Speaking of John, he came cruising up with his fro of copper hair bouncing, standing equal with Alex, who as a Body, should have towered over everyone. He did, for the most part. But I thought of Alex as more, overwhelming. He overwhelmed all of us with his physique. But that personality hadn't gotten big like the rest of him. He was still the same awkward sex and tech-obsessed guy we'd met last year. In a package like a super hero.

"Where's your car, Hart?" Alex asked and I sighed. I guess I was gonna hear it today. Bry and I were the only ones that actually had cars, Jade borrowed her aunt's and Mia brought hers but it was The Toaster. It was a two guy or three girl ride. We had stuffed Archer in there with the chicks one time but he hadn't cared. There was no awkward turtle male-female vibe goin' on there.

Huh.

"It's getting a conversion. I'm using my credit, ya asswipes."

Lewis joined the conversation, "Your grandpa has the credit for that hot rod we saw at his place?"

I nodded.

"It's a Camaro. A 1974 LT-1, clueless," Jonesy said.

Archer shrugged. "Not a car worshiper, so bite me."

"Bite you?" Jonesy asked, tense.

"You seem interested, Jones," Alex said with a sly smile.

"Knock it off, muscle head," Jonesy said, dismissing him.

Archer grinned at Alex.

John said, "How'd he get the Camaro," He looked at Jonesy with a smirk, "to the conversions center?"

"Drove it," I said.

"No shit?" John asked with a stunned expression.

"Yeah," I said slowly, "So?"

"Did he use fossil fuel to get there, Caleb?" Archer asked.

"Probably."

Archer frowned. "That's a huge fine."

"Nah, he's got some in the garage just in case the neighborhood gets outta line," I said.

Jonesy laughed, shaking his head. "I think he keeps those 'grandfathered' cards around like a deck and flips them out to the Person in Authority when he needs to. End of story."

Bry walked up to us looking around. "Where are the girls?"

"They're coming," I said, lifting my pulse. I'd just got a pulse from Jade. She was finishing something lame for Griswold then she'd be here. I relayed that.

"What's she doing for Griswold?" John asked.

I shrugged, hadn't asked. Was all about the time.

Sophie, Tiff and Jade walked up. Bry asked, "Where's Mia?"

All three girls gave him a speculative look and his face turned a little red under their scrutiny. "What?" he asked, jamming his hands in his pockets.

"Your noticeable interest, dillweed," Tiff mentioned delicately.

Wow.

Mia walked up right behind them, saw all the awkwardness and said, "What?"

Jonesy smiled and Bry shot him a warning look. "Bry was busy pining for you, wonderin' about your location so he could stalk you with accuracy."

I couldn't believe it, even from Jones. So low. Bry's mouth was moving but no sound was coming out. Mia looked at him in amusement and Bry looked ready to murder Jonesy.

"So... you wanted to know where I was, huh?" she asked him and his face became redder.

If possible.

He nodded. "I'm just worried about you guys with the jackasses that go here."

Mia shrugged a slim shoulder and flicked her hair behind her shoulder and Bry blushed. Again.

He had it bad. The girls knew their charms and they circled us dudes like lionesses with prey in sight.

Sophie stalked over to Jonesy, her hips rolling smoothly on her weapons-for-heels. Jade floated over to me, her lips a raspberry perfection in the middle of her kissable face. Eyes like green quartz captured me. I was helpless to look away even as in my peripheral vision I saw Mia stroll over to Bry and lay a hand on his muscular forearm. I watched his Adam's apple bob in response.

Tiff watched with blatant suspicion as the females prowled toward the boys. And in seeing our reactions had some kind of epileptic eye-rolling fit where the whites of her eyes were the only sign of life in her face.

"Humph!" she huffed, folding her arms over her hoodie. "Idiots," she muttered under her breath. But It didn't matter because Jade was up on her tiptoes, pressing those berry lips to mine, her small hands balancing on shoulders made strong and broad through working out, beating my body into submission on the mat.

Oh shit. The mat. Judo.

I pulled away in a hurry. "What?" Jade asked, completely unaccustomed to me pulling away. That's because it didn't ever happen.

Duh.

"I have judo today," I smacked my forehead.

"What, you forgot your brain today, Hart?" Tiff asked, pointing at Jade, then rudely pointing at her own crotch. "Or are you just letting the little head... "

"Tiff!" Bry yelled and she smiled. She was all about diggin' on whatever flustered people.

Brother. John smiled at her. There weren't enough opposites in the world. But they were polar. John kinda liked how snarky she was. I found her kinda annoying but she was like a dude in a girl's body. It was weird.

I was about ready to sail out the school doors when Buddy walked up. Without the losers.

Good thinkin'.

He looked at Sophie standing by Jonesy, his face hardening. Alarm bells began to sound in my head. Hell, I'd have to be late and do some really crappy drills now.

But I couldn't leave a potential mess. Jonesy and Buddy squared off and the other dudes backed up.

"Why don't you fuck off, Buddy?" Jonesy asked in a pleasant voice, the girls gasping at the strength of his wording right outta the box.

Buddy smiled. Nothing got a guy juiced like another one telling him where to go without any preliminaries.

He looked around for adults. Seeing none, he got chest to chest with Jones, two inches taller and about the same weight.

John said, "Hey, there's... Jonesy, don't do this. She isn't your girlfriend."

Jonesy leveled the first dirty look he'd ever given John like a laser. John glowered back like, rein it in you anger management addict.

Alex told John, "Don't mediate, let it play out, Terran."

Bry slapped his forehead and Tiff said, "Pound. His. Ass. Jones." She smacked her fist into her open palm.

I moved Jade behind me, she had an ability to be a magnet for violence and it wasn't finding her when I was around. I took in the group and saw that Bry had done a similar maneuver with Mia. Tiff was way too close to the potential fight and John and Alex were hanging back.

