Vasco's eye twitched as he glared down at Daniel. 'He's got some strength. This guy.. He is powerful!'

Daniel smiles nervously up at him, wondering if the tattooed student has cooled down yet.

Daniel continued to smile awkwardly as the audience went through their intense internal monologues, all thinking one thing in common.

This guy is crazy strong!!

Vasco's large eared friend grit his teeth. 'This could get out of hand. Beating him wouldn't be worth it, but it would be a disaster if Vasco lost to him! It would be a disgrace to the Burn Knuckles!'

He anxiously looked out at the crowd of spectators, 'This is a lose lose, and so many eyes on us!'

He watched as Vasco lifted his fist, ready to 'punish', as he would call it, Daniel.

'I can't let him fight!'

The teen jumped in between Daniel and Vasco, forcing a laugh and a smile.

"Haha! Yeah! So you thought he was someone else?"

"Yeah... Sorry." Daniel apologizes sheepishly.

"Nah, it happens." Jace said with a smile.

Vasco watched from the sidelines as Jace made small talk with Daniel to simmer down the situation. 'Jace... You don't need to worry.'

"Forget it and eat." Jace said, bringing the conversation between himself and Daniel to a close.

Daniel nearly broke into tears. "Okay!!" He chirped. 'Wow, what a nice guy! Thank you!'

Jace looked down at where Daniel say, his expression darkening as he watched Daniel happily chow down and allowing his mind to wander off to lala land.

Jiho shuddered, anxious because of all the tension surrounding the table Daniel pressures him into sitting at. 'I need to get out of here..'

"Hey little guy.." a voice called out, breaking Jiho from the mental planning of his great escape.

"Don't surrender to guys like that. Believe in yourself." Vasco said confidently.

Jace flinched, lightly kicking Vasco's shin to scold him. "Hey, shut up and let's go eat."

Vasco gave Daniel one last pointed look before turning around and making his way to the lunch line. "Okay. What's the menu?"

After Vasco and his intimidating followers had walked away Jiho grumbled under his breath. 'He's got it all wrong... and he called me little guy! How rude!'

Daniel watched their figures disappear into the crowd as he munched, with a star struck expression on his face. 'So cool... But who was the surrender talk aimed at?'

Elsewhere in the cafeteria, Eli Jang ignores the gossiping girls crowded around him.

"Daniel Park..." he mumbled quietly to himself. 'I don't really care but... he's handsome and kind, and he's kinda funny.'

His eyes left Daniel when he saw (Y/N) walking back to her seat, and a mischievous looks flickered across his face.

"Maybe he'll let me cut his hair." He said loudly enough to disturb the girls next to him and catch (Y/N)'s attention.

The girl stopped in her tracks and gave Eli a stern look, making him snicker, before continuing on her way to her spot.

In the boys bathroom the three musketeers were scheming again...

"So you mean we gotta get close with Daniel?" Asked the chubby one from where he was crouched on the ground.

"Yep, you saw him stand up to Vasco. And Vasco lifted you with one hand." Crimson chin recalled grimly, a cigarette held between his teeth.

"Shut up." The skinniest of the three snapped, not wanting to think about his humiliating smack down. "Anyway, you think it's better if we get along? Okay, then let's have him make up with Zack."

"Let's step up and make a move."

"...But how?"

Later on in the classroom, Daniel had a nearly confused look on his face.

"What? A get together?" He repeated.

"Yep, it is the start of a new semester."

"We're having a get together today."

"You should join."

The three goons invited Daniel with forced smiles.

4 words sounded particularly pleasing to Daniel.

"Friends should get acquainted."

'A get together! A valuable time for only friends!' Daniel thought excitedly.

'Finally, Friends! Oh, how I've dreamed of this! Life with friends!' He images himself doing different fun activities with the three boys.

'I've always been so lonely until now!' He thought back to when he used to have to do everything on his own.

He brought himself back to earth and looked at the three nervously smiling goons. 'You guys are good guys after all!'

Daniel tapped his chest to calm his quickly beating heart.

'Maybe we can take some sticker photos too.'

"Okay, I can hang for a couple of hours." Daniel said, unable to stop thinking about the pictures he was going to be able to stick to his phone.

The three boys cheered and walked away, off to plan some more, and Daniel was still trying to calm his heart.

'Thank god I have a day off. I'm sure it won't be a big deal to let my other body sleep longer.' Daniel thought, planning ahead for tonight.

Zoe shifted impatiently in her seat. Witch what she had just overheard, she surely had a busy night ahead of her as well. She just couldn't wait for the day to end.

(Y/N), on the other hand, groaned and let her head fall to the desk, causing jay, who was in the row across from her to jump.

After the bell rang, and students began to pack their things to leave, (Y/N) had managed to make it to Daniel's desk before Zoe did.

While Zoe did growl and prepare herself to stomp over and take Daniel's attention back, she decided not to interfere when she saw how excited Daniel seemed to be to talk to the other girl. So she pouted and dejectedly began her journey home.

When Daniel looked up from his bag on the floor to see (Y/N) standing over him, he was pleasantly surprised.

"Oh! Hello!"

(Y/N) gave him a small smile.

"Hi, you live near the convenience store in the mountain neighborhood, right?" She asked, getting straight to the point.

Daniel was a bit startled, to say the least. 'How did she know that? I don't think I've told anyone...'

"Y-Yeah. How did you-"

"Cool, I was going to stop by the convenience store on my way home, and I figured that since you lived nearby I could give you a ride."

Daniel perked up, his worries completely going down the drain when he heard the words "I could give you a ride."

'Friends give each other rides! Today has been so great!' He thought happily.

"Yeah, sure! Thanks. Let me just grab my stuff."

"No problem."

