Ahhhhhhhhhhh! I'm baacccccck for the fifty-millionth time! I will never make you guys wait like that again. To give y'all a little update:

1. I'm fine. Hurricane Dorian luckily surpassed my area as a tropical storm but my wishes go out to the Bahamas. Please donate if you guys have the ability to because what happened there was tragic and unfortunate.

2. I never gave up on this story, I just could never find the time to update. It has been school, applying for college, and preparing to graduate so life's a mess right now. But I'm glad that I've found the time to update for you guys.

<~>

_________________________________

____________________________________

*WARNING: This chapter will contain a very rude and harsh derogatory term that is used solely for the purpose of characterization.

<~>

"Shit, sorry," Jade grunts as she accidentally grazes the dense shoulder of some boy in the midst of the chaotic class change.

"Jade, stop apologizing! This is the sixteenth time in just two minutes and I'm not exaggerating," Lucia orders as she pulls Jade through the large crowd of students that are trying to, at least, make it on time to their second class period of the day.

Lucia's arm wraps around Jade's thin arm tightly, unwilling to lose her friend in the herd of pubescent teenagers.

"I'm sor-," Jade cuts herself off, realizing her subconscious habit.

"It's fine," Lucia reassures with a subtle teasing smile as she strides casually alongside the brunette through to the less-crowded portion of the hallway.

The girls walk with a steady pace down the hall, reaching a point in which the concentration of students decrease.

The less congested space gives them ample room to breathe. A few students enter their respective classrooms with the wooden doors being held open by rubber triangular doorstoppers.

The pacing in their powerful strides slows down as the raging chatter fades out behind them.

Lucia's arm remains wrapped tightly around Jade's arm as she joyfully bounces off the tip of her toes with ever step she takes. Jade gives Lucia a side-eye as she notices this. What the hell is she smiling for? Why is she so... happy?

Jade can't understand such a sight.

"Lucia, you can let go now," Jade starts, struggling to unravel the strawberry blonde's arm from hers. "Y-You're cutting off my circulation."

"So what?" Lucia continues on, ignoring the brunette's partial plea as her head cocks up confidently, leaving her loosely-curled strands of strawberry blonde hair to swing from side to side. Her beige Birkenstock sandals pad against the school's checkered honey-mustard and white floor design as she strides with an intense amount of pep in each step.

Jade one-overs the girl again, taken aback by her audacity. "I'm going to die," Jade announces plainly with a deadpan expression, staring at Lucia with no form of amusement. Her eyebrows sharpen as she stares into the depths of Lucia's soul through the emerald orbs that make up the irises of her eyes. The brunette is basically being dragged by the strawberry blonde at this point. Her favorite pair of the many all-black converse she owns, squeaks helplessly against the vinyl composition floor.

Lucia becomes aware of Jade's demeanor very soon as she feels the deadweight lulling on her arm and the virtual lasers shooting from the brunette's hazel orbs.

"Okay okay, loosen up," Lucia gives in, smiling at Jade with the most innocent grin, as if she didn't do a thing wrong.

Jade stops walking to grab at her upper arm that is released from the clutches of Lucia. She starts massaging the area, allowing Lucia the time to completely leave her ailing counterpart behind with the consistent pace of her peppy strides.

Jade soon looks up from consoling her arm to realize that Lucia is almost five feet away, at the end of the hallway where it diverges into two.

"Why do you walk so damn fast?" Jade questions under her breath as she attempts to makes it to where Lucia is at the turn of the hallway.

She'll admit that she isn't too fond of the girl, but she's the only friend the isolated brunette has made since being in Kingsman Bounty. Something about Lucia just brings an aura of comfort, of course along with annoyance, confusion, and faint irritation but nobody's perfect.

Jade continues forward a little before coming to a halt. She immediately stops in her tracks before reaching the strawberry blonde.

Lucia isn't alone.

A familiar, but faint, non-threatening palpitation starts in the brunette's chest. She isn't the kind to make herself known to strangers, even if those strangers seem somewhat acquainted with her friends.

She watches as Lucia makes a sharp right turn at the split of the hallway with a taller male. She seems so captivated by the seemingly ripped ass boulder. His jet black, drawn-back undercut hair and broad, bulging back muscles is the only view that Jade gets before they both disappear around the corner.

Jade didn't know that Lucia had a boyfriend or any other friends at all, but how could she. She's only known the girl for a couple days. She wonders why she didn't bring it up if she does but she assumes that it's simply none of her business. If Lucia wanted her to know then she would most definitely know.

Jade soon realizes that she doesn't have time to just stand around and dwell on that. The inkling of students that are still in the hallway tell Jade that the late bell will ring soon.

The brunette picks up her pace as she rounds the left corner of the hallway, the exact opposite from the where Lucia and her man disappeared to.

