Oh man! I am so sorry for the really late update! College classes have been keeping me busy like crazy and of course my job! I’ve also been working on my novel a bit so again I’m really sorry! So I really hope this chapter makes up for it!

Nightmares

Flashbacks

Chapter 5: Figuring Things Out

“I’m not gonna stop, that’s who I am

I’ll give all I got, that is my plan

Will I find what I lost?

You know you can

Bet on it, bet on it

Bet on it, bet on it

(Bet on me)” –Sung by Zac Efron from High School Musical 2

“Mom we’re home!” Athan announced as the two brothers stepped into their house.

Jane turned her attention from her cooking to the hall that lead towards the front door and the stairs. She smiled when her two boys emerged from the short hall.

“Well good afternoon boys.” She turned to face them. “So how was your first day of school?”

“Surprisingly good.” Cody answered gently plopping his book bag on the kitchen table. “Though I guess it helped that Kendra was there.”

Jane laughed lightly. “I would assume so.” Crossing her arms she asked. “Did she introduce you to any of her friends?”
“Yes and I must add that I’ve never had so many girlfriends in all my life.” Athan commented hanging his bag on one of the hooks.

“And it’s probably the only time.”

Athan shot his brother a hard glare. “Shut up!”

Jane rolled her eyes and quickly changed the subject. “So do you boys have any homework?”

“Duh mom you know the answer to that.” Cody remarked obviously. “Of course not. It’s the first day of school.”

“Excellent!” She cheered happily clapping her hands together. The boys eyed her now feeling a bit nervous. She smiled tilting her head. “Then you two can help me unpack the rest of our things.”
The two groaned. “Aw come on mom we just got back can’t we just relax?” Cody whined.

Athan shot him a blank look. “You were the one that said you’d rather do chores than hear lectures.”

His younger brother glared at him. “It’s half true! But I’d rather not do chores now!”

“It honestly won’t take that long.” They heard their mother reassure them. The two saw her smiling at them. “And actually I was merely planning to finish that once we were done with supper.”
Athan nodded suddenly liking that idea. “We could do that. I hate doing work on an empty stomach.”

Cody sighed roughly combing his fingers through his hair. “Yeah I guess I could deal with that too. As long as I get some free time to do whatever I want.”

Athan and Jane watched the young boy as he retreated into the living room and sighed once they heard the television get turned on.

The blue eyed boy just shook his head. “So Athan,” He moved his gaze to his mother as she turned to resume cooking, “how did it go with Kendra?” She smiled back at him. “You must have been really excited to see her again.”

He turned a light pink shying his gaze away from her. “Well yeah of course I was. She’s my best friend for crying out loud.”

Jane just giggled at his reaction but stopped when he heard him sigh softly. She became concerned. “Athan?” She raised a brow. “Is something wrong?”

“Something’s changed mom.” He confessed shaking his head. “She’s…not the same something’s different about her.”

“Well of course she wouldn’t be exactly the same.” She reassured him.

“I know that! But mom I know something’s wrong I can feel it!”

Jane jerked slightly surprised by his desperate outburst. He clenched his fists. “Just by the way she acted today I know there’s something wrong and with the way some of the students treated her today I am really sure something’s wrong.” ‘No one just starts harassing someone for no apparent reason at least with the way Trevor treated her. Heck Alison even mentioned that he was angry with her about something so that’s even more proof that something is seriously wrong.’

“Athan.” He heard his mother sigh out. Looking at her he noticed her sitting down at the table and motioned him to sit down. “Sit down and tell me all about it.”

The blue eyed boy sighed nodding and took a seat next to her. “Well it was like this…”

Dawn was approaching and the night was blissfully peaceful in the northern woods. Well to all except one, Kendra was tossing and turning sweat slowly dripping down her face.

She moaned and mumbled with her expression troubled. “N-No…” She managed to say through her tormented mutters.

“I hate you dad!” Nine year old Kendra screamed out to the shadow of her father, Dave. Her expression was angry with her gaze filled with disappointment and hurt.

“Kendra.” She heard her father said her name sounding shocked and hurt by her words.

“I want you to be there!” She cried loudly to him before racing off. “I hate you!”

“Kendra!”

Suddenly car breaks were heard and a crash Kendra skidded to a stop whipping around. She gasped sharply when she found her father’s car smashed into a truck. “Dad!” She began running towards the scene only to have it vanish into the shadows.

“No wait dad!” Kendra screamed out. In a flash she was fourteen still racing to find the crash scene. “Dad!”

A gush to wind blew at her forcing her to come to a halt and just when she raised her gaze something pounced on her tackling her to the ground.

She yelped out a scream. “AHH!”
“Hehehe thought you could get away from me?”
Kendra gasped at the familiar voice, darting her gaze up she met the devious harsh hazel blue eyes of a tall muscular looking teenager. “Ben…” She whispered out her gaze wide with fear.

She was snapped out of her frightful trance when she felt him hold her hands against the ground. “Get away from me!” Kendra began fighting against his hold and soon began kicking hoping to kick his manhood.

“Get off of me!” She screeched out.

“Will you just sit still and shut up!”