It was Sophie that got in the middle. Chicks needed to stay the hell away when guys started swinging. It was simple logic.

That seemed to really evade females. Logic.

Jonesy hissed at Sophie, "Back off, Soph."

"No," she said quietly. He flicked his eyes to hers.

"You don't like me, not really. I'm just a girl that won't let you date and dump her, Jones. Get over yourself," she shrugged like it didn't matter.

It did to Jonesy. I could see the struggle of it on his face, contorting his features.

Buddy gave a smirk even as Sophie's arm wound around his waist. "Who's gonna fuck off now, Jones?"

Oh shit.

Jonesy sprung at him from the balls of his feet, his fist popping out and jabbing toward him like a spring, Buddy flinging his head in a smooth avoidance maneuver.

Unfortunately, Sophie was too close and as she stumbled to remove herself from the fight, tottering on her heels, the side of his fist caught her in the face and she went down flat. Buddy couldn't save her but Jonesy was the most graceful person I knew and he dropped after her, swinging in an arc to catch her before she landed on the floor. He took the brunt of the fall and rolled her on top of him and then to his side. It was actually beautiful to watch.

If Buddy and Jonesy hadn't been in the middle of trying to beat the snot out of each other.

Buddy began whaling on Jonesy and I waded in.

See how that worked out? No judo... work out anyway.

Jonesy was using his fists to punch back defensively but couldn't do much because an unconscious Sophie was prone beside him. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out he didn't want her hurt.

Cuz he could hurt Buddy. Jonesy was what Gramps called a scrapper.

I slammed my foot into the pinch of Buddy's torso, that tender spot where ribs ended and organs roamed. Yeah, that works pretty good on incapacitation.

He sprung up and turned on me, crouching defensively. I had a heartbeat to realize that Buddy knew more than he let on and then he was after me in an aggressive flurry of arm swipes and jabs that made my judo training come to the surface in a defensive roar. I used the sides of my hands like I'd been taught and swung from my core, centered.

Deliberate.

Still, he came. There was a crowd growing but I saw them as background, it took all my concentration to engage my opponent. Who was definitely a martial arts guy. No doubt.

Everything melted away as I fought him, and to my intense shame, I didn't even have a bead on Jade.

He punished my ribs with his hands and I struck him hard with the instep of my foot in the middle of his chest and he flew back and landed with practiced hands, his butt never hitting the ground.

He'd landed like a cat. Nine lives. I moved forward again and then suddenly Chen was there.

*

"Nice, Hart," some random kid said. Carson came up and clapped Buddy on the back. Buddy shrugged it off. Probably thinking about his unconscious girlfriend with her head in Jonesy's lap. Nice turn-of-events.

Chen gave Buddy and I looks. She took in Sophie in a heap, Jonesy pushing her hair back, her cheek swelling with a red mark like an angry comma on her face. I looked at Jonesy and saw that he had tears in his eyes. His heart in his face.

I know what I would have felt like if I hit Jade. Accident or not.

I looked around for her and didn't see her. Panic struck. Where was Jade?

But Chen's next words stole my thoughts away from Jade and back to her. "My office, Mr. Hughes and Mr. Hart. Now." She walked away knowing we'd follow.

I didn't. I needed to know Jade was okay. I searched the crowd.

There! I saw a flash of black hair and pink. Someone was with her.

Who? I moved between kids, parting them like a human sea and as she was revealed so was Brett. He had a hold of her wrist, its delicate diameter captured in his big hand and all I could think of was last year. Him dragging her off for his molestathon.

Jade's eyes got wide and she yelled, "No Caleb, it's not what you think!"

Thinking? Who the hell said anything about that? I was a roaring inferno of male rage, my female threatened by a known threat. A primal siren sounded and that's what I listened to. It led my fist straight to his face, my other one following like a loved one, one right on top of the other.

Until he was on the ground, Jade screaming. Someone huge picked me up from behind and I knew how to get out of that. But I couldn't move, whoever it was had arms of steel. I literally couldn't move.

But I took heart. I looked down at Brett, a bleeding disaster at my feet and smiled, spitting out the blood from my own mouth as I did, where it hit the floor with a splat.

*

"Settle down, Hart!" Alex bellowed in my ear. "Chen's gonna call the cops," he said more quietly. I settled down and he let me drop. I stood on my own without those crushing arms of his holding me and looked at Jade.

She looked back. I didn't like the look on her face. She looked scared.

Of me.

That's not what I'd been gunning for. I didn't want Brett touching Jade. Period. It wasn't complicated. He was a proven asshole with bad intent and he wasn't going to train those plans on Jade.

"Come here," I said to her, using my palm to gesture for me, cupping my hands toward myself.

She hesitated and I had an awful moment where I thought she wouldn't. Then she gingerly stepped over Brett and came into my arms.

Chen literally shoved students aside. Her rage was a palpable thing. A living, breathing thing in the commons. I don't think I'd ever had that level of rage directed at me before.

Well, in the spirit of new experiences...

Jade held onto me like I was the last solid thing in the world. I treated her the same. I glued her onto my body, tucking her underneath my chin as I faced off with Chen.

"Get away from Miss LeClerc, Mr. Hart." She looked at me, her words vibrating with unmasked hatred. It was a little confusing. So I had a fight, big deal. Was it really worth her foaming at the mouth like a rabid bat?

"He won't hurt me," Jade said in a voice that trembled. I stroked her hair.

"Obviously! Mr. Hart is so nonviolent. Jade, move away from him. Now." She did, her fingers reluctantly trailing down my chest as she backed away. I looked for guy support and found Bry's eyes. He gave me a nod. He knew what the deal was.