( warning — use of slurs )

  IT WAS CALM IN THE MCMASTER HOUSEHOLD AS ANNE AND HAI MCMASTER sat in the living room watching a movie, until the floor above them started to shake slightly. They didn't even blink, used to their daughter's habit of pacing. It stopped for a moment and then began again.

  "It's fine, you're fine," Daisy mumbled to her self as she walked in circles around her room. The headphones in her ears blasting glee music as she pictured herself singing in an alternate reality where she was completely calm all the time and possessed musical talent— which she does not. Her daydream was interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing loudly through her headphones causing her to cringe before she answers, "Hello?"

"What are you worrying about?" Juliet's voice travelled through the phone.

"I— How did you know I was worrying?"

"I can sense it in the air. We're best friends, we are connected mentally. I know what your gonna say before you even say it!" She swore and all that could be heard was a a lot of rustling and then the sound of the phone hitting the floor. "Yeah, I'm outside and I can see is you pacing through your window. Also, your mom must have got a new garden gnome and it has a smug fucking face."

Daisy laughed at her friends antics, her worry slowly moving itself to the back of her mind. Her mom has had this obsession with garden gnomes every since she watched Gnomeo & Juliet a few years ago— she owns thirty-one total. It's embarrassing and amusing (more so embarrassing), but most people don't know where she lives except for her close friends so she's fine.

  "Ow! What the fuck?!"

  "Oh, Miguel is here too." Juliet snorted as the boy fell just like she did. "That's what you get for laughing at me. Anyways, we're coming up!" Daisy walked towards her window to open it, watching in amusement as her friend did a ninja like somersault on the lawn, followed by Miguel who just walked.

Daisy moved to sit on her bed as she waiting, listening to her two friends argue as they climbed up the side of her house. They've known Miguel for about a month and they've all got along really well. Juliet found out recently that she lives in the same apartment building as the new boy, so it's just progressed from there.

"Oh my God! Help me!" Miguel shouted, startling Daisy as he held onto the window sill for dear life. "Why are your hands on my ass?!"

"I'm pushing you into the room?! You just asked for my help?"

"I know— Agh!" With one more big push, Miguel face planted on the pink fuzzy carpet, "I'm never doing that again."

"Hey, Day!" Juliet pushed herself into the room, hopping over the boy on the floor to sit beside her best friend. "We should do something tonight."

"... It's a Sunday."

"That's what I said," Miguel mumbled, taking a seat on the other side of Daisy.

The door opened suddenly, startling the three teenagers. Hai poked his head in, sending them all a weird look, "Daisy, if your friends are going to sneak in at least make sure they do a good job at it? Cause that was embarrassing."

"Sorry, Dad." Daisy smiled awkwardly.

"Also make sure they're gone by nine, it's a school night." He says, leaving and closing the door behind him.

"Your Dad is okay with you having guys in your room?" Miguel asked curiously. He was expecting to be yelled at, usually Dad's don't like their daughters around teenage boys.

Juliet rolled her eyes, laying back on the bed as she pointed to the wall behind the boy. "Turn around, stupid."

"Ohh," He nodded as his eyes landed on the lesbian pride flag that Daisy has hung over her bed.

"We should watch something, what time is it?" Daisy asked, walking over towards her shelf that held all her DVD's.

"It is... 8:50 pm."

"You gotta be kidding me," The Asian girl sighed, knowing for a fact her Dad did this on purpose and is probably laughing about it right now. "Well it was fun seeing you guys for five minutes. Really."

"We climbed up here for nothing!" Miguel whined, glaring at Juliet who just sent him a sweet smile.

"Well I came here to tell you some very important information," The blond said, walking over and placing her hands on Daisy's shoulders. "LaRusso asked about you one Friday. Something about Halloween and wanting me to give you her number."

"Why didn't you text me about this right after it happened?!" Daisy gaped, her heart beating faster at the fact that Sam asked about her. But she made herself calm down, not believing it's anything more then friendship. She missed Friday because she honestly can't handle a full five day week— she always has to miss one day. Everything interesting always happens on the days she's gone.

"I forgot."

It was silent. "Well, are you going to give me it?"

"I didn't write it down."

"I told you to write it down."