Kendra shot him a glare. “Like hell I’ll sit still now get off of me!” She gasped sharply when she felt him undoing her pants.

She screamed bloody murder. “Get the hell off of me!”

“Kendra!”

She flinched at the familiar shout. ‘That’s…’ Kendra turned her gaze to find Athan standing there staring at the scene with huge yet hurtful eyes. “Athan!”
His gaze narrowed suddenly filled with hatred. “You disgust me!”

“What!? Athan this isn’t what it looks like!”

She heard him scowl her heart shattering when he turned away from her and soon vanished.

Kendra screamed out tears rolling down her cheeks. “No Athan!”

Kendra yelped sharply shooting up her gaze wide open. She panted with her hand over her chest allowing her heart to calm itself down, while doing so she glanced around. She found Diana still sound asleep with Eve laying on the ground fast asleep.

Finally a sigh left her throat before getting out of her bed and retreated to the bathroom. She splashed some cold water on her face to rinse off the sweat that was still lingering there.

Kendra then looked at herself in the mirror and sighed releasing a soft groan before combing her fingers through her hair. “How pathetic those things still haunt me even to this day.”

“Kendra?”

She gasped darting around only to sigh in relief when her mother emerged from her extra bedroom door that led into the bathroom. “Mom.”

Ruth noticed her daughter and tilted her head concerned. “Are you alright?”

“Yes I will be fine now.” Kendra narrowed her gaze and scolded gruffly. “Though you have to stop sneaking up on me like that. You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“Sorry dear.” Her mother smoothed her fingers through he curly brown locks. “But the least thing I was expected was for someone to be up.”

The young teen just sighed understanding her mother’s view. Ruth then took notice of the sudden moisture on her face. “Kendra?” Her daughter’s gaze signaled her she that was listening. Ruth caressed Kendra’s skin causing her to flinch slightly. “Are you sure you are alright? You’re all wet.”
“Yeah I’m all wet I was washing off the sweat.”

“Sweat?” Ruth repeated suddenly curious yet concerned.

“Do you honestly have any idea how hot it is in that room? I’ll tell ya it’s really boiling in there.”

She arched a brow. “But Diana told me last night that it was freezing in there?”
Kendra shrugged. “Well now it’s really warm in there. Temperatures in this state change fast mom you have all people should know that.”

Ruth eyed her daughter for a moment and knew she was lying right through her teeth. Kendra noticed the stare and knew her mother caught onto her. “Kendra.” Her mother began with a rough sigh.

“I’m going back to bed.” The young teen quickly said with a weak smile. She walked out the door waving. “Night.”

“Kendra wait.” Ruth pleaded only to have Kendra ignore her and shut her door. She sighed with slight frustration and shook her head. ‘Honestly what am I going to do with that girl? She use to be so easy to get her to express her feelings but now I feel like I have to come at her with a pitchfork before I get her to express anything.’

Morning came quickly and Athan and Cody had already been dropped off and now strolling down the halls away from each other.

Athan wasn’t really in the mood to be around Cody and surprisingly his younger brother understood that and went off on his own. Though Athan knew he’d be back once Alison got here but maybe by then his mood would be shifted.

The blue eyed boy sighed softly remembering the talk he and Cody had with his parents.

“Wow I never knew she was having a rough time at school.” His father commented sounding very surprised. “Kendra always struck me as the type of girl anyone could get along with.”

“Well sadly I guess that isn’t really true.” Cody remarked blankly.

They were all sitting at the table during diner conversing about the situation. “Either that or people in our school have a low judgement of character.” Athan murmured finding himself still angry about the situation.

“So you think there’s something wrong just by how this Trevor boy is treating Kendra?” He heard Jane bring up grasping his gaze.

He nodded. “Yes.”

“Though I must say those girls also made it seem like something is indeed going on.” Cody brought up reminding him of that. “Just by the way those girls talked about the situation just makes it seem like it.”
“Yeah those girls a proving to be very horrible liars.” The blue eyed boy agreed.

“But I must say Alison is the main one whom is making it look like something’s going on.” His younger brother went on immediately catching his interest. “Every class I had with her every time I brought up Kendra or if any of our classmates brought her up Alison would just roll her eyes and say some random things.”

“Let me guess swear words?”
“Yep.”

Athan just shook his head. ‘Now that can’t be all of her brother’s fault.’ “But what did she say?”
“Oh they don’t know anything, if they only knew. Things like that.”

“Only knew what?”

Cody shrugged. “I don’t know I didn’t really bother to ask her.”

“Looks like Ruth isn’t the only one who’s signaling people that Kendra needs help.”

“Huh?” Both boys chorused turning their gazes to their mother. “What are you talking about?”
“A month ago while we were packing up to come here I decided to contact Ruth and Dave and tell them that we were moving here. Ruth was of course ecstatic.”

“What about Dave?” Kevin suddenly asked noticing her sudden pause.

Jane gave him a small smile, which made shivers, go down his spine the boys felt it as well. She went on before they could speak. “Apparently they’ve been dealing with a lot of tragical events these past ten years.”

