.X.Phoenix.X. - Thanks for the awesome review! To answer your question, my school system has 2 high schools and 3 middle schools, kids from one middle school usually go to one high school and kids from the other middle school usually go to the other. The kids from the 3rd middle school have a choice. I just forgot that all school systems don't work like that. Mack and Calum go to the middle school that has a choice, Troy and Cam were well... they didn't like each other in middle school either, that was part of the reason that Cam doesn't go to East High-because Troy really didn't have a choice because of his dad and he didn't want to go where Troy went. Hope that cleared it up for you!

Coach Bolton pulled his car into the driveway. He looked in the passenger's seat at Troy, who looked about ready to murder someone. "Troy-"

"Let's go."

The two opened their doors and stepped outside. Immediately they heard laughter and a dribbling basketball. Jack started to jog toward the backyard, Troy ran at full speed. Jack watched Troy round the corner and then he hear yelling. "You get away from her!"

The Coach rounded the corner in time to see Troy grab Mack away from Calum and stand between them. Calum had a look of fear on his face, but Mack looked appalled. Troy told the boy to get lost and he ran fast as a bullet past Coach Bolton.

"Why did you do that!" Mack yelled at Troy angrily.

"Mack, you skipped school to stay home with that...rat! I told you their family is a bunch of no good, lying-"

"Calum isn't!" Mack yelled. "I accepted Gabriella as your girlfriend, why can't I be friends with Calum? Is there a law I don't know about?"

Jack took this as his cue to come in. "Mack, tell me first what you're doing out of school."

Mack turned to her father and answered, "I was just about ready to leave, when Calum walked up to the house-"

"He knows where we live!"

"Troy be quiet! Anyway, he asked me why I looked tired and it reminded me of last night and I started to..."

"I get it," Jack said, knowing his daughter hated to admit she was crying.

"Then he held me and helped me feel better."

Troy's face went bright red. "He held you!"

"Troy, shut up. If you hadn't done what you did last night, this wouldn't have happened."

"No, he probably would have walked you right into a trap," Troy said with his calmest voice of the conversation. Mack walked over to Troy and kicked him in the shin, right where one of his bruises were. He grabbed hold of his shin and gave Mack a look of hatred. Coach Bolton had never seen this behavior in either of his children.

"Mack, I'm taking you with me. I doubt you want to go to school and have the kids ask you questions. Since you were sick yesterday they probably wont ask any tomorrow." Jack looked at Troy who's leg was bleeding and his hands were covered in blood. "Troy go upstairs and get cleaned up, Mack and I'll wait in the car."

The coach tossed the keys to Troy before guiding Mack to the car. Once they were inside, they sat in silence before Jack spoke. "Mack, I'm disappointed about you skipping school."

"I thought you would be." Mack's voice was very quiet, Jack turned his head quickly to see if anything was wrong with his daughter. She was staring out the window. This behavior was very strange.

"What's wrong princess?"

Mack turned to look at him. "He's scaring me, Daddy. Troy's scaring me."

Jack took a deep breath. He was going to have a long talk with Troy later.

hsmhsmhsmhsm

Calum unlocked the door. His parents and brother were gone. He walked to the answering machine, 1 new message. He quickly deleted it, knowing it was from the school, before walking up the stairs and into his room. He laid on his bed, he had to be out of the house by two o'clock so he wouldn't be home when Cam got out of school.

Calum looked around his room. There were various basketball jerseys, trophies, medals, certificates and other memorabilia, scattered through out it. His entire life had been focused around basketball, learning from his brother's mistakes, being the star that West High would need when Cam left.

To tell you the truth, Calum had never wanted to go to West High.

But his whole family had gone to West High; his parents, both sets of grandparents, and even his great-grandparents on his dad's side. Now his brother had continued the tradition. He sighed, there was no way his parents would sign the commitment form if it had East High as the high school.

Especially since Troy, Mr. Bolton, and Mack would be there.

He knew his parents would ask why he wanted to go, and he couldn't tell them the truth. He was afraid, not only for himself, but for Cam too. He knew if he told Cam that one of the reasons he wanted to go there was Mack, he would blow up and probably get into a 'fight until death' fight with Troy. And he wouldn't be the cause of his brother's funeral.

Or Troy's.

He turned on the radio, trying to drown out his thoughts. 'Everytime' by Simple Plan was almost over, and he sang along with the chorus.

"Everytime I see your face. Everytime you look my way. It's like it all falls into place. Everything feels right. Everytime I hear your name. Everytime I feel the same. It's like it all falls into place. Everything, everything feels right."

He felt his eyes watering, he would never be anything more than Mack's secret admirer. His parents hated hers, her brother hated his and his brother loathed hers. So, why did he like her so much?

His parent's thought at night he dreamed of shooting the game winning basket in his brother's old number for West High. In reality, he dreamed of Mack; her blue eyes, her dark, dirty blond hair, her beautiful smile. He daydreamed of her in class, at practice, at the dinner table. Calum wanted her on his arm at prom, not some cheerleader that he didn't know like Cam would have.

But, he could only look at her from a distance.

He knew that talking to her yesterday and skipping school for her that morning was a bad idea. If his friends had seen him, they would have told his brother. But it seemed so right. He shut his eyes to block the tears from escaping, his brother told him that only 'girly-guys' cried, but he couldn't help it. He need Mack, she completed him. He knew- even at his young age- that Mack was who he needed. He didn't want anyone else, and he was willing to wait for Mack- but it hurt.

He wished that he could talk to someone about these feelings, but he knew he couldn't. His family was out of the question. His friends were all 'West High all the way' basketball players that could careless about that sort of thing, and even if they did they wouldn't keep it to themselves. If Mack would come in between him and West High or him and basketball, they'd tell Cam or just go straight to his parents.

He opened his dark brown eyes and let the tears escape. He turned on his side and faced the wall. He curled into a ball and fell asleep thinking of Mack.

I hope you liked this. I thought it would be interesting to see Calum's side of the story. Yeah he really likes Mack, but he's not some sort of stalker-in-training. He just can't tell anyone about his thing for Mack and it's all bottled up. Sometimes you just have to let everything out. Hope you liked it! Review, I didn't get a a lot of reviews last time, I was kind of disappointed. Review!