It was near the end of the school day, Natoya and Andre were walking down the hallway, getting ready to leave for the summer. She was laughing and giggling as Andre teased her about her latest situationship. Their mutual friend, Jess.

  Andre didn't care for Jess. But that didn't stop him from being jealous, something he was pretty good at hiding. He liked Natoya, but he knew she liked Jess more than she'd like him, and so he set them up on a date.

  "But anyway.." Natoya said, for the eighteenth time that day as she closed her locker. "How was your class?"

  Natoya cycled through this constantly throughout the day, and Andre knew she'd go right back to talking about Jess the second she remember something new.

  "It's boring as hell. I spent all of class trying to stay awake. I wish I could've taken a nap."

  Andre yawned, shoving his hands into his denim pockets. He glanced around them, his eyes darting over the other students who walked past them.

  "It's boring as hell. I spent all of class trying to stay awake. I wish I could've taken a nap."

  "Did you have trouble sleeping?" She laughed, reaching up to ruffle his hair. Andre tried to duck his head away from her hand, a small smile appearing on his face.

  "Mhm. Yeah, I didn't sleep too much. I ended up going to bed at like- four in the morning." He responded, his head dropping back down to look at his feet as they walked.

  Andre yawned, shoving his hands into his denim pockets. He glanced around them, his eyes darting over the other students who walked past them.

  "You didn't go to one of those street fights again, though.. Right?" Natoya asked, her voice suddenly full of concern. It was a similar tone his mother made, which tripped him out for a moment.

  Andre froze for a second, his eyes widening slightly at the question. He shoved his hands even further into his pockets, hunching over a bit as he tried to play it off.

  "Of course not. You know I haven't done crap like that in a while now." He responded, trying to keep his tone even and casual despite the fact that Natoya knew he was lying.

  She frowned, but didn't change anything else. She knew it was none of her business, and instead just continued walking through the hallway. "Oh yeah!" She suddenly said, and jumped right back into another detail about her date with Jess last night.

  Andre laughed at the outburst, and listened as they walked down the hallway. He held the door open for her as they left the school building, walking through what used to be a playground to jump a fence onto the street they normally took to get to his siblings.

  "Awh, look at the poster child for pro-choice." They heard behind them. Natoya stopped mid-sentence and turned around. "You'd end the argument if you just showed up at one of those abortion clinics!" He high fived his friends, and continued laughing.

  Andre's smile completely disappeared, and he turned to glare at the guys behind them. Natoya noticed his clenched jaw. "You wanna say that again?"

  "Yeah, yeah. Your mom probably would've aborted you if she had the chance." The group of younger boys laughed louder, and Natoya scowled, grabbing onto Andre's arm.

  "Come on, ignore them." She said with an annoyed tone, trying to turn him around.

  "Yeah, real funny." Andre's voice was still dripping with anger, but Natoya's grip on his arm finally made him stop. He turned back around to face her, his expression almost softening.

  Natoya didn't know if they could take them on in a fight. She knew Andre was strong, but these boys were well in their late teens. Juniors or seniors who picked on freshmen like them because they had nothing better to do. "It's the last day of school. Let's just go."

  "Yeah, yeah... Fine. You're right." Andre rolled his eyes slightly, sighing deeply. He ran his hands through his messy hair. His anger was still there, but he tried to swallow it down as they kept walking.

  "Yeah that's right. Listen to the little bitch." One of the boys hollered before they started making barking noises. When Andre stopped in his tracks, they all stood up from the bench and started walking over. Natoya bit her tongue, knowing something bad was about to happen.

  "Fuck off." She scowled as they began to catcall her, telling her how sexy she was. "Pedophile."

  And that must've been all it took to piss them off, because not one second later were they grabbing the cuff of her shirt, punching her to the ground with their other hand.

  "Oh hell no."

  Andre immediately took action once their hands touched Natoya. He practically lunged at the guy nearest to him, shoving him backwards and away from Natoya. A mix of anger and adrenaline pumped through his veins, making him want to kick some serious ass.

  While he was preoccupied with the one who hit Natoya, the other guys quickly jumped into the fight as well. Andre's knuckles hurt with every punch towards them, but he didn't care. They deserved this

  Andre was ganged up on by three of the four guys, they repeatedly kicked and punched him, and he could hear Natoya screaming at them to stop.

  Andre could feel his arms and ribs begin to ache as he continued to fight back. It was hard to get any good shots in, and he felt himself stagger when several hits were directed at his torso.

  In the back of his mind, he could hear Natoya yelling, but his mind was too clouded with adrenaline to register what she was saying.

  Finally Andre managed to get a hit in, tackling one of the boys to the floor as he pummeled him over and over again, the other two boys trying to get him off as they attacked him.

  Everything stung. Every movement, every breath he took, and every time he brought his hands down on the guy he had pinned. His jaw ached from a recent hit he took, and he was pretty sure one of his knuckles was bleeding. But he continued to fight, refusing to let them get the upper hand.

  And he successfully did so, as one of his friends from the football team joined the fight, he saw a flash of a man falling to the ground, and now it was no longer a 3v1.

