Quinn gets to his feet, walks over to Xander, and punches him in the chin. Clearly, Xander wasn’t expecting it. He stumbles back.

“Pathetic, that all you got?” Xander shouts. “Come on! I’ll take both of you!”

“Three,” MB yells. “Take all three of us.” Without warning, she does this insane roundhouse kick that catches Xander in the head, sending him to the ground.

He’s out cold.

Stunned, I look from him to MB, then to Quinn. “Where the hell did you learn that?”

“First foster mom.” She leans over Xander, who’s moaning and trying to sit up. “Good luck getting any girl to sleep with you with that face, oh, and I mean the one you had before the blood.”

“Daddy loving, bitch,” Xander says under his breath.

I jump to my feet, Quinn’s right next to me, fists clenched, eyes wild.

A teacher comes running. Oh great, I immediately notice Tessa’s tight black shirt tucked into her equally tight black leather skirt. We can’t catch a break, can we?

“What happened?” She has a certain gleam in her eyes that grossly makes me wonder if she likes the blood and violence. Would I be surprised? Not at all.

“I um, fell.” Xander gulps.

Her eyebrows shoot up her forehead. “You fell, and that explains the blood on all of you?”

“We all fell.” I jerk my head in his direction as if to say I won’t nark even if I do want to murder him with my bare hands.

“Uh-huh.” She nods, then clasps her hands together and looks over at MB. “And you? Did you push them, or did you somehow magically fall as well?”

“I’m the witness of said, um… falling.”

Tessa checks her watch and sighs. “Fine, I guess since technically it’s no longer school hours, I’ll let this slide by, but no more falling.” She makes air quotes and then looks MB up and down. “Aren’t you just precious? I would have never known.”

MB flinches; her eyes fill with tears.

“Okay well, if that’s all…” Tessa waves goodbye, her heels pound against the concrete, while Xander curses and starts running back toward the practice field. By now, it’s probably over anyway, he’s brave for letting coach see him all messed up, and I hope he doesn’t tell him the real reason we’re both bloodied up. The last thing I need is to sit out a game or lose my captain position on top of everything else.

I wipe my nose, then my fat lip. Perfect, I probably look like shit.

“You good?” I ask Quinn.

He shrugs. “It is what it is.” He looks defeated though. “Is it cool if I come over again tonight? I need to go grab some clothes and make sure my parents know I’m alive.”

I nod, no words necessary because as much as I want to make him “trip” as well for wanting what’s mine—I would never turn him away after Xander said what he said.

He exhales roughly, shoves his hands in his pockets, and walks off, getting into the Maserati and peeling out of the parking lot.