Well, whoever said blackmailing's wrong, Bart was proud to say it paid off anyway.

A little bluff (that his lawyer had no idea about) was all it took to buy him his seat in Mrs. K's classroom back.

"Edna, may Bart return to your class, if it's alright with you?" "no problem," Ms. Krabapple said, "oh no, but I have to say, a week without any interruptions was a nice change"

Skinner smirked nastily, "oh yes, about that. Do inform me if he ever, in any form, causes interruption in the class." "huh, Why?"

Bart interrupted, "I had to call for sanctuary. can't break the hospitality laws"

With a hopeful tone, she asked, "so no more pranks?" "no pranks, no cheating, no class-clowning. I'm going to be a good little fourth grader, just like martin" "Ha! I'd like to see that"

Oh you'll see that, you'll see that alright! he thought, but smiled sweetly and entered the class, as Seymour and Edna took a couple of minutes to talk more over it.

Once inside, no one acted like there was any difference in the class. almost like he wasn't away for an entire week.

He never knew he was so...replaceable.

he had to change, didn't he?

After the class, he and his closest circle of friends: Milhouse, Donnie, Nelson and Lester remained, Donnie said "it's good to see you back, Bart. So what's the 'I'm back' prank going to be?"

Bart smiled sadly, "gentlemen, I'm sad to announce my retirement from being a prankster."

Nelson dropped down in shock, Donnie and Lester had their mouth wide open, but Milhouse just said "sanctuary?"

The three others blinked at him, he shrugged "what? I'm a geek, remember?" Bart nodded, "yup. I am not allowed to break any school laws. Until this whole shindig with Lisa's restraining order is over,"

Then he looked sideways, and whispered "but, I'd be honored if you would do it in my place"

Donnie smirked mischievously, "don't worry Bart, you're leaving your title in good hands"

The four nodded, and as they began leaving, Bart grabbed Milhouse's arm, "Milhouse, I'm afraid there's something I've got to tell you"

…

The next day, Lisa woke up once again, and walked to the bus alone, without any Bart to apply a commentary or nag about Otto being late.

Once inside, she once again looked over the bus. Bart was in his regular seat, reading something.

She blinked. Bart Simpson reading a book in the bus? she nudged Janey in the side, "hey, Janey!" she whispered.

The black girl with brown curls turned "What?" she asked, "is Bart actually reading something?"

She looked as well, and said "yeah, he's reading one of their textbooks. Wow, that's new"

Once they were in the school, nothing had changed. Everything was as it normally would be, it was as if Bart's return had no effect on the school.

She walked to the locker room. right after she opened it, a few books fell on the ground. She looked at them, but before she could go to pick them up, someone else did that.

"hey, Lisa!" said Milhouse with her books in his arms, "how are you doing today?"

She rolled her eyes. Nothing out of ordinary indeed. "thank you, Milhouse. I was having a nice day!"

He said nothing, but winced a little, and when they reached their class, he said "oh, sorry. I'm late for class. I'll have to give these to you now!" and did so carefully, before hurrying towards his own class.

Janey said "don't you think you're a bit mean to Milhouse?"

Waving her hand dismissively, she said "oh, come on, Janey. There's no being 'too mean' when the other guy's Milhouse!" not aware someone was listening to her words.

After the first period, Lisa skipped down to the hall, to the locker room, where she exclaimed "yes! I got an A+, again!"

To which Jimbo, the bully with a hat on his head, raised his head, turning towards her. "so, you've got a good grade, huh? You think you're better than me?"

As she opened her mouth to reply, he noticed Martin, the 4th grader genius who was always her rival in the science fairs, shake his head, mouthing 'no' repeatedly.

"well, yes", she answered anyway, as she opened her locker door, "you've been in the third grade ever since I came to this school. why would you even doubt that I'm better than you?"

Martin face-palmed loudly. She was walking to the hall smugly, when she felt like she fell in her locker.

Jimbo SHOVED me? She almost said "hey, what the-" when he closed the door with a loud band and punched it loudly.

"let's see how better you are in getting out of that!" he said venomously, before leaving the room.

Huh. That was new.

Most people didn't talk to her that much. Sometimes they didn't play with her, and some of the meaner kids made fun of her hair color, but never before had she ever faced the physical side of bullying. Not like Martin, or Utter, or Milhouse.

She narrowed her eyes, and grabbed her phone, texting 'I'm trapped in the locker room, plz help' to some of the people she knew would check their phone in school.

Maybe none of them did, because it took three hours (and a really pale Ms. Hoover) for her to be rescued from the locker room. Now too late for lunch, or free-reading period. She mumbled disappointedly.

Was this what Bart usually felt when dad forgot to pick him up from something?

She had to tell mom, it wasn't as 'cheer up'-able as she would think, and tell Bart.

A.N: I will declare right now. Bullying is not something that can, or should be excused. It's wrong and immoral and (in my opinion, I don't know where the law stands on this) something that should be punishable by expulsion (if in school), or jail time on the first offence.

I am not excusing Jimbo's behavior (and while the character isn't really detestable, what he stands for is something that I believe THE SIMPSONS takes lightly.), he will eventually be punished for his behavior (to every other kid in school, Basically).

And another thing, Martin may be a bit condescending and rude to other kids (and basically a spoilsport (in the earlier seasons, at least. In the later seasons, he was reduced to cameos mostly), but I believe Lisa would be bullied more. For one thing she openly believes in another religion, is a vegetarian (and has been openly trying to make the school stop selling meat as food, at least in some episodes), she's the nerd, and (while surprisingly strong for her age) really bad at sports.

Somehow, she's almost always safe of the bullying that other kids suffer from. I like to think it's because of Nelson (who's always been sweet on her), and Bart (who's surprisingly friendly with the people who take his lunch money every day).

And a Warning, on the chapter after this one, Lisa will be quite OOC (even for an AU written by an amateur writer who couldn't write personalities right if his life depended on it) I'm not trying to bash, but unfortunately some of the episodes I've been watching lately were the ones that show her in bad light. They may have had their effect on me.

Until later, Davoid, signing off