TR 12
Authors: Marina and Casey
Story: Taking Root
Challenge: Coconut 16 (them’s fightin’ words), Milk Chocolate 3 (resolve) [Marina]; Blueberry Yogurt 13 (a helping hand), Pomegranate 25 (bullying/intimidation) [Casey]
Toppings/Extras: Caramel, Chopped Nuts, Gummy Bunnies (Three Word Wednesday: banter, fumble, glance), Smoothie [both], Malt (Birthday prompt from 1306: They were just two jerks, playing with matches/cause that’s all they knew how to play - “Braille,” Regina Spektor) [Marina]
Word Count: 2,318
Rating: PG
Summary: Chase and Resh discover what’s been happening to Dean, and to say that no one is happy about this would be an understatement.
Notes: Technically a couple other things should go before this, but we decided to skip ahead just a little bit. This is our second piece for 7/29, it would have been up last night before midnight but LJ was giving Marina errors.
The path Chase normally took to lunch from Woodshop looped around the back of the main building and up a set of stairs to the front courtyard. It felt odd to be walking it without Dean there, but it intersected with the walkway to the language building partway through, and at that point he spotted Resh on his way back from Japanese and felt better. He waved. "Hey!"
Resh bounded to fall into step next to him. "Hey. Where's the other half of your little woodworking duo?" he asked.
"He went ahead," said Chase. "I had to talk to Mr. D about set-up for first period tomorrow. He wants me to come early if I can." He followed the words with a proud smile. Even after six weeks as Mr. D’s TA, he couldn’t help feeling pleased when his teacher requested his help or complimented his knowledge.
"Ah, very nice." The older boy absently twirled a pen in his hand as they walked. "I'm sure he and Care will be completely bored until the rest of us get there."
Chase frowned. "I hope not, that would be horrible."
Resh looked at him for a moment, opened his mouth and then apparently thought better of it. Finally, he seemed to settle on, "Doubt we need to worry. They seem to be getting along just fine."
"Yeah, I thought they were," Chase said slowly, eyeing him. "Did they have a fight or something after Laura and I left on Friday?"
He laughed. "Somehow I suspect something closer to the exact opposite."
Chase raised his eyebrows in suspicion. He was used to Resh’s particular brand of randomness, but the conversation was beginning to get too weird. "That makes no sense."
Again, Resh seemed to think about his answer for longer than normal. "Let's just say that I think their friendship is not suffering in the slightest. And they're probably enjoying a few minutes to chat without the rest of us lurking about."
"So why didn't you just say th-" Before he could finish, Chase stumbled over the edge of the pavement and into the grass. He flailed a bit, arms pinwheeling in an attempt to regain his balance, before landing hard on his rear and skinning his elbow. "Ow."
True to form, Resh only smirked. "Because it's more fun to tease you?"
Chase scowled. He hadn't meant to veer so far off track, but he'd been paying more attention to Resh than where they were going. "I hate you," he said flatly, inspecting his bleeding elbow and grass-stained palm.
"Sure ya do." Resh offered him a hand up and then went still, eyes narrowing. "Hear that?" he asked.
Frowning, Chase accepted Resh’s assistance and tried to listen. "I guess?" He could hear shouting, the scuffling of feet, and the loud crack of two objects slamming into each other at full force coming from their right. “Over by the gym?”
"C'mon," his friend said, and immediately set off in the direction of the noises, his usual curiosity and a bit of disregard of personal safety showing through. Chase trotted after, slightly amused and completely unnerved.
A moment later, they turned a corner near the gym and came upon an unfortunately familiar scene: a cluster of large boys with a smaller figure huddled in their midst. "Karl," Resh sighed.
Chase clenched his fists. "Leave him alone!" he yelled.
Karl spun to face them, and Resh affixed a cocky grin to his face. "So, who are we torturing this time, Karl?" he asked conversationally as the boy they'd been attacking climbed to his feet, staring fixedly at his shoes.
Karl smirked and reached out, snagging the boy by the collar and dragging him alongside. "Say hi, Dean."
"Leggo," Dean muttered, still staring at his feet as he tried to tug free.
Chase snarled and made to rush at Karl, but Resh grabbed him by the shirt before he could get too far. "Easy, Chase," he murmured before stepping up even with him. "Let Dean go, Karl, or else you're asking for a whole lot of trouble."
