Chapter 2

Ridgeway High School

September 2011

Carly and Freddie walked hand and hand to her locker, passing several students that quickly paid attention, to them, an unusual sight. They let go as she stopped at her locker and he headed for his locker. Sam had beaten them to her locker and was starting up her crock-pot for her after school meal. Carly noticed that Sam and Freddie exchanged figurative glances as he passed her.

Carly took a calming breathe and asked, "Are you two okay?"

Sam shrugged her shoulders. "Me and Fredweirdo are—dealing. Don't worry about us."

Carly tilted her head to the side. "Sam, you two are my best friends. I'm going to worry about you."

Sam closed her locker then looked back to the brunette. "Best friend and boyfriend now. It's different now and I don't want to force you to take sides. It's not fair to you."

"I've already taken a side: both sides. I don't want you to fight or be angry towards one another or worst hate each other."

Sam let out an exasperated breathe. "Don't mediate this time Carls. We'll deal with it, okay?"

Carly swallowed nervously and nodded her head. "Okay, I'll stay out of it."

Wendy walked up behind Carly accompanied by several other girls. The redhead asked in a cheerful tone, "So is it true? You and Freddie are together now?"

Carly turned around to face the posse. She smiled and nodded her head. "Yeah, me and Freddie are together."

Wendy asked excitedly, "When did you two get together?"

Kathy asked right after, "It's that day you two skipped right?"

Before Carly could answer either of the girl's questions, another girl in the crowd called out, "How long is it going to last this time?"

Carly blinked and face immediately went to a neutral expression. "What?" she whispered hesitantly.

Wendy waved off the posse over her shoulder. "Ignore her. You're lucky; if you waited any longer someone would have snatched him up."

"I'd love for Fredward Cullen to sneak into my bedroom," Kathy commented with a grin and nudged one of her friends and winked.

Carly swallowed down nervously as she realized how close she had came to really losing Freddie to someone else if he had really tried to let her go. The warning bell then rang out interrupting her thoughts.

"Well, see you later Carly," Wendy bid a goodbye as she and her friends headed to class.

Carly turned back to Sam and she must have immediately recognized the look from the brunette. "Carls, ignore them. They don't know what they're talking about."

"I let Freddie walk away before. I could have told him he was wrong the first time."

Sam gave her a somber expression. "I didn't have to mention foreign bacon and he could have ignored me. We can't change the past Carly, but you're together now and happy. Isn't that what's important?"

Carly gave a slight smile and nodded in agreement a few moments later.

Sam motioned with her head. "Let's go before we have to hear Ms. Briggs yell like a Banshee."

May 1980

Taylor Dorfman smiled as she looked at her half finished painting as she made her way to her locker. She just wanted to grab her lunch and sit outside because it looked like it was going to rain. If she was lucky, she'd get to see a rainbow before the day was out and maybe give her some inspiration for another painting. The brunette reached her locker and looked back down at her painting one more time. She thought it was turning out really well and that brought a bigger smile to her face. She just knew that her father would love it. She just had to finish up around the eyes and touch up the hair of the woman's portrait.

Just as she was opening up her locker, she caught a taller, heavy set teenage boy from the corner of her eye approach her from the left. She barely gave him a glance realizing it was Evan. She hated to think ill of anyone, but she knew he was a particularly mean person towards others and suspected that he even picked on her little brother, but Barry wouldn't admit anything to her. So quite frankly, she just didn't like Evan.

"Hello Dorkman," the curly haired boy sneered.

She looked at Evan with a quizzical look. "It's Dorfman. It's German," she replied in a soft voice then turned back to her locker to put up her picture and retrieve her lunch.

Apparently he took an interest in the painting in her hand. "Ah, what a pretty picture," he commented then grabbed the end of the painting.

A sudden sense of panic filled her and she pulled back on the canvas in the hopes of stopping the larger boy from taking it away from her. Evan in turned reared back his right arm then slapped her hard across her left cheek. She tried to catch herself, but side of her head slammed against the side of her locker slamming it shut. Her locker handle sliced into her cheek. Her cheek stung, but noticed immediately that she was only holding half of her painting and Evan holding the other half.

