EVERYONE KNEW that Sam was angry and at this point she was almost angry at the entire world.

It seemed like no one was on her side.

Expect, people were. A lot of people were, but sometimes it would feel like people would never understand what she was going through.

And Rory felt that same way.

She laid in her bed, free from being grounded by her mother and watched as her phone lit up from beside her.

She picked her phone up and found a text from Demetri saying to meet up at the pop up amusement park because Hawk and some others had been there.

She debated it heavily. She didn't know if it was entirely worth it. Was it really worth trying to get "revenge" on them? Was it really worth the—

Chis says Tory is with them.

It was enough for her to slip on her shoes and to make her way there.

She stopped and picked Demetri up on the way and the group of five made their way inside and met Chris halfway.

"Where are they?" Sam asked.

"They snuck into the old laser tag place."

"How many?"

"Four of 'em."

"Six of us. I like our odds."

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Demetri asked.

"We're not on school property." She answered, "This is our chance to fight back."

The group made their way into the laser tag place and Chris was able to shut the lights off inside.

Hawk scoffed, "What do you want?"

"Payback." Sam seethed.

And just like that, the fight broke up.

Rory didn't see Tory and everyone seemed to break out into the own to fight someone with back up from another.

But Tory soon made her way inside the laser tag place with two others behind her.

But Tory didn't want Rory. She wanted Sam and the girl was no where in sight.

But that didn't matter, it didn't matter at all because Rory stepped forward and her fist collided with side of Tory's face.

The two other boys no longer by her side as Rory towered over the girl to allow a fair fight.

Tory gave a cheap smile and looked up at the girl, "Nice to see you back." She laughed, "You've never looked better."

Tory stood to her feet and finally swung back at Rory who was able to dodge the punch this time, but with a dodge came a kick from Tory, which Rory couldn't dodge.

But, Rory was able to catch Tory's leg and kick the girl down.

And once Tory was down on the ground, Rory wasn't going to let the girl get up.

Rory began to breath deeply as she hovered over Tory once more, finally getting down on her knees and taking her fist and collided it to Tory's face.

Punch after punch after punch to Tory's face.

The blonde was able to block a couple of punches from the girl, but Rory was angry, she was tried, and Tory had changed the way Rory looked at herself and Rory would be damned if she let her get away with it.

And Rory let her fist hit Tory's face once more before finally looking up and seeing Sam crouched in the corner with her hand over her chest.

While the girl was distracted Tory bucked her head up, hitting Rory and quickly separated herself from the girl.

Rory would let the girl go and crawl over to Sam and gently grabbed her hand.

"Hey, Sam." Rory softly spoke, "I need you to look at me, okay?"

And soon, a loud scream from Demetri was heard, he began to shout profanities as everyone cheered Hawk on.

The group with Hawk began to make their way out and Rory left Sam's side and over towards Demetri.

She looked up and saw Hawk looking over them with an almost somber look on his face.

Rory didn't say anything and tried to help Demetri to his feet.

And when she looked up again, Hawk was gone.

She was able to get Sam and Demetri to their feet and drove to the hospital.

She called Mrs. LaRusso on Sam's phone and she would wait until she arrived to separate herself from the girls side.

Rory sighed as she slumped down into a different seat, away from San and her mother to try to get them as much privacy in the tight spaced waiting room.

She pulled her phone out her pocket, holding her hand close to her chest as it was balled into a fist, the hand hurting from the continuous punches to Tory.

She held her thumb over the name in her contacts before she finally pressed on the contact name.

She held the phone close to her ear and she didn't have to wait long to her a "hello" on the other side.

"Can you come to the hospital? My—"

"Are you hurt?"

"No... My hand is sore, but I'm alright. Can you just get an Uber and meet me here?"

She didn't have to wait long for her father to make his way inside the hospital and sitting down next to Rory.

They didn't speak, they didn't say a word.

The duo only left when the doctor cleared Demetri and Mrs. LaRusso said she would drive the boy home.

Rory threw the keys over towards Jack and the two of them made their way towards the car.

Jack watched as she hugged Sam tightly and sliding over to give the same hug to Demetri who only latched on to the girl a moment too long for his liking.

Rory waved them goodbye and made her way back to the passengers seat and rested her head against the seat.

Jack and Rory drove home in silence and made their way inside the house.

"Uh, Aurora." Jack called, "Can we talk?"

She only nodded and stopped at the first step on the staircase.

Jack held his hands and cleared his throat. He didn't know that apologizing to his own child could be so hard.

"Um, I'm— I'm really sorry for how I reacted last week. It was uncalled for and I apologize."

Rory nodded, scratching her head before nodding, "Okay... Goodnight."

Okay, not how he planned for that to go.

"Wait, wait, Rory." Jack called, watching Rory pause once more, "I said a lot of... fucked up things that night, that I didn't mean. Everything, from you being naïve to... your scar. I'm truly sorry. I'm sorry that wasn't listening and I'm sorry that wasn't there to protect you."

Rory sighed, making her way down the steps to be closer to Jack.

"There's this kid at my school with a scar above his lip from surgery and people laughed and picked on him for something he couldn't change and I always knew that I would hate to be in his shoe. And one day I was finally was. I was him... in this house." She explained, "I didn't want to fight her, dad. She ambushed me and she kept going when she knew that I was weak. So I punched and I punched and I punched. I don't like fighting that way."

Rory held a shaky breath, holding her hands. Jack looked down, Rory's hands bruised.

Rory and Jack were so similar. Similar in the ways they fought, loved, argued. It was scary almost.

Rory finally looked up at Jack, still holding her own hand, "I can't be you dad. I can't keep pretending that I can."

"No one's asking you to do that—"

"Everyone is." She cut off, "Everyone. Just like how people expect Belle to be like mom. The model, the it girl, the girl people love. That's who Belle is suppose to be because everyone says so."

Everyone as in the internet.

Can she kick as high as him? I bet she doesn't know karate like her dad does? She's nothing like Jack or Layla.

And the comments grew worse and worse when the news hit that she was in the hospital after a fight at school.

Jack took careful steps forward and wrapped Rory into his touch and all she did was cry.

All she fucking did was cry.

— lucy has something to say !!

clapping because this story hit 10k and that jack grew some balls and apologized to his daughter :hands_up:

bye :))))