𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋. 𝙎𝙄𝙓𝙏𝙔 𝙏𝙒𝙊 ─── 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝟰
❝ 𝖧𝖨𝖦𝖧 𝖲𝖢𝖧𝖮𝖮𝖫 𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗢𝗨𝗧 ❞
❪ 𝘈𝘊𝘊𝘌𝘗𝘛𝘈𝘕𝘊𝘌 𝙍𝙀𝙅𝙀𝘾𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 ❫

𝟲𝟮. ╱ ✷ ❝ 𝗐𝗁𝖾𝗇 𝖽𝗈 𝗐𝖾 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗌𝗁𝗂𝗍 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗐𝖾 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝘁. ❞
▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

𝗔 𝗚𝗥𝗢𝗔𝗡 leaves Riley's lips as she rolls over in her bed, handing smashing down on the top of her alarm to stop the obnoxious beeping that had woken her up. Bringing her hands up to press the palms of her hands into her eyes, an even louder groan leaves her lips as someone knocks on the door.

"Go away!"

"Riley, downstairs for breakfast in fifteen!" Matt's voice sounds throughout the wooden door, earning yet again another groan from the teenager, "That's what you get for staying up to watch that show you've seen a thousand times!"

"Go away!"

Loud laughter leaves the man's lips, trailing off as he made his way back down the stairs.

"Somebody's not a morning person."

"I'm hanging up!" Riley grabs her phone and hangs up on Eddie before standing up and moving out of her room towards the bathroom so that she could brush her teeth.

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧'𝗦 𝗚𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗚 on?" Clay questioned his parents, the three teenagers coincidentally making it to the kitchen at the same time.

"Justin and Riley got letters this morning." Lainie excitedly says as she sits down.

"Holy shit!" Justin exclaimed, "I mean, sorry."

Matt laughed, "Don't be sorry. But please open them, or Lainie will. I've taken everything in my power to stop her."

"Berkeley?" Clay raised an eyebrow at his cousin as she takes the one that had her name on it, "I thought you wanted to get out of California."

"No. Scott's a couple hours away from Berkeley, but I mostly applied because Alex and I were joking around about going to the same college as each other." Riley shakes her head, sitting down and opening the envelope, reading over the words.

"Well, what does it say, kiddo?" Asked an overly happy Matt, hoping for anything since she usually was good at masking her face.

"I got it!"

"She got it!" Lainie cheered, "Okay, Justin, your turn."

"Okay." He chuckled, sitting down and taking the envelope to open it. "Uh, Dear, Justin . . . .," He chuckles, "I got it."

"Yes!"

"Way to go, kiddos! That's fantastic!"

"We are so happy for you." Lainie smiled at Justin as Riley was pulling her phone out to send a picture of her acceptance letter to Alex, "You have done so, so well. And yours is coming, I know it." She tells her son.

"And you're doing so great with Dr. Ellman, and . . . we should celebrate, huh? Medgie's for dinner this weekend?" Matt asked.

"Or we could treat the boys and Riley to something special." Lainie smiled, "I hear there's a Gordon Lightfoot concert coming to town that all the kids are talking about. When is that?"

Riley, Justin and Clay turn to look at each other.

"Uh . . . . there is?" Clay stutters, "I . . . I'm . . . I didn't know about that."

Matt nodded at his wife's words, "That's a great idea. I'm surprised you guys love him like I do. Sundown you better take care if I find you creepin' down my back stairs." He sings the last part of his sentence.

Riley quickly downs the rest of her orange juice, "I have . . . No, we didn't know."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Justin puts his letter into his backpack, "I didn't hear about that."

"No? We'll think of something."

"Come on, dig in! I used a new technique with the eggs. It's a touch of cream."

After breakfast, the three teens walk out of the house for school.

"Hey, how do they know about Gordan Lightfoot?" Clay asked the two quietly, making sure that the adults didn't hear them.

"It's gotta be a coincidence, right?" Justin asked, walking down the stairs. "Maybe he is playing a concert."

"When had Gordan Lightfoot ever played in Evergreen?" Riley asked, pulling her phone out and texting Alex that she was leaving the house, and she would be on the way to pick him up for school.

"I don't even know who Gordan Lightfoot is!" Clay exclaimed, following the two.

"They probably just heard us using it out loud." Justin tries to shrug it off. "Uh, I mean, they just wanna connect. They don't know anything, or they wouldn't be talking to us about going to college."

