Lenne: I feel a little bad for writing this chapter. But it gets a happy ending anyways. Enjoy!

Warning, some language. I'm not kicking it to M, I'll just warn you, it's only a couple of swearing.


Chapter 12: A Week's Worth of Events

A week and three days passed since the choir rehearsal day. Let's summarize what's happened so far.

Friday: A normal day as usual.

After school, though, I spent my time on my drawings. At one point, I had this thought about sketching a nude image of Ness...but I couldn't do that. I wanted to, but three reasons prevented me. One, what would Ness think of me if he found out? Two, where could I hide it? Claus and our mom usually snoops around my stuff.

And three, I couldn't really actually draw him...like that...since I needed to see his one spot... down there.

Saturday: Saturday was another happy day with Ness. He came over to my house and swam with me. This time, he brought his own swimsuit: a design of red fill with blue flames on the side, which I found very cool. He only swam with me, since Claus wanted to spend time on a new online game he found. Ness and I splashed water, tried to see who held our breaths the longest, or just relaxed and floated.

Sunday was a fine relaxing day. No school, no homework. I would have visited Ness, but he had a private baseball practice session for the day.

Monday and Tuesday were normal days. Learning more math, starting the English project with Ness, and such. Occasionally I worried for Claus because he didn't really like English class, and being a newcomer in the class wouldn't really help him. Fortunately, he paired up with one of the least popular kids, who was often picked on outside of class, but he was very intelligent.

Wednesday was okay too.

Thursday was also a normal day, but the Art class began doing freestyle projects in the upcoming E.B. Junior High Art Museum. Having to exhibit our created art was optional, but it seemed like everyone wanted to put something in the exhibit. Of course, with the encouragement of my teacher, I was going to enter a few of my sketches.

Friday...was a bad day.

During lunch break, I needed to go to the bathroom. The teacher that supervised all who entered and exited the cafeteria was kind enough and allowed me to leave. I exited the cafeteria building and headed into the main entrance doors nearby. I entered the 8th grade hall bathroom, since it was the nearest. I did my business, and washed my hands.

As I approached the bathroom door to exit, it suddenly swung open. Two boys walked inside, and fear ran through my body immediately. I easily recognized their smug faces.

They were the two of the three partners in crime from the first day I came here. They spotted me and began approaching me with evil grins. I had no choice but to back away.

"Look Eric," said the brown haired boy. "it's this kid from the other day."

"Yeah, I remember this wimp," said the black-haired boy.

When they got close to me, I was stopped at the wall with no escape. The wall on my immediate right didn't help. Only a bathroom stall on my left was open, and there was no point of going in there.

"What, scared?" asked the boy named Eric. Both of them put their arms on the wall, trapping me. "Heh, he looks like he's gonna wet his pants, right Lee?"

The brown-haired boy name Lee chuckled. "Right, right. Though I'm sure he wears diapers. Ain't that right, Lukie-wookie?"

I grew angry at their taunts, but I couldn't do anything because I wasn't the type to fight. All I could do was just listen to them.

Immediately, Eric grabbed my shirt collar and pulled me closer.

"Guess what," he began. "Because of you, our pal Jack got suspended. Well, he comes back on Monday, but I'm sure he'll want to get back at you." He threw me back at the wall.

"But we're his best buddies, so we're gonna go ahead and do his job."

Eric looked over at Lee. "You wanna guard the door, or should I?"

"Eh, you can have him. Beat him up good," he said.

I became completely scared when I heard what they were saying. I was frozen still as Eric lifted me up by pulling up my shirt. I was surprised by his strength, but even being appalled couldn't overpower how frightened I was. He clenched his fist and punched my left cheek, throwing me down into the wall. The amount of pain was immense. I couldn't feel my cheek, and I wanted to move my teeth to, but it felt like they broke. I licked around to make sure they were still there, and they were still intact, but I could taste a little blood.

"Try not to make so much noise," Lee said.

"Oh forget it, the walls are pretty thick, it don't matter," responded Eric. "Hey look, he's crying already."

It was true, the punch was so strong that it already left me tearing. I wanted to bite down the pain, but my teeth were so hurt from the impact. My body was paralyzed too, I was dropped down without being able to break the fall. My head and back suffered hitting the wall behind.

Then a hardened foot struck my stomach. I cried out so hard that right after, I was slapped for making noise.

"Cry all you want you little bitch," Eric said grimly. He kicked and drove his foot into my stomach. I screeched out, unable to endure it anymore.

"Damn it! Eric, Eric!" exclaimed Lee.

"What?" I was glad he stopped.

"Someone's trying to get in!" the door was pushed open and Lee was knocked down. I couldn't believe who came in to save me.

"Luke!" Ness came dashing on in and pulled Eric away, making him trip over. As Ness carefully lifted me up against the wall, I could also see Claus holding down Lee, pinning his arms and body down.

"Shit!" Eric tried to dash out of the bathroom, but Claus grabbed his leg and he fell over. Just then, an adult man, Mr. Webb, my math teacher, walked into the path of the bathroom entrance. Ninten also stepped in the way, carrying my belongings.

"You two are in serious trouble," stated Mr. Webb. "Claus, get off of him." My brother did as told and he released Lee. Both of the bullies stood up and looked down at the floor, unsure of what to do. Mr. Webb looked at Ness and myself. "Ness, go take him to the nurse. I gotta get these two to the principal."

As Eric and Lee left the bathroom, Claus and Ninten hurried on over to my side.

"Lucas! You okay, bro?!" Claus fell in his overprotective state and checked up all over my body. I nodded at him.

I could barely speak, but I managed. "How'd you guys find me?" I asked.

