Inspirational quote: Be yourself. Why? Because everybody else is already taken.

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"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Kieran, wait!" Clyde echoed back, chasing after him.

But Kieran meant it this time, he was a hundred percent never speaking to Clyde or Vanessa again.

"Why aren't you speaking to me? I understand Vanessa but... Why me?"

Kieran didn't respond, before turning, then looking at Clyde, walking backwards simultaneously.

"Because I've had it with your secrets!" Kieran complained. "I bet you've got like twenty of them that you don't want to tell me. What happened to trusting me, Clyde? I tell you everything."

Clyde didn't respond, and couldn't, Kieran was far from earshot now.

Sort of enraged at himself at the moment, Clyde stormed back into his classroom, about to take a seat until Justin accidentally on purpose bumped into him.

"Hello, step cousin Clyde," Justin sneered, coming up even closer to him. "Oh and were you born on a highway? Because that's where most accidents happen."

The whole class was fully surrounding them by now and Clyde could feel his face boil due to how ballistic he was.

Oohs and aahs proceeded straight afterwards. Majority of people were looking hopelessly at Clyde wondering what he was going to say next, however Clyde just stood there, feeling defeated, feeling powerless.

Without Kieran, he felt like nothing.

Justin stepped on him, then almost face slammed his face on the desk; people were laughing everywhere though Clyde didn't do anything.

Why he was being like this?
Nobody knew. He was just mad at himself for getting Kieran to hate him, once again.

"Did you bring a plate Clyde?" Justin questioned, gazing at Clyde quizzically. "Because you just got served."

More oohing and aahing.
Clyde had had enough.

He wanted to fight back albeit usually when that happened, he was the one that got the trouble or blame when it really wasn't even his fault in the first place.

"Hey. Just realised," Justin retorted. "Where's your idiotic mate Kieran?"

That one Clyde knew how to reply to.
"He's not my friend anymore."

He was supposed to say this as a whisper, although it came out as a muffling voice.

"I'm sorry what was that, mouse?" Justin exclaimed, putting his ear way up to Clyde's face, much to Clyde's irritation.

Clyde wasn't going to let his step cousin do this to him. So as a result of that, he back handed Justin, then stepped on him back just like he did last time.

Oohs and aahs? Not so much.

But there were a few clapping sounds as well as laughing, which was targeted at Justin this time and not the other way around like earlier.

Justin and Clyde were arguing for about a straight up five minutes.

In the end, it was Clyde that was hurt the most, and the conversation ended when Vanessa stormed into the room, and she must have heard or watched everything that had happened because she was screaming at Justin telling him to back off away from Clyde.

"You hear me, Justin?" Vanessa proclaimed at Justin- Justin was terrified of her. "Hurt my brother again and I have no choice but to ring your mother explaining everything that literally just happened between you and Clyde."

Justin gulped as she walked away, sashaying down the corridors.

Justin turned to face Clyde, where his personality seemed to have changed from ferociously trying to attack Clyde to quiet and tranquil in less than two seconds.

"Whoa, Clyde. You never told me that your sister was so hot," someone in the background murmured to him.

Clyde turned around. He didn't know the person who had said that, plus he had forgotten his name.

People around the class started gossiping about how vivacious Vanessa looked until their attention was fully on Clyde.

"Say Clyde..." Justin came up to him, making circles around him. "Kendrick's not my friend anymore. I sort of hate him now. How would you like to join our friendship group?"

Clyde, who was a bit startled, shrunk back promptly, backing away from them then shook his head rather vigorously.

"What? You guys want me to hang out with you lot? But you guys have got like the baddest reputation in the school," Clyde told them.

"Exactly," Justin agreed, coming even closer to Clyde. "And we feel like you're the perfect person to hang out with us."

Intimidated, Clyde shrunk back and felt like running away.

Was this a trick? Thoughts like this kept on running through Clyde's mind as he almost hid under the table.

A plan?
A set up?

Why was Justin being so nice to him all of a sudden?

Remembering that he forget to reply, Clyde sluggishly got out from under the table then turned to face his fears, turned to face Justin and co.

"Thanks but no thanks guys. I don't want to be friends with you because I feel like you're just going to use me to get to my sister because you all think she's cute."

Justin scoffed at that, along with everyone else.

"No. Seriously, we mean it. We would actually like to be friends with you Clyde. No kidding there."

Justin was being too nice to Clyde, that Clyde was almost becoming sort of suspicious.

Why was he like this? His step cousin more or less hated him.

"But what about Kieran?" Clyde remembered.

"Screw Kieran. Who cares about Kieran?" Justin barked, making everyone cheer and mutter in agreement.

"But......"

"Think about it Clyde. Think about all of the bad stuff that Kieran has done to you in the past." Justin demanded.

"But what about the good stuff that Kieran has done for me?" Clyde muttered quietly.

"Think about the bad stuff!" Justin repeated, more infuriated than before.

So Clyde did.
To a degree.
He was thinking of both the good and the bad stuff that Kieran had done for him in the past, mainly over the past few weeks.

Good stuff?
Kieran stuck up for him.

He was there for him.

He helped Clyde get 100% in his French test.

Extemporaneously planned one of the awesomest birthday parties ever for Clyde last year May when he turned fifteen.

And , best of all, always trusted him.

Bad stuff?
Was always shouting at Clyde.

Ticking Clyde off.

Making such a massive deal over nothing.

Didn't always like Clyde.

Irreverently made fun of his appearance.

Saying unpleasant things about Clyde then adding no offence at the end even though what Kieran said most of the time to Clyde was highly offensive.

Realising that the bad stuff about Kieran outnumbered the good by a ton, Clyde gasped and then faced Justin again.

"So have you decided yet?" Justin asked him. "Would you like to hang out with us and turn against Kieran forever?"

"I don't know yet," Clyde answered, looking away. "I'll have to think about it."

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Moral of chapter: People change. Sometimes for the better, but sometimes for the worse. In Clyde's case, he changed for the worse.

Interesting fact: shortest chapter in the book