Chapter 5

"I don't know what's worse. Having to go back to school at all or having to go back to school after you've been gone for over a week." Jason groaned, dropping his head to rest on the window as Rocky pulled away from his house. "But at least I'm not alone in that aspect." He twisted around to face Colt and Tum-Tum in the backseat, Colt with headphones shoved into his ears and Tum-Tum focusing on whatever game he was playing on his phone. "Huh, Jeff? Mikey?"

"They can't hear you," Rocky said, shifting back onto the road to school. "They're not awake long enough. They just rolled out of bed a minute ago."

"And you were up at the break of dawn, I'm guessing."

"Maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Maybe."

"I know you better than you think, Sam. You never get the proverbial bags under your eyes like everyone else because you go to sleep early and wake up early and float through the rest of your day." Jason cracked open a can of coke and sucked down half of it in one gulp. Rocky looked at him out the corner of his eye. "Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?" Rocky smiled.

"Like a middle-aged mom waiting to slap me on the wrist for not having a balanced breakfast." Jason paused. "Like Em."

"I'm going to tell her you said that."

"Go ahead. I haven't been able to bug her for a week so it'll be fun for me." Jason shrugged and finished the second half of the coke, letting out a large burp. In the rearview mirror, Rocky could see Colt smile to himself, clearly able to hear it over the sound of his music.

"You guys really need to stop ragging on each other so much."

"Why? It's fun!"

"For who?"

"Me, mostly."

Rocky rolled his eyes but smiled. He focused his attention back on school, the drive there. Feeling himself become more relaxed the further they moved from the house, further they moved from his dad's words rolling down his neck. How come they couldn't have regular conversations anymore? Just hang out as father and son? They used to be able to do that and then…something happened and things had changed. He'd say it was a normal part of growing up but…

"Has anyone ever told you that you can be so tightly wound you could crack a nut in your ass?"

Jason's crude comment brought Rocky back to attention. He pulled into the parking lot of the school, barely being able to turn off the car before Colt and Tum-Tum piled out. Habits died hard. Rocky climbed out of the truck, grabbing his backpack as he went. He flipped open the glove compartment and grabbed his phone, swiping away the messages from his email and his mother. (He knew it was just a message trying to smooth things over between him and his father). Then he hefted his bag over his shoulder and sauntered toward the school, with Jason dutifully falling into step beside him.

"I'm sure Colt or Tum have told me that before," Rocky said, running a hand over his face. "And I'm pretty sure you have, too." About a million times, really. Mostly whenever Jason was trying to talk him into having some sort of harmless fun that Rocky knew would, eventually, get back to his parents. "What makes you want to bring it up now?"

"Well…" Jason sucked his lips into his mouth then popped them back out again. "You nearly drove up onto the sidewalk on the way here, and I think you may have hit a wayward trash can when you were peeling out of my neighborhood." Rocky's eyes widened as he tried to figure out whether his best friend was joking or not. "And that usually only happens when you're tightly wound about something. If you don't relax soon, you're going to have a heart attack."

Rocky hummed in response.

"Oh, come on, Sam—" Rocky winced. Jason laughed quietly. "I see you're starting to want to embrace 'Rocky' all the time again. Remember how hard you insisted on trying to get me to call you that." He patted Rocky on the shoulder. "That didn't last long."

"It's not that," Rocky replied.

"What is it then?"

"It's…" Rocky sucked in a deep breath. How was he supposed to explain everything going through his mind, in terms of how his name wasn't just his name, but…something that had been held over his head for years. "Dad and I got into a fight this morning, I guess." Rocky ran a hand over his face. "Over ninja and our futures."

"So? You guys get into that fight a few times...a day." Jason squinted an eye shut, pretending to think about it. "I seem to remember one time I was staying at your place and I had to sleep in my sleeping bag in the hallways because your dad was lecturing you all night about ninja."

Rocky lifted a finger to scratch the side of his head. He remembered that clearly, and was still embarrassed by it. "Okay, you could've stayed in the room."

"You know I need to sleep with absolute silence."

"So, you don't actually hear the sound of your snoring. That makes sense."

"No, that lulls me to sleep."

"Jase…"

Jason held up his hands, warding off any attacks that may come his way. "Okay, okay. We're not talking about me right now. We're talking about you and your never-ending issues with you not standing up to your dad."

"You don't get it—"

"—Or you don't," Jason interrupted. Rocky pressed his lips together, his eyebrows twitching as annoyance passed over him. He hated being interrupted more than a lot of things in life, but Jason always seemed to be the only one he let away with doing it. "Sam, through all the time I've known you, I have never seen you stand up to your dad. Especially when it comes to things about you. You've stood up to him for me, when he was first starting to realize how cruddy my parents can be, and that's putting it lightly." He started to count off on his hands. "You stand up to him for your brothers, you stand up to him for your grandfather, you even stand up for him with even some of the more criminally minded criminals are pleading their cases. Yes, I used that pun on purpose," Jason continued, noticing Rocky's look. "But you can never really stand up for yourself."

