It took about a week for Pete to get everything sorted out. It wasn't as difficult as he thought it'd be, but he's sure he's got everything down to the last detail. He's spotted Gabe a few times, saw him teasing some kids in the hallway but thankfully nothing physical. Not yet, at least. And Pete was going to put an end to Gabriel's bullying ways if it was the last thing he ever does.

Pete actually has a class with Gabe, along with Brendon and Josh, but he also has classes with Gabe's other friends. He meant what he said to Patrick a while back, he was going to pick them all off one by one, but not without a little help. He wanted to take them out separately because, let's be honest, taking them all on at once would just be plain dumb. And it would also draw too much attention to the whole thing, there needed to be a minimal amount of witnesses. The more witnesses, the more problems, which would lead to teachers getting involved, then the principal, then would ultimately lead to suspension from school. Or expulsion, depending on Principal Hoppus' mood, and Pete just didn't need any of that.

The first kid was named William, but everyone else around school just called him Bill. He was tall and lanky, kind of like Gabe, except with a slightly better sense of fashion. Joe and Ryan tagged along in teaching him a lesson, avoiding the school's cameras and doing a damn good job at it. They cornered him when William left their class for a bathroom break and dragged him out, he put up a good fight but it was three against one so the fight he put up just wasn't good enough. They took him outside to the front of the school and tied him to a flagpole with some duct tape that Ryan had snagged from shop class earlier that day.

"You guys are fucking lunatics!" William snapped, there wasn't much else he could do from his position except talk shit. Pete had a solution for that.

"Shut the fuck up." Pete mutters as he rips off an extra piece of tape and covers the boy's mouth with it, satisfied when all he hears is his annoyed, muffled voice . "That's better." He smiles then pulls out a pair of scissors he'd taken from the art room. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to with them just yet, he planned on cutting the dude's clothes off and leaving him to stand naked as everyone walks by him. He still considered doing that. But then Pete takes a look at William's hair and gets a better idea.

He holds the scissors in one hand and grabs a fistful of William's hair with the other, looking him dead in the eyes and saying, "I bet you take great care of your hair, hm? Looks like you do."

William furrows his brow, scanning Pete's wild eyes. Pete leans a bit closer then mutters, "And now you can kiss it all goodbye." Then he's bringing his hand up, wielding the blue-handled scissors and snipping away at the boy's carefully conditioned locks.

Joe hangs a sign constructed out of notebook paper, tape, and a black sharpie around William's neck once Pete's done mutilating his hair. It reads, 'I pick on people to compensate for my small penis and fragile ego'. Joe was quite proud of it.

Pete decided to cut up William's clothes as a final touch.

***

The next victim was named Alex. Pete encountered him once before when he started messing with Patrick one morning during breakfast, luckily Pete was there or who knows what might've happened. Alex had French class with Pete and Andy, he sat in the back corner of the room where he usually ended up falling asleep, which was perfect for what Pete had planned.

Alex rested his head against the wall, eyes closed and just barely snoring, Pete knew for sure that the asshole was knocked out. Pete had a collection of colorful permanent markers in his bookbag that were just waiting to be used, so while the teacher's back is turned he takes them out of his bag and switches his seat to the empty one beside Alex. Andy sits in one of the desks in front of them to provide a cover while Pete created his masterpiece.

Pete takes one of his bright colored markers and uncaps it before carefully writing on the other boy's face, neck, and arms. He writes some hurtful words he's heard him say to some of the kids around school and to Patrick specifically, words that just shouldn't be said to other people. He's careful not to wake him and is sure to pause whenever he begins to stir, then continues when Alex settles back into his slumber.

When he's finished with the markers he's not quite satisfied with what he's done, he thinks he should add just a few more things. Andy happened to have some other supplies Pete could possibly use, such as glue, glitter, and a few pages of stickers. He gladly pulled them out of his bookbag and put them on the desk Pete was seated in. He takes the liquid glue and draws a few shapes with it, then adds the glitter for a nice, shimmery effect. He puts the stickers on last, they were like the ones that elementary school teachers would stick on the kids' work to encourage them, and some others that were different foods with smiley faces on them. He just stuck them all on there, but saved a couple of the cute food ones for himself in the end.