"The two of you going to college."

"You're going to college, Clay."

"Just chill out, okay? Let's go."

"There was this whole feeling that bad shit was about to happen."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗬 𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗡𝗦 against her locker, a million-thought running across her mind as she starred off into space before a hand brushed against her elbow bringing her out to find Charlie standing in front her with a concerned look on his face.

"Riley, I've been calling your name the past five minutes." Charlie tells her, a frown on her face.

"What? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." She shakes her head, turning around to open the metal locker door with a sigh, "I've just been in my head about things lately."

"Are you sure that you're fine?" He asked again, "Because I'm a good listener if you need somebody to talk to."

"Yeah, I promise, Charlie Brown, I'm fine." Riley smiled.

"Okay, well in that case, I need your help with something." Charlie tells her, looking around, "It's about the prom."

"Okay, what's up?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗜'𝗠 𝗡𝗢𝗧 saying I don't care, I'm saying I don't know if now is the best time to be going to some stupid--,"

"It's not stupid!"

Matt and Lainie's voices carried from the top of the steps as the three teenagers sat at the kitchen table where they wanted to sit.

"And we made a commitment to do this, for them."

"Is it for them, though? Or is it really just for us?" Matt asked, doing the buttons up on the sleeves of his shirt.

Lainie turns her head as she find the kids at the table, "Um. . .,"

"You wanted to see us?" Clay asked his parents.

"Yesh, uh, we are on our way out for date night." She smiled at them.

Riley sends them a confused look, twisting her ring on her finger, "Why so many date nights lately?"

"And . . . and what commitment did you make?" Clay questioned.

"Oh, we're committed to keeping the romance alive." Matt says as he holds out money, "Here is some money for pizza."

"And we are actually running late, so be good." Lainie smiles at the kids before she and Matt leave.

"Yeah, you too!" Justin calls out after the parents.

Clay looks between Justin and Riley, "That was weird, right?"

"They're probably going to a weird meeting of their sex cult." Justin keeps his eyes on his phone as Riley lets out a laugh.

"Dude." Clay closes his eyes in disgust, "Why would you put that in my brain?"

"Sorry, it's date night." Justin snickers.

"They've been on a half dozen dates this year and they never look like they're enjoying them." Clay says.

"Maybe that's why they keep going." Riley sits back in her seat.

"Maybe it's to keep the magic alive, you know?"

"Oh, my God, dude, I'm just saying, maybe it's not a date at all." Clay says just before they hear the car turning on and he jumps up to look out of the window. He turns around to grab his phone off the table, "Riley, let's go!"

"Why do I need to go?!" She called back, throwing her head down onto the table with a groan.

"Cousin code!"

Justin looks up in confusion as the blonde stands up, "What is cousin code?"

"I hate cousin code."

"What? What the hell is cousin code?!"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗜 𝗖𝗔𝗡'𝗧 believe you pulled the cousin code on me!" Riley hisses quietly as she and Clay followed behind the group of parents that walked down the school hallway.

"Shhh, be quiet."

"I will bite that finger off."

"And thanks to all of your incredible support and fundraising over this past semester, we've had tremendous success with a number of new, innovative security practices." They hear Dean Foundry talking.

The cousins slowly creep up to the library doors, looking inside at the group of parents that sat inside which including Matt, Lainie, Alex's parents and Jessica's dad.

"Tonight's focus is on your kids' online lives. We know many of you have downloaded Dave's apps to read emails and texts, follow online activity, geotrack your kids, but if you don't have the apps yet, uh, just talk to Dave after our session."

Riley looks at Clay with wide eyes, him having the same look on his face.

"And, uh, he can also, uh, link you into their laptops, webcams, solutions for your home. Anything you need. What's really great about these apps is Dave and his team can aggregate the data, which will keep us apprised of trending topics, hot button issues. Really, everything that your kids communicate about." Foundry says, "Of course, we recently completed a successful active-shooter drill here on campus, which has, uh, made us more prepared to respond quickly and effectively in an emergency."

Matt raises his hand in the air. "Yes, question." He stands up, "Yeah, uh, that drill gave my son a nervous breakdown. And my niece, who has been afraid of guns since she was fourteen, to have a few panic attacks during. How can you say it was successful?"

"No, there were a small number of students who were upset by the drill, and we did have follow up counseling."

