Jay's POV
The morning air at school was crisp, but my pocket felt heavy. I pulled out my phone and finally looked at the notification.
Keifer: "I know you're hiding behind the ice mask. But I saw the girl from Section E last night, Jay. We aren't done. We need to talk."
A cold shiver raced down my spine—a risk of heart I hadn't prepared for. My pulse hammered against my ribs, a frantic rhythm of fear and defiance.
"Yo, Jay-jay! You look like you've seen a phantom!" Felix shouted, sliding down the hallway railing. The rest of Section E swarmed around me, their usual chaotic energy acting as a physical shield.
"Is it a boy?" Cin teased, poking my shoulder. "Did you find yourself a new boyfriend ?"
"In your dreams," I shot back, forcing a smirk. "It's just spam. Let's go before the bell rings."
Class was a blur of muffled laughter and Section E's trademark teasing. They threw paper planes when the teacher turned around and whispered jokes that made me forget the ache in my heart.
At lunch, the atmosphere shifted. I saw a familiar tall figure leaning against the lockers—Percy. He had come to surprise me, his eyes sparking with the secret only he and I shared: the truth of JJM.
"Ready for the main hall?" he whispered. "Aries said he'd meet us there."
But as we approached the main hall, the sound of laughter was replaced by the sickening thud of a fist hitting bone and a girl's piercing scream. Ella was huddled against a pillar, sobbing.
In the center of the hall, Mykle and his gang had Aries pinned. Aries was fighting back like a cornered wolf, but they were six against one. Mykle landed a heavy blow to Aries' ribs, and I felt something inside me snap.
"GET OFF HIM!" I roared.
Percy and I didn't hesitate. We moved like a synchronized storm. I dove into the fray, my heels—even in sneakers—finding their mark. I landed a sharp kick to a goon's knee while Percy leveled another with a clean hook. We fought with the desperation of people who had nothing to lose, eventually forcing the gang back until they scattered like rats.
Aries was a mess—blood trickling from his lip, his knuckles raw. Ella and Freya scrambled him to the clinic, where the nurse hurriedly began bandaging his arm and cleaning my bruised cheek.
I had a bruise at my jaw and Percy has a scratch at his leg.
He didn't walk into the school; he invaded it.
The news of the brawl had reached hiim via a frantic call from the principal. By the time he reached the clinic hallway, the board members and the Dean were already trembling, lining the walls like shadows afraid of the light.
He was a wounded tiger, I could feel hos blood boiling with a rage that transcended business. Concern for me and Aries was purely visibled in his eyes.
He slammed the clinic doors open. His eyes immediately locked on Aries, his arm in a sling, and me, sitting holding an ice pack to a blossoming bruise on her jaw and Percy getting dressed by nurse.
"Where is he?" He hissed, my voice a low, lethal vibration that made the nurse drop her tray.
"Angelo, he escaped," Percy muttered, his voice strained. "Mykle ran off through the back gates."
He turned slowly to face the Board of Directors, who looked ready to faint. He stepped into the personal space of the Dean, my shadow looming over him until he backed into the wall.
"You pride yourselves on 'discipline' and 'safety,'" he said, my voice dangerously calm, the calm before a massacre. "Yet my brother is bleeding in your clinic, and my sister—the light of my family—is bruised because your 'elite' students are nothing more than thugs."
He slammed his hand against the wall beside the Dean's head, the sound echoing like a gunshot.
"Listen to me, and listen well," he growled, looking at every terrified face in that hallway. "If so much as a shadow falls across them again—if anyone in this godforsaken institution touches a hair on their heads—I won't just sue you. I will strip this school brick by brick. I will burn this place to the ground and dance in the smoke of your 'legacy.' Do I make myself clear?"
The Dean could only nod, his face ashen.
He turned back to me, percy and Aries, his rage softening into a fierce, protective ache.
He reached out, pulling them all into his arms. "Let's go home," he whispered. I could seeing everyone having a terrified look in their eyes.