A/N: I think this is record updating time for me! :) Less than two weeks, mainly because this chapter was already half done. This was originally supposed to be part of the last chapter, but I stretched it out and turned it into two (mainly because it was getting too long). I dedicate this chapter to when I took martial arts in my Jr. high school years, although I did judo and tae kwon do, not karate. But based on some of the research I did, a lot of stuff overlaps anyways. Originally I was going to have Kyle be into boxing or wrestling (he's pretty aggressive in the show, so fighting sports seemed like they would suit him), but martial arts is a bit more interesting to write about, so here we are. Enjoy!

…

Chapter 6

…

That Looks Like it Really Hurt

..

.

"You're doing what?" Kyle stared at me in disbelief, a single red eyebrow quirked as we stood in the gym locker room after school.

"You heard me," I responded, smiling at him. "I'm coming with you to your practice today. I want to see what this fighting business is all about."

"You? What happened to the: 'I don't fight, I'm not a violent person, fighting is the wrong way to solve issues, fighting encourages bullying and war' stuff you told me a year ago when I first invited you to come to practice with me?"

I chuckled at his mock imitation of my voice before shrugging. "I changed my mind. I decided you were right when you told me back then that this stuff is no more violent than football."

That was a lie. Truthfully, I just wanted to keep an eye on Adrian, who was supposed to be showing up for this today. The thought of fighting with someone on purpose actually made me a little uncomfortable… although I wouldn't complain much if I got to fight Adrian. I'd love to wipe that smirk off of his face.

"Well, that's great. I'm glad," Kyle admitted, a puzzled look still marring his face. "But your parents have to sign paperwork to do this sort of stuff."

"Already handled," I grinned at him. "Checked with my football coach earlier today, and he said the paperwork you and your parents sign for the two activities are the same. Same sort of risks I guess."

"Huh, didn't know that," Kyle mused before smiling at me. "Well then I'm glad you're coming! The Sensei will be thrilled to have two new people coming today between you and Adrian. He loves newcomers." He looked me up and down briefly, an action which, strangely enough, made a weird chill cascade down my spine. Very weird. "You don't have a gi…" Kyle continued. "But you should be fine wearing your regular gym clothes as long as they're easy to move around in… oh, and be sure you wear your cup."

Oh right, those white robe things that people wear during martial arts; 'gi's'. I always would forget the name of those. I suppose wearing the cup is self-explanatory.

"Okay, good," I said cheerily before moving to fumble with the lock to my locker. "I'll go get changed then."

I watched out of the corner of my eye as several more people filed into the room, Craig amongst them – many of them regulars to the class I presume, as I saw most of them each day I came to go to the weight room. I narrowed my eyes when I spotted the familiar blonde haired person that was the very reason I was coming to this class enter the room, a grin forming on his face as he spotted Kyle and made his way over to him.

"Kyle!" He greeted, crowding him from behind against the lockers and placing a hand on his shoulder.

I scowled darkly at this action as I watched them closely out of the corner of my eyes, my gut twisting uncomfortably. I see my warning did absolutely nothing to deter him.

Kyle jumped slightly at Adrian's action, whipping around to face him. "Oh, Adrian, hi," he greeted somewhat awkwardly. "I was wondering if you were still coming. Glad you could make it."

Adrian grinned at him, leaning down slightly. "I wouldn't miss this for anything. I really want to learn more about the stuff you enjoy."

"Oh yeah? Well, glad you're here then, it is pretty fun." Kyle shuffled awkwardly, inching away from him slightly. "Can you give me some space though? I need to tie my belt."

I slammed my locker shut, turning to around to see Adrian back away slightly – still not enough to where I would deem appropriate, but Kyle appeared fine with it now.

I truly did have a difficult time understanding what Kyle really thought of Adrian… I know that he's not receptive to his advances, but at times he seemed quite friendly towards the guy. But then there were other times that he appeared uncomfortable about it, even though he claimed that he did not mind Adrian flirting with him. I didn't know what to think – either way, I hated it. But I really didn't know what I hated more: Kyle being uncomfortable about it, or sort of receptive/friendly about it.

Quite honestly, both were pretty terrible.

"Kyle, are you coming?" My eyes flickered towards the source of the monotone, slightly nasally voice landing on Craig's taller form, fully clothed up in his gee and a decorative black belt encircling his waist. I watched as Craig's eyes shifted from Kyle to Adrian, his expression remaining as stoic as ever. "Who's this?"

