A/N: Hey guys, long time no see! I can't believe the last time I updated was in March, that's insane. Anyways, I'm really sorry for the long wait, but I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Friday - 10:12 a.m

McClintock High - Dean of Students' Office

Sitting with her arms crossed in the squishy chair, Rachel glared at the brick wall in front of her. Her face and ears were still tomato red and she could feel her teeth grinding. "Ms. McKenzie, I think you are just confused about what you actually saw. Tommy Gilligan would never do what you described,"

"Yeah. I would never do that, especially not to my buddy Harvey," The auburn haired boy said looking over at Rachel and then towards Harvey, a sly grin on his face. She glanced towards him and shook her head, turning back to the balding man sitting behind his desk. She saw all of the trophies and coaching awards and pictures in the huge glass case behind him. For football, of all sports. She shook her head, not even sure why she was bothering with arguing. He would get off scot-free and she would probably have detention for a week.

"With all due respect, sir, I saw him dragging my brother by the shirt collar into the boys bathroom. You can check the security cameras, that's exactly what happened," Biting his bottom lip, Mr. Moore nodded, interlaced his fingers and rested his hands on his desk.

"How about this, we let bygones be bygones. You can have my, and Gilligan's, word that this will not happen again. That way, no one has to face unnecessary punishment. Does that sound okay?" Rachel's eyebrows shot up as she stared at him. Harvey nodded wordlessly as Rachel shook her head, her blonde baby hairs falling out of the french braid Abby did that morning in AP Lit.

"No. Absolutely not. Tommy should have some kind of punishment, and why aren't there parents being called?" She wondered aloud. And then immediately bit her tongue, forgetting that her parents were a thousand miles away on some beach.

"Because we were hoping, Ms. McKenzie, that this situation wouldn't get blown out of proportion. But seeing as you apparently cannot let anything go, I suppose we'll be calling your parents," He glared at her, and then glanced towards Tommy, "And your mom," Rachel felt a sort of pride swell in her chest as she saw the nasty grin that had been on the freshman's face finally fade.

Coach Moore was more than thrilled to find out that the McKenzie's were on vacation and would not be able to come to the school. He knew he just had to butter up Mrs. Gilligan and the situation would blow over. Forgive and forget. But when Mrs. Gilligan showed up about twenty minutes later, she looked flustered and angry. Moore quickly stood up and shook her hand, filling her in on why exactly she had to leave work. "Tommy was allegedly dragging Mr. McKenzie into the bathroom, but we're not entirely sure of the situation quite yet,"

"You look familiar," The middle-aged woman stared at Rachel as the blonde nodded,

"Uh, yeah, I'm Hoagie's class. Rachel McKenzie." She responded. Mrs. Gilligan nodded and then glared over towards her youngest child. And then back towards Rachel,

"So what happened?" When the blonde realized that she was talking to her, she said,

"I was going to the bathroom when I saw Tommy with my brother, dragging him towards the boys bathroom. So I followed them in there and when I saw what Tommy was doing-"

"She began shouting horrible things toward him," Coach Moore interrupted her, making Mrs. Gilligan glare at him and then look back towards Tommy with a melancholy look in her eyes,

"You know what your brother went through,"

"I don't need the guilt trip," Tommy said.

"Obviously you do!" Mrs. Gilligan exclaimed, "I will not tolerate this behavior, ever!" Rachel was more than surprised with how the situation had unfolded. She figured that without her parents there to stand up for them, the two McKenzie's would end up fucked, not the other way around. "Coach Moore, he needs to be punished."

"I think a detention and some extra laps at practice will be plenty-" Rachel noticed how the fake smile plastered on his face faded as Mrs. Gilligan shook her head and interrupted him.

"No. He's not playing tonight,"

"Mom, you've got to be kidding me!" Rachel gasped as Tommy nearly hopped out of his chair as he craned his neck to look at his mom, who just scowled at him through her glasses.

"Mrs. Gilligan, I'm sure that we can figure out-"

"No. He's not playing. End of discussion. Now, if we're all done here, I have to get back to work." She had her hands on her hips as she looked expectantly towards Coach Moore. He looked as if he was internally deciding whether or not to argue with her and after a few seconds he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose,

"Yes, Mrs. Gilligan. That will be all. The three of you, get back to class," With a tight-lipped smile, Rachel left the office, with the intent to head back to fourth period, but as she saw Mrs. Gilligan walking towards the front doors, Rachel changed courses.

