Youngblood

Chapter 17

Joe's POV

I walk into the room where my detention is held and slump down in my chair. Josh, Caspar and Mikey are also in here, but the desks are quite far apart so it'll be hard to communicate.

"One hour, complete this work, no talking," Mr Johnson says, handing us a textbook and some paper and I take a pen out from my blazer. I look up at the clock. 3:15. This is going to be a long hour. But if this is what I have to do to keep Katya from Dianne, so be it.

I spin the pen inbetween my fingers, then start tapping it against the paper but not actually doing any work. Josh is leaning back in his chair, Mr Johnson eyeing him, and the other two are reluctantly completing out assigned task. I look down at the textbook. Why did Mr Johnson have to be a maths teacher? I sigh and put my head down in my hands.

"Mr Sugg, sit up," Mr Johnson says. "And Mr Pieters, stop rocking on your chair."

I look across at Josh and we both roll our eyes. I don't see why we have to be here, but there's no point complaining. I put my pen on the paper and start to complete the work.

Half an hour later I've made little progress, but at least I've done something. Mikey doesn't seem to have stopped the whole time, but whether he's actually doing the work or just doodling I have no idea. Josh is like me, and Caspar seems to have started some routine of doing a minute of work and then having a break.

Then all of a sudden, making me jump and nearly falling off my chair with shock, which also makes Mr Johnson snigger at me, Josh's phone beeps. Mr Johnson gets up and stands in front of his desk.

"Mr Pieters, phone please," Mr Johnson says, outstretching his hand.

Josh takes his phone out of his pocket but reads the message. His expression changes into one of panic, and he puts his phone back in his blazer pocket and stands up abruptly.

"Mr Pieters, sit back down immediately!" Mr Johnson snaps.

"Firstly, my name is Josh," Josh starts. "And secondly, I thought you had dealt with Katya!"

"Don't speak to me like that! And we have," Mr Johnson shouts.

"Well clearly not if she's just attacked AJ!" Josh yells, shoving his chair back. I stand up too, along with Caspar and Mikey, and the four of us run out of the detention.

"What happened?" I ask.

"On the way home, AJ, Chloe, Anna and Dianne were walking back to Chloe's and Katya attacked AJ," Josh says. "According to this text from Dianne. You'll have got it too, but your phones will have been on silent," Josh explains as we walk past the school gates.

"Dianne," I say. "Is she ok?"

"From the message, it was just AJ that was hurt," Josh says.

"Why did she attack AJ?" Mikey asks. "And no one else."

"Homophobia," Josh says. That's horrible. People should have the choice to be who they want and so what AJ's gay, that's absolutely fine! Katya just needs to learn to be accepting.

"That's horrible!" Caspar says.

"I can't believe someone would do that," Mikey says, shaking his head.

"It's Katya," I remind everyone. "She's just that sort of person."

Then I see Dianne running up to me and she throws her arms around me and I let her sob into my shoulder. I rub up and down her back and kiss her head.

"It's going to be ok," I whisper. Dianne looks up, her mascara dripping down her face.

"It was horrible," Dianne sobs. "It's a hundred times worse than anything she's done to me."

I put my arms around her and lead her back to where Chloe and Anna are, with an unconscious AJ on the floor and no sight of Katya.

"Katya's gone," Anna says. "We've called the ambulance."

Caspar kneels down on the floor besides AJ and holds his hand in his.

"The bitch," Caspar mutters, standing up again. "Why would anyone do this?"

I take out my phone and see that Jack has replied, saying that him and Conor are coming straight here.

I then hear sirens and see blue lights, and soon enough an ambulance is parked. Two people climb out and head over to us, carrying their equipment.

"So, someone beat him up?" the male paramedic checks.

"Yes," Chloe says. "And now he's unconscious."

The paramedics do all their check ups on AJ, and then I see Conor and Jack running over to us.

"AJ!" Jack shouts, kneeling down beside the female paramedic. Conor stands next to Caspar, pale with shock.

"We're going to take him to hospital," the female paramedic says. "One of you can come in the ambulance with us if you want."

We all look at Jack and he nods. The paramedics put AJ on a stretcher and lead him into the ambulance, and Jack follows.

"I'll update you all," Jack says, and they all disappear inside the ambulance.

"I'm taking you back to mine," I say to Dianne. "You can stay over."

"What about your detention?" she sniffs.

"Screw that. I'll see you all tomorrow," I say to everyone, and I lead Dianne out of the park.

"AJ will be ok," I tell Dianne. "He's in good hands. Just like Josh was."

"Why do all my friends keep on getting attacked?" Dianne says quietly.

"Because Katya exists," I say.

"I was the one who was nice to her and brought her to our group. It's all my fault."

I stop in the middle of the path and face Dianne head on.

"Dianne Buswell, don't you ever say that again," I say, tilting her chin up. "It's not your fault."

I can see that Dianne doesn't believe me, but at least she doesn't press against it.

Then I realise that if we continue walking back to my house, it'll take us at least an hour, as we're even further away than we would be at school.

"I'm just going to ring my mum and ask her to pick us up," I say. I unlock my phone and press ring on my mum's contact.

"Joe, shouldn't you still be in your detention?" Mum asks.

"I'll explain later. Can you come and pick me and Dianne up?" I ask.

"Why's Dianne there? But of course," Mum says.

"I'll explain everything later," I add, and hang up.

Around fifteen minutes later, in which I tried to talk to Dianne about her dance to take her mind away from the whole AJ and Katya thing, my mum pulls up. Me and Dianne both get into the back, and I begin to explain to my mum what happened.

"Oh gosh, that's horrible. I hope he's ok," Mum says.

"And can Dianne stay over?" I check.

"Of course she can, as long as her mum's ok with it."

"She will be," Dianne says. I'm sat in the middle seat so that I can be closer to Dianne.

We get home and I grab us some drinks and snacks and we sit on the sofa and put on a film. I'm still worried about AJ, but I want to try and distract Dianne.

She deserves to have a good time.

A/N: I'm sorry, this was hard to write. Also, again just a reminder, all this is fictional. I love Katya and couldn't imagine her doing things like this. And JJ credit to joeanneisreal xx