A/N Another short chapter, but this has some of Kalen in it, and I love Kalen, so I'll allow it

Somehow, despite the late night before, James was able to pull himself out of bed at an earlier time on Tuesday, meaning him and Tyler were actually able to arrive at school a bit early and stand at James's locker to talk. It was the most crowded James had yet to see, and Tyler explained with a yawn that "people here like to stand around and talk about useless shit a lot. Since we're not allowed to swear in class rooms or anything–"

"We're not allowed to swear either?"

"–everyone gets here early and does it before school," Tyler finished, ignoring James's interruption. "It's ridiculous, isn't it?"

"Well, we're here," James pointed out, looking both ways down the hall. The people who had the lockers on either side of him had also thought it was a good idea to gather with their friends that morning, so James and Ty were huddled close together in order to hear one another.

"We're here because you were scared of being late again and refused to sit in the car," Tyler reminded with a pointed look. James just shrugged and leaned back against the locker. It was warmer outside that it had been the day before, and the uniform was getting a little too hot for comfort, so the cold metal on his back felt nice.

Curious, James turned his head slightly to tune into the conversation on their right. The group of girls were talking about shoes. He turned his head the other direction and listened to his left. The group of boys were also talking about shoes. Loudly, he sighed and dropped his head back. "What else to people around here care about?" James inquired, making Tyler's eyebrows shoot up. "I mean, how am I going to fit in if I don't give a damn about shoes?" This question was asked redundantly, and it made his friend laugh, but the group of girls next to him seemed offended by the statement and glared at him full throttle for a moment before moving away from the locker. Alarmed, James shot a look at Tyler, who had been the one to warn him multiple times about not pissing anyone off, but his friend didn't seem at all concerned, and quickly occupied the empty space.

"Fucking finally". Tyler closed his eyes. "You don't need to give a damn about shoes to fit in, you just need to not piss off the wrong people and you'll be fine".

"Did I piss off the wrong people?" James inquired, leaning forward a bit to watch the group of girls stop at a different locker down the hall and regroup. One of them caught him looking, and her eyes lingered, so he leaned back quickly.

"No," Tyler claimed, looking over his shoulder and then smirking. "They're harmless. The blonde is actually one of the triplets ex-girlfriends, and the breakup didn't go well, so they don't talk anymore. You could probably piss her off all you want and she wouldn't say anything to any of them about it".

"How do you know the breakup didn't go well?" James inquired, taking another peek at the girls down the hall. One of them was still staring at him, so he looked away before he could spot the blonde.

"Because I watched it," Tyler answered simply. James eyebrows raised. "Everyone watched it, man. It happened like, right down the hall before lunch one day last year. They were screaming at one another. It was kind of hard not to pay attention".

"Why'd they break up?" James asked, actually curious. Usually things like this didn't catch his attention, but he found the Bradford's interesting, especially since he had been warned to be wary of them.

"So apparently Joe was showing interest in her best friend Miranda, and he kept denying it, so they got in a huge fight about it and broke up, and then like three days later Joe started dating Miranda".

"Classy," James voiced, and Ty nodded his head in agreement shortly, but his eyes were on something else.

"Here they come". James turned to see who they were, and frowned at the sight of the Bradford triplets approaching. They walked down the middle of the hall, and people actually dove to get out of their way, as if they were royalty. Kalen wasn't with them, James noted, which he was actually happy about. He couldn't picture the youngest boy pushing people aside like that, though maybe it was just because he really didn't know him well. "Something's going to happen," Tyler warned, leaning towards him a bit to whisper.

It was the fact that he could hear Tyler's whisper without straining that made James realize that everyone in the hallway had fallen silent, watching the three boys approach. "How can you tell?" James whispered, turning his face away from the scene to look at Tyler. Green eyes flicked over to his face for half a second before looking back. It occurred to James then that his best friend was nervous.

It lead to him wondering what exactly Tyler could have done to piss off a Bradford, but he assumed that Tyler would have already discussed it with him if he wanted to talk about it, and he hadn't.

"Something always happens when they come down a hallway that isn't their own in the mornings," Tyler explained, his jaw clenching, and then relaxing as the Bradford's passed by them without pause.

The three boys carried on about ten feet more before stopping and turning towards a locker on the opposite side of the hall as James. Beside him, Tyler's whole body relaxed, and he mumbled a name. Kalen.

James was momentarily surprised that he hadn't noticed the beautiful boy before now, but he supposed he wouldn't, given how many people were in the hall. Kalen was standing in front of the locker his brother's had stopped by, glaring at the three boys. Next to him was a tall boy with incredibly large, panicked eyes. It seemed that everyone in the room was holding their breath.

One of the Bradford's said something under his breath, and the kid besides Kalen immediately said, "no sir!" Loudly. People snickered. The kid swallowed.

"I would not want to be him right now, that's for sure," Tyler grumbled under his breath to him, and James nodded.

"Do you know what he did?" James asked, watching as the angry looking Bradford reached out a hand and grabbed the kids arm, yanking him close. The Bradford's lips moved, and the boys head nodded frantically, but James was too far to hear what was being said. Kalen looked furious, and started to move forward, but Michael's arm shot out, stopping his younger brother from interfering.

"Daniel, stop it," Kalen demanded, all the while pushing at Michael's arm. "Daniel".

"He talked to Kalen," Tyler finally answered. James tore his eyes away from the scene to look at his best friend, who was already looking back at him.