Their hearts began to sink pounding with anxiety and fear. “Mom…” Athan spoke up catching her gaze as he eyed her cautiously, “what are you getting at?”
“One of the main events that they are still coping with is…Dave’s death.”

The men gasped slightly flinching at her confession. “Wh-What?” Was Athan’s response his gaze wide open.

“Mr. Rivers is…dead?” Cody repeated making sure he heard it right.

Jane nodded with a sorrowful expression.

“Wh-When?” Athan began to question softly. “When did he die?”

“When you and Kendra were in third grade.”

“Wha seriously?” ‘That’s also when Kendra said she had her tonsils taken out.’

She nodded. “Yes.”

His gaze suddenly narrowed now puzzled. “But I don’t get it when we first got reunited with her she made it sound like she had both of her parents still living with her. She never even gave a hint that her father was dead.”

Jane nodded. “According to Ruth ever since her father passed away Kendra’s been having trouble with expressing herself and her feelings and talking to people about this sort of situation. So she probably didn’t tell us about this when we saw her was because she knew if she would talk about it she would break down.”

Cody and Athan’s gazes went wide as she continued to inform them. “Everyone in her family has coped with it but the only one whom hasn’t been coping with it too well…is Kendra.”

‘So is the reason why Kendra’s not quite the same is because she’s still coping with her father’s death?’ He gazed down at the ground as he continued to think. ‘That would make sense and to why she hadn’t mentioned it to me. If she’s still coping she’s not going to tell me until she feels ready when she’s not going to break down.’ His eyes narrowed raising them staring down the hall as something came across his mind. ‘But that doesn’t explain why that Trevor guy is harassing her, sure it explains some of it but not that.’

Determination gleamed in his gaze. “Well then looks like I have a mystery to solve.” ‘I’m going to figure this out. I want to help Kendra anyway that I can but the first thing I must do is figure out and find out just what the hell happened. The whole story and I want to know all of the things that happened, mom did mention that they have gone through some tragical events so something tells me her father’s death isn’t the only one thing their dealing with.’

“Hm?” A figure caught his attention snapping him out of his thoughts. He raised a brow when he recognized the figure. “Kendra?”

There Kendra was sluggishly putting her things away and taking out her materials that she would need. ‘Argh…what a night.’

“Kendra?”
A sharp gasp escaped her whirling around causing Athan to jump back. “Whoa take it easy there!” He commented surprised by her reaction.

“Athan.” She said his name softly sounding surprised yet frightened. A quite flashback of the Athan in her dream flashed in her mind quickly she shook her head. ‘Stop Kendra! Don’t even think about that! Athan would never say something like that.’

He raised a brow not liking her expression. “Kendra?” His voice snapped her out of her thoughts looking at him as he asked with concern. “Are you alright? What was with that reaction?”
Kendra sighed roughly ruffling her hair a bit. “I’m fine I’m just exhausted that’s all.”
“And you being tired is what caused you to be all jumpy like that?” He questioned oddly with an odd expression.

She flinched at his tone and glanced at him seeing him eyeing her. She suddenly became nervous. “Y-Yes.”

‘Oh like that answer is very convincing.’ Athan rolled his eyes but sighed deciding to let it go. “So why are you so tired?” He tilted his head crossing his arms. “Did you pull an all nighter or something?”
The young brunette stared at him surprised he let the first conversation go so easily. She lowered her gaze slightly. ‘Let’s not jinx it shall we.’ A tired breath came out of her. “Not exactly.” She gave him a bored expression. “I just couldn’t get to sleep last night.” ‘The images from that nightmare kept reappearing.’

“What had too much caffeine last night?” Athan questioned with a light laugh trying to lighten up the mood a bit.

Kendra smiled appreciating with what he was trying to do. She chuckled lightly. “Probably.” She rubbed the back of her head. “I did drink a lot of diet pepsi last night.”
“Heh then that would explain it wouldn’t it?”

Kendra couldn’t help but smile. “Hehe yeah probably.”

Athan finally smiled in return. ‘It’s good…to see her smile. Though it isn’t as radiate as it was ten years ago but hopefully I can bring that back.’ He leaned against the lockers. “So you almost ready to go?”
“Oh!” She quickly turned and grabbed her things closed her locker and smiled at him. “Yes I’m ready.”
The blue eyed boy just smiled back as he led her down the hall side by side. “So did Diana start talking to you again yesterday?”

“Not quite.” She answered with a slight grimace. “She’s still giving me the silent treatment and a her “evil” glare. But she is saying some things to me.”
He arched a brow. “Like why she isn’t talking to you?”
“Nope she’s hasn’t told me that much yet.”

“Have you even asked her?”
“Why bother?” She shrugged sighing roughly looking ahead of them. “I already know why she’s angry with me.”

“And that would be…”
She answered subconsciously without thinking. “Because I haven’t sung to her or Connor for weeks now.”
“Whoa what!”

Kendra suddenly flinched realizing what she just blurted out. She grimaced glancing up at him. ‘Aw crap I should really keep duck tape in my pockets.’

