A/N: Hello! And this shall be upload number two. These are all written in advance so, um, sorry for whatever I may or may not have done wrong. When I write Derek in this particular light he is OOC on purpose. Also, they're written in duos but not parts. So basically, there's kind of a theme. The one for the past two weeks would be 'Kindergarten Romance, Part 1', so it's not really that Chloe/Derek involved, but you'll definitely be seeing too much of them next week.

Also, I accidentally forgot the kid's name is actually Tommy, but we'll just call him Timmy. Somebody asked why Timmy and Laurel aren't friendly, it has to do with something that happened in Byutifull, he *SPOILER ALERT* called her ugly and was the unseen catalyst of the story*.

Another person asked why Diesel calls Laurel 'El', all shall be revealed, my friends.

Anyways, on with today's installment!

Chapter Two:

The Prisoner of Cooties

"Ok, this is a game called Cooties. Its easy, if you're a boy, don't get put in jail. If you're a girl, put boys in jail. Ok, 1...2...3..."

This was all the Elaborate Samantha's doing. It was three months into the school year and Diesel was officially a part of their group, which had magically become one of the more popular friendship circles. Diesel, unlike every other boy in the class, had no problem admitting that he thought both Laurel and Consty were pretty but he liked Laurel more.

Laurel did not like Samantha Yong. She was smart and spoiled and mean, constantly picking on other kids. But at the same time everybody did whatever she told them to, as that was part of the 'spoiled' thing. She never had to fight for a position of leadership, she just ran everybody else over.

Now they were all about to engage themselves in this stupid game the big kids (3rd graders) at her old school made up when they were in Kindergarten. Basically, the girls chased the boys all around the playground with their lips puckered out -as if she'd ever dream of actually putting her mouth on one of them- and if one of the girls touched you you got sent to jail, a.k.a the area directly beneath the slide.

"GO!" Samantha yelled and suddenly everybody was running around screaming.

Laurel decided not to partake in the ridiculousness of the game as she was still not over the 5 hr-a-day loss of the beloved Pinky. She calmly walked over to the fence and watched from the hard autumn soil.

Even Consty was getting into the game and she never did stuff like this. At the moment, though, she was attempting to wrestle Xavier into 'Jail'.

The first one to go was Cortez Consuelos, taken by Trish North. He went down kicking and screaming but Trish, unexpectedly, had him in a headlock. Next was Boxer Henley by Ronnie Mitchell who ended up losing her glasses in the process.

Aidan Roth by Paige Wilkes, which was funny to watch because he put up a good fight considering his broken leg. Then there was Jason Vantress by kid genius, Laijah Allen. Casey Walker and Stevee Weisenberg, Jahmed Khufar and Blind Ronnie Mitchell, Jordin Hall and Fatim, the other Khufar. Bryan Henderson and Charlotte A., Liam Whitfield and Charlotte F., it never seemed to end.

And then there was Samantha Yong who basically told boys to put themselves in jail and they did so. Laurel was rolling her eyes at how pathetic that was. Consty, at this point, had come to sit on the wall to join her, seeing as her only purpose for playing was to make sure she was the girl to put Xavier away. And if it was up to her he'd be in pretend prison, not pretend jail.

Flanking her right side was Diesel Hendricks. Diesel, interestingly enough, was sometimes antagonized by Timmy for no clear reason. That's who he had to fight to get over there, the boy liked to knock him to the ground every chance he got. Escaping with nothing more than a few wood chips down his back, he planted himself next to Laurel with an inescapable grin on his face.

"Hi, Elle. Your hair looks pretty," he then leaned forward so he was looking at Consty, "and your hair's real pretty, too." Diesel remarked without missing a beat. Diesel was very sweet but he just happened to break a rule that stands for almost all ages. You do not compliment a girl and then add ',too'. Its simply not done.

Consty didn't care that much, though. She already knew he liked Laurel more than her. But, perhaps there are a few things to be explained about Diesel Hendricks, so we'll pause them on the gate for a moment.

A) This is California, but Diesel moved here in July from Augusta, Georgia. Hence the less than subtle southern accent.

B) During the commotion in the cafeteria all that time ago he heard Consty say her name but the only part he caught was 'el', so that is initially what he thought her name was. But now he's attached to 'Elle' so he just disregards Laurel every time shel bothers to correct him.

But coming back into the moment, Laurel decided to ask Diesel why he didn't want to play.

"Because you're not playing." He answered. She was very confused. Laurel did not understand why he was so excessively nice to her all the time. She wasn't excessively nice to him.

