The day went in a blur. No one knew how they spent their first day which was used to be lengthy. Almost every teacher on the first day in each class gave a bore to death speech about life, the importance of time and education and how to make a carrier. Then they would introduce their referred books and chapters in it. But today was different. It was like a train passed from station to station in a couple of seconds without giving a stop.

When lunch had come, half of the girls were lurking around Roman's locker just to get a glimpse. When Amy and Noah met their other three friends in the hallway, Shirley asked Amy how she was going back to home. In response, she let a growl but when her classmate passed and asked Amy if she saw the newly changed Roman, Amy responded in her worst mood and snapped at her. "YES, BECAUSE I'M NOT BLIND!"

Shirley immediately regretted reminding her the bike blunder. Silently they scooted toward the school cafeteria and occupied an empty table. And when Jack told her and Noah about the conversation in their first class with Roman, Amy's mood worsened. To which, Scott replied that she's overreacting and only then Amy fell into silence. Jack then joked that Amy could drive her bike as his father will easily replace the tire if in any case it was damaged. But Amy knew better. Driving with puncture tire would worsen the condition. And then his father had to fit a new tire and surely his typical miser boss would cut down the expenses from his pay. And she didn't want that to happen.

The whispering going on about Roman had actually become the hot topic. Everyone was sure it was going to last longer. None teachers showed any symptoms of surprise in his change. It was as if they were fully aware of even boys stopped themselves from arguing about him. Everyone had their own theories.

"I think he's in love." Said, someone.

"Oh shut up. Men become Chris Tucker when in love, not Chris Evans."

"Maybe, but I heard he had a treatment."

"Was he suffering from something?"

"Can't say!"

Assumptions like these were trending from wall to wall, room to room in Williams High since the morning till the end of the class.

When school was over, Jack, Shirley, Noah, and Scott came up with different ideas to help Amy get back home with her bike. Roman's bike wasn't next to Amy when they reached there. Clearly, he had managed to get his bike repaired or maybe just to Amy's happiness, he had dragged his bike before anyone would have seen him.

So after suggestion upon suggestion and debates whose idea was best among all, Amy chose to go with Scott's. Others blew out a disappointing breath at Amy's choice but said nothing. The idea was simple and effective. All she had to do is wait till his driver arrives with his Ferrari and then Scott would tie her bike with his car. He would help Amy to balance the bike while his driver had to drive the car slowly until they reached the garage.

Half of the population had disappeared from the school and their friends also bid them bye and left. Soon after they had gone, a red Ferrari emerged. Hoping it to be Scott's driver, Amy lunged toward the window when the glass slid down.

"Hey, I jus—" The word froze in mid-air. Scott tilted down his head to see what made Amy petrified. Instead of a thin, shallow and short man there was an old man with broad shoulder with a thick and pointed mustache was seated at the driver seat. It was Scott's father. His nose was the fattest thing on his face. It was crooked, pointed like his mustache and if he sneezed, two or three people would flung out of it. Amy thought, as usual.

Meanwhile, Scott swallowed surprisingly and horribly at his father's arrival as he had never come to pick up his son. The only time he came to school when parents teacher's conference was held. Otherwise, he spent all of his time in managing the restaurant he built outside the town while he lived with his mother alone after her sister was married. His father was a very prideful man who hated Scott's friend. Whenever Scott scored average marks in his test, his father blamed indictment to his friends.

He always bugged the teachers to separate them but nothing last longer. The first two days were prying and attentive, but soon teacher loose interest in these matters.

Amy backed away, lips pursed in horrifying amusement. The door of the car opened and Scott's father, Danny Grayson peered out of it.

Scott and Amy exchanged knowing looks before his father growled.

"What is she doing here? Doesn't she has a job to do?"

"Dad—I—actually Amy needed my help." He stuttered, "Her bike's puncture."

"Oh, I see!" He grumbled loudly, his sour and cold voice boomed across the field. If it wasn't an open area, Mr. Grayson's voice would have probably echoed in Amy's ears. She, too, wasn't fond of him. Among the five, he hated Amy the most, maybe because she was the closest to Scott. Unknown people had mistaken them as a couple when she and her friends sneaked into far away clubs but Amy never bothered to inform them that he was a gay (and it was to keep as a secret). In fact she even enjoyed it various times if she ran into one of her ex-boyfriends.

