Of Thieves And Do Gooders

I woke up in the morning with a monstrous headache, and I made sure that Hayden knew it. “My head hurts!” I groaned, whining as I rolled around at the foot of my bed, holding my head like I was ready for it to explode.

“Shut up Raymond,” Hayden murmured tiredly into his pillow and then rolled over and proceeded to put said pillow over his head.

“You know if you’re gonna call me by a name, at least choose which one it’s going to be,” I stated blandly, continuing to groan in agony. I didn’t particularly care what name he called me by, but at that moment I felt the need to complain about things. Maybe then I would forget about my head. “Don’t you have any painkillers? Some Ibuprofen, Advil? Something. What about Vicodin? Apparently it works for House.”

“I’ll just call you Ray,” Hayden said after several minutes of my random groaning and then he added, “and Vicodin’s a prescription drug anyway.”

I groaned louder to emphasize my dismay and then sat up, waiting for the dizziness to clear before wandering into the bathroom to find my own relief. The bathroom was stashed with a proper stock of both Advil and Ibuprofen. Nice. I popped two Advil’s into my mouth and swallowed without water. My headache was still apparent to me, but I felt better knowing it would be leaving soon.

“So. Same schedule as yesterday?” I asked, as I came out of the bathroom. I jumped a little when Hayden fell over himself and crawled on his hands and knees behind his bed.

“Jesus Ray! Why the hell do you come out of places so quietly? And can’t you stay in bathrooms a long time like a normal girl!” Hayden said loudly but didn’t quite yell.

I rolled my eyes. “Come on Hayden, I’ve seen you in your boxers fifty times before. It’s not that big of a deal.” Although it was funny to see him scrambling around on the other side of his bed to try and reach the pants he had dropped in his haste to hide from me. “I mean, I’m not taking my shirt off to settle the score or anything, but you don’t have to freak out every time.” I snorted as Hayden picked up a baseball bat from the corner and tried to pick his pants up that way, keeping one eye on me.

“Oh freakin’--Are you kidding me?” I marched over to where he had dropped his pants, picked them up and turned around so that my back was facing him, stretching my arm backwards so that he could grab his pants. “There. Now hurry up, I won’t look,” I scoffed with a slight snicker. This had reminded me of something I would do.

Hayden snatched his pants off my arm and I heard shuffling, then came Hayden’s voice, “Done. Thanks.” When I turned around he was already on the other side of the room, rummaging through a hamper of dirty clothes. He found a pair of pants he had been wearing two days ago, and fished in the pocket for a moment before pulling out the diamond heart-shaped necklace that I had found in the old guy’s mansion. Hayden tucked the heart-shaped necklace into his pocket and turned around to see me staring at him. Suddenly feeling self-conscious, Hayden wandered over to his closet where he pulled shirt out and pulled it over his head.

Tch, like I was staring at his torso…okay, maybe I was a little, but if you saw his abs and arms you’d be staring too. However, I was more so wondering what the significance of that necklace was, since he didn’t wear it.

“What?” Hayden demanded, realizing I was still staring at him.

“What’s with that necklace? You’re all defensive about it and you don’t even wear it.” I pointed out, crossing my arms over my chest.

Hayden stiffened, then, suddenly remembering my other question about the schedule he answered in a casual tone, “Yeah. It’s pretty much the same schedule as yesterday. Except no scuba diving. That was a one-time-lesson, Mr. Jager said we’ll go over a review some other time. Now we’re doing combat training. You know, hand-to-hand combat and daggers and stuff like that.” He stuffed his feet into his shoes and began to tie the laces.

“Oh. Alright, cool. Now, about that necklace?” I wasn’t letting him dodge my question that easily.

Hayden frowned in annoyance, “It’s nothing, it’s just a necklace, don’t worry about it.” His shoulders were stiff as I approached and stared down at him--since he was sitting on the floor to tie his shoes. Half-way through the second knot he looked up pointedly at me. “What?” Hayden snapped, glaring at my scrutinizing gaze.

“You. Are full of shit,” I informed him.

Hayden scowled at my words. “You don’t know that. And you don’t need to know about it anyway.”

“Oh come on! You know my biggest secret, why can’t I know yours?” I demanded, taking up my girl stance--stomp the foot, lock the leg and put a hand on one hip--not caring who saw it.

Hayden looked at my stance and stood up, squaring his shoulders defiantly. “Hey, I guessed yours. If you want to know about it, figure it out yourself.”

“That’s stupid, you looked up an article. I can’t find an article about your necklace.” I whined then crossed my arms over my chest. “Cheater,” I accused in a grumble.

“Yeah. Well, I’m a thief, you should know by now thieves can’t be trusted, and cheating is all part of the game, as long as you don’t get caught,” Hayden stated with a roll of his eyes. “Now hurry up so we can get to English on time.” He shoved me in the direction of the bathroom and I glared at him over my shoulder.

