When you're happy, you feel unstoppable. You feel like nobody could ever ruin your mood and you feel like you want to dance around and never stop smiling. That means, when it all inevitably comes crashing down, it hurts so much more because you don't expect it. Nothing ever lasts forever so I should have seen it coming.

It started crumbling when I was pulled out of tutor by Mrs Reeds, the assistant head of my year. She was a short, stubby woman who always wore her hair up in a bun and had giant earrings hanging out of her ears. She wasn't the happiest person in the world but I had never seen her so angry. I hadn't spoken to her much because she mainly sorted out the bad kids whenever they got into trouble. I felt it was a bit odd for her to want to talk to me, considering I usually stayed below the radar.

"Lotor said you punched him. Is that true?" She opened with, cutting straight to the point. I dropped myself down onto the plastic chair opposite her desk, folding my arms. All the students who had ever gotten in trouble before at the school had sat on this same chair. I didn't belong there.

"Well yeah but he pushed me to do it." I mumbled, deciding to vouch for the truth. That was always the best option. There weren't any witnesses but I knew the truth and was going to try and defend myself as much as I possibly could.

"Really? And how did he do that?"

"He and his friends had cornered me and were being homophobic. The only way I could have escaped was if I punched him and ran. So I did." I glanced down at my clenched fist and remember how satisfying it had felt to punch him. If I had the opportunity, I definitely would have done it again. Much harder.

"Right. So he's the one who ended up with the nurse. Do you think it was right to hit another student like that?"

"No but he deserved it." I was actually proud of myself for hitting him so hard he had to go to the nurse. Who knew I had it in me?

"We have a no violence policy here and you are aware of that, aren't you? We will not tolerate this kind of behaviour."

"But it was his fault. He shouldn't have been homophobic. What happened to your no bullying policy?"

"You should have gotten a teacher and not punched him. Detention for the rest of the week."

I bit my lip so I didn't snap back with a stupid remark that would just get me in more trouble. Instead, I leaned down, grabbed my bag and walked out. I really wanted to go back into the office and scream at the teacher for allowing Lotor to get away with it whilst I got detention for self defence. It was ridiculous.

-

"Are you not walking home?" Lance asked me the next day after school. I hadn't actually thought up a liable excuse so I just shook my head and darted off without much more of an explanation. I headed into detention and knew immediately that it wasn't a place in which I belonged. There were about five other kids and I only recognised one. There was a girl at the front, chewing bubblegum and blowing bubbles every so often. She was chewing at an obscenely loud volume and I had a strong urge to tell her to stop. There were two kids from Year 11 with their arms folded as they glared ahead of them, obviously going through that phase where you hate the world and everyone in it. There was also a small boy who looked the least intimidating, with a large cut across his cheek being the only thing that made him stand out. He was wearing a Marvel t-shirt so I slid into the empty seat beside him. He didn't seem as threatening as the others.

"What are you here for?" He asked, his voice gruff. Weirdly enough, it sounded exactly how I would have expected it to sound.

"I punched someone. Self-defence." The dude smirked, leaning back on his chair. He tipped the chair back and, for a moment, I was worried he'd fall backwards.

"I got into a fight with this dude. He was such a twat. Deserved to go to hospital."

"Nice..." I mumbled, not entirely sure how he expected me to respond to that. "What's your name?" I only asked the question to fill the awkward silence and not because I was interested at all.

"Francis, you?"

"Keith." At that moment, the teacher entered the room and commanded that we stayed silent. The next twenty minutes were some of the most boring in my entire life.

-

"You disappeared quickly yesterday. How come?" My eyes were trained on Lance as he ate his sandwich, covering his mouth as he chewed. As always, we were pretty much alone in the library so no one cared if we ate. I shrugged as a measly response but I don't think he accepted it as an excuse. "What's going on? Seeing someone else?" He chuckled to emphasise the fact that it was a joke but I just glanced down at the table.

"I had a detention." I eventually whispered. He continued laughing but it eventually died down as he stared at my blank face and realised I was telling the truth.

"You're joking, right? You're a goody-two-shoes. How would you of all people get detention?"

