(The person in the picture above is Carter)

As Jackson got home, he instantly went straight to his room to get ready for work. He sat in front of the mirror in his bedroom and pushed his hair back with a hairnet as he started doing his makeup, letting it bake on his face.

While the makeup was baking onto his face, he stood up, walking to his closet to choose what he wanted to wear to work. "I think this would work tonight" Jackson says to himself, pulling out a dark hot pink mini skirt that looked like it was made out of some sort of leather. He also took out a tight dark pink top to match as well. It looked just as exposing as the mini-skirt did. He then picked out pink jewelled high-heeled shoes.

After choosing his outfit, he went back to his mirror and started blending as he continued to put on his makeup.

After Jackson was done with his makeup and put on his outfit, he stared back at himself in the mirror for a long second before putting on his wig. He smiled at the sight of himself, actually feeling pretty for once.

He grabbed his purse before he strutted outside of the house. He managed to grab a taxi before being seen on the main roads. Even though he only lived a five minute walk away from work, he would rather much take a taxi there, because he didn't like the stares he would get from people on the streets.

The taxi drivers also always looked at him pretty weirdly because of his 'over-the-top' makeup, and because he was in girl clothing, but he would rather much have one person judging him on his way to work then twenty people.

Once Jackson got to his destination, he was greeted with a big hug by one of his co-workers. "Berry, girl you missed so much. Okay so apparently Thunder hooked up with Kim's boyfriend last night and Kim walked in on it!"

"How'd you know this?" Jackson questions, one eyebrow raised as he walked inside with his best friend, Alaska.

"Girl I was with Kim when we walked in on it all! You should have seen the look on Thunder's face, girl it was priceless!" Alaska says, sounding like she was enjoying the gossip a little too much.

"Is Kim at work today, I don't see her?" Jackson asks, looking around as he entered the building.

"Of course not, do you think she's going to come to work when she sees Thunder here?"

"Thunder's here-?!"

"Of course hunny, that girl's gotta get money somehow, honestly I think she would do anything for money" Alaska says, saying the word 'skank' underneath her breath, but Jackson still heard it.

At the same time Thunder walked up to both Alaska and Jackson with a smile on her face. "Hey Berry, hey Alaska" Thunder says in a smile, slightly waving as she approached them.

"Hey Thunder!" Alaska says in the most fakest tone, putting on a fake smile.

"Hey Alaska, tell Kim I say sorry will you? It was really awkward yesterday when you two caught us." Thunder starts off with saying, the same big smile on her face. She kept her hands on her hips as she says "what a cock block, am I right?"

"A cock block from her own boyfriend that you were cheating on with?" Jackson questions, looking at Thunder, un-amused.

Thunder rolled her eyes before saying "well you girls better get ready, the club is going to open soon meaning people will be coming in. You're not actually wearing this on stage, are you Berry?" Thunder asks, eyeing down Jackson's outfit.

Alaska could tell Jackson looked uncomfortable with Thunder's comment and cleared her throat before defending Jackson "yes, that is what she's wearing on stage now go back into the dressing room and finish blowing off your manager or whatever you were doing back there." Alaska growls, glaring Thunder down.

"Whatever bitches" Thunder says, flipping her wig over one shoulder as she walked back to wherever she was before.

Alaska's eyes followed Thunder until she was out of sight and she let out a big sigh of aggression. "I hate her" she says while rolling her eyes, looking back at Jackson. "So what's up with you, you're usually here earlier...oh my gosh, was that stalker guy outside your house again?! You should really go to the police, that dude is scary." Alaska says, now they were both starting to walk backstage to get ready for the performance.

"No, it wasn't him...it's because I have to go to this after school club thing every single day now. It's a total joke and they make me stay for who knows how long." Jackson complains, sounding annoyed just talking about it.

"What'd you do to get into that?"

"Just...something stupid, something that shouldn't get me put into some after school club that I'm forced to join. Worst part is, it's only guys in that club. Not even the girls want to join."

"Oh gosh, are you stuck with the heterosexual boys? Well are they at least cute?" Alaska questions, now sounding more interested, poking Jackson on his side.

"Actually I think two of them are gay, they basically openly told us they use to be fuk buddies. Some of them are cute I guess but most of them aren't my type." Jackson explains, stopping at the foot of the backstage stairs to go up onto the stage when the show starts.

Alaska stopped beside him and got excited "then you should totally go for the ones who are gay!"

"You know I'm not out of the closet, not to mention I'm the student council president. If I come out as gay, everyone in the whole school will know. Not to mention the two people who did say they were 'fuk buddies' one is a new kid I know nothing about, so I don't know if I can even trust him or not. The other one is some kid with anger management. He's known around the school as the 'dude who ruins everything.' I would never in a million years want to be in a relationship with him, I don't know who would ever want to." Jackson explains, and at the same time, you could hear the music starting up and the flashing lights being seen from underneath the curtains.

