Brody was running late as he slept through his alarm. By the time he finally left Adrian's side last night, he got in pretty late last night as the streets were already empty with most of the buildings closed down for the night.

Quickly buttering a slice of toast, Brody carried it with his mouth as he put on his jacket, leaving through the door.

Feeling the breeze on his face as he quickly paced himself towards the hospital, Brody was trying to balance the food in his mouth as well as putting on his school bag over his shoulders, almost letting his food getting snagged by a wild bird.

Brody quickly wiped of any crumbs he had on his jacket before walking into Adrian's ward. Sally was talking to the nurse while Adrian was sitting on the bed with his legs dangled on the side. Everyone in the room turned their attention to see Brody give the room a courtesy nod.

"Brody," Adrian happily greeted him, as a smile instantly appeared on his face, "I said you didn't need to see me get discharged today, you've got your study group later."

"I couldn't go study without seeing you go home now could I?" Brody replied, sweetly kissing his cheeks as Sally and the nurse admired the pair.

As Brody sat down next to Adrian, the nurse explained that Adrian's temperature went down and was now free to leave. She repeated that he needed to change his bandages every day, clean the area and apply the antibiotic cream on it. They weren't allowed to get wet or dirty, and they had to make sure his wound didn't leak through. The nurse also explained that Adrian wasn't allowed to do anything physically intense and that they had to make sure he got a lot of rest.

"Don't worry nurse, we'll make sure he does all of that. Won't we Brody?" Sally asked as she looked at Brody.

Brody nodded in agreement as they went to stand up. After thanking the nurse for all of their help, Adrian leaned his weight into Brody, who was helping support him as they all walked out together.

~~~~~~~~~~

During the car ride, Brody saw that Adrian was already sleepy as he was leaning his head against his shoulder. When they arrived back to his house, Brody helped him get out of the car as he helped carry their things inside.

Brody was carrying all of Adrian's belongings that were in one bag, his own school bag over his other shoulder, and Adrian by his side as they made their way up the stairs of Adrian's home.

When they slowly made it inside his bedroom, Brody was putting their belongings by the door when he heard Adrian heavily sigh.

"Are you okay Adrian? Does it still hurt, do we need to take you back?"

Adrian shook his head as he lightly laughed. "I'm fine Brody, don't stress so much." Adrian then made himself more comfortable on the bed as he tried to relax more. "I woke up super early today and I didn't think walking so much and going up the stairs would take so much energy out of me."

"Maybe you should take a nap, do you want me to get you your meds for the pain?"

Adrian shook his head. "It's manageable."

"Manageable isn't good enough, I'm going to get you your pain meds." Brody said as he rifled through Adrian's bag.

"Hey hey hey, come here." Adrian wanted Brody to sit with him on the bed. When he did, Adrian looked at him softly, "Really Brody, I'm fine. You don't need to baby me or anything. I'm just going to take a nap and I'll feel much better."

Brody nodded to himself as he repeated Adrian's words, trying to not over do it with the worrying. "You're right, I'm sorry, for being overbearing. You just got out of hospital and you don't need me getting you stressed or anything."

Adrian laughed. "Geez Brody I'm not pregnant or anything." Met with Brody's laughter too, he held out his hand so Brody would reach for it.

Clasping their hands together, "I just find it very sweet that you care so much."

Adrian gave Brody a very gentle and sincere kiss on his lips before Brody pulled away. "You get some rest, I'm going to school and hopefully sneak in before my group moans at me. Call me if you need anything, yeah?"

"My mom's home today, plus it's not like I'm going bungee jumping or anything." Seeing Brody smile back at him made Adrian happier on the inside.

Assuring Brody, Adrian kissed him as he agreed. "Will do, now go, before my boyfriend loses the golden boy title."

Brody nudged him playfully, "You don't need to worry about that. I'll let you know that I'm a very dedicated student, at least in the top 5% in our school."

Mildly faking pain, Adrian pretended to look at him in shock. "Hey genius, I was a human pincushion not long ago, be gentle when you touch me yeah?"

Brody gritted his teeth together and sealed the seam of his lips at hearing Adrian describe himself like that, not liking it all but understanding Adrian was just making a joke out of the situation, lightening up the dreadful event.

"I'll call you later, and remember, no bungee jumping."

Brody kissed Adrian goodbye, leaving the room as Adrian settled underneath the blanket on his bed.

