Chapter Thirteen


The day Rocky was finally able to go back to school, there was a strange vibe in the house. So much so that the hairs on his arms seemed to stand on end the moment he woke up. A chill rolling down his spine. He lifted his face from his pillow and looked around his room, trying to figure out what it was that was making him feel that way. On edge, as if waiting for something to burst into his room and harm him in some way.

Making him feel a sixth sense of sorts. A foreboding that felt heavy as it draped over his shoulders.

That usually only happened when there was immediate danger around him. But what was so wrong with him waking up? Placing his feet on the floor, Rocky stretched his arms over his head then rubbed his eyes. He stood in the middle of the room and slowly turned back and forth. Upon finding nothing, he shrugged and went about getting ready for school.

He did as he usually did, went down for breakfast, ignored Colt and Tum-Tum's bickering, took a shower, got dressed, gathered his baseball clothes for practice, and went back downstairs to wait for his brothers to drive them to school…and stared at his father sitting in the living room, pouring over the newspaper.

Rocky's eyebrows came together. He slowly went towards his father, sort of expecting him to suddenly whip his head around start spewing out accusations in a demonic tone. His father didn't react to his stare, as if it was normal for him to be home at that time of day. Maybe, if there was some sort of work that he and Jerry had to do from the house. But nothing that he'd ever seen him legitimately take a day off in the middle of the week. Workaholic and Sam Douglas were synonymous.

"Dad?" Sam looked up at his son, blonde lashes fluttering slightly. "Do you have the day off today?"

"Yeah, I decided to take the day from work. I had a lot of things I needed to get done." Sam's gaze shifted behind Rocky, of which Rocky followed to see his mother aimlessly puttering around the kitchen. "Things I needed to take care of."

"Can the city afford you taking time off work?" Rocky decided to make a joke. Relief washed over him when he saw Sam smile. Nevertheless, he frowned when noticing that the hairs on the back of his arms still hadn't gone down. "You know Los Angeles never stops."

"I think you know about that more than I do, Samuel."

That time, Rocky frowned. He wracked his brain, trying to figure out if he'd done anything to put his father in a bad mood. Then, horrified, he wondered if his dad had found out about his suspension. No, he would've said something by now if he did, Rocky thought. Colt and Tum-Tum would've blown that secret wide open if they wanted to.

"Is everything okay, dad?"

"Yeah, just, uh, your mother and I have a lot of things we need to discuss. She's taking the day off work, as well." Sam gave a smile that appeared more genuine. Yet still so strained.

So it doesn't have to do with me, Rocky thought. Then he was worried. Did something happen to their grandpa that they weren't telling him? No, if that were the case, they would've straight up told him. Just like they finally had when he demanded to know what secrets they were keeping. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, there's just some residual stuff from MedoCal that we need to work though," Sam replied. "Some work things."

Rocky froze once more, his mind whirring at a mile a minute, trying to figure out what it could be. Jason and Reed were recovering well, MedoCal was shut down, Harding went back to prison, their grandfather was doing okay, what else could it be?

As he tried to figure it out, his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Pulling it out, Rocky glanced at the screen, barely taking in Jason's message to ask if he could be taken to school, his car had broken down again.

"I should get going," Rocky said slowly, almost as if in a trance. "We have to get Jason before we go to school."

"Have a good day, sweetheart," Jessica said brightly, coming up behind him. She reached up and plopped his hat onto his head—how did he forget that—and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. Rocky resisted the urge to wipe it off, as he usually would have done, and studied his mother. She seemed a little tired, a little withdrawn, but still smiley.

Oh, that's it. Rocky thought. They were fighting again.

He looked between her and his father once more, wondering what they could have been fighting about that time. He knew about their grandfather, nothing else had gone on there. They didn't know about his suspension. He didn't think they were getting a divorce and unless bars were suddenly attached to their windows it wasn't like there were any other villains waiting in the shoulders to kidnap him and his brothers to get back at his father.

"Thanks mom," Rocky replied. He went to the front hallways just as Colt and Tum-Tum clambered down with Colt shoving Tum-Tum on the shoulder as they went. Bickering about something. As usual. "Do you two have to do that every morning?"

"If I didn't have to see this jerk's face then it wouldn't be a problem," Tum-Tum groused.

Colt scowled. "Just keep looking in mirrors, your face will crack enough of them you won't have to worry about it," he snapped back, shoving Tum-Tum once more. Rocky glared at him. "What? This little twerp's been bugging me all morning.