Back at school, everyone was finishing up with the club and Nate was saying goodbye to everyone who was leaving. Nate decided to stay back just to finish up with a couple more things for the club before heading home.

While Nate was organising some papers, he looked up to see Jake standing in front of him and almost had a heart attack. He let out a slight yelp while placing one hand over his heart. "Jeez Jake you scared me! You could have said something to let me know you were still in the room" Nate says, breathing in and out to try and calm down his heart rate. Nate was weak at heart and got scared of almost anything.

Jake stared at Nate like he had done nothing wrong and continued to say nothing, just looking at Nate with the same blank expression he always has on.

Once Nate reassured he was alright, he looked up at Jake with a smile and asks "is there something you forgot here, I can help you look for something if you think you lost is in this room." Nate suggests, already looking around the room, assuming Jake had lost something and that's why he had staid back.

"No" Jake faintly says, he voice was so soft, Nate almost didn't catch that Jake had said anything.

Nate's smile grew wider when he heard Jake talk to him, Jake ever so rarely talked from what Nate understood, and it was nice hearing his voice every once in a while. "Then why're you here...is there something you need to talk to me about?" Nate asks, now sounding more curious.

"Walk home...." Jake continues to say in a few words, ever so faintly.

Nate stared at Jake and when he said 'walk home.' He slightly repeated "walk home?" To himself questioningly, trying to figure out what Jake meant by that before suggesting "did you mean you want to walk home with me?"

Jake nodded to Nate and his answer, and Nate smiled brightly. "Of course, I'd love to walk home with you!" Nate exclaims in a happy tone, he looked back down at the desk and started trying to organise the papers more faster this time so he could get on with walking home with Jake. Nate was thrilled that Jake wanted to walk home with him, he for sure thought that Jake hated him, but that was just because Jake kept the same expression on all the time and never talked.

Once Nate was finally done organising some papers, he shoved them into his backpack before throwing his backpack over one shoulder, then trying to grab the other side to put it on both shoulders. "You ready to go?" Nate asks, looking at Jake who was sitting a couple desks down, looking down at his phone.

When Nate spoke to Jake, his head rose from his phone and he looked at Nate and slowly nodded. "Great, then let's head out!" Nate says, already walking to the door to leave the classroom. Jake slowly got up after seeing Nate starting to walk and followed behind him.

As Jake and Nate started walking home, an awkward silence arose between them, but that was only inevitable with someone like Jake. Nate knew that Jake didn't want to talk, so he didn't bother trying to start a conversation with him. To make up for the awkward silence, Nate decided to tell Jake about himself. "You know, it was really nice you saved me the other day from that bully! You know, since we're going to be partners I might as well tell you a little about myself." Nate starts off with saying.

Jake didn't look like he was interested in the slightest, yet that was his face all the time, so it was hard to tell if he was interested or not in the conversation because it was almost impossible to tell.

"My names Nate as you already know" Nate starts off with explaining. Nate was mostly talking about himself and his interests. He mentioned how he's scared of almost everything even though it was as cowardly as it sounded. He talked about how he always wanted a dog, and how he wanted to go to an anime convention at least once in the near future.

Nate talked about himself all the way to the bus stop, where Jake had to get on this bus to get home. "I guess this is where we part." Nate says, seeing Jake stop beside the bus stop.

Jake nodded as he looked down with a neutral expression on his face.

Nate didn't know what to say in this time. He awkwardly looked around him before stuttering "u-um...thanks for walking home with me...and listening to everything I was saying. Get home safe please!" Nate says in a smile, waving goodbye to Jake before turning around and continuing to walk the rest of the way home himself. He slightly skipped along, walking down the sidewalk to get home.

Jake watched Nate walk away with his back facing him as he walked farther. As Jake continued to watch Nate walk away from him, he ever so slightly smirked, watching Nate until he was out of sight.

Meanwhile with Carter, he was walking home when he saw Ethan walking ahead of him in the distance. He wanted to pound Ethan's face in just looking at him. He put his hands in his pocket as he tried to calm himself down. At the same time, while Carter was trying to walk faster with his head down, trying to pass Ethan without saying anything to him, he heard a familiar voice call out to him from behind. "CARTER!" The voice shouted loudly, catching both Ethan and Carter's attention.

Carter lightly cursed at himself before turning around and staring at the person who had called out to him, seeing it was Lucas. "What do you want, Lucas?" Carter asks, looking at Lucas in un-amusement.

"I wanted to know if you wanted to hang with me, I don't feel like going straight home, it's way too early, it isn't even dark out yet."

Carter thought about it for a bit, debating if he wanted to actually go with Lucas or not before questioning "wouldn't it be more logical if you asked Max? You're trying to get into his pants all the time anyway?"