He had avoided my question. Damn it.

I showered in ten minutes, shook the water out of my hair and emerged from the bathroom fully clothed in my usual loose clothing and a sweatshirt since I didn’t feel like binding my boobs on that particular day. Maybe tomorrow, I don’t know, now that I was breathing easily, I had this sudden urge to never wear the binding again. Strange, right?

Hayden was in the farthest corner of the room, clicking randomly on the computer, or at least it looked random to me, someone who couldn’t see what he was doing.

“Are you looking at porn?” I accused jokingly and he instantly closed the window he was looking at, then rolled his eyes.

“No. I wasn’t. You ready to go?” Hayden stood up and headed toward the door.

I shrugged my confirmation and we were out the door and heading to English with Mrs. Lilany.

I know, practically a dream come true.

The morning passed in a blur, giving me both mathematics homework and some English. It didn’t take Mrs. Liliany long to realize that I was excelling in her class, and I wasn’t playing stupid well-enough to fool her. So she assigned me an argument paper on my views of how The Catcher In The Rye was or was not similar to the “teen experience”. Ew. Work. At least it was only an argument, I was good at those.

Mathematics sucked, since Mr. Jager noticed my new black eye and told me to “please speak with him after class” I hate that line. All teachers know it and I swear they love using it. So I managed to convince him that I tripped over something in the hallway on my way back from the Library. He accepted the lie, although there was a small bit of disbelief in his features, however he advised me to be more careful and sent me on my way. Hayden was waiting for me outside the class, a disapproving look on his face, but I only grinned at him as if I hadn’t noticed. The kid worried about me too much.

It wasn’t ‘til twelve ‘o clock came around that I got concerned, fidgety and downright unpleasant to be around. Were we scuba diving again? If that was a year ‘round class then I was going to fail it.

“Relax Ray. When we aren’t scuba diving or some other random activity, we’re just working on combat training,” Hayden assured me as Damion and Leon distracted themselves by focusing on pushing each other over. I relaxed a little and then Hayden laughed. “Then again, most of us started combat training two years ago, so…you’re a little behind.” He laughed again, this time at the dismay on my face.

I didn’t grace Hayden with a comment, instead I joined Damion and Leon in their shoving contest, that is, until they ganged up on me and pushed me into a wall and refused to let me up until I hesitantly cried, “Alright goddamn it, Uncle!” Then I was released and we made our way to combat training, me being the only reluctant one.

Apparently combat training was where Leon shined. With his big build and apparent muscles, it wasn’t much of a surprise to me. Much to my dismay, Derek and his two friends were there as well, but I tried to ignore them as much as possible, I would learn to actually fight better, then I might start something with Derek. Until then, I would play the dodgy little wimp. I was already pretty good at it anyway.

“Alright you guys,” Mr. Jager called everyone’s attention as he approached and then continued as he set down some equipment, which looked like a bunch of sticks to me, “Today we’ll be starting something a bit newer. It’s not hand-to-hand combat like you’ve been used to, and it isn’t training with daggers. Today, we’ll be training with these.” He held up one of the many sticks he’d spilled upon the ground.

The stick looked relatively light and flimsy, with rounded edges and a shaft that was about as tall as me--if not taller--and probably a few inches thick. Just a regular, smoothed out, fancy stick. I raised my hand, seeing that no one else had a problem with the sticks.

“Yes Raymond?” Mr. Jager had a slight smirk on his face, waiting patiently for my question.

“We’re gonna fight with sticks?” I asked, sounding skeptical. A stick didn’t seem like a very good weapon.

“These are staves. Sticks are something you find out in the woods and use to start fires, staves, on the other hand are much more useful for fighting and aren’t nearly as easy to break.” Mr. Jager grinned at me, apparently I had asked the right question. “Since you were the first one to speak, how about you come up here and demonstrate the first offensive strike Raymond?” Mr. Jager motioned for me to join him in front of the class.

I glowered at him and then marched up to him, holding my hand out for the stupid stick--oh, sorry, the stupid staff. How hard could it be to swing a staff around? It looked like an elongated broom handle. Mr. Jager dropped the weapon into my outstretched hand and I staggered, quickly supporting my hand with my other hand in order to keep the staff from stabbing into the ground.

Instantly recognizing the panic and confusion on my face, Mr. Jager smiled again. “By the way class, for the first few weeks we will be using staves with lead-based tips, once you can control a heavier staff, you’ll have even better control over a regular one.” He picked up his own staff and held it with one hand, and I glared at him, “Now, Raymond, take up the starter position.” I stared at him for a moment, wondering what that was when he tapped my foot with his staff, knocking it farther away from my other foot, “Feet wider apart, knees bent--no bent a little less, perfect. Hold the staff in the middle and balance it on your hands.”