"This isn't your fight, Solaris, so bugger off."
"It is when you're picking on one of my friends. So let him go and I won't pound your face in today," Resh said, with a falsely sweet smile. Chase glared furiously, silently promising that Karl would suffer if he didn't do what Resh said.
Karl made a show of rolling his eyes, but he promptly shoved Dean in their direction. The blond stumbled and almost fell. He just barely managed to keep his balance. Picking up his bag, he trudged over to the pair, head still bent.
Resh smiled, but not kindly. "You so much as think about laying a hand on him or any of my friends and I'll take it off, understood, Karl?" he said, voice icy.
"Whatever," Karl said dismissively. "Think about what we said," he added to Dean, who nodded miserably, shifting his weight. Then, with a gesture, Karl led his gang off in the opposite direction.
Chase shot a parting hiss at the group and turned to Dean. "Did they hurt you?" he asked.
"I'm fine," Dean muttered, without raising his head.
"So that's why your nose is bleedin'?" Resh asked dryly.
Chase ducked down a bit so he could see. Sure enough, he spotted a smear of blood over Dean's lip and another trickle coming out his nostril. He paled. "Dean, that's not fine."
The other boy swiped absently at it with the back of his arm and shrugged. "Doesn't hurt," he said feebly.
"So?" Chase exploded. "That doesn't mean it's fine! Things that don't hurt aren’t the same as things that are fine!" And I should know, he almost added, but refrained in time. Shaking his head once, he pushed back the sudden urge to panic and forced himself to focus. Dean was the one in trouble this time.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Resh asked, sounding a little hurt.
"S'not your problem," Dean said.
Chase shot them both uncertain glances. "Hold on, this isn't the first time?"
"I would suspect not, knowing Karl and Richie's M.O.," Resh said.
Dean rubbed at his face again. "It's fine."
"No, it's not," Chase insisted.
"Dean, Karl and his posse are a bunch of trumped up bullies," Resh said. "We can help you get them off your back."
"Better them than Edward," Dean muttered. A second later, his head finally shot up, revealing wide, panicked eyes. "I need to go wash up. I'll meet you later." He pushed past them before either could protest, heading back for the school.
Chase stared after him for a moment, feeling very confused and more unsettled than ever. Resh blinked. "What the hell was that?" he asked, shocked. "This Edward dude must be a real asshole if he makes Karl and Richie seem like a good alternative."
"So you don't know who he is either?"
"No...I've got to assume some bully from before. Maybe why he was homeschooled. We should ask Carrie if she knows the name."
Chase crossed his arms and looked at the ground. Dean’s expression hadn’t looked like “bully” fear. Then again, not everybody had a Geran in their past. He found that hard to remember, sometimes. "You're probably right," he muttered.
Resh patted him on the shoulder. "C'mon, let's go catch up with the others. We need to figure out how to get them off Dean's back whether he likes it or not."
"Okay, Chase agreed.
They crossed to the staircase and found the rest of the group in the usual spot. Nicole and Sidney busily chatted while Kenz methodically unpacked her lunch and Carrie sketched and nibbled on her fries. "Hey," she said, lifting her pencil to them absent-mindedly.
"Hey." Resh automatically reached out to ruffled his sister's hair and got punched in the side for his efforts. He grinned briefly before his look turned sober. "So apparently Karl and Richie have turned their attentions to Dean," he said, without preamble.
Kenz looked up, frowning. "Why would they do that?"
"He's the new kid? That's why they went after us," Nicole put in.
Carrie's whipped toward them. She stared at Resh and Chase for a moment, then bit out, "Those assholes."
"Carrie," Chase said sharply.
She paid him no attention, turning to Nicole. "That's what that crap last week was about!"
"Must have been," said Nicole. "Shoulda figured they were up to something. So what's the plan?" she asked Resh.
"And where is Dean now?" Kenz added, brow furrowing in concern.
"Cleaning up," said Chase, "or that's what he told us. What are you talking about, Carrie?" It was the first he had heard of that crap last week, and he couldn’t help feeling a little hurt that she hadn’t mentioned it before then.
"They tried to harass us after school a few days ago, but nothing really happened," she said dismissively.
"Yeah, they turned tail at the slightest mention of Resh," Nic added, with a superior smirk.
