Jin carefully raised the tension over the next few days. With Karson's help, he found the most rebellious of the Maroons and had them strike little plots against the Academy, frustrating the Blues since their usual culprits didn't match.

                Amelia sent information she'd stolen from Mr. Constance to the headmaster, and it must have worked. Jordan kept complaining to me that Mr. Constance would do a much better job leading the Academy, and that Headmaster Constance needed to step down and stop getting in the way.

                Jin had it arranged so that several Maroons from several classes would be missing from their classrooms when the fire alarm went off. I'd gotten the information from Jordan so we'd know where Leon would be and when he'd be helping in the classroom.

                As Jordan and I walked into first period together, I felt my heart racing. A lot could go wrong today, and the consequences whether things went right or wrong would be bad. But we needed to do this.

                I took my seat, glancing at the clock. I'd been getting up every day around the same time to stretch my leg in all my classes to have consistency on my side. I'd been playing up how stiff it was around Jordan so he wouldn't be suspicious.

                Mr. Townsend entered the room, clapping his hands together to get our attention. "Students, another group of Maroon delinquents snuck out of the dorms last night and put graffiti on the admission's building. Please, remember your duty to keep them in line."

                That hungry tension was thick in the air as the Blues nodded. Some of them looked restless, ready to go out and hunt down the Maroons.

                Lunch had been incredibly tense, Blues and Maroons on the edge of fights. Today it would all boil over, and the teachers were unknowingly fueling it.

                Mr. Townsend started his lesson and I pretended to pay attention, my eyes sliding the clock every few minutes. I couldn't be late to pulling the alarm. The Maroons would be leaving their classes soon to cover for me. I had to be on time.

                When the clock finally hit the time I needed, I stood up, slowly stretching my leg as I grabbed my cane. I limped out of the room, Mr. Townsend not even paying attention to me by now.

                I checked to make sure no one was in the hallway as I reached the fire alarm. There was a bathroom just a door over that I'd dart into once the alarm was pulled.

                Jin had given me a rubber glove last night to put me at ease about my finger prints. I pulled the glove on, took a deep breath, and pulled the fire alarm.

                It blared to life as I forced my legs to move. I entered the bathroom, yanked the glove off, and flushed it down the toilet as the fire alarm continued to scream overhead.

                I left the bathroom, the hallways filled with Blues, Maroons, and teachers. I joined the crowd, finding my way back to Mr. Townsend's class.

                "A drill?" I asked Jordan.

                He shrugged helplessly. "Mr. Townsend seemed confused. If it's a drill, he didn't know about it."

                "Great," I grumbled, dragging my leg along. "There's too many people. My leg is killing me."

                "You can stretch it out when we reach the courtyard," Jordan said as we left the academic building. "This will probably take a few minutes, anyways."

                We filed down to the courtyard, where teachers were keeping the Blues and Maroons strictly separated. The Blues were mingling with each other and talking, but the teachers were yelling at the Maroons to stay quiet and form lines with their classes.

                I looked around until I spotted white hair. Jin was standing near the edge of the Blues, impassive as ever. I spotted Karson, Lev, and Amelia spread throughout the Maroons.

                "Hey, isn't that the kid you guys get pissed over?" I said, nodding as Isaac scampered up to Jin and two other Maroons, talking eagerly with them.

                "What?" Jordan looked over and his expression darkened. He reached out and grabbed Lenny's arm. "Len, look. Isaac Ruvolo is with the Maroons again."

                "Seriously? Let's go get him. We could get in good with Mr. Ruvolo if we keep his brat away from those delinquents," Lenny said. "Besides, I'm sick of them. They're getting high and mighty."

                "Wow, it would sure suck to go to school with high and mighty teenagers who think they run the whole damn place," I said in surprise. "Sounds like a nightmare."

                Jordan and Lenny ignored that, shoving through the crowd and grabbing several friends as they went. I knew this was the point where I should be getting to the edge of the crowd, but I crept closer to Jin and Isaac.

                I could see Leon Constance talking with a teacher I didn't recognize. There were a few security guards around, but not enough to break up a big fight. So far, so good.

                I watched as Jordan and his friends approached Isaac and the Maroons. Lenny grabbed Isaac, yanking him backwards and snapping something at the Maroons.

                Jin stepped forward and replied to whatever Lenny had said, which just seemed to piss the Blues off. Lenny shoved Jin backwards, and I watched as the teachers purposely turned away and pretended not to notice.