"He wasn't just upset!" Matt raised his voice, "He ended up in a psych ward, pissing his bed!"

"Honey, he wouldn't want us sharing that." Lainie tells her husband.

"Dude." Riley scrunched her face, "That's just nasty."

"Shut up."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗦𝗢, 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗬 had a parent meeting." Jessica stands at the table where Riley and Clay were sitting after she had glanced up to the security camera, "I don't really think it's such a big deal." She sat down.

"They have complete access." Clay tells her, "They've been watching everything we do, tracking every move we make."

"If all they know is that we've been talking about Gordan Lightfoot, how much do they actually know?"

"I hope not much." Riley tells her, "There are things on my phone, things that I've sent to Scott, that parental eyes should not see!"

Jessica smirked in her direction.

"Look, I don't think they've cracked the code yet, but they have a fucking security team working on it." Clay tells her what they had heard the night before. "They could be listening right now for all we know!"

"Clay, I think you're being paranoid." Jessica scoffed.

"I think you're being stupid!"

"Clay!"

"Look, you escaped from a mental hospital. How do you expect anyone to trust you?"

"You're still with Diego." Riley turns to her, eyebrow raised, "How do we trust you?"

"You two are the ones who wanted to meet."

"Look, we have to get everyone together, or you do."

"Who's left?" Questioned Jessica, "Justin's not speaking to me, Zach's done."

"I mean, Alex? Ani?"

Riley scoffed remembering the text message from Alex, "Ani moved out of Jessica's place and she's been meeting with Miss Walker. Alex saw her."

Clay scoffed, "We are so fucked."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗜 𝗗𝗢𝗡'𝗧 think he's crazy. I mean, how else did they know?" Riley walks with Justin down the hallway towards his locker before they went to their next class.

"What the fuck does he want?" Justin sighs as he spots Diego leaning next to his locker, "Go to class."

"What? No, I'm staying." Riley shakes her head as they get closer, crossing her arms over her chest.

Justin doesn't say anything to the boy as he turns the dial on his locker to open it, putting a book inside.

"You know, I couldn't figure it out." Diego spoke to the Foley boy, flashing Riley an innocent smile, "Jess choosing you over me."

Justin slams his locker closed, still not speaking.

"I mean. . . you're a joke on the field, you're obviously a shit boyfriend."

"Move it, Lee." Justin guides her down the hallway away from Diego, still making new move to talk to the boy following them.

"So what does she see in you? Really?"

"Um, I don't really have time for this shit right now." Justin finally says something, hand resting on Riley's back as he guided her with him.

"But then I heard the tapes."

Riley tenses up as Justin turns to face the boy.

"What tape?"

"The ones that Bryce made for her." Diego spoke before glancing at Riley, "For you."

"Don't fucking look at her." Justin shakes his head, moving Riley behind him.

"She's protecting the both of you, isn't she?" Diego asked, a smug look on his face, "Because one of you did it. You killed him. Or maybe, the two of you teamed up and did it together."

"You really don't know what the fuck you're talking about, asshole." Riley glared at the boy.

Justin moves closer, pushing Riley back more, "But if I were you, I'd keep my fucking mouth shut."

Diego nodded his head, "I'm gonna get the truth."

"Yeah?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Who, exactly?" Riley tilts her head.

Diego takes a step back with a shrug, "I'll beat the shit out of you if i have to. Though, something tells me you won't last as long as your boy Zach did." He chuckled.

"Justin!" Riley gasped as he shoved Diego back into the wall, handing his backpack to the blonde.

Diego stands there for a moment before rushing at Justin, sending the Foley boy into the lockers behind them.

Justin swings them around just long enough for Diego to slam into the wall on the opposite side.

"Hey! Enough! That's enough, break it up!" A deputy ran over to break the two of them apart. "You two, get to class! You up against the lockers!"

"Me? Why just me?" Diego questions.

"I said up against the lockers!" The cop shoves Diego into the wall of metal

"What the fuck, man?! We were just talking!" Justin yells out to the police officer.

"Let him go!" Riley shouted.

"I said back to class!"

"What the hell?!"

"Another fucking Mexican kid starting a fight?" The deputy remarked, patting the teenage boy down.

"Okay, I'm Dominican. What the fuck?"

"You can't say shit like that, mother fucker!" Riley screamed at the cop, moving to pull the cop off, "Let him go!