I struggled with the balancing, trying to find the exact middle of the staff so that one side wouldn’t overpower and tilt the staff to one side. I finally got it and Mr. Jager knocked the staff off of my hands with his own staff and grinned when I glared up at him, “What the hell?” I demanded, picking the staff up again, not paying much attention to the snickering class behind me.

“Tighten your grip.” Mr. Jager nodded for me to repeat the act, corrected me on my bent knees again and then remained silent while I balanced my staff again--this time more quickly.

I kept a tight grip on the staff this time, while also keeping a wary eye on Mr. Jager. “Excellent. Now, I want you to get into a combat position,” Mr. Jager said, waiting for me to do as he told.

I nodded at the instructions and held the staff, with one end pointing in front of me and lifted partially into the air. If I wanted to do any sort of attacking, I could probably jab at him or even swing the staff in some sort of upward flourish. I wobbled a little, and sent my staff digging into the dirt near my feet. The class snickered as I took up my stance again and I refused my overpowering impulse to flip them all off.

Mr. Jager held a staff of his own now, and got into a ready position of his own. His battle position seemed more sturdy than my own, and flexible, and he overall seemed more confident in what he was capable of doing. I ignored these facts however as he spoke again, “Okay, now, I want you to hit me.” I blinked in confusion.

Hit him? Was he serious?

My teacher smirked slightly at the expression on my face. “Go on Raymond, hit me. If you can, that is,” he spoke haughtily.

Okay. Well, if he was going to be an ass about it, I might as well hit him, right?

I shrugged and, with slug-like reflexes, I swept my staff first to the right, and then shifted my weight so that I could bring it up in a flourish aimed at Mr. Jager’s right side. However, my hit never made contact, since Mr. Jager fluidly moved away from my attack and parried my staff with his own, knocking my weapon to the ground. My hands were still vibrating from the jarring impact.

As I swore under my breath and shook my hands to relieve the pain, Mr. Jager stood normally again and said, “Good attempt Raymond. Now that you’ve demonstrated the difficulty of even the simplest tasks when working with a lead staff, everyone come up and grab one--Hey! Leon put that staff down, girls are equal to guys here, no chivalry is necessary, she can pick up her own staff.” Leon grinned sheepishly, holding his staff in one hand and apologized to Mr. Jager, until he looked away, then he handed his staff to a blonde girl behind him.

I mumbled to myself as I picked up my own staff, not paying much attention to the swirl of people around me. It was only when I stood up that I realized I was surrounded and, so I began to push my way out of the vortex of bodies. Once I was free, I concentrated on my staff again, spacing myself a decent distance away from the rest of the class so that I had room to set up my stance once again, whenever the body clutter decided to clear up, anyway.

I grinned to myself and looked at the rest of the class to see that they were all beginning to line up in front of Mr. Jager, so I followed suit, standing beside Leon who stood next to Damion who stood next to Hayden.

“Okay,” Mr. Jager’s voice traveled easily over the chatter of the students. “Look at the person to your right. That will be your partner for today.”

I grinned when Leon looked to his right and saw me, but his own gaze darkened and flicked beside me. With a frown I glanced over and saw Derek standing next to me, staff in hand. When the fuck did he get there? The rest of the class began to stand opposite of each other, but I just stared at Derek, who was smiling innocently and sinisterly at the same time.

“Well Raymond? Aren’t you going to go to the other side?” he offered, holding his staff in a position that would have allowed him to hit me if I disagreed with his request.

Seeing that Leon was on my right and Damion was the one who had gone across the training yard I scowled and took a slight step away from Derek. “I don’t think so. This is my lucky side,” I lied, not even attempting to keep my voice from sounding snide, and gestured to where I was standing. “You go ahead though.”

Derek’s eyes darkened, but flicked behind me where Leon stood and he nodded absently. “Fine.” He walked to the side opposite me and faced me. I glanced over my shoulder at Leon but he was already nonchalantly twirling his staff in one hand. Oh my God, showoff.

“Alright, right side,” that was my line, “You’ll be on the defensive for the first part of the hour, left side,” that was Derek’s line, “you will be on the offensive, naturally.” Mr. Jager was pacing in between the two lines like a drill sergeant. “Follow my example righties and try to copy me as best you can.”

My line copied Mr. Jager’s stance, which was a wide one with the staff held level with our heads and titled diagonally so that we were blocking an invisible blow to the head or neck. Mr. Jager did the same with the lefties, except it was a offensive motion, aiming at someone’s neck or head. I had a vague feeling I knew where this was going. And it was going to suck.

“Ready lefties?” There was a brief moment in which everyone prepared themselves, “Righties?” My knees almost knocked together but I stopped them by imagining they were stuck in a block of cement. “Attack!” Mr. Jager shouted, standing off to the side.

I bit my lower lip as Derek advanced, prepared to block the attack with everything I had. However, my legs seemed to have a different reaction in mind and I ducked at the last minute, kicking him in the shin instead. Derek swore, and glared at me as I rose to my full height again, wide-eyed and my heart pounding. He swung his staff again, this time aiming at my lower abdomen. I shuffled away from the blow and managed to get my staff dug into the ground to stop the blow. However, the impact caused the staff to vibrate in my hands and it traveled up to my shoulder, making my arm feel like it was asleep.

