I leaned back in my chair with a grumble. I had three days to get myself out of this mess. Three days until I found myself kicked out onto the streets at best. My relatives had only agreed to take me in on the condition that I not cause them any trouble.

And this definitely counted as trouble.

Well, just thinking about it wasn't going to get me anywhere, I needed a plan. Either to get me out of trouble or to deal with the fallout that'd come after. For the latter, I had no idea where to even start. I'd never even been allowed to stay home alone. No, better to start on the first problem. Luckily for me, I already had a plan… kind of. It was more of a vague outline of a plan, but that was still better than nothing.

I sat forward and looked at the key to my barebones plan. On my desk was a single, unassuming, blue USB stick. It was completely unmarked except for a single piece of tape on the side that read 'digital rebel'. Sounded kind of pretentious if you asked me, but beggars couldn't be choosers. I picked up the USB as my mind went back to just how exactly I had found myself in this situation.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked Francis while giving him a careful eye. The two of us were in the shade of one of the buildings at the far end of the school. "School just got out, it's not too late to just go home."

"I told you I'm fine Gaby," he smiled despite his hands clearly twitching at the idea of going to practice. "There's nothing for you to worry about."

"You do realize that telling me that is making me worry even more right?" I flatly pointed out as he laughed. It sounded forced, Frances was never the best actor.

"Gaby, I'm telling you that I'm fine, Coach is just putting us through the ringer. He says we freshmen need it if we want to make the team next year," Francis, why do you look like you're trying harder to convince yourself then you are to convince me?

"If you say so, I'll leave it alone," I told him, not for a second intending to leave it alone. "We still on for tomorrow though?"

"You know we are, see you later buddy," he said as he walked off towards the field where the American Football team practiced. I stood next to the building and watched him for a few seconds before he switched directions towards the lockers.

The thing about the field was that it was at the far corner of the campus, so there were only two ways to approach it. The first was to approach it from the direction of the closest school building, which was what most people did. It was where the locker rooms were as well as Coach K's office.

So of course, I made my way to the bus loop and walked off the sidewalk and into the fields, hugging the chain-link fence as I went. Going this way towards the field meant that I was blocked from sight by the bleachers as well as the storage building. And with everyone on the team already on the field, there was no way for anyone to see me.

"You look like you're in a hurry boy,"

I jumped back as a voice came from behind the fence. I turned my head and saw a lone man sitting on the sidewalk in front of the fence.

"I… well you're not wrong," I told the man as he got to his feet. I raised an eyebrow at his attire. He was wearing a simple beige robe with his hair cut short except for a tiny bit at the end in a tiny ponytail.

"There are so many things I could say right now, and they're all kind of fighting each other to get out," I admitted to him as he reached into a pocket that had been hastily sewn into his robe.

"I've seen the look in your eyes before," he explained as he took his hand out and held his fist up, "you have the eyes of someone who's about to do something that they have to do, even if it's hard."

I stiffened as I took a step back. Who was this guy?

"What do you know?" I gulped as he pushed his fist next to the chain-link fence.

"Just that the path you're on is probably going to be a tricky one. If you run into a snag, use this. Most people with eyes like yours tend to do well with them."

With that he opened his hand to show me a simple blue USB. I looked at it carefully, before getting closer and accepting the strange gift. The plastic felt strangely cold in my hands.

"What is this for?" I asked as the strange man smiled.

"It does exactly what the name would make you think, as well as much more," he told me as I turned the USB around to reveal its name.

"Digital rebel?" I read aloud. "Could you be a little more…?"

He was gone.

I gripped the fence and looked around for the guy, but he was nowhere to be seen. Past the fence was nothing but a lone sidewalk in front of a wide road with a row of houses behind it. There was nothing to hide behind and nowhere to run to. He'd just vanished like magic. If it wasn't for the blue USB in my hands, I wouldn't have even believed he'd been real.

"Didn't even get the guy's name," I clicked my tongue as I glanced at the blue USB again. Rebels… what do rebels do? Well they rebel, but that was more of a general category than anything specific.

I put the USB back into my pocket and kept going. I could think about strange magic men in robes giving out weird PC accessories later. For now I had some secrets to uncover and probably reveal.

