you go to my school, don't you? You're that silent kid." The older boy looked at Dwayne.

"Yeah, I used to be. Hey, listen, you're brother, I'm assuming he's your brother at least," Dwayne motioned to the younger boy. "He's been bullying my little sister, and it really needs to stop, so if you could maybe get him to stop, that would be good." Dwayne was trying not to be rude as he spoke, and he was a little unsure of how to word his request.

"What? Why would I do that? He can't help it if she's vulnerable, that's her fault and maybe yours a little too, and besides, what are you going to do about it?" The older boy sneered at Dwayne, whose sole response was to punch the guy. He bounced back from the surprising boy fairly quickly, and lunged at Dwayne. "So this is how you want to play? Didn't anyone ever tell you never to mess with me?"

"No, no one ever tells me anything," Dwayne said, ducking an uppercut. Both boys were lanky, and both were good fighters, so no winner was clear right off the bat. Olive was a little nervous on the side lines, she had never seen her brother get in to a physical fight with someone, and wasn't sure he could handle himself, she was quickly proven wrong.

"Ok boys, break it up!" The principal of the elementary school came roaring out to the front. Someone from the crowd that the pair had inevitably attracted had gone to the school office for help. Before the principal could reach them, however, the other boy split to avoid trouble. Dwayne followed suit, quickly finding Olive and walking hurriedly towards the VW.

"Oh my gosh, are you ok?" Olive asked as they slowed and climbed in to the car.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Dwayne smiled and put the keys in to the cars ignition.

"You probably shouldn't have done that," Olive said a few minutes later while they were driving.

"I know, I know, but he was being a complete jack ass, he had it coming, just don't tell mom and dad, ok?" Dwayne asked Olive.

"You don't think that they're going to see the blood?" One of the hits had caused blood to slowly trickle down from underneath Dwayne's right eye, which, he thought to himself, would probably be black in the morning.

"Just back me up when I say that I tripped, ok?" Olive nodded. "I just don't want mom to worry about it." Dwayne felt that he needed to justify lying to his family so that Olive would understand why he was asking her to do so. "Home mom!" Dwayne called as they walked in the door minutes later.

"Hey, Dwayne, you have company, and- oh my god, you're bleeding! Are you alright? What happened?" Sheryl asked, worriedly walking to the front room, Sophie close behind her, looking slightly worried, and a little nervous.

"Nothing, I just tripped, I'll be fine." Dwayne walked back towards his room, and Sophie followed him.

"Dwayne, I'm sorry that I didn't call you back, and I know that didn't talk to you at school, but I've been thinking about it, and I know that I shouldn't have started the fight. I mean, you're a teenage guy, maybe you were telling the truth that you can't help looking at other girls, it doesn't mean that you're going to do anything with them, I should have just trusted you." Sophie spoke quickly as soon as they were out of earshot from the rest of the family.

"No, you were right, you shouldn't have," Dwayne spoke after thinking for a moment.

"What? Why?" Sophie asked him, sounding a little worried.

"Right after our fight I came home and made out with Olive's babysitter. It was honestly nothing, I was upset, but if you don't ever want to talk to me again, I would understand. I mean, I tried to call and tell you, but it didn't seem like something that could be left in a message." Dwayne looked down at the floor. He was unable to look at Sophie, as she looked so hurt.

"Oh," Sophie said finally. "So that's what you wanted to tell me when you left those messages?" she asked, fighting back tears.

"Yeah, but you wouldn't call me back."

"I know." Sophie let the tears go, first allowing one to roll down her cheek, shortly followed by others.

"Sophie, I really care about you," Dwayne put his arm around her shoulders, and moved her so that they were sitting on his bed. "I didn't want to hurt you, that's why I told you, but I also know that what I did can't be cancelled out with an apology or coming clean."

"Yeah…I know." Sophie thought for several minutes, crying with Dwayne's arm around her. "But still, apologizing and admitting your mistake right away is admirable…I'm going to have to think." Sophie spoke slowly and tearfully, but articulated herself well. "However, while we're on the topic of honesty, how did you really get that cut below your eye?"

"I got it in a fight, a fight which I technically started." Dwayne looked at her.

"What? Why? Who with?" she sounded worried, Dwayne didn't usually fight, that was common knowledge, and never fought, let alone started, physical fights. This wasn't like him at all.