"Craig, you've met Adrian, he sits at our table at lunch every day," Kyle responded, motioning towards Adrian. "He's coming to practice with us today."

"Nice to meet you. Again." Adrian greeted politely, although he seemed a bit annoyed that Craig had forgotten who he was.

Craig simply stared in silence at Adrian for a moment, slowly quirking an eyebrow. "Oh. How exciting," he eventually said with no real sincerity.

"That's not all, Stan's coming too today!" Kyle beamed, motioning towards me as I stepped forward to join the group.

"Yep," I affirmed. "Decided to finally check this out, since Kyle has been doing it for so long."

Adrian smiled at me, although apparent disappointment was easily visible behind that, which pleased me greatly. I was more surprised by Craig, whose normally stoic, passive expression darkened momentarily after hearing the news. I mean jeez, I know Craig and I didn't get along too well, but I didn't think he actually disliked me that much.

"Well, this is just great then," Craig spoke monotonously. "Two new people. I'm so glad you decided to come," I don't think he could possibly sound any less sincere. "Come along then, the room is this way." He waved us in his direction before turning and quickly walking that way.

I waited for Kyle to file past me after his classmate – well, our classmate I guess, and followed him towards the room.

I have no idea what to expect, but here goes nothing.

…

It was true, I didn't know what to expect, and I should have known better considering Kyle has told me that the person who teaches this is also the P.E. teacher. But… it was still so awkward to watch a middle aged white guy instructing a group of people on a Japanese fighting form. It was so contradictory to every kung fu movie I've ever watched.

"Yeah, yeah! Keep going, you guys got this!" Mr. Morris, the teacher – or should I say sensei, spoke with exuberance. I had forgotten how excited this guy really got over the smallest of things – like warming up.

Our first task was to do a variety of exercises – first stretching, and then the standard warm up stuff like jogging back and forth, push-ups, sit ups… that sort of thing, all easy stuff really; I can do push-ups with one arm tied behind my back. It was a bit strange to hear Mr. Morris count our reps in Japanese though, certainly wasn't used to that when I worked out.

The padded room that this was held in was quite interesting – I had never been in here before, but it was apparently used for both this karate class and wrestling. Thick white pads coated the entire room, even part of the ceiling, along with a few punching bags and a basket full of gloves and hand wraps in the corner. For a small town high school, South Park High really did have quite the elaborate gymnasium between this and the weight room.

I was somewhat surprised to see few familiar faces amongst the sea of underclassmen other than Kyle, and Craig and Adrian in the class. Tweek, Kevin Stoley, and a couple of those Asian girls that Wendy occasionally talks to – I could never remember, or really pronounce their names though. I did recall seeing Kevin in the locker room on these days, but never Tweek – although I do remember hearing a rumor that Tweek refuses to change in the locker room with everyone else because it's 'too much pressure'. Apparently he would change in the bathrooms instead. Bizarre. This really doesn't seem like it would be Tweek's thing in the first place, but I would imagine Craig was the one that got him into it considering the two were friends.

"… Hachi… Ku… And ju! Alright, finished!" Mr. Morris exclaimed, and I heard Kyle exhale next to me as he pushed himself up from his last push up, moving to sit in a kneeled position which I quickly mimicked. "Good job class!" Mr. Morris continued, beaming at as. "Since I know we have a few new faces here today, we're going to go over the basics again. The rest of you could stand to practice them a bit anyways."

I heard Craig scoff in front of me. "Boring," he muttered quietly.

"-alright, let's start off with your standard jab," the teacher continued with a swift demonstration – he moved pretty quickly for an older guy. "Right side first, let's try it out!"

…

Jabs, front kicks, sidekicks, round house kicks, elbow jabs, and multiple blocks… that was a lot of stuff to cram into the last thirty minutes. Apparently this class lasted two hours, so what in the world were we going to do for the next hour and a half?

Either way, I think I did quite well. Balancing was a bit hard at first with the round house kicks, but I got the hang of it. Mr. Morris even called me a 'natural', so elated at the fact that he had South Park High's "star" football player in his class. I'm not so sure I would go that far – but at least I was doing better than Adrian, who was stumbling all over the place.

I sent my last kick into the bag, watching as it swung forcefully back on the impact. That was ten reps as was instructed.

"Wow Stan, you're pretty good at this," Kyle praised as he watched me.

"Thanks," I responded, smiling at him. Surely having football experience on my belt didn't hurt for this sport.