I yelped in surprise as Derek swung his staff a third time, aiming at my shins, but I didn’t have time to block it. So, I jumped over it instead, holding all of my weight against my staff--which was still buried partially in the ground. I avoided the attack easily enough, but I couldn’t stop my staff from falling over, nor could I keep myself from going with it.

I hit the ground with a thud and rolled over onto my back, just as Derek turned his staff in his palms and brought the butt of his staff down into my gut. I sputtered for air and knocked his staff out of my gut with my arm and sat up, gasping. In the midst of my coughing Leon and Damion had gathered around me along with Mr. Jager. “Back up, give him some air,” he ordered, hovering over me to make sure I was breathing. It was labored, but I was breathing. “You alright Raymond?”

I coughed my answer, “Fine.” Trying valiantly to appear fine, but it was getting harder as Derek sneered at me from behind Mr. Jager. “I,” cough, “just fell on my,” cough, “elbow when I lost,” cough, “my footing,” I finished, gaining more of my air back than I had been getting.

Leon and Damion looked like they didn’t believe me, but Mr. Jager nodded in understanding. “Alright. Well, be more careful. Are you okay to fight now?” I nodded and rose to my feet on my own, grimacing at the weight of my staff. Mr. Jager stood up and saw that the rest of the class had stopped to stare at me. “I didn’t tell you to stop practicing. Get back to the maneuver,” he commanded and the students shuffled back into their places.

When Leon and Damion reluctantly returned to their places Mr. Jager said to Derek and I, “How about practicing just the moves I give you?” he spoke in a low hiss, looking annoyed that we had done otherwise.

“Sorry,” I said, looking shamefaced, although I didn’t feel bad for dodging Derek’s death strike.

I glared at Derek once Mr. Jager turned his back. “Thanks for the unwanted attention,” I growled in Derek’s direction, but when I looked at him he smiled evilly and shrugged. Evil, little fuckwad.

I yelped in surprise as he struck with his staff aiming at the side of my neck, I managed to get my staff up, but only held it lightly, which posed a problem when Derek’s staff collided with mine and my staff knocked me in the side of the head. I swore at the throbbing in my skull, but backed up so there was more distance between Derek and I, maybe I’d be able to block his next attack successfully if I was prepared and didn‘t chicken out.

Combat training seemed to drag on much longer than an hour, but I wouldn’t let myself complain, despite the many bruises and bumps forming all over my body. Even as I dragged my sore body to the library for my lunch/library duty I kept my mouth shut. I lugged my Algebra book with me and even managed to finish my two pages of mathematics. As a rare occurrence, however, Damion, Hayden and Leon decided to join me, keeping completely quiet and doing their own work. I was surprised at the change in attitude, I was too used to them always being loud and hilarious. It was relatively eerie to see them doing the opposite.

From then on my day was uneventful, I even had time in the middle of my Etiquette class to write up my schedule before Headmaster Wilkins caught me doing something other than learning the proper way to ask a woman to dance. As if I would need to know how to do that.

My schedule was incomplete, but I figured I could finish writing it later that night, so far I had only gotten through a little more than half of my day. The remainder of my day would involve other classes that all juniors were to take. It had taken me awhile to adjust to the aspect of school consuming the entirety of my life, but I found that it would be worth it. Or at least I hoped it would be worth it.

_______________________________________________

By the end of my second day of combat training I was ready to rip my own arms off and jump into a miscellaneous pit of syringes, hoping at least one of them contained morphine.

…Okay, that’s a little drastic, but my arms and legs did ache horribly, and it wasn’t just because of the significant amount of bumps and bruises Derek had left on me the day before. The next day, Leon was my partner and Mr. Jager taught us a new maneuver, one involving a high strike followed by a middle strike, aiming for a person’s side and head. And let me tell you, when that lead staff hit you, you wanted to do your best to make sure it didn’t happen again.

It wasn’t that I got hit by Leon often, I blocked most of his attacks correctly. However evident it was that Leon was holding back the majority of his strength, I still felt my bones jar with ever hit I blocked. I swear once I actually heard my teeth chatter a few times at the impact his staff made on mine. Sometimes I wondered how I was even holding onto my staff. Of course, I had learned quickly during the first offensive attack distributed by Leon that I should hold onto my staff very tightly, lest it shake out of my grip and hit me in the neck…or the leg…or the face…or the shin…you get the point, I got hit a lot.

Despite my aches and pains, I plastered a smile on my face once I was finished training. However, this smile didn’t fool any of my three friends.

“Would you stop smiling like that? It’s freakin’ me out,” Damion pointed out and Leon let out a bark of laughter.

