Casey and Matthew (Matt) ^

"Mr. Rogers, Mr. Austin and Mr. Sanchez, my office now" a familiar voice called making us all look over to see my uncle, the principal approaching and Mitch dropped Alex on the ground like a bag is potatoes making him groan in pain as he landed on his hand and I winced as it twisted at an odd angle.

"We weren't doing anything," Mitch said in a way of getting out of getting in trouble but my uncle wasn't having it

"OFFICE. NOW!" He said pointing down the hall to the principal's office and the trio threw glares at Alex who coward under their gaze

"I'm not repeating myself boys" Uncle Jaime snapped making the three jump and walk in front of him, "Get him to the nurse's office Riley. He needs to get his wrist checked."

I nodded and helped Alex to his feet and he looked up at me with tears breaming his eyes and I just gave him a small smile before leading him to the nurse's office all the while ignoring the lingering stares of his brothers and friends as they watched me take him away.

"Does it hurt?" I asked and he sniffled nodding

"I'm sorry I wasn't there in time to defend you" I murmured but he shook his head with a sniffle

"Not your fault. You just had a gym so you had to change and all that" he mumbled and I sighed. If only I had been quicker Alex wouldn't have even been in Mitch's clutches and why didn't his brother help?

"Why didn't your brothers help you?" I voice my question

"They had just gotten there also since they had Claw on the other side of the building" he answered as we reached the familiar room and after knocking on the door and receiving a come in from Nurse Jackie we entered the room. A gasp reached us before we had the chance to say anything to her in greeting

"What happened?" She demanded as she rushed to grab some ice and put it in a zip lock bag before gently placing it on Alex swollen wrist

"He fell on it" I replied as Alex just sat there with the ice pack on his wrist

"And ho-you know never mind I have a feeling as to how that happened" she began to say but change her mind as she sat across from us

"You need to tell Principal Cordelli about the bullying Alex. You're going to get yourself killed if you don't say anything." She said and upon hearing the lady name his head snapped up really fast that I feared he got whiplash. His eyes narrowed on me and I raised a brow at his unspoken question

"Is he your dad?" he stated and I shook my head, "What is he to you then?"

"My uncle. And before you ask anything else, would be telling you he was my uncle change anything regarding you and not wanting to tell him about your bullying?" I asked and he looked down because he knew that despite him knowing that I was related to the principal he wouldn't have gone to him and told him about Mitch and his buddies bullying him.

"It still would have made things a bit easier though," he murmured and I nodded because he was right. I should have told him about my relation to the principal even though he likes to go by Mr. C since his husband, my uncle Jake is known as Mr. Cordelli.

"I should have you're right, but now you know and I hope you don't hate me for keeping it from you," I said and he sighed shaking his head

"We've been talking for two days Riley so I shouldn't have even said what I said before." He responded

"Even so, I don't want to keep things from you. If we're going to be friends I should tell you stuff like that." I said and he looked up and I could see nurse Jackie get up from her seat to give us alone time

"You want to be friends with a faggot?" He asked making me glare at him and his eyes grew fearful

"Never say that word when talking about yourself Alex because you're not a faggot. Do you-" I began to say when I was cut off by the sound of knocking on the door and nurse Jackie went to answer it and Uncle Jamie stood on the other side

"Principal Cordelli, what do I owe your visit?" She asked moving aside to let him in and Alex looked up

"I came to see how one of my students was doing" he replied and she nodded pointing over to us and he walked over, "How are you feeling Mr. Gallagher?"

"Good, a bit sore but that'll pass" Alex answered making Uncle Jaime nod

"I'm glad to hear that. I just came to say that Mr. Rogers, Mr. Austin, and Mr. Sanchez won't be harming you anymore." Alex frowned and looked over at me but I don't know what Uncle Jaime was talking about

"What do you mean?" I asked

"What I mean to say is that they've been expelled from school. They won't be harming you or any other student, "Uncle Jaime said as he crouched in front of us and Alex blinked and I could see his eyes glisten with tears, "Not only that but they've been arrested as well."

"Are you serious?" I asked and he nodded

"Dead serious. I had called the police before getting them" he retorted and that's when the damn broke and Alex began crying. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I watched him break down. I didn't know what to do so I did what I thought was best and pulled him into a hug and he grabbed onto me and sobbed.

"You're safe now Alex. They'll never hurt you again." I murmured in his ear as I looked up at uncle Jaime who smiled thank you I mouthed and he nodded before excusing himself. Nurse Jackie was silently crying in a corner as she was in the room during our short talk. I knew she was relieved that Alex was safe and wouldn't be hurt anymore. Fuck I was relieved that those bastards got what they deserved.

"You're alright now Alex," I whispered and he hiccuped but nodded his head

~~~~~~~

Practice had gone as scheduled with Coach telling the team that Mitch and Marcus had been expelled and removed from the team.

"Assholes got what they deserved. It was about fucking time those idiots got their asses handled." Cory, one of the guys, said and they all nodded their agreements

"Wish it had happened sooner but something is better than nothing at all," Jason added

"Let's not talk about them anymore and let's get practicing." Coach said and blew the whistle that had us all running to the field to our warm-ups before getting into practice mode.

By the time practice was over, I was ready to crash. All I wanted was to go home and sleep. Practice was brutal but it was a good way to get us ready for the upcoming game this coming weekend. I was honestly pumped for the game. I've been waiting for this day for months and it was happening in under five days and it honestly both exciting and terrifying. Exciting because it'll be the first game that Alex will attend since he promised he'd go and it made me happy to see him breaking out of his shyness and becoming a more outspoken and carefree kid his friends have told me he was before the bullying began. And terrifying because Alex was going and I didn't want to fuck it up. I didn't want him to think that our team was terrible if we lose. That would definitely suck. And also because we were two players down and we didn't have time to recruit two more guys that knew the game plan and all that crap.

Sighing I shook my head and made my way to the locker rooms to shower before heading home. Tomorrow is good to be a long ass day as practice was in early hours of the morning meaning I won't have time to go for a run like I usually do but whatever it means that I get to go home after school instead of stay until after hours. Sometimes being in football sucked but it also had its perks. I heard that there will be recruiters from major colleges attending the game so that meant we all had to do our best to show them why we deserve to be in their team.

The weekend couldn't come any faster.