"Alright class, good job!" Mr. Morris called attention to himself. "I think most of you got the hang of it, so we'll start getting into the real stuff. Since there are a few newer people here, upper belts I want you to pair up with them."

Upon hearing this, I turned to move towards Kyle, expectant that he would partner with me. I scowled when I saw Adrian move to grasp his arm, attempting to tug Kyle with him. "Partner with me Kyle?" He asked in a thick accent, flashing him a grin.

"Oh, umm…" Kyle's eyes flickered to mine, shooting me an apologetic look before turning back to Adrian. "Sure, let's go over to that corner."

I watched as Kyle led Adrian to their spot in the corner, Adrian briefly turning to flash me a smug smile before continuing to follow Kyle. Asshole. Not only did I already fail in doing what I even came to this class for, but now I don't even have a partner! I glanced around; the two Asian girls had paired up together, Tweek partnered with Kevin, and others in the class had already paired up amongst themselves. So who do I…?

"Well, I guess you're with me then," an unfortunately familiar monotone voice spoke from behind me. Great, just great.

I sighed, turning to face Craig, whose face was glazed with a bored expression. He truly was the last person I would have wanted to partner with. I would have even preferred Adrian just on the off chance that I would get to punch him a few times.

"Looks like it," I responded begrudgingly.

The class stood in silence as the Mr. Morris explained what we were supposed to do. How to 'block' punches and kicks apparently. It wasn't really as much blocking as it was teaching us how to endure strikes to our stomach. As he described it, we were supposed to breathe out and tighten our abs when someone strikes at our abdominal area. Doesn't explain much of what we would do if someone ties to hit you in the face, but supposedly he would get to that later.

"This is easy," Craig stated. "Alright, get into position, lets practice," he ordered.

I glanced over at Kyle briefly, who was currently instructing Adrian on what to do before I moved to stand in front of Craig and taking the fighting stance that I was taught earlier. "Okay, ready."

Before I knew it, Craig reeled his arm back and shot it directly into my abdomen, only giving me just enough time to tighten my abs in defense. I stumbled backwards from the impact, definitely feeling the sharp pain from the blow. Although I suppose it didn't knock the breath out of me at least – which has happened to me a couple times after being tackled during football.

"Come on. Stand your ground," Craig sharply berated. "You'll never win any fights if something like that sends you backwards."

"I get it," I snapped, moving back into position. "I wasn't expecting that. I'm ready now."

Once again Craig punched me in the stomach and, being more prepared for it this time, I was able to withstand it a little bit better, only stumbling back one step. It still hurt like a bitch. I thought the teacher told us to take it easy at first. Craig was not doing that. I wasn't going to wimp out though, I can handle it.

I withstood several more jabs to the gut from him, feeling myself able to tolerate each one a little bit better than the last. It still hurt though, and I'm pretty certain I could feel some bruises forming on my abdomen and was quickly reminded of why I wasn't a fan of this stuff. The random violence… I mean, when would I even be fighting someone anyways? Certainly football could be violent at times, but our goal wasn't to beat each other up, even if it did happen on accident on occasion. I was doing this for Kyle though, even if I already failed miserably at keeping Adrian away from him.

"Okay," Craig said, suddenly stopping his assault. "That's twenty. It's your turn now." I winced slightly as I rubbed my stomach, the skin tender from the multiple pinpointed strikes. I straightening myself up and facing Craig, who stood there as still as a statue, hands folded behind his back and chin slightly upturned, as if expectant of something. "Hurry up, I don't have all day," he berated again.

"Okay, I'm going," I responded sharply, taking position and sending my first jab into Craig's hardened stomach.

It was so odd to have someone to tell me to hurry up and hit them. I get that this is fighting practice, but the very concept of that is just bizarre. In fact, I was feeling slightly more okay with the fact that I was stuck with Craig. I would much rather be hitting him than someone I cared about, like Kyle.

Craig was strange. Boring, stoic, apathetic. A well-known bully for a time during our elementary school years. As we grew, the bullying side of him mostly went away, but the personality… that hasn't changed a lick. It's funny considering how different our personalities are, as people often commented that we looked alike. Similarly styled black hair, blue eyes, both tall, and both of us often wore blue clothing. In fact, there was such a likeness in middle school that our classmates joked that if we switched clothing, no one would be able to tell the difference. The funniest part of all of this is that we never really got along… our relationship was never necessarily fractious, but it was… tentative. I could never quite place why either, aside from our apparently incompatible personalities... Or it could be the Peru incident, he never did truly get over that.

