Chapter Forty Five

Within barely a day of that thought, Gary had decidedly had fun whispering words into the new kids' ears that very Monday and happily had Lola made out to be the cheating slut she once was once more. Johnny was riled up after such a great summer, having been told that Lola had met up with one of the Jocks by the Nerd Gary had sent on his way after somewhat loudly gossiping to some lower year that had the locker next to his about someone seeing the woman around the football pitch with someone.

People were so easy to manipulate around here.

They loved the gossip wheel that went around this place.

It only amused him when he saw the three groups, after the Greaser Leader hit the poor Nerd in his anger, trying to rip each other apart. Don't shoot the messenger was clearly not heeded around here. It served him much amusement when he passed all these brawls, a smirk crawling up his lips at each particularly big fight and most of the older ones who'd known him watched him pass warily, knowing he had something to do with it by the look on his face. They made sure to remember who was the real boss around here.

Petey and Jimmy had looked around in bemusement when they came upon him.

"What are you celebrating?" The medic asked in curiosity, arms burdened with anatomy books. "This can only be your work."

Gary felt smug satisfaction roll through him that they knew, ego taking a nice buffing. "Oh. Nothing. Just a little fun."

"Bullshit." Jimmy yawned, idly watching one of his Bullies get in on the action for the hell of it to their right. "Did you think of something great? Have the Roses pulled back and admitted defeat?"

"No. I'm just messing around." He crossed his arms, school uniform as normal but now encased in a dark blue blazer like the prefects wore. The prefects had to now wear a bright yellow band around their upper right arms to denote their authority. "Bit of chaos won't do this place harm."

"Aren't you just resetting it all though?" Petey worried. "We had them all calm and content. Now the power we had over them is- is-"

"Shot to shit?" Jimmy interrupted in amusement, looking at a near fight.

"It lessened over the summer holiday anyway, not to mention all these new kids and degree level people not knowing how Bullworth is run," Gary said, rolling his eyes at the nervous boy. "It's just another bit of fun. The leaders remember what happened last year, so there's still some leftover respect somewhere." His eyes shifted up to see the main Wing Chun artist come up to them and let a satisfied look appear. "You three may have to reinstate your rule."

Jimmy cocked his eyebrow. "Three?"

Ivy grinned at Gary, blowing him a kiss before speaking up. "Nice work, love. Hello, lads."

"Ivy!" The duo grinned widely at the sight of their fellow Jaguar leader.

Jimmy immediately jumped her and picked her up, spinning her around as she laughed joyfully. "When'd you get here?"

"Friday. Blame Gary for not seeing me until Monday."

The two men glared at him, causing him to scowl back reflexively.

Petey looked at her worriedly as Jimmy put her down, looking at her eyes and taking in her temperature. "Are you jetlagged? Drink more water, yeah?" He gave her a hug.

"The time difference is fucking me over a little." Ivy shrugged but grinned anyway. "I will, bro. So how're my buddies? How's Mandy? And what am I hearing about Bruzzini triplets, you player?" She pushed the blushing but proud Petey by the shoulder. "Lani filled me on that one, let me tell you that." She took out a bottle of water from her bag.

"Mandy kept the baby secretly."

Ivy spat her water out, choking and giving him a look of utter disbelief, water dripping down her chin. "Are you fucking serious?!"

"Yeah."

Ivy was gobsmacked. "But… why? How? Didn't she take the pills?"

"Sugar placebos."

"Heh!?" She about turned to go to the Jock territory.

"He's being an idiot," Gary inserted and grabbed Ivy's arm, tugging her around to hold her from behind before Ivy got riled up and he'd have to go sort that out. "Ignore him."

Jimmy burst out laughing, having wanted to do so the whole time.

"You wanker. You absolute fucking tosspot!" Ivy broke out of Gary's hold and punched Jimmy in the arm. "I thought that – Fuck! I don't know what I thought! You're such a bastard!"

The fighter just howled with laughter, leaning on Petey as he caught his breath. "I've been waiting for weeks to do that!" He rubbed his dead shoulder a wide satisfied smile on his face.

The girl in question came up and Ivy quickly flipped her top up, noting the more toned physique but no bump and her hands were smacked away irritably. Mandy hit her lightly on the head. "Hey! Ivy! What's the big idea? I haven't seen you in months and the first thing you do is try and undress me? Jeeze!"

"Blame Jimmy."

Mandy gave her man the stink eye but he just chuckled it off and she hugged Ivy tight. "Either way, I'm glad you're back. I didn't think you were coming back until Christmas? What happened?"

"I worked my arse off is what. Plus Vale is nice. The New Vale Tigers have successfully been deployed and making profit. Leon's been sent over there where he can't get into much trouble, along with a couple of the more trusted upper members of Tiger. I'll be going back and forth." She noted her mans' frown and amended, "If required."

"Oh, cool," The cheerleader said, interested. "Maybe in some free time we could go on holiday there?"