She just started blinking as she looked at the scrap in her hand then she noticed wet droplets appearing on the canvas. She looked down and realized that Evan had thrown down the other half on the ground. Taylor quickly knelt down to pick up the other piece. She just looked at the two pieces and the torn face looking back at her then everything seemed to hurt inside.

"Crying over your little painting Dorkman?"

"Hey Evan!" She heard someone shout harshly. She looked up to see that Evan had turned to his right. "What do you want Sh—"

He didn't finish as she saw someone's fist collide with Evan's mouth. She blinked in surprise when she saw blood and teeth fly out of Evan's mouth.

Steven saw teeth and blood flying from his initial hit, but ignored it as he followed with a quick left jab. Evan's head snapped backward and slammed the back of his head into the locker.

"You son-of-a-bitch!" Evan screamed the best he could with missing his top and bottom front teeth and swung widely with his right hand and connected to Steven's left eye socket.

Steven's head jerked to the side, but remained on his feet and slowly turned his head back to face Evan. The shoulder length haired teenager stared at Evan for a moment before smirking. "You have to do better than that." Evan blinked in horror before Steven swung faster than he could see and connected to the left side of Evan's jaw with a right hook. The slightly heavier boy jerked to his right and stumbled backwards.

Evan turned back and speared Steven and hauled him up off his feet onto his left shoulder and ran to the opposite side of the hall and slamming him another row of lockers. Steven screamed in rage as he got his left arm around Evan's neck in a headlock and pulled up as hard as he could to choke out the larger guy. Evan started flailing wildly with his arms while Steven grabbed the back of Evans belt and pulled towards him and slamming the top of the boy's head into the locker behind him. The larger teenager was able to get his hands up after the second slam of his head into the locker and stopped his forward momentum. Evan shoved off the locker and Steven let him go.

As the heavy set teenager tried to catch his breathe, but Steven wouldn't let him with a right left combination to Evan's face and sending him stumbling backwards. Evan tried to swing back, but with every missed swing at the quicker long haired boy, Steven would hit him two or three times in the face sending even more blood flying from his mouth and now broken nose.

Steven charged him and grabbed him be the shoulders. The lighter teenager pulled Evan down and slammed his knee just under the heavier teenager's ribcage. The wind was knocked out of Evan from the strike and sent more blood flying out of his mouth. Steven pulled Evan up by the back of his neck and jabbed one last time with his right fist squarely into Evan's face.

The boy literally spun around and went face first into the hallway floor. His head bounced after he went face first into the floor, allowing him to slam his face twice into the floor. Steven rolled him over and grabbed Evan by his collar to haul him up to meet his opponent's eyes that seemed to focus on everything but Steven. "If you ever touch her again, I'll kill you. Do you understand?" Evan nodded as his eyes rolled backwards. The longer haired boy threw Evan down. Steven stood up and spat down on Evan in disgust then stepped over him. He looked across the gathered students and asked, "Anyone else looking for a fight?"

The gathered students quickly went on about their business with none wanting to take him up on his offer.

Steven tried to catch his breathe and slow down his heart rate as he looked around. He finally turned his attention to the bandana wearing teenager still holding her pieces of canvas and staring down at it. She had now been reduced to just sniffles. He walked over to her and knelt down beside the brunette girl. "Hey," he whispered. She looked to him sad brown eyes and tear stained cheeks. She blinked at him a few times and Steven held back a wince as he saw her bloody right cheek. "It's going to be okay."

She shook her head no and looked back down at the torn remnants. Steven let out a sad sigh. "Come on; let me take you to the school nurse."

She continued to ignore him until he whispered to her, "Please, for me?"

Taylor turned her head to look at him and saw his boyish grin. She gave him a small, sad smile and nodded her head. She held the two pieces of canvas to her chest. He gently took her by her left elbow and wrapped his right arm around her to hold her right hip to help her to her feet and led her down the hall without letting go.