"Your father's a mechanic. Definitely, it isn't a big deal for him to fix it," Mr. Grayson said coldly and Amy let out an inaudible hiss, "so, I don't find you needing our help, do you?"

"Dad!," Scott called his father, completely embarrassed, "Amy had to drag her bike back, alone. Please don't make a fuss about it. We talked about it: I do as you say while you don't do what I don't like. She needs my help and I promised her. So don't let me break it."

His father shot a disappointed look at him. He looked rageous as if he had hauled his pointed mustache in front of her. Amy looked back and forth from Mr. Grayson to Scott. She thought his father was going to slap him but nothing happened. On the other hand, Scott looked unaffected in front of the scowl look his father was bearing.

Surprising both of them, Mr. Grayson muttered something which sounded like 'fine, do whatever you want' and bounced in in the driver seat. Grinning, Scott opened the trunk and pulled out spare thick robes. Scott told Amy she was lucky as his father kept spare robes last week since his new manager suggested to keep always one with his car as he had gone with a lot of trouble when he accidentally pulled his car in a mud pool.

His father waited while Scott attached one side of the robe to the tow hitch of the car and the end was looped around the Bike's handle. After everything was set, Scott asked his father to drive slowly and carefully as he was also going to stay beside Amy.

Because, he knew if Amy was left alone, surely, his father would try to race up—just to annoy her.

So, Amy and Scott stood either side of the bike and both held the handle of their sides as his father dragged the bike by car. The first few minutes went silent when finally Amy spoke, "Thanks!"

"No problem." He grinned at her.

"Your father's gonna be mad at you. He's not going to put you under house arrest, is he?" Amy asks nervously.

"No, not anymore. Since Miranda left after marriage, dad's been a little lenient. He's less horrible and control freak. But still, we do have a fair share of poking. I sometimes even leave home in the mid fight when he would talk ill of you or Jack or Shirley or Noah. I wish I had balls to do that before. Otherwise, he wouldn't be controlling me this long." Scott's eyes were fixed at the back windshield and they were piercing inside it, straight to his father.

"You had your reasons, Scott. You were being a responsible little brother. Your father was awful to Miranda. You had to stay at home so your father restraint himself from saying bad things to her."

"I still can't guess why he acts this way to her."

"But one day you will," Amy said reassuringly and gave a small smile.

"You know when at the lunch, I snapped at you," Scott suddenly bounced off to another topic, " when I said you were overreacting with the whole Roman thing...I—I'm sorry, Amy. I shouldn't have said that."

Amy was still smiling at him. She knew Scott would apologize even when he's not wrong. At first, she used to think that he did that because of the favor Amy did to him. At the beginning of their sophomore year, Peter Hopkins released in the school newspaper that Scott was gay. The news turns out to be a criticising topic for Scott. Kids pass comment, slipped notes of random numbers at his locker as a part of prank pretending to be unknown gay. So Amy emerged as his savior when she kissed him in front of his whole class and pretended to be dating for around three months. Since then Scott has been close to her and supporting her his heart out. His affection seemed forced as she thought he was feeling indebted to her but soon Amy realizes that Scott was actually with her side by side like a brotherly figure who cared deeply for her.

"Its okay, Scott, " Amy replied without any hesitation, "and you know what you were right. I was actually overreacting. More than needed."

Her words were surprising to Scott. She was stubborn, hardly back down from a fight and rarely admit mistakes but here she was accepting it.

Amy read his face. "Oh come! I know it was my fault. Accepting it won't make me lower or shorter. See, my heights still same. Maybe if I had not screwed up his git's bike, then maybe my length would have been slightly increased."

Scott laughed. "But he's not a git. I'll still fuck him."

"Do I need to feel jealous?" Amy joked.

"Not at all." He laughed back.

Then they talked about several other things including other stuff his father barked at until they reach the garage. Amy's father appeared to thank Mr. Grayson but all he said to Amy was, " next time, help yourself." And then ordered his son to get in the car.

Bidding bye, Scott scoot in and the car wheeled away.