"This boy has been bullying Olive at school, and Richard and mom wouldn't do anything about it, so I went to talk to his brother about it, who turned out to be Chris Knight, so of course, he was being an asshole. He said that Olive deserved to be bullied, which no one deserves, so I punched him, which, of course, led to a fight." Dwayne explained the circumstances.

"You picked a fight with Chris Knight and came out with just the one cut?" She asked him, surprised.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that there's going to be a black eye there tomorrow, besides, I think he's a bit of practice these days, what with everyone being too afraid to fight him." Dwayne shrugged.

"It was really nice of you to defend your sister like that." Sophie gave him a small smile through the slowing, but still coming tears. Dwayne just shrugged. "Here, let me clean the cut for you, it would be bad for that to get infected, and you're letting the blood drip down your shirt, it's going to stain."

"So you don't hate me?" Dwayne asked a minute later as Sophie wet a paper towel from the kitchen and put some soap on it.

"No, I don't hate you, but I'm not forgiving you yet either," she said honestly.

"That's more then fair."

"This might-"

"Sting, yeah, I know, just get it over with, it's not going to hurt any more then the punch that caused it." Dwayne cut her off before she delivered a cliché line.

"True," she smiled as she wiped the blood from his face, neck, and collarbone.

"Thanks," Dwayne said, drying his face with a towel once she was finished.

"Go change shirts. If we boil this one in water now we might be able to get the blood out before it stains." Dwayne nodded and headed to his room while Sophie started to heat the water. He thought about how lucky he was that Sophie didn't hate him, and he thought about it felt to see such a wonderful person cry, and to have yourself to blame for the tears. He had been angry with her for not trusting him, but no one can be completely perfect, or completely trusting. He swapped his white shirt for a dark blue one, and went back out to the kitchen to join Sophie, a slight smile gracing his lips.

"Dwayne!" Phone!" Richard called out later that night.

"Coming!" Dwayne rushed to the kitchen to answer the call. "Hello?" he said, taking the phone from his step dad.

"Dwayne, hi, this is Arielle Hertz, Sophie's friend."

"Oh, hi." Dwayne was surprised to hear her on the other end of the phone. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I talked to Sophie after she saw you today, and first, I want to say that you are a bastard, and lucky that she didn't slap you and leave. On a lighter note, I wanted to say that it was very admirable of you to come clean right away, and how admirable it was of you to admit that you knew what you did was wrong. Sophie really likes you, and I must say that I don't hate you so much myself, but if you want to gain her trust back, I would stay away from the babysitters in the future." Arielle spoke, and Dwayne listened.

"I'm really sorry for what I did to her, I really do regret it, if you would tell her that, I-"

"She knows, she just needed some time, but she told me that she misses you, and tomorrow, I'm sure that she'll come back to you, just don't avoid her, maybe bring her another flower, but don't be afraid to give it to her with us around. It may not seem like many of her friends like you, and I'm not going to lie to you, they don't, but the ones that dislike you don't know what you did, so none of them hate you even more. Just be comfortable around her environment, it may prove to be good for you." Dwayne now realized that Arielle was coaching him on how to get Sophie back.

"Thanks, um, why are you doing this?" Dwayne asked. "Why are you helping me?"

"I'm helping you because it's good for Sophie, and because it's good for you, you two seem to mesh well together, and while I never would have predicted it, it's the truth," Arielle stated simply. "Now I really have to go, but good luck, ok? Oh, just one more thing. If you hurt her in away way ever again, I'm going to hunt you down and kill you."

"Somehow, I don't doubt that. Well, um, thank you, goodbye." Arielle hung up after Dwayne finished speaking, and Dwayne put the phone down in a slight daze.

"Who was that?" Olive asked.

"A friend of Sophie's," Dwayne replied.

"Are you two getting back together?" Olive asked hopefully. "She's pretty," the little girl added, smiling up at her brother.

"I think so, we're getting there." He looked down at his sister. "She is pretty, isn't she." He nodded in agreement with his little sister.

"She is. I'm glad that you're going to be doing better."

"Are you?"

"Yes." She nodded. "Thank you for trying to help with Carl earlier too, his brother seems to be just as bad."

"Yeah, well, I'd say Carl learned everything that he knows from Chris." Dwayne sighed and shook his head. "Those are a couple of peas in a pod, but I think they've gone rotten, perishable goods you know?" Dwayne was in a much lighter mood after talking to Arielle, and he felt the inclination to add in a little joke.