  Andre only half registered what was going on around him. All he could focus on was the adrenaline pumping through his veins and the fight.

  When another guy, and one of his friends, joined in to help it was a bit easier. Though Andre still felt pained from the previous hits he took, he focused on finally being able to get a few more good hits in. He smirked, seeing that the others seemed pretty damn tired.

  The other guy Andre had been fighting had backed off, ran away towards the school. The guy Andre was pummeling got the upper hand as Andre got distracted, getting ontop of him and punching the arms he used to block his face.

  Andre winced in pain as the other guy got on top of him. He was quickly growing tired, and it was hard to get good hits in to fight back.

  Andre's friend managed to get the guy off him, stomping on his ribcage as Andre was able to get up, blood spilling from his mouth.

  Andre quickly got to his feet, spitting out some of the blood in his mouth. He was panting heavily and his head still felt a bit crowded with all of the adrenaline.

  He stumbled slightly, having trouble standing completely upright. He tried ignoring the pain he felt all over his body as he looked over at Natoya to check on her.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Natoya was well on the floor, she had a few cuts on her arms and her hand was bleeding, her throat seemed to have a scratch but nothing serious and there was a gun that had been kicked a few feet away from the other guy who laid on the floor, passed out.

  A wave of concern washed over him as he caught sight of Natoya. Andre quickly stumbled over to where she was, gently grabbing her arm.

  "Are you okay?" He began to ask. Though his question was cut short as he caught sight of the gun laying out in the open. He dropped down next to it, picking it up to examine it.

  The other guy, Andre's friend quickly ran over to Natoya as Andre was distracted by the gun, lifting her chin up to examine her conciousness. She had some blood on her head, but whether or not it was hers something only she and God knew.

  Andre ran his thumb over the gun, staring at it for a few more seconds before he heard the other guy ask how Natoya was doing.

  He quickly snapped back to attention, shoving the gun in one of his pockets before standing back up to go over to them. He leaned down beside her, his eyes scanning her for any other damage.

  Seconds later, one of the original books from the fight ran back.. With the principle. "fuck." Natoya scowled as she made eye contact with the old white man who's name was Mr. Williams.

  Andre's eyes widened slightly when he noticed that someone had gone to get the principal. He quickly got back to his feet, glancing over at Natoya for a moment before looking back up at Mr. Williams as he approached.

  Andre's friend helped Natoya stand up. And Mr. Williams glanced over the scene. One boy, beaten up standing next to him. Three boys laying on the ground, one who's hand was bleeding. "I knew you'd get into more trouble, Vincent." The old man scowled. "And on the last day of school of any days!"

  Andre rolled his eyes, rubbing the back of his neck.

  "Hey hey, it ain't my fault. We were just trying to walk home and those assholes came and attacked us."

  He gestured towards the guys on the ground, as if to emphasize his point.

  "It's true, sir." Trenton said, his hands in his pockets, bruises on his arm. "The cameras will determine that, Mr. Dawson."

  A minutes later

  Natoya and Andre were all sitting on the benches in the hallway. The three boys who ganged up on Andre sitting across the hall, half their parents scolding them the other concerned and crying about 'their little baby boys' before independently talking to the principle. Natoya and Andre sat next to eachother, waiting for their own parents.

  Andre sat in silence, resting his head against the wall behind them. He was tired, and sore as hell, but the only thing that was on his mind right now was Natoya.

  He moved his gaze from watching the other guys and their parents to looking over at her. He looked her up and down, making sure most of the cuts on her were only minor.

  "Andre! Mijo!" Natoya glanced up to see Andre's mother rush in and hold his head, inspecting the black eye.

  A small sigh escaped from Andre's lips as his mom fussed over him. He brought one hand up to push her's off of him, giving her a half-hearted glare.

  "Ma... chill. I'm fine. I hardly feel anything." He responded, trying to brush it off.

  She made a fuss, his mother was a small Haitian woman, who knew Natoya well. "Oh, sweetheart are you okay??" She asked, also inspecting Natoya's wounds. "Yes ma'am.." Natoya replied quietly. It seemed she knew a lot worse was about to come.

  Andre's mom tsk'ed, shaking her head as she took in the state of both of them. She looked Natoya up and down disapprovingly, her lips pursed in displeasure at the mess André and her had managed to get in to.

  "I swear... the two of you..." She spoke in a disapproving tone, scolding them both silently.

  Not two seconds later did Natoya look towards the end of the hallway, where the sound of a dispatch radio went off, and a taller man with black hair, blue eyes, completely dressed in police gear walked into the room.

  Andre looked over at the sound of the radio as well, his eyes widening slightly. He didn't expect the damn police to be called in for this.

  He quickly looked back at his mom, hoping she would notice the look on his face so that she would understand his slight fear at the sight of the police officer.

  Andre's mother looked over, but Natoya stood up and looked at him in a way Andre didn't really understand. "You got into a school fight?" The man said shortly. "Who was it? This guy?" "N-" Natoya began.