I reached my destination without any other incident. I took a careful step behind the bleachers, making sure that no one had seen me on my way here. It looked like the coast was clear, so I settled in and looked out onto the field. There wasn't too much out of place at first glance. The American football players were doing their drills, getting water, and a few were just hanging out on the far bleachers. But on second glance, I could start seeing a few oddities.

Coach K and Francis were nowhere to be seen. The closer that I watched I saw that a couple of the other freshmen I knew looked worried and were constantly glancing over towards me. Or more specifically, the building behind me.

Just as I spotted the weird looks towards it, I heard pained grunts coming from the equipment shed. I took a silent breath and started walking towards it, hoping that my feet weren't making too much noise on the dirt beneath them.

I reached the edge of the door and put my back to the wall and listened in.

"Now Francis, you know the rules. Last person to finish their runs has to take the punishment," that was Coach K's voice.

"But sir, you started without me," And that was Francis' voice. Looked like I had found the two. "There was no way for me to catch…"

"Now that just sounds like quitting talk," I heard the coach say as I heard shuffling from inside, "why don't we show him what happens to quitters on this team boys,"

I quickly took out my phone and activated the camera. I set it to record and slightly poked it through the door. I took a careful glance and my eyes widened at what I was seeing.

Francis was on his knees with his arms being held up by two older guys in full American football gear. There was another player right in front of him cracking his knuckles. And off to the side watching it all was Coach K. I would know that bushy mustache and red track suit anywhere.

I gulped as the first kid walked up to Francis and started to punch him the gut. I winced with every hit.

It was just what I had always guessed. Coach K was physically abusing the team to get better performance out of them. Well… he was getting the older players to do the dirty work, but with what I was seeing, there was no way he wasn't the mastermind behind it.

I wanted to do something about it right now, get him to stop, but the cold half of my brain demanded that I stay still. My best shot of ending this was for me to get video evidence and take it to someone that could force it to stop. Principal Verden was a good man as far as I could tell, and even if he wasn't, there was no way he was going to risk me going to the police or worse, the news.

The two guys who had Francis by the arms threw him onto the floor as the guy punching him took a step back.

"You think that's enough coach?" He asked as he stretched his neck. "Me and the boys wanted to really hit the field today. Only three days till the big game."

They sounded like they weren't just assaulting someone a few seconds ago. How used to doing this were they? Well I guess it didn't matter, I got what I needed. I had enough footage for anyone with a working brain to figure out what was happening, and I had most of the major players and their faces on camera.

I turned off the camera and turned to get out of here, only for my face to meet a fist instead.

I staggered back as I felt someone grab onto me.

"Coach, looks like we have a spy," I heard as I got dragged into the room, my phone ripped from my hands, "and it looks like he was recording the freshmen's punishment."

"Get him over here," I heard the coach say as I was thrown onto the ground in front of me. I coughed as the dirt got thrown up into the air by my impact before looking up.

I didn't know a lot about Coach K. But as I stood in front of him, there was only one fact about him that mattered. Coach K was a giant among men. I wasn't sure what his exact height was, but he was definitely north of six feet. Pretty sure that he used to be a pro American football player too.

What I was saying was that I was in front of a man who looked like he could crush my head like a grape if he wanted to.

"Alright you scrawny punk, what were you doing here?" He said as he reached down and grabbed the back of my collar. I grunted as he forced me to my feet and kept me in a tight grip.

"Gabi… why are you here?" I heard Francis ask as I glanced over at him. He had his hands on his chest and was bent over in pain. I must have looked at him for a little too long though, because Coach K shook me a little.

"Eyes on me punk," he growled. "So your name's Gaby? Fitting that a shrimp like you would have a girl's name."

"Fitting that a piece of garbage abusive coach would also be misogynist," I smirked back as I watched his face shift into a frown. He shook me again until my smirk left my face.

"Abusive? You think that this here is abusive?"

Really? Not even a peep about the whole misogynist thing? Guess he was honest to himself about that part at least.

Before I could say anything about it, he pointed me toward Francis who was starting to recover from his beating.

"I'm only doing what I need to do to get these kids in shape. Is it abusive to turn them into winners? To turn them into a well-oiled machine that will bring glory to themselves and this school?" He waxed as I looked up and clearly saw the glint of madness in his eyes. "And now you come here to do… what exactly?"

