My family decided that it would be best if I skipped school for the rest of the week. David said it was so that 'I could recover.' Bull. I know they just want to keep an eye on me. Tracy had to leave three days after I was released, but promised me that she'd see me again soon. She told me to contact her if I ever wanted to talk.

Finally, I was released from my prison and allowed to go to school. Rumours flew about the school saying I'd been off since I was in jail for killing someone. What utter tosh.

I was leaning against my lockers, waiting for the bell to ring and getting a huge headache from all the stress. Why had I wanted to come back to school again? While I was seriously contemplating my life's choices, James strolled up to me.

"Is it true?" He asked quietly, leaning a little bit too close to me than I would like.

"Is what true?" I asked sharply.

"That you missed the week because you were in jail for killing a guy? Were you in jail for that guy's murder?"

"No, but I'm about to be for yours," I snapped. Growing increasingly frustrated, I stood in the middle of the hall and let out a piercing taxi cab whistle.

"Listen up, everyone!" I yelled, "I've heard a lot of rumours about why I skipped school for the last week. Let me tell you now, it's none of your damn business! I haven't killed anyone so if you could keep your noses out of my business, that would be greatly appreciated!"

Silence.

The bell rung through the silence like a knife through butter. Instantly, the hall was alive with tentative conversation- but none of them about me.

"Did that give you your answer?" I asked James and he nodded mutely.

I made my way to Maths with Mr N. Bread. I sat down at my usual spot next to the window, took out my books and went on my phone while waiting for lessons to start.

"Hey," Irritated, I looked up to see Cole smirking at me.

"Hey," I went back to my phone, deliberately ignoring him.

"So..." he trailed off.

"Spit it out," I snapped. Yes, I was in a crabby mood. You try being forcibly coddled and having your family look at you as if you're a crazy lunatic for a week.

"Is it true you killed a guy?"

I was about to lose it in 3..2-

"Settle down, everyone," the unfortunate named teacher entered the room, preventing me from committing first degree murder.

X

After Maths, I hurried away to Geography with the kind Miss Bell. I sat in the back and pulled my hood up, not in the mood to socialise. The chair beside me scraped against the floor and I prepared myself for 'the question'.

"Hi Iris," I looked over and saw Aiden.

"Hi Aiden," I smiled tightly, "Please don't ask me if I killed a guy."

Aiden looked amused, "I wasn't. Where did that come from?"

I sighed and put my phone away, "the entire day, people have been asking if I was off for a week because I was in jail for killing a guy."

Aiden laughed, "wow."

"Why did you come here?" I asked.

"Do you want to sit with me and my friends at Lunch?" Aiden asked and I chuckled.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not exactly a social butterfly."

"Oh I noticed," Aiden replied, "just try sitting with us, just once, please?"

I reluctantly agreed and the Geography lesson started.

X

Lunch came round and I put my stuff away and made my way to the cafeteria. Aiden waved and I walked over there.

"Hey Iris," Aiden smiled, "meet Grace (a pretty girl with dark blonde hair and green eyes), Mia (tall girl with long brown hair and blue eyes) Milo (boy with short dark hair and brown eyes) and Jay (a small boy with thick brown hair and brown eyes)."

"Hi Iris! Welcome to the table of weirdness!" Jay declared. Everyone rolled their eyes so I guessed that this behaviour was to be expected from Jay.

I chuckled and the 6 of us chatted throughout Lunch. Although we'd only known each other for less than a day, it felt like we'd known each other for years. Suddenly, I felt someone watching me. I saw someone heading towards me in the reflection of Mia's water bottle. They put their hand on my shoulder and I instinctively grabbed it and twisted it.

"I come in peace!" Jax gasped and I immediately released his arm.

"You idiot," I slapped his shoulder playfully, "you shouldn't sneak up on me like that!"

"You've been practicing," Jax looked proud when I nodded.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"Just making sure you're alright... your brothers forced me to," Jax laughed at my disgruntled expression.

"Well, I'm fine. Go and have fun with your friends! You don't need to babysit me," I ordered and Jax did a mock salute.

"Yes, ma'am. See you later. Love ya," he grinned.

"Love you too," I grinned and turned back to my friends- who were all wearing confused and shocked expressions.

"Jax is my best friend," I hastily explained, "I've known him since I was seven."

Their confusion cleared up a bit and conversation resumed as normal.

"Do you believe in Hell?" Mia asked out of the blue.

"Of course I believe in Hell," I grinned, "I have six brothers."

Everyone laughed at that.

"No, seriously," Mia said, "do you believe in a place that is so void of happiness it's surreal and that you go there if you're evil?"

"What brought this up?" Milo asked and Mia shrugged.

"I don't believe it's a place, per say," I answered quietly, "The more bad things you do or have done to you, the more your mind gets damaged, like your soul is slowly fracturing until you go mad. Ghosts are real. Demons are real. They battle with us inside us and sometimes, they win. I don't believe in an afterlife, but I do believe in Hell on Earth. Except, it's not really a place. More like a state of mind."

I took a deep breath, "wow, that was deep," it seemed to diffuse the thick tension slightly.

"Well done Mia," Jay joked, "you've asked a depressing question and got a depressing answer in return. Let's change the subject before we start bawling our eyes out and spewing our darkest secrets."