He sat back and admired his work, whispering for Andy to take a look at it as well.

"Mieux que la Mona Lisa [Better than the Mona Lisa]." He grins then gives Pete a celebratory high five before they go back to their assigned seats, just in time for the bell to ring. Alex wakes and is clueless about his new decorations, walking out of the classroom and wondering why everyone stared and laughed at him as he walked by. A job well done if Pete doesn't say so himself.

Now there was just Gabe to take care of.

***

Pete's original plan for Gabe didn't involve Patrick, he wanted to keep him out of it. And it also didn't involve fighting Gabe in the confines of the boys' bathroom. He was supposed to lure Gabe out to the back of the school and bind him to the principal's car, but it didn't work out that way. Instead Pete gets a message from Patrick while him, Brendon, and Josh were preparing to put the plan into action.

'BATHROOM NOW' is what the message said, and already Pete knew something wasn't right. It was in all caps, for one, and Patrick hated typing in capital letters because it made it seem like he was yelling about something and he just thought it wasn't necessary. But this time he actually was yelling about something and needed Pete's help asap, so Pete tells the other two what's going on then raises his hand and asks to be excused.

"Meet me by the bathroom in five minutes." He tells them before he exits the classroom.

He runs through the hall as soon as he leaves, coming across the bathroom and calling out for Patrick. The stalls are all empty, except for one, so Pete calls his name one last time.

"Patrick?" He leans down to peek under the stall door and sees Patrick's scuffed Converses.

"Pete?" Pete hears the lock click from the other side and watches as Patrick cautiously opens the door, looking around as if he was searching for something before he directs his eyes at Pete.

"You okay?" Pete asks but Patrick just pulls him into the stall before locking them both in. Pete wasn't sure what he thought was going on anymore; an emergency situation or Patrick just being kinky. "Is one of us about to get a blowjob?"

Patrick rolls his eyes. "Not right now, no."

"Oh, so later then?"

"Get your mind out of the fucking gutter, Pete. Gabe was in here before you showed up." He huffs, leaning against the wall and taking his hat off so he could anxiously run his fingers through his hair.

"Shit, he didn't try anything did he?" Pete cups Patrick's face in his hands and checks for any wounds or bruises, but he doesn't look like he's been harmed in any way.

"No, he just... well, he was looking for you." Patrick whispers as he puts his hat back on.

"Me? What the fuck does he want with me?" Honestly, what could Gabriel possibly want with Pete, other than to possibly pick a fight with him? Which is exactly what he wanted with Pete, actually. Gabe probably saw what he and the others did to his friends, so he figured he'd come to Pete rather than wait for Pete to come to him.

"Knock, knock. Anybody home?" A voice echoes through the bathroom, followed by a few footsteps before a hard knock is heard against the stall door. Patrick knew automatically that it was Gabe, backing away slightly and glancing at Pete as he peeked at Gabe's shoes from beneath the door. "You fags aren't fucking each other in there, are you?"

This isn't how Pete's plan was supposed to go, the whole thing just fucking backfired and he couldn't be sneaky anymore. The only thing he could do now was go out and face Gabe on his own, one on one. Pete glances at his boyfriend and sees how worried he looks, scared for Pete's safety more than his own. He knows what Pete is going to do and he also knows that he won't be able to stop him or talk him out of it.

Pete's phone suddenly buzzes in his pocket and he quickly checks the message that pops up.

'Bren: at the bathroom. where are u???'

He puts his phone away then cups Patrick's face again, looking him in the eye briefly before leaning toward his ear and whispering as quietly as he can. "Get out of here, I'll take care of this." Then he's unlocking the stall door and pulling it open, glaring up at Gabe's smirking face.

"Well it's about fucking time!" Gabriel bellows, making Patrick flinch a little. "I've been looking everywhere for you, my friend, and I think it's time we've had a little chat."

Pete allows Patrick to quickly slide out of the stall and he runs out into the hallway where Brendon and Josh were originally waiting for Pete, but got Patrick instead.

"Are you playing bodyguard or something?" Gabe asks as he watches Patrick leave the room, looking back at Pete's unamused face. Then he's smirking again, rolling up the sleeves of his bright, purple hoodie. "You're not gonna get me this time, shitstick." And the next thing Pete is feeling is a hard punch to the face and seeing stars behind his eyelids.