"Shut up, Miguel."

━━

  "HEY, GREENIE!" DAISY CHIRPED, APPROACHING HER LOCKER AND GIVING SAM A BIG SMILE. "So, about your number..." She trailed off, clicking her tongue as she forgot what she was going to say. "Huh, the thought was there a second a—" She was cut off by Kyler shoving her aggressively into the lockers, causing her to bang her head roughly and whimper.

Sam gasped, rushing over to help the girl, but the Asian boy stepped in front of her with a smirk— acting like nothing even happened. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" She glared at Kyler, side stepping him to help the dazed girl to her feet.

  "The dyke looked like she was bothering you," Kyler shrugged, smiling mockingly at Daisy who shakily flipped him off.

  "Don't call her that!" Sam shouted, a look of disgust on her face. "Come on, let's get you to the nurse." She mumbled, turning around to help the girl walk, both stumbling along the way.

━━

  "I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE JUST GAVE YOU AN ICEPACK! SHE DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT YOUR INJURY! I should take you to the hospital or something." Sam rambled on, pacing back in front of Daisy who sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. The two girls didn't go to class, instead opting to hide out behind the school as the injured girl recovered. Sam called her mom about why she missed her morning classes, not wanting to get in trouble. Daisy was just too dazed to care right now what her parents thought.

"I'm fineeeee," Daisy trailed off, giggling to herself. "I just bumped my noggin a wee bit!" She went to poke her head, but just ended up poking herself in the eye.

"I don't think your fine," The LaRusso girl stressed, reluctantly taking a seat on the dirty floor.

"I will be. I always get hit in the head with soccer balls. I don't even know how that always happens." Daisy explains, starting to dig through her backpack, letting out a cheer when she found what she was looking for. "Now that I think about it they were probably aiming for me."

   "You vape?!"

"Not really, only sometimes. It's not mine anyways, it's Juliet's. Why?"

"Oh, um, I just wasn't expecting it. I didn't picture you as a vaper." Sam laughed, a light blush on her pale cheeks.

"I'm not really," Daisy hummed, leaning her head back as she put the vape pen to her lips, inhaling before exhaling. "I cried the first time I tried it, believed that I was going to die. But then life kept going, kept getting worse, now I'm kind of like, 'If die I die' you know?"

Sam looked at the girl from the corner of her eye, a small frown on her face at the blank look in Daisy's eyes. The girl was always so upbeat and happy, seeing her like this was unnerving.

"I still don't have your number."

"Yeah, I didn't think Juliet would be able to memorize it. But she seemed so confident I had faith."

━━

  "DON'T SAY ANYTHING TO HER," JULIET HISSED, SLAMMING HER LAPTOP SHUT TO HIDE THE VIDEO. She heard about Kyler slamming Daisy into the lockers, but the fact that someone posted it just made it so much worse. The girl never showed up to first period and didn't respond to her texts which worried her. Juliet even checked all the school bathrooms, but nothing, so she just assumed she went home.

  "We have to tell her," Miguel sighed, feeling terrible for his new friend. She's too sweet for people to do this kind of shit to her. He also doesn't understand why people find stuff like this funny. It's just a video of a guy basically abusing a girl half his size, it's honestly embarrassing for him. On the bright side a lot of people who know Daisy don't seem pleased with the video, he saw a tall blond boy push Kyler into the lockers when he was leaving third period. So at least everyone isn't on his side.

  "If we tell her she will cry and I'm not good with crying." Demetri added, poking at his juice box.

  "Shut up, she's coming," Eli whispered, causing all their heads to turn towards Daisy who entered the Cafeteria beside Sam LaRusso. The two girls parted ways, Sam going to sit with her friends well Daisy did the same. She was still focused on the pain the bump on her head was causing her that she didn't notice the people laughing at her.

"What?" She asked hesitantly as she took a seat, looking up at her friends who were aggressively smiling at her.

"Nothing, the bump on your head makes you look taller. You look good," Demitri shrugged at the looks he received. Being subtle is not his thing.

"Okay, guys just tell me what's going on!"

"Someone posted you getting pushed into the locker on YouTube and it is currently blowing up," Eli said quickly in one breath. He saw it as ripping off the band aid. Though when Daisy started to tear up, he regretted ever opening his mouth.