"But if I were playing I would take you." She logically pointed out.

"I know!" He grinned that same stupid grin that seemed to light his unnaturally red hair on fire. Laurel furrowed her eyebrows. Consty rolled her eyes at how obvious Diesel was being and how completely clueless Laurel was. Clearly the girl needed to get out more, or at least start watching more chick flicks.

Consty looked over to where the boys were all being directed to under Samantha's iron fist. She didn't see Xavier with them after all the trouble she had gone through to get him over there. She looked around angrily. Where could he be? If he thought he could bust out that easily he totally had another thing coming, because her Uncle Kenny had taught her a thing or two about prison and-

"Consty, look!" Laurel whispered loudly. Consty winced a little bit. When they were younger Laurel had a slight lisp and had difficulty saying Constance, and so she called her Consty instead and the name stuck. Laurel was the only person in the world that called her Consty and there was nobody else that could get away with it.

All of those thoughts vanished from her head when she looked over and saw Nasty Jamie Watkins kissing Xavier repeatedly in the grass by the other side of the swing set. The boy looked terrified as he was forced up against the metal gate that ran the perimeter of the area. That was Jamie Watkins, no sense of self.

And suddenly Consty was so angry that she could actually feel her own body temperature rising, even though she had no idea what body temperature was. That chick just got there last week and she thought she could harass Xavier when that was clearly her thing? Now, see this girl had just started something that Consty was about to finish.

"Laurel, take my jacket." She said, shucking off the tye-dye cloth jacket and throwing it at Laurel, who caught it smoothly with one hand. She stomped off to the area and had by now amassed a crowd on her heels. Jamie had stopped and now was standing up while Xavier was still recovering from shock.

"What are you doing?" Consty asked, giving her one of the most annoyed looks she could muster.

"Kissing him, duh. He's cute, right Xavier?" She asked looking back at him. His cheeks flamed and he yelled a spirited 'shut up' back at her. She just smiled.

"Well you better leave him alone or I will fight you." Consty responded, leaning to the side with her hands on her hips.

"But Xavier doesn't like you so why are you mad?" Jamie asked with a feigned innocence. Those were fighting words.

"And he doesn't like you either." Consty deadpanned. That totally pissed Jamie off.

She slapped her.

And a hush fell.

Consty touched her face gently, pulled back her hand and looked at as if she expected to see it dripping blood. All of the sudden Laurel was very frightened. She hadn't seen her this way since... well, never. Everybody started to take a few steps back. Laurel and Diesel were in the front of the congregation but at this point both were a little too scared to attempt to pull either of the girls back and Xavier was nowhere to be found.

Consty suddenly sprang at her and they both went down, scratching and wrestling. And then Jamie made a wrong move. She pulled on Consty's hair. Laurel didn't even get to touch Consty's hair. Laurel saw it happen and looked down. It was going to take a lot to pull Consty off of Jamie now.

Consty was holding back but at this point she had lost control. She hit Jamie hard in the head and flipped her over on her stomach. Consty took a fistful of dirty blonde hair and yanked as hard as she could. Jamie started crying and grabbing at her head. Consty got in her face.

"You wanna pull on somebody's hair, ugly? Huh?" She whispered and Jamie started crying harder. Consty shoved her face in the dirt.

"Say sorry." She said calmly.

"No!" Jamie exclaimed weakly. If Consty had learned anything from the millions of mobster movies she'd seen, it was that people will do anything you want them to with the right amount of force and coercion. In response she pulled just a little bit harder and smacked her over the head to show that she had run out of patience.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Let me go!" At this point Consty was going to dig her face into the dirt and ask for a real apology, but that didn't happen because somebody began to pull her off of Jamie.

"Let me go! Let me go!" Consty screamed as Laurel managed to drag her away. She watched triumphantly as Diesel picked Jamie up while the girl snotted all over herself with noseblood on her pink t-shirt.

It was chaotic, to say the least. There kids running around screaming, crying, and laughing. As teachers decided to finally flank the area and Laurel began to insistantly asked Consty why she went ballistic on Jamie, Xavier watched the whole scene from the shady spot beneath the slide.

Xavier found this all very frightening. He kicked at woodchips as he stared hard at the spots of light where the developers had punched holes in the steps. He had no idea why all of this was happening to him. Why did Jamie kiss him and what made Constance beat her up? Why was Constance so mad at her? And, more importantly, why did he kind of like it?