Thanks Cinder Fox! My first review! Woo!

Anyway, this chapter may be a bit boring again, but er…actually, no, I don't have an excuse, but I swear it gets really good soon!

Clerkdale High was bathed in watery sunshine. The light spilled onto the students as they trickled into school, the clear air making the noises ring through the air.

The school bell rang throughout the grounds, and people wandering into school picked up a little bit of pace.

Max heaved his guitar case into his locker, careful not to bash it, and pulled out his books.

His brother had gone off to his locker a few corridors away, and as Max turned away from his locker, he saw the new guy Ray heading off to his.

"Hey Ray,"

Ray startled.

"Oh, hi," he noticed Max and gave a small sigh. He was highly strung about meeting Lee. The last thing he needed was seeing him first thing in the morning.

"You OK?" Max asked as they walked towards Ray's locker corridor.

"Yeah, why?"
"I dunno, you just look jumpy,"
"Yeah, well, I'm at school aren't I?"

Kai was putting his guitar in his locker too, and was just getting his books out when he heard an all-too familiar voice.

"Hello again,"

'Crap, what does he want?'

Lee, Johnny, Tala and Bryan were standing behind him.

Lee had spoke, and he continued to, "Is that your guitar? Christ Kai, how long have you had that? It's what, fifty years old! It will be an antique soon. Particularly since you can't play it,"

Kai shut his locker and turned to face them.

These four used to be his friends.

Lee, with his black hair, tanned skin and ferocious cat-eyes. He was always opinionated, and he always had something to say about someone.

Johnny, maroon hair styled up like flames so many times, that now it was natural. He could sneer at anything and at anyone and make them feel about as stupid and underneath him as he could make them look.

Bryan, with his silver hair and sly look. Bryan could turn anything into stone with a look.

Tala, flame red hair and cold blue eyes. He used to be Kai's best friend, they were best friends since the age of four. But he looked at Kai coldly now, as if they had never exchanged civil words before in their life.

Behind Kai, Max came up with Ray.

They both paused, noticing the four against one stand-off.

Max said, in a small voice, "Ah,"

This was going to be fun.

All of his brother's old friends without their little gang of girls and thugs, standing in striking range of his brother's fist.

'Don't do anything stupid Kai,' Max thought, desperately, watching with wide eyes.

It was bloody on both sides.

At the end of it, Kai sported a bleeding head and lip, Lee a bleeding head and heavily bleeding nose, Tala a hefty bruise, Bryan a split lip and two huge black eyes, Johnny a bruised and bleeding nose, and Max and Ray (yes, they managed to get stuck in too) both came out with heavily bruised eyes.

It took two teachers, a few of the seniors, and a frantic gym teacher with a whistle to separate the boys, and another hour to calm some of them down.

"He tried to fucking kill me!" Johnny had yelled about Kai continuingly through the blood pouring out of his nose as the school nurse tried to staunch the flow.

Tala and Johnny were sat in the reception area, which would of shocked anyone coming to visit the school.

Bryan was in a classroom looking royally pissed off and refusing to cooperate for the teacher trying to stop his lip bleeding.

Kai was in the sick room, and there was a paramedic there, because once the fight had stopped Kai had passed out for fifteen minutes and his head was bleeding from somewhere. Lee was lying stretched out on a mat in the gym area yelling obscenities at Kai through the wall as he was being treated. And Max and Ray were sat in the Deputy Head's office, holding ice packs to their eyes.

The pair expected, since they had been part of the brawl, to get a yelling at when the Deputy Head came in to change their ice packs, but she smiled and said, "How's your eyes?"

She must of seen the fight or something.

"Erm, OK," Max took the ice pack away from his right eye and saw himself in the mirror across the room.

He nearly fell off his chair.

The bruise had got an almost navy blue, with green and yellow tendrils and patches. It spread around his right eye and just to the bridge of his nose. It was slightly swollen at the corner of his eye, and that was where it hurt most.

The Deputy Head, Mrs All, lifted his face up to check his eye.

"Well, it doesn't seem to have done any damage to your actual eye. Can you see properly? Is it hazy at all?"
"No,"
"Good. You'll just have to keep sitting there with that ice pack though I'm afraid, if you want the bruise to go away and the swelling to die down. Now Ray, lets have a look at yours,"
Ray's eye stung considerably. He took the ice pack off, and the result was much the same as Max's.

Except that there wasn't any swelling.

"Can you see OK?"
"Yes,"
"Well then, you're just the same as Max. Just keep that ice pack on it for as long as you can,"
Max and Ray sat there miserably, pinning the ice packs to them.

"Ow," Max said, into the silence.
Ray sighed, "That went well,"
"How did we get involved again?"
Ray gave a small smile, "I don't know. I think it was when Lee tried to punch me,"
"And Tala fell into me and dragged me into it,"
"Now we look like pandas,"

"Exactly,"
And suddenly, they had no idea why, the pair burst out laughing.

Well, for about two seconds. Then they both convulsed in pain as laughing seemed to make their bruises hurt more.

In the end, Kai was fine. He had a cut on his head but they didn't need stitches, and he was OK. He was back at school the next day.

Unlike Tala and Lee, who were suspended for three days for violent behaviour.

Over the next few days, Ray and Max became good friends.

Kai was always there, but Ray had only spoken a few words to the guy.

He didn't seem to talk much at all, actually.

Ray found out that Max and Kai were loners as well, really. The only friends they had were each other, since no-one dared come near them.
"Why?"
Max glanced around, as if making sure no-one was listening.

They were up in the tree, resting in the branches.

"Well…don't make any incline that you know this around Kai. Because he'll kill me if he finds out I've mentioned this to you. But, those four: Lee, Johnny, Tala and Bryan, used to be his friends. That was his little gang. Those five were formidable, no-one liked to get in their way. I was kind of friends with them as well. They were nice to me and everything, but soon they started asking me to get lost everytime I appeared. Kai got narked, because he said there was no need. Then they started rowing over everything. Girls, the fights they got into, me. Then they had this massive argument, a huge fight that ended up with Tala and Kai in hospital. After that, they've just kicked Kai out of their little group. It's not fair, either, because Kai and Tala used to be best friends. You could never split my brother and Tala apart…"
"Brother! Kai's your brother?"
"Yeah. I didn't say, did I? Sorry. Yeah, he is. Well, kind of. My Mom adopted him two years ago,"

"Really? I didn't know,"
"Sorry, I forget to say,"
They sat in silence for a while, then there was a sound beneath them.

"Max?"
Max dipped down to see his brother standing by the roots of the tree, looking up.

"Hey Kai,"
"I'm going home,"
"What?"

Max dropped down from the tree.

Ray tucked himself up and craned downwards as far as he could without making it obvious. He listened.

"School nurse rang Judy up to say could I go home,"
"Why? What's wrong?"

Kai glanced up at the branches. He had an idea that that Ray guy was up there. He knew the guy pretty well, even though he hadn't spoken to him much, and thought he was cool and everything, but he wasn't about to talk about his medical state in front of him.

"Later Max," he said, simply, and turned away.

Max hopped back up into the branches.

"What's up?"
"School nurse has sent Kai home,"
"Why?" Ray asked, innocently.

Max shrugged, "Don't know. Suppose she could choose from a number of things,"
Before Ray could ask any questions, the bell for afternoon lessons rang.

"Shall we meet by your locker? I mean, I know you walk the same way as us and everything,"
"I do?"
"Yeah, we see you,"
"Well…yeah, sure. See you at the end of the day then," Ray said, with a smile.

TTFN