                My heart rate picked up as I realized a flaw in the plan we hadn't counted on. Leon Constance was such a big part of this, but none of us thought about the possibility of him breaking up a fight before it could turn into a riot.

                Shit, shit, shit. That would ruin everything.

                I hurried out of the crowd, as fast as my bad leg could take me. I went up to Leon, having absolutely no plan but knowing I needed to distract him so Jin could get a fight started.

                "Hey, you're the headmaster's kid, yea?" I said, approaching Leon.

                Leon turned away from the teacher he'd been talking to. "Hm? Oh, I remember you from the Peer Program. Yes, I'm Headmaster Constance's son."

                Think, Kai, think. I just had to get him talking long enough to keep his attention away from the crowd. If his eyes wandered, he'd see the scene growing more restless behind him.

                "Um, I just, I heard you pushed through for acceptance of gay kids on campus," I said, my mind kicking into overdrive. Make shit up, Kai, do whatever it took to keep him focused on me. "How LGBT friendly is Constance Academy?"

                Leon gave me a tired smile. "Not friendly enough. I'm working on it. It's certainly gotten more accepting, though some might find that hard to believe. When I was a student here, I could've counted the openly gay Blues on one hand."

                "I haven't met any other LGBT students," I said. "Just trying to get a hot boyfriend, you know? I take it they're mostly Maroons, though. Religious parents who dump their kids here."

                "If anyone gives you, or anyone you know, problems for your sexuality, please report it to me," Leon said, looking serious. "I won't let that go unpunished. I may not work at the Academy, but I will make sure Headmaster Constance takes action."

                "I doubt he'll take action," I said. "And I doubt Mr. Constance will, either."

                I looked past Leon, seeing the surge of Maroons moving forward, the Blues coming to meet them, and a few fists flying. The teachers had turned away, thinking the Blues would handle it, so no one had moved to stop them yet, and it was quickly escalating. Their yells blended with the loud chatter of the students and the still-blaring fire alarm.

                "I'll make them take action," Leon said. "Constance Academy should be a safe campus. I'm working hard to reform a lot around here, especially for the Maroons."

                The fire alarm suddenly shut off, and the silence didn't last long as the yelling from the crowd erupted. Leon turned curiously and his eyes widened at the sight.

                In that short time of me distracting him, the Blues and Maroons had blurred together in a flurry of yelling and fighting.

                It was rippling through the crowd, kids shoving their way through, fists flying, fights spreading like wildfire. I couldn't even pick out Jin in the wild crowd.

                "Hey," Leon said in surprise, grabbing the teacher next to him.

                The man turned and his eyes widened as well. "Security!"

                The security guard closest to us looked over and had to do a double-take. He yelled something into his walkie-talkie as he rushed at the crowd, trying to separate the closest fight.

                "We have a right to put them in their place!" a Blue yelled as another security guard tried to yank him away from the Maroons.

                A ripple of agreement echoed from the Blues close to him. They charged at the Maroons, and the Maroons charged right back.

                "Stay back," Leon ordered me.

                Isaac squeezed his way out of the crowd, scurrying over to us. "Kai! Leon!"

                "Isaac Ruvolo," Leon said in surprise. He pulled Isaac behind him. "Stay here with Kai. Both of you get back to a safe distance."

                He disappeared, swallowed up by the crowd. Isaac and I started taking steps back, but Isaac grabbed my sleeve.

                "Jin's in trouble," he said urgently. "Karson is trying to get to him, but they know that Karson and Jin together are deadly. They're keeping Karson away so he can't save Jin."

                "I can't help him," I said, looking down at my leg. I'd never make it through that crowd.

                But Isaac's grip on my sleeve tightened. "Kai, he's scared! Something is wrong!"

                Scared.

                He'd been abused by other kids his whole life. He'd been beaten by them so badly for so long that his solution had been to repress his feelings and drink away whatever he couldn't hide.

                And now, Jin was stuck in the middle of a riot. Kids were hitting kids all around him. He was no doubt a big target, and an obvious one with his white hair. He was reliving his worst nightmares.

                But what could I do?

                I felt frustrated tears stinging my eyes. I couldn't save Jin. Not with my leg this bad. If this had happened before my accident, I could've easily darted my way through this riot and gotten to Jin, maybe even helped him out of the fight.

                But I couldn't do that, not anymore. If my cane got knocked out of my hand, if someone hit my leg, if I so much as stumbled over something on the ground, I'd be down.