I don't have time for this. Rocky ran his hands over his face. "Did you remember your practice clothes?"

"Yes, dad."

"Just get in the car."

Rocky shoved his brothers out the door, called 'goodbye' back to his parents, waved 'goodbye' to their grandfather as he tended to the garden in the front yard, and climbed into his truck to go to school. They stopped along the way and picked up Jason, who stood by the driveway, leaning against his car without a care in the world.

"Are you ever going to get that thing fixed?" Colt asked, moving to the backseat so Jason could climb into the front.

"And give up being driven to school by three handsome men? I don't think so." Jason flashed a smile to the three Douglas brothers, who all laughed. He didn't speak again until they were safely back on the road, having been under Rocky's scrutinizing and needing things to be quiet when he was trying to concentrate. "Besides, my parents aren't going to give me my money for another month. Because of the whole kidnapping thing."

"That wasn't even your fault," Tum-Tum said.

Colt rolled his eyes. "Thanks for pointing out the obvious." Tum-Tum stuck his tongue out at him, making Colt glare at him in response. Rocky watched the two in the mirror, silently glaring until they turned away from each other. "They took your money for that?"

"My allowance," Jason replied. "It's not like I'm completely destitute."

"Your car falls apart on a daily basis and you think you're not destitute?" Rocky smirked. Jason gave him the finger in response. "Did they say anything about when they were going to come back this time? I barely saw them when they came to see if you were okay."

"They may as well be ghosts for all I care," Jason replied. He shrugged. "Nah, they just fluttered in, made sure I was still alive, and then went out again." He ran a hand through his hair. "I think they're in Italy this time. Either that or Germany. It's hard to keep track."

"You know you're always welcome to stay with us."

"I don't think I want to do that until your dad gets over your vendetta against the Jacksons. If he feels that badly about them, I can't even begin to imagine what he thinks of me."

"He likes you."

"He tolerates me, I know the difference."

Rocky laughed to himself. He waited until Colt and Tum-Tum were in their own worlds with their phones before changing the subject. "Dad's been acting pretty different since everything with MedoCal went down. I thought he'd be over something like that but…I don't know…" He shrugged.

Jason rolled his head to stare at the side of Rocky's face. "You can't figure out why he's upset?"

Rocky shrugged.

"One of the guys that you took down when you were eleven, suddenly comes back into your lives and targets you, your brothers, and their friends. And you can't figure that out, Sammy? Geez, you're such a blond sometimes." He didn't give Rocky the chance to defend himself. "Then there's the fact that his new neighbors kind of sort of have something to do with said guy from the past and its like you guys are magnets for danger."

Pursing his lips, Rocky rolled through everything Jason had said to him. The similar things he and Emily had talked about when she'd dropped off his homework. He sighed heavily. "Well, you don't have to be so smug about it."

"I can't help it when I'm right."

"Which isn't that often."

"And that's why I have to be smug about it."

Rocky laughed and pulled into the school parking lot. He jumped out of the driver's seat, being careful to lean out the way of Tum-Tum flinging the door open so he could leap out and race across the parking lot to his friends. He slowed to a sheepish shuffle when Amy turned and waved at him, to which he bashfully returned, glancing at Rocky, Colt, and Jason as he did so.

Out the corner of his eye, Rocky saw Colt grin evilly and open his mouth to say something. Swiftly, Rocky lifted up a finger and said, "Don't!" Colt shrugged and closed his mouth before heading toward Brett, who sat on the school steps hunched over a laptop. Rocky sucked in a deep breath through his nose, his fingertips started to tingle.

He shook them out, letting in and out as many breaths as he could. His hands shook as he grabbed is backpack, his eyes scanning the school grounds. He saw Emily and Laurie talking to each other as they slipped into the school, saw Jason walking ahead of him, saw the Jacksons pull into the parking lot and all spill out of the minivan that blasted music.

Rocky tried to take a step forward but found himself unable to do so. His knees quivered before buckling. His backpack slid off his shoulder and dropped to the ground. He let out a short breath and brought in an even shorter one. Tried to breathe again but found it being even harder and harder to do so as the seconds passed.

His free hand moved toward his chest. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. A sudden cold washed over his body.

What's going on?

Rocky pressed his back against the car, a solid sturdy force behind him that kept himself up.

He gasped for air before everything went black.