"Free time is rare. Just a heads up," Petey added in as the others sighingly nodded in agreement. "So me and Mandy have a free block right now. What about you guys?"

"I have Geography at eleven till one and then two hours of Music at two."

"Chemistry at ten until three." Gary informed them dryly. "Ivy?"

Ivy opened up one of her C++ books and checked the schedule. "I'm free until two and then I have two two-and-a-half-hour blocks with a forty five minute break in between. Wow, uh, it's actually the same everyday for me but Thursday where we finish early and Friday is off, even. Oh nice." Then her phone went and she shut the book with a snap and took the mobile gadget out, answering it. "Yes?"

"Roses have taken out one of our bases in Clydesdale. Get it back. I'm in Texas right now with Choi. Get to the café now and meet up with Tony."

"Yes."

"Good. Show no mercy. Go now." The line died as her stomach dropped at the thought of already parting from her best friends but she sucked it up, and looked at them determinedly.

"Gotta go," Ivy declared with a grin, walking backwards. "Buy some fireworks for tonight okay?"

"Where're you going?" Her boyfriend demanded, following, shoving some fighting duo that got it in the way out of the way. He wasn't too keen on letting her go anywhere after just getting her back and grabbed her around the waist with an arm, a frown on his face, hand stretching out on the small of her back to assert more control, both liking and disliking how small she was in comparison to him. He could literally put the base of his palm on one side of the back of her waist and have his fingertips touch the other side. He liked that femininity, how it made him feel big and protective but also disliked her against much bigger enemies that made him worry. And Gary Smith didn't do worrying. "What does he want?"

"Roses took over a base in Clydesdale and I have to get it back. I have to meet up with Tony at the café. You'll see me later on." Ivy leaned up and gave him a kiss, pulling away before his arm could hold down around her properly and keep her delayed. "Ciao, lover. Later guys." Ivy frowned when Gary followed and let her eyes flickered momentarily to Jimmy who nodded. "Stay. I've done this a hundred times. You've work to catch up on, love." She dashed away before he could grab her and Jimmy grabbed his upper arm to halt him from fully following.

"Damnit, Hopkins. You will let go this-"

"Fucking chill, man. This is her job. You know, the one role that you put her in? The one you let her coax you into on the Tigers side to get the Jaguars?"

The dark scowl went darker and he ripped his arm from his fighters holding grasp, turning back to the Academy.


.I.


"Feck sake, you again?"

"Shut up, drunkard. Let's get on with it."

"Up for a challenge?"

"Oh?"

"Call out the number of the ones ye down. Whoever wins, gets ten k. We each put in five."

"Sure. You're going down, bitch."

"Like fuck I am, hellcat."


.I.


"It don't count!" Tony argued over the one point difference they had.

Ivy ranted back as she dabbed at his slice wound with disinfectant. "Yes it did! I shot him!"

"Then he shot himself!"

"You didn't take him out! I shot him, he died! It counts!"

The driver, Mister Gibbs, and Seth, Tony's favourite, looked at each other awkwardly while Ivy's favourite, Andy, just hummed happily, glad to be alive.

"Ow!"

"You big baby."

Tony scowled. "Ye did it on purpose, ye feckin' bitch!"

"Boss is online," Andy called cheerfully, opening the laptop and putting it on Ivy's lap who was in the middle between them.

Vale looked up at them expectantly from the webcam. "From your arguing I presume everything went well?"

Tony shoved her head to the side so Vale could see him and she squeezed his wound warningly. "Damn right it did. Ye didn't need to call this stupid woman. Probably too busy on her back for- Shit!" He flinched from the especially harsh hit, head dizzy.

She removed her fist from his face. "You right fucking piss me off! Boss, we got the surviving members out as fast as we could." Ivy informed, glaring at the Irishman. "They didn't get anything of worth, from what I could tell, but I don't get the hit. Why'd they hit that one of all places?"

Tony faked a snicker, still a bit too dazed to think properly, rubbing his cheek but was still able to snap out a comment. "Ye don't know shit that's why."

"So what's the answer then?" Ivy mocked.

"…"

"Then shut the fuck up."

Vale frowned a little at them and the situation. "Roses have two to three thousand members. We've only got up to two thousand. I'll need to have a count and sort through the ranks once again to find out the inevitable infiltrators." Vale said in thought with a sigh. "There's every chance they're going to simply try and tear each base from our hands by force. That base just had drug holdings, so it may be a diversion or just a reaction test with a drug bonus."

"We've gotten a majority of it out." Tony informed, poking at his wound and lighting up a cigarette, taking a puff. "It's in the other cars. I'll bring it to Ayrshire. We've got a clean-up crew already on the job." Clean-up crews were needed a hell of a lot more this past year. Tony truly didn't believe how many people they actually had needed for it until he saw the numbers Ivy alone had taken out and had tried to match up with for pride's sake, but then had to resort to lying. She'd end up with ten grand tomorrow outside her house door.