Athan narrowed his gaze. “I thought you said you couldn’t sing anymore because of you tonsils?”
She stared at him thinking of something fast. “I can’t sing but there were times that I sung to Diana and Connor as a way to comfort them whenever they were down about something. But of course that’s when they were younger.” She smiled weakly. “I guess I still have two fans even though my voice is terrible.”

The black haired teen eyed her and opened his mouth. “Kendra-”

“Hey!” Someone yelled out immediately grasping their attention. “Gah!” Athan yelped slightly as someone grabbed his neck and slammed him against the lockers.

“Athan!” Kendra yelled out her gaze wide.

He winced opening one eye to glare at none other than Trevor.

“Trevor!” He heard Kendra gap out loudly.

The older teen ignored her acknowledgment as he glared at the blue eyed boy. “Thought I would forget about you didn’t you runt?”

Athan grunted flatly answering. “No I had a feeling you would show up again. Ignorant people tend to do that.”

Trevor scowled like a tiger his gaze filling up with anger and hatred. “Why you! Don’t act all smug when you’re going to be the one with a pummeled face!” He motioned his arm back ready to smack him. “Say your prayers runt!”

“No Trevor!” Kendra cried quickly catching the older teen’s fist right before it could hit Athan’s face.

Her reaction just caused him to growl more as Athan gaped. “Kendra.”

“Please just leave him alone! He’s new he doesn’t know any better!” She began pleading to him. “So please can’t you just let him off the hook! Surely you are merciful enough forgive the new guy!”

“Kendra!” Athan quickly remarked angrily glaring at her. ‘She’s still trying not to get me involved in this! Plus she’s making it sound like I’m too weak to stand up to him!’ He turned his glare to Trevor. ‘And I know I’m strong enough to stand up to this creep!’

Trevor leaned his head towards her glaring hatefully. “And what makes you think I would listen to anything you said.”

Her heart sunk she was so hoping he would be man enough to consider it. With one swift move Trevor whacked her away from them knocking her on the ground. “Stay the hell out of this!”

She yelped wincing sitting up on her elbows Athan flinched his gaze wide before scowling as he glared over at the older teen.

“Don’t worry cry baby.” Trevor commented angrily when her gaze met his. “I’ll come after you later.”

In that instant Athan bit Trevor’s hand hard. “AHH!” The older teen yelped out immediately removing his hand shaking it slightly. He glared at him. “You little rat you actually bit me!”

“Yeah I know such a girly move.” Athan admitted hatefully rubbing his neck. “But how else am I suppose to get you to remove your smelling hand from my neck.”

Trevor growled grabbing Athan by his collar and slammed him back into the lockers. Athan winced opening one eye to glare. ‘Should have expected him to do that.’

“You’ll regret that!” The older teen practically shouted out motioning his fist back and moved it towards him.

“Trevor no!” Kendra immediately stood up her gaze wide with fear. ‘Athan!’

“Go ahead hit me!” Athan yelled out. “But remember if you hit me you’ll be the one that gets fined!”

Trevor fidgeted his fist coming to a halt he arched a brow. “What?”

The blue eyed boy eyed him. “You should know this rule by now.” He then sighed. “But I guess you wouldn’t considering no one has stood up to you before. One of the schools’ major rules is that whoever starts a fight and takes the first punch are the ones that get fined.”

He watched the older boy lower his fist. “And believe me that fine is one pricey one.”
Kendra arched a brow. ‘How would he honestly know?’

“And I’m sure your parents wouldn’t want to come home and see a pricey fine that their son willingly brought upon himself. I know my parents wouldn’t appreciate it if I came home with a fine like that.”

Trevor scowled answering. “That only matters if someone sees us.” His voice became low and dangerous. “And no one is around but us.”

Something caught Athan’s attention and grunted looked back at the older teen. “Look again dude.”

“Huh?” The older teen turned his gaze and gaped when he saw a male teacher coming towards them. “Aw crap Mr. Hunz.”

“Still willing to hit me?” He heard Athan ask him smugly getting his attention. “Now seeing that we have an adult witness.”
Trevor just growled hating the fact he had to back down from this fight and he really wanted to hit the underclassmen too!
“Excuse me boys!” He flinched when he heard Mr. Hunz and turned his gaze to the older man. He propped his fists on his hips glaring at the two boys with Kendra gazing up at him still on the ground. “What in the world are you two boys doing?”

“Uh um well…” Trevor quickly noticed their position and immediately let go of Athan. He cleared his throat as the blue eyed boy straightened his shirt. “Oh um he fell on the ground I was merely just helping him up.”

Athan scowled softly glaring at him, which caught the attention of Mr. Hunz. “Is that true young man?”

He immediately raised his gaze but glanced at Trevor noticing him glaring at him. He sighed roughly answering. “Yes that’s true. I was a bit clumsy and he was merely just helping me up.”

Kendra gasped softly. ‘He’s actually defining the creep! Why!? Trevor’s only going to come after him more!’

Mr. Hunz eyed the boys before waving his finger at Trevor. “I have my eyes on you Mr. Walter.”

The older boy narrowed his gaze watching the teacher as he walked pass them. Once he was out of sight Trevor tossed his glare to Athan. “Don’t go thinking you’ve won runt.” Athan’s gaze hardened as he went on. “I will get you for this so you better watch out.”