"You took too long, and lunch was about to end. So we tried to find you," Ninten replied.

"We heard someone scream in here, I thought it was you," Ness said. His arm was still around my neck, which comforted me very much.

"Can you stand up?" Claus got on my right side, prepared to catch me if I tried to stand. I examined my body with my mind, and found that I could probably move my legs, but lose balance immediately with a hurt torso area. I shook my head.

"Come on," Ness said. As Ninten stepped back, Ness and Claus supported me up, and I tried to walk, but I immediately fell down as expected, trying to hold my stomach. I coughed out some blood in the process.

"Holy...!" Claus lowered himself and rubbed my back. "If only we got here sooner..." he whispered.

"Luke," Ness said. I only turned my eyes over. "Here," he pushed me back to the wall. He let my legs stretch forward, and he did something that I had expected in the current situation.

I could see both Ninten and Claus drop their mouths as Ness carried me in his arms. An obvious blush formed on my face, where I hoped the blood on my lips drew away the flush on my cheeks.

I tried to snuggle up to Ness' arm as he carried me out of the bathroom and towards the main office, where the nurse's office was located. With Ninten and Claus following, we reached the office in no time, only to meet Mrs. Baez with shocked remarks and to summon the nurse out of her lunch break. We went into the office and Ness laid me down on the bed. He sat on the bed too, watching me, and then grabbing some nearby tissues to wipe the blood off my lips. Mrs. Baez told Claus to call our mom to inform her what happened. Ninten set my belongings down by the bed, and stood by.

The nurse came in and shooed my friends for the moment as she mended to me. She checked my teeth to make sure they were still okay. And they were, but I had to rinse out my mouth. Unable to walk, she grabbed a cup of water and made me rinse and spit back in it, tossed and washed it, and the process repeated. She couldn't do much for my stomach, so all I had was rest, but after telling her I coughed up blood, she insisted I go see a doctor to make sure my internal organs were okay. Once I was left on the bed, the nurse exited to retrieve her belongings in the teachers' lounge. In the mean time, my friends reentered the room to check on me.

"You okay bro?" Claus asked.

I weakly nodded in my place. "What'd Mom say?"

"She said that Dad's on his way to get you to a doctor." I lightly sighed in relief. "Good thing that his day off is today," he commented.

I grinned, unsure of what else to say. Then, I looked at Ness. "Thanks Ness...and, sorry."

"For what? It's not your fault." He then smiled, "and, it's no biggie, Luke."

As Ness and Claus were looking at me, Ninten gave me two thumbs up from afar. I wasn't sure what he meant, but I chuckled inside my mind. Shortly, the nurse came back in and told Ness and Claus to go on to their classes. Saying good-bye to me for the day, they left the office. Ninten was allowed to stay by my side, since we had the same period together, which was being office assistants.

While the nurse attended to printing forms and writing things in a separate room, Ninten and I chatted.

"I didn't expect Ness to carry you like that," he commented.

"Yeah, well, I kind of did." I responded. I kept reminiscing the thought of every step Ness took as he held me in his arms. "But who knew Ness was so strong?"

"More like, who knew Ness would do that. Right?"

"Yeah..."

"But hey! From that, I could tell Ness really likes you."

"You think so?"

"Positive! I mean, he carried you like you were his bride! Nobody would do that at our age."

"Well, he only carried me like that cause I couldn't move..."

"So? Well, we'll just wait and see. Don't worry, I'll keep my eyes open and ears sharp for everything he says!"

"Good, and I won't forget about you and Claus either."

"Hehe, thanks!"

After that, Ninten was called by Mrs. Baez to do a delivery. Then, she came in and talked to me, where I told her what happened. Soon, my dad arrived and dismissed me out of school early to take me to the doctor. I was checked up on, and no fatal damages. I only needed rest as instructed. And that was all I did for the rest of the day and Saturday.

On Sunday, Ness came over to my house, wanting to see how I was doing. I recovered without any problems, so we could spend the day together normally. We mainly played for hours on my video games. Claus was up in his room playing on his laptop, but he eventually came down to watch Ness and I fight each other on a fighting game, and then returned back upstairs.

During a break, of which Mom brought us brownies to eat by the TV, I showed Ness all of my finished drawings of him. His amazed face conspicuously told me that he really admired them. Admitting that I had amazing talent again, he asked me a question I didn't expect.

"Can I keep one of these?"

"...Huh?" I stared at him blankly.

"Can I?" he repeated.

"Oh, well, sure." I didn't mind at all. In fact, I was honored to let him keep one of my drawings. No one has ever asked to actually keep a drawing of mine, nor have I given them to anyone I knew. "Which one, though?"

He took my sketchbook without letting me see the pages he turned to. He gently ripped a page out and closed the book. I reached for the torn page but he stretched it away from me.

"Nuh-uh," Ness said. "Figure it out for yourself." His playful smile teased my heart.

All I did was pretend to pout, sticking my tongue out at him. "Meanie."

We finished the day with our last round of another fighting game. Then, he left the house, and I was left alone with Boney watching TV with me.

As I turned the pages of my sketchbook, all of the drawings were clean and intact except for one. And I knew which drawing he took. It was a special drawing to me, because I drew it while I was resting in bed. In the top right hand corner of it, I marked it with a star. And, the page with the star was gone.

He decided to keep the drawing of me and him, standing close to each other, where Ness held out two bunny-ear fingers to the "camera." His face showed a teeth-smile of glee, while I could only show my flushed cheeks with a shy grin. The crux of the drawing exhibited that the both of us were happy that we were together in the picture, blithe and thankful.