After lunch Dakota and Rebel made the hard decision of staying in school all day and actually going to all of their classes instead of skipping out on the less important ones.

It was a horrible idea! Rebel did not think that she would have regretted listening to Dakota and agreeing with him that that was a good idea, especially since she had to fight to stay awake during Mr. Woods's history class. That class was a bore fest and she remembered why she skipped it so much.

The word about her father coming to her class had already made its way around the school and spread like wild fire once it caught a hold of the school's news reporter. Rebel hated having people notice her more than usual. It pissed her the heck off and all she wanted to do was smash in the face of anyone who looked at her while muttering about her under their breath. Right now she was receiving questioning looks from every which way as she walked down the hallway and her irritation was rapidly growing. She swore that her hoodie would have caught fire and cause the fire alarms to go off by how much she was boiling.

"Rebel, you okay?" Dakota asked startling her out of her thoughts. He had a cautious look and she rolled her eyes. Rebel had come up with the assumption that he had heard the rumors and was trying not to be a further bother, but she was not, not at him at least, it was these nosy kids that had her anger bubbling over its microscopic peck. Rebel could only take so much.

"No. I can't believe Jahra-freaking-Khan has the balls to write about my father in her stupid newspaper." She gritted out still keeping her cool as they walked down the halls to their gym class—and luckily that class happened to be just far enough that she could escape the muttering idiots but their walk to the gym had a thousand watchful eyes that immediately infuriated her. Dakota patted her back, calming her.

The whispering and snarky comments about Ray were deafening to her ears and she slowly tiptoeing closer to cracking. If she didn't hold herself together so well, they'd have to evacuate the whole school effective immediately. She had never thought that the whole student body would read the paper, but clearly she was wrong.

Dakota was being unusually quiet and that's probably because of the previous reasons. Rebel tried not to stare, but she did side glance at him and sighed. Dakota was walking next to her silently with his hands in his front pockets and his shoulders hunched over while ignorant to the fact that she was looking. She nudged his arm, because as much as she was pissed she didn't want Dakota to be punished for that. He looked over at her and she spared him a small smile.

His somber expression grew into a gracious, but small smile and he nudged her back playfully and winked at her. Rebel giggled trying to hide her smile and threw her arms around his large forearm and pulled him close. He chuckled lightly at her action and pulled his arm free to wrap it around her shoulders. She wrapped her arm around his waist as they continued down the hall to their class. At least he could distract her from the watchful eyes of the gossiping students.

In passing to get to class, Rebel spotted out of the corner of her eye a group of no more than three boys, all dressed in dark colors with weird hair and a few piercings here and there, they appeared to be gothic, or emo. She couldn't really tell. Dakota was again very non-observational to this teensy fact, but she wasn't. One of the boys she recognized from the other day in Mrs. Lane's class. Apparently today he was a bit more shy, because from what she could overhear, his friends were saying that he should ask Rebel something—he indeed spoke to her once before, so they were hoping he could do it again.

One of the boys pointed a finger in her direction and the kid jumped and then they locked eyes. "H—hey Rebel." His voice sounded more timid than it had yesterday. Dakota stopped in his tracks and looked at her curiously. He turned around and was practically towering over the poor kids. He glared at him and you could see that the kid was trying not to piss his pants while standing under Dakota's gigantic height.

Rebel nudged Dakota away from the kid and stood before him. "Hey, what's up?"

"I—I well—umm, well my friends wanted to know if you really gave Mindy Gillihum a concussion the other day. I mean some people are saying that it's not true, and is your dad really alive?"

Rebel glance over at Dakota, who was now leaning against a locker next to the three teens with a look that wasn't so friendly, then she directed her attention back to the boy. "Yeah, I did give her a concussion, unintentionally of course... and no, my father's dead." His mouth dropped slowly and she rolled her eyes at him and began walking away. "But people saw him!" He shouted behind her.

A faint crash made Rebel shiver and whip around to see Dakota pinning the same teen up against a locker by the front of his shirt and was telling him to piss off. He dropped him down to his knees and the kid sped off down the hall with his friends in tow.

"You didn't have to do that you know." Her arms were folded over her chest and he shrugged it away like it was nothing.

"I know, but he was being too intrusive. It isn't his business."

She rolled her eyes. "Dakota, everyone in this school is intrusive, and in the whole town too." She grumbled.

"Don't care. He annoyed me." She rose a brow at her best friend, then shook her head at him. "Whatever Dake."

"You still pissed?"

"Yep." She said walking away.

"You still wanna beat the hell outta Jahra Khan for her news article?"

"Yep."

"You wanna reconsider that thought?" He asked catching up to her.

"Nope."

"Ah, I thought so. Well, I guess I'm just gonna have to keep an extra eye out for you then."