"Oh not much, just wondering what happens during American football practice. I was thinking about joining, but I'm starting to think that it's not for me," I sassed at him. With any luck, I could get him angry enough to forget about the recording.

"American football?" He raised an eyebrow at me. "What other kind of football is there?"

"Oh I don't know, the kind that you play with your feet?" I joked as I heard him snarl.

"Mexicans I swear," Wow add racist to misogynist then. I would have corrected him on where my family was actually from but I was pretty sure that I was pretty close to pushing him over the edge even without it. At the rate I was going, I would hopefully get away with this.

"So… what do you want me to do with this coach?" And there went my plan. I looked back and saw the guy who dragged me in here holding up my phone.

"Oh right, the video," He said as he pushed me down to the floor. "Make sure he doesn't run."

I stayed still as the other guys grabbed onto me.

I glanced up at the Coach as something caught my eye. Right behind him above the door, was a camera that was watching this whole thing. How many beatings had that camera seen?

"So what exactly were you going to do with the video? Show it to someone and hope to shut the team down?" He grabbed the top of my head and forced me to look right at him as he held my phone in front of his face. "Where's your school spirit?"

I said nothing. I knew full well that if I opened my mouth now, I'd just say something to make him even angrier. And with my phone in his hand, there was no point in doing that anymore.

Which may have been the wrong move, seeing as how he just threw my phone down onto the ground. Well, it had a case after all, so just throwing it wouldn't damage it too…

And now he was stepping on it, repeatedly, with heavy boots.

Yeah it was gone, and the video with it. Well, at least I still had the other camera. Still hated it though.

"Ugh, it's going to take forever to replace that," I groaned as Coach K lifted his boot up to reveal the phone pieces.

"I think you'd better start thinking about the present instead shrimp," he growled as he looked over to Francis. "Palon, it sounded like you know this guy. Why don't you teach him a lesson for trying to mess with the team?"

"Coach, no I can't…"

"Do it or you're off the team," Coach K loomed over Frances as I could see him start to break.

"Just do it Francis," I told him as every eye in the room fell on me. "Give me your best shot."

"Well, you heard the shrimp," Coach K slapped Francis on the back. "Give him your best shot."

I swallowed as Francis walked up to me.

"Why'd you have to do it man? All you had to do was leave it alone."

"Come on, since when can I ever leave anything alone?"

"Less chatting more punching, chop chop Palon," Coach K ordered as Francis bit his lip and closed his fists. He started taking swings as I tried to clear my head and ignore the pain. It was the most I could do for him now that I'd put him into this situation.

A few minutes later I was thrown on the floor as the rest of the guys left the room, Francis going with them. Coach K stayed back instead, looking over me as he placed the top of his boot onto the side of my head.

For a second I thought he was going to just kill me here and now, but instead he just rubbed it a bit. It hurt, but I wasn't about to die from it.

"In case anyone asks, you got jumped by that Trevor punk, the one that stole the car a few months ago and just got out of juvie," he told me with a calm voice. "You can remember that much, can't you pipsqueak?"

"I'm not going to stop," I managed to get out the words despite the pain I was in. "I'm not going to stop until everyone knows what you're doing here and it gets stopped."

"Well, now that is a problem for me," I heard him say before he started laughing, "let's see here, a scrawny punk wearing a band t-shirt and ripped up pants or the best coach that this school has ever seen. Who is going to be believed if I… I don't know, report that I was suddenly attacked by a student with a knife?"

I glared at him. As he started laughing.

"It'll have to wait until after the game though. Think of it as time to get your affairs in order before I have you sent to jail," he moved his boot of my head and let me get to my feet as he started leaving. "Oh, and in case you were hoping that the camera would save you, don't bother. I have it set so that the only person who gets that footage is me and me alone."

Well, there went that plan.

"Digital rebel, what does a rebel do?" I asked myself as I looked at the USB hours later. The answer was clear. A rebel fights authority, and Coach K was certainly one of those.

I took an even breath as I figured out what I needed to do. If the only person who had the footage from the camera was Coach K I only had one option from here.

"I need to break into the school."