“Way ahead of you.” Athan remarked hatefully. Trevor scoffed before storming off. He finally sighed and helped Kendra up. “You alright?”
She stared up at him with wide eyes. “Uh yeah.” She took a step back. “But why did you define him? Why did you just tell on him?”
“What a be a tattle tail?” Athan asked sounding offended. “Sorry girl but that ain’t my style.”
“But Athan!”

“Listen Kendra I’m not taking the coward’s way out. That’s never been my style.” His gaze narrowed shining with determination. “I’m going to handle this problem on my own in my own way.”

“Athan.” Kendra sighed shaking her head. “You have no idea what you’re going up against.”

“I do to I’m going up against a creep who thinks anyone will bow down to him. Well sorry to break it to him but I ain’t going to do that.”

“Besides why didn’t you tell someone that you were being harassed by him?”

Kendra jerked back surprised that he shot the question back at her. “W-Well I I um….”
“You wanted to take care of it on you own right?” He answered for her assuming that was the case.

“I did tell people just certain ones.”

“Mainly Alison, Chelsea and Carolyn right?”
“And my family.”
He raised a brow. “Your mother knew about this?”
She sighed nodding. “Then why are you still here?” Athan tilted his head. “I’m sure she would have transferred you to a different school or had you be home taught if you were having this type of problem at school.”

“That’s because I begged her to let me come here.”

“Why?” He asked surprised and shocked by her answer. “Why would you do that?”
Her gaze narrowed. “Because if I left that would only prove to them that I am a coward and that they won. I won’t give them the satisfaction to have them think they won.”
“Looks like two minds think alike.” Athan commented with some amusement. He then walked pass her and she quickly followed appearing beside him. “Kendra I’m not going to walk away from this fight like a coward.” He shot her a determined look. “I’m not leaving your side no matter who stands up against us.”

Kendra stared up at him in awe her heart fluttering at his words. “I’ve been dreaming of this moment for years now and I’m not going to let anyone ruin this moment for me.” His gaze went hard. “Even if it means fighting a bully to get it.”

“Are you honestly thinking about fighting him?” She asked praying he wouldn’t.

“If it’s called for yes.” He answered honestly. “Since I doubt even if I do tell on him it’ll only make him angrier so I have no choice but to fight this one on my own.”

“Do you even have any experience with fighting?”

Athan sighed roughly. “Yes I have.”

The brunette maiden flinched surprised and leaned towards him slightly. “You’ve…actually fought before?”
He gazed down at her. “Yes I’ve had my experiences with fights. In fifth grade I signed up for karate classes and got a black belt then my freshman year I went into martial arts.” He shrugged. “And I combine the two and I am able to fight with ease.”

Kendra took notice of his tone and knew there was something that he was hiding. She eyed him. “You sound like you’ve actually been in a fight before, which doesn’t include the tournaments or those classes.”

She heard him sigh as he answered softly. “Yes I have.”

“What!?” She gaped out with wide eyes not believing what she had just heard. “You…you actually fought someone outside of those classes?”

He nodded murmuring. “Yes.” He then began to explain. “You see I was in and still am into the singing thing it wasn’t that much of a big deal in elementary school because I was a kid and people thought it was cute. Also our elementary school didn’t have a choir but fifth grade a began playing basketball and soccer and of course karate so I was known as the sports fighting guy.”

“So when I got into junior high I signed myself up to be in the choir and that was a big shocker to my classmates. They thought I gave up or grew out of the whole singing thing. At first it wasn’t that much of a big deal but once basketball and soccer seasons came up and I signed up for it that’s when things started to get complicated.”

He released a soft breath. “And this one group of boys that was on my team started the whole thing. They didn’t like the idea of a sports guy singing or being in the choir so they began harassing me hoping I would give up on being in the choir.”

“Can’t a person be into both?” Kendra questioned arching a brow. “Many people do that here.”

“Yes there are lots of people in different schools that do both but apparently to this group you could only choose one. In some cases they didn’t care but in my case they did, because I was one of their star players and they wanted me to stay focus on winning than singing and preparing myself for concerts. But I never caved in but then one of my close friends started blabbing out my secrets to them.”
“What?” She became concerned. “Why would he do that?”

“At first I thought the group blackmailed him somehow but unfortunately I was wrong.” Athan’s gaze narrowed at the memory. “Apparently he was doing it on his own freewill.”

“Why? Why would he do such a thing?”
“Because he too wanted me to give up on the singing. He didn’t like the fact that a boy my age and with my status would actually love singing more than sports.”

Kendra narrowed her eyes. “Well that’s stupid.”

Athan rolled his eyes. “Tell me about it.” He went on. “So my life at school became difficult having a huge group of sports guys coming at me and having one of my close friends turn against me made everything so frustrating for me. Which made me glad I had those karate classes and martial art classes since they helped me get rid of my anger and stress.”

His expression became angry. “But those bastards had gone way to far and I blew my top and pounced on them punching, biting them basically hitting them with everything I had.”

