Soaring Bird

"Axel come on, let's go." Chantel says annoyed.
She has been waiting at his locker for five minutes and all he's done is talk to friends and take his sweet time.
"What is your deal?" Axel asks, all smiles
"You, no lets..."
Chantel was cut off by someone shoving her hard into the lockers. She just sighs and gets up, but Axel won't have it. He turns towards her attacker, and comes face to face with Chris Prior. Axel stands tall, but Chris just laughs, Katie glaring at Chantel.
"Is your cousin your body guard now?" They laugh together.
Chantel says nothing hoping they will just leave, but no, they turn on Axel. They punch him in the face and slam him against the locker. She gets up to get them off of him. She doesn't care if she gets bullied but she will be damned if she let's it happen to her family. Katie keeps Chantel pressed as she watches helplessly as Axel is beaten by Chris. Just then Eric and Allen pull Chris off Axel, and Amy pulls Katie off of Chantel. They form a wall around the two, and Chris and Katie walk off arm in arm.
"Axel!" Chantel screams as she kneels beside her cousin, his eyes swollen and his lip busted, "Oh God, Axel you idiot, you big goofy idiot."
"I couldn't let them..."
"Stop, I don't need your protection, I have been dealing with it for years, I was going to do everything I could to make sure you didn't get dragged into this."
"Can we just go home?"
"And let Andy and Juliet see you like this! No! We are going to Amy's first." Chantel explains, looking at her friends for help.
They shut his locker and help her get him to her car, she drives behind Amy and Eric/Allen to Amy's house when they get there they rush to her bathroom and clean him up. They wipe up the blood, try to get the swelling down, and Eric gives him some of his clothes.
"They are going to know." Axel says
"No, not if you don't say anything. Our dad's and uncles' have enough to worry about. They are losing their careers don't you know that! Everything they love is slipping from their fingers, your mom too. We don't need them to worry." Chantel says irritated, hasn't he been listening during "family" get togethers?
"No, you're wrong. We mean more to them then their careers."
"Okay, but what about their pasts? Most if not all of them were bullied growing up, don't you think it will bring back painful memories? I can't do that to my mom!" Chantel breaks down and cries
All her friends look at her waiting for an explanation...
"She, she can't know..."
"But why love?" Amy asks, wrapping her caring arms around her shaking girlfriend
"She started getting bullied when my aunt Jessica died, her senior year was the worst, they, she," her body shook as she remembers the conversation she heard her parents having the day she came home from freshman year with a small black eye. She passed it off as running into a locker, "she was beaten until she passed out, she woke up in a hospital, and was told the damage caused her to lose site in her left eye, that's why my mothers eye is white. She was supposed to lose all vision, but thankfully it never happened. Her bullies ended up at the same college and she almost took her life when she found out both times. Andy was her first friend, and he helped her, and then the rest of the guys did, all except my dad. He kept his distance at first, but it was because he was so overwhelmed with his love for her, he had never known that feeling before. But when he found out her past he admitted his love, he had saved her from herself."
Everyone just stared at her...

Notes