Disclaimer: She's the Man characters were for entertainment purposes in this story only, and they don't belong to me in any way. I do own the storyline though.


Viola sat on the stone wall looking at an empty Illyrian campus in the light of sunset. The rest of the student body were inside attending their last class for the day and Viola pretty much couldn't have been bothered with what was happening in Mr. Shineer's World History. It had been an hour that she sat there with her legs brought up to her chest, gazing out into the open horizon and watching the sun set into it while absentmindedly tugging at the shoelace of her converse shoes.

The dark haired girl tried to go over what happened with Olivia earlier. Viola had poured out everything to the other girl; confessing why she was dressing up as her brother, explaining that she was trying to protect Olivia from hurting, she even told Olivia that she finally realized that she loved the blonde girl. And Olivia Lennox had walked away; somewhat proving that she's rather be with a jerk like James than be with a liar like her.

Slowly, tears began to form in Viola Hastings's eyes.

This was the part where she didn't understand. Olivia told 'Sebastian' that she liked Viola, --Why couldn't she just say it again to my face?-- She thought. In one way or another, Viola already knew the answer to that. It was the fact that she had been parading around with this lie while repeatedly toying with the girl's emotions. It was easy to see why Olivia couldn't find anymore reason to trust her. Not only had Viola been lying to Olivia, she had first lied to Sebastian as well, and Duke was no exception.

"Oh god," breathed Viola softly as her sudden realization hit. "Duke."

Viola had almost forgotten about her boyfriend, Duke Orsino. She had been lying to him about her occurring disappearances and probably hurting him by not always being there for him like she was supposed to. In the end, she was only just using him.

How had she become this person that have had hurt this many people; all innocent and naïve towards her actions, all of them being the very people who are constantly close to her.

No longer able to hold back her tears, Viola buried her head in her arms and cried. Ashamed of all her actions and regretting each one. The school bell then rang, signaling the end of the day and drowning out Viola's cry of anguish. The students then started filling out into the lawn, ready to go back to their dorms.

Despite everyone feeling glad at the end of classes and not taking notice of the dark haired girl who was hunched down by the wall crying, Viola suddenly felt an air of tension heading towards her. The faint sound of heavy and determined footsteps headed her way stopped her crying as she could tell something was wrong.

Lifting her head and trying to point the source of the agitation among the mass of students who were now walking around campus in their relaxed and carefree ways, Viola saw a movement conflicting that, confirming her suspicions. She noticed the solitary fortitude a good feet away coming from behind a group of students. As the person hastily made their way towards her, Viola knew immediately who it was. James. And he looked enraged as he made his way towards her.

"You bitch!" bellowed James loudly, earning a few stares from the surrounding students, who then stopped walking to see what was going on.

Viola jumped from her seat and prepared to run if needed. She held up her hands slightly to tell him to back off. "What did you say to Olivia?" continued James as he still made his way towards her.

Viola didn't know why James was mad at her. Shouldn't he be mad at 'Sebastian', and how did he know she was Sebastian's sister?

She began warily, "Look man, I don't know what you-"

"Bullshit!" exclaimed James. "I know that you said something to Olivia for her to not even want me-"

Aggravated by having James cut her off, Viola quickly returned the act, "Dude, she didn't even want you in the beginning," she said crossly while raising her chin defiantly; "You were just filling in." Her statement made James stop four feet away from her and Viola was now aware that the rest of the students had formed a large circle around her and James.

Upon having a temporary death wish, Viola was glad to finally have a reason to piss this male chauvinist off so that he could beat the crap out of her. She had wanted to pick a fight with him ever since she saw him put an arm around Olivia in the library. She didn't care if people were around and staring. She didn't care if he was much bigger than her and that she would never wake up after that. At least it gave her a reason to physically beat herself up because of the pain she's caused other people.

Viola was one sentence away from having that wish, because right now James looked ready to kill and he seemed to have that last bit of restraint in him.

"Olivia won't stop crying about you, says that you've been making her feel these…feelings." James shook his head in disbelief before his face contorted to mad rage. "You brainwashed her with your fucking cross dressing, dyke!" stated James. Feeling cocky, Viola rolled her eyes obviously and made a face. --Please, is he serious?-- "You made her into a fucking lesbian, whore!" spat a disgusted James.

Right now, Viola was fed up with the verbal abuse that offended gay people everywhere, and most of the girls around the circle thought so too.

"At least any woman will be better than a pig like you!" she shot back.

The last string of restraint broke off James and he looked like a bull that just saw a red Viola. As he made a move to charge towards her, Sebastian immediately came up to James and warned the guy to back off his sister. Unfortunately, Viola was the only thing in James's vision now and compared to the jock, Sebastian was smaller. James then forcibly shoved Sebastian out of the way, throwing Viola's brother to the unexpected crowd. Viola froze like a deer in headlights, unable to think and figure the situation out.

