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Quatre steps out of the Mercedes and closes the door behind himself, "goodbye, Jeffery". The car drives away and he walks towards the front doors of the school. He was a little early again. Maybe he would see Trowa?

"hey, Quatre!," a frantic voice calls out to him. He looks to his right to see Releena running up to him, "Trowa's gonna get beat up!".

"What?!," he shrieks. He followed her to the side of the school by the student parking lot and smoking section. As soon as they came around the corner he saw Trowa standing calmly as two older, taller, tough looking boys cursed at him.

"come on you skinny little bitch, lets go!," one boy snaps at him, cracking his knuckles.

"ya fuckin' dirt!," his friend adds.

Trowa looked over at Duo and Heero standing back and watching, not wanting to be included in the beating, "what the fuck are you doing?! Help me out here!," he demands.

Duo raises his hands defensively while Heero shrugs.

Trowa looks back at his assaulters just in time to get busted in the left cheek.

Quatre gasps and almost fainted where he stood by the corner with Releena.

The punch was followed by a number of blows to Trowa's face. Trowa began to duck down away from the punches, and jumped away. As the boy lunged towards him to grab him, Trowa hit him back and grabbed him by the hair on the back of his head to return and series of other blows to his face. He throws the boy to the ground and kicked him in the ribs as hard as he could, then knelt down on his chest to continue smashing in his face.

The other boy angrily kicks Trowa in the side, knocking him off off his friend.

Quatre watched in horror as Trowa was held down on his back and beaten with more punches, and kicks to the stomach and face. He dropped his book bag, turned and ran towards the door to the school to retrieve a teacher.

Wufei, whom was standing in the distance watching with his girlfriend, Sally, began to approach the brawl, "okay, this is just sad". The young black belt ran up to the larger one of Trowa's attackers and gave him a stiff kick in the abdomen, causing him to collapse to the ground in pain and breathlessness. The other boy backed away and cursed at the two boys. He looked at the state he had left poor Trowa in and laughed, satisfied before turning to walk away.

Wufei held his hand out to help Trowa stand up.

"thanksh man," Trowa says, gratefully. He put his hand to his cheek and felt for damage, wincing at the incredible stinging on the inside of his mouth.

"you're not bleeding from what I can see," Wufei assures.

"my toof' cut de' inshide of ma' mouf'," he babbles, bending over and spitting out blood. He explored the deep wound in his cheek with his tongue, hissing at the stinging pain again.

Wufei flinches, just looking at the expression on Trowa's face.

Trowa looks over at Heero and Duo still blending into the circling crowd, "you fuckersh! 'BACKUP?!' My ASS'H! You jusht shtand d'ere watching while I getsh shjumped?!," He shouts, then spits out more blood,"I fuckin'............ fuckin' shjumped in when you were bein' a cocky little bashtard and got yourshelf in a fight, Duo! I damn near s'haved ur' motherfuckin' LIFE!".

"There's nothing I could have done! Those guys are fucking tough! I would have just got my ass kicked too!," Duo explains, frustrated.

"Well there'sh c'two of you and s'here would have been tree- .............shtree-.................," Trowa pauses.

".................three?," Wufei adds.

Trowa nods to Wufei, "-of us'h!," he finishes.

Duo sighs, "I'm sorry. I'm a wimp, I didn't want to get my ass kicked," he shrugs.

Heero just stood there quietly.

Trowa stares at them angrily for a moment, then calmly spits out more blood. He looks back up at them with a dangerous gleam in his eyes, "when I get'sh back, you're all dead," he simply says, then turns and walks towards the bus stop, pulling out his bus pass.

"he's going to get his gun," Heero jokes.

Duo laughs, "yeah probably. I thought he was gonna start swinging on me or something! He was super pissed".

*

The bell rang, beginning class. Quatre turned to Releena as she settled down and got her books out, "what happened to Trowa?," he asks, concerned, "I couldn't watch...............".

Releena stays silent for a moment, ".................it wasn't pretty. He couldn't even talk right and he was spitting out a lot of blood," she explains grimly.

Quatre swallows a lump growing in his throat, "who were those guys?".

"Jeff Brown and his friends don't like Trowa. I don't know the story, but they're alwayse threatening him and stuff," she says.

Hilde leans in to the conversation, "Trowa got beat up?".

The same golden haired girl that was with Wufei sat in a seat close to them, "are you guys Trowa's friends?," she asks. She had light blue eyes and a muscular framed body. She looked like a tomboy.

