"Where are you going?"

                I looked over at my roommate, Dylan. After everything settled a bit, I put in a request to get rid of Jordan. Caroline and the headmaster approved it, moving Jordan to a new room so I could keep my first floor accommodations. My new roommate ended up being a fairly decent kid named Dylan. He minded his own business, rarely bothered me, and knew to take a hint if I didn't feel like talking to him.

                "I'm going to Jin's," I said.

                It was common knowledge around campus now that I was dating Jin. The Blues had given me shit at first, but as Caroline started making changes, they left me alone. She didn't take well to homophobia on the campus.

                "Your future headmaster is a gay man," she'd said during an assembly. "I dare you to call him a faggot and see what happens to you."

                That had calmed things down pretty fast. In fact, a lot of the work Caroline was doing was easing the tensions. She planned to have the Blues and Maroons work together starting next year, but for now, she was just focusing on preventing another big fight.

                "Oh, have fun," Dylan said.

                He and I had packed up our room today. We were dressed in our uniforms since we'd had an assembly this morning, but today was the day we finally got to leave Constance Academy.

                I left the dorm building, walking my way towards Jin's. The physical education program had been frustrating at first, but my teacher was surprisingly patient with me and in the end, I felt like I could walk just a little better.

                I knew I'd never walk without a cane again, but it was nice to have my bad leg feel a little stronger. I could walk longer without it getting sore now. I'd never be the same outdoors Kai I used to be before the accident, but at least now I could take a little walk without wanting to chop my own leg off.

                I reached Jin's dorm and he looked up at me. He was leaning on the wall by the door.

                "Hurry up," he said, pushing the brim of his hat up. He had a straw in his mouth, and he pushed it to the side as I approached.

                "Let us in," I said.

                He swiped his I.D. and we entered the dorm. I took the elevator up and met him at his room.

                We entered, and the others looked over at me. Karson was sitting on his bed, Lev and Amelia sat at his desk, and Isaac was lying on Jin's bed. They're room was packed up and ready to go.

                "Crip," Karson said, grinning. "You won't get to see us every day anymore."

                "Thank god," I said in relief. 

                "Rude. I think you're going to miss me," Karson said.

                "I'm going to miss the toilets more than I miss you," I said.

                "Lev, call 911," Amelia said urgently, shaking him. "I need to report a murder."

                "Oh, shut up," Karson said, flipping her off.

                "What are you guys planning over the summer?" Lev asked.

                Jin shrugged. "Whatever happens, happens."

                "I'm going to call up my old friends," I said. I owed them an apology for the way I pushed them away. If they didn't forgive me, that was fine. But they used to be my best friends, and I owed them an apology.

                Karson leaned against the wall. "My counsellor hooked me up with a new therapist in my hometown. And I want to take my dad on vacation somewhere."

                "Lev and I are going to hang out," Amelia said, smiling widely. "We're going to join a summer volleyball team to make friends in our town."

                "I'm going to help my dad around work," Isaac said proudly.

                "And when his employees call you a bastard?" Karson said.

                "Then I'll just smile and tell them to be nicer to their future boss," Isaac said, that sweet smile on his face. "I'm used to it after you, glasses."

                "When you're rich, don't forget us. I expect coffee every week from you," I said.

                "I'm already rich," Isaac said in confusion.

                "Spoiled little bastard," Karson said, shaking his head.

                "Are you two going to meet up over the summer?" Amelia asked.

                Jin glanced at me and shrugged. "Probably. Kai feels the need to follow me everywhere."

                "Wow, I hate it when my boyfriend wants to be anywhere near me," I said.

                He pulled the straw out of his mouth, holding it between his fingers like a cigarette. He stepped closer to me and shook his head.

                "Shut up," he said and kissed me.

                "The damn PDA," Karson said.

                "This isn't PDA. This is my room, and I can kiss whoever I want in it," Jin said, putting the straw back between his lips.

                "I better be the only person you're kissing in here," I said, glaring at him.

                "Unfortunately," Jin said, taking my hand in his.