"Good, good. Ivy, Andy, go back to the Academy. Stay near the Jaguars or the Tigers tonight. Tony, take out two extra patrols to each base and stick around Bullworth Academy."

Tony, Andy and Ivy nodded and Vale logged off, pleased it had gone as well as hoped for but still suspicious. Vale narrowed his eyes in thought as he and Choi drove to the meeting.

Why were the Roses testing the Tigers?


.I.


Lani was the first to greet her as Ivy rushed to the class, having gone to the old computer class by accident and waved her over cheerfully. "You alright, mate?"

Ivy flumped into the seat. "Knackered."

"I'm not surprised."

"Eh?"

"Apart from the weekend doinking you've done…." The fellow computer student leaned forward with a knowing grin at her new friends satisfied face. "I kinda figured it out. You guys are being very naughty doing such illicit things like that. I want in, but there're some things I have to tell you about myself." Lani looked around and gave a little smile at Ivy's surprised face. "Yes, I am serious about being a Jaguar. I already know a few computer languages anyway, but this course was the closest one with on-site residence that could give me security abilities and if I wanted I could probably finish this course up real quick or add a couple minors."

"It is?" Ivy asked in confusion.

"Yeah, I've had enough of big name universities and wanted something a little easier to doss about with while I figured out what the hell to do with my life. I figured it out." She pointed at Ivy's just about covered tattoo. "I'm good with numbers and computers and I can easily get along with people. I'd like to try my hand at scamming." A little grin covered her face. "I've a few ideas anyway with or without being part of a gang and going as a solo artist or a small knit group but it seems like you guys are having fun so, yeah."

"Well." Ivy blinked, a tad unsure with such straightforwardness. "I like you, and I'm thinking Gary will try and recruit you anyway."

"Excellent! I'll do my best to buff my abilities up. Our teachers pretty cool anyway. Dillon Thomas. A bit scatter-brained but probably one of my favourite teachers ever. Very charming. Second youngest teacher in this place, good at explaining stuff, very pretty looking and helpful. He hasn't got a place right now so he lives in the Uni Dorms for a subtraction from his salary and has to help us four anytime we see him, but it's actually cheaper to stay in the dorms plus we're pretty good students too. Not much of a bother." She rambled on usefully.

Dillon. The name was the same as her father's if not spelled a little differently and instantly drew bittersweet feelings before she shook them away and thought on their soon to be new hacker. New hacker. Ivy didn't know what to think about that, seeing as she too was learning to do that, but then she was a frontline person, and it wasn't as though she was the only one of those, was it? Maybe she kind of expected to be taken off front-lining when the others were trained up enough and then she could go into the less stressful hacking strain of their gang? But then she wasn't exactly a hacker yet… and front-lining is all she knew how to do. To be useless after being so useful that other gangs also wanted her was internally demeaning.

Ivy didn't know what to do about that but if it was Lani… despite only knowing her for a few days, she liked the vibe she got from the woman nearly the same age as herself.

Lani reminded her of a happy Gary addicted to computers… and blonde. It was an adorable thought. Ivy had the very weird thought that if herself and Gary had a kid and gave birth and raised the child in England, she or he could turn out very much like her. Ivy suddenly really wanted Lani in the group, wanting a female friend she could be close to on her level (even though Mandy was great, she didn't want to be a Jaguar, but was forced to be it, so it just didn't sit as right), and part of her realised that Lani reminded her of home and her own crazy friends from Britain and she wanted that around. The two looked up when Earnest and some non-clique guy walked in and they paused at the sight of her here.

The blond with only the Bullworth shirt and blazer looked at her in interest. "So you're the new girl?"

"Oh, she's not new. She was here last year for senior year," Earnest informed him nervously, limping after a fight. "Will Davidson, this is Ivy Jones… Though rumours say it'll be Ivy Smith soon," He mumbled, but they all heard it.

"I don't believe in marriage so no, but I am with him permanently. You already know that."

"And what about Longley, hm?" The Nerd Leader retorted spitefully.

"She knows better than to try anything when I'm around." Ivy gave him a narrow stare, trying to determine what he wanted. "Are you trying to start a fight with me?"

Lani spoke up in bewilderment, "Damn Earnest, what's your problem, mate? It's none of your business who she dates, just like it's not hers who you do. C'mon man, you were far lovelier before this."

"Hmph." Earnest just sat down, looking away in annoyance but Ivy could spy the little blush across his cheeks and raised her eyebrows at Lani, who waggled them back knowingly. The bespectacled male turned to them. "Have you completed any of the work while away?" He asked in a neutral tone, neither insulting or overly interested but trying for Lani's sake.

"All of this semesters and a little of the next one's. I'm pretty much here to see what he wants me to do and to meet the guy in the flesh," Ivy replied smoothly, trying to work out if he was generally taking in Lani's words of peace or just calming down because Lani asked it of him due to his crush. "What do you guys think of him?"