After Daniel put both of his backpack straps over his shoulders, (Y/N) nodded in the direction of the door, and began walking towards it.

'I- I think I'm supposed to follow her...' Daniel thought, scampering after her.

Once they had made it out of the school, (Y/N) walked in the opposite direction of the student parking lot, confusing Daniel.

'I thought she was giving me a ride...'

She instead made her way to a bike rack, and took a black bike covered in faded bumper stickers off of the rack.

"Sweet ride, right?" She asked with a smirk, trying to keep herself from laughing at Daniel's baffled expression.

"Uhh, yeah..." Daniel said, sweat-dropping. 'How the hell am I supposed to-'

"You can either stand on the pegs or ride in the basket, your choice." She said as she threw her leg over the bike.

'Oh god...' Daniel walked over to the back of the bike and gulped. 'Won't I be too heavy for her to be able to pedal?'

The poor boy was too polite and awkward to back out.

(Y/N) sighed impatiently. "Come on Daniel, we've got places to be." She teased.

"Okay, Sorry." Daniel said, stumbling to put his feet on the rusting pegs and gripping the smaller girl's shoulders.

"Ready for takeoff?" (Y/N) asked.

"...Yup."

He watched the top of her head bob in a nod.

"Okay, off we go!" She said.

And off they went.

And oh boy, did Daniel regret it. Not only did the girl go far faster than he could have ever predicted, but she was also a very irresponsible driver.

She weaved in between pedestrians, drove head on into traffic, and rode through sketchy alleyways, ignoring the curses that people shouted at her as she passed.

And to top it all off, neither of them had a helmet.

By the time they made it to the store, Daniel's legs were shaking. He had seen his life flash before his eyes four times and began to plan his own funeral.

'If I was a cat, then I just wasted about six of my nine lives..' He watched the deceivingly cute girl lock up bike. 'Note to self, never accept another offer for a ride from (Y/N)'.

After she finished securing herself after the rough mode of transportation, she wiped her hands on her skirt as she looked over her work before walking over to Daniel.

"Do you want to go in? I'll get you a snack." She offered.

Daniel was about to refuse but-

"Daniel, walk with me." She requested again, but this time her voice suddenly held such authority that Daniel was almost too intimidated and shocked to say no.

He silently followed her into the store, not bothering to look back to see if Daniel was coming, as if she knew he would follow.

He watched quietly as she waved at the cashier who was working now, and grabbed a shopping basket.

"Sorry to be so pushy, but I thought we should have some real talk." She apologized as she turned around to look at him.

"Real talk, yeah. Sounds cool." He said.

She gave him another small smile and walked into one of the aisles. "Let's walk and talk." She said.

"Okay, sure!" Daniel said. 'It's not like I really have a choice...'

Daniel found himself watching the girl go about her business quietly again. She moved to pick up a can of soup.

"You know," She said suddenly, still reading the label on the can as she spoke. "I thought you were kinda dense when I first saw you."

Daniel stopped in his tracks. 'What the hell?!'

"Excuse me?" Daniel Asked, not sure if he heard that correctly.

"You heard me. And now, I'm convinced that you're a dunce." She said, carelessly tossing the can into her basket and making her way to the next aisle.

"Why would you say that? What did I do?" He asked, following behind her, hot on her heels.

Instead of making eye contact with him, her eyes scanned over the different bags of chips. It was if they were talking about the weather, not her suddenly insulting his intelligence.

"Well, with what happened at lunch along with just an hour ago, I don't really feel the need to explain myself." She said, reaching out for a bag of Funyuns.

"Well, I do." Daniel said, no longer bothering to be polite.

Now, the girl stopped what she was doing, the bag of chips still in hand, and this caused Daniel to take a few steps back.

'Damn... her eyes are really intense.' He thought, unable to look into the deep pools of (e/c) for too long.

"Why would you agree to hang out with those guys?" She asked. Well, more like demanded.

"Because I'm new, and I need friends." He said, feeling the need to explain himself to her.

"But didn't you get into a fight just the other day over what one of them said about some kid's mother?"

"..."

Daniel didn't know what to say. 'She's right..'

He doesn't know why in the world he would hang out with people who said such rude things about his own mother.

He blushes in embarrassment, ashamed of letting himself seem rude to a girl who was only looking out for him, even if the way she went about it was too kind.

(Y/N) sighed as she looked at Daniel's conflicted expression.

"Just make sure you make the right decision." She said.

Daniel nodded.

"Anyways, what do you want for a snack?"

A few minutes later, the left the store with a can of chicken soup, a pack of ramen, a pack of strawberry flavored nicotine gum and a popsicle for Daniel.

They were outside of the store again, and Daniel was unable to look up from his shoes.

"Uh, thanks a lot." He said.

"Oh, no problem. The popsicle was only like 52 cents." She shrugged.

"No, I meant for... helping me come to my senses."

The girl shrugged again.

"Again, no problemo. It's what friends are for, right?" She asked.

Daniel looked up with a smile. 'She thinks of me as a friend..'

"Yeah..."

The two stood in an awkward silence again.

Well, awkward for Daniel, at least. (Y/N) is just quiet, Daniel makes it awkward.

"Um, do you want me to take you all the way back to your house?" She asked.

"NO." Daniel quickly refused. "I-I can walk." He said.

(Y/N) huffed through her nose.

"Yeah, I thought so. I'll see you tomorrow." She said.

"Seeya."

And with that, (Y/N) rode off, and Daniel was left to his own devices.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's me again!

Hi!! Sorry for the wacky updates.

Uhh.

What did you guys think of this chapter? Did you like it?? Was it too much??

Also, I see some of you guys like BNHA 👀👀

Mayhaps I have an idea brewing...

And off topic, but would you guys like me to start putting YouTube videos in the thing?? Like songs and stuff.

Thanks for reading!!