                I looked around the room. We'd all come so far since I got here. Karson, despite his mocking of it, ended up liking his counsellor, and ended up tentatively talking to his brother again, though their relationship was as unstable as Karson used to be.

                Amelia ended up thriving in the computer club. She made friends with the kids there, who found her awkward social attempts funny and her computer skills impressive. Lev was learning to step back and let her grow without his help.

                Isaac had stood up to his parents, telling them to trust him and his decisions. He was mature for his age, and he could handle being friends with us without ruining his whole future.

                And Jin.

                Jin, who had come here a traumatized drunk. He was sober now, and he was learning how to express his emotions. He was awful at it, that was for sure. But he was making an honest attempt, especially whenever we spent time alone. It might take him years to recover from everything that had been done to him and that he'd done to himself, but I was confident he would heal himself with time.

                Lev and I had also forced Jin to start eating better. He'd only fainted one more time since that night I hurt my leg catching him. His hands didn't shake as much anymore. He'd abandoned his armbands, learning to live with the scars of his past.

                Karson peeked out of the window. "Uh-oh, parents are starting to show up. We should head out there and get this over with."

                "That's so cute. He's so excited to see his dad," Amelia gushed.

                Karson shot her a glare. "Fuck off, Amelia."

                "I just got up here," I said in annoyance.

                "Oh, the horror of taking the elevator back down," Karson said.

                "Karson!" Lev said in exasperation. "Honestly, you guys could try having a little empathy, you know."

                "Nah," Jin said. "This isn't a room for empathy."

                I punched him in the arm and left their room, heading to the elevator. I took it down and met them at the door, the six of us heading outside together.

                Kids were outside greeting their parents. We stood in a group together, looking around for ours.

                I'd told my parents to meet me at this dorm. I'd told them about my relationship with Jin, and carefully explained him to them so they wouldn't be surprised when they met him. For all his progress, Jin still had a long way to go, and he wasn't exactly Mr. Charming.

                "Hey, you better spend time with me this summer," I said to Jin.

                "I will," he said. "Only so you'll leave me alone about it, though."

                "Mhm." I kissed his cheek.

                "Dad!" Karson said, hurrying forward.

                He threw his arms around a man. The man hugged Karson tightly, looking ready to burst into tears. He pulled away, eyeing Karson before pulling him in for another hug.

                "Karson," he said, stroking Karson's hair, his voice choked. "I missed you. I'm so happy to have you back home." He pulled away from Karson and smiled at Jin. "Jin! How are you?"

                "Sober and still somehow putting up with your son," Jin said.

                Mr. Wylie gave a hearty laugh, putting his arm around Karson. "Kar's a handful, but he's a great boy."

                "Not that you're biased or anything," Karson said.

                "Out of my way, I see my dad," Amelia said, shoving Karson aside and dragging Lev with her. "Dad!"

                "Amelia!" a man said, throwing his arms around her. Lev hugged the couple walking with the man, and then the kids swapped so Lev could hug Amelia's dad and she could hug Lev's parents.

                "You're not going to get hyper and emotional, right?" Jin said.

                Isaac shook his head. "Nope. I saw my parents last week so they could take me out to dinner. Oh, but I see them!"

                Isaac hurried off to go hug his parents, leaving me alone with Jin. We looked around for our parents as the others caught up with theirs.

                "How do you usually react when they pick you up?" I asked.

                Jin shrugged. "My mom hugs me, my dad avoids making eye contact, and we go home and go back to awkwardly living in the same house."

                "Jin?"

                We looked over at the couple there. Jin's mother hurried forward and pulled him into her arms, looking shocked when he hugged her back. She smiled a little and hugged him tighter.

                "We missed you at home, Jin," she said, pulling away from him.

                "It'll be good to have you back," Mr. Amano said, looking at Jin. He bit his lip and pulled Jin into his arms, squeezing his eyes shut. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Jin. I should've helped you all those years ago. You're so strong."

                Jin seemed at a loss for words, looking to me helplessly. I just shrugged at him. Like he always said, this wasn't my problem.

                Jin awkwardly squirmed out of his dad's arms. "The past is the past. I don't care." He glanced at me. "This is Kai. We're dating."