"Dakota you poor sweet sap," she started," You can't keep an eye on me while I'm in the girls locker rooms, now can you?" She threw a grin his way and moved away from him to push through the doors of the basketball court, making her way over to the locker rooms. Dakota laughed and walked away to the boys locker room in the opposite direction.

Her shoes squealed against the polished floors and alerted the attention of the coach. "Oh, hey Bell."

"Hey Damon." She gave him a wave and disappeared inside the locker room.

Rebel opened her locker and got out her gym shorts and a blue tank instead of the blue t-shirt that was normally used in gym. She had forgotten about it in the laundry room and always had backup just incase of this very situation. It wasn't a strict requirement, so she did not get scolded or punished for not having it on.

She stripped down to her underwear and began getting dressed. She had been ignoring the giggly girls and the whispering gossip that filled the room and when she shut her locker she shivered, the odd feeling that someone was watching her, but not like in the hallway. She turned around but didn't find anyone watching her. "Hmm." She grabbed her phone and earbuds, shoving the case into her pocket once she slipped them both in and turned to leave the locker room, sending a text to Dakota to reassure him that no one was dead, then she added three periods and yet to the end of the text.

Her phone buzzed and she received back a warning text and just laughed it off as she shoved her phone into her pocket of hoodie which she had pulled back on after dressing.

The feeling of eyes following her was slowly beginning to tick her off because she didn't like being the center of attention unless she was fighting someone. Rebel stopped before she got the door of the locker room. "Jahra, if you keep stalking me I will stab you on the eye with my nails. I'm trying very hard not to ignore you right now.

A bold chuckle wormed its way to Rebel's ears. "Oh, was I? Well, I'm sorry, but it's pointless to be mad. The good news is that the student body is eating it up, and the bad..." she touched her finger to her bottom lip on mock thought and shrugged her shoulder, "huh, no bad news." She said, as if this situation was all a joke to her, as if Rebel's life needed more unwanted spotlights.

"No?" Rebel gritted out. "There is bad news," she said slowly through clenched teeth, her fist curling and uncurling as her knuckles cracked. "Why don't you do me a favor and quit talking while you're still conscious or I'll make you."

"But Rebel don't you want to be in the public eye more? Your life is already so messy as it is." Okay, that was the last straw, Jahra clearly did not know when to shut her mouth. Rebel faced her once more and carefully took a step towards her, her eyes dark, making Jahra gulp. Her face fell when she realized that Rebel was not in any way joking. Jahra took off in a stumbling sprint and Rebel raced after her. Jahra pushed through the mass of girls, throwing a few of the down or slamming them back against the lockers. Their screams reverberated around the room as Rebel raced by, dogding them much better than Jahra did as she ran.

Jahra tried to maneuver her way through the narrow aisles of lockers, stumbling and slipping on the tiles, scrambling to her feet she made a hard right, and pushed herself forward as she gripped the side of a locker.

She continued to flee from Reb, her breathing rapid as her body grew wary. Rebel was closing in and like a lion chasing it's prey, she closed in on her. Rebel reached out before her but her eyes went wide as the doors flew open and coach Damon and a few boys rushed in to see why everyone was screaming Jahra ducked behind Damon who was standing in the open doorway and Rebel slid to a halt, the fury in her eyes targeted at Jahra. She grabbed out for her but then felt herself being lifted up in the air and noticed who her capture was. "Put me the fuck down Dakota! I gonna kill her!" She said kicking and flailing. Jahra screamed, cowering behind the coach and the other girls gasped and screamed covering themselves up from the boys who had just invaded their locker room.

"STOP!" Everyone froze as Damon's loud voice silenced the chaos. "Now can someone please explain to me what the heck is going on?" He asked, a trembling Jahra still bent down protectively behind him.

Dakota set Rebel down on her feet but kept his hands on her hips to keep her from Jahra. "This little rat wrote false shit about me in her news article!" She snapped.

"That's not true. Everything I write is true and or factual." She said from behind Damon.

Rebel jerked forward only to be restricted by Dakota. "Shut it you little nuisance!" She cringed fell back behind the coach.

Damon sighed. "Stop it Rebel. Now, what did she write about you?"

"Here." Everyone looked back, and Rebel gasped, it was that girl from the gym again, she came up from nowhere to hand him the school news article from today, winking at Rebel as she went back to stand by the nosy girls who were still half dressed. Damon eyes followed her and he caught sight of Mindy, he did a double take at Mindy's state and cleared his throat. "What the heck happened to you?" She didn't reply but she did look Rebel's way. Damon's eyes followed hers back to his brothers best friend and he hummed softly. Rebel shrugged. Damon shook his head opening the folded paper to see the front page with big bold you-can't-miss-it-text that read:

'SHOCKING NEWS REBEL MILLS—BLACK ROCK HIGH'S OWN BAD GIRLS', FATHER IS ALIVE... AND BRINGING HIS DAUGHTER HER TEXT BOOK?

