Sam was talking incessantly in my ear as I loaded my books into my bag, pulling them from my metal locker. I wasn't really paying attention as Tommy walked over and joined the conversation, asking me about my weekend. I gave some vague reply as I shut the door and leant back against the clattering metal, my eyes landing across the corridor. I smiled to myself as I noticed Theo, fiddling with the combination to his locker. His hickey had darkened and grown swollen, making me grin in satisfaction.

"...Luca?" Tommy nudged me back to reality and I rose my brows expectantly. "You alright, mate?" He chuckled.

"Yeah, fine." I cleared my throat, my eyes not leaving the platinum blond as Sam started ranting on about the cute new PE teacher. I stiffened slightly when I noticed a couple of boys approach Theo.

They were snickering amongst themselves as they shoved into him, sending him stumbling back into the wall of lockers. I almost lunged forward to attack them, my fingers curling into tight fists at my sides.

I let out a heavy sigh of relief when it looked like they were about to leave. But I was wrong. The taller of the pair pinned him up against the wall, and murmured, "Eddie says hi." before he slammed his fist into Theo's pretty face. That's when I completely lost control of my physicality. I dropped my backpack and pounced toward them. By the time I reached the fight, Theo had already received at least three or four strong punches to the jaw and a thick crowd of murmurs had assembled around them. I ripped the boy away as Theo sunk to the ground, clearly lacking the energy to even hold himself up.

People gasped in shock as I threw the guy to the ground and sent him a few sharp kicks to the ribs. He groaned in pain as the other one stumbled away from the scene. Without waiting to observe anyone's reaction, I leant down and scooped the fragile boy up, my arm hooked around his small waist tenderly, trying not to be too rough as I shoved through the crowds, steering him towards the nurse's office.

When we arrived, I lowered him gently onto the plastic bed. His left eye was swollen and bruised, his lip busted, a small trickle of blood running down his chin. "Shit." I muttered, crouching down in front of him as I reached forward to wipe the blood away. He was staring at me blankly; wide eyed and frightened. "You okay?" I whispered, slipping my fingers between his and giving his hand a comforting, gentle squeeze.

He nodded fractionally, his expression still completely unreadable, "W-Why did you do that?" He finally managed to choke out, his voice heavy and raspy.

I opened my mouth to reply but the nurse entered the room and cut me off. She asked us a whole bunch of questions, and after she called Theo's parents to come and pick him up, I was forced to leave with the command of going straight to the headteacher's office. Once I finally managed to pull myself away from the injured boy, I did as I was told, trudging down the corridor until I reached Ms Riedo's room.

It was clean and tidy, her desk organised to perfection with the way her pens were neatly lined up in colour order. She was watching me sternly through a pair of thick frameless glasses, her thin lips pulled together into a straight line, "Would you like to explain to me what happened, Mr Bakker?" She rose her brows.

I didn't bother correcting her pronunciation of my name, I merely sighed heavily and slouched back in the squeaky chair, "They were beating him up. I pulled the guy off and took Theo to the nurse." I relayed honestly.

"Why didn't you just get a teacher?"

"Because that would've taken too long." I protested.

"Why did you feel the need to intervene? Protecting someone is one thing, but fighting is another."

"I wasn't fighting." I pouted. "I only kicked him like...twice." I lied. "They're bullies, Ms. The school never does a thing about it; if I don't step in, who will?"

She sighed reluctantly, folding her arms on the desk in front of her, "Here's what we're going to do. Detention for both you and Mr Hart tomorrow after school-"

"What?" I demanded in exasperation. "Theo didn't do anything! He was just minding his own business when they practically assaulted-"

"I've made my decision." She cut me off firmly. "The other boys' accounts were that Mr Hart had been provoking-"

"That's fucking bullshit-"

"Would you like me to extend your detention?" She asked curiously and I hastily shut my mouth. "My understanding is that both parties were at fault. You'll both have detention tomorrow after school."

"What about football practice?" I appealed.

"I'll talk to the coach."

"And what about the others?"

"That's none of your concern."

"Oh, come on. Please, Ms Riedo?" I pleaded.

"They're suspended." She gave in, "Now, get out of my office and get to class."

I sighed dramatically as I dragged myself out of her office without another word. I sent Theo a quick text on my way to class, asking if he was okay. I didn't have my bag, so I was just hoping someone had picked it up for me. Luckily, when I entered my biology classroom, I saw it sitting between Phoenix and Sam. They ushered me over the second I opened the door, practically yanking me down into my seat.

"Okay, why the fuck did you do that?" Sam demanded, punching my lightly on the shoulder as I winced in pain.

"He needed help." I grumbled, grabbing my books from my backpack and tossing them onto the table, halfheartedly trying to listen to the teacher talking about genetics.

"You could've gotten in serious trouble." Phoenix interjected, "They could've kicked you off the team."

"Well, they didn't." I shrugged. "It's only detention. And you wanna hear something really fucked up? Theo's got detention too. He didn't even do anything." I whispered under the droning voice of the biology teacher.

"Who's Theo?" Sam queried.

"Teddy Hart." I corrected. "The kid who got beat up."

"Why do you care?" Phoenix rose a brow.

"Because it's not fair." I spat. "He was just minding his own business."

"You've been acting really weird recently, are you alright, Luca?" Sam asked, her sculpted brows drawn together into a frown as she felt my forehead with the back of her hand. I swatted her away and tried to focus on biology, ignoring the curious glances being exchanged between my two friends.