"Mrs. Gilligan?" The plump lady turned around and faced the seventeen-year-old. In her flustered state, Rachel realized how short Mrs. Gilligan was, which sort of explained Tommy's height, but not Hoagie's. Mr. Gilligan must be tall. "I just wanted to uh- thank you. That was really- I just thought that Harvey and I would've ended up in trouble and-"

"I'm glad you're standing up for your brother, you're doing the right thing. I just wish Hoagie had somebody like that when he was a freshman," She smiled sadly. Glancing back up towards the blonde, who looked as if she was almost in a trance, she smiled. "Now, if you'll excuse me," Rachel nodded as Mrs. Gilligan walked away. She cringed at the pangs she felt in her chest and her stomach. Rachel considered not going back to class, especially when she realized who she had fourth period Spanish with. But instead she sighed, turned and trudged towards the foreign language hallway, ignoring the glare that the young Gilligan boy was giving her.

11:45 a.m

McClintock High - Cafeteria

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Patton looked up from his cheeseburger and scowled at Tommy. The auburn haired boy only shrugged and stabbed into his macaroni and cheese.

"She followed me into the bathroom!" He said through a mouthful of food. "Not my fault she's crazy,"

"We told you Harvey was off limits. Because Rachel's crazy! I literally made a fucking list for you of kids to leave alone. Harvey was at the top of it! And now you're not playing tonight. We're playing the goddamn Goldensdale Lions tonight and you can't fucking play."

"Dude, relax, if things get bad enough, I'm sure Moore will put me in," He said, rolling his eyes. Patton sucked in a deep breath of air as his eyes widened. He shook his head, making Wally bite his lip and suppress a laugh. Wally had always thought Tommy was too cocky. Especially for a freshman. There was absolutely nothing that brought the blond seventeen-year-old more joy than watching Patton tear into him.

"You know what, Gilligan? You should be happy that Rachel didn't beat the fucking shit out of you right there. Because she would've kicked your ass," Patton took a huge bite of his burger and glared up at him, "I wanna beat your ass. How hard is it to just not do things."

"Don't act like you guys didn't do shit like this. My brother was one of your many victims," He pointed out, making Patton shake his head. His face was slowly turning into a dark shade of red and Wally knew it was only a matter of time.

"Dude, that was so different," Pete finally spoke up through a mouthful of salt and vinegar chips. "We were smart enough to wait until after football season,"

"That, and we didn't fuck with your brother nearly as much as we did with Bartie. And Herbie,"

"Especially Herbie," Seth said, with a stupid grin on his face as he and the twins chuckled.

"Notice how I said one of many?" Tommy rolled his eyes as he stared at the three. Wally continued to stare at the black haired boy from across the table, willing him to snap. Actually snap. "Besides, somebody needs to establish the patriarchy,"

"The what?" Wally rolled his eyes looking at Pete's blank face,

"Jesus, you've played in like four high school football games and you think you run the damn place," Wally muttered, shaking his head. Tommy glanced up at him, a smirk playing on his lips,

"You take a couple of AP classes and think you're a genius," Tommy mentioned, stabbing into his food, probably a bit more aggressively than necessary. "The difference, Wally, is that I basically do run the place. You're gonna take all of these AP classes and still not get into a halfway decent college," The smug look on Tommy's face didn't fade as Wally's face turned a dark shade of red. As he twitched to make a lunge for the fifteen-year-old, he heard Patton's deep voice and paused.

"Beatles!" He barked, "Don't you fucking dare," He almost did. He glanced back to Tommy and almost made a straight lunge at his throat. But instead he shook his head, stood up and grabbing his bookbag in the process walked away, after staring directly at Patton,

"Fuck you," He felt like Fanny stomping through the main hallway, not really knowing where to go. He couldn't go to any classroom, all of his teachers either hated him or didn't even know him. He couldn't go to Coach Moore's office because Tommy was his perfect football player who could do no wrong. He couldn't go sit somewhere else in the cafeteria; he didn't have any other friends. As he walked past the normally empty courtyard he saw a red bookbag from out of the corner of his eye. He hesitated before pushing open the glass double doors and walking out into the grassy area.

Sitting on the stump of the tree that was cut down because a kid fell out of it, was Nigel Uno, dark bags under his eyes and something between his index and middle fingers. "Is that… a cigarette?"

"Yeah,"

"Those'll slowly kill ya, mate," Wally said, sitting down in the grass, with his back against the stump. Nigel rolled his baby blues and took another drag, coughing immediately after. He still hadn't gotten used to his new habit (that he swore to himself wouldn't last). Wally looked at him with raised eyebrows,

"Shouldn't you be chugging protein shakes with your friends to get ready for tonight?" The nearly bald kid asked through coughs, attitude apparent in his voice. "Crush the Lions, right?" Wally shook his head, sending his blond locks all over the place,

"Tommy pissed me off. He acts like he runs this fucking place and he's barely fifteen. And Patton fucking encourages it, he eggs him on," He ran his fingers through the grass before pulling chunks out with both hands. Nigel shrugged and winced as he adjusted his position, moving his braced knee.