"Intelligent. A good teacher," Will quietly spoke up to answer and the Nerd leader nodded in agreement. "We all like him."

"Three outta three ain't bad, huh?" Lani grinned to Ivy and turned to Will. "Oh, Will, didja get those fireworks for me, bro?"

"Yeah. Not that many though." Another actual English person? He didn't have the snob accent, just a normal London one. "Think we can set them off from the field?"

Earnest looked attentive at that.

"I'm sure we could sneak a few off," Lani agreed high fiving him and grinned at Ivy's curious look. "Will's my younger half-brother but we get along pretty well and enjoy the same things. He actually found this place."

Ivy had to snicker at that. "Really? What kind of websites were you looking at then?"

Will waggled his brows cheekily, causing them all to laugh.

The teacher suddenly came in, arms chock full of books and paper and computer leads, all happy and cheerful as he greeted them. "My cute little students! Ah another one!" He dumped all the stuff in his hands on the desk and came up to her with a charming grin and wide honey eyes. He didn't sound from around here or have the New York or Texas accent, so she guessed he was from more the middle or east of the states… maybe? She didn't know at all. "Miss Ivy Jones! Great to finally see you!" He picked up her hand and kissed it the back of it and let go. "I hope you enjoy my classes!"

"Oi, where's my hand kiss?" Lani spoke up with a playful grin making the man turn to her with a twinkle in his eye.

"Ah, of course, milady!" Dillon agreed, doing so, and Lani pretended to be all blushing for a laugh.

She put her free hand to her cheek. "Aww, shucks! Anyway, good sir, on with the lesson!"

Mister Thomas quickly went into a more work mode, waving his hands for them to get to the computers, which were surprisingly high tech when Ivy checked the tech data. Great memory and processors. She could happily game on these machines. The teacher drilled them on C++ which, oddly enough, all four of them already knew, and Dillon paused in thought at that, because they were all ahead and decided to go for networking and communication protocols for this year and dip into biometrics to boost them for their final year.

The four of them plus the teacher looked up during a lecture of computer network programming as the door opened and Ivy blinked in surprise when Gary appeared at the door, looking like his usual smug self. "Mister Thomas, yes?" The manipulator questioned, already knowing it.

Lani nudged her playfully and Ivy was unable to help grinning back as her friend grinned widely while giving her a knowing look.

"Yes, Mister…?"

"Gary Smith. I asked the Headmaster if it were possible for those interested to listen in on other courses to simply to learn. He said yes, so I came here. I won't interrupt any more than I have already." He smirked a little, arm lazily holding a large book.

Dillon, ever jocular, nodded happily. "Of course. That'll be fine. I just wonder if some of this will simply go over your head without any references. Unless that is a reference book?"

"It is."

"Then, please, join us."

"Thanks." He took the seat next to Ivy and she peered at the cover in his hand as Earnest narrowed his eyes at him and Gary smirked back before looking at Ivy. He showed the book to her and she nodded, it was a reference book for this she'd yet to see before. "There's a few more in the library."

Ivy nodded. "Cool." Then she turned to the teacher and got the class back on hand. "Hey, so network programming is kinda the same as socket programming then?" She kind of already knew these things, but to get a bit of revision in was actually really helpful.

"They're both about interprocess communication, the client server model and communication protocols. We all get that? Do we all understand each of those terms?" The four of them nodded as they wrote into the documents on their computers with Gary watching them all understand something he didn't get for once, actually looking at her in slight surprise, making her withhold a smile. Yeah, she wasn't smart, but she knew some specific things and it was always good to have an impressed look thrown her way when it came to smarts, rare as it was. "Excellent. Now let's see… Well, we might as well go into the protocols deeper anyway." The lesson went on as normal and the Scot was surprised Gary didn't do anything more than listen in, do some of his own accounts work for the Jaguar holdings and flip through his reference book. It was as if he wasn't there and she felt herself relax, glad he wasn't going to do anything to interrupt one of her few intellectual likes, and was able to focus only on the lesson.

Eventually she even completely tuned the fact he was there out until they hit their forty five minutes break.

Then he made his presence known when the teacher went off to get a drink.

"I see you have something of a limp, Jones," Gary said, making her jump as referred to the Nerd Leader. He ran a hand along the back of her hand. "Having fun out there?"

Something flickered in the Nerd's eyes, mind agile. "You did this?"

"Me? It's not me who touched that slut. So how can it be my fault?" He smirked wider than before at Earnest's inability to sufficiently show him out as the perpetrator, flushing a red of mild anger. "Can you believe that, Ivy? He thinks I'd waste my time with whores."

"Excuse you?" Ivy said, playing it up a little as she glared at the Nerd. "Who do you think you are, mate?"

"Lani's my friend too, so because I hang out with her sometimes with our friends you must think the girls in your own class are just whores."