"yeah! you were there!," Quatre asks.

"Wufei's my boyfriend, he so RESCUED Trowa's ass! I felt sorry for the poor guy," she comments, "I can't wait to see what happens at lunch".

"why?" they all ask.

"I chill with Trowa alot at parties and stuff, and I know that he's got pretty much all of Abasand behind him. They look out for him like he's their littlest homie," she warns.

"what would they do? What's gonna happen?," Qautre asks, concerned.

Sally shrugs, "All I know is they got fuckin', Eric Scully and all his backup. These guys are in their twenties and shit".

The teacher hushed all of them to begin class.

*

The two hours of classes was up as soon as the lunch bell rang. Quatre was shaking he was so nervous. 'Trowa's not a gangster! He's not even a mean person, he's a sweetheart!,' Quatre told himself over and over again. Trowa had sounded honest when he said he wasn't in a gang, but was what that girl predicted true?

"hey, Quatre! Over here!," Hilde calls. She was walking down the hallway with Heero and Releena.

"hey, is Trowa here?," he asks, obviously nervous.

"naw, he probably went home. Hey don't worry, I really doubt anything's gonna happen," she assures him as they walk down the hallway leading towards the smoking section.

"Duo's hiding," Heero informs with a little smirk, "he's scared".

Hilde shoves Heero, "no he's not! He's looking for Wufei, you liar!".

"to protect him".

"no! ..............but Wufei's so cool because he's a black belt in karate!," she says, changing the subject from her cowering boyfriend.

"he kicked that guy so hard in the stomach," Heero reminds, "I thought he was going to puke".

"see you're Japanese, why don't you learn Karate too?," Hilde wonders.

"nah, I just............. try not to piss anybody off," He shrugs.

Hilde laughs.

They opened the doors and saw the usual people standing around smoking, sitting in their cars eating or just chatting. Trowa was nowhere in sight.

"see? Nothing's going to happen," Hilde repeats casually.

"hey there's those two guys," Heero says, pointing out the two boys that beat up Trowa. They stood in a group of friends around a souped up yellow mustang, talking and laughing.

"lets go," Hilde says walking out more into the open and lighting up a cigarette.

Quatre anxiously kept an eye on the bus stop in the distance.

"DIRTY!," a girls voice calls to them very clearly.

Quatre turned around and saw the two boys with even more friends approaching them.

"go away," Hilde says, trying to sound tough but clearly scared.

"whta are you gonna do?," the same girl responds. The girl looked like a bitch and wore the tightest clothes you could imagine, standing there with a disgusted look, a ton of makeup, curly blonde hair, and her hands resting on her hips.

Hilde doesn't say anything, but turns and begins to walk away, followed by Heero, "lets leave," she says quietly as she passes Quatre.

The preppy group of kids follow them back towards the school. Hilde looks over her shoulder and notices them pursuing them, "why are you following us?".

"because I wanna kick your ass, you dirty bitch," the girl spits back, smiling proudly back at her friends.

"you guys think I messed Trowa up bad? I hate you even more," one of the boys from before, Jeff, says looking at Heero. He glares at Quatre, "and you, you little fag".

Quatre's legs were trembling, 'where's Trowa?!,' he inwardly cried.

An old black car pulls up behind them into an empty parking space, un- noticed. A car door is heard opening and shutting.

"Trowa, do you want me to kick your ass AGAIN?!," the boy taunts, humored by the return of Trowa.

"no," Trowa says in his calm voice.

Quatre turns around and sees Trowa standing right behind him glaring at the kids, "Trowa!". He held a ball of gauze to the inside of his mouth to help his wound.

The girl steps back to stand beside Jeff, "Jeff, kick this peice-of-shit- trailor-trash's ass!".

All doors of the car open and about six people climb out.

"haha, THESE are the motherfuckas?!," jokes a large native man who looked about twenty.

"they're as big as Trowa!" another man muses.

"that's them, those two guys right there," Trowa says, pointing out his attackers.

A thin, tall girl with fluffy red hair steps from the car, "you fucking skank, calling my little brother trailer trash?," she says to the girl. She was very pretty with green eyes similar to Trowa's.

"yeah, and you're his slutty trailer-trash sister I guess," the girl bitches back.

"Cathryn, you can take that bitch, just fucking, walk up to her and bust her in her pretty little face," the boys encourage.

Cathryn walks up to the shorter girl and gets right in her face, "what are you gonna do you little bitch? huh? Hit me, come on!".

