I cracked my eyes open just a bit before snapping them shut and rolling over. It was finally the weekend, and I was ready to sleep for the rest of my life.

Leo and I had pulled the blinds, so the room was comfortably dark despite it creeping towards late morning. Leo was passed out on his bed, body sprawled over the mattress and sheets twisted around him.

I dug my face against my pillow, hoping that I'd get a break from Kaz's crew this weekend. My idea of a successful Saturday wasn't getting arrested.

After lying there with my eyes closed for a few minutes, I sighed, realizing that I wasn't falling back to sleep. I pushed myself up so that I was sitting and rubbed my eyes, kicking my covers off.

I crawled off of my bed and grabbed my shower things, slipping out of the room, careful not to wake Leo. I padded my way down to the bathroom and showered quickly, pulling on boxers and shorts before leaving the little stall to brush my teeth.

Siggy was standing there with a toothbrush in hand, already dressed. It was the first time I'd seen him in anything other than his uniform, and he looked a lot less menacing in a T-shirt and jeans, hair pulled back into the tiny ponytail.

"Hit me if you want, but I have to know what the point is," I said, gesturing to his ponytail.

"It keeps it out of my face," he said, reaching up and pulling it free. His hair immediately assaulted his face, framing it and falling in his eyes.

"You could always just cut it," I said, beginning to brush my teeth.

"I could," he agreed, hooking his toothbrush in his mouth to free his hands. He pulled back the loose strands of hair into his little ponytail and tied it securely.

I looked at my own hair, pushing it back. I hated the idea of my hair getting long; I preferred it at a length that wasn't too short, but couldn't be considered long by any means.

Siggy finished brushing his teeth and left the bathroom without another word to me. As scary as he could look, I had a feeling he was more of will-only-speak-if-spoken-to kind of guy.

I finished brushing my teeth and left the bathroom, towel slung over my bare shoulder. I crept back into our room, but gave up being quiet when I realized that Leo was awake.

"Hey," he said to me, rubbing at his eyes as he checked his phone.

"Morning," I greeted, putting my stuff away and pulling on a shirt.

"So, are your parents going to call you today? Because Saturdays are classic days for parents to call and pretend they give a shit that they dropped you here," Leo said. "They'll ask you how your week was and what you're learning and all that shit."

"Uh..." I shrugged. "I'm not sure."

My parents had yet to call me. Just the occasional text message from my mom. But I guess it would make sense that she'd call me today and try to pretend like everything was normal.

"Don't ever let it fool you," Leo said, jumping off of his bed. "Your parents ditched you here. Giving you a call once a week doesn't make it any better."

He grabbed his shower things and left the room. I grabbed my phone and tucked it in my pocket because, as pathetic as I was, I actually missed my parents. I knew that they had fucked me over and that our relationship was strained right now. But before they knew men gave me wet dreams, they had been good parents.

I sat down at my desk, suddenly wondering about the kids here. Nature versus nurture always fascinated me, and the way people turned out always made me curious about their families. This Academy was the perfect example of that. I mean, these kids came from financially well-off families, because this school wasn't exactly the cheapest place on earth. It's not like this was a school for delinquents plucked off the streets. And their parents obviously either wanted to get rid of them or genuinely wanted to fix their problems when they sent them here. So how had they become the way they were?

Why did Kaz enjoy stealing so much? Why did Leo like to break and enter? How had Pete developed his addictions? Why was Beckett so angry? Why was Mikayla...

Wait, why the hell was Mikayla actually here?

I shook my head, trying to get back to the main thing here. Families fascinated me, and the way people turned out always made me wonder about their backgrounds. It was a bad, nosey habit, but it was one that I couldn't ever shake.

After a little while, Leo came back into the room fully dressed. He wore jeans rolled up at the ankles and a tie-dye band T-shirt.

"Come on," he said to me, shoving his feet into his shoes. "The others should be up by now and I'm hungry."

Great, another day spent with Kaz's crew. What a freakin' joy.