"Yeah but Max is always running away from me, and going out with other people isn't Max's 'thing.' I wanted to ask you to maybe make a new friend." Lucas suggests and Carter continued to stare at Lucas before letting out a deep breath.

"Fine, where're we going to hang out?" Carter asks, not sounding happy about it, but still going along because he would much rather be anywhere else but home as well.

"I thought maybe Ethan's house" Lucas says, seeing Ethan who wasn't too far from them.

Ethan's head instantly jolted up when he heard his name being mentioned and looked at Lucas like he was crazy with his eyes shaking. "I-I-I no, no I can't have guests...d-don't bring me into your conversation when I wasn't a part of it to begin with." Ethan stutters, it sounded like he was staggering to get the right words to come out of his mouth.

"But you were still listening to our conversation! Okay, if you can't have friends over today, ask your parents tonight if you can and we'll get back to you tomorrow to ask when we can come over." Lucas suggests Ethan in the pearly white smile he always had on, his jawline being more sharper than usual.

Ethan didn't know what to say, it wasn't like he could say no either. He slowly brought his hands together and started picking at his skin. "O-Okay...."

"That's great!" Lucas exclaims, sounding happy that Ethan had agreed to him. He wrapped one arm around Carter's shoulders before saying "we're heading off now" forcing Carter to turn around and walk in the opposite direction he was originally walking in.

Meanwhile with Max, he was sitting behind the school, his back pressed against the wall as he brought his knees up to his chest. He wrapped his arms around his knees as he had his head in between his legs. "Max..." Ryan faintly says, not wanting to talk loud in case Max had a headache or something.

It looked like Max was wiping a couple tears away from underneath his eyes before looking up at Ryan with an angry expression on his face. "What do you want?" Max spat, glaring at Ryan.

Ryan was slightly taken aback by Max's aggressive tone, but figured he should have gotten use to it by now considering that's how Max always spoke to everyone, like he was going to punch them in the face.

Ryan slowly and hesitantly sat down beside Max, picking his fingernails as he looked down. "I-I wanted to know if you were okay." Ryan questions, sounding concerned.

"Stop caring about me" Max mumbles, looking off to aside.

"Why do you want me to stop caring?"

"Because you're not my friend. You said it before, right? You helped me out before because we're 'friends.' I've been thinking about it...and realised I don't have friends. So stop trying to be my friend, because I have none."

Ryan continued to stare at Max seriously like he was trying to read him. "Why're you pushing me away... are you pushing me away because I care?" Ryan questions.

Max gave Ryan no response but Ryan decided to change the subject by asking "what happened...why're you so beat up, and why do you smell like alcohol?"

"I was drinking, what do you think?" Max asks, sounding like Ryan was stupid for not figuring out that much.

"That doesn't explain how you got so beat up, or why you were drinking either."

"I don't need to tell you everything that goes on with me. Stop trying to pry into my life." Max says in annoyance, now placing his head back in between his legs.

Ryan looked at Max, he could see marks on Max's neck, looking like someone was trying to choke him. He could also faintly see Max's back as he leaned forward. He could already see the marks on Max's back from something that would pierce the skin to leave blood shed.

Ryan bit on his bottom lip, feeling bad for Max but also slightly shivering with how much it probably hurt Max to get those marks. "Did your parents do this?" Ryan asks and Max slightly flinched, but continued to be quiet.

Ryan could tell by the silence that it was a yes. Ryan slowly scooted closer to Max, rubbing one hand on Max's back, trying to comfort him in any sort of way. "I'm sorry your parents do this to you...Max..." Ryan says as he continued to rub Max's back.

Ryan could now faintly hear muffling coming from Max, his body started to slightly shake too. "Max, Max are you okay?" Ryan questions, not knowing what was going on at first.

As the muffling was still heard, it was now more obvious that Max was now crying, trying to silently sob into his shirt so Ryan didn't know he was crying, but Ryan could still make out the faint sobs.

A turning feeling was in Ryan's stomach, just hearing the most intimidating person in the school crying. Max was known as the bull of the school, showing no weakness. He always put up a front as someone who was scary, and someone you shouldn't mess with. He's always fighting with anyone and everyone. No one was his friend because Max was so scary and mean, but this is the fist time Max ever showed emotion...in front of anyone.

"It'll be okay Max...it'll be okay..." Ryan says, trying to comfort Max while biting his bottom lip. As Ryan was rubbing Max's back with the thin shirt covering his back, he could feel marks on Max's back, marks like they had risen.

Ryan glanced at Max's back and wanted to lift his shirt to see what had happened, but he couldn't. He knew Max would punch him in the face first of all, second of all he didn't want Max to feel uncomfortable.

Ryan didn't know what else to say other than 'it's going to be okay.' Ryan wanted to bring Max home to at least clean him up and treat his wounds, but his parents would no doubt freak out if he brought someone like Max home.

All Ryan could do was stay by Max's side and rub his back, trying to comfort Max in his time of need.