Chapter 2

… Get what you give …

As the brothers entered the cafeteria they immediately spotted two rough looking boys, circling a third much smaller boy like he was there prey. Hanson looked at Penhall cocking one eyebrow at his fellow officer to show he knew what he was thinking. His partner nodded back and they immediately walked over to where the commotion was just beginning.

"We told you, we needed our book reports done for today!", the largest boy said patting the nervous kid on the back with every second syllable.

"And come on man, that last assignment only got me a B, don't get lazy on us Troy or we will have to let Hannah over there how much you like her. ", the second bully continued. A nervous Troy then shot a terrified look over to a pretty blond girl surrounded by her many friends. The kid then replied very bravely with the only courage he could muster,

"I had to make it seem realistic didn't I.". With that the second tormenter grabbed him by his hair, thrusting his head backwards violently.

"Listen here you little shit, if you ever imply that I'm stupid again I'll….".

"Hey, hey, boys, I hope were playing nicely over here.", the booming voice of Douglas Mcquaid interrupted.

"Wouldn't want any of our play toys to get hurt, would we Doug.", followed the playful voice of Tommy Mcquaid."Because I know we're new here but we thought we ought to catch you guys up on our rules. You see in our school, no one gets to have fun at anyone else's expense. Except us.", he continued icily.

"You got that?" Doug said callously as he slapped the hand away that was still holding on tightly to the back of Troy's head. "So we don't EVER want to hear about something like this happening again. You see last time someone didn't follow our rules, my little brother here had to spend some quality time in a jail cell, if you know what I'm getting at.". Tommy patted the bulge in his pocket deceptively. He was enjoying seeing these low lives squirm a little too much. "Now go away, we want to have a chat with our new mate." Troy looked even more petrified than before.

"Relax little man, we were just want some information from you" Doug said as kindly as he could tying to ease the fear of the scared boy in front of him.

"We want to know who Matthew Benton is, just point him out then we'll let you finish your lunch ok.", Hanson asked calmly as an expression of relief flooded the kids features. Tommy gave him a reassuring wink and Douglas patted him on the shoulder in a friendly manner.

"Really, is that all I, I can do that." he stammered, still obviously shaken up but a little baffled at the boys kindness.

"Okie dokie let's do it then." Tom said as they started getting up from the table.

As they got up boy points them towards a slight, blond haired boy sitting at a table with two others. The officers walk over and put their arms around his shoulders as they sat either side of him.

"Hello!" they said in unison.

"Leave now, please," the older brother asked the other members of the table, feigning politeness. Mathew signalled that it was ok for them to leave as he smirked and began talking to the brothers.

"I've been expecting you boys, heard a lot about you.".

"All good things I hope,", Tom replied coolly.

"I heard you were expelled for dealing at your old school.".

"That's right."

"And I'm guessing you want in on some action at Grandvale."

"Fabulous! We got ourselves a genius here Tom," the older Mcquaid chimed in cockily "So when do you want to meet up and talk details?"

"Hold up a second, why do you think I would I want you to help me if you can't even manage to stay out of trouble with a bunch of dumbass teachers?"

"He has a good point Douglas," Tom said flatly, wondering why this guy was the first suspect to ever question them about this.

"I'll tell you the true story shall I? After all, good relationships are built on trust right?". Tom looked at Doug nervously, wondering where he was going with this. "Truth is, Tommy was caught hooking up with his teacher."

"Yeah right!" said Mathew in disbelief.

"Hey, he might not look like much, but he's quite the 'ladies' man." At that Tom cringed as he brought hand to his hair and turned to Doug in disbelief. He then quickly shot a smile of reassurance at Matthew.

"And so they didn't want to get the teach in trouble, you know, so they just blamed it on drugs." Tom could not believe his partner had just said that. He was going to kill him later! At the same time however he was grateful that he was able to get Matthew to consider them as business partners again. "So what do you say?" Doug continued after a moment silence.

"Alright I'll think about it and I'll get back to you guys ok.".