"He just talked to him and they're flipping out?"

"I told you, James. No one gets to go near that kid without facing consequences. I guarantee you they don't know that—" Tyler leaned incredibly close and whispered—"you're Kalen's lab partner," into his ear, "or they'd be over here threatening you right now".

James huffed. "But that's not my fault".

"They'd see it as your fault," Tyler claimed, looking back at the Bradfords. James's eyes moved over there as well. "They would expect you to have already gone to your teacher and begged to not work with Kalen". How lonely, James thought, his eyes focusing on the gold eyed boy on the other side of the hall.

Daniel said one last thing to the terrified boy, receiving a, "yes I understand!" Before letting him go. Immediately, the kid took off at a run, trying to get as far way as fast as he could.

Kids began to laugh, but James could hear Kalen's frustrated voice above all of the noise exclaiming, "he was talking to me about an assignment we're going to have to work on together!"

"I think you're going to be working by yourself from now on," Joe claimed, looking after the running boy with a daunting smile on his face, as if he was prepared in case the boy looked back at them.

"Come on," Tyler groaned, grabbing James's arm and pulling him forward. The people around them all seemed to be leaving the area as well, and James checked his watch. They still had seven minutes until class started. "They're all leaving because there's nothing else to see, and I don't want to be the last ones left in the hall along with the Bradfords". There was that uneasy look again, but James didn't comment, only followed his friend into the closest stairwell. It was the one that would lead James to his class, and he wondered why Tyler was still with him, since his class was on the other side of the school.

Tyler walked all the way to the second floor with him, and then paused. Without looking at him, he said, "that's why we stay away from the Bradfords, especially Kalen," under his breath before turning away and starting up the stairs to the third floor.

***

Dispute the warring James had received that morning— and then a couple times more during lunch—his eyes lingered on Kalen all through their chemistry lab, intrigued by the display he had seen in the hall that morning. He felt bad for the boy after having seen it, and he figured everyone must be scared of him, just as Tyler was, and that had to be a horrible feeling. James wondered if Kalen even got to have friends, or if his brothers scared them away as well.

They were doing a simple lab for their second day of class, one that Kalen briefly explained was something she always gave out towards the beginning of the semester to test how well they followed directions.

The conversation had died after that, though James found himself about to ask questions pertaining to what had happened in the hall earlier, but he caught himself many times and tugged at his lip with his teeth.

"Are you always this quiet?" Kalen asked eventually, his golden eyes looking away from the test tube he was slowly pouring orange liquid in. It swirled with the red liquid already in the tube before separating nicely.

"Huh?"

"Or," Kalen continued, "Are you just afraid of my brothers?" The younger boy straightened from his bend, gently setting the empty test tube on on the counter, his eyes not moving from James's. Something about his gaze was intense, as if he cared deeply about the answer, and James once again wondered how the Bradford triples interference affected the youngest social life.

"I'm usually quiet, thought I've been told enough times by now that I should be scared of them," James responded after a pause. He picked up the next test tube, filled with a yellow substance, and slowly poured it into the mixture. When he looked back at Kalen, the boys eyes were slightly narrowed.

"Do you believe everything you're told?" He asked, seeming slightly aggravated. James's eyebrows shot up.

"Uh, no," he answered. Kalen looked at him a second longer, sighed, and turned back to their task. Fearing that reverting back to silence would only make Kalen assume James actually did fear his brothers, James forced himself to ask one of the questions that had been on his mind all afternoon. "So people aren't supposed to talk to you, right?"

Kalen paused, the green test tube hovering for a second before being placed back in the holder, still full. It made James frown, since they couldn't do the next one—which was his job— until Kalen poured the green one. "I guess it depends on who you ask".

Kalen seemed to be waiting on his response, so James pushed their lab to the back of his mind for the moment, not really bothered that they were stopping to have a conversation. "If I asked your brothers?"

"You should ask my brothers anything about me," Kalen advised with a small shake of his head.

"Why?" James inquired, leaning forward and propping his chin up on his palm. "Because they're scary?" Kalen actually cracked a little smile at this. "I'm just wondering what you think. If I hear it from you, I should believe it, right?"

"I guess that also depends on who you ask," was Kalen's response, voice lightly teasing. It made James grin, which had golden eyes widening in surprise, and then flicking around almost nervously.

"What if I'm asking you?" Talking like this seemed dangerous for some reason, but James ignored the feeling.

"Well my brothers don't scare me," Kalen offered. "They make me angry most of the time, but not afraid". Memories of Ace pissing him off had James chuckling fondly. "You were in the hall this morning?"

"Yeah," James confirmed, sitting up straight when his arm got sore from supporting his weight. "Why do you ask?" It was a stupid question, because they both knew why Kalen was asking, but James wanted to hear what the other boy had to say about the situation.

"I'm assuming all of the questions are due to my brothers... display this morning, right?"

"I guess," James admitted lamely. "Do they do that a lot?"

Kalen's eyes rolled a little, but James got the feeling that it wasn't because of him. "I forgot you're new". That seemed to be answer enough. "You saw how they act, so I think you need to decide for yourself if they scare you or not". With that, Kalen reached forward and resumed where they had left off.

James wanted to ask Kalen if he wanted him to fear his brothers, but that seemed like it would be crossing a line for some reason, so he instead pressed his lips together tightly, and appreciated the small bit of conversation they got to have.