Viola saw a glimpse of James coming towards her as she closed her eyes to ready herself for the blow. As she waited for to blow to come and hit her hard, it never came. Instead a fist impacted into something other than her and she heard somebody fall to the ground.

Someone then growled, "You keep away from her." Opening her eyes, her brain quickly grasped the situation and she realized that Duke had stepped up in front of her and was now the reason why James was on the floor sporting a large bruise on the left side of his face and a nose which was starting to bleed.

Before James could get up and retaliate with another fist, a booming voice which belonged coach Dinklage roared, "Alright that's enough!" The English coach then brought James roughly to his feet, seizing at his collar. "I'll teach you about insulting girls and wanting to hit them!" he said. Dinklage then literally dragged James forcibly by the collar, bringing him away from the crowd but not before shouting, "What are you lot staring at?" he asked to the crowd of people. "Get back to your dorms!" he ordered. Everyone then hastily went their way.

When Viola turned back to look at Duke, he was helping Sebastian to his feet as the crowd quickly dispersed.

"Thanks man," said Sebastian as he brushed himself off. Seeing that her brother wasn't really hurt, her attention was now towards Duke who looked away momentarily.

"Duke," stated Viola softly.

Not meeting her eyes and not replying, Duke just glanced at Viola and began to walk away to the school grounds, Sebastian too went off his way quietly. Viola knew that he had heard what James had said, hell, she was confident that everyone in Illyria had heard. But right now, she had to make things right between herself and Duke.

"Duke," Viola called out as she started to catch up with the Captain of the soccer team. Duke made no move to stop for her.

"Please Duke," she tried out once more, "if you could listen to me for a moment." Viola said approaching him. Duke rounded on the girl, his emotions suddenly overwhelming him.

"Why, so I can just listen how you've been using me to get closer to Olivia? Save it, Viola, I don't need to listen to the same excuse twice. At least now I know this time its real!"

Duke then turned around and continued walking. But Viola caught his arm and turned him around.

Looking up to his temper confused eyes, Vila silently pleaded for him to listen to her explanations. Very slowly, Duke's features softened, he knew that he was still in love with this girl and he realized that he had reacted badly. The least he could do was listen to what she had to say. Duke felt his jaw relaxing after unknowingly clenching them a minute ago. Viola looked away for a moment before looking back to him.

"I didn't know it could've come to this." She said softly as she shook her head faintly in disbelief. "I thought by trying to get Sebastian and Olivia get back together on track, everything would've been fine." Viola continued softly as if talking to herself. "I didn't think it would turn out the exact opposite and I was the one falling in love with her."

Duke's expression then softened as he understood what Viola was trying to say. He had a crush on Olivia for three years, and it wasn't surprising Viola's brother, Sebastian, had hopped in that same wagon only after earning an out-of-the-blue-kiss from the same girl a month back. Now it seems that Viola too was caught in Olivia's spell. Duke catches himself before Viola could ask him why he was idly grinning to himself. He then caught Viola's sincere statement, "But I never meant to hurt you, Duke."

Duke Orsino looked down at the girl for a long moment. "After you told me you had to dress up as Sebastian for the last time, I figured this was coming." Duke declared gently.

Duke didn't need to explain, both he and Viola knew what he was talking about. There were signs, everywhere, and each one of them led up to this current situation. Duke didn't need a detective to figure it all out, he himself had been observant with what his girlfriend had been doing the past week. Even though they both knew that Viola wasn't always there for him for the past week, what Viola didn't know that Duke was always perceptive of her.

Both of them looked back at each other, slowly understanding one another. Duke then gave a small grin and before Viola's own smile could reach her eyes, Duke came over and hugged her. She wrapped her arms tightly around him. They stayed like that for three minutes.

"Thanks for beating the crap out of James." said Viola as the broke apart from their embrace. Well that broke the iceberg of apprehensions. Duke chuckled lightly, "Hey, did you think I was gonna let him paralyze our star player?" he asked in the same tone as they started to walk back to their dorm rooms. "You know I could've taken on that guy, right?" replied Viola as a matter-of-factly. Duke then slung an arm around the shoulders of his friend, "And what, let you have all the fun?" he responded, "I wanted to beat him up ever since he transferred here."


Hey there, I had a little trouble with this chapter because I wasn't sure if I wanted Duke to be mad at Viola or not. But I figured that Viola was already hurt in the previous chapter and that she needed a friend right now. Don't we all? hehehe (hugs)

--FlexibleFish--