                "You're..." His mom looked surprised.

                I shot Jin a look. "Did you just come out to your parents?"

                "It never came up before," Jin said, shrugging.

                "It's nice to meet you," Mrs. Amano said, shaking my hand and giving me a warm smile. "I apologize if Jin has been rude at all. He...shows his affection in strange ways."

                "Shut up," Jin said.

                "See? Like that. As a child, he would've never told me to shut up," Mrs. Amano said.

                "Yea, trust me, I've learned he's a secretly affectionate asshole," I said.

                "Shut up. Go find your parents," Jin said.

                "I don't have to," I said, spotting them and waving them over. "They're right there."

                "Kai," mom said, hugging me. "Oh, I missed you. I missed you so much."

                "That could've been avoided by just not sending me here at all," I pointed out. "By the way, that's Jin. We're dating, though he'll tell you he doesn't care if you ask him about it."

                "Hey, I'm Jin and I don't care," Jin said, nodding at them.

                "He secretly cares a lot," I said.

                Dad looked from my cane to my leg. "Was this place good for you, Kai? You seemed happier as the weeks went on."

                "Yea," I grumbled reluctantly. "It was good for me."

                And in the end, it was. With Caroline starting to run things, Maroons had an easier time. Jin told me that while the abuse certainly hadn't stopped in the classroom, it was getting lessened. He figured Caroline and Leon would make their bigger changes next year when they could work together. Caroline had done her part to prevent any more fights, but she and her brother would start fixing things for real in the coming years.

                Jin was actually optimistic about the future of Constance Academy. The more he saw Caroline in action and Leon around campus, the more he believed that they were the best choices to run the Academy. They seemed to genuinely care about the students, and Leon made a personal effort to speak with Maroons about the changes they wanted to see.

                Without Mr. Constance promising rewards to Blues, they stopped beating down the Maroons so hard. There was nothing in it for them, and no one encouraging them anymore. It still happened, sure, but Caroline made public displays of punishing that behavior to keep it to a minimum. Social punishment was still a problem at the Academy, but the mob mentality was starting to die down now that it was met with negative consequences.

                We looked up as the others came back over. Isaac was dragging his parents along behind him.

                "Mom, dad, these are my friends," he introduced with a bright smile. "That's Jin, Karson, Kai, Amelia, and Lev."

                "It's nice to meet you," Lev said with a smile.

                "Hey, we're the ones corrupting your kid," Karson said, wincing when Jin punched him. "Ow, it was a joke, Jin! Well, mostly."

                "Karson!" Lev shot Karson a glare.

                "Mr. Ruvolo, we won't let Karson corrupt Isaac. Isaac is too precious," Amelia said, pulling Isaac into her arms.

                Isaac pouted. "Stop treating me like a child!"

                "You're nine," Jin said. "You are a child."

                Mr. Ruvolo looked doubtful, but he forced a smile for Isaac. He and his wife turned to talk to the others' parents.

                "So we all get to go home," Karson said as we grouped together again. "No more rooming with that drunk asshole."

                "Shut up," Jin said.

                "We're going to meet up over the summer. I'll hunt you all down if I have to," Amelia threatened.

                "Hey, don't your parents own two four wheelers? We could race," Karson said, nudging Jin.

                "Don't volunteer my house," Jin said. "I don't want to host you idiots."

                "Wow, yea, I love racing," I said dryly.

                "They can ride two people. I'll drive. Your leg will be fine," Jin said.

                "I think Jin just agreed to hosting us," Amelia said.

                "Shit," Jin said with a sigh.

                "Yes! Party at Jin's house!" Amelia cheered.

                Jin's mom glanced over and smiled. "Jin, I think that'll be nice. It'll be good to have your friends over. You are not spending the summer locked up in your room."

                "Shut up," Jin said. "Locked up in my room is better than annoyed by these people."

                "Us? Annoying?" Karson said in surprise. "You're starting to sound like Adam Constance."

                "Hey, speaking of Constance," I said, nodding.