"So…" I began as I threw another punch into his stomach, which hardly even seemed to faze him as he continued to stand there motionless, a bored expression painted on his face. I wouldn't have thought otherwise to make conversation during this, but he seemed to be unbothered enough by my assault that it likely would not matter. "How's your guinea pig? …Stripe, right?"

Kyle was on good terms with Craig, and while I didn't necessarily like that, I may as well try to make good with his other friends.

I tensed a bit when I saw his expression darken at my question, a sharp exhale heard as he pushed air out of his nose. "Stripe is dead," Craig responded shortly. Oh… oh… "Guinea pigs don't live very long you know. I have a new one now, named Sugar Maple."

"Oh… well, I'm sorry," I mumbled out, opting to keep my mouth shut from now on as I threw yet another jab into his stomach. I'm not even going to question why Craig chose to name his guinea pig 'Sugar Maple.'

Well, so much for making amends with him.

The rest of the class was… awkward to say the least. After this exercise, our wonderful sensei Mr. Morris decided that we needed a break from punching activities and had to learn some basic self-defense – for 'the newbies'. Some wrist twists, escaping holds, those sorts of things, some of which seemed to border on being more akin to wrestling than martial arts. I quickly discovered that being the receiver of such a hold put you in a rather compromising position, and well…

"Lay down," Craig ordered.

I blinked at him for a moment, frozen in place before sighing and begrudgingly moving to lay on the white padded ground. I felt my body visibly stiffen as Craig moved to straddle me, staring at me with a disinterested expression as he moved his hands to tightly grasp my neck as if choking me. His face was close enough that I could practically feel his cigarette coated breath waft over my skin.

Supposedly this was an incredibly important thing to know according to our teacher; how to get someone off if you're knocked onto the ground and they attempt to pin you. However, it really seemed like it would be more useful to girls who get into, well, unfortunate situations with guys… not another male like me. It was mostly just uncomfortable, and I most certainly did not want to be in this position with Craig of all people.

"Is this really necessary?" I asked, shifting uncomfortably.

"You really think I want to be doing this with you? This is around the fifth time I've learned this," Craig stated with an eye roll. "It's more important than you think. After all, there are all sorts of things I could do to a person in this position… I could choke you," I felt his hands tighten around my throat, slightly cutting off my breath – "elbow you in the face… gouge your eyes out. Tons of fun things. You best know how to escape it, so hurry up before we look like fucking faggots sitting like this in front of everyone."

Well, I suppose he did have a point. I gripped him by the hems of his gee, locking my legs around his ankles and swiftly shifted my hips to propel us up and around, effectively turning the tables as I landed on top of him in the similar position he had me in just seconds ago, him grunting slightly as his head knocked against the padded ground.

"Good job Stanley!" I heard Mr. Morris shout out in my direction.

I quickly got off of Craig, standing up and resituating the straps of my tank top. My eyes instinctively found Kyle, who was, unfortunately, practicing similar things in the corner with Adrian. Kyle situated on top of him in the similar position that Craig and I had been moments ago, but rather than hurriedly getting Kyle off of him like I had done with Craig, he instead grasped onto the hems of his gi and pulled him closer to his face, saying something that I could not hear, but I did see that it made a rather obvious flush form on Kyle's face.

Admittedly, despite my reason for coming here being to keep an eye on Adrian, I was having an incredibly difficult time watching them. Every time I looked over at them together, my gut would contort in such an uncomfortable mixture of anger and uneasiness that I just couldn't stand to continue to watch it. It was bad enough that I had to do these things with Craig, but it was even worse to watch Adrian use it to take advantage of my best friend. However, it was getting to the point where I couldn't stand to just ignore it any longer.

"Do you think we could switch partners?" I asked Craig, who had just picked himself up off the ground and was now dusting off his pants.

"Why?"

"Just… I thought it might be better to get to practice with multiple people," I responded with a shrug. "Wouldn't you rather pair with someone more experienced so you can get more practice?"

"Yes. Practicing with you is a waste of time," he responded with stoic honesty, raising his chin up slightly. Well jeez. "But the Sensei always wants the upper belts to partner with the newer people. People who are closer to the same weight generally partner together too, and you're closer to my size than anyone else in the class, unfortunately."

"I guess that makes sense, but-"

"Don't lie. You just want Kyle to be your partner, I know you two are funny together," he stated neutrally.