"Cleaning up?" Kenz asked. "What did they do to him?"
"Roughed him up. Pretty standard stuff. Looked like a split lip and bloody nose," Resh said.
"I hope you kicked the crap out of them," Sidney said viciously. They all stared at her for a moment, jarred slightly by her statement. It was normal for her siblings to react that way, but soft-spoken Sidney usually let other people do it for her.
"No," said Carrie slowly, "not that they don't deserve it, but we can do better than that."
"As much as I woulda loved to," Resh added, "Chase and I were a little outnumbered, even with Dean's help. I agree with Carrie, we can beat them easily if we're just smarter than they are."
Kenz grinned. "Which is not very difficult at all."
"Exactly," said Carrie. "You and I don't have high IQs for nothing, Kenz." She reached over to give Kenz a high-five.
Nicole turned to her brother. "Well?" she prompted. "I assume you have a plan!"
"Not exactly yet, hence needing help. Oh, Care, has Dean mentioned anyone named Edward to you?" he asked, turning to Carrie.
Her eyebrows knit together in thought. "No," she said. "Why?"
"He..." Resh exchanged a look with Chase. "He got a little weird at the end and said something about how they weren't worse than Edward. Then he couldn't get away from us fast enough."
"I'll ask him," she promised. "Meanwhile..." She glanced toward the double doors to their left. "Maybe someone should go get him."
"Chase? It's gotta be you or me and you know him better than I do."
Chase frowned, but nodded and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, I'll go see if he's still in there."
"Sorry," said Carrie, with a sheepish smile. "I'd do it, but..."
"Do not finish that sentence," he warned her.
Nicole and Sidney burst into loud laughter. Kenz grinned. "We would never purposely scar you that way, Chase, unless Resh was speaking."
"He can take it," Carrie said, smiling innocently.
"I hate you all," Chase informed them, as he shuffled away.
The closest boys' bathroom was just inside the building, underneath the stairwell to the second floor. Chase figured that if Dean had been in a hurry to hide, he probably would have picked his quickest option, and decided to try that first. He walked inside. "Dean?" he said tentatively. "Are you in here?"
He heard a sigh, and then one of the stall doors opened. Dean slid into sight, still avoiding eye contact, but his head and shoulders weren’t as hunched as before. "Hey."
Chase moved far enough forward that he stood even with the first stall and leaned against the corner, arms crossed. He had no idea what to say; comforting people was Laura’s job, not his. "You okay?" he finally asked, knowing even as he spoke that it was the most useless thing in the world to say to someone who was truly upset. He couldn’t think of anything else, however, and the cavernous silence of the bathroom was beginning to be unbearable.
"Yeah," Dean said quietly. He glanced up at Chase. "'pose you told the others."
Chase nodded. "They're just stupid, you know. They did the same thing when Nic and Resh were new here."
"Oh." Dean hesitated. "They...they seem kinda scared of Resh now," he said, with a definite envious note to his voice.
"Resh didn't let them not be," Chase said, proud of his friend all over again. "And the rest of us aren't scared of them, either." Mostly, he added silently, since he still wasn't sure what he felt and it seemed like his bravery only came out when he was angry. He didn't think saying that would help Dean much.
Dean scuffed his feet on the tile floor. "I'm not like Resh.
"I'm not, either," said Chase.
A tiny bit of hope sparked in Dean's expression at that, and he nodded slowly. "Did Resh mean it?"
"What, that we'd help you?"
"Yeah. I mean, I...why?" Dean sounded honestly puzzled.
Chase didn’t understand why Dean needed convincing. "Because we're your friends, dummy," he said firmly, "and that's what friends do."
Dean absorbed that with an air of surprising contemplation before smiling slightly. "Still. Thanks."
"Welcome," Chase said, with a snort. Then he grinned. "Come on, you need to help us plan our grand revenge."
"Grand revenge?" Dean blinked as he hefted his bag. "That's sounds a bit...overzealous?"
"Have you met Carrie? Or Nicole? Or...any of them?" Chase's grin morphed into a smirk as he led the way out of the bathroom. "Trust me. It'll be awesome."
"I feel like I should feel sorry for them, but I can't quite bring myself to," Dean said, a bit more cheerfully.
Chase made a scandalized face at him. "Don't."
Outside, their friends were already huddled together, laying down the groundwork for the revenge.
