Johnny, AJ, and Kaitlyn were all riding their skateboards outside. The cement was still kind of wet because it had been raining for the past few days. They were all trying to out do each other when it came to doing tricks. Of course, Johnny knew how to do almost every trick in the book which made the girls only want to get better.

"I bet you guys are too scared to go full speed down the hill." Johnny taunted.

"You're crazy if you think I'm dumb enough to do that." Kaitlyn said.

AJ tightened her pigtails, "I'll do it." Kaitlyn cocked her head while Johnny had an excited expression on his face.

"Dude." Kaitlyn propped her skateboard into her hand, "You're gonna fall and I'm gonna laugh."

"Whatever. I can do it."

"AJ don't be stupid."

"Don't listen to her, cos." Johnny interrupted, "I believe you can do it."

Without any thought AJ went speeding down the hill on her board. Her cousins couldn't believe she was actually doing it. AJ panicked when she saw a rail in her way as she was coming down, but she did an ollie and skid against the top of it. Once the wheels hit the grounds she went even faster. The cement on the side walk was cracked and rough which made AJ lose her balance and ram face first into a stop sign.

"AJ are you alright?!" Kaitlyn yelled running down the hill. Johnny following close by.

"Dude, that was totally rad!" Johnny complimented.

AJ stood up holding her face. "Thanks Johnny." Kaitlyn moved AJ's hand out of the way. She had a developing bruise over her right eye and had a busted lip. "How does it look?"

"It looks like you got punched in the face!"

"Johnny shut up! We gotta get you back inside." they helped her stand and assisted her back up the hill.
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Dean walked up to AJ who was piling books into her locker. He leaned against the wall, "Sup beautiful." AJ closed the locker door revealing her black and blue face. "Yikes! What happened?"

"Calm down, Dean. I'm fine."

He freaked out, "Did your brothers beat you or something?"

"No! I was skateboarding and I ran face first into a stop sign."

Dean held his hand over his chest, "Oh. You had me scared for a second. I thought of an idea that could possibly get your brothers to like me."

"Which is?"

"I can talk to them!" he said excitedly.

AJ bursted out laughing. "Really babe. What's your plan?"

"Think about it. They only hate me cuz they don't know me. If they just hear me out, I'm pretty sure I could rub off on them."

AJ held her stomach, "Oh gosh my stomach hurts! Don't make me laugh so hard! My brothers don't care about that. Once they hate you there's no changing their minds."

"I don't care. I'm going to your house and I'm going to talk to them. You just watch. Everything will turn out great." Dean seemed so positive that things would work out, but the truth was that he was desperate at this point.

"You do that then. But if they try to beat you up, I am not getting involved this time."

"Haha very funny." Dean kissed her forehead. "I'll see you later."
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Paige walked into the bathroom and saw her best friend AJ looking in the mirror. "Hey, AJ. What's up?" AJ turned around, revealing her bruised face. "Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine." She said, while putting sparkling pink lip gloss on.

"Who did that to you?" Paige asked sounding furious. If she found out another girl did that to AJ, she promised herself that they would pay.

"Relax Paige-"

"Did Syn do that to you?"

AJ was about to tell Paige what really happened up until a light bulb went off in her head. AJ covered her soar face with her hands and forced herself to cry. "Please, I don't wanna talk about it." she fake sobbed.

Paige put her arm around AJ, "You can tell me. I promise I won't say anything."

AJ sniffled, rubbing her eyes with her sleeve. "Syn was hitting me the other day cuz he's still mad about me being with Dean. All Dean wants is to try and be friends with him but Syn doesn't want to be."

Paige felt her anger rising. How dare he lay his hands on AJ. You can't help who you fall in love with. Syn has gone way too far this time. "Don't worry, I'll have a serious talk with him."

"No! It'll only make things worse."

"Trust me, once I'm finished he won't ever think about doing this again."

AJ hugged her tightly, "You're such a great friend. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"If you ever need anything just call me. I'd be glad to help."

AJ nodded then watched Paige exit the bathroom. "That was almost too easy." she smiled walking out of the bathroom. AJ made her way to her art class. When she turned the corner she ran into somebody's chest. "Oh I'm sorry." she apologized. She looked up and saw it was Synyster. "I take that back. I'm not sorry."

He sighed heavily, "I need to talk to you."

"No you don't." she kept walking.

Syn grabbed her by the forearm, "Just listen to me okay!"

AJ slapped him, the smack echoed down the hallway. "Don't put your hands on me!"

Syn held his face, "I'll give you credit sis. That one actually hurt."

"Well it wasn't supposed to tickle."

"Enough with the attitude, ok. I wanted to talk to you about Dean."

AJ scoffed, pushing her way past him, "You don't like him and I don't care. That's not going to stop me from seeing him."

He followed behind her as she walked away, "I know. That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I'm sorry that I never gave the guy an actual chance. What Zacky and I did was... I can understand why you hate us right now."