  Andre narrowed his eyes as the officer spoke, his gaze flickering between him and Natoya. He was about to open his mouth to say something when he caught Natoya's look. It made him pause for a moment before he closed his mouth, opting to look over at his mom to try and see how she was reacting.

  "Mr. D'Angelos." The principle said, opening the door to look at the man.

  "You let a bunch of older boys beat up my daughter? On school grounds? They had a knife. She could have been killed today if she didn't know how to disarm someone." His voice was a lot deeper than Andre originally realized. It was cold, and cut the air like a bullet.

  The situation was slowly starting to get out of control. Andre looked between his mom, Natoya, the officer, and the principal. He wasn't even sure what to say, or if he should say something. He tried shifting to a different position, but it still hurt. Damn, this was not the ideal time to be sore from getting into a fight. He was also starting to feel a bit uneasy from the gun in his pocket.

  "You understand how much trouble you're in young man?" His eyes turned to look towards Andre, piercing into his soul, his words were just as piercing. Straight, like the man's hair.

  "It's not his fault." Natoya said sharply, cutting through Andre's words as she stared down the officer. "They started it. They're the ones who jumped us."

  The man turned around, crossing his arms as he turned to the three boys who's eyes jumped between their parents, and the officer who was generating a negative aura.

  The man was strong. And he had a gun holstered to his side. A radio, turned down was connected to his chest. And a girl who looked like his spitting image was standing right behind him, cuts all along her arms and her throat.

  Andre's eyes widened slightly as Natoya jumped to his defense. Part of him felt flattered that she would go out of her way to help him, whilst the other part wanted to tell her to drop it, to let it go.

  He glanced in the other guys direction, watching them shrink away from the intense aura coming from the man. Andre leaned his head back against the wall, still feeling the soreness in his body from the fight.

  "Perhaps we should discuss discipline of your daughter." "Discipline?" Natoya and the man said in the exact same tone, at the exact same time. Both of their heads tilted towards the principle. "For what? Defending herself?" "She hospitalized a boy." "She's fourteen. What did you say he called you?" He turned towards her. "The poster child for anti-choice." She scowled, and the man turned back to the principle. "My daughter has no reason to be punished for the actions of upper classmen from your school."

  Andre was almost entertained by the interaction between the police officer, Natoya, and the principal. He stifled the urge to smirk as he listened to them go back and forth.

  He couldn't help but be impressed by Natoya's bravery. It's one thing to stand up to a teacher, but to stand up against a police officer on a power trip like that... that was something else.

  Only a few minutes later did a lady, dressed in high fashion with her hair up in a black bun, sunglasses holding onto the strands of pitch black hair attatched to her head, and big brown eyes walk into the hallway. "What is the meaning of this!" She shouted as she walked up the high school hallway, joining the group of adults as she began arguing with the police officer.

  Andre raised an eyebrow as the new woman walked in. Everything about her -her demeanor, the way she dressed, and the way she spoke- screamed elegance. Her presence made the entire hallway feel more... sophisticated.

  He leaned away from the wall, sitting up straight so that he could get a better look at her. He couldn't help but feel as though he'd seen her before somewhere.

  Natoya almost shrinked where she stood as she stared at the two adults arguing with eachother. Her hands fell infront of her, and she picked at the skin of her fingernails as the two argued. "I leave her here with you for five months.." ".. New york isn't any safer.." "... My lawyer will hear about this." were the few things Andre was able to pick out between the yelling lady and the officer. "I'm not going back to New York." Natoya interrupted them, casting another silence throughout the hallway. "What?" The lady said, sharply. "I'm not going back to New York." Natoya repeated, firmly.

  Andre's eyes flicked over to look at Natoya, his eyebrows raised in surprise at her sudden interruption. He had never seen her act so firm on anything before.

  He wasn't too sure what was going on between the three of them, but he was damn well listening in on this whole thing. He was almost tempted to lean closer to try and catch more of their words.

  "Nats..." The police officer began. "No, dad. You're not sending me back there." Natoya said, staring at the officer... Her father.

  "You listen here." The lady walked up, and her father almost seemed to want to reach out and grab her, but didn't. "You're going to get on that plane-"

  "You put me on that plane, and I'll take another one back. You take away my money, and I will hitch hike. You take away my shoes, and I will walk barefoot throughout the United States to get back here. Because I'd rather get trafficked than putting up with your shit."

  "Natoya!" Her mother hissed, and Andre's eyebrows had shot up practically to his hairline from both Natoya's words, and the way she delivered them. He was impressed that she had the balls to speak to her parents like that.

  He continued to watch and listen intently, waiting silently to see how her parents were going to react.

  "Maybe we should take this into my office." The principle suggested, and both of Natoya's parents nodded, entering the office along with Andre's parents, and the three boy's parents.

  As the group went into the office, Andre glanced towards his mother. She shot him another stern glare before following the rest of the parents into the office. He sat there on the bench, waiting and watching.

  "Dad." Natoya said stiffly as he held the door open for the women who entered the office. "I'm not leaving L.A."

  "I know, Nats." He said, then shut the door behind him.