Story: Taking Root
Challenge: Coconut 16 (them’s fightin’ words), Milk Chocolate 3 (resolve) [Marina]; Blueberry Yogurt 13 (a helping hand), Pomegranate 25 (bullying/intimidation) [Casey]
Toppings/Extras: Caramel, Chopped Nuts, Gummy Bunnies (Three Word Wednesday: banter, fumble, glance), Smoothie [both], Malt (Birthday prompt from 1306: They were just two jerks, playing with matches/cause that’s all they knew how to play - “Braille,” Regina Spektor) [Marina]
Word Count: 2,318
Rating: PG
Summary: Chase and Resh discover what’s been happening to Dean, and to say that no one is happy about this would be an understatement.
Notes: Technically a couple other things should go before this, but we decided to skip ahead just a little bit. This is our second piece for 7/29, it would have been up last night before midnight but LJ was giving Marina errors.
The path Chase normally took to lunch from Woodshop looped around the back of the main building and up a set of stairs to the front courtyard. It felt odd to be walking it without Dean there, but it intersected with the walkway to the language building partway through, and at that point he spotted Resh on his way back from Japanese and felt better. He waved. "Hey!"
Resh bounded to fall into step next to him. "Hey. Where's the other half of your little woodworking duo?" he asked.
"He went ahead," said Chase. "I had to talk to Mr. D about set-up for first period tomorrow. He wants me to come early if I can." He followed the words with a proud smile. Even after six weeks as Mr. D’s TA, he couldn’t help feeling pleased when his teacher requested his help or complimented his knowledge.
"Ah, very nice." The older boy absently twirled a pen in his hand as they walked. "I'm sure he and Care will be completely bored until the rest of us get there."
Chase frowned. "I hope not, that would be horrible."
Resh looked at him for a moment, opened his mouth and then apparently thought better of it. Finally, he seemed to settle on, "Doubt we need to worry. They seem to be getting along just fine."
"Yeah, I thought they were," Chase said slowly, eyeing him. "Did they have a fight or something after Laura and I left on Friday?"
He laughed. "Somehow I suspect something closer to the exact opposite."
Chase raised his eyebrows in suspicion. He was used to Resh’s particular brand of randomness, but the conversation was beginning to get too weird. "That makes no sense."
Again, Resh seemed to think about his answer for longer than normal. "Let's just say that I think their friendship is not suffering in the slightest. And they're probably enjoying a few minutes to chat without the rest of us lurking about."
"So why didn't you just say th-" Before he could finish, Chase stumbled over the edge of the pavement and into the grass. He flailed a bit, arms pinwheeling in an attempt to regain his balance, before landing hard on his rear and skinning his elbow. "Ow."
True to form, Resh only smirked. "Because it's more fun to tease you?"
Chase scowled. He hadn't meant to veer so far off track, but he'd been paying more attention to Resh than where they were going. "I hate you," he said flatly, inspecting his bleeding elbow and grass-stained palm.
"Sure ya do." Resh offered him a hand up and then went still, eyes narrowing. "Hear that?" he asked.
Frowning, Chase accepted Resh’s assistance and tried to listen. "I guess?" He could hear shouting, the scuffling of feet, and the loud crack of two objects slamming into each other at full force coming from their right. “Over by the gym?”
"C'mon," his friend said, and immediately set off in the direction of the noises, his usual curiosity and a bit of disregard of personal safety showing through. Chase trotted after, slightly amused and completely unnerved.
A moment later, they turned a corner near the gym and came upon an unfortunately familiar scene: a cluster of large boys with a smaller figure huddled in their midst. "Karl," Resh sighed.
Chase clenched his fists. "Leave him alone!" he yelled.
Karl spun to face them, and Resh affixed a cocky grin to his face. "So, who are we torturing this time, Karl?" he asked conversationally as the boy they'd been attacking climbed to his feet, staring fixedly at his shoes.
Karl smirked and reached out, snagging the boy by the collar and dragging him alongside. "Say hi, Dean."
"Leggo," Dean muttered, still staring at his feet as he tried to tug free.
Chase snarled and made to rush at Karl, but Resh grabbed him by the shirt before he could get too far. "Easy, Chase," he murmured before stepping up even with him. "Let Dean go, Karl, or else you're asking for a whole lot of trouble."
