Chapter 70

FRANKIE'S POV
It was two hours after closing, no car, no mum and the only thing that I had as I stood outside in the school yard, was patience that was rapidly thinning as the sun shone brighter than was necessary. Maybe it felt the same way I did but it didn't matter to me, I just needed to get out of it.
For the first time since I started attending the same classes with Stacey, I had tagged along with her through the entire day. It wasn't necessary, I know, but to me, it was the most essential thing to do. I needed to be rest assured that she was okay and what better way to do it than to follow her around?
'Is that how all the people in relationships act?" Damian had whispered loud enough for us to hear as we both walked into the cafeteria at lunch. Stacey had kept her head down and her mouth closed all morning and I had other things on my mind, so I tried the first logical approach I could think of, ignore them.
Stacey on the other hand had ended up surprising the bullies and even me when she turned around and answered him,
'Aren't your parents together, Damian?" The look she gave him was enough to make anyone pee themselves and when he replied, stuttering, I wasn't surprised.
'The..y are..ee toge..the..err" Summoning courage from the sharp nudge Luke had given him, he continued, 'Of course, they are...are together" I couldn't help the smile that lit up my face. Damian had been scared of Stacey, not just any fear, it was those type of fear that crippled you and made you rethink your life choices.
Stacey had given him a chilling smile, 'Then, why don't you know how people in relationships act?" She said in the sweetest voice I had ever heard her use before.
I had no idea a little crowd that gathered around us until someone yelled, 'Burn!!" Then slowly, claps started sounding around and not long after, the crowd erupted into cheerful screams. If I had just run into Stacey right there in the front of the cafeteria, I wouldn't have believed she had spent over 12 hours without uttering more than a few sentences.
The whole scenario kept on replaying in my head as I told Danny and Maddie about it. They had both been in shock as they exchanged glances at themselves and Stacey who sat quietly on the pavement waiting for mum or whoever they had assigned to pick us up.
'Stacey!" 'Stacey!!" 'Staceyyy!!!!"
'That's how you put someone in their place!"
'Go Stace!!" 'That's amazing"
Did it feel good to put the bully in his place after he had tried to assert unlawful dominance against you? You should have seen the look on Damian's face when everyone in the cafeteria started cheering loudly for Stacey, it must have hurt as well to be on the receiving end of the banter. Serves them right.
When I got to the part where the celebration had been cut short, I also cut my story short. Maddie wasn't a fan of incomplete gossip and a smack at the back of my head reflected her emotions.
'Why did you stop halfway, Frank?!" She yelled at me as her hand connected with the back of my skull. It wasn't enough to give me a concussion but it was enough to make my head throb. Were little sisters allowed to hit their elder brothers? Even if they weren't, Madison Swift was an exception.
Danny was in agreement with her, 'Tell us what happened next. Did Damian run off crying?" He questioned fully invested in the story. Even though, Stacey was sitting afar from us a little bit, I knew there were chances she could overhear us and I wasn't going to risk another blow to her mental health.
You would wonder why I had started the story in the first place if I knew it had a chance of affecting the girl I like, quite a lot, mental health but if you have siblings like mine, you'd get it right away. And being in different classes didn't mean we didn't get to see each other at all, they had seen the whole action unfold and who gets to give them the full gist? Yours truly.
Even if Maddie was a total pain in the ass most times, she was also quite sensitive and the moment I looked at Stacey and them back at them, she knew the altercation hadn't ended well and with a shove at Danny, the conversation was closed. Thankfully, sisters aren't as bad as we all think.
'Hey, Danny, have you met Clarence? He's in my class and I call him Clare for short" Ken Jr walked up to us tagging a little boy along. The kid looked like he wanted to be anywhere but where we were but he willingly allowed Ken pull him forward. Wasn't Clare a girl's name?
Maddie shot me a look that screamed, 'Shut up!" and u realized I had said it out loud. The kid, Clare, looked like he was about to burst into tears as Danny gave a little laugh. It wasn't my fault Clare sounded like a girl's name, why were they looking at me like I had bullied the kid?
'Its nice to meet you, Clarence" Maddie emphasized on the name as she shot me a look of death, thankfully, looks do not kill. She shook hands with the timid kid, who honestly, looked like he was 5, but if he was classmates with Ken, it meant he was around 6 or 7.
Danny wiped the look on his face after Maddie glared at him and approached the kid, 'How do you do, Clarence? I heard the would like to join the D&D club, is that true?" He asked with a polite smile on his face. Trust Danny to keep recruiting more nerds into his nerd club, the kid nodded rapidly and I smiled. Dungeons and Dragons, club of nerds.
'Okay.." Danny brought a card out of his bag that had D&D boldly written on it, 'Welcome to the club, Clarence..." The kid took the initiative and whispered,
'Harley" All of us with Ken as an exception, exchanged looks, Harley, as in Jay Harley?