What? Another chapter already? Yeah, I knew exactly what I was going to write for this chapter so I could get it out fairly quickly. Don't expect that all the time, though.

So, how is Ike going to react to Firkle finding out he is the "stalker?" Let's find out!

Chapter 7 – Water Wars

Ike stared at me in utter shock. He was half way through opening my locker and still had the paper in his hand. He gawked at me. "F-Firkle!" he stuttered, "This isn't what it looks like!"

"Oh yeah?" I scoffed, "Because it looks like you're breaking into my locker to leave me a note. Something my stalker has been doing for months!" I glared at him. "How did you even get my locker combination?"

Ike opened and closed his mouth several times, unable to answer me. He looked at the ground and I hope he felt guilty. I looked at the note in his hand.

"Well? What does your note say?" I demanded.

Giving me a somewhat frightened look, Ike unfolded the paper and held it in slightly shaky hands. "Dear Firkle," he read in a slow voice, "I'm sorry to hear that your life is so hard right now. I'm also sad to hear you say you think no one cares about you. I wanted you to know that I care about you. I want you to be strong and not worry about what those assholes say about you. I'll always stand with you."

The more he read the more I scowled. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I didn't want him to take pity on me. I felt my anger boiling inside me, threatening to explode.

Ike looked at me nervously, waiting for me to say something. But I was afraid if I did I was going to burst. Instead, I opened my locker, grabbed my bag, slammed the door closed, then started to storm away. Immediately, I heard Ike starting to follow me.

"Firkle, wait!" he called, "Where are you going?"

"Where do you think I'm going?" I growled, "I'm going home so I can be away from you! And you'd better not follow me!"

I heard Ike panting slightly with effort to keep up. "B-But I don't get why you're so angry at me!" he whined, "All I did was leave notes in your locker!" I hissed with annoyance as we exited the school and started across the fields.

"Of course you would see nothing wrong with that!" I snapped back at him, "You don't see what a total invasion of privacy it is! How demeaning it is!"

"I was only trying to make you feel better!" he argued.

"I don't want your fucking pity, Ike!" I yelled at him. Ike broke into a jog to keep better pace with me.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" he asked, "I'm just trying to help you and you act like I'm the one causing all of your problems!"

"I never asked for your fucking help," I snarled, "I just want to be left alone! By you, by the football team, by the cheerleaders. Why can't anyone understand that? I don't want your stupid notes or candy, and I don't want your help!"

By this time we were crossing through the community pool area where a lot of our classmates were swimming and hanging out. The only reason I went this way was because it was the fastest way to get to my house from the school.

"Does this mean you don't want me to tutor you anymore?" Ike asked as we walked by the pool. I stopped and turned to glare at him.

"As a matter of fact, Ike, I would prefer if you never speak to me again!" I shouted. I may have been a little harsh, and I felt a tinge of remorse when I saw tears coming to Ike's eyes. But it didn't change how violated I felt.

I was about to turn around and continue home when there was a barely audible "heads up," and a millisecond later I was hit in the side of the head with a football. I saw Ike's eyes widen and his mouth open.

"FIRKLE!" he yelled before I toppled over sideways and fell into the pool.

Now, normally I was a strong swimmer and would've easily swam to the surface. But being hit with the football knocked some of the sense out of me and I couldn't do anything as water started to fill my lungs while my arms and legs sat limply and my head throbbed. I should've been panicking; I was drowning after all, but my brain was strangely not giving a shit. I was vaguely aware of things going on around me, but at the same time I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness.

I was aware of someone jumping into the pool after me, and I felt them loop and arm around me. I was pulled to the surface, but I still didn't breathe. My savior dragged me onto the pavement and I was just aware enough to feel them pinch my nose closed and pry my mouth open and cover it with their own. It took two or three rescue breaths before I could finally start forcing the water from my lungs, and I started hacking and coughing. I rolled onto my side to let the water drain out of me. As I did, I heard a sigh beside me.

"Oh thank God you're ok," Ike murmured. Of course it was Ike. It was always Ike.

Slowly, I opened my eyes and saw him kneeling next to me with a relieved look on his face. He was soaking wet so there could be no mystery as to who my rescuer was. Even though there had been at least twenty other people in the pool, he was the only one who had bothered to save me.

Even though I had just gotten done yelling at him.

"Is he all right?" someone asked, and I realized it was the voice of the cheerleader, the one who had a crush on me. I moved my eyes to see where she was and saw her standing with her loser quarterback boyfriend just past Ike. Filmore and Quaid were also next to them.

Filmore was glaring angrily at me and I suddenly had a hunch of who had thrown the football. I noticed Ike turn and glare back at Filmore.

"What the hell did you do that for?" he hissed at the jock.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Filmore replied, trying to sound innocent.

"Don't bullshit me," Ike snapped, "I saw you throw that football at Firkle!"

Filmore shrugged. "I didn't do it on purpose," he insisted, "It's not my fault the idiot doesn't know how to duck."

Ike glared at him, and I'm sure he could've eventually gotten Filmore to admit what he did, but right now I was in a lot of pain and soaked to the bone. I reached up and gently clutched Ike's arm, giving it a squeeze. Ike looked down at me with a concerned look.