Her stare went wide. “So I got in huge trouble with the school and with my parents.”

“So that’s how you knew about that fine you told Trevor about.” Kendra brought up as the information began to click.

Athan nodded. “Yes that’s how I knew because I got slammed with that fine and damn was that ever so pricey.”

“What did they honestly do or say that would get you to react that way? Especially if you were working so hard to keep yourself from losing your temper.”

The emerald-eyed maiden watched him as he lowered his gaze shyly. He looked away his cheeks suddenly red she noticed his pause and leaned forward until he gazed at her again. “Athan?”
He sighed finally looking at her. “It doesn’t matter now all that mattered is that it did happen and I got in huge trouble for it.” His gaze suddenly narrowed. “But boy was it worth it.”
Kendra tilted her head not sure what he meant by that. Athan didn’t notice. ‘There was no way I was going to let them get away with that.’ His gaze narrowed his anger boiling from the memory. ‘Never would I let them get away with it…ever.’

First hour had begun and the art teacher had instructed Athan and his classmates to begin their rough draft of something that they liked. Athan was busy minding his own business working on his masterpiece. ‘I’ll make it a collage of things. A mixture of sports, karate and music that’s something no one would even think of.’

“Good morning Athan.”

“Huh?” He responded not expecting someone to come and talk to him. He suddenly groaned in displeasure when he met the happy gaze of Brittney. ‘Oh great she’s back?’

“How are you doing on this lovely day?”

Athan stared at her before narrowing his gaze eyeing her. “You’re actually going to speak to me?”

She giggled. “Yes silly of course.” She arched a brow amusingly tilting her head. “What on earth made you think otherwise?”

“Oh I don’t know.” He turned his attention back towards his drawing. “Considering how my brother and I treated you the other day I thought you would have backed off from us.” ‘And I was so hoping that happened.’

“Pfft yeah right.” Brittney reassured him waving her hand slightly. She leaned towards him with her chin propped up on her palm. “Besides I was in the wrong I shouldn’t have said that.” She shrugged chuckling amusingly. “But I just couldn’t help it your brother just looked so cute he reminded me of a little baby.”

Athan glanced a glare at her. “Is that another insult? I swear if it is you’re really pushing yourself more on my bad side.”

She flinched back surprised by his comeback. “No it’s not an insult I promise you.”

He groaned. “In your case it better not be.”

Brittney stared at him astound of what she had just heard from him. But once he looked back at his drawing she sighed shrugging the whole situation off. ‘I shouldn’t be too surprised. He is an older brother so he’s just looking out for his younger sibling.’ She smiled at him. ‘Which is what is making him even hotter, in my book anyway.’

Then something instantly came across her mind, which caused her smile to fade. She looked away slightly. “Say Athan?”
Athan groaned roughly hating the fact she was interrupting him yet again. He shot her a glare. “What is it now?”

“Was it my imagination this morning or were you walking down the halls with that…that Kendra girl?” Brittney questioned him eyeing him angrily.

Athan noticed the tone in her voice and eyed her angrily in return. “That Kendra girl?”
“Yeah you know the curly brown haired chick with green eyes-”

“I know who you’re talking about!” He interrupted abruptly causing her to fidget slightly. His gaze went hard. “And for your information, yes I was walking with her down the halls this morning. Got a problem with that?”
“Well it would all depend if you walked with her willingly or not.” She shrugged. “I mean she could just have been showing you around against your will.” Brittney rubbed her templates. “That girl can be such a sleaze sometimes that it’s a disgrace.”

Athan scowled. “Say that again and you’ll regret it!”

Brittney jumped shocked. “Wh-What…?”

“And I walked with her willingly so I’m that one that’s a disgrace.” He answered with a slight sarcastic tone near the end.

Her gaze went huge at his confession but shook her head. “You really shouldn’t do that you know.”
“And why shouldn’t I do that?” He asked cautiously his voice low and angry.

“Of course you wouldn’t know you’re new.” Brittney reassured him but leaned towards him smiling cockily. “But Kendra is at the bottom of the food chain.” She noticed his raised eyebrow and explained further. “Meaning she’s a social outcast.”

His gaze immediately went hard. “I know what the hell that means!” He furrowed his brow again. “But why? Why is she a social outcast?” ‘Maybe she might clear things up for me…maybe if she doesn’t lie about it.’

Cockiness gleamed in her gaze loving the idea she might make him hers’ yet. “Well it all happened in third grade.”
He raised a brow. “Third grade?”

She nodded. “You see we had a talent show and Kendra was stupid enough to sign herself up for it.”
Athan jerked at that. ‘She signed herself up for a talent show? But that’s when she had her tonsils taken out and her voice was messed up…well that’s what she told me.’

“But like two or a month before the talent show she had her tonsils taken out.” She rubbed her head. “At least that’s what Chelsea and Alison defended her with.” Athan watched her as she sighed going on with her tale. “But anyway when she signed herself up for the talent show all of us were shocked considering how horrid her speaking voice was after her operation…”
The blue eyed boy stared an awe. ‘So she really wasn’t lying about her tonsils.’

