Eva's PoV

It seemed like hours. Hours of me still trying to get in the way and break up the fight before Calum and Sirgani ran into the playground and separated their person from the other. Suddenly, the park went back to being eerily quiet.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know what else to do." I said to both of the groups as they realised who the others were and began to exchange bad looks.

"Dean, what the hell are you doing messing with Ashton? You know he's uncontrollable!" Sirgani scolded Dean like a parent, getting a tut in response.

"He shoved Eva up against the monkeybars. I was protecting her." Dean justified, receiving a forgiving look from his brother. "I wouldn't have bothered otherwise."  My heart warmed as I heard him express he cared about me enough to get in a fight with Ashton.

"We'll talk about this later. Let's get home and sort these cuts out. Thanks Eva." Sirgani gave me a nod as he steered Dean away, towards a bike that was parked just outside the playground gates. How I didn't realise he rode his bike into the park I will never know, I was probably far too distracted to have heard or seen it. Once the engine of the bike started up and the two drove out of sight, Ashton noticeably relaxed.

"You've gotta stop doing shit like this." I could hear Calum scolding Ashton but I daren't look over because I knew it would only end badly for me. "If this got out, it would change everything."

"Good." Ashton said flatly. I pretended to be collecting my stuff and putting my earphones in as they spoke. "I'm fed up of fighting idiots at college who have two brain cells when the real issue was literally in front of me. I need to rid the world of that vermin of a family." My stomach dropped at just how hatefully he was talking about them. Dean has been nothing but nice to me, Sirgani seemed okay but obviously if he'd kicked me off my bike I may have seen it differently... Francesco was just a nice older man. I don't get why he'd call them vermin?

"Well good. Cos we came up with a plan whilst the fire drill was going on. I'll tell you it on the way." Calum whispered, but I could still hear it because I didn't have my music on. A feeling of fear and nervousness filled me. Do I try and warn Dean? Would that end up with more people getting hurt?
The two of them took off ahead of me, realisation suddenly hitting me that it was actually still time I should be in college, not skipping it and hanging around in a park. We had a fire drill and everyone would have gone straight back to class for registration. One that me, Ashton and Calum were not going to be in. I had to make up a lie and think it up quickly or we were all in trouble. Those two probably couldn't care less but I on the other hand needed to keep everything looking pristine on my record if I wanted to make it through to uni.

I rushed through the halls, my music blaring in the hope to speed me up. My hand just touched the doorknob when someone called my name from down the hall. Someone very familiar.

"Hi Mr Williamson." I gulped down the nervous feeling as I watched him make his way towards me and the classroom I was meant to have been in all this time. I turned to face him, ready to make an excuse when his mouth dropped open at the sight of my face - or more specifically the bruise Ashton had given me when I got caught up in that fight.

"Eva! What happened to you?" He put his hands on my shoulders as he shrunk down to my level to get a good look at the injury. I took this opportunity to make up a more reasonable excuse as I pulled out one earphone.

"I'm so sorry sir. I went to the bathroom during fire drill and noticed I needed some - well err - supplies. I quickly ducked out to the chemist across the road to buy some but as I came out two guys came up to me and tried to rob me. I put up a fight, which as you can see didn't end well, but Ashton and Calum saw and helped me. I don't know why they did it, sir, but they did and I got away with everything still on me." The lies had flown out of my mouth like a perfect piece of poetry, not a syllable out of place. Mr Williamson clearly believed it all - and to be honest why wouldn't he when I was one of the quiet kids who he seemed to appreciate within the zoo of a class he had. He let out a sorry smile, nodding as he opened the door to let me through. Just as I stepped foot in the doorway, Calum and Ashton made their way sluggishly up to the classroom, their bodies squared up and ready for a battering from the teacher - but instead, Mr Williamson grinned at them both.

"Thank you both for stepping in and helping Eva out when she was in trouble." He patted them both on the shoulder like an awkward proud parent. "I'll see to it that the Head hears about this and that it goes on your record as something good." He ushered them through the classroom door just as I took my seat and both of them glanced back to me as I put my second earphone back in and turned my music up. I saw them look but I was too nervous to lock eyes with them so I pretended to scroll my music playlists until I found a song I wanted to listen to. By that point, they'd both turned back around. I could see Michael and Luke drilling them about where they had been, but they kept quiet knowing the truth wasn't going to help them just as much as the lie I'd told Mr Williamson made them look soft. Either way, I knew their happiness would be short lived. They had a plan to upset Sirgani and by the sound of it, they were going to stop at nothing to get it done.

"Class, I apologise for the messy start but I wanted to introduce our newest student who has transferred here from Cherrytree Hills. Her name is Maya." Mr Williamson glanced across the room at the barely bothered faces until his eyes landed on me. I quickly paused my music. "Maya, you can sit beside Eva. She'll show you around. Feel free to ask her any questions."

"Ha. Yeah, if she doesn't want to get an answer!" Luke piped up, sending ripples of laughter through the class. I sighed internally, trying to make it look like I hadn't heard it. Luke elbowed Ashton as if to get his reaction out of him but Ashton didn't seem to laugh, or even smile. In fact, his face almost mirrored mine. He seemed annoyed by it.