Brett reached and lifted a kicking and screaming Dakota off her feet, her fingernails just inches from Victoria's perfect face. Brandon had thrown an arm out to shove Courtney and me backwards, only for me to slam into someone behind me. Courtney fell with a shriek as Ethan appeared out of nowhere to ram Brett in the shoulder.

Brett dropped Dakota and swung a fist around towards Ethan, who ducked, expecting the move. He tried to shoulder Brett in the stomach to ram him into the lockers, but my running back of a brother was ready for it. He shoved Ethan off, rolling out his shoulders as he advanced towards the junior.

"Brett, don't!" Victoria was screaming. Dakota pushed her out of the way, the queen bee staggering sideways into the lockers as Dakota advanced, her vicious brown eyes set on me.

"Stop this right now!" a familiar voice thundered down the hallway. Principal MacGuire's bald head was bobbing down the crowded hallway as a pack of teachers poured out of the lounge, trying to break their way to the center of the action.

Brandon grabbed Brett before he could land a punch, Jeff and Brad appearing out of nowhere to pin Ethan's arms as he lunged forward in an attempt to land a cheap shot on Brandon. Dakota kicked Brad in the shin in passing, the wide receiver releasing Ethan as he yelped in pain.

"Time to go," Tyler said, his face next to my ear. I hadn't realized that when I'd stumbled backwards, whomever I'd fallen into had grabbed hold of my arms. Dakota was baring her teeth again, drawing her curled fist back. Tyler was pulling me backwards, but the press of students wanting to watch the fight wasn't letting him get too far.

"Whoever wrote it forgot to include that you're a bloodsucking, jealous little whore," Dakota snarled, her fist arcing forward. Tyler whipped me sideways, releasing me so he could snag Dakota's hand as she stumbled, off-balance from her clumsy punch. She screamed again, only for Mr. Grant to barrel through the crowd of students.

"Let her go, son," he said to Tyler. Dakota was screaming profanities, attempting to wrestle her arms back from Tyler. I'd stumbled sideways into the lockers, leaning against them as I caught my breath.

Tyler obeyed Mr. Grant, only for Dakota to lunge my way again as soon as he released her. I'd been waiting for it, ducking into a crouch as she raked the air with her nails. I rammed my shoulder into her stomach, pushing hard as I straightened from my crouch. The force of my blow lifted Dakota and sent her sprawling backwards, her fingernails raking the sleeves of my shirt as she scrabbled for a hold. She landed with a whump on the floor, already attempting to rise, but Mrs. Clooney, the freshman gym teacher, had seized her collar as Mr. Grant took a step between us. Tyler grabbed me around the waist and bodily yanked me from the fray.

"I'm going to k-!" I started, only for him to clap a hand over my mouth.

"No death threats or they'll suspend you too," he hissed, pulling me away from where I struggling towards Dakota. His words slapped my brain back into place and I was suddenly acutely aware of Mr. Lee, the football coach, and one of the burlier janitors restraining Brett and Brandon while Principal MacGuire himself was holding Ethan. The rest of the teachers were trying to disperse the crowd, holding them back and shouting for everyone to go to homeroom.

"Let's get out of here," Tyler said, throwing an arm around my shoulders as he led me towards the doors.

"Not so fast there," Mr. Grant said, grabbing Tyler's arm as Mrs. Clooney dragged Dakota towards the administrative offices, "You two can't leave school property right now."

"With all due respect, sir, I'm not staying here to get pummeled by some angry band geeks," Tyler said, "And neither is Madison. Go ahead and call our parents, I'm sure they'll love to hear how you let a brawl erupt before the start of first period."

"Watch your mouth or I'll have you hauled in with the rest of them," Mr. Grant threatened. Tyler was undeterred, staring him down.

"For the record, I told you not to leave," Mr. Grant said finally, his voice dropping as he released Tyler's arm.

"Tell them she was in hysterics and ran away," Tyler shot back, "I think they'll buy it, given what Principal MacGuire let them publish about her."

The chemistry teacher's eyes were flinty as Tyler pulled me down the hallway and out the front door.

***********

"So...are you okay?" Tyler asked finally.

We'd sat in uncomfortable silence for the entire car ride, Tyler the only one talking when he ordered us a pair of my favorite chocolate smoothies at the Starbucks drive-in. I was too busy fighting down the overwhelming nausea that had risen into my throat as I processed that morning's events.

Dakota was going to get suspended, if not expelled, but only if Ernie could be trusted not to spill the beans about Victoria's plan. If he did, I'd be caught in the fallout without a lawyer father to bail me out. If he didn't, Victoria had just succeeded in ruining Dakota's life. She'd never be allowed to write for the CHS Times again and the article would be the kiss of death for any hope of being accepted into a journalism program.

I swallowed, forcing down the lump in my throat.

Tyler had maintained his silence until we pulled in at the beach, the crashing waves snapping me out of my wildly spiraling thoughts when he asked the question.

"I'm okay," I replied finally, poking my straw around my melting smoothie. He just nodded, his own smoothie similarly untouched as he swirled it, his eyes on the waves.

"Any idea who really wrote the article?" he asked. I hoped my swooping stomach didn't show on my face.