"Back off!" The cop spun around, pushing at Riley and sending her to the ground, a scream leaving her lips as her head harshly hits the wall.

"Riley!"

"Get off of her!" Diego shouts, grabbing at the cop to push him away from the blonde girl on the floor, knowing that if Monty was still alive and breathing, he would beat the shit out of anyone for putting their hands on the blonde.

The teens behind them scream as the office draws his gun, pointing it at the three teenagers after Diego and Justin helped Riley get up.

"Oh, shit! Don't shoot! Please!" Diego holds his hands up. "Put the gun away. I'll do what you want."

"She's terrified of guns, asshole!" Justin yells out, pushing Riley behind him and Diego.

"Back up. Back the fuck up!" The cop shouts, still pointing the gun, grabbing Justin by the jacket and yanking him towards the lockers, "Up against the lockers! Against the locker, hands spread."

"No, no, no! Please, don't." Riley cried out, sliding down the lockers as the gun is pointed in her direction even for a second before he puts the gun away, "Get it away! Get it away!"

Diego gasp in panic as the police office grabs at him again, turning him around to slam him against the lockers.

"Come on. He didn't do anything, man." Justin begged the cop, "Let him go! Let him go!"

"Hey, what the fuck?!" Jessica calls out as she comes out of her classroom, taking in the scene in front of her. "Hey!"

The police officer slams Diego up against the lockers once more before guiding him away into the crowd of watching students.

"What the fuck?" Jesscia asks, eyes the terrified boy.

"Riley." Justin bends down to the blonde, who was letting out a panicked gasp, "Hey, hey, look at me. Focus on me. Okay, focus on me, Lee. Just my voice, listen to my voice."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗔𝗥𝗘 innocent people being treated like criminals." Jessica tells Bolan as students stood behind her, Clay being one of them with his arms crossed over his chest as Riley stays close to him, her eyes red from crying.

"I'm told they were fighting." Bolan says.

"Oh, that's bullshit!" Jessica spits, "And it's not just them, it's all of us!"

"Yeah!"

"Presumed guilty? No charge? No due process?"

"Alright, people. Folks!" Bolan tries to calm the crowd of students. "Hey, please. This situation is being addressed. Let's get back to class."

"No!" Riley spoke up for the first time in a matter of minutes from having a gun pointed at her.

"Do not make matters worse. Get back to class."

Clay, Jessica and Riley look at each other.

"No." Clay moves forward, "We're not going back to class."

"Clay, I promise you we will get into this." Boland looks around, "Diego's being released, the officer will be disciplined if appropriate. . . ," The students begin to boo him. ". . . . and w will address the situation according to--,"

"Fuck that! Enough is enough!" Jessica cuts him off, students shouting in agreement with their student body president.

"Fucking right." Justin joins his three best friends.

"Alright, I understand your point without all the inappropriate language, alright."

"Fuck you, motherfucker." Both Jensen cousins spoke in perfect sync with each other, both with different facially expressions.

"We're together on this." Clay tells their principle.

"Everyone get back to class right now." Bolan looks the down, "Or their will be consequences."

Jessica shrugged, "Bring it on. We're not afraid."

From the side, Alex looks at the teens before turning around and walking away from the group of students.

"We're finally doing something." The blonde stands up straighter, every ounce of fear she once felt gone from her body.

"Doing what, exactly?"

The three teenagers look at each other before the two cousins look towards the double doors of the school, Jessica following their gaze. The three look at each other with smirks on their faces before turning around and heading out the doors.

Jessica looks back, locking eyes with Ani and moving her head in a gesture to join them but all the Achola girl does is hike her back up higher on her shoulder and turn away.

"Hey. Turn around." Bolan calls to the three, but they only look back at him before making their moves towards the door, "No, turn around! The both . . . What do you think you're doing?!" He raises his voice.

Tyler stops, turning to the principle, "I believe it's a walkout, sir."

"Just to be clear, I don't actually have a plan." Clay tells the two girls next to him, 'I'm kind of following your leads."

"Me? I thought I was following the wonder cousins."

"People don't call us that anymore!"

"Hey, you guys gotta figure something out, because, I mean, everyone. . . ," Justin spoke up after the two as he and Tony followed them out.

"Yeah, it's, uh, . . . it's kind of a thing." Tony sighed.

The five stand there, watching students continue to pour out of the school.