I didn’t let this wipe the smile from my face, I was trying to be positive, this was a learning experience, right? The less I complained the better I would feel about training. Or, at least that was my theory.

“Not when you should be complaining.” Hayden said from Leon’s other side so that I was between Damion and Leon and completely out of kicking or hitting range.

“What? I don’t complain much.” I said matter-of-factly.

An awkward silence enveloped the three boys, interrupted only by stifled laughter.

“What? What is it? What’s so funny?” I demanded heatedly, although I think I had an idea of what they were getting at.

“You complain about everything,” Leon finally said, clapping me hardily on the back as I scowled, “There’s the scowl I’m used to!” he commented with a grin.

I looked at Damion and Hayden who shrugged their agreement, while Hayden added, “It’s true, you do complain a lot.”

My scowl deepened and I rammed my shoulder into Leon’s side--which was one of the few parts of him that I could reach--and side-stepped out of his reach as he stumbled into Hayden, who was thrown to the ground where Leon landed on top of him. I took that moment to point at them and laugh allowing my mirth to show freely as they struggled to disentangle themselves and stand again. Hayden was up before Leon and I suddenly realized that I should have been running the moment Leon stumbled, rather than taking the time to laugh at my deed. Oops, a little late for that now but, still.

I turned on my heel and darted down the hallway, just as Leon joined Hayden on his feet. “Hey! Ray, get back here!” I heard Hayden shout, his footsteps close behind my own.

I heard a roar of excitement behind me and knew that Leon was on the prowl as well. This wasn’t a healthy predicament that I had shoved my way in to.

If I hadn’t had to slow down to make it around the corner I probably would have gotten away too. Except, Hayden didn’t slow down at all, he simply bounced off the wall. Yes, bounced, like the guy from Prince of Persia, he did that same exact thing. He used his feet to hurdle off of the wall and launch himself through the air, angling himself while still in the air so that he tackled me to the ground.

I yelped in surprise and Hayden rolled me over so that I was on my back, a smirk played across his face and he opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but didn’t manage to get it out before he was thrown on top of me. I felt the air rush from my lungs and wheezed, scrabbling quickly to smack Leon in the side of the head, knowing full-well that he was the source of all the weight smothering my lungs against my stomach. I mouthed the words rather than waste my precious air, “Get off.”

Leon grinned at me and rolled off of Hayden who then rolled off of me. I barely got to sit up before Leon pulled me up to my feet by my shoulders and encased me in a headlock. “Hey--hey! Quit it!” I protested as he proceeded to give me a noogie. How long had it been since I’d had a noogie? At least seven years…How degrading.

I struggled out of his grip--almost certain he had allowed me to escape--and stumbled away from him only to be put into a headlock by Hayden, who proceeded to give me yet another noogie. I protested loudly and hooked my foot behind Hayden’s, pulling it out from under him and knocking us both to the ground, for the second time. But I stopped the noogie! Success!

Before either of us could get up, Leon and Damion pounced on us at the same time, colliding with each other before landing on Hayden, who was on top of me. How did I always end up on the bottom of these scuffles? Hayden shifted most of the weight off of me when he rolled the other two over and made certain that me and him were on top of the makeshift wrestling match.

I was vaguely aware of the group of girls who passed us, some giggling, some rolling their eyes, but I was more consumed in the wrestling match. Sometimes I think guys have way more fun than girls. Seriously, how many girls wrestle with each other just for the hell of it? Besides “mud wrestlers” they don’t count, that’s just slutty.

A minute or two later and Mrs. Lilany somehow managed to find us and shooed us to our next class, brandishing a ruler as a weapon if necessary.

The remainder of my day was boring, it consisted of such classes as Anatomy, Etiquette, Guile and Agility and, of course, stable duty.

Before I knew it, I was through with library duty and my extra mathematics tutoring and I was making my way back to my room, brooding over my extra helping of mathematics homework. Of course, I hadn’t forgotten my last little encounter with Derek, so I wasn’t completely blindsided when I heard footsteps somewhere down the hall. Despite myself, panic and fear of the unknown settled in around me as I watched a silhouette slowly come closer and materialize into Derek himself.

“What? So you’re stalking me now?” I scoffed, standing my ground, even though my legs shook just barely.

Derek’s handsome face twisted into a sneer. “Five times shorter than me with ten times less muscle, you’d think you’d know when to show some respect.” He put most of his weight on one foot, appearing at ease.

I squared my shoulders in an attempt to seem even slightly taller. “I guess I don’t learn very fast,” I retorted, ready to dodge any punches he threw. Last night of library duty, then you won’t see him in any dark corridors ever again, this was the only thought that kept me from sprinting down the hallway as fast as my legs could carry me. I only had to endure one more fight, one more fight that I was definitely going to lose.