"Eli! I would expect that from Demetri but never you," Juliet huffed, getting up to move to the empty seat beside her best friend, pulling her into a side hug.

"Why would someone do that?" Daisy whimpered, feeling completely embarrassed. The action it's self was one thing, but having not just the whole school, but random strangers on the internet laughing at the video doesn't help. "Who posted it?"

"Well it was posted anonymously," Miguel said cautiously. "But I could hear Brucks ear piercing laugh and could see his sausage fingers in view so I'm guessing it was him."

  "Screw men!" Demetri clapped his hands, startling the group. "We do it for the girls, gays, and theys. I saw that in a tik tok."

  "Ladies and gentleman please stop your chitter chatter and look at me," Mrs. Blatt announced into a microphone, getting everyone's attention. "I have a few very important things to talk about."

  "Oh no," Daisy whimpered, sinking down in her seat. 

"She's not gonna..." Miguel trialed off.

  Juliet sighed, "Oh, she definitely is."

"Cyber bullying is no laughing matter. Sending a cruel text to someone online can be just as hurtful as saying it to their face. Now, I'm not gonna name names, but the other day a mother called me up because her son was crying after some kids online made fun of his facial deformity." The room filled with whispers and laughter as people looked towards Eli, who sunk in his chair just like Juliet did, covering his scar that was above his mouth with his hand. The rest of the group shook their heads sadly as another person in their group was publicly humiliated.

  "I also want to talk about a video that has been anonymously posted of one of are students getting pushed into a locker by another unnamed student." Juliet let out an emotionless laugh at Ms. Blatt's words. She just knows Kyler is going to get let off with a slap on the wrist. He's rich, it always happens. "If the video is taken down, we will not have to make this any worse then it already is by getting the police involved."

  Daisy placed her head down on the table, hiding behind her arms as tears made their way down her face.

  Sam raised her hand, "It's obvious who did it! I was there! I saw it!"

  "Miss. LaRusso, please do not speak unless I call upon you."

  "It was obviously Kyler!" Juliet scoffed, meeting the teacher's eyes with a glare.

  "The students face was not in frame so we cannot make assumptions."

  "That's crap!" Sam shouted, standing to her feet.

  "Ladies! That's enough! Next person to speak gets Saturday detention!" That caused the two girls two sit back down, but their glares never faltered. "Moving on, today our goal here is to make this school a safe space for all students."

"You know if you're sick of being bullied, my karate dojo is looking for new recruits." Daisy rested her chin on her hands, looking at Miguel with slight interest— the thought of beating the shit out of Kyler sounding very appealing at this very moment.

"Yeah, right. You hear that Eli? A little Karate training, and you're gonna kick some major ass." Demetri stated sarcastically, moving his hands around and doing some small mocking karate chops.

"I'm serious Demetri. Alright, my Sensei is the real deal." He ignored Juliet's snort of amusement at him saying that about Johnny Lawrence, who her and her brother call 'Crackhead Lawrence'. "I'm sure I could get you all discounts."

"As enticing as that sounds, I think we'd rather spend our afternoons playing crucible control than getting hit in the face."

"I agree with Demetri," Juliet said. "Not about the game thing but about the karate thing. I don't want to spend any time with Johnny Lawrence. Let alone pay him for it. He should be paying me for my presence."

Miguel shook his head at the girls words before looking hopefully between the last two people. Eli only looked down at the table, but Daisy was staring at him head on— it was honestly a bit unnerving.

"I want to make Kyler cry. So I'm in."

"Great, that's great! I'll text you the address!" Miguel said excitedly, turning to stick his tongue out at Juliet who just threw a grape at him.

"Oh, and one last thing. While we're all looking forward to the Halloween dance, let's make sure our costumes are culturally sensitive. For example, instead of 'sexy nurse', maybe try 'gender neutral hospital employee'."

With a roll of her eyes, Juliet stood up, grabbing her bag and dragging her best friend out of the cafeteria— ignoring Mrs. Blatt's calls for them to come back.

"Where are we going?" Daisy asked curiously.

"Want to go get some fried rice, smoke some weed and cry?"

"Honestly nothing sounds better."