The English girl frowned at that, looking down at her work as if she were hurt convincingly and Will, not liking this being said about his own sister, narrowed his eyes at the boy warningly and Gary inwardly praised himself at his ability to move the situation to how he wanted it.

The leader shook his head at the sight. "N-No! I wouldn't ever think that about you girls!" He exclaimed. "I just-!"

"You really think that?" Lani asked, faking sadness as she looked at him and he stuttered to find a really good answer before she started bursting out into laughter. "Oh man. That was good. So someone touched someone in turn… Oh. Johnny? Guy's hot. But I don't think I'd touch that bag of cats with a barge pole. Attachment issues galore."

"Oh yeah." Ivy nodded knowingly and Lani jumped on that, slinking closer. "What? Get lost." She pushed her away with a shake of her head. "Guy's always coming up to me wanting help with Lola."

Lani slunk back again, saying, "Ah well. Either way, the guy probably has parent issues. Or just Lola issues. So anyway, fireworks?" She turned to Will, who rolled his eyes.

"I already said I got them." He poked her cheek.

"Yeah but we never even talked about it!" She retorted, taking out a fresh pack of chewing gum. "We'll set them off down the Jock field and go back to the Uni Dorm and have a coupla drinks." She popped one in her mouth and offered everyone one, and they all took one.

"Sounds fun." Lani agreed, leaning back on her chair. "Think we could plant 'em, set 'em off and do a runner and get back to the gaff?"

"And do some intro's rounds, never mind the buzzcocks style?" Will added, typing away at the computer.

"Yeah!" Ivy pointed at him and they high-fived.

"Never mind the what?" Earnest asked in bewilderment. "Gaff?"

"It's like he doesn't know English." Lani sighed and grabbed her laptop, moving her spinny chair around to sit next to him, bumping up against him. "Here. Lemme just get an episode up of N.M.T.B. Gaff is another name for your place. As in 'let's go back to Will's gaff, he's got plenty of space to get hammered in.' You get it?"

"Y-Yes." He stared at the screen, trying not to nervously jog the leg that was pushed up against hers.

Ivy raised a brow at her before shaking her head at the cheeky smile she got back. "Tease," She mouthed and the smile merely widened. She turned to Gary curiously, who been rather quiet after Lani took over, and he seemed rather relaxed as he watched them all, lazily leaning back in his spinny chair in all his usual confident smugness. "You good?" She asked in a near whisper.

His hand skimmed her bare leg, noting the lack of bruises, wondering if she was getting better at her art or if the enemies were downgrading in power. "A lot better now," He murmured, finger trailing up her thigh to roam around her hand laying on it, tapping the ring on it, loving what it represented. He put his other hand on the folder and murmured to her. "Had the chance to catch up on accounts. No discrepancies. All receipts work out." He put it back inside his bag. "We're doing well." About to zip his bag closed, he paused and then rifled through it to take a piece of paper out. "Turner. Here."

Lani caught the paper he slid along, noting the accounts on it. Easy stuff. She quickly took a pen from Earnest's pocket and started scribbling, math mind adding sums up swiftly. Then she paused when finishing minutes later and then added down some additional information on what she believed the last two weeks of information would mean, including line graphs after yoinking out a ruler from Earnest's pocket. "There." She passed it back and put the stationary back where she took it from. "Careful with the second line, steady decline."

"Thought so." Gary replied, ignoring the curious looks from the other two men in the room. "The sixth…?"

"Yeah keep doing whatever it is you're doing to it, mate, but change the ninth around completely before it cocks up." She said, getting into the show on the laptop. "Will, watch with us."

"Damn right I will. Gimme a second."

Gary looked over the very quickly done work. Even he couldn't do math this fast. It was all correct because he'd done this exact same one two weeks ago and all the excess information she'd added was eerily precise for these current weeks. Maybe he should have her as the accountant instead of the main hacker? He thought about the others in this course filling that place. Earnest had been a long time pain in his damned neck and was much too of a leader himself, used to bossing around the weak willed brainiacs, but Will was completely unknown to him apart from basic information. This is why he needed an accountant. So he could damn well snoop around more and find out what he could use either for.

For now, he'd have her as an accountant, then after the degree they could maybe change it up.

Yes, much better.

Satisfied with that, he turned back to his woman who was eyeing him with a wanting look. He'd satisfied her enough last night, so it couldn't possibly be lust. He leaned forward so only she could hear as the other three moved in to watch television shows online. "Now why are you looking like that?" He murmured curiously, arm circling her. "Did I not give it to you enough?" His teeth tugged on her ear causing her to shuffle a little.

"Of course, it's just… I like it when you get that look," Ivy said quietly, smiling to herself, looking at his accounting work. "It feels like… like I've put myself in the hands of a professional."

"Keep saying that and I'll demand a repeat of last weekend." His eyes heated up at her compliment and she smiled a little as they quietly conversed until the teacher came back.