_______________________________________________

After my little encounter with Derek, I was grimacing every time I moved my left arm. I wasn’t sure when it happened, but I was sure that my shoulder was messed up and the blue-purple bruise beneath my right eye was surrounded by a yellow-gray one, so the bruise wouldn’t be healing as quickly as it should have been. Then, I was acutely aware of the cut above my right eyebrow, which didn’t hurt so much, but it was bleeding like nobody’s business. I kept my hand pressed tightly against it, biting my bottom lip when it stung. I could only hope Hayden wasn’t awake, doubtless, he wouldn’t keep the injuries from being a big deal.

I paused in front of the door, making a short prayer to a god I didn’t believe in…which might have had something to do with why it didn’t work. I pushed the door open a crack and noticed the faint glow of a lamplight beside Hayden’s bed…shit. I thought of pulling the door closed and walking around a little more, maybe stopping by the boys bathroom to try and clean myself up. But, I had a feeling Hayden knew what time I usually got back from library duty and would come looking for me otherwise.

Dealing with a bully wasn’t something I had intended on dealing with, but Hayden was making it hard enough to deal with it on my own that every time he considered leaving to “teach Derek a lesson” I was starting to wonder if I really should stop him. Besides, I had only gotten in a few good punches and I was definitely worse off than him, so maybe I should let Hayden inflict some real damage.

The bed creaked as Hayden got off it, my presence wasn’t a secret, obviously. I pulled off the sweatshirt I had on--I didn’t like it much anyway, it was old--and bunched it into a ball, then pressed it to the cut above my eyebrow, the blood would definitely freak Hayden out, and I didn’t want it pouring all over my hand. I winced as I hid my right hand--the one I had been covering the wound with--behind my back and held the sweatshirt to my head with the left, my shoulder protesting the entire time.

The door was pulled open and I avoided looking at Hayden, embarrassed that I had gotten my ass kicked three times in the past two days. I was a little surprised to hear someone other than Hayden gasp and say, “Jesus, Raymond! What happened?”

I looked up quickly and groaned when I saw Leon and Damion standing in the doorway, now they knew I was getting my ass kicked too. Great. As if I needed the attention. “Nothing. I’m alright, I just…what are you doing here?” I asked, changing the subject hopefully.

“Doesn’t matter--are you bleeding?” Damion grabbed my arm and pulled me into the room, flicking on the light switch, blinding me and causing me to drop my sweatshirt. Damn it all.

There was a mixture of gasps and growls of anger and I covered my wound with my right hand again, tugging out of Damion’s grip and making my way to the bathroom. I didn’t bother closing the door as I examined myself in the mirror. They were right to gasp, I looked like hell. Dried blood streaked my cheek and temple where my wound had bled, my wound itself kept bleeding, gushing through my fingers which were caked in blood as well. “Frickin’ hell…” I muttered, rummaging in the cupboard blindly, unable to take my eyes off of the mirror.

I hadn’t noticed Damion, Leon and Hayden had flooded into the room until one of them grabbed my hand and pulled it away from the cupboard while someone else moved my other hand away from my face and started dabbing at the cut with a wet washcloth, then some foul-smelling balm, soon followed by a thick patch of a band-aid. There was silence as they worked and made sure the bleeding of the wound would slow and eventually stop.

Starting to move toward the bathroom door, I averted my gaze, not willing to answer any questions at that particular moment. However, Damion moved in front of the door, blocking it with his lean, yet muscular body. I hesitated, wondering how much force it would take to move him, then decided against trying it, it would have been a stupid idea.

I bit my lower lip as they all stared at me expectantly, they were going to make me say it. But they all must have known who had caused the wound. “Yes. It was Derek, I admit it, now will you move, please? I’m tired as fuck,” I answered their unuttered question and shouldered my way out of the bathroom, feeling a little woozy on my feet, probably because of the blood loss.

“Let’s go,” Leon growled, to Damion and Hayden, taking a few steps toward the door, then looking back to see if they were following. “We can’t just ignore this.”

“Why not?” I asked sharply and they all looked at me in disbelief.

“He’s been like this for the past two days,” Hayden complained, “he won’t listen to me.”

“I can handle it. I just need to take a few more combat training lessons and I’ll be able to take him, I’m already faster than him and I have better reflexes,” I pointed out knowledgably but I felt laughter rising in my voice. I was starting to feel a little giddy.

“Have you gone mental?” Leon demanded loudly, causing me to wince at the hostility in his tone. “You look like shit, you could’ve bled to death!”

I rolled my eyes and lowered myself into a chair, feeling a giggle choke my throat before I could force out a normal reply. “Worst case scenario,” I assured him, “I was close enough to my room to get here before that happened and I’m fine.” I giggled a little at the thought of me lying sprawled out in the middle of the hallway, bleeding to death. Which, in retrospect, really wasn’t that funny of a picture.

“Are you laughing? What the hell is funny about this situation?” Leon demanded heatedly, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me slightly, but I only giggled more. The look of anger on Leon’s face was especially hilarious to me for some reason.