It didn't bother Jade much because she was used to being thrown to the side. It's become expected. A complimentary component of the unforgiving package that is Jade's life.

Her fast moving legs, slow down as she gets caught behind a small group of boys that can't seem to get the memo that class is about to start in less than a minute.

The tall hunks of muscle and protein shakes walk with no purpose. Jade recognizes two of the five from the football team. They stood alongside Kinsey in that infamous picture where they showed off their physique. Jade blinks and slightly tilts her head as if physically trying to remove the thought of Kinsey's half-naked body from her mind.

The casual but large strides make it difficult for Jade to surpass them, resulting in a low grunt expelling from pure annoyance.

Fuckers.

Of course, Jade would never say that out loud. She isn't the confrontational type.

Unlike these boys.

"The fuck!"

Jade snaps her head up at the bark and heavy grunt that seems to have been expelled from one of the boys. She slowly steps back since she was standing a mere three feet behind the crew of wanna-be Hollister models.

Her steps are unheard as the commotion begins to erupt. Jade finds herself back at the turn of the hallway, hiding herself behind the corner of the off-white wall that has peels of paint showing its age like rings of a tree's trunk.

The crusty condition of the school isn't Jade's concern at the moment. She is granted a better view of the boy's faces as the muffled commotion increases in volume.

A boy with a sandy-hazel crew-cut at the front of the little crew looks as if he just ate a pile of worms. The disgust on his face is one of pure distaste.

The intense glare of his is directed at a lankier individual.

The target's smaller frame does not take away from the developing muscle mass that inaugurates his arms, appearing through the thin fabric of his plain black tee. His bleach blonde hair sits messily atop his head as his face makes him look almost child-like. The soft, pimple-free skin emphasizes the softer features of his face. Is he a freshman?

Before Jade can continue on with the thought,

"Sorry that you were too much of an asshole to realize that there are other people actually trying to get to class," the lankier individual snarks at the main boy that started berating him.

Jade's body stills as any form confrontation sends chills down her spine, even if it's not her being the victim. It is a mixture of anxiety at the all too familiar situation, and shock at the boldness that exudes from the smaller boy.

The bell rings, but all the boys' attention isn't directed at the possibility that they could be late and ultimately serve afterschool detention. Of course detention itself wasn't as threatening, but Kinsey's wrath after missing afterschool practice should be of greater threat.

Besides that, the commotion continues.

"The fuck you say to me, faggot!" The leader of the pack snarls at the boy with anger exceedingly evident in his voice and stance as he steps closer to the boy that seems unshaken at his advancement.

Jade feels an intense pounding in her chest that makes it difficult for her to move any of her limbs. Her eyes seem glued to the situation but her conscious is focused on what just came out of that boy's mouth. That word.

Jade's hollow figure zones back to reality once she hears a loud clank. She looks up to see the smaller boy held up against the set of silver lockers by the larger football player. His large hands wrap themselves within the fabric of the boy's shirt as he has the boy hanging above the ground.

The rest of the clique rush to pull their leader off the boy who seems unbothered by the ordeal. His face stoic and deadpan as he stares into the soul of his bully.

The boy drops down to the floor as the huddle of followers surround their asshole friend, trying to calm him down and get him away from the scene of the crime before any administration or faculty can get to them.

The smaller boy sits on the floor with his back flat against the array of lockers, probably for support. He expels a grave huff before grabbing for his navy blue binder that is flipped open on the floor. Wrinkles plague the left and right sides of the thin fabric of his shirt, serving as imprints to where the bully had gripped him.

Jade covers her mouth with her slightly shaky right hand. This scene brings back way too many memories that make her feel bile building up within her throat. She can't stand here anymore no matter how badly she feels for the boy and desires to aid him. She feels like she's going to vomit. To save herself, she treads speedily down the empty hallway, past the victim of the assault she just witnessed.

She dashes past the boy in a hasty mess. He notices the girl passing him at such an urgent pace, eyes only able to stare in confusion as her dark presence passes him.

After she disappears around the corner, the faint freckled face boy finds his cheeks heating up in brief embarrassment. He suspects that she just witnessed what he's been dealing with for about a year now since he'd come out last year.

The internal embarrassment consumes his stoic facial features. The stoic face he's always had to prevent people from seeing him as weak but now he couldn't help it. Knowing that someone saw him weak and vulnerable did not sit well with him.

He continues to sit, too feeble to stand up on his own. He wonders if it was all worth it. To come out. Why'd he have to be himself? Why'd he have to be the sore thumb that stood out in the midst of uniformity and conformity?

Why did he have to be gay?

________<~>________

A/N: whew... this chapter was something. I'm sorry to anyone that felt triggered in any sort of way but I felt that this was needed for the introduction of this new character.

...

How did you guys feel about the whole altercation? What would you have done if you were in Jade's position?

...

Hope you liked this chapter. See you in the next one, loves! ❤️