“We really didn’t want to imagine how horrible her singing voice would be. But then the talent show came and once she got on stage she just took one long look at the audience and then…bam! She broke down and cried right on stage right in front of everyone.”

Athan gasped softly his gaze wide. “She…she cried?”

Brittney nodded. “Yep.” She sighed shaking her head. “She probably realized right then that her voice was too horrible to show to the whole student body. I tell ya that girl can be really cocky at times.”
His gaze narrowed slightly now puzzled. ‘But I don’t get it. If she truly thought her voice wasn’t good anymore she wouldn’t have signed herself up. Unless she didn’t want to believe it was true.’

“Heh but then that girl had the nerve to try again at the middle school talent show.”
“What?” Athan spoke up now confused raising a brow. “She tried again?”
“Yes and again it ended with the same result her crying right on stage like a little baby that she is.”

The blue eyed boy lowered his gaze taking in her tale. ‘So she developed stage fright? But why how? Sure I can see it in seventh grade but…third? What could have possibly made her break down and cry like that.’

“But of course none of us let her live it down.” He heard Brittney go on grasping his attention.

“What?”

She smirked. “That’s why Kendra is a loser because she is such a cry baby and we don’t find cry babies cool we find them very annoying.”

Athan’s gaze went hard. ‘That would explain why Trevor called Kendra crybaby. But that still doesn’t really explain why he’s harassing her like he is.’

She suddenly sighed pretending so sound sad and disappointment. “She is such a disgrace to have in our class.”

“Excuse me!” Brittney jumped noticing him abruptly stand up. She saw him glaring at her with hatred. “If she’s a disgrace then you’re a double no a triple disgrace to our class!”
“What!?” She jumped up glaring at him. “How rude!”
“Here you are insulting someone when you don’t even know her and yet you are calling me rude!”

Brittney eyed him. “And you know her?”
“As a matter of fact I do!” Athan responded with pride. “Kendra has been my best friend since we were seven!”

“What!?” She gaped out her gaze shooting open in shock.

Athan just snorted before grabbing his sketchbook. “And I absolutely can’t stand people whom talk trash about my friends when they don’t even know a thing about them!” He turned on his heel and retreated from the table. The class watched him not sure what the commotion was all about.

Brittney gasped. ‘Wha-What!? No…this…this can’t be happening! Him and…Kendra…best friends?’

Athan scowled as he sat himself down at a different table. “Finally now I can concentrate.” He began to draw once again his glare on the page. ‘She’s so damn lucky I didn’t loose my cool like I did a year ago. Man did those guys ever regret crossing me when they brought up Kendra. But the least thing I want is to have mom and dad pay for another fine that wouldn’t be fair. Besides’ He suddenly became infuriated when Trevor came to his mind, ‘I have another battle I need to save my energy for.’

First hour finally ended and Athan came out of his room sighing in relief because Brittney hadn’t bugged him since he downgraded her.

‘But I shouldn’t keep my hopes up.’ He gazed up at the ceiling. ‘Since something tells me she’ll be back. She came back even though I practically insulted her yesterday.’

“Athan wait up!”
“Hm?” He glanced behind him as Chelsea appeared next to him. “Oh morning Chelsea.”

She smiled gratefully. “Good morning to you too.” She tilted her head with slight concern. “So how did your art class go this morning? Did Brittney get on your nerves again?”
Athan nodded with a slight groan. “Yep but I insulted her again and she didn’t bug me for the rest of the hour.”
“You insulted her?”
He shot her a glare. “Hey she started it by insulting Kendra! So I was just returning the favor.”
Chelsea groaned in dismay. “I swear these guys just can’t give her a break.” She asked with a depressed concerned look. “What was the insult?”

“She basically called her cry baby because she cried on stage two times.”
“She told you about the talent shows I gather?”

He nodded gazing down at her. “Yes.” He raised a brow. “Mind giving me the full details from your point of view. Since I figure you would know more about what happened than Brittney.”
Chelsea flinched and quickly looked away trying to figure out what to do. Athan watched her as she began to fiddle with her hair. “Chelsea?”

She finally released a soft sigh meeting his gaze. “Guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell you. Her gaze became stern. “But just don’t tell Kendra I told you any of this.”
He stared at her oddly. “Why?”
“She just doesn’t really like us talking about her past all that much. But she wanted to be the one to tell you when she felt she was ready to explain.”

‘Guess that’s understandable.’

“But it could take Kendra months or even years before she’s finally ready to tell you. I don’t want you to be left in the dark until who knows when that’ll happen. Besides…” Sadness and hope filled her gaze, “maybe you can help her.”

“Well I certainly won’t be able to help her if you keep ranting like you are.” Athan responded flatly wanting her to get to the story.

Chelsea flinched. “Oh right of course um well…” She began her tale. “A month or so before the talent show in third grade Kendra had her tonsils taken out and her voice was hard to hear because it was really horrible. A week after the operation it was getting easier and easier to listen to her but Kendra was panicking like crazy.”

Athan arched a brow. “Why?”

“Because she was afraid she had lost her singing voice.”

“Whoa what?” He took a double take on her words. He pointed at her questioning her oddly now confused. “You knew about her singing voice?”