~~~~~~~~~~

As Brody rushed into school to catch up with his study group, it was unexpected for him to find a large crowd waiting outside the assembly hall. He also saw several parents near the sides as well, all waiting impatiently.

Confused, Brody quickly asked someone near him what this was all about.

"It's an emergency assembly, I heard they found the missing money or something like that."

This was met with intrigue by Brody as everyone started filling up the empty seats in the assembly hall. He managed to spot Ashley as he went down to sit next to her.

"Do you know what this is about?" Brody whispered.

"You would know if you weren't late," Ashley joked, "How is Adrian anyway?"

"Tired, he's at home resting now though."

The conversation couldn't continue as Principal Chamberlain stood behind the podium on the middle of the stage. The crowd quietened down as he coughed harshly to get everyone's attention.

"Students, parents, and faculty members, firstly I would like to thank you all for coming so shortly. I understand this is very unorthodox but I've called this assembly to address several issues that have risen lately. The first issue that I would like to talk about is in regards to school violence and the attack on one of the pupil's at Craftswood Academy."

To the pupils it wasn't a secret, everyone knew he was talking about Sam's attack on Adrian. Brody felt uncomfortable in his seat at being reminded of the horrible night.

"At this prestigious school, we will NOT accept any tolerance of physical violence of any kind. We will also NOT accept bullying neither, this includes in the classroom, anywhere on school property, or even on social platforms. Anybody caught committing any of these heinous acts will be severely punished and will face possible expulsion."

Brody wanted to feel comfort from those words, but it didn't help since it already happened, that Adrian was already hurt. Would this threat scare people straight? He didn't know. But it seemed to ease the parent's mind as a lot of them looked supportive of Principal Chamberlain's statement.

"Onto the next topic, there has been a new development in regards to the missing money, and thus the future status of this school."

Heavy whispers emerged from the crowd as everyone looked on for the update from the principal.

"We can confirm that we have identified the source of this catastrophe. And while we must keep the names of the people involved confidential, the problem has now been handed over for the police to catch the culprits."

The vague description did not seem to please the crowd as the heavy whispering got louder amongst the crowd. The faculty members tried to calm everyone down when one of the more eloquently dressed parents stood up from the side.

"So what happens next? How are you going to catch them, and if there's no funding then what happens to this school?"

That seemed to get other people's approval as some of the parents cheered in support at the enquiry.

Principal Chamberlain responded, "We are working closely with the school and cooperating with them to our fullest extent to catch the family that stole from us all. The Croyden family will be caught to face justice."

Principal Chamberlain seemed to realise he let that slip as he covered his mouth, left astonished by what he had admitted. Hearing the family name, Brody's adrenaline spiked as his hatred for that family grew bigger.

'So does that mean Sam's family are the ones that have been stealing from the school?' Brody thought to himself.

The name slip didn't go unnoticed as Ashley stood up to engage with the principal. "That bastard Sam Croyden was the one that stabbed my friend, the violence thing you were just talking about a few minutes ago. Are you saying that his family is the one that stole from this school?"

Brody looked around to hear all of the students now mentally clicking on to what she just said. Principal Chamberlain reluctantly answered back. "We are determined to find where every single member of that family have hidden away. While their current location is unknown, we will find them."

'So Sam's not locked up, and now his family has run away with all that money...'

"This school will remain open for the foreseeable future, and the chairman of the school will be replaced to ensure that the new Board of Education are effective in all of their roles, in order to manage the finances of this school and oversee the school policies that make our school, so great. Thank you all."

Principal Chamberlain quickly fled the stage, avoiding all the questions that the staff members, the students, and the parents had for them.

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Author's note: Sorry that the second half of the chapter was kind of sucky, I wanted to mostly wrap that part of the story up so I could write more enjoyable chapters.

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