"What?! No!" I responded hastily, my eyes widening slightly. What the hell? Cartman, and now Craig with these jokes? Although Craig did not appear to be joking. Are these people missing the fact that I've had a girlfriend for the past seven years?! "Look," I began in a hushed voice, moving in closer to him so that no one else would hear. "That guy over there that's partnered with Kyle, he's been bothering him for weeks now. You're Kyle's friend right? So you should care if he's being harassed!"

"Kyle is my friend," Craig affirmed. "And being that he is my friend, I know enough to know that he can handle himself."

"Please," I asked again, hating the fact that I was practically begging Craig to do something, but considering that he's the highest ranking person in the class aside from Mr. Morris, I assume that he has the power to make these switches. "Just this once. Kyle and I are pretty close in weight, and he's a higher belt too right? So it shouldn't matter too much if we switch."

Craig simply stared at me for a moment before sighing and rolling his eyes. "Fine."

Yes, yes. Thank you. This is the last time I'd ever think this about Craig of all people, but I owed him one. I watched him as he strode over to where Kyle and Adrian were in the corner, tapping on Kyle's shoulder and saying something. Moments later, Kyle was jogging in my direction while Craig to his spot in front of a very unhappy looking Adrian.

"Craig said that you wanted to practice with multiple people, so we're switching," Kyle explained to me, seemingly unaware of the real reason I wanted to switch.

"Oh, yeah, yeah I do," I said, going along with the lie. I wonder if Craig will ever tell him the truth, or keep it a secret? Kyle would probably be mad if he knew that I was trying to protect him.

I glanced over at Craig and Adrian, both of them looking equally unhappy with Craig appearing to be rougher with Adrian than he had been even with me, and Adrian glancing in my direction with a scowl on his face. I, on the other hand, couldn't be happier with this outcome. Perhaps Craig's rougher treatment would be enough to scare Adrian away from the class for good.

"So, do you want to practice the roll again or something else?" Kyle asked, a touch of awkwardness evident in his voice. "Anything really, I've done this stuff a few times before already."

I jerked my head back in Kyle's direction. That's a good question, I didn't really want to punch him like I had done earlier with Craig. "Uh, I guess we can do the roll."

I laid down, allowing Kyle to straddle me, a strange feeling arising in my groin as he put his weight on my waist. I swallowed thickly as I stared up at him. I figured this would be easier to do with Kyle, but somehow, it was even more awkward. I moved to grasp the hems of his gi, getting ready to flip him before he suddenly snatched my wrists and pinned them above my head, causing me to jump slightly and look at him confusedly.

"It…" I heard him gulp, an edge of uneasiness evident in his voice. Is Kyle actually nervous? That's practically unheard of. I mean, we were in an awkward position, but it's just me. "It makes it harder if you can't use your hands… try just doing the motion with your hips."

I nodded and swallowed again, wiggling my pinned wrists as I locked my feet with his and twisted my hips. It was more difficult, but I still managed to propel us around, our chests colliding as I landed none-too-gracefully on top of him. I coughed, the air being slightly knocked out of me from the impact before sitting up and staring down at Kyle below me, quickly looking away when our eyes met and feeling my face heating up slightly.

I got off of him and we both stood up, me watching as Kyle fixed his belt which had become disheveled from the sloppiness of the exercise. "A little messy, but good job… you'll get better with practice," Kyle smiled at me.

I forced out an awkward laugh, scratching the back of my head. "Yeah… seems like it takes a while to get the hang of."

But why? Why did I feel so strangely about this? I have done similar things in football when learning how to tackle people – it certainly resulted in compromising positions at times, but I never felt off about it. I had just done the very same exercise with Crag just minutes ago, and while it was uncomfortable, it wasn't quite the same as what I was feeling right now. Kyle is my best friend – I should be most comfortable doing this with him of all people, so why am I feeling this way?

I don't understand.

Before we could continue, Mr. Morris halted the practice, announcing that we were moving on to something else. I felt conflicted, a part of me wanted to do more of this, and another part of me desperately wanted to move on to something else – or just leave – because of how uncomfortable it made me feel.

Fortunately, that was decided for me, as we were now apparently moving onto something less… personal. Mr. Morris emphasized that, along with learned basic self-defense like we had just gone over, learning how to block was one of the most important aspects of martial arts. He claimed we were learning more advanced blocks later, but for now, he had us practicing something that almost reminded me of boxing. Apparently, we were to just practice redirecting strikes to the face – which really made more sense to me than the 'block' we were taught earlier, because really, who would go for your stomach when they could go for your face?