"When do we ever think shit through before we do it?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 fuck are we doing?" Diego asked, walking over to Luke as he makes his way through the crowd of students. "Are we just gonna stand here, or are we gonna do something?"

"I say we break some fucking heads!" Luke yells, students around him cheer.

Cyrus moves to stand on the concert to make himself taller, "Or we could use our heads, cut the power to the school, maybe light some shit on fire."

Ani runs through the crowd with a megaphone in her hand, "Let's hear what our president has to say."

"Shit, I thought you took off."

"Had to make a stop at the cave." Ani holds it out to her, "Go!"

"Hey, everyone!" Jessica calls out, making the kids turn to her, "There's a lot we can disagree on, but I know we can agree on one thing. We're pissed off, am I right?"

"Yeah!"

"'Cause shit has got to change around her, so let's make damn sure it does today. You guys with me?!"

"Yeah!"

"We need a fucking chant!" Someone calls out of the crowd.

"Yeah!"

"Hey-hey, ho-ho! SRO's have got to go!" Ani cups her hands, calling out before everyone is chanting it out.

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗪𝗘'𝗥𝗘 𝗔𝗦𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 for the removal of all SRO's on this campus." Jessica tells Bolan as she, Clay and Riley stand in front of him and Dean Foundry, while the students still chanted behind them. "And all security measures."

"That means no more cameras, no more metal detectors, no more stop the bleed demos, and no more drills!" Clay said to the adults.

Riley nodded her head, "We want our school back!"

"It's more complicated than that." Dean Foundry tells them, "We're complying with state laws."

"Laws designed to help these kids stay safe." Bolan added on.

"Then the laws are back, and you should break them."

"When the videos from today hit the internet, you want the world to know you did nothing?" Clay asked, shaking his head.

"Hey-hey! Ho-ho! SRO's have got to go! Hey-hey! Ho-ho! SRO's have got to go!"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗜 𝗠𝗘𝗔𝗡, I guess we have their answer." Clay sighed as they stared at the officers, Foundry and Bolan standing in front of the school building, while they stood on the opposite end.

Riley shakes her head, "How the fuck do they expect us to go back inside with all of that there?"

"They don't want us to go back inside anymore." Jessica says, "They want us out of here."

"This is the Evergreen County Sheriff's Department!"

"No shit, dumbass!" Riley called back with a roll of her eyes.

"You have two minutes to vacate the premises, or you will be forcibly removed. Two minutes."

Clay turns his body to Jessica and Riley, "Look, I mean, I'm . . . I'm ready for a fight, but Jess, they have guns, and we've got nothing."

Jessica looks around with a smirk, "That's not entirely true. They've trained us for this moment."

"Tell us, what's the plan."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗦 𝗨𝗣."

Every student stands still, none of them moving.

"Officers, please, proceed."

"Stand your ground!" Jessica calls out in the megaphone as the officers moved closer to the teenagers.

"Let's fucking go!"

"Now!"

Papers start flying, along with books and whatever else people could get their hands on, throwing it at the police officers.

Riley stares in shock as police officer begin fighting the kids, letting out a scream as hands wrapped around her, "Get the fuck off of me! Get the fuck off!"

"Hey! Get the fuck off of her!" The police officer is pushed away from Riley, as Diego grabs her by the arm and the two run off.

"Hey! Hey, hold on!" Clay's voice stops all the commotion of teenagers running away, "Don't run away from this. Listen! Listen to me! Look, they're gonna try to make us think that we're the problem. But we are not the problem! We go to the school that they built for us. We live in the society that they made for us, and shit is broken! Shit is wrong! And they can't fix it! They won't! So it's our turn now! We're gonna make it right if we have to burn it down and start over. So I say fuck it all!"

"Fuck yeah!"

"We're fighting. Who's with me?" People cheer him on, "Fuck it all! Fuck it all! Let's go!"

"Yeah!"

Everyone starts fighting again as Diego and Riley get pulled apart from each other, the blonde crying out as she was hit by one of the police officers but was once again pulled up only this time by Jessica and Ani, the three girls running off with each other.

"Fire! Fire!" Alex's voice rings out, "Everybody! Move!"

"Jess! Riley! Get down!" Justin calls out to the two girls as they were walking right by car that was on fire, Jessica with Ani as Riley was a little bit away, "Riley!"

Arms wrap around Riley's waist, Justin throwing the two of them to the ground and using his body to shield the blonde just as the car explodes.