Chapter 7

Devon shoved her book in her backpack as she walked down the hall to her next class. She opened her backpack wider and groaned. She realized that the notebook to her next class was still in her locker. She slung the backpack over her shoulder and quickened her pace. Her locker was a few halls down and she wanted to try to make it there before her next class.

Toby rushed down the hallway, then stopped when he saw Jay slip something into his pocket. Toby nervously walked up to Jay and tapped him on the shoulder. "Um...excuse me," he sputtered.

Jay turned around and smirked. "Are you talking to me?"

Toby gulped. "Uh...I...I..."

JT brushed Toby aside. "Hey, man. We saw what you did!" he stated bravely.

Jay crossed his arms and leaned against the locker next to him. "Really?" he asked.

"Yeah!" JT hissed back. "Toby was getting something out of his locker and you snatched his palm pilot out of his bookbag when his back was turned!"

"I think there must be some mistake..." Jay walked up to Toby until he was inches from his face. "Tell me, loser." He grabbed Toby's collar and pulled him closer as he raised his fist to Toby's terrified face. "Do you think that your friend has me confused with somebody else?"

Toby was so scared that he froze.

JT pushed Jay's hand off of Toby's shirt. "Lay off him!"

Jay let go of Toby, grabbed JT, and threw him against a locker. "What are you going to do if I don't?" he threatened. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Excuse me," a voice replied behind him. It was Devon.

Jay turned around and saw a petite, dark haired girl looking back at him. He was so confused as to what was going on, that he loosened his grip on JT and allowed JT to slide down to the floor.

"Excuse me," Devon replied again casually. "You had that kid up against my locker."

Jay turned around to face her. "So?!!"

Devon looked at her watch. She really didn't have time for this. "I just need to grab something out of it really quick for my next class."

JT and Toby just looked at each other. Was this really happening? Was Devon interrupting Jay....just to get to her locker? She was acting as if this wasn't a big deal.

Devon lightly bumped her locker door and swung the door open.

Jay started to look around the hall when he heard giggling from the other students who were watching close by. He felt his cheeks get warm from embarrassment. His embarrassment quickly snapped into anger. He turned around and slammed Devon's locker door shut. The noise echoed throughout the hallway and now more students stopped to see what was going on. "Just who do you think you are!"

Devon let out a frustrated sigh. She was only inches away from grabbing her notebook when Jay slammed her locker shut. "Who do you think? I'm the owner of this locker," she remarked sarcastically.

"Sean!"

Sean turned around and saw Emma run up to him. "Hey, Em!" he replied with a smile. "What's up?"

Emma shrugged her shoulders and pulled her books closer to her chest nervously. "What did Raditch end up doing to you and Devon?"

Sean shook his head. "Devon and I have to help the janitor after school today. We have to mop the floors and take out the trash." He smirked. "Raditch seems to think that Dev and I would respect school grounds more if we helped take care of it." He rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Emma frowned. "Actually, you two got off easy!" she replied with relief. "What if you got suspended?"

Sean brushed off the thought. The fun he had this morning was worth any punishment. It just seemed like he had been so uptight since his accident because of all the school work he had to make up. He needed something "edgy" to release some stress. They turned the corner and entered another hallway. "Emma—don't worry about it!" he replied reassuringly. "The fact is that Dev and I DIDN'T get suspended. Why bother worrying about something that didn't happen?" They both stopped when they heard a loud "slam" echo throughout the hallway.

They both looked up and noticed groups of students congregating around a particular area of the hallway.

"What's going on?" Emma asked.

"I have no idea..." Sean muttered back as he pushed his way through the crowd. He stopped and saw that Jay and Devon were in the middle of everyone's attention.

The late bell rang over their heads. Devon got even more frustrated because she was now officially late for Kwan's class—again! Since she was late, she decided to make the best of it. She turned around to face Jay and throw him a stern look. She decided to turn everything back on him. "Who do you think YOU are? Stealing people's stuff? Shoving people around?" She walked up to Jay without hesitation. "If you want to harass kids half your size to make yourself FEEL superior, when in reality—you're acting like a complete RETARD—then do it against someone else's locker!" She pushed past him. "Just don't waste my time..."

Jay was now livid. He snatched Devon's backpack from her shoulder and threw it to the floor. He then shoved Devon's back against her locker. He inched closer to her. "I have no problem shutting up little girls with smart mouths."

Sean was about to charge at Jay, but Emma reached out and held on to his arm to stop him. "Sean, don't," she whispered. She didn't want Sean to get into a fight. She knew that if Sean got in trouble a SECOND time that day, he would definitely get suspended.

Devon looked up at Jay's cold eyes, but didn't flinch. Instead, she looked right back at him and returned his cold stare. "Good!" she yelled back. "Because I have no problem fighting big apes with no brains!" She lifted up her hands and pushed Jay away from her. Jay briefly lost his balance, and she took that opportunity to push him to the floor. She jumped on top of him and held up a fist.

Emma couldn't believe what she was seeing. Devon had no intentions of holding back. She had no problems going up against a guy who was twice her size and twice as strong.

Sean pulled away from Emma's grip and ran to Devon. He grabbed his friend and peeled her off of Jay. "Dev—don't!"

Jay stood up. Sean stood in front of Devon to stand between them.

Jay was surprised. "She a friend of yours, Cameron?" he asked. He looked at Devon and smirked. "I guess that explains the familiar attitude." He suddenly turned serious. "You know how I work, Sean. You better tell your friend to watch her back from now on." He turned around and walked away.

"Uh...don't you think it should be YOU watching your back?" JT asked jokingly and the crowd of lingering students burst into laughter. Jay just continued to walk away without looking at anyone.

Devon shoved Sean. "What did you do that for?" she asked. "Did you think I couldn't handle him?"

Sean shook his head. "No," he answered back. "I stopped you because I knew that you COULD handle him! You can't get suspended, Dev! Because if you do, your social worker will find out, and you're outta here."

Devon calmed down so she could think clearly. Sean was right. She brushed off her baggy jeans. She looked up and noticed JT and Toby still lingering around staring at her. "Oh yeah, I forgot!" She reached in her back pocket and pulled out Toby's palm pilot. She was able to snatch if from Jay while he had her backed up against her locker. "I believe that guy took something of yours..." She handed it back to him.

"Thanks, Dev," Sean replied as they watched Toby and JT walk away. "That was cool of you to do that for Toby."

Devon smiled lightly. "I promised remember?" she replied as she picked up her backpack from the floor. "I promised to be nice to your friends..." She looked over her shoulder and noticed Emma waiting for Sean. "I've gotta get to class," she told Sean. She nodded towards Emma. "Emma's waiting for you. You guys need to get to class, too."

"I didn't realize Devon had such a temper," Emma replied quietly as she and Sean walked into their classroom.

Sean laughed and shook his head. "She DOES have a temper..." he commented back. They both sat down in their desks. He looked at Emma. "What you saw Devon do just now isn't even HALF of what she's capable of."

Emma rested her elbow on her desk. She remembered when Sean told her about the time he had beaten up a kid in Wasaga Beach a few years ago. Sean was so rough that the kid permanently lost his hearing in one ear. Back then, when she met Sean, she didn't think that he would be capable of doing something like that. But after seeing the way Devon attacked Jay...she finally realized who Sean got his influence from.