The whole day was a nightmare for Thomas. Everyone kept giving him stares like there was a monster walking around in the school. He would usually walk, books under his arm, eyes focused down on the black and white tiled floor. He didn't dare look up at anyone's face. It was just too humiliating and hurtful to get the constant stares.

A nearby group of girls wearing flashy jewelry and matching red skirts and knee-high white socks looked over at Thomas quickly rushing by the crowd of kids in the hall. All the girls in the group had brown curly hair except for one who had shoulder-length black hair. One of the brunettes in the group with huge thick red plastic hoops looked over at her group of friends with a bit of a terrified look. "Oh my god, doesn't he look scary?" She shivered. "I know, it's not normal," another one with a white headband.

"Just look at him. How could he walk around with that kind of face? It should be illegal." The raven-haired girl said disgustedly. "Oh you know I think I heard Tamara got into a fight outside or something."

"A fight? What fight?" The girls turned to her a bit puzzled yet curious. She nodded. "Yeah, Tamara was messing with him and I think I heard something about him throwing her."

"Oh my god, no way!" They all gaped at each other.

"He's a scary-looking bad-ass then," the one in the white headband growled. "And I think I have an idea, girls." She smirked.

After eight long hours, school was finally over. Thomas pushed and shoved through the crowd, hurrying to get back home. He couldn't wait to be greeted by his loving family again and eat his meal then go up into his room and crawl into bed—and wake up to a whole new school day. He groaned. When would this nightmare be over? Today at lunch, all the girls gave him weird looks, Tamara came back for another fight, and one guy slammed his locker into his face as he was walking. Though, this was nothing compared to what was about to happen tomorrow… or the next day.

"Thomas!" Luda May ran over to him and hugged him. "How was school?"

He growled a bit and shrugged his shoulders. "Don't ask," he mumbled in a low tone. He brushed past his mother and entered the living room plopping down on the couch. She followed him.

"What's the matter? What happened?" She asked, standing in the doorway.

He shook his head, wanting to keep his problems to himself. Why did he have to tell his parents that he got into two fights? Why? That wasn't any of their business at all.

"Thomas, talk to your mother." She said a bit sternly while taking a seat in an armchair directly across from him. He groaned.

"Nothing, I just… nobody… uh…"

"What is it?"

"I got into a fight." He admitted.

"You what?" Luda May's eyes grew wide. "But why?! This isn't the child I raised!"

He rolled his eyes. "I didn't start the fight mom, I swear."

She stopped and looked over at him. "Then what happened? Talk to me."

"Someone picked a fight with me and she kicked me down so I just hurled her." He shrugged casually. She sighed. "Thomas, it's not good to fight girls, you know that."

"Mom, she started it!" He tried to argue; he tried to convince her that he was telling the truth, but she only shook her head.

"Thomas, I don't remember ever raising you this way. You can't hit a girl. It's not fair."

He closed his eyes sighing deeply. "So, if a girl is beating me up, I don't do anything and just let her kill me?"

She blinked a bit. "Exactly Thomas," she said beginning to get up. "Except you don't let her kill you, you just defend yourself."

"How?"

She smiled at him and before walking out of the room, she said, "Figure it out."

Figure it out? How was he supposed to figure it out? He didn't know karate, kung fu or any of that crap. How was he going to defend himself?

He remained in the couch, eyes closed as he rubbed at his forehead.

He wanted to get away from everything. Hell; why'd he even have to go to school in the first place? Why did he need an education?

Hadn't he learned everything he needs to learn? Why does he have to keep going and be put under this torture; this hell; this nightmare?

Tamara… hmph. He would get her back no matter what. If she kept going, he was surely going to snap. He'd snap at them all. How could he make them afraid? He would he make them back off? What would tell them to never mess with him? That he didn't know, but he was willing to do anything to make them stop.

He turned to his side, and tried to take a nap, but all the things that happened to him kept flashing in his mind. He couldn't help but go along and keep thinking of things to make them stop. He thought of maybe yanking at girl's earrings, tearing at their ear loaves, or maybe just doing something to embarrass them for life. Maybe lift up their skirt, tear at their shirt, something like that, maybe. Then again, how was he sure that would work? Especially since something negative like that will keep others coming to him, picking fights with him, and the more he tried to stop them, the more people would come to fight.

Maybe his mother was right. Maybe he should just stop this the nonviolent way. He would give it a try. Maybe it'll work. Soon enough, he snored away, dreaming of sawing logs and Z's… and Tamara.

Where was he? Running so fast out into to forest, what was that? What was happening? He turned around to only find the hundreds and hundreds of trees lined up behind him, leaves rustling in the wind. Then he heard it again; a loud rustle from behind. It appeared to be louder, almost like it was right behind him. When the wind blew, he felt chills, and it almost felt like something was crawling up his neck…

Again, he began running again getting faster and faster each moment. Then he came to a stop—

There was a huge fire right in front of him. Nature was being destroyed, trees melting and burning away into the hot red flames. He couldn't move. There was nowhere to run. Everywhere he looked for escape, the fire spread and soon enough, he was trapped with a circle of flames trapping him in.

He coughed and wheezed and choked, tears forming in his eyes and the smoke piled up. Soon, he could no longer see anything but fog—and… wait! He saw something!

A figure emerged from the fire and smoke, walking towards Thomas. He was almost blacking out but managed to keep his eyes open a bit longer to see…

Tamara.

His eyes suddenly snapped open and almost fell right off of his chair. His eyes darted up, staring up at the roof and just lay there doing nothing. He panted heavily, the dream shaking him up. Something wasn't right. Was he beginning to fear Tamara?

He shook his head. No way… couldn't be. He just had a long day, nothing wrong with that. He got up slowly and sat back down.

It was nothing, he'd just ignore it.

"Tommy! Dinner!"

He stood up and followed the call in the kitchen.

Yep, everything was fine. He'd just ignore it…

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Okay, this is my New Year's gift to you guys! Happy New Year! I hope you like this chapter, and I'll try my best to hurry up on chapter 4 :)