Dillon breezed in with some coffee in his hand. "Right! Anyone been to the Mini Mary Café?" The couple smirked at each other quickly. "Absolutely wonderful waitress in there. Might have to get a date with her. Anyway! Back to lesson."


.I.


"What are we doing here?"

"Drinking. What do you think, loser?" Gary chuckled, tipping back his whiskey and humming at the warmth going down his oesophagus and settling in his stomach nicely as they sat at the corner of the bar. "Don't worry, it's one of our bars." Ivy looked at her bartender closely, trying to recognise the man from her missions before coughing as Gary gruffly put an elbow into her waist. "Not all of our things are for that. So stop eyeing up other men." He raised his glass and the bartender came over.

She gave him a scathing look. "Shut the hell up. Like I'd cheat. I haven't with any of my men and I won't with you. I'd just dump your arse if I fancied something new," She added on, causing him to scowl and her to smirk as the bartender topped up both their drinks. "So, once again, why have you brought me here? I don't recall doing anything good for it?"

"I can't want to spend time alone with my wife?"

Her eyes narrowed, fiddling with the umbrella in her cocktail. "Nope. Not without a reason."

Gary scoffed. She knew him too well but tonight was a little different. Her parting from him made him want to treat her better or at least have them doing more things together without the others. "Not this time."

"Alright, I'll loosen up and go with the flow."

A little smirk hinted at his lips but he didn't reply, simply intent on enjoying some time alone with her. He knew the others would be taking up all her available time and he sometimes cursed her sociable nature and his workaholic one. So he was getting his time in first. They conversed, grinning or snickering over things and touching each other as much as they could.

Her phone went and she raised a brow at Choi's number before flicking it open. "Hello?"

"Are you free?"

"Free? No."

"Not even for a fight?" He almost sounded huffy, causing her lips to flicker upwards.

"Apologies. But I'm not free even for a fight. Goodbye Eun." She clicked the phone off, uncaring if she was rude to her Sifu. Even she wanted to have some relationship time with her man. "So. Oh yeah, me questioning you. No? Ah, alright. Looks like our football team seems to be happy with itself these days?" At his interestedly smug look she could only guess at his extra little bits of fun he'd manipulated until he began speaking confidentially to her. They reconnected a little bit more, simply basking in being together. Touches and kisses were shared in their little corner, drinks mostly untouched until the end where they both had to part for their own little obligations and drunk them down in one go and leaving the premises.

"Ah, man, time goes quick." She stretched up, allowing her man to wrap his arms around her and kiss her neck. She hummed and turned around settling her hands on his chest. "I'll see you soon?"

"See you at our room tonight, woman. Stay alert." Gary kissed her outside the bar, gentle and kind before she broke it with a bright eyed smile and dashed off to go meet with their accountant and her brother. He put his hands to his hips as she rounded the corner and turned to the normal if not somewhat old looking car coming up. A window wound down, showing Lutz awaiting an order. "Patrol after her until she gets back from town. Ignore Malcolm's men for now."

"Yes, boss." Lutz gave a respectful nod, winding the window back up.

The young Jaguar leader watched him go before turning to head back to Bullworth.

He'd do what it took, whatever it took, to keep his woman safe above all else. He smiled a little at the erotic text she just sent him and continued on his way, feeling much better.


.I.


Shrieks and whistles merged with wonderful exploding colours as the three Brits set them all off with sniggers, running away as quickly as they could, Will holding the empty boxes and dumping them into one of the bins on the way as they flew into the Uni Dorm, finding the closest window to show them their handiwork.

It was then they realised the heavy atmosphere.

Ivy couldn't believe she missed the enemy and the fact they were in her home territory made her teeth grind. If she hadn't been acting like such a child she'd have caught them. Now she had a prospective member under the scope of a gun and wondered how the bleedin' fuck they were going to get out of this one without it being too obvious they were in charge of a dominant gang in this area or show off her talents?

The leader of the Piranha's was a rather short man, but he was also lazily holding a gun while sipping on one of the beers they'd bought for tonight as fearful students looked on.

She felt Will shift in front of his sister but kept her eyes on Malcolm.

"You are… Ivy Jones? Student of Eun Choi?" He looked her over languorously, checking her out. "Very nice. I quite like the look of you, Miss Jones. Oh? What's this?" His green eyes lingered on her ringed finger. "You're to be a married woman? Who's the lucky gentleman?"

He wasn't here. Her eyes would have locked on him straight away. Did this mean there was still a chance to pull out of this 'Scot-free' as it were?

"My man. Why are you here? I'm sure it's not for any of these people?"

"No, definitely not. Merely to make a statement… but maybe we should take you with us anyway?" He got up sleekly, walking over to her, putting a hand under her chin. "It could be fun. So young and so sweet, aren't you? And to think of marriage so soon? Adorable."