"I punched Lotor so hard he had to go to the nurse."

"You what?"

"I punched him. He was being a dickhead so I gave him a piece of my mind. I'd do it again if I had to."

"Wow," He let out a breath. I bit my lip, expecting him to shout at me for my stupidity. It had been a stupid move but I didn't care and I'd do it again all day. "He deserved it by the sound of it. What was he doing?"

"Him and a couple others basically... surrounded me outside the art block and started yelling abuse at me. They also... might have hit me a few times. Nothing too bad." Lance grabbed my hand and clung to it. I hadn't noticed but it had started to clench into a fist at my side.

"You need to talk to someone about it. Is he the same guy who was being homophobic to you before?"

Feeling extremely dejected, I nodded. "I'll speak to someone if it happens again."

"Promise?"

"Yes, Lance. I promise."

Lance then became my personal bodyguard. He never let me walk around at school alone, with the exception of the times when we didn't share a lesson. For some reason, people left me alone whenever I was with him. I guess it was easier to fight three against one than three against two. I continued to feel tense a lot of the time but did manage to relax a little.

It was in my biology lesson that it got bad again. Someone kept throwing pieces of paper at the back of my head and, whenever I opened them up, they'd reveal threats in sloppy writing. I turned around and saw Rolo staring at me, snickering to himself. He was one of Lotor's posse so it made sense that he was out to get me. What aggravated me most was one particular message that I received about five minutes before the end of the lesson.

We're always waiting for the right moment to attack. Maybe next time we see an opening, we won't hurt you. We'll hurt Lance.

I clenched my jaw so that I didn't just stand up and start screaming at him. I then scrunched the paper back up into a ball and shoved it into my pocket. If fighting back was something he wanted me to do, I wasn't going to. As much as I wanted to.

-

At lunch, I poured out all the notes onto the table for Lance to read. He had a frown on his face at first but it eventually morphed into an angry scowl. When he reached the last one, I swear I heard him growl. "They can't get away with this..." He muttered, picking them all up and getting up onto his feet. "We're going to see your tutor."

"Telling people always makes it worse!" I tried to yell but he wasn't having any of it. He grabbed his bag and threw it over his shoulder before storming out into the corridor. I rushed after him, begging him to stop so that I wouldn't have to face my tutor. I knew that if I got Lotor in trouble, everything would just get so much worse and I didn't think I could handle that; especially if they started to hurt Lance too.

I couldn't stop him because, as much as I hated it, he was taller than me. He was able to ignore my arguments until we reached the Geography block where my tutor room was. Sure enough, Miss Willow was sat at her desk, typing away on her computer. She looked up and sent us a smile as we walked into the room.

"Miss, is it alright if we talk to you for a moment?" Lance spoke. Of course he did. He knew I would have just avoided the topic and made up an excuse to leave or something. I scowled beside him, shoving my hands into the pockets of my skinny jeans and keeping my gaze trained on the floor. Part of me regretted telling him about the notes and the other was hoping the school would actually do something to stop (or at least lessen) the bullying.

"Of course. Is everything okay?" She responded in her sickeningly sweet voice. It was like honey but I hated the taste of honey: it always made me feel sick.

"Some people have been bothering Keith. They were being homophobic and just plain horrible. They cornered him and almost beat him up and they definitely would have if Keith hadn't punched Lotor. He only did it to protect himself but he got a detention."

"Actually," I chipped in with the quietest voice possible. "I have detention for the rest of the week.

"How wrong is that? They've been bullying him and he's the one getting punished."

"Bullying?"

"Yeah. They were sending him threats in his class earlier, look," He reached into his pocket and dropped the torn pieces of paper onto her desk. The room lapsed into silence for a moment as we let her read the disgusting words. "It's horrible. Keith is genuinely scared and you need to do something about it before it gets worse."

Miss Willow leant back in her desk chair, eyes leaving the notes to look at Keith. Keith immediately dropped his gaze to his feet to avoid eye contact. "I'll have a chat with Lotor tomorrow, alright? I will see what we can do."

"Thanks, Miss." Lance said, turning to me with an expectant look on his face.

"Thank you." I soon reluctantly mumbled.