                "I can't save him," I snapped, shoving Isaac away from me.

                "Someone has to save Jin! I can't!" Isaac said, his voice desperate. "I'm too small! And if I get hurt, that ruins part of the plan. Please, Kai. Please save him!"

                Hesitation tore through me. I'd be risking my leg if I went into that crowd. I'd be risking Jin if I didn't.

                "He's fighting alone!" Isaac cried.

                Alone. Jin had been fighting alone for years.

                He'd been friendless and tortured for years. If I left him now, he'd be alone again, and at such a fragile time. Just a few days ago, we'd assured him that he had friends who would fight for him. If no one helped him in this situation, he might never let himself try in relationships again.

                I pushed past Isaac and threw myself into the crowd.

                It was chaos. Kids were fighting, screaming, running. Security guards were yelling and trying to separate kids, but there were too many. The teachers stood on the edges of the crowd, looking helpless and frightened. Some kids were crying, some were bleeding, and some were desperately trying to fight their way out of the crowd.

                The Maroons were outnumbered, but they were also fighters. They were used to the abuse here, so they fought back with surprising force. The Blues tried to use their numbers against the Maroons, but neither side was giving easily.

                My eyes scanned rapidly for the familiar white hair. Everything was a blur of motion, and I would've missed Jin if he hadn't been standing still when my eyes passed over him.

                Several Blues, including Jordan, circled him. Jin's features were sculpted into that impassive expression, but his hands trembled and there was fear in his eyes. He was trying to watch all of them at once, but he was surrounded.

                His nose was bleeding and there was a cut above his eyebrow. Jordan and three other Blues were bleeding, glaring at Jin.

                "Jin!" I cried, knowing he couldn't hear me over the crowd.

                Two Blues jumped at him, tackling him to the ground. Jin curled up, hands over his head as they beat him, the others springing forward to help.

                I hurried forward, as fast as I could with my bad leg. I yelped as someone knocked my cane from my hand, nearly losing my balance but catching myself against a Blue.

                Two Maroons lunged for me, but one was suddenly shoved into the other and they both toppled to the ground. I looked up in surprise at Karson.

                "The crip is with us," Karson said, grinning despite the blood on his face and his cracked glasses.

                He caught my arm and helped me forward towards Jin. Three Blues lurched forward and tackled Karson off of me.

                "Get Jin!" Karson said to me as he tried to fend them off.

                I left him, limping forward, praying my balance held. I reached the Blues, wishing I had my cane to get them off of him with.

                Think, Kai. How the hell was I supposed to get so many Blues off of Jin?

                I looked at his curled up, trembling form and my thoughts wiped from my mind. I threw myself forward, my body slamming three Blues off of him and my leg shooting into a flare of agony as I hit the ground. I let out a yell, clutching at my bad leg.

                I opened my eyes, looking up as Jin scrambled to his feet. He stared at me with uncomprehending eyes before moving into action.

                He grabbed Jordan first, flinging him into the crowd so hard that Jordan took down two other kids as he fell. Jin ducked away from a Blue girl and moved quick to punch her in the chin. She stumbled away in pain, and Jin hooked a leg around her ankle, pulling her off balance.

                He hurried over to me as the other Blues tried to recover. He knelt down, grabbing a handful of my vest.

                "Can you stand?" he demanded.

                "No," I hissed, rubbing my leg.

                "This is going to hurt," he said, and lifted me into his arms.

                I yelped at the pain in my leg. Jin struggled under my weight, but he pulled me up against his chest. I wrapped my arms around his neck, gritting my teeth at the pain.

                Jin lowered me to the ground, pulling my arm across his shoulders and wrapping another around my waist. I leaned heavily on him and we started our slow way through the crowd.

                Jin led us through the section with the most Maroon kids. Some of them eyed us like they were going to attack, but most left us alone. If one of their own was helping a Blue, they probably didn't see me as a target anymore.

                We stumbled out of the crowd and Jin carefully lowered me to the ground. He kept a hand on my back as I tried to stretch out my leg, wincing in pain as I did so.

                "You shouldn't have come into the crowd," he said.

                "Isaac said you were scared," I said, meeting his eyes. "I wasn't going to leave you alone in there."

                Jin ran a hand through his hair. He yanked me into a tight hug, too much chaos around for anyone to pay attention to the two of us.

                "It was like..." His voice was choked, and he struggled to compose it. "It was like I was a kid all over again."

                "But this time you weren't fighting alone," I said, hugging him back just as tight.