"This isn't your fight, Solaris, so bugger off."
"It is when you're picking on one of my friends. So let him go and I won't pound your face in today," Resh said, with a falsely sweet smile. Chase glared furiously, silently promising that Karl would suffer if he didn't do what Resh said.
Karl made a show of rolling his eyes, but he promptly shoved Dean in their direction. The blond stumbled and almost fell. He just barely managed to keep his balance. Picking up his bag, he trudged over to the pair, head still bent.
Resh smiled, but not kindly. "You so much as think about laying a hand on him or any of my friends and I'll take it off, understood, Karl?" he said, voice icy.
"Whatever," Karl said dismissively. "Think about what we said," he added to Dean, who nodded miserably, shifting his weight. Then, with a gesture, Karl led his gang off in the opposite direction.
Chase shot a parting hiss at the group and turned to Dean. "Did they hurt you?" he asked.
"I'm fine," Dean muttered, without raising his head.
"So that's why your nose is bleedin'?" Resh asked dryly.
Chase ducked down a bit so he could see. Sure enough, he spotted a smear of blood over Dean's lip and another trickle coming out his nostril. He paled. "Dean, that's not fine."
The other boy swiped absently at it with the back of his arm and shrugged. "Doesn't hurt," he said feebly.
"So?" Chase exploded. "That doesn't mean it's fine! Things that don't hurt aren’t the same as things that are fine!" And I should know, he almost added, but refrained in time. Shaking his head once, he pushed back the sudden urge to panic and forced himself to focus. Dean was the one in trouble this time.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Resh asked, sounding a little hurt.
"S'not your problem," Dean said.
Chase shot them both uncertain glances. "Hold on, this isn't the first time?"
"I would suspect not, knowing Karl and Richie's M.O.," Resh said.
Dean rubbed at his face again. "It's fine."
"No, it's not," Chase insisted.
"Dean, Karl and his posse are a bunch of trumped up bullies," Resh said. "We can help you get them off your back."
"Better them than Edward," Dean muttered. A second later, his head finally shot up, revealing wide, panicked eyes. "I need to go wash up. I'll meet you later." He pushed past them before either could protest, heading back for the school.
Chase stared after him for a moment, feeling very confused and more unsettled than ever. Resh blinked. "What the hell was that?" he asked, shocked. "This Edward dude must be a real asshole if he makes Karl and Richie seem like a good alternative."
"So you don't know who he is either?"
"No...I've got to assume some bully from before. Maybe why he was homeschooled. We should ask Carrie if she knows the name."
Chase crossed his arms and looked at the ground. Dean’s expression hadn’t looked like “bully” fear. Then again, not everybody had a Geran in their past. He found that hard to remember, sometimes. "You're probably right," he muttered.
Resh patted him on the shoulder. "C'mon, let's go catch up with the others. We need to figure out how to get them off Dean's back whether he likes it or not."
"Okay, Chase agreed.
They crossed to the staircase and found the rest of the group in the usual spot. Nicole and Sidney busily chatted while Kenz methodically unpacked her lunch and Carrie sketched and nibbled on her fries. "Hey," she said, lifting her pencil to them absent-mindedly.
"Hey." Resh automatically reached out to ruffled his sister's hair and got punched in the side for his efforts. He grinned briefly before his look turned sober. "So apparently Karl and Richie have turned their attentions to Dean," he said, without preamble.
Kenz looked up, frowning. "Why would they do that?"
"He's the new kid? That's why they went after us," Nicole put in.
Carrie's whipped toward them. She stared at Resh and Chase for a moment, then bit out, "Those assholes."
"Carrie," Chase said sharply.
She paid him no attention, turning to Nicole. "That's what that crap last week was about!"
"Must have been," said Nicole. "Shoulda figured they were up to something. So what's the plan?" she asked Resh.
"And where is Dean now?" Kenz added, brow furrowing in concern.
"Cleaning up," said Chase, "or that's what he told us. What are you talking about, Carrie?" It was the first he had heard of that crap last week, and he couldn’t help feeling a little hurt that she hadn’t mentioned it before then.
"They tried to harass us after school a few days ago, but nothing really happened," she said dismissively.
"Yeah, they turned tail at the slightest mention of Resh," Nic added, with a superior smirk.