Detesting that remark, Ivy had to ignore it as she didn't want any of these people in danger or show her skills, but she could see a lot of the males in the room looking ready to fight. This was Bullworth, and not a single one, apart from the Nerds, was unwilling to fight. "It could also be fun to stay. The problem is, there's a lot more of us, than there is of you." She swiftly disarmed him of his gun, kicked him down and kept him under her foot. "I'd say maybe we should just hand you over to the police, but you've probably already bought them out," Ivy responded to his angry look. 'Quite like the Jaguars have.' She turned to the others, saying at the same time Malcolm shouted.

"Take 'em down!"

Ivy snapped out, "Jump them!"

This quick turn about led to the Piranha's getting jumped by the Greasers, the Bullies and the Jocks and any capable fighters who were on the degree level. Ivy slammed her heel into Malcolm's head, easily knocking the man out. The fighters were doing a good job, hating anyone on Bullworth territory that obviously weren't… Bullworthians? Whatever one of their own was called, that. They didn't like the outsiders trying to impose upon their land, even if they battled amongst one another constantly.

Johnny came up to her, worried. "You okay, doll?" He sported a black eye and bruised lip and there was a slice in his jacket, but things had gone quick enough for them that nothing lasting had happened. It seemed the Bullworth brats had targeted those that had guns, ganging up on them five to one so they were dispatched before lasting harm could happen and it worked surprisingly well.

"I'm fine. I'm the Queen around here and I'll look after my territory."

She really wasn't fine but Johnny and some of the others looked a bit shocked by her words, regarding her slightly differently now.

Not noticing or caring, Ivy was worried that, after getting hit by Roses the Jaguars were thought of as weak and getting targeted by these pathetic other gangs. That was unacceptable and she had a feeling it was due to their age this was happening. That they thought eighteen going on nineteen year olds wouldn't be able to hack it or that Vale Businessman was going senile or something. Both even. If this was going to keep happening, then maybe this was what Gary was talking about when he'd wanted to push forward and show their strength? And maybe she really should just listen to him when it came to planning?

She felt like an idiot.

They shouldn't have stopped at all, should they?

But where was he?

The gun lightly bounced against her thigh irritably.


.I.


Watching on through the camera's hidden in the room, the Jaguar leader was both smug and a little surprised.

Gary had of course planned for the idiot Piranha's to be dropped a line to get them to barge in on school grounds and consequentially getting their asses thoroughly kicked into submission by Ivy. He'd wanted her to know what her influencing actions on both him and the two other heads had caused to the group and why she should listen to him because he knew this would happen, and even witnessed it in business meetings that happened at least three times a week were they'd tried to undercut him on normal deals.

Jimmy had quite easily put them in their place with his Ivy's and Vale's Choi based learning, but that was ignoring the point.

The point being that they needed to push, and push hard - though he hadn't expected the Bullworth students to fight, surprised by the turn of events.

It's why he'd been running his men down harder than usual. Gary knew he couldn't completely rely on the Tiger bound woman of his in terms of gang running; her honour, and to be a truthfully harsh, utter naivety, wouldn't make the organized crime last more than a month without loyal ambitious business minded people to help her. Then again, loyalty did go far, and she'd been the key element in winning over the stepping stone gang Quetzalcoatl's, and then the bigger fish that was Vale Tigers to them and his grandfather wouldn't dare to lose such a useful tool with useful extras she brought along, namely the other three who attracted others to them.

Gary had to admit, her strength swayed important people to her and he'd always had a talent for spotting the most useful. That's what she'd been. That's what numerous others like Jimmy and Petey had been during his life, and what many more like Lani, Ricky, Johnny and Lance will be.

Yet, he needed to make a way to show her that she should simply listen and accept what he said, and that was that because he was the one in charge. He wanted complete control of whatever happened in his gang and frankly, though he was fucking addicted to her, his woman was messing that up a little. He'd leave her and Jimmy to the fighting and getting him out of unexpected shoot-outs, Petey and Mandy to the healing and all the others to the places he'd put them in, but he was the plans master.

Also this would be a nice way to round up another gang on his destroyed list.

Let's see… Mordred's, Upton's, Piranha's, Snapping Teeth and Wild Cats were completely annihilated and Black Bullets would soon come under fire-

How are these people not getting it?

It was beyond ridiculous.

Yet there it was.

Gary's way of showing her to bend to his will in these matters, because he was willing to give her whatever she wanted, should she only ask.

Taking out his phone, Gary dialled up Lutz. "Go in now." At the acceptance he cut the line off and tucked it away. He got up from the setup, leaving Petey watching over the videos with a nod - as Jimmy was on patrol for tonight and Mandy meeting up with some old Jock friends who'd actually had some brains enough to stay on - as he left the underground base he'd gotten added on to the Uni Dorm from his behest, borrowing money from his grandfather he'd already paid back, something only he and Derby Harrington knew about.

Now he had to make sure she got the idea without making it known he was the perpetrator behind this little scenario.