"So, I care a lot about other people." Rocky shrugged. "Is that a crime?"

"It is when you forget to care about yourself."

Rocky shrugged. Tried to joke. "It's just not worth the aggravation." But the words felt hollow to him.

It must have been for Jason as well, for he rolled his eyes and made a loud scoffing sound. Jason turned came to a stop to look Rocky in the eye. Rocky stared back at him, kept his face blank. A battle of wills. A battle of staying calm, cool, and collected. "So, you're going to sit back with your shoulders up to your neck, turtling, and wait for the time you move away and can finally breathe?"

"If I have to," Rocky replied. He removed his hat to run a hand through his hair. "I'd never say your life is easier than mine. That'd be the last thing I ever do." Jason gave him a look that clearly read, "I hope not", but motioned for Rocky to continue. "Sometimes I wish dad didn't care so much. It was hard, growing up and knowing that no matter what we did, or what even we had, dad wasn't going to be there or had to leave early because of some sort of crisis going on with his job. Imagine my surprise when he pulled back from work long enough to not only become the coach of our baseball team, but that he was able to keep doing it for years." Rocky shook his head. "And then, take that over and ensure I have the future he always wanted."

"You're an adult with a curfew and they're too afraid to let you fall."

Rocky sighed.

"Damned if you do, damned if you don't," Jason agreed. He chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "Why don't they get the hint? And only come around when we need them? Then leave us alone all the other times? Instead, my parents don't come around when I need them and stay away when I don't, and your dad is around all the time." He threw his hands into the air. "I mean, we're teenagers for God's sake. We don't know what we want or when we want it, we just expect our parents to be there at the right times!"

Rocky laughed.

"Other than that, what kind of a life do we lead? What kind of life is that?"

Rocky shrugged. "My life," he said shortly. Jason nodded. Understanding that it was the end of the conversation. He turned to go into the school then stopped, seconds before reaching out his hand to keep from getting hit in the face by a wayward basketball. Lowering his hand, Rocky glanced across the blacktop to see Darren striding their way.

"Really?" Jason called. "Already? We just got back to school and you want to mess with us already?"

"I don't have anything to say to you," Darren commented, shifting his narrowed gaze beneath his Mustangs baseball cap from Jason to Rocky. "You're not even in my radar." He reached out and thumped Rocky hard on the shoulder. "I've got an issue with you."

"Oh. Well." Jason held up his hand. "That's okay, then."

Thanks a lot, Rocky mentally rolled his eyes but looked Darren in the eye with an air of fatigue that years of having to deal with bullies could create. "What did I do this time?" He held his ground when Darren got right up into his space, sneering down his nose at him.

"You cost me a lot of money," Darren commented, his voice turning into a low growl.

Of which almost made Rocky burst out laughing, wondering what it was going to take for Darren to, finally, understand that he had never intimidated him and never would. Instead, Rocky blinked back at Darren and shrugged lightly. "Okay…how?" Out the corner of his eye, he noticed Emily walking their way, starting with a wave but then slowing as she saw the inevitable.

"Darryl and I had a good thing going, then you had to ruin it for us," Darren said. He reached out and shoved Rocky on the shoulder. Rocky leaned back, hardly phased by the shove at all. Then he looked back to Darren when the tall blonde, and his bully since he was eleven, moved to get back into his face. "So, I want what's mine!"

"Meaning, what, exactly?" Jason piped up. "Because, I don't know about you, but there's a lot of things that your words could mean. Some of them have worse implications than others but…"

Darren reached out and shoved Jason hard enough on the shoulder that he stumbled back into Emily, who steadied him before he could fall over. "Don't you have something better to do?" Emily asked, glaring at Darren. "Haven't you and Darryl had enough tormenting everyone around you?"

"Yeah, I mean your faces can do it enough."

"Guys, I can handle this," Rocky said to his friends. He simply watched Darren through the entire exchange with his friends. He blinked and turned his head away when Darren reached out to smack the side of his face, and let out a heavy, calming breath.

"Yeah, he can handle this," Darren agreed. "So, when are you going to get me my money? I had people lining up for that stuff and you had to get in the way and ruin things for me."

Finally, Rocky got it. And it figured. He remembered Darren and Darryl saying something about the 'vitamins' that MedoCal had been giving out as free samples at the ninja tournament. But he was too preoccupied trying to figure out what it was about MedoCal and Harding that was bothering him so much. Thankfully, his intuition had paid off and he and his brothers had been able to stop Harding before too many people had ingested the strong drugs that were being filtered through the city. But that hadn't stopped too many people from the school becoming victims of it.

Darren and Darryl must have seen an opportunity they couldn't pass up.

Or one they could get away with, Rocky thought, suddenly realizing Darryl wasn't with Darren. The two were generally inseparable. "Are we waiting for Darryl, too, or is it just you today?"

For a moment, hesitation flickered through Darren's stormy blue eyes. Then he lifted his hat and ran a hand through his hair. "Don't worry about that! Where's my money?"