"Can you please get to the point?" AJ rushed.

"Seeing how Dean is willing to get a beat down from us proves that he does care about you. If you think that he is right for you then, alright. The guys and I won't get in the way of your relationship anymore. Zacky and I feel awful about what happened at Dean's house. And I'm sorry for being such a lousy brother to you."

AJ was shocked at his sincere apology. She never thought that he would feel bad about what happened. "Oh.... I forgive you. And I'm sorry that I said you're not my real brother. You have to promise me that no matter what happens between Dean and I that you guys won't get involved."

Syn really didn't want to agree to the deal but he had to. "Okay fine. So we good now?"

AJ nodded, "Yeah, we're good."

"Awesome. By the way, do you know what's up with Zacky and Jimmy? They've seemed really down lately."

"Nope." AJ lied. "They haven't told me anything."

"Hm. Alright. " Syn said while walking the other way.

I guess everything's alright now.... Oh shit! Paige still thinks that Syn hit me! Gosh, when she says serious talk that doesn't mean an actual conversation. What am I gonna do? I can't tell her I made the whole thing up! Calm down, AJ. Maybe what Paige means by serious talk is breaking up with him. Dammit, this is too risky. Ugh, I should have listened to Dean!
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Paige was sitting in her english class and checked her phone when she got a message from Synyster. She rolled her eyes as she checked the text.

SynGates😎: U doin anything Friday night?

RamPaige😈: Depends.

SynGates😎: ok... I was wondering if you wanted to come to the White Rabbit cuz we're playing live there.

At first Paige was going to say no but then she thought of how she was going to give Syn a taste of his own medicine. She smirked while responding to the message.

RamPaige😈: I would love to.

SynGates😎: Great! I'll take you out to eat afterwards.

RamPaige😈: okie dokie 👌

Paige raised her hand asking if she could go to the bathroom. Instead of going there she made her way to the weight room where she saw Kevin Owens and his friend Paul White, or Big Show, as everybody called him, lifting weights.

"So you finally decided to work out with us?" Big Show asked.

She laughed, "Working out is gross. I need a favor from you two." Kevin and Show put their weights down. These were the toughest guys Paige knew. If she needed a 'job' to be done, these guys would definitely be able to deliver.

Kevin sat on one of the benches, "What is it?"

"You saw how AJ looked today?" She asked them.

"Yeah. I heard she got jumped by Alexa Bliss and The Bella's." Kevin answered.

"Nah nah nah." Big Show denied the rumor. "I heard she was skateboarding and rammed her face into a pole."

Kevin shook his head, "No way that could be true. What you heard sounds stupid. What I heard sounds more accurate. Those chicks have been beefing with AJ for a while. After all they did post that video."

"Dude, that was crazy! I had no idea how to react when I saw it. Part of me just wanted to kick her brothers asses."

"Same! I'm actually friends with Jimmy and Matt so-"

"Guys!" Paige yelled to get their attention. "Both of those rumors aren't true. Synyster is still pissed that AJ is with Dean so he was hitting her. That's where all her bruises came from."

Big Show stood up straight and crossed his arms. "You sure that's not another rumor?"

"I believe it." Kevin clapped his hands together, "You saw how he was in the video. No denying he didn't hit her."

"That motherf-!" Big Show almost cursed. "AJ's my friend. No way I'm going to let that slide!"

Paige calmed her 7ft friend down. "I'm obviously not strong enough to put Syn in his place. If you know what I mean..." she hinted at what she wanted them to do.

Kevin and Show cracked their knuckles. "Give us a time and place and we'll be there."
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After school AJ was walking to the parking lot to go home. She turned around when she heard Dean calling her name.

"I have some great news! Syn invited me to The White Rabbit with you guys! I didn't even need to put on the charm. He just randomly invited me. How awesome is that?"

AJ scratched her head. "Yeah. That's really awesome." she answered quietly.

"This is the part where you jump into my arms and yell 'yay! Thank goodness you're so likable Dean!'" he laughed, doing his best imitation of her. When AJ didn't answer, Dean knew something was up. "What did you do?"

She rubbed her arm, "I kind of told Paige a terrible lie about Syn..."

Dean smacked his forehead, "You promised you wouldn't!'

"I know! But I had to. He held a knife to your throat, Dean! I couldn't let that go unpunished."

AJ told Dean what she had said to Paige. He was furious. "See what happens when you don't leave things alone! Everything was going to be fine and you had to go and ruin it."

"I'm sorry! I didn't know he was going to apologize and give you a chance."

"You shouldn't be saying sorry to me. Go apologize to your brothers for what you did and tell Paige the truth."

"No no no. I can't do that. Then she'll know I lied."

"Well you better do something. Cuz we all know when Paige says she'll have a 'serious talk' with someone it doesn't mean having a passive conversation."

"I know! Gosh, I hope what she's planing isn't serious..."