"Knowing Dakota, she probably did write it," I managed, hoping my voice didn't sound as small and strangled as I imagined it did. Tyler looked over at me and I couldn't quite meet his gaze.

"Dakota's lots of things, but she's not an idiot," he said, his eyes dropping to my untouched smoothie. I felt like everything was slipping out of control as I watched his brows furrow, the wheels turning in his head. He couldn't figure out that I'd been a part of it - my guilty conscience was already gnawing at me and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if he figured out why.

I bit back my words as I almost blurted out "It wasn't me!", because that would be as good as an all-out admission of guilt. Desperate for some way to end this discussion and change the topic, I tried to think about what Victoria would do.

"She hates us, Tyler," I said, my inner turmoil manifesting itself in a sharp tone, "And everything she wrote about me is true."

His eyes snapped back up to my face and I felt my nausea rise in earnest this time. I kept my gaze on the waves in front of us, willing my hands not to shake as he stared at me in horrified disbelief.

"You actually assaulted someone?" he asked. I swallowed, steeling myself before turning to him.

"I wouldn't call it assault," I scoffed, desperately hoping my voice wouldn't waver, "But I'm the one who gave Ethan the black eye and I knocked some kid over to do it."

An inner mantra of "Be like Victoria, be like Victoria..." repeated in my head as I stared him down so I didn't break down into tears. Tyler recoiled a little from the intensity in my gaze, running a hand through his hair.

"Shit," he breathed, shaking his head, "I thought she was exaggerating."

I said nothing, working on keeping my inner vortex of emotions from tearing me apart. Tyler's phone interrupted us and I couldn't help but glance down to the screen.

"Hey," he said, "No no, I left. Yeah, she's with me. Oh...I dunno, I'll ask her."

I couldn't help but frown as he glanced over at me. It had been Danielle's caller ID that had flashed up on the screen.

"Do you have your phone?" he asked me, holding his away from his face as he talked to me. I fished in my purse, only to see that my phone was ringing on silent with Brett's face on the screen.

"It's on silent. Tell them she's fine. I'll talk to you later," Tyler said. Brett's call ended just as I was about to swipe to answer.

"They've hauled them all into the principal's office," Tyler said, stowing his phone back in the cup-holder, "Apparently they're trying to find you too."

"Why was Danielle calling you?" I blurted out before I could think. Tyler looked surprised.

"Last I checked, you two were friends sharing the same lunch table," he said. As if I needed more going on inside me, a little seed of jealousy took root in my heart.

"Not since last week," I snapped. He inhaled, running a hand through his hair again.

"Okay, I get that this has been a hell of a day and it's not even 9:30 yet," he started, shushing me when I began to protest, "But I could do without the snapping. When you and Danielle started sitting together, I thought that maybe I could go through her to get back on your good side. So we got to talking."

My stomach fell straight through my butt and out onto the pavement below the car.

"What are you saying?" I managed, hearing my voice from far away as if it was someone else's.

"I'm saying that she called me because she knows we're both your friends and she was worried about you," he said. I wasn't satisfied, my inner Victoria mantra taking on a life of it's own and screaming at me for an explanation.

"Since when are you friends with Danny Burp?" I retorted, unable to keep the insult from my lips.  Tyler looked away from me, clenching his jaw.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," he said, starting the car.

"What, Danny Burp?" I repeated.

"Yes," he snapped back, "She's your friend, Madison, show a little respect."
             "She's no friend of mine," I huffed, crossing my arms.

"Why, because suddenly you're back in Vicky's good books so you can dump the nice girl who took you in when you had no one else to sit with?" Tyler fired back.

"No, because she's after you!" I shouted, the words once again escaping my lips before I could think.

All the anger whooshed out of my head as Tyler turned those hazel eyes to me, slamming his car back into park.

"Since when do you care who's after me?" he asked quietly when the silence had stretched uncomfortably between us.

I had no idea how to reply.

My inner Victoria was telling me to brush him off and keep him guessing, but my inner Madison wanted to confess. I wanted my best friend back. I wanted to pretend like nothing bad had come between us, like Katie's kiss had meant nothing and me dating Ethan had just been a prolonged bad dream. I didn't want Danielle sniffing around, even if I wasn't ready to date anyone for a long time yet...

Because most of all, I wanted Tyler to throw his arm around my shoulders and kiss my hair every Monday on the way to chemistry class.

"Am I going to have to dunk you in the ocean to get it out of you?" he nudged gently. When I looked over at him, I couldn't hold it back anymore.

"I want us back," I said, the little spark of hope in his hazel eyes enough to cut through the haze of emotions in my head, "I want it to be like it was."

"I'd like that too," Tyler said, smiling that special smile of his.

"But I'm not ready yet," I said, the butterflies choked by the roiling emotions still swirling in my head.

"I know," he replied. We stared at each other before my phone lit up in my lap, this time my home number calling.

"Oh God," I moaned, staring down at it as if it were a ticking time bomb.

"I guess that means I'm not dropping you off," Tyler said, shifting his car into reverse, "So how about a movie?"

"You don't have to skip for me, you've done enough already," I said, ignoring the call.

"I'd skip for you any day, princess," he said, taking the turn towards the movie complex.