"I don't have any money for you, Darren," Rocky said firmly. "And if that's all you're concerned about then we don't need to have this conversation." He turned to walk away. "It's not my fault what happened, but if something more serious happened to the people you dealt through drugs to, you know you wouldn't come back from it. But I guess that's the point, Darryl's dad just gets you out of everything—"

He felt a hard tug on his back, propelling him to take a few steps backwards. Then he felt another tug and found himself spinning around. It didn't take much for him to figure out that Darren had grabbed onto his backpack, to keep him from walking away, and used the momentum to turn him back around. To turn him back toward the fist that was coming toward his stomach.

Thankfully, Rocky had the foresight—or at least knew Darren enough to know he'd pull something like that—to curl his stomach inward and take a step back at the same time. Darren's punch had no power behind it, Rocky could tell the strength was simply focused in the tightness he clenched his fingers into his fist, when the power of a punch came from how grounded you were. Without a powerful base, you had no power. The force came from the base, to the feet, to the ankles, to the knees, to the core, to the chest, to the shoulders, to the forearms, and finally to the fist.

It had taken a long time of meditation, spiritual teachings, and understanding the body before his grandfather would let him get the chance to throw a punch. It didn't take so long with Colt and Tum-Tum—mostly due to Colt's unbridled energy where he was throwing punches quickly within his training, and Tum-Tum wanting to do everything his brothers did—but they were able to understand and appreciate the fundamentals in throwing punches.

Due to that, Rocky was able to step back and lean back out of the way for the other punch that Darren swung with his opposite hand. It was wild, starting from far behind him, then brought it haphazardly forward. Rocky felt the wind rush by his face as he backed away again, Darren swinging with his other hand.

"Ugh!" Darren huffed. "Fight back! Or at least stand still so I can hit you!"

He swung again, Rocky ducked under his arm and slid his backpack down his shoulder so that he could grab it in his hand. He moved on autopilot after that. Everything moved around him in a blur. Every time Darren lunged for him, he moved out of the way with a quick, almost graceful step. His ninja abilities kicked in, a muscle memory that made everything move at once.

The only difference…he used his ninja abilities to continue to evade, to use it as a defense. To ensure that he didn't hit Darren at all. When Darren grabbed his backpack and tried to rip it out of his hands, Rocky simply spun out of the way, lifting his feet so that he could roll across Darren's back and land on his feet on the other side. When Darren came toward him again, he rolled the forgotten basketball onto the top of his foot and kicked it into Darren's chest, stopping him in his tracks.

"Oof!"

Once regaining his breath, Darren tossed the basketball aside and charged toward Rocky again. That time, Rocky bent out of the way and curled himself inward, using his back and shoulders as a leverage that, at medium height, knocked Darren onto his side on the ground. Once again, the taller teen got back up, grabbing Rocky by the front of his shirt and pulled his fist back.

"Boys!"

Rocky snapped to attention. Darren hesitated then dropped his grasp on Rocky's shirt. The two and looked to the side to see Principal Jergens striding their way. His face was enflamed, eyes darting back and forth between Darren and Rocky, Darren stopping short in his step when seeing the principal. But he continued to glare at Rocky. Principal Jergens came to a stop between them, shaking his head.

"I come to talk to you about recent events," he said to Rocky. "To talk about going coming back, buckling down, and not getting sidetracked and I find you both in a fight."

Rocky held up his free hand, looking toward the principal with a mild, almost serene expression. "I wouldn't call I ta fight, rather than a disagreement," he said calmly. "And as it is, I didn't touch Darren, I was simply trying to keep from getting hit myself while working to calm him down."

"My ass!" Darren snapped. "You know what you did."

"I saw the whole thing," Jason agreed. "He didn't touch him."

Principal Jergens studied Rocky for a long second. Long enough that Rocky could feel a line of sweat start to form at his hairline from the stress of waiting alone. There weren't many people he was intimidated by, even standing in front of Snyder when he had a gun trained on them was one of the few things didn't affect him long until after the adrenaline wore off. But something about the Principal staring at him, as if he were being looked through, made Rocky a little more than unnerved.

Finally, Principal Jergens let out a sigh and placed his hands on his hips, moving the bottoms of his jacket back so that he could plant his hands firmly. He licked his lips, shook his head, then turned to Darren. With a jerk of his head, he turned on his heel, leading Darren into the building.

"Show off," Emily murmured, folding her arms.

"Oh, come on." Jason slung his arm around Emily's shoulders, shaking her into his side. "You have to admit it was really cool seeing him be able to do all that and not even lay a finger on the guy." He made a quick whistling 'whoop' sound. "Coolest thing I've ever seen."

"Yeah…" Emily agreed. She leveled her gaze to Rocky, lifting an eyebrow as a tiny smile came to her face. "But you're still a show off."

Rocky smiled back.

Some things never changed.

A/N: How many times am I going to apologize for not having much time to update? Probably every November/December because that's when things get super hectic at work. *Rolls eyes*. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this one.

Cheers,

-Riles