Still, I didn't want to spend my Saturday alone, so I followed Leo out of the room. We went down to Kaz's room, and Leo knocked twice before opening the door.

Kaz glanced over at us, and I was actually a little surprised by his clothes. It was weird, seeing everyone in their normal clothes after having only seen them in their uniforms.

Kaz wore nice jeans and an even nicer shirt, his hair as neatly styled as ever. He looked like he was going to church instead of spending a Saturday with friends.

"Beckett is on his way," Kaz said. "Where's Mikayla?"

"She's just getting dressed," Leo said, leading me into the room. He settled himself down on Pete's desk. "Hey, Petey, you drugged up yet?"

Pete nodded happily. "Took my meds when I woke up."

Kaz's phone buzzed on his desk and he reached out, grabbing it. He glanced at me and waved his phone a little.

"Everyone will be getting calls all day. I assume Leo already explained why," he said before sliding his finger across the screen and holding his phone up. "Morning, mom." He leaned against the wall, listening. I could hear a voice on the other end floating out. "It's been a boring week. Hm? Just one detention, actually. I'd say my behavior is improving. Oh, nothing serious, just a little joke my teacher didn't appreciate. O'Malley and I thought it was quite funny."

I shook my head, glaring at him. He snickered at me and shrugged.

"What? Oh, yea, a new kid. O'Malley. Well, his first name is Killian, but I don't care for the name. I know, I know." He rolled his eyes and nodded to himself. "Okay, no, it's fine, mom. I knew you had a busy week. Mom, really, it's fine. Tell David it's fine, too. Stop apologizing. Okay, okay, I will. Love you too. Bye."

Kaz hung up his phone and tossed it back on his desk. Leo laughed a little at him.

"Aw, how cute, Kaz loves his mommy," he said.

"I'm a humble mama's boy," Kaz said, shrugging.

"Kaz's mom calls him constantly throughout the week. I don't think he goes a day without getting a text from her or his stepdad," Leo said to me, snickering a little.

"I'm their only child. I think they get lonely without me around," Kaz said.

"Oh, yea, I'm sure they really miss you stealing everything," I said.

"David never minded when I stole from him," Kaz said, grinning a little. "I think it flattered him that I stole from him. Made him feel like part of the family."

"David is his stepdad," Leo said.

"Yea, thanks, I picked up on that," I said, and wondered why anyone would marry someone who had a thief for a son.

The door opened and Mikayla came in with Beckett trailing behind her. I had to force myself not to stare at Mikayla.

The girl was wearing jeans and a tank top, but holy shit, that tank top showed off some serious back and arm muscles.

"Did you play a sport?" I couldn't help but blurt out. "I mean, damn girl, you're ripped."

Here lies Killian O'Malley: Murdered by Mikayla's impressive muscles.

Mikayla flicked an annoyed glance to me. "I'm a swimmer. I also like working out."

"Are we getting breakfast?" Pete asked before Mikayla could kill me. "I'm starving."

"Let's go to town," Kaz said. "We can get food there."

"Are we stealing a car again?" Beckett asked.

Kaz shook his head. "Nah, not this time."

"Kaz snagged keys off a Blue last month to drive us to town," Leo explained to me. "See, Maroons aren't allowed to go to town without a Blue accompanying them. Really, we're not allowed a step off campus without a Blue there. The bigger the group, the more Blues are supposed to come. You're supposed to request permission to go into town from the Building Resident."

"But we're not going to do that. We'll take your path, Leo," Kaz said.

"Then let's go. I'm hungry too," Leo said, jumping up.

We left the dorm building, everyone on careful lookout for Blues. Leo led us through a cluster of trees to a barely noticeable worn out strip of land that acted as a path.

We started down it, everyone going slow since it led us down a steep trail of unsteady ground. I nearly laughed as Beckett slipped a little, Kaz reaching out and grabbing the back of his shirt to keep him from failing.