                We all looked over as Leon Constance approached. He gave us that tired smile of his as he stepped up to us.

                "Hello. I was hoping to catch you before you left," he said. "I wanted to thank you guys for what you did. Not for starting a riot, of course. I could've done without that part. But you cared enough to fight for a better Constance Academy. This place earned the nickname Conversion Academy long before my father took over, but now I think we can finally leave that name behind. I'm sure Isaac will report back to all of you on how well Caroline and I do here."

                "I'll be keeping an eye on you," Isaac said with a nod.

                Leon's smile grew a little. "Good. It's good to have students keeping an eye on us so we don't take the Academy in the wrong direction."

                "So, what, you wanted to thank us for ruining your brother's dreams?" Jin said.

                Leon gave him that patiently exasperated look. "It'll take Adam some time to forgive me and Caroline, but that's a family matter we'll settle on our own time. In honesty, I'm here because I wanted a favor from you guys, with your permission of course."

                "A favor?" I said. "This doesn't sound good."

                "Just a picture," Leon said. "When Kaz and his friends graduated, they took a group picture. Beckett did the same thing when he graduated. I talked to Beckett and Kaz when they were here for the assembly, and we thought it'd be a good idea to put the pictures up in the Academy's history display case. The three groups who led to a new era for Constance Academy. We'd like one of you guys to add to it."

                "Going down in history, huh?" Karson said in amusement.

                Jin glanced at all of us and shrugged. "Yea, sure. I don't care."

                "Hey, be proud," Lev said, smiling. "Jin, you saved all the future students here. You did what you set out to do."

                Jin just shrugged again and gestured at us to stand with him. We gathered around, me at Jin's side. Our parents noticed and pulled out their phones to take pictures as well. We all smiled, even Jin's lips tugging up just a bit. I looked over and saw the way Mrs. Amano's eyes lit up with hope, taking her husband's hand in hers and nodding at Jin. Even Mr. Amano looked relieved at Jin's small smile.

                We smiled for their pictures, and when they were done, I hugged Jin. He kissed my forehead and took my hand in his.

                "Thank you guys," Leon said, stepping forward. "You will always be welcome back here. We'll make sure Isaac has good things to report back to you."

                He held out his hand and Jin shook it. Leon excused himself, disappearing into the crowd of students.

                "We should move our stuff out," Lev said.

                "Kai, we'll go get your stuff. You can wait here," mom said.

                "I'll sit with Kai!" Isaac offered, raising his hand. "I already moved most of my stuff out yesterday."

                "Let's go," Jin said to Karson. "If I let you move out while I'm not in the room, you'll steal my shit."

                "I'm going to steal all of your hats so you have to let everyone see your white hair," Karson said. "Man, I can't wait for you to have kids or some shit one day and have to show them pictures of you with this hair."

                "I'll tell them it was from the stress of living with you," Jin said.

                They disappeared inside with their parents. Isaac and I sat on a bench outside the dorm building. I stretched my leg out in front of me, leaning my cane against the bench.

                "My dad said I can hang out with you guys over the summer," Isaac said, swinging his legs back and forth since they didn't touch the ground. "He said only if he's in contact with the parents of whoever I'm with."

                "What are you going to do for the rest of your time here?" I asked.

                "Make sure Leon's staying in line," Isaac said, smiling sweetly. "If him or his sister start to turn into their father, I'll make sure to put them in their place."

                "Children are terrifying," I grumbled, shaking my head.

                We watched as the others went in and out of the building, carrying their stuff to their cars. When they were done, Jin dropped next to me on the bench.

                "Things going well with your parents?" I asked.

                He didn't look at me. "Someday I think it'll be okay again."

                "Healing takes time," I said.

                He placed his hand gently on my bad leg. "There are always scars."

                I reached out, brushing my fingers along his scarred arm. "We can't hide them. We just have to learn to live with them."

                "Hey, quit being sappy in front of the little bastard," Karson said, coming over to us.

                "Will your family be okay, Karson?" Lev asked.

                Karson shrugged. "What happened between Aspen and my dad is their business to deal with. I doubt they'll ever have a good relationship again."