                "You saved me." He pulled away, looking into my eyes and resting his hand lightly against my leg. "I told you you're not useless just because of your leg."

                "Are you okay?" I said, eyeing his injuries.

                He stood up. "I have to get to Karson. They were beating him. Lev and Amelia, they should be able to hold out a little longer. But Kar...I have to get to him."

                "Jin!" I grabbed his pant leg before he could dart back into that mess. "Stop! You're no help to anyone have a panic attack while they beat the shit out of you!"

                "I can't leave Karson!" Jin said fiercely, and his eyes widened at his own words.

                "If you go back in there, you'll end up in the same position I found you in. I can't help you again, Jin." I gestured to my leg. "I can't even stand up. I lost my can in the crowd."

                Jin bit his lip, hard. I shook my head at him.

                "Karson saved me," I said. "He saved me so that I could save you. He told me to help you. He wouldn't want you to jump back in there."

                "Lev and Amelia," Jin said. "I can't leave them. Lev isn't a fighter."

                "They'll be okay," I said. "If anyone breathes in their direction, I think Amelia will beat the shit out of them."

                "Jin! Kai!"

                Isaac ran over and flung his arms around Jin. Jin stumbled back in surprise, looking down at the young boy hugging him.

                "Personal space," Jin said, pulling his impassive expression back out now that we weren't alone anymore. He pushed Isaac away. "What do you want, pest? Have you seen the others?"

                "Mr. Constance is here," Isaac said. "He can't get control. I haven't seen Leon. I haven't seen Karson, Lev, or Amelia, either."

                Jin looked towards the riot again, but this time Isaac grabbed his vest. He shot Jin a surprisingly commanding look.

                "Don't go back in there," he said sternly.

                "I wasn't planning on it. They can handle themselves." Jin shrugged, but Isaac wasn't fooled. He kept a grip on Jin's vest.

                A sudden, loud sound pierced the air. The crowd was startled, kids abandoning their fighting to find the source of the noise.

                Leon Constance stood on top of a campus cop car, a small set of speakers at his feet. He had his phone in his hand, the loud noise continuing, kids covering their ears.

                I covered mine as the noise became higher pitched, growing louder as Leon bent and turned the speakers up. Jin and Isaac both winced and covered their ears, Jin kneeling next to me.

                As kids hurried to cover their ears, Leon said something into a walkie-talkie. The security lurched into the crowd, pulling kids apart and forming a human barrier between the Blues and Maroons. The remaining security hurried into the crowd to pull out the injured kids and lead them to safety.

                Leon waited a minute before turning the noise off. A security guard passed a megaphone into Leon's hands and he straightened up, facing the crowd.

                I spotted Mr. Constance standing at the edge of the crowd, looking furious as he glared at his brother. Leon didn't even seem to notice Mr. Constance.

                "Students," Leon said. "The fighting stops now. You'll all return to your respective dorms. We'll be speaking with the person in charge of each of the dorm buildings, and a meeting in each building will be held to address what happened today. Classes for today are cancelled, and everyone is to remain in their dorm rooms until further notice. If you're injured, please find a security guard and they'll escort you to the health center."

                Some kids approached the security guards and were led out of the crowd. Leon waited a moment so the injured could be located before speaking again.

                "This is inexcusable behavior. I don't care what color your vest is; you are all students. You are all people. Attacking someone because their vest reduces them to a stereotype in your mind is horrible. Look at the students around you. Don't look at their vests. Look at their faces. Look how scared, how angry, how tired everyone is. This is going too far. No one here is better than anyone else. No one here is all good or all bad. I am ashamed to have witnessed this fight today. Some of the kindest, most loving people I knew wore maroon vests. How dare you reduce someone to the color they were assigned. If you judge someone based on the vest they wear, you are not as good of a person as you think you are." Leon let that sink in for a few moments. "Now, security guards will walk you back to your dorms. Use your time away from classes to think, to really think hard, about how you should treat people. Not how you should treat Blues or Maroons, but how you should treat other human beings."

                He set the megaphone down and the security guard helped him off the cop car. Leon didn't hesitate; he plunged right into the crowd to help the injured students get help.

                "Do you need to go to the health center?" a guard asked, coming up to the three of us.

                "He does," Jin said, getting to his feet. "He needs his cane though. It got lost in the crowd. I'll go find it."

                He left, and the guard slowly helped me to my feet, letting me lean against him. Jin returned a few minutes later, helping Karson walk and with my cane in his hand.