But then karma came for my sorry ass a few minutes later as I stumbled and started to fall over. Kaz grabbed my arm, hooking his through it to get a better hold on me and yanking me upright. The two of us wobbled and used each other to catch our balance before Kaz dropped his arm from mine.

"Honestly, you're all clumsy," Kaz said. "Next person to slip gets to bust their ass."

"I don't think you actually mind," Leo said.

Kaz kicked his foot out, knocking it into Leo's ankle. Leo let out a yell as he lost his balance and fell, tumbling down the hill a little before Mikayla grabbed his shirt and pulled him to a stop.

"You are rude as hell!" Leo said as Mikayla helped him back up.

"You were kind of asking for it," Mikayla said.

"Et tu, Brute?" Leo said, glaring at Mikayla.

"You were instigating again," Beckett said.

"Wow, that's a big word. It's got as many letters as you have years of life," I said. "Good for you, kiddo."

"Feel free to push him down the hill next," Beckett said to Kaz.

Kaz hit him upside the head. "Keep walking, Beck."

We finally reached the bottom of the evil trail and took to the sidewalk of the town. The others navigated the streets easily, though I wasn't from around here and had no idea where anything was.

We wandered around until we all silently flocked to Denny's. What was it about Denny's that made people just go there? I mean, seriously, I'd ended up there at 3 a.m. high with some friends one time and we made friends with a group of drunk and stoned kids at the table next to us who'd also just felt compelled to go there.

"Killian, you're zoning out," Leo said, snapping in my face as we followed the hostess.

"This place is just..." I shook my head. "Science can't explain everything."

"Are you high? Because that's Pete's thing," Leo said as we all sat down.

"I'm not high!" Pete said.

Leo laughed. "Yea, sure Petey. You take, what, six pills a morning? I can't remember the last time you went a day without popping hydros."

"Don't expect to find that day anytime soon," Pete said.

A waitress came and we all ordered drinks and food. She brought us our drinks and left us to talk while we waited for the food to be ready.

"Hey, how long have all of you been here?" I asked after listening to them talk for a few minutes. They interacted with that easy way that close friends had, but I realized that they probably hadn't known each other all that long.

"Mika and I got dumped here when we were 15," Leo said. "Pete came not long after. Kaz came in when he was 16. Beckett switched to a Maroon vest towards the end of last year."

"Did you guys know each other before?" I asked.

Leo shook his head. "Nope. None of us met until we got to Conversion Academy."

"And now we're one big happy family," Kaz said.

"The great things the Academy does," Mikayla grumbled. "Bringing delinquent kids together."

"I'm not a delinquent!" I said, pouting. "Don't lump me in with you."

"Don't lump you in?" Mikayla said, narrowing her eyes at me. "Then quit bitching about it. I know kids who deserve to be here and they're running free in the world. There are terrible people out there and we're the better behaved ones. 'Delinquents' doesn't always mean we're bad people. We've all just done some bad things. But you look at us like you're high and mighty."

"Actually, that's just me faking confidence since you and the kid hate me," I said, gesturing to Beckett. "I don't belong here but I have a very justifiable fear of letting people know that. Prey on the weak and all that."

"Let me tell you something, Killian. Leo is here for some breaking and entering and fighting, Pete is here because of his addiction, Kaz is here because he got caught stealing too many times, Beckett is here because of his anger, and I'm here because of a vandalism incident. You look at us like we're horrible people who deserve to be locked away because of those things. But you know what? When I was back at my old high school, I was best friends with this guy. Later, I found out that he forced a 15 year old into sex with him. He raped a 15 year old boy who had trusted him. And you know what? He never faced punishment for it," Mikayla said, eyes blazing. "So keep looking at me like I'm a shitty person. I might do bad things, but I am not a bad person. And your ego won't make me doubt that."

I stared at her, my mind blank because I knew she was right. I knew I thought about these kids as bad people. I came from a sheltered little world, and I knew I was judgmental, even when I tried not to be.

"Calm your ranting, Mika. It's too early for this," Kaz said.