The text underneath the bold headline read: A class left in shock after seeing the event happen right in front of their eyes, pictures to prove it on pages 6-8.

"Your dad's back?" Damon asked. He didn't outwardly say it but his face damn well showed it clearly enough so that she got the message. He was surprised beyond belief and she couldn't blame him, everyone was surprised too.

"No. My father's dead and if that little babbler mouth says one more word about him, then I'll make her wish that she were dead too." She jerked herself away from Dakota's hold, shaking him off and stormed pass Damon who moved out of the way.

~ ~ ~

Dakota watched as Rebel marched out of the locker room all the tension following her out as she left, all eyes on her. Damon cleared his throat. "Alright boys please go back to your respective areas." No one moved.

"Now!" All the boys who had invaded the girl's locker room hurriedly ran out and Damon left after them. Dakota shook his head at this whole situation and spotted Rebel's bag on the floor, he rose a brow but then saw as the same girl who handed his brother the newspaper walked off into the crowd of girls. He walked over to where it laid on a bench and picked it up. He walked into the locker room, excusing himself by the girls still there and found Rebel's locker and placed the bag inside. Some of the girls were sending her naughty looks, and others seemed irritated but he just apologized and left them alone.

Most of the boys were already on the court, either playing basketball or sitting somewhere in the stands. Dakota searched for Rebel and spotted someone standing up in the dim corner by the stands, with their back to the court.

A smile crawled up onto his lips but he wiped it off and advanced towards her. Her shoulders were hunched over and she seemed to be trying to calm herself down. He sighed at her state and came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She jumped a little gasping at his sudden presence but he shushed her, kissing the top of her head then gave her a small squeeze. "I hate her so much." She sobbed, her words breaking. "She had no right."

Dakota's heart constricted. "It's okay Bell, don't think about it. After that threat, I don't think she'll ever write about you again." He said. She turned around in his arms and hugged him back sobbing silently into his shirt, thankful that he was big enough to hide her from the rest of the class. He let her cry and rubbed her back gently, she had been miserable throughout the years when her father hadn't come back home and no one outside her family and Dakota had ever seen this side of her. She was broken hearted that he left but him coming back so suddenly was so startling that it was probably bringing back all of her troubles thoughts from her youth.

When she sniffle and pulled back a little, he loosened his grip on her and held her face in his hands. She looked up at him with glossy eyes, her cheeks puffed up and her nose and cheeks pink, her eyes rimmed red as tears slowly descended down her face. He wiped away her tear stricken cheeks with his thumbs. "Hey Bell. You still wanna stay here?" She nodded and tried to pull his hands off but he shook his head softly at her and bent to kiss her forehead.

"You are more than just physically strong Rebel, you gotten through much worse times than this and you'll get through this, I know it. Don't worry about what people say or what Jahra wrote in her stupid article, who gives two shits if Ray is back in town?" She perked up at that and smiled.

"I still wanna kill her."

"I know." He chuckled. "Don't worry, just ignore her, okay? Can you do that for me?" She pursed her lips and looked off and he smiled. "Rebel, I won't let you go unless you say yes." She squinted at him,  her face looking almost childish but she nodded. "Good." He pulled her to his side, "come on." They walked back down the stairs and sat at the second to the top row. Bell propped her feet up on his lap and came closer to him so that she could rest her head down on his shoulder.

"Hey guys." They both looked over as his brother came over to them. "Are you okay Rebel?" Coach Damon asked.

She nodded. "She's fine." Dakota confirmed.

"Still pissed?" He asked.

Rebel scoffed. "Yes."

Dakota sighed, and ran a hand over his hair. "Please don't hurt her Bell."

Dakota smirked at him. "She won't as long as Jahra keeps her distance."

Damon chuckled. "Alright, Rebel, for what it's worth, I'm sorry about what she wrote, you deserve your privacy, no matter what." He smiled at her then started walking before he paused and turned back to them. "Did you all see Dani today?"

Rebel looked at Dakota before answering. "Why?" Rebel asked.

"Because, she skipped my P.E class today."

Dakota cut in before Rebel could speak. "Oh yeah. Well she didn't look so good when I saw her." Damon nodded at that. "Okay, well thanks. Sorry about the dad situation Bell." The remorse was evidence in his somber tone. She didn't respond but Dakota knew what she was thinking. Rebel had a hard times accepting the absence of her father, but over time she began to feel less sad over it, but maybe she was not fully okay, especially not with Ray back in the picture.