Trowa looks over at Quatre with a proud smile, "my sister's awesome," he laughs.

"Trowa, which one hit you?," Scully, a large black guy asks angrily.

"those two, but he started it," Trowa explains, pointing out Jeff.

Scully approaches one of the boys and stares him down, growing low in his throat. He pauses for a moment, then raises his fist and punches the guy in the eye so hard, the cheek bone could be heard breaking.

Jeff hit the pavement and laid still.

Trowa laughs and struts over to the body on the ground. He stands above him smiling happily, looking into his dazed eyes, "you got knocked the FUCK out!," he taunts.

Scully glared at the rest of the group, "now if I hear of any y'all laying a hand on my boy, Trowa, I'll be back 'same shit, different day'. You're all a bunch of fucking ROOKIES".

The blonde girl whom was fighting with Cathryn, runs away, holding a hand to her nose which had blood gushing from it. She was followed by the rest of the group, leaving Jeff behind in their fear of being next.

"how's your mouth, Trowa?," another one of the boys from the car asks.

"It stopped bleeding, I'll be okay," Trowa answers, removing the bloody ball of gauze.

"Trowa Barton," a male adult voice calls. Trowa turns around and sees the principal, Mr Kinell, standing behind them with his arms crossed and one of Trowa's teachers, Mrs McGreevy, at his side. "who are you?," the principal asks Scully.

Scully gives him a dirty look, "shut up," he threatens.

The principal stares back at him, unaffected by his rudeness, "I don't want you loitering outside my school. Leave now or I'll call the cops".

Scully snorts, "who the fuck cares? But Trowa, we gotta be geese anyway. Good luck in not getting suspended, son," he laughs, before climbing back into the car and driving away.

Trowa turns and looks up at his Principal, "I didn't touch him. It was Scully-".

"I saw your little brawl this morning, you're both coming with me," the principal explains, dragging the now awake Jeff along into the school.

***

"what kind of suspension did you get?," asked Hilde. Trowa, Quatre, and Hilde stood outside in the parking lot where Jeffery usually picks up Quatre.

"Out of school," Trowa explains.

"awesome, now you can sleep through school and not feel guilty!," Hilde muses.

Trowa looks down at her with his eyebrow raised curiously, "you'd skip school and feel guilty?".

Hilde laughs, "no!".

The silver Mercedes pulls up to them, right on time. Quatre says goodbye to his friends and climbs into the back seat.

Hilde and Trowa walk back towards the bus stop, "so what would your mom do when she finds out you're suspended?".

Trowa frowns, thoughtfully, "she could be super pissed, or she might not even care".

"oh. Hey, wanna meet me and Thomas at Tim Horton's for coffee later?," Hilde asks, changing the subject.

Trowa shrugs, "yeah, I guess".

***

Trowa bends down in front of his door and runs his finger tips along the underside of the metal stairs. He slides out a small key and uses it to unlock the door. After returning the key to its original place, he slips inside.

Sitting on the couch were two younger boys, each with a cigarette. "hey Trowa, what are you doing tonight, bro?," one boy asks.

"maybe going to the coffee shop with Hilde," He reaches out towards his little brother, "gimmie a drag." he demands.

The boy frowns, then hands Trowa the smoke, "what the hell happened to your face?".

Trowa takes a hoot and blows out the blue smoke, "I got jumped by these two guys this morning and nobody jumped in to help me so I went and got, fucking Scully, Mat, Brian, Antoin, and Cathryn came too. She broke this fuckin chicks nose, it was awesome".

"what did Scully do?," the brother asks.

"aw, fuckin', he just stood there, then he one-punched the motherfucker. He was lying there on the cold pavement for like three fucking minutes!," Trowa explains, excitedly.

The two kids laugh, "awesome".

"yeah, but I might get suspended........," Trowa adds, suddenly grim.

"what the fuck do you care? You only go to school for the food and drugs," his little brother muses.

"yeah, but I still kind of try and ma wants me to do good".

"oh yeah, they'll call home? You catching that call?".

Trowa nods.

"Oh, THAT'S why you're home, I see".

"hey," the little brother's friend finally speaks up, "If you're suspended, they'll call your mom at work to talk to her about it".

Everybody falls silent.

"are you fucking serious?," Trowa asks, on the verge of panicking.

"oh. I guess," Trowa's little brother agrees, "that probably explains why they haven't called yet".

Trowa looks at the clock on the wall. It was quarter after four. 'shit'.

*** PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!