"Cleaning up?" Kenz asked. "What did they do to him?"
"Roughed him up. Pretty standard stuff. Looked like a split lip and bloody nose," Resh said.
"I hope you kicked the crap out of them," Sidney said viciously. They all stared at her for a moment, jarred slightly by her statement. It was normal for her siblings to react that way, but soft-spoken Sidney usually let other people do it for her.
"No," said Carrie slowly, "not that they don't deserve it, but we can do better than that."
"As much as I woulda loved to," Resh added, "Chase and I were a little outnumbered, even with Dean's help. I agree with Carrie, we can beat them easily if we're just smarter than they are."
Kenz grinned. "Which is not very difficult at all."
"Exactly," said Carrie. "You and I don't have high IQs for nothing, Kenz." She reached over to give Kenz a high-five.
Nicole turned to her brother. "Well?" she prompted. "I assume you have a plan!"
"Not exactly yet, hence needing help. Oh, Care, has Dean mentioned anyone named Edward to you?" he asked, turning to Carrie.
Her eyebrows knit together in thought. "No," she said. "Why?"
"He..." Resh exchanged a look with Chase. "He got a little weird at the end and said something about how they weren't worse than Edward. Then he couldn't get away from us fast enough."
"I'll ask him," she promised. "Meanwhile..." She glanced toward the double doors to their left. "Maybe someone should go get him."
"Chase? It's gotta be you or me and you know him better than I do."
Chase frowned, but nodded and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, I'll go see if he's still in there."
"Sorry," said Carrie, with a sheepish smile. "I'd do it, but..."
"Do not finish that sentence," he warned her.
Nicole and Sidney burst into loud laughter. Kenz grinned. "We would never purposely scar you that way, Chase, unless Resh was speaking."
"He can take it," Carrie said, smiling innocently.
"I hate you all," Chase informed them, as he shuffled away.
The closest boys' bathroom was just inside the building, underneath the stairwell to the second floor. Chase figured that if Dean had been in a hurry to hide, he probably would have picked his quickest option, and decided to try that first. He walked inside. "Dean?" he said tentatively. "Are you in here?"
He heard a sigh, and then one of the stall doors opened. Dean slid into sight, still avoiding eye contact, but his head and shoulders weren’t as hunched as before. "Hey."
Chase moved far enough forward that he stood even with the first stall and leaned against the corner, arms crossed. He had no idea what to say; comforting people was Laura’s job, not his. "You okay?" he finally asked, knowing even as he spoke that it was the most useless thing in the world to say to someone who was truly upset. He couldn’t think of anything else, however, and the cavernous silence of the bathroom was beginning to be unbearable.
"Yeah," Dean said quietly. He glanced up at Chase. "'pose you told the others."
Chase nodded. "They're just stupid, you know. They did the same thing when Nic and Resh were new here."
"Oh." Dean hesitated. "They...they seem kinda scared of Resh now," he said, with a definite envious note to his voice.
"Resh didn't let them not be," Chase said, proud of his friend all over again. "And the rest of us aren't scared of them, either." Mostly, he added silently, since he still wasn't sure what he felt and it seemed like his bravery only came out when he was angry. He didn't think saying that would help Dean much.
Dean scuffed his feet on the tile floor. "I'm not like Resh.
"I'm not, either," said Chase.
A tiny bit of hope sparked in Dean's expression at that, and he nodded slowly. "Did Resh mean it?"
"What, that we'd help you?"
"Yeah. I mean, I...why?" Dean sounded honestly puzzled.
Chase didn’t understand why Dean needed convincing. "Because we're your friends, dummy," he said firmly, "and that's what friends do."
Dean absorbed that with an air of surprising contemplation before smiling slightly. "Still. Thanks."
"Welcome," Chase said, with a snort. Then he grinned. "Come on, you need to help us plan our grand revenge."
"Grand revenge?" Dean blinked as he hefted his bag. "That's sounds a bit...overzealous?"
"Have you met Carrie? Or Nicole? Or...any of them?" Chase's grin morphed into a smirk as he led the way out of the bathroom. "Trust me. It'll be awesome."
"I feel like I should feel sorry for them, but I can't quite bring myself to," Dean said, a bit more cheerfully.
Chase made a scandalized face at him. "Don't."
Outside, their friends were already huddled together, laying down the groundwork for the revenge.