                "But at least you're not in the dark about what happened anymore," Jin said.

                "Yea," Karson said, fixing his glasses. "Can we quit talking about this? Get up, let's say our goodbyes, and let's go already. My dad said he'd make my favorite meal when we get home. I haven't had his cooking in months."

                Jin got up and helped me to my feet. Isaac jumped up and threw his arms around Amelia.

                "Bye, Amelia," he said.

                "Oh my god," Amelia whispered, eyes wide as she put her arms around him. "I am the chosen one."

                Lev laughed and held his arms out, letting Isaac shift into them. "Behave, Isaac. We'll see you over the summer."

                "Maybe you'll have a growth spurt," Karson said, ruffling Isaac's hair. "But you'll always be the little bastard."

                "Shut it, glasses," Isaac said, but he was smiling. He turned to me and I groaned as he hugged me.

                "Get off," I said, flicking him in the head. "I didn't ask for this."

                "Bye Kai," he said, and threw himself at Jin. "Bye Jin. I'm glad you're happy now."

                Jin glanced down at him and placed his hand on Isaac's head. "Shut up, pest."

                "It's been a fun time, crip," Karson said. "I think you'll miss me the most."

                "Fuck off," I said.

                Karson laughed. "Yea, yea. Amelia, learn to control your mouth so you can start hooking up with hot girls. You need to make up for all the sex I'm not having. I'm counting on you."

                Amelia punched him. "The child is still around, pervert! And I'm learning how to talk to girls, so don't make fun of me!"

                Lev sighed. "My stress levels are going to drop drastically once I'm away from you, Karson."

                "Aw, thanks," Karson said. He turned to Jin. "See you, roommate."

                "Thanks for not snoring, Kar. Your one redeeming quality," Jin said. Karson held out his fist and Jin bumped his fist against it.

                "I hope everything with your friends goes well, Kai," Lev said to me, Amelia nodding in agreement. "You seem a lot more at ease than when you first came here."

                "Good luck with your stress levels," I said. "And good luck with girls, Amelia."

                "I've got this," she said confidently. She threw her arms around Jin. "Bye, Jin. I'm going to miss your moods."

                "We still have the group text," Lev said, urging Amelia off of Jin. "You can bother him in that."

                "Nutting for Jinsus Christ," Karson said fondly.

                "I'm blocking all of you," Jin said.

                "Even me?" I said.

                He nodded. "Especially you."

                "Asshole." I kissed his cheek.

                As the others shared hugs, Jin turned to me. He cupped my cheek in his palm and kissed me. He pulled away from my lips and pulled me against his chest, my head on his shoulder. He leaned close to my ear.

                "Thank you," he mumbled. "I do care."

                I put my arms around him, pressing my face against his neck. We'd both come so far. We both had a long road ahead of us, but we weren't walking it alone anymore.

                I pulled away from Jin, kissing him one more time before walking towards my parents. My dad squeezed my shoulder and my mom smiled at me as I reached them.

                They led me to their car and I got in the back, looking out of the window. Jin waved to me as the others went off with their parents. Mrs. Amano had her arm around Jin's shoulders, holding him close.

                I put my headphones on, starting up the playlist Jin made for me. I felt a smile come to my face as the car moved forward, leaving Constance Academy behind me and my future ahead of me.

---------------------------------

A.N.- Thank you guys so, so much for the support on the Conversion Academy series. Even if you only read this book and not the others, I'm grateful. This series helped me improve my writing so much, and I had so much fun with all these characters.

I don't know if I'll do another story in this series. For now, it'll stay a trilogy, and if I decide to add another book to the series later, then hey, cool. Regardless, you guys can head on over to my prompt account "promptingskenekidz" and keep these characters alive.

Reactions were mixed on whether you wanted another story in this series or not, but I did see people ask for new books with a similar feel, so I might go that route. If you're interested, check my profile for updates over the next few weeks!

Please, let me know what you thought of this book, of these characters, of this series. What did you like? What did you not like? I want to be able to improve on these stories in the future. Thank you all so much for all the support!