He stumbles and slams into the back wall of the stall, groaning and holding a hand over his mouth as he blinked in an attempt to clear his vision. There's a bit of blood in his palm when he pulls it away, running the tip of his tongue over his newly busted bottom lip then pushing himself away from the wall.

"Shitstick?" Pete scoffs as he wipes the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "Is that all you could come up with? 'Cause that was so fucking weak."

He luckily dodges the second punch that comes his way and is able to tackle Gabe to the floor with a loud thud, causing the boys in the hall to take a look inside to see what was happening. All except for Patrick who didn't really want to watch, he just sat against the wall and hoped Pete would be the one left standing.

Pete gets a few punches in, proud of himself for doing a bit of damage to Gabriel's face. But then the taller boy is getting a leg up and kicking Pete off of him, the back of his head smacking into the wall. It hurts like hell but Pete brushes it off and gets to his feet before Gabe does, walking over to him and pulling him up by his hair. Pete drags him over to the sinks and slams his head against the counter not once, but twice, and ends up breaking the boy's nose. Gabe drops to the floor, hands over his face and yelling in pain.

"Didn't I tell you last time... to keep your fucking hands.. to yourself?!" Pete pants out before he lands a swift kick to Gabe's ribs, then another, and another, and he's just tiring himself out by now but every grunt of pain that Gabe makes gives Pete a bit of satisfaction. And he's not quite done yet. He looks around for something heavy and sets his eyes on the hand dryer with the 'out of order' sign taped to it. The dryer was loose and could come off the wall with just the slightest tug and no one's come to fix it yet, so that's what Pete goes for.

While Gabe is writhing on the floor, Pete steps over him and yanks the dryer off the wall after pulling on it a few times. He almost drops it, underestimating its weight, but he gets his bearings and carries it over to where the taller boy is lying on the floor. He lifts it up and holds it above his head, prepared to let it drop on Gabe's unsuspecting face before someone shouts from behind him and a couple pairs of hands snatch the dryer from Pete's bloody ones.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Pete, are you trying to go to jail for murder?!" Brendon yells, him and Josh dropping the dryer to the floor and cringing at the loud, metallic noise it makes as it collides with the floor tiles.

Pete braces himself against the sink, hands nearly touching a splat of blood on the edge​ of the counter, breathing heavily and trying to catch his breath.

"Guys," Josh announces, holding his phone in his hand as he checked the time. "Bell's gonna ring in about two minutes."

Patrick goes in and drags Pete out of the bathroom just as Josh and Brendon hightail it back to class. Patrick pushes Pete up against the wall, looking at his busted lip and grimacing at the severity of it. It might have just been the one punch that caused it but it looked pretty bad.

"Are you okay?" Patrick checks every area of Pete's body for other wounds but finds none. "You'd better be okay, asshole."

"'M fine." Pete murmurs, trying to push himself from the wall but just ends up falling onto Patrick. He holds Pete up and helps him regain his balance, looking at him with concern. "Kinda... lightheaded." He closes his eyes then, and involuntarily puts all of his weight on Patrick.

"Shit, shit, shit." Patrick mutters to himself, then the bell suddenly rings and students begin to flood out of their classrooms and into the hallway. All he could do now was wait for Brendon and Josh to come back so they could help him get Pete home.

"Is he okay?" Josh asks as he and Brendon approach the other boys.

"I don't know," Patrick grunts, trying to hold Pete up as best as he can. Then Brendon goes to help him and they both put one of Pete's arms around their shoulders. "I think he passed out."

"The back of his head is bleeding." Josh is staring worriedly at the spot where he saw Pete slam his head against the wall earlier. "I'm no expert, but I don't think it's supposed to do that."

"You're a true genius, man." Brendon deadpans and Josh just gives him the finger. "We have to get him home but someone's gonna have to drive his car."

"Ooh, me!" Josh volunteers, holding up Pete's bookbag that he kindly grabbed from their class before they left. He unzips a few of the pockets until he finds Pete's car keys, then leads the way to the student parking lot while Brendon and Patrick practically carry Pete there.

Brendon gets his own car and follows behind Josh as he drove Pete and Patrick to their apartment building.