"No, you need to stop defending Killian!" Mikayla said, turning her anger on Kaz now. "Honestly Kaz, he's not even useful!"

"Not true. He was a successful lookout," Kaz said, unaffected by her anger. He pushed his chair back and stood up. "O'Malley, let's take a walk. Leo, deal with Mikayla's rantings until she's calm. One of you useless piles of meat better text me when the food gets here. I'll be pissed if mine goes cold."

I got up and silently followed Kaz outside. He led me around to the side of the building and sat against it. I sat down next to him and watched as he plucked a piece of grass, twirling it between his fingers.

"She's angry," he said at last. "Not at you, just angry in general. But you do have that sort of air about you, so she's taking out that anger on you. Learn to live with it and give it right back."

"I just...I don't mean to judge you guys," I said, dropping my gaze. "We come from different worlds, I think."

"I never understood that expression," Kaz said. "My stepdad used to say that to me before he and my mom got married. 'Kaz, I'd like to be part of your world', as if he came from a different planet. We're all from the same world. Just different parts of that world."

"And I'm from a spoiled part of that world," I said.

Kaz shook his head. "You'd be surprised. Mikayla and I are here because we're spoiled rotten kids. When we got ourselves into trouble, our parents struck deals to keep us from getting punished. Well, they thought we wouldn't get punished. Clearly they didn't do enough research into where we were getting sent."

"You never asked me why I'm here." I don't know why I said that. I don't know why I would even bring that up. I didn't want to admit why I was here.

"Because it's none of my business," Kaz said, shrugging. "If you feel like telling me, good for you. Other than that, it's none of my concern. It's obvious what got sent me here, and I feel no need to hide it." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a spoon, which I hadn't even seen him swipe from the table.

"A...spoon?" I asked in confusion. "Man, you steal the weirdest things."

He eyed the spoon before pulling his arm back and throwing it. It clattered against the parking lot and skidded under a car.

"I don't actually want it. I just...took it," he said. "My mom said my self-control had to fail somewhere."

"So you stole a spoon and threw it under a car," I said. "That is quite a strange habit, but hey, I'm trying to work on the whole judgmental-asshole thing."

Kaz grinned. "We all have our quirks."

My phone suddenly buzzed to life in my pocket. I pulled it out and felt my face pale as my mom's contact flashed on the screen.

Kaz peeked and raised an eyebrow. "Should I leave?"

"No," I said, because if he was here I was less likely to go on a horribly sarcastic rant about how I was a flaming homosexual. I slid my finger on the screen and held it up to my ear. "Hello?"

"Hi Killian," mom said, and I turned the volume down so that only I could hear her. "How is everything at the school going? I was going to call you earlier in the week, but I thought you might still be mad at us."

"Why would I be mad at you? It's not like you dropped me at hell on earth for something mind-blowingly ridiculous."

"Killian, don't get that tone with me. Your father and I just did it because we love you and we want to help you."

"You can help me by bringing me home."

"How are your classes? Have you made any friends?" Her not so subtle attempt at topic change pissed me off, but I couldn't say too much with Kaz sitting right next to me.

"Yea, mom. I made friends with a thief," I said, and Kaz didn't bother hiding his amused smile. "He's been arrested...How many times, Kaz?"

"Just twice," he said.

"Twice," I said. "He's been arrested twice. I'm also friends with his drug addicted roommate and my own roommate who is apparently well known for his breaking and entering skills."

"Friends" probably wasn't the right word, but whatever gave my mother a heart attack.

"Killian," mom said sternly. "That's not funny."

"I'm not being funny," I said. "I'm sitting with the thief kid right now. Want to talk to him?" I put the phone on speaker. "Say hi to my mom, Kaz."

"Hi ma'am," Kaz said. "I've been arrested twice, but if it helps, I've never had charges pressed against me."

Mom seemed at a loss for words so I took the phone off speaker. "What, mom? You asked if I made friends. There's not a lot of options at a school for delinquent kids."

"Killian," she said, her voice angry now. "You better be behaving. You are there to get better."

"What did you think was going to happen? You left me at a school with shitty teachers and kids who know handcuffs for reasons other than kinks."

"Killian!"

I sighed and closed my eyes, suddenly exhausted. I'd never win when it came to my parents. Not now that they couldn't accept me.

"I'm going to go now because we're out for breakfast. Pray that Denny's won't press charges over a missing spoon." I hung up the phone and put it on do not disturb, shoving it in my pocket.

"Parents are exhausting," Kaz said, getting to his feet and holding his hand out. "Pete texted me. The food is there."

I took his hand and he pulled me to my feet. We went back into Denny's together and sat down with the others. Mikayla appeared to have calmed down, her and Leo talking excitedly about concerts they had gone to.

We ate and paid before leaving. We made our way to a gas station and began to wander through the small aisles in search of snacks to buy and bring back to campus.

Once we'd bought some snacks, we left the gas station and began to wander around town. Kaz caught up next to me and slipped a candy bar out of his pocket, offering it to me.

"Saturdays can be a pain when parents start calling. You get used to it," he said.

"You definitely didn't pay for this," I said, taking it from him.

"I definitely didn't," he agreed, pulling out three more. He turned to Mikayla and tossed it to her. "Loosen up." He tossed another to Beckett, who caught it while barely paying attention, probably used to Kaz's stealing things for him. Kaz opened the last one for himself and bit into it.

Mikayla opened hers and offered half to Leo. Pete pouted at all of us, so I opened mine and broke off a piece for him.

We ate the candy bars in comfortable silence as we strolled through the streets. The town was fairly lively today, with people moving along the sidewalks and a steady flow of traffic. Shops were open and people moved in and out of them.

"Shit, Kaz," Leo hissed, throwing his arm out to stop us from moving. "Blues. It's Cam, Siggy, and Veronica."

"Probably looking for us," Kaz said with a sigh. "How obnoxious. O'Malley, take Beckett and get out of our sight."

"What? No way!" Beckett said, glaring.

"Don't argue with me, you small pest," Kaz said, shooing him away. "They know we sneak off campus from time to time. They don't know you and O'Malley join us."

Beckett clenched his fists but grabbed my arm and yanked me around the side of the nearest shop. We pressed ourselves against it and peeked out as the Blues spotted Kaz's group and approached.

"Off campus again, Kaz," Cam sneered. "Can't wait for Mr. Redfield to get his hands on you and your lot. Where are Killian and Beckett?"

"Not with us, unfortunately. O'Malley doesn't care for breaking rules," Kaz said with a shrug. "And Beckett doesn't hang around the campus on weekends."

"You better hope we don't catch you in a lie," Cam said, gripping Kaz's arm tightly. "Now, all of you, we're going back to campus. Mr. Redfield will deal with you."

That name sounded familiar and I raked my thoughts until remembering that he was the head of the dorm building we lived in. I could remember Leo saying that getting sent there was a very, very bad thing.

We waited until the Blues had dragged the others out of sight before emerging from the side of the building. Beckett looked furious as he stared at the spot they'd all been at.

"That damn moron," he snarled.

"Why us?" I asked in confusion. "Why not the others?"

"Because you're the only one they'd believe wouldn't have snuck out with Kaz. They noticed all of you were missing from campus, probably searched campus and asked around, and came to town to try to catch you all. I bet Siggy distracted them so Kaz had time to either get away or hide whoever he could," Beckett said. "I told my dad I was going to town today to go the bookstores and shop around. I'm not supposed to be with Kaz. That's why he hid the two of us."

"What should we do?" I said, wondering if we could help them.

"You sneak back onto campus and go to the library. I'm going to the bookstore. I bet my dad sent Emmett out to look for me," Beckett said, and I wondered if he had any other facial expressions besides pissed off and annoyed.

"Oh, sure, yea, I'll just let the 11 year old wander around while his abusive brother is on the hunt. Grand idea," I said.

"Shut up. I know how to handle myself," Beckett said impatiently. "Go down this street, take a right at the intersection, and follow it until you see the hill we came down."

With that, he turned and headed off towards a bookstore down the street. I shook my head and followed his directions until I reached the hill.

I walked up it, out of breath before I was even half way there. Oh, dear god, I was so out of shape. How did Mikayla enjoy working out? No wonder she was so angry all of the time.

When I finally reached the top of the hill, I had to stop to catch my breath before moving onto the library. I seated myself in the corner with a random book, wondering how long I'd have to stay there.

After nearly a half hour, I finally spotted Siggy and Cam walking around, eyes roaming. Cam spotted me and I pretended to be reading the book, watching them out of the corner of my eye. Cam nudged Siggy and nodded. Siggy spotted me and whispered something to Cam. The two continued on their prowl, disappearing around the corner.

I relaxed and tossed the book aside, getting up and leaving the library. I made my way back to the dorm room and peeked in my room. It was empty, so I closed the door and went down to Kaz's room, going in.

The others were seated there and I stared at them in surprise. All of them were standing up awkwardly, except for Pete. He was lying on his stomach on his bed, a bottle of pills spilled in front of him. He seemed higher than I had ever seen him, his knee cushioned by a pillow.

"O'Malley," Kaz greeted, trying hard and almost succeeding at hiding his discomfort.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Let's just say I doubt any of us actually have asses anymore," Leo groaned. "Shit, Redfield definitely has a paddle kink. Even went for Pete's knee. Don't bother with him for the rest of the day. He took two more hydros."

"He beat you guys with a paddle?" I said in shock.

"What'd you expect? We snuck off campus again. We knew the consequences of getting caught," Kaz said, shrugging. He sat down on his chair, masking his pain well. "It's just a little beating."

He reached in his pocket and pulled something out, tossing it to me. I barely managed to catch it, but when I looked down at my hands, I realized that it was the key to my room.

"I told him to give that back to you. You're welcome," Leo said.

I just stared at the key in surprise. The room had already been unlocked when I'd gotten back, so I hadn't even realized that the key had been missing.

"When did you take this?" I asked angrily.

"Outside of Denny's," Kaz said. "I missed my spoon."

The key had been hooked with my I.D. card in my pocket. That meant Kaz had taken the I.D. card out of my pocket, unhooked the key, and slipped the I.D. card back in my pocket without me ever noticing any of it.

"Screw you!" I snapped, suddenly angry. His whole nice guy act outside of Denny's had just been to take my key, and for what reason? Leo would let him into the room anytime he wanted. He was probably just testing to see how far his theft could go against me.

I backed out of the room and shut the door, feeling angrier than before. Why had I called us friends when I was on the phone with my mom? Even for the purpose of pissing her off, I shouldn't have done it. I was not friends with Kaz. Hell, I wasn't friends with any of them.

All I was to them was a kid they could use as a lookout. They just wanted me around because the teachers and Blues didn't think I'd be willing to break the rules like them.

Okay, alright, so maybe I shouldn't judge them just because they'd done bad things in their lives. Sure, I could live with that. But that didn't mean I had to trust them.

I certainly would never trust someone like Kaz. He was just a sneaky little thief with his own agenda.

I went back into my room and shut the door, curling up into a ball on my bed. I hated this. I hated my parents for leaving my sorry gay ass at this place.

I closed my eyes, hating that I knew I'd go crawling back to Kaz's crew. I knew they were just using me, but what choice did I have? They were also protecting me, because if they didn't, I became useless to them.

Choking back a rush of emotions, I crawled under my covers and tried to drift into a nap. Way to go, mom and dad. They'd abandoned me to this place hoping to fix my homosexuality, but instead, all that had happened was I'd sold my dignity for protection. Man, I was going to need some serious therapy if I ever made it out of Conversion Academy.

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A.N.- I've been having fun writing this lately! So, what are you guys thinking of this story? Who's your favorite character?