May the Gods forever bless you, Jay, I thought as his tactfulness of subject changing worked.

"The West-Brown brothers are looking at us," Grace hissed.

"What's so scary about them?" I asked.

Grace looked at me like I was an alien, "they're the rulers of Part.2 of the building!"

"Part 2?" I was even more confused.

"The building is spilt into two parts," Aiden explained, "to accommodate more students. The 'rulers' of part 1 (our part) are James and Cole, who've you've already met," he smirked at me and I chuckled, "the 'kings' of part 2 are the West-Brown brothers- your brothers. The two sides rarely interact, except from Lunch which we all have together. It's complex, but simple if you think about it."

"You're the West-Brown sister?!" Mia whisper-yelled.

"Yes," I replied simply.

"They're coming over here," Milo murmured.

"Act natural," Mia hissed and proceeded to look as unnatural as possible.

"Iris," Oscar said, "your brothers and I have some urgent work tonight. You can stay with Jax while we get the work done, if that's okay with you?"

"Sure," I said, "I'll tell him," it'd become a ritual for Jax to unexpectedly come by a couple times a week. At first, my family were wary of him, but slowly began warming up to him. I dropped a quick text to Jax about the change of plans.

After Lunch, I said goodbye to my friends and went to my next lesson.

X

After school ended, I waited with Jax in the Parking lot for my brothers. We made small talk and I skilfully dodged around the topic of what I was going to do about John. I still wasn't sure about it all.

My brothers car rolled up and they gestured for us to come in.

"Hey Iris," Brandon smiled, "how was your day?"

"Good," I answered shortly. Jax mouthed be nice, and I sighed, "History was boring, though," I elaborated.

"I know right!" Julian exclaimed and we all chuckled.

"Hey," Jax said, looking out the window, "there are some black cars following us."

"Hey, there are some black cars following us," as soon as Jax said that, we all tensed.

"Daimen, can you loose them?" I asked.

Daimen gritted his teeth, "maybe... there are quite a lot of cars, though."

Suddenly, someone shot the window. It cracked the glass and, fortunately, didn't hit anyone.

"Get down!" I yelled to Iris and Jax, pulling them down and withdrawing my own gun.

After Will pulled Jax and I down, I automatically went for my gun, before realising that I left it at home.

"Damn I don't have my gun!" I hissed at Jax.

"I have only one," Jax looked calm, "what now?"

My brothers- apart from Daimen, who was focused on driving- all brought out their guns.

Wait. What?! Oh well, I'll question them later.

"Julian, give me a gun," I demanded, scarily calm.

"What?! You crazy?!" He yelled, "you don't know how to use it."

"Never judge a book by its cover," I shouted over the loud engine, "do you trust me?" I looked him dead in the eye.

Julian sighed and groaned in frustration, mumbling something incoherent, before handing me a spare gun.

"Thank you," I smiled, "JAX! Got one! I'm gonna lean out the window and take a shot!"

"I'll cover you!" Jax yelled.

Liked we'd done a hundred times before, I leaned out the window, took a deep breath and shot the tyre of the car. Jax kept firing, to try and keep the attention away from me. We successfully took down the cars and came inside, breathing heavily.

"Nice one Rainbow," Jax grinned weakly, his breathing erratic.

"Cheers Jax," I laughed softly, pushing a lock of hair off my face, "I'll contact Harry and tell him about this... it couldn't be him could it?"

Jax scowled darkly, "if that vermin lays a hand on you, I'll gut him like a fish."

"Excuse me?" Oscar interrupted our conversation. I realised that the car and stopped and my brothers were looking at me in shock, "where did you learn to shoot?"

I exchanged looks with Jax and sighed, "well, it's only fair that you know now. We're in a gang. The 'Silver Skulls'."

My brothers jaws dropped.

"The Silver Skull?" Daimen asked in shock.

"Yeah," I smiled tightly and clicked my tongue against my teeth, "why do you guys have a gun?"

My brothers tensed.

"That's a question better answered with Elijah and our parents," Oscar said quietly, "we can also discuss the gang thing," he glanced worriedly at me.

"M'kay," I said, suddenly feeling incredibly tired. I let out a muffled yawn and rubbed my eyes; due to my nightmares, I hadn't gotten much sleep.

"Sleep, Rainbow," Jax smiled, "I'll wake you up when we reach."

I nodded tiredly and laid my head in Jax's lap and tucked my legs underneath me. Jax stroked through my hair and hummed Greek lullabies under his breath.

"Alex used to sing that," I murmured sleepily, before I was out like a light.

X

"Rainbow?" Jax whispered, "we've reached."

I stirred and groggily sat up.

The six of us went inside and my brothers called David, Lisa and Elijah.

"What's going on?" Lisa asked, coming downstairs.

X

After my brothers recounted the car incident, I was immediately grilled me.

"Yes, I'm a part of 'Silver Skulls'," I said calmly, "Mom and I were struggling with the money and I had no choice," not a lie, just not the whole truth. Calling Elise 'mom' burnt on my tongue like acid.

My family exchanged looks.

"We have something to tell you too, Iris," David looked at me solemnly. I tensed, mentally preparing myself.

"We're the leader of the Italian Mafia."

Well, that escalated quickly.

😏