“Lee.” Hayden’s voice was hard.

Leon looked away from me to Hayden who looked like a police officer who had issued a warning. Then he looked to Damion who nodded his head. “Don’t listen to Raymond. He has no idea what he’s saying, he’s a little loopy from the blood-loss, we should make sure he gets some rest,” Damion explained knowledgably, moving to my side and lifting my arm over his shoulder while Leon stepped back and let Hayden help me up instead of doing it himself. I flashed a smile at him, meaning for it to be reassuring, however, I think it was more so mocking, since he scowled back at me.

I knew I was a little off at that moment, but, I disagreed anyway, “I’m fine, really, just you know, my estrogen’s kicking in, some PMS and all that jazz.” I snorted with laughter and giggled again, looking at Hayden who stiffened and looked at me like I had pulled out a joint and started smoking it.

“What?” Damion stopped just before dropping me on my bed and gave me a similar look, but it was more like I had offered him the joint.

“I said--” Hayden clapped a hand over my mouth to stop me from talking. What was his problem?

“Like you said, blood-loss, he’s a little--Ow! Jesus Ray!” Hayden pulled his hand away and examined it, “You bit me!” he exclaimed and I smiled lazily at him, damn right I bit him! That’s what he got for interrupting me.

“As I was saying, PMS. That’s what’s wrong with me, which I guess might have something to do with blood-loss, but, you know, in a different way.” I giggled at my implication, feeling a quiet buzzing in the back of my mind, but it kept getting louder and louder until it was more like a loud booming sound. I was a little disoriented still when my rational thoughts came rushing back to me.

Oh, Jesus. I’m a supposed to be aboy and I’m spouting off nonsense about estrogen! At these screaming thoughts in my head, I might have panicked and came up with a decent lie in no time…well that is, if I wasn’t drunk off of blood-loss.

“…P…M…S…?” Leon asked slowly, uncertainly, as if he was waiting for me to correct myself.

“Ray, you might want to think about what you’re saying,” Hayden growled in my ear as he and Damion just barely kept me from sitting on my bed.

I laughed at the expression on all of their faces and then tugged myself free of Hayden and Damion’s grips so that I fell comfortably on my bed. I sighed and looked at them again, reapplying my lazy smile, they all looked sort of fuzzy, but I laughed again, a thought striking me just before I asked, “Hey…hey, you guys wanna hear somethin’ funny? It really is funny, you--I--you’d like it, seriously. It’s funny.” I laughed again, contemplating what I was going to tell them and just why it was so funny.

They all started at me, Hayden shaking his head as if he was reading my thoughts, while the other two looked completely bewildered. “You know how you think my name’s ‘Raymond’? Well, it’s not, and you know why?” I paused for suspense and more time to giggle, “’Cause, ‘cause that’s a guy’s name!” I explained with another roar of laughter and then sat up so I could see them better. They weren’t laughing. What about my punch line were they not getting? I elaborated, “And, you guys think I’m a guy! But I’m not. Nope. I’m a girl and you guys all think I’m a guy.” I rolled back onto my back giggling at my revelation.

“…Hayden?” I heard Leon ask, noticing his lack of surprise at my outburst.

I didn’t sit up again, realizing quite suddenly how tired I was feeling, but I listened diligently, my eyes falling half shut. “Believe what you want to. He’s practically drunk right now, so, he probably won’t remember saying anything in the morning.”

“Yeah…yeah, you’re right. He’s pretty much wasted, he doesn’t even know what he’s saying.” The voice was Damion’s and he didn’t sound completely convinced.

I chuckled a little, what I laughed about though, I wasn’t sure.

There was a moment of silence in which it felt like everyone was staring at me, but I was starting to loll into a deep sleep, so I didn’t really care at that moment. “But what if he isn’t completely out of his mind? What if he--or, I guess she--is telling the truth and just doesn’t realize it?” Leon suggested, sounding like he had moved closer to me and then the bed sank next to me, but that was the last thing I remembered before passing blissfully into sleep, my mind still buzzing with giddiness.

______________________________________________

Hayden’s Point Of View

Dear god, could Raven get any stupider? Sure, the blood-loss was the underlying cause, but shit, she bit me! And I was just trying to help to keep her goddamn secret! Ungrateful. I’d have to tell her that in the morning. I looked at Lee seriously, wondering if I should interfere with his speculating.

Lee sat on the bed next to her and examined her face closely, squinting as if it would help to clear up his uncertainties. I could just tell them, then I could blame it on Raven when she woke up, since it was technically her fault and she did tell them, although under very strange circumstances. “Hey, Lee, back off a little will you? I’ll tell you what’s up.” Lee looked at me, then back to Raven and nodded, standing up again, while looking at Damion who looked like he had already believed Raven in her drunken state.

Man, she was a pain in the ass, makes me promise to keep her damn secret and ends up going fucking nuts and telling two other people on her own! At least it was only Lee and Dame, if anyone else needed to know I’d think it would be them.