.I.


"Fine. You win, Smith," Ivy grumbled, hovering over her annoyingly smug boyfriend on their dorm bed. "We follow what you say because you're always right. Happy now?"

"Why so unhappy?"

"Nothin'." She slumped to the side of him and turned her back before getting up again so he couldn't grasp onto her and be the annoying self-satisfied bastard he always was to others to her. "Okay, fine. I'm not used to failing utterly in things I'm supposed to be good at. I'm a second or third or what the fuck ever in command who can't even judge right. What the hell?" Her hands flopped up and then down to her sides before crossing her arms. "Maybe I'm just not suited to this? Gimme a bunch of people out to down me or use me and I can beat 'em up. Gimme a store to manage and even bitchy weak waitresses can run riot over me." She leaned against the window frame, peering out alertly as she sighed in exasperation.

Well this outcome Gary certainly hadn't even conceived imagining.

He hadn't meant to knock confidence out of her; only instil the understanding that she should be acquiescent to him in these things.

"It's fine. You have your talent, we have ours." Gary shrugged when she looked at him with a half-hearted look of acceptance on her face. "Don't act so wounded. God," He muttered getting up and tapping her cheek as if to wake her up. "You do things we can only dream of. Let us do things you can only dream of too."

Ivy looked back out the window. "It's not some type of superiority thing, wanker. It's that I'm putting into this as much as I can and it's like… I'm not doing anything but hurting people… It's just… I feel stupid. We've no use for any intelligence I may have and that's kind of demeaning to me. I don't want to feel like an idiot."

"You're not an idiot. Don't be ridiculous." Gary frowned, wondering where this was coming from.

Her voice lowered as she turned to him. "The only reason I'm not is because I have a few years on you guys. If I truly was this age I wouldn't have shit but another language. All three in my class already know half of what I know-"

"That's because they've put smarts before physical defence," Gary remarked indulgently, dragging her forward to leave a kiss on her lips which she fell into, making him smug as his hand drifted over her ass causing her to break and give him an exasperated look he shrugged at. "Plus the one I want to use as hacker if you're not there or a full time accountant went to Cambridge to study Math, one of the past number one universities in the world. Not many can stand up to such intelligence. Is this because your dad put keeping you safe before keeping you academically smart?"

Ivy looked away. "He did the same to my older brother yet he still scored way better marks than I did. Guess I've always felt a bit lacking and I never liked it, which is why I tried hard in uni but even that didn't bring me much happiness."

He rubbed a hand over the nape of her neck. "Yet it's only your dad you've never been able to beat right?"

"And where does that leave me now? No blood relations to get proud of me, just the ability to hurt someone should they piss me off. Any normal life-"

Gary raised a brow and suddenly held her head so she looked at him only. "But you're not in one of those, and you're my woman who keeps me and our men safe, and that's your job you've taken on. We need you now. We genuinely depend on you. Jimmy would follow you over me and even Petey wouldn't know what to do if that decision ever came up. I know I'd end up following you should you permanently leave," Gary muttered in frustration, not seeing the stunned expression on her face as he irritably looked out the window himself. "It was fucking grim without you there," He admitted and then thought of something. "Are you regretting this?" He suddenly asked, trying to get into her head, because that's a bit what it sounded like.

"Never you or the lads or the friends I've made or even my damned fighting skills rocketing with such great fighting teachers. But I think I regret not having something of a normal life before throwing myself into this just… at the same time I don't because I love where I am with you guys and it's that imbalance that gets to me. Don't you get that with things? This hate-love love-hate nuttiness?"

He had. With using the trio as his mental crutch for sanity… but it was like a symbiotic parasitic relationship with his own mentality. The voices threw ideas, but also vehemence that he attached himself to her so thoroughly but without that attachment he would end up going mad. The break from his main healing balm for four months had helped a little to dim them, but it'd take a long time to fully get rid of them. He just didn't know if he wanted to.

So helpful, yet so binding.

"Yes," He grunted, not wanting to talk about it.

"I suppose I just need time to wind down from all of this. Get my head straight." Ivy wrapped her arms around him, enjoying the hand through her hair in reply. "What do we even do now with the students knowing about… something of us?" She looked up at him curiously.

A little smirk crawled up his lips. "We'll see what it brings." He started walking them backwards. "Now, do your wifely duties to your husband."

She scoffed. "I'm sure I could try."

"You always succeed in this regard, love." Gary smirked down at his woman who cockily grinned back and released a laugh as she happily pushed him down on the bed.


.I.


A/N: Here we are! Been a while but lots in RL stuff came up. Bah. Enough of that.

Gunzgalore Thanks for the review and the compliments! Hopefully this remains good! Ideas for Bully fics have been low so hopefully I can push out a last few workable ideas for this story that are good and keep up the interest factor :)

Thanks to all who've stuck with this since I began posting x

LaRS xx