"Somebody has to take over for him once we graduate. Tommy's the perfect candidate; he's a freshman, so he'll be here for the next three years, he's a varsity football player, and he has a huge ego. He's Patton 2.0,"

"And he's a huge dick," Wally muttered, making Nigel slowly nod his head and take another puff.

"I wasn't going to say it, but since you did," He trailed off as Wally angrily pulled more grass out of the ground.

"Shouldn't you be making off making goo goo eyes with your girlfriend? What're you doing out here?" He tried to change the subject; he knew that the last thing he should be doing is beefing about his friends with Nigel Uno. The guy was a wild card, and even though Nigel could usually keep his mouth shut, if he told Lizzie, Wally knew that his ass would be grass.

"I'm a little busy," He said, gesturing towards the cigarette, "Besides, she's mad at me and Rachel's hanging out with her new friends," He sighed, taking one last drag before putting it out on the stump and tossing it on the ground. He tried to ignore the tone of his own voice. He wasn't jealous. Rachel could do whatever she wanted; he couldn't care less.

"You what?"

"I followed Tommy into the bathroom, said some uh- I had a creatively worded conversation with him which resulted in Moore hearing and freaking out, which resulted in him calling your mom and- yeah,"

"Oh," Hoagie threw his head back and laughed, "She's probably fuckin' pissed," Rachel nodded, taking a bite of her quinoa salad,

"Yeah, I don't think he's playing tonight," That sent the boys into hysterics. She side eyed Virginia, who had a sly grin on her face as well. The six continued joking around and talking politics and homework that nobody except for Rachel bothered to do throughout the rest of the lunch period. When the bell rang, they all got up and began going their separate ways. Rachel almost let it go, but the tugging in her stomach said otherwise and she jogged to catch up with Hoagie's long strides,

"Hey, Hoagie, can I talk to you?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I'm really sorry," She was going to continue, but was interrupted by Hoagie raising his bushy eyebrows and laughing,

"For what? Dude, you're my fucking hero right now,"

"No, not for that. For freshman year. Chad and Cavallero… they were really mean to you guys, but you specifically and it wasn't… cool. It was really fucked up, actually and I'm really sorry I didn't do anything about it. I didn't… I didn't realize how shitty it was until I realized Harvey was going through the same thing- and I'm really sorr-"

"Rachel, shut the fuck up," Her heart stopped. Was he pissed? She felt her heart beat again when he began again, "That was years ago and it wasn't your fault. I'm over it and you should be over it too. I'm just glad you're trying to do something for Harvey, that's cool. But don't apologize, it's cool. We're cool,"

"We're cool?"

"We're cool." She couldn't help smiling when she saw his goofy grin cross his face.

9:36 p.m

McClintock High - Boys Locker Room

Patton hadn't moved from the spot on the wooden bench since he sat down half an hour ago when the game ended. He stared at the ground, still in pads, cleats and his red and white Mustang uniform. It was his fault they lost. Actually, it was Tommy's fault for getting benched. Then Rachel's fault for catching Tommy and Harvey's fault for being so damn punchable. The pass to Doblemitz was perfect. Tommy would've easily caught it and the fact that Pete didn't pissed Patton off. How goddamn hard is it to catch a ball? He angrily stood up and ripped his jersey off and then his shoulder pads, leaving them on the ground. He ripped off his pants and everything else along with them and stomped towards the shower. He was so goddamn tired of this team.

He was never going to get anywhere if him and some asshole freshman were the only two on the team that could play football. After turning on the locker room shower and standing underneath the lukewarm water, he punched the gross tile. He didn't even want to think about what his dad was going to say when he got home. Patton imagined something about him being a 'fucking disappointment'. Ignoring the pain coursing through his hand he finished trying to wash off some of the dried sweat and the layer of sadness he felt covering him. He should've known he wasn't going to have a perfect record this year; it's just not realistic. Neither is getting into a good college or ever amounting to anything.

After slightly drying off he slid on a tee shirt, his letterman jacket and pair of basketball shorts and gathered all of things trying to mentally prepare himself. Walking out of the locker room into the chilly October night he felt his heart stop when he heard a voice, "Hey,"

"Jesus fuckin' Christ you scared me," Patton looked at the redhead with the white bow in her hair, "What do you want?" He didn't necessarily mean to spat at her (though he had been doing that a lot lately) and he immediately regretted it when he saw her face twist in anger.

"Fuck you," And she turned around and stormed off. Not that Patton really cared anyways. He never cared.

A/N: To be totally honest, I've sort of lost some inspiration for this fic, however, lately I've gotten some inspiration and I'm back to writing. Hopefully the next update won't be over half a year later like this one was. I really appreciate you guys for sticking around, and as always, I would really appreciate reviews and if there is anything you would like to see, let me know, I could always use some new ideas!

xoxo,

Maddie