“His name’s not Raymond,” I began with a nod to myself, wondering how else to go about the situation.

“Then he--ah, she’s telling the truth and he’s really a she when we thought he was a he? Ah, I mean she was a he…” Lee frowned, his brow creasing in concentration.

I almost laughed at his overly confusing sentence, but remained calm and nodded. “She’s not lying, she’s just a little loopy while she’s telling the truth. Her real name’s Raven Frost. Raymond was her brother,” I concluded, watching Dame’s mind move much faster than Lee’s, although Lee was getting there.

“Wait, wait, wait, so, Raymond’s really Raven and she’s been pretending to be a guy?” Lee said, just to make sure he had gotten the information right, then he didn’t wait for an answer before anger crawled onto his face. “Derek’s been beating the shit out of a girl?” he almost shouted and I glared at him, warning him to be quiet.

“Yeah. Will you be quiet? She’s been trying to keep it a secret, not tell the entire school,” I snapped and looked at Dame as he spoke instead of Lee.

“How long have you known?” Dame wanted to know.

I shrugged, stuffing my hands into my pockets, “A few days only.” Wow, only a few days and the secret was out? I sucked at keeping secrets.

“Why’s she been keeping it a secret? Guys and girls are allowed at the school, there’s no reason to lie about gender,” Dame reasoned, staring at Raven as he spoke.

I rolled my eyes, wondering silently why it bugged me that he was staring at her and spoke evenly, “It might be my fault, sort of, anyway.” They both looked at me in wonderment. “I sort of accepted the name she gave me and assumed that she was a guy…But she was wearing the same stuff she wears now, how could I tell she had boobs?” I asked defensively when they both looked at me like I was the idiot.

“Alright, so you assumed and she went with the lie, but why keep lying once she got to the school? Girls are allowed here,” Dame continued to wonder aloud, he never lost track of his conversations, I swear, the kid’s a genius.

I shrugged. “I tried to tell her that, but she thinks the Headmaster will kick her out for lying about who she was. Then he made the whole ‘no toleration on co-ed dorm rooms’ thing too clear, making her even more reluctant to say anything. So, I figured I just wouldn’t tell anyone, let her deal with it when she has to, it’s not my problem.” I leaned against the wall, hoping Dame and Lee would leave soon, it was already twelve ‘o clock, leaving me with eight hours of sleep. Great.

“You sure as hell got yourself into a predicament,” Lee told me, looking down at his feet as he thought.

“I got myself into this? I didn’t ask her to be my roommate! I didn’t ask her to pretend she was a guy! And I sure as hell didn’t tell her to deal with Derek on her own.” I snapped, aware vaguely that my fatigue was making me grouchy.

“Cool it Hayden,” Dame said calmly, taking one step toward the door. “We can finish talking about this tomorrow. When we have some time to think about what we heard and you have time to get some rest, you’re getting pissy,” he pointed out with a good-natured smile on his face. Jeez, always the nice guy, Dame always managed to make me feel like a goon for little outbursts like that. “Come on Lee.”

The two left my dorm room and closed the door behind them. I rubbed my face absently. I had gone to Shadowstep Academy for three years and I hadn’t had any trouble besides the usual: punishment, exams, crushes, occasional fights, and anything else experienced in normal school.

Yet, Raven shows up and I’ve got a bully problem and a secret to try and keep…and neither of the things are really even my problems! Everything revolved around Raven and how she handled things, and man, did she handle things strangely. Even Mrs. Lilany seemed to like her, although, it was hard to tell if you hadn’t known the old bat for as long as I did.

I stole a glance at Raven’s bed, but she was fast asleep, hopefully I’d be able to wake her up in the morning; with that much blood-loss I could only hope she wouldn’t slip into a coma. That would be difficult to explain to the Headmaster. I knew that Raven would have to tell the truth eventually, but based on her tactful lying, I also knew she could put it off for awhile before slipping up around someone important.

More importantly, I had to deal with Derek. No matter what Raven said, she wasn’t handling it on her own, or at least not well. So there was only one thing to do, Dame, Lee and I would have to give him some incentive to stop his “bullying”. A minor concussion might do the trick, or maybe a threat or two to a certain sensitive area. I don’t know, I’d think about it more when I got to it.

I sighed and walked over to the light switch, flicked it off then stumbled to my bed. I would worry about all of the details in the morning, and I had a feeling Raven wasn’t going to be a pleasant person in the morning. Especially not when she realized that both Dame and Lee knew her precious secret. I was way better at keeping my own secrets than someone else’s.

Speaking of secrets, if Raven asked me about my necklace one more time, I was going to snap on her. She really needed to figure out when to back off. That was one thing she didn’t know about being a guy, we don’t dance around when it comes to feelings, we come out and say it, and when we resort to anger we really don’t want to talk about it. I wasn’t at the anger stage yet, but I was getting there.