"Want to go first?" Kyle asked, him punching his now-gloved hands together – each of us were required to wear gloves just to be safe.

"Sure," I responded, moving into fighting stance and putting my guard up.

"I'll start off slow," Kyle said, throwing his first jab, which I easily caught and pushed out of the way due to the slower pace of it.

"Thanks, nice of you, a lot nicer than your friend Craig. Great guy that one," I spoke bitterly as I blocked another punch from Kyle.

Perhaps I shouldn't even be talking, as Craig did help me out a bit. Yes, I did owe him for helping me out earlier, but he was none too nice about it and he certainly made no effort to hide his dislike of me when he was my partner.

"Why? What did he do?" Kyle spoke in a hushed tone, likely due to the fact that Craig was only just on the other side of the room.

"He's just an asshole, that's what," I responded harshly. "It's obvious he just wanted to partner with me because he doesn't like me and wanted to take advantage me being here… why is he your friend again?"

"Don't be so cynical, Craig doesn't dislike you," Kyle stated as if it was obvious – it wasn't. "It probably just seems rougher because you're new. You'll get used to it."

"I guess." I wasn't so certain I would be coming back, even if Adrian wasn't scared away today. Coming today pretty much confirmed that this wasn't my thing.

"So what does Wendy think of you doing this?" Kyle suddenly asked as he continued to throw jabs at me, steadily increasing in pace as I continued to block them.

I shrugged. "She was a bit worried, but no more than she is when I play football. She's always worried about me getting brain damage or some shit from it."

"Sounds like her," Kyle bit out. "Always so over protective."

"Dude, come on," I responded with a sigh. "I know you don't always like how she treats me, but we've talked about this. It's fine."

"I don't mean it in a bad way… it's just true, we- ah, keep your guard up Stan!" Kyle stopped and suddenly warned as my hands steadily begin to fell from my face, me having gotten distracted from the turn of the conversation. "Anyways, she doesn't have to worry here at least. We take precautions to make sure everyone is safe. The school would have a fit other-"

"Craig!" My guard immediately fell as Mr. Morris's booming voice interrupted Kyle.

The class fell silent and I immediately whipped around, eyes darting to where Craig and Adrian were practicing only to see Adrian on the ground, his nose bloodied as he glanced up nervously at the uncaring boy standing above him.

"Whoops," Craig finally stated with no real sincerity.

"Holy shit dude, his nose looks broken," Kyle whispered to me.

Mr. Morris rushed over to where Adrian was, kneeling next to him and inspecting his now misshapen nose. The room was so silent it was eerie, only broken by the occasional hushed whispers, everyone having halted their practice and was now staring at the scene unfolding in front of them. "You should know better Craig," Mr. Morris scolded.

"He attacked me!" Adrian suddenly accused, pointing a trembling hand at a disinterested looking Craig as he was helped up off the ground by Mr. Morris.

Craig merely shrugged. "You should have blocked it. Now you know better."

"Fifty push-ups Craig," Mr. Morris ordered, jabbing his hand out and pointing to a corner on the other side of the room. "Go over there and get started."

"Fine. I apologize Sensei," Craig responded begrudgingly with a quick dip of his head into a small bow before jogging to the other side of the room.

"Kyle, can you go get the first aid kit?" Mr. Morris asked and Kyle nodded, promptly running out of the room to retrieve said item.

I watched, backing up against the wall slightly to make room as Mr. Morris led Adrian to the chairs situated on the side of the room, instructing him to sit down as he waited for Kyle to return with the first aid kit. I almost felt bad for him, almost - that did look like it really hurt. But, if something like his doesn't scare him away from the class, I don't know what will.

Kyle returned to the room moments later, red kit in hand. Mr. Morris took it, opening it up and rifling through it while Kyle bent down next to Adrian, asking him if he was okay. It did look pretty awful, bloodied and bent partially to the side. Definitely broken, that's for sure. Poor guy, but he had it coming, and it works out fine for me.

After all, I'm pretty certain someone like Adrian wouldn't want his 'pretty' face getting disfigured.

So, mission accomplished I guess. For now that is.

…

To be continued

…

A/N: I'm really excited to get over this hump! From here on out is where the story really starts to get moving, which might mean faster updates since I'm excited to write about it. Anyways, thanks for reading! I hope to hear your thoughts in reviews (*hint hint*) ;)