                He held the cane out to me and I took it. Jin shrugged Karson off and shoved him at the guard.

                "You're injured," the guard said to Jin.

                "I'll manage," Jin said and disappeared into the crowd before the guard could say anything else.

                "He went to find Amelia and Lev," Karson said, rubbing his ribs and wincing. He squinted through his cracked glasses. "I haven't seen them since the fight started."

                My limp was painfully slow, and my leg dragged uselessly behind me as we walked. The security guard took pity on me and got us into a campus cop car, driving us down to the health center and helping me inside.

                Isaac and Karson sat next to me in the crowded waiting room. Kids with more serious injuries were taken in quickly, while kids with minor things like nose bleeds or split lips were left waiting.

                A nurse hurried to take Karson back when she saw him rubbing his ribs, and another nurse came and got me, shooing Isaac away when she realized he was uninjured. They brought me back to a bustling room filled with cots and curtains.

                "My leg was crippled before I got here," I said as she helped me onto a cot and pulled the curtains around us. "I just fell in the crowd."

                "No one hit your leg?" she asked.

                I shook my head. "No. It just hurts from the fall. I'll be fine. Just give me my pain meds. My name is Kai Humphrey. I should be in the system."

                She left me and returned a few minutes later with my pain medication. She handed it to me and hurried me out of the room with instructions to come back tomorrow if I was still in pain.

                I took my pain meds dry and limped my way out of the health center. It was too crowded in there for me.

                Jin, Lev, and Amelia were sitting outside the health center. Jin had cleaned the blood off his face. Amelia's cheek was swelling and Lev had a black eye, but they looked okay other than those injuries.

                "Kai, you're okay," Lev said in relief.

                "Okay isn't the word I'd use," I said, wincing at the pain in my leg.

                "How's Karson?" Amelia asked, frowning. "We couldn't find him or Jin during the fight. Lev backed us to the edge when it started to get bad."

                "They're treating Karson now," I said. "Fuck, I just want a nap."

                "I'll walk you back to the dorm so you don't fall," Jin said, standing up. "There's still a lot of confusion, but people seem impressed by Leon's ability to stop that. Apparently, Mr. Constance just yelled at students and tried to have the security break it up."

                "A security guard took Isaac back to his room," Lev said. "It won't be long before word of what happened gets out if Headmaster Constance doesn't act fast."

                "I bet he got to work on a cover-up story as soon as a call about the fight came in," Jin said. "He'll launch a massive investigation into what happened. He'll find me by tomorrow."

                "He'll find us," Lev said, standing up. Amelia stood up and nodded.

                "Throw yourselves under the bus and ruin your futures. I don't care," Jin said.

                "You came looking for us," Lev said. "We won't forget that, Jin."

                "Shut up." Jin came over to me and nodded at me to walk.

                We started down the path as Lev and Amelia went back towards their dorm. Jin had his hat back on, white hair peeking out from under it.

                "Are you okay?" I asked.

                "Says the one who can barely walk," Jin said. "I'm fine."

                "You can't drink this pain away," I said.

                "I could," he said. "I won't, but I could."

                "Do you think Headmaster Constance will come asking me questions?" I asked.

                Jin shrugged. "Maybe. He might ask if you overheard anything in the Peer Program. But everything went off like we planned. The fight escalated more than I thought it would, but everything else was expected."

                We fell into comfortable silence, both of us lost in our own thoughts as we walked at an agonizingly slow pace. I had faced my physical disability today. Jin had faced his traumas. I'm sure both of us felt equally exhausted, physically and mentally.

                We reached the dorm after a little. Jin looked at me in silence.

                "Don't stare at me," I said in annoyance. "I just broke my fucking leg for your dumbass."

                "I didn't ask you too," he said, but he kissed me.

                "Let me guess: 'We're not dating Kai, and I don't care'," I said in a cheap imitation of his voice.

                "Well, I don't care," he said, and walked away.

                I stared after him. "Did you just ask me out?"

                He shrugged but didn't turn around, just kept on walking. I shook my head in disbelief.

                "You're a fucking asshole and I won't let you forget it the whole relationship," I called after him before heading into the dorm building.

                I went up to my room, but Jordan wasn't there. He was probably down at the health center, though I'd been too distracted to look for him.

                My pain medication had kicked in, so I crawled onto my bed and laid down. Now we just had to wait for the aftermath. But even as everything fell into chaos, Jin and I had both made peace with an ugly part of ourselves today.