"All right, let's get you taken care of," he mumbled. As carefully as he could he helped me to my feet and slung one of my arms around his shoulders. Then we slowly started walking towards the gate while people stood by and watched.

"Where's my bag?" I asked weakly, suddenly realizing I didn't have it.

"Don't worry, I grabbed it," Ike told me. I sighed with relief. All of my textbooks, my homework, my notebooks, and my life works was in there.

"I hope you don't mind, I'm taking you back to my house," Ike informed me, "It's closer and no offense but your family kind of scares me."

"They scare everyone," I muttered, "Especially the twins. The little bastards."

Ike let out a small laugh beside me. We didn't say anything else until we reached Ike's house. He called out a greeting to his parents who were in the kitchen before taking me upstairs to his room. As soon as we got there I went over and collapsed onto his bed, holding the side of my head where I had been struck. I could feel a bump forming there and I cringed slightly.

"How are you feeling?" Ike asked me.

"My head hurts like crazy," I grumbled, "I have a massive headache."

"Let me go get something for that," he offered, "If you'd like, you can use my shower to rinse off the chlorine from the pool and I'll wash your clothes for you. But let me get something for your head first."

He quickly left the room, leaving me lying on his bed. He was back a moment later with some pills and a glass of water. With a small groan of protest, I sat up and took them from him. I swallowed them and drank the whole glass of water.

"Thanks," I muttered.

"You're welcome," Ike said, "Do you need help getting up?"

"No, I can do it," I insisted. As I got up, Ike followed me to the bathroom so he could show me how the shower worked (apparently it was a little temperamental.) Then he stepped out of the room so I could shed my wet clothes. I left them on the toilet so Ike could grab them before stepping into the shower.

Immediate warmth ran through me as hot water drenched me. Why was it that just this week I was practically frozen twice? As I washed myself, getting all the chlorine off my skin and out of my hair, I heard the door open.

"I brought a fresh towel for you," Ike called, "I'll take your clothes downstairs and wash them now."

"Thanks," I mumbled out, too relaxed by the heat of the water to shout.

When I was done, I turned the water off and stepped out. I grabbed the towel Ike brought for me and dried myself as best I could. I thought about using Ike's hairbrush to tame my hair but thought better of it. That's how lice spreads. Instead I just ran my fingers through it to get it in order that way. I wrapped the towel around my waist before going back to Ike's room.

I entered Ike's room where he was holding a pile of clothes out in his arms. He had a slight blush on his face for some reason. I raised an eyebrow at him and he cleared his throat.

"Um, I picked out some clothes you can wear until your own clothes are done washing," he explained. I looked him over.

"Don't you have anything in black?" I wondered. He blinked at me.

"Er, not really," he replied. I let out a long and over dramatic sigh.

"Fine! I'll wear those for now!" I whined. With a sheepish grin, Ike handed me the bundle of clothes. I took them from him and sat down on his bed. I heard Ike take a sharp breath behind me and I turned to look at him.

"What?"

"I uh, didn't know you had a tattoo," he murmured in a slightly awed voice.

"Oh. Yeah, I do," I replied. Frankly I forgot I had gotten a tattoo on my back. For my fifteenth birthday my friends had taken me to this special tattoo parlor where they didn't I.D. people. Plus my friends were regulars at the place.

My tattoo was of a pair of black angel wings starting at my shoulder blades and folded down to around the middle of my back. I liked to think of it as a fallen angel kind of motif.

I didn't let Ike stare at me too long as I started putting on the clothes he pulled out for me. I felt hideous wearing these bright blue colors, but hopefully it wouldn't be for too long. I had to admit, though, Ike's clothes were soft and warm.

"Oh! Before I forget! I brought you an ice pack for your head," Ike told me, turning back around (as he had turned his back to me so he wouldn't see me naked.)

"Um, thank you," I murmured, taking the pack from him. Ike nodded and started to leave the room to take his own shower. But I had something to say first. "Ike!" I called. He stopped and turned to me. I took a breath. "I'm sorry for shouting at you and getting so angry at you earlier. I'm just under a lot of stress and I have a hard time trusting people. I find it hard to believe that anyone actually wants to help me without having some ulterior motive so you just actually caring about me really threw me off and I lashed out at you. I'm sorry."

Ike gave me a gentle smile. "It's all right," he said, "Apology accepted. I know it can be difficult to let people in, especially seeing how bullied you are. But I genuinely want to help you, Firkle. And I would never do anything to hurt you intentionally."

Nodding, I sucked in my breath slightly. "Ike, I still want you to tutor me," I told him, "If I didn't have your help I could just say good-bye to being able to join my friends."

"Of course," he replied, smiling, "I would keep coming around to keep bugging you anyway." He laughed softly before leaving to take his shower.

I watched him go before laying down and resting the ice pack on my head. I hadn't intended to fall asleep, I wanted to be awake for when my clothes were done, but in no time I had passed out on Ike's bed.

Geez, that was a wild ride! Firkle's emotions were all over the place, huh? So were Ike's for that matter. I hope I didn't make Firkle seem too nasty at the start of the chapter for you guys. I didn't want him to seem like irredeemable or anything, but you could sort of see where he was coming from? I don't know. Anyway, please tell me what you think!