Chelsea raised a brow nodding. “Yes I knew about it she use to sing almost every time she came over or I when I was over. Why would you think otherwise?”

“Well Kendra made it sound like none of you knew about her voice.” Athan explained now very puzzled.

“The only person who doesn’t know about her voice is Carolyn and she even told me and Alison that she did not want Carolyn knowing about her voice.”

“Why?”
“Because knowing Carolyn she would have wanted her to prove it when she knew she couldn’t prove it.”

Athan eyed her. ‘I find that somehow hard to believe.’

“When she was panicking about her voice everyone was reassuring her to wait a few more weeks since her throat was still recovering from the operation. The reassurance worked for a little while but once the second week ended she began panicking because her singing voice still wasn’t the same. As a way to reassure her more her parents took her to the doctor but it was a downfall.”
Athan’s heart sank. ‘Did she really lose her voice?’

“Apparently the operation caused her voice to change so she couldn’t get her voice to go back to what it once was. Kendra became depressed after that but then her dad volunteered to help her get around that.”

“Her dad?” He repeated sounding surprised. ‘But mom said he passed away during that time?’

Chelsea nodded. “Her dad gave her lessons since that type of thing happened to him when he got his tonsils out.” She then smiled. “But thanks to her dad’s lessons Kendra became happy again and signed herself up for the talent show thinking she was ready to show us her new voice.”

“What she didn’t give you a preview?” Athan remarked with a slight chuckle.

“No because she wanted to surprise us.” Chelsea then sighed shaking her head. “But that was a total downfall.”

“What happened?”
“The day of the talent show Kendra came to school upset and angry not something we were expecting from someone who had been excited about that day for days.”
The blue eyed boy raised a brow. “What happened to her?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know but as the day went on her mood changed from angry to upset and sad guilt.”
“Guilt?”

Chelsea nodded. “Then the talent show came she was the eight person to appear on stage. But when she got on stage she glanced around and then her face grew sad. Alison, Josh and I became confused so we looked around to see what was bothering her. That’s when we noticed both her mom and dad weren’t there.”

Athan’s gaze went wide as she continued. “Then at that moment I noticed she began to shake and then slammed down on the stage and began crying screaming bloody murder.” She lowered her gaze feeling her heart break at the memory. “It was a horrible sight to see.”
His gaze became sad and sympathetic. “I could imagine.” ‘It’s hard to see her sad now I can’t even imagine how horrible I would have felt if I saw her right then.’

“Once the show was over Alison and I along with Josh raced to the back to meet up with Kendra but only to find Mrs. Rivers there…alone.”

Athan gulped feeling his heart sink getting the feeling he knew where this was going. Chelsea went on hugging her shoulders. “We then learned at that exact moment that her father passed away.”
His gaze became sad. ‘I can’t believe this. After recovering from her tonsils and maybe finally getting her voice back all because of her father and he dies! I can only imagine how awful she might have felt.’

“And Kendra has never been the same since then.” He heard his friend go on snapping him out of his thoughts. “Sure she’s not as bad as she use to be. There are days when she’s can be so happy that you think she’s finally coped but then there are days she can get so depressed that you think she’s a walking corpse.” She shook her head. “What really bugs me the most is that she doesn’t tell us anything about how she feels. I know she doesn’t want everyone to worry about her and so she keeps her feelings bottled up not releasing them or expression them. But still it’s just making us worry about her more because we all know she’s suffering deep inside.”

“Why is she acting this way?” Athan suddenly questioned. “I know she misses him and I understand that but why is she having a hard time coping with the lose.”

“I don’t know. That’s one thing she never told me I even asked Alison and she just simply said she had no idea either.”

‘Well that explains some things but it doesn’t explain everything. There are still some pieces missing from this puzzle. Like why she is having a hard time coping with her dad’s death? Why Trevor is tormenting her so much? Why she says her voice is horrible when she signed up for a talent show after a month of lessons her father gave her? She surely would have known not to sign up if she knew her voice was bad so why would she sign up?’

“There you two are!”
“Hm?” The two raised their gazes finding Kendra smiling as she strolled up to them. “I was wondering what was taking you two so long.”

His gaze became stern. ‘And I’m getting the feeling the only one who can answer these questions is Kendra. That maybe a hard task but…’ Determination filled his gaze clenching his fists, ‘I will get those answers out of her. I want to help her. I want to help her get rid of this pain so she can get back to the happy girl we all use to know! I will accomplish that no matter what it takes!’

“I wanna make it right, that is the way

To turn my life around, today is the day

Am I the type of guy who means what I say?

Bet on it, bet on it

Bet on it, bet on it” –Sung by Zac Efron from High School Musical 2

Yes! I’m finally done with this chapter! I pray this chapter was alright. I’ll admit some of it seemed a bit…weird to me but I tried to make it as good and juicy as I could. So now you all got a bit of a peek of what’s been going on in both Kendra’s and Athan’s lives. Now the next chapter will be when the two hangout after a month of being in school not telling you much more than that.

Anyway hope to see you in the next chapter!

DON’T FORGET TO REVIEW ME!