"You'll be alright, Samuel, it's not anything I haven't seen before." Nurse Simmons took off his glasses and set them on his desk. Rocky watched him carefully, embarrassed. He fiddled with his hat between his hands, wondering how much longer he was going to have to sit in the nurse's office. So he nearly passed out, it wasn't like people hadn't done it before. "Usually, it comes closer to exam time, or the thought of graduation. You're a senior, aren't you?" Rocky nodded. "Have you had any panic attacks before?"

Rocky's eyebrows rose. "Panic attacks?"

He didn't have panic attacks. He didn't get worried or stressed. He was cool and solid as granite rock. He could think his way and talk his way through anything and everything without breaking a sweat. It must have been something he ate that day, or the nerves of being back at school that caused his body to freak out. He had a better connection with his body than most people did, him and his brothers. It was one of the better parts of learning how to meditate so well, they knew when they were going to be sick days before the first symptom showed up.

"You had a panic attack. It's an intense fear or anxiety that shows itself physically, based on a perceived threat rather than any actual imminent danger." Nurse Simmons paused for a second. "Though, knowing your background it must be hard for you not to feel any sort of threat around you."

Rocky did his best not to roll his eyes. All he managed was an irritated eyelash flutter. He was used to being known, came to expect it, but it didn't come any easier. Nevertheless, he tried to stay as calm as possible when he responded. "I got used to it a long time ago." He shrugged. "It made me a little jumpy when driving, though," he added with a joke. "Never being able to figure out what the other drivers were doing."

"But you can't expect to know what anyone else is going to do either." Nurse Simmons explained further. "I heard about your suspension, it's your first day back…do you think you may be worried about running into Darren again?"

"I'm worried when I don't run into Darren. He always finds a way to try and get under my skin."

"And what do you usually do to combat that?"

"Ignore him."

"But where do you put that frustration and anger?"

If Rocky were Colt, it would've been an obvious answer. How many times had he been warned by teachers and faculty alike to stop fighting? How many times had their parents had to be summoned to the school to talk to Colt about his anger issues? How many times was he sent out of class because of reacting to getting spit balls and paper balls wadded up and thrown at him. If he weren't so well adjusted, Rocky would've worried about Colt being bullied so badly.

"Into my ninja training, I guess," Rocky replied slowly as he mulled it over. "Into my meditation…"

"But you never let it out."

"The one time I did I ended up getting suspended." Rocky couldn't help the irritation that came to his voice.

Nurse Simmons smiled. He unfolded his arms, was silent for a long moment. Took his pen and tapped it against his desk. Yet, silence continued to stretch between the two of them. Finally, Nurse Simmons said, "If something like this happens again, please come see me as soon as possible. I'm sure with all your ninja training you've been able to cope with life fine, but everyone has a breaking point. I think you may have reached yours when you punched Darren and I think you crossed it having come back to school."

"What? Like I'm afraid of him?"

"I'm a nurse, not a psychologist." Nurse Simmons chuckled. "I could have a hundred different theories about what's going on but that's not my area of expertise." He grabbed the notepad next to the desk and quickly wrote on it. "Here's a note for your teacher."

"Thanks." Rocky took it and left the nurse's office. Closing the door behind him, he turned to find Jason lounging in the chair closest to the door, scrolling through his phone. "Were you waiting for me?"

"Yeah, I was worried about my boyfriend," Jason replied flatly. He lowered his phone and fluttered his eyelashes while looking up at Rocky. "I missed you, Sam."

"Stop." Rocky rolled his eyes.

"No, they suggested I come talk to the nurse since that whole kidnapping debacle," Jason said with a wave of his hand. "I think that's the first time the principal actually cared about me other than my grades and whatever money my parents are donating to the school."

Rocky grimaced. "I'm sorr—"

"—If you apologize again, I'm going to punch you," Jason interrupted. "None of that stuff was your fault. With me or Mr. Jackson. Stop freaking about it so much. There are things you can't control and the sooner you understand that the better off all of us will be." He clapped Rocky on the shoulder as he stood. "Maybe you'll finally make some decisions and actually move forward with your life."

Again, Rocky rolled his eyes. But he clapped his hand into Jason's in a hand-five before his best friend got up and slipped into the nurse's office.

Rocky lifted his hat, ran a hand through his hair, and went to class, tightly clutching note in his hand.


A/N: And that's the first of Rocky's full blown panic attacks and at least he now knows what it is. But what is it that's causing them? Probably a lot of things if we're being honest, haha. I always love writing Jason and especially how he relates to the Douglas brothers and everyone around him despite his home life being so sad. He does bring up a lot of good points, though.

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles