I watched Kaz carefully as we walked to class the next day. He acted the same as he always did; he walked alongside Pete, controlling Pete's pills and ducking away any time Pete tried to hit him. Leo and Mikayla walked together talking, not seeming to notice any difference because Kaz left no difference to be noticed.

We made it to class and I watching anxiously as Mr. Sternberg stepped up to start teaching. But Kaz didn't say anything.

He just sat at his desk, watching with calm eyes. He kept his mouth shut through Mr. Miller's class, too.

It was in Mr. Sudlow's class that he broke his silence.

Mr. Sudlow was pacing the room, ranting about sins or something. My eyes kept drifting over to Kaz, studying him, trying to figure out what in him had finally snapped. There was just no way that him going to Headmaster Constance and then claiming his friends were just his weapons was a coincidence. The Headmaster had gotten in his head and shaken something loose.

"Rogan!"

Mr. Sudlow's angry voice snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked over as Mr. Sudlow snatched his ruler off his desk, making his way towards Rogan.

"Say that one more time," Mr. Sudlow growled.

Rogan glared at him. "I said you can shove your bible right up your ass."

Mr. Sudlow snapped the ruler down on his hand with cringe-worthy force. "I can't believe a family as good as the Siggeir family would chose to bring an ungrateful brat like you into their home."

Rogan grit his teeth and steeled himself for another blow. "No one was splitting up me and Seph. Not that I'd expect you to understand bonds like that. The only strong bond you have is between your dick and your hand, you sorry old man."

Rogan winced as Mr. Sudlow hit him the face with the ruler. Mr. Sudlow raised the ruler to strike Rogan again.

"Easy, Sudlow," Kaz said. "We all know you're just bitter and angry because you live off of a teacher's salary."

"You, Casimir, should shut your mouth. Before you land in the Headmaster's office again!" Mr. Sudlow said, spinning to face Kaz again.

"You know, you sit up here and rant about sins and how we're all going to hell," Kaz said, leaning over the back of his chair. "Did you tell the class what sins your family has? I heard your niece has a drinking problem and your nephew is gay. I also heard one of your own kids got caught fucking in a park. Classy."

Mr. Sudlow dropped the ruler as he stared at Kaz in a mixture of fury and shock. He stormed over and grabbed Kaz by the hair, yanking him to his feet and pulling him to the front of the room. He kicked the back of Kaz's legs so that he fell to his knees.

"Right now," Mr. Sudlow said, voice low and dangerous. "Right now you are going to say you made all of that up."

"But lying is also a sin," Kaz said in surprise.

I looked around and felt my heart sinking at the admiration in the eyes of the other students. This was Kaz Warrick, the kid who fought back no matter the cost. He was their hero. He was their hope.

He was a lie.

Kaz struggled his way back to his feet and out of Sudlow's tight grasp. He moved with the ease of someone who'd been restrained enough to know how to get out of it.

"Listen, Sudlow, I'm just telling the facts here. And let's get one thing perfectly clear between us: I do not kneel to people like you." Kaz's grin was dangerous and taunting.

He calmly walked back to his seat and dropped into it, hands folded behind his head and chair leaning back a bit. He nodded at Mr. Sudlow, as if giving him permission to start his lesson back up.

Mr. Sudlow seemed too angry to speak. He kept clenching and unclenching his fists, glaring at Kaz with pure loathing in his eyes.

He went back to a very aggressive and loud lesson until class was over. Everyone hurried out of the room before they faced his wrath.

Kaz's crew flocked around him as they moved towards the dining hall for lunch. I followed behind at a safe distance, hoping they wouldn't notice me.

"Killian," Leo said, looking over his shoulder at me and ruining my stealth. "Come on. Why are you walking so slowly?"

"I'm a slow person," I countered.

"Leave him behind if he can't keep up," Kaz said, shrugging.

I resisted the urge to flip him off. "I'm going to the library. I have some work to finish up during lunch."

The others nodded and kept walking as I veered off towards the library. I went inside and over to where the computers were, getting on one in the back corner. There were only a few other students here since most were off at the dining halls.

I brought up the search engine and stared at the screen for a moment. I sighed and proceeded to type in Kaz's name, hitting enter.

Results popped up almost instantly. There was an article about his arrest, which I was tempted to click on. But another article caught my eyes, because it had nothing to do with him getting into trouble.

I clicked on it and it brought up an image of Kaz and an extremely attractive guy sitting together at a table holding ice cream cones. They both appeared to be mid-laugh in the picture.

Under it was a caption. "Casimir Warrick and Aaron Kizziar enjoy ice cream from Amelia's Shack. The popular food and ice cream spot opened for business over the weekend."

The article was from a town's newspaper and it was dated to about two years ago. I leaned back in my chair, my thoughts crawling along to piece together.

Kaz had mentioned the name Aaron, and I was assuming he was one of the friends Kaz had filed away as a bad decision. I backed off the page and clicked on the article about Kaz's arrest instead, scrolling through it.

From what I gathered, Kaz had stolen something important from his school and gotten caught. The article announced that charges against him were dropped but that he was expelled from the school. It had a school photo of him in the article and said that he was 16 at the time of the incident. He didn't look much different than he did now. He had the same bad haircut and the same calm expression.

I scrolled through, finding a police log from Kaz's first arrest. Judging by the date, Kaz was only 15 years old when it had happened.

I turned the computer off and stared at the blank screen. What the hell was I doing? What was I hoping to find by stalking Kaz's damn life?

But I had to be missing something. There had to be something Headmaster Constance had used against Kaz other than his parents. Something that hurt him bad enough that he felt the need to push people away.

I got up and went off to class, keeping my distance from Kaz and crew until classes were over. Leo and Mikayla caught up to me as I tried to hang back after our last class was over.

"Hey, why are you acting so weird today?" Leo asked.

"I just...do you guys ever feel like Kaz just uses you?" I asked, subtle as always. Great job Killian.

"Kaz wouldn't do that," Mikayla said immediately.

"How do you know?" I challenged. "Last night was reckless. And he only did it to prove something to himself. He could've gotten all of us in serious trouble."

"Are you blind, Killian? He always protects us. Look, I know a lot about people who do bad things for good reasons," Mikayla said, a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"I don't think you understand how people like Kaz work," I said.

"Oh, I don't? Let me ask you something Killian, do you know why my brother is locked up?" Mikayla asked.

"Mika," Leo said nervously.

"No, no, Leo," she said, waving him away. "Well, Killian?"

"Why would I know that?" I said. "Was he a thief like Kaz? Is that why you think you know Kaz so well?"

"No, actually. When I was younger, Drake tried to murder our mom," she said, eyes hard. "He hit her with her own car. And you know why he did it? Because she was hurting us and our dad couldn't get custody no matter how hard he fought for it. So Drake took it into his own hands, knowing that he would take the fall for it but not caring because it was worth it to him as long as I got away from mom."

"This is so much information I did not want to hear," I said, eyes going wide.

"And you know what Kaz does? Kaz fights back to give us all hope in this place. He takes the fall because, to him, it's worth the abuse as long as our spirits stay fierce," Mikayla said, ignoring my comment.

I stayed quiet, having nothing to say to that. Mikayla waited to make sure I wouldn't say anything before turning and leaving the room.

"He reminds her of her brother," Leo said, breaking the awkward silence. "She trusts Kaz. I trust Kaz. We all do. He wouldn't use us. You'll get it, Killian. Let's go back to the dorms."

We left the class and caught up to Mikayla. She was quiet, but she had a fierce expression on her face, a girl who had taken a road trip through hell and brought back the flames with her.

We walked the path towards the dorm buildings, spotting Kaz and Pete. We hurried to catch up to the two of them.

"Took you long enough," Kaz said.

"Don't even ask," Leo said, shaking his head.

"Kaz!"

We stopped and turned at Emmett's voice. He was standing off to the side with his two friends, who were restraining a struggling Beckett. Emmett had a nasty cut on his swollen cheek.

"I know it was you," he snarled at Kaz. "I know it was all of you who broke into my room last night. And I know my brother helped you."

"The best part is that your parents don't even give a shit to do anything about it," Kaz said, laughing.

Emmett's expression darkened. "They said we couldn't prove it was you and your friends. But I know it was."

He stormed over and punched Beckett in the throat so hard that Beckett started wheezing. Emmett grabbed Beckett's wrists and held them up so Kaz could see.

"Wouldn't it be such a fucking shame if the Townsend prodigy broke one of his talented little hands?" he said.

"Even one handed I'd still have more talent than you!" Beckett snapped. "It's not my fault you're worthless to mom and dad."

Emmett elbowed him in the stomach roughly and he wheezed again. Kaz strode forward calmly, going right up to Emmett.

"Emmett," he said, shaking his head. "Your jealousy is pathetic to watch."

He kicked Emmett in the knee, dodging out of the way as Emmett's friends tried to grab him. Leo, Mikayla, and Pete hurried forward and I stood there like the useless coward I was.

Kaz grabbed Beckett and pulled the younger boy behind him and away from Emmett. With Kaz's body between the brothers, the others went after Emmett's friends.

I watched the mini brawl in amazement. Leo helped Pete take down Emmett's friend, pinning her to the ground. They took off the jacket tied around her waist and used it to tie her arms together, smirking as they did so.

Mikayla took down Emmett's other friend, knocking his legs out from under him and punching him in the face so hard that he was too dazed to get back up. Seeing her muscles in action was magical.

Kaz and Beckett went after Emmett. They managed to knock him to his knees, and Beckett hit him the face with his yo-yo until he curled up with his hands over his head.

Kaz knelt down and wrapped his hand around Emmett's throat, loose enough that he could still breathe but tight enough that the warning was clear. "You're a pathetic, jealous child, Emmett. Stay away from Beckett before you really piss me off."

He stood up and the others followed him. I hurried after them, not wanting someone to walk by and think I had been involved in the fight.

As we approached the dorm building, I reached out and grabbed Kaz's arm. The others took the hint and went inside, leaving us alone.

"You were lying last night," I said.

"I wasn't," he said, pulling his arm out of my grip. "I use them. I use you."

I shook my head. "No. You said you weren't their friend, but you lied, Kaz. I just can't figure out why."

"We're not friends. None of them are friends to me. They're just the only ones with the skills I need and the desperation to follow my lead," he said.

"Really? Because you go to extremes to protect Beckett from his family and his brother. You help Siggy meet with his brother, and even went as far as to take Sudlow's beating today so that Rogan wouldn't. You found kids with broken spirits and you put those pieces back together and gave them something to fight for. You take the fall for them. You help regulate Pete's medication so he doesn't take too much. The world told us we needed to change and you told us you liked the very things our families were ashamed of," I said. "You weren't using us and you know it."

Kaz ran a hand through his hair and watched me. I kept steady eye-contact with him, because I was not going to let him run away from me right now. Headmaster Constance got in his head and I was going to fix him.

"That story you told me about your stepdad..." I said. "I finally figured out what was wrong with it."

"The one about the deer?" he asked in confusion. "There was nothing wrong with it. I was just proving that I'm a normal guy."

"You said your stepdad told you they shot it because you couldn't fix an animal that broken," I said. "That was the point of the story. That was it, wasn't it? That was the moment in your life you realized that when people don't know what to do with broken things, they get rid of them. And that was when you decided that it wasn't right."

Kaz stared at me in surprise. "O'Malley, you're really something, you know that? You don't belong here."

"I'm here because I'm gay and my parents are bible thumping homophobes," I said before I could stop myself. "But you knew that, didn't you?"

"I wasn't going to out you. Mikayla figured it out too. I told her not to say anything. It wasn't our business to out you before you were ready to tell us," Kaz said.

"So I was right, then. About the deer story," I said.

Kaz nodded. "David told me they shot it because you couldn't fix an animal that broken, and I told him that wasn't fair. I told him it wasn't fair that someone got to determine what was too broken to be fixed. He told me I was right, but that we didn't have a say in the matter. That day stayed with me for years. And when I got here, I realized that these kids were the broken deer to society. They couldn't be fixed, so they were sent here to be killed. I wasn't going to let this school tell them they were broken when they weren't."

"You care too much," I said. "What did the Headmaster use against you?"

"My old friends," he said, looking away from me. "He did a lot of digging to figure it out. But eventually he found out the ways they used me. And he said I'd never be any better than them. That I was just using this group for my own agenda, the way my 'friends' had used me before I came here." He gave me a bitter smile. "I let myself be used because I wanted something from them. Headmaster Constance got me thinking that I was no different. That these kids let me use them because they wanted that protection fighting back offered them."

"What did you want from your old friends?" I asked.

"Aaron," he said. "I wanted Aaron."

"Oh." Well, judging by that picture I'd seen today, he got Aaron.

"I want something else now, though. I want two things, actually," Kaz said.

"What do you want now?" I said.

"I want to be better than the kids I was friends with when I was younger. I want to be a good friend to people I've met here," he said.

"What else?" I asked.

"You really have to ask me that?" Kaz said.

"I just did," I pointed out.

Kaz sighed. "You're so oblivious, O'Malley."

He stepped forward, cupping my face in his hands. And then he kissed me.