Kick

I've finally found a photo for Maximus!

•Amethyst•

"I'm gonna get something to drink. You want anything, shortie?" Maximus, well, he told me to call him Max, asked as he stood up from the lunch bench.

At the end of History we decided that we needed to talk more about the project so we were going to sit together at lunch. I had told Samantha and she was cool about it since she and Xander wanted to go out for lunch that day anyway. She was also smiling and saying things like "It's cool if you want to eat lunch with a boy, Amy. And if you want to hang out with him more even if you hung out with him for a whole class."

She might have been insane at the time.

"So, shortie, why are you sitting with us today?" Jacob, one of the guys in the hot guy group, asked.

I looked up from my notebook that I was currently writing in and shrugged. "Maximus-I mean- Max and I are working on the project for history."

He chuckled. "Is that what you're writing in that little notebook of yours?"

I nodded. "Ye-"

He quickly snatched it and started to flip through the pages. "I could've sworn you were writing about how hot all of us are."

I reached out to grab for it but he quickly moved away before my short arms could get to him.

"Give it back!" I ordered.

He smirked. "Don't want me to read about your little crush on Max?"

I growled and reached for it again but he held it above his head. "No! I don't like Max like that! I barely even know the guy!"

I hate it when people use their height against me! I groaned in my head and I stood on the bench and tried to grab it. Jacob laughed and stood up off the bench, still taller than me on the ground and moved around. I scoffed, jumped off, headed towards him, and tried to jump up and get it from him. He didn't move away since I was still too short, even when I jumped my highest to get it from him.

I was never that good at leaps in dance class anyway. It thought as I tried to get it from him.

I huffed when I realized it was pointless and prepared myself for what I was going to do next.

"You asked for this," I mumbled before kicking him in the shin as hard as I could.

He yelled in pain and dropped the book, which I expertly caught, and grabbed his shin with his hands. I shrugged as he cursed up a storm and walked back to the bench with a smug look on my face.

But I was always good at kicks. I boasted in my head.

I sat down and looked at all of the boys' impressed or shocked faces. After a few moments one of them started clapping and the rest of them followed. I giggled but quickly stopped when I saw Max walking over holding two drinks in his hands with a smirk.

I quickly looked down at my notebook and pretended to write. Max slowly slid in next to me and put the soda in front of me. He then tilted his head so I could see some of his face and chuckled.

"I didn't know you had such a kick in you, shortie. How do I know that's not the first time you've done that? Should your clean record be so clean?" He teased.

I coughed and turned away from him. "I think so," I mumbled.

He looked up over my head. "I don't think the principal does."

I snapped my head up to see the principal storming up to my table with a furious look on his face. I squeaked out a noise of fear and turned away, trying to shield myself and make me look smaller.

"Ms. Stone! My office, now!" The principal called when he was at our table.

I quickly closed my notebook and stood up out of my chair, Max standing up next to me in a much calmer fashion. I quickly scurried behind the principal, Max following for some reason, and angrily scolded myself for my reckless behavior. When the principal opened the door to his office I felt the tears start to well up in my eyes, causing me to scold myself even more for being such a baby. I walked in after him and Max walked in for some reason as well, the principal not really caring that he was inside because he knew he couldn't get him to leave.

The principal sat down behind his desk and gestured for me to sit in the chairs in front of it. I gulped and sat down, looking at the floor the whole time.

"I'm very disappointed in you, Amethyst," he started. "You're the best behaved student at this school! You haven't even gotten told off by a teacher for doing something wrong and yet here you are kicking someone at lunch time?" He scoffed. "Why on earth would you do such a thing?"

I sniffled and tried to hold in the tears but couldn't bring myself to talk. I knew I would cry if I tried.

The principal sighed. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you detention for this," he said as he pulled out something from his desk.

I squinted my eyes shut to stop the tears from falling and hung my head even lower in shame.

"Fuck that!" Max exclaimed angrily.

The principal stopped what he was doing and looked up. "Excuse me?"

"Jacob was being a complete ass, I saw him! He took her notebook, that she was using to do her schoolwork, and started to tease her. He held it up over his head so she couldn't get it too! She tried to just jump up and get it from him, she even asked at first, but he wouldn't give it to her. After like five minutes she knew she couldn't get it back so she kicked him. If anything, I'd say Jacob should be getting detention for bullying, or whatever. She was just defending herself!" He explained.

The principal scoffed. "She still shouldn't have kicked him."

"That's like saying if he tried to steal her purse that she shouldn't run after him! He was being an ass and she was trying to take back something that was hers!"

There was silence for a few moments before the principal sighed. "Fine. I'll let her off the hook this time." He turned to me. "Don't ever do that again, though, Amethyst. I don't want to have to ruin your perfect record over some foolish act." He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "You may leave, now. The both of you."

I nodded and quickly jumped out of the chair before sprinting out of the room. I ran straight to the girl's bathroom down the hall and jumped into the first empty stall I found. I quickly locked the door before sitting on the toilet and letting the tears fall. I listened and footsteps walked into the room after I cried for a few seconds and gasped when I heard Max's voice.

"You know, shortie, it isn't good to cry all alone in a bathroom. It's always better when you're in the arms of your savior," he said and I could just hear the smirk in his voice.

Now, I don't know what possessed me to do this, but I'm glad I did.

I quickly unlocked the stall and ran into Max's chest before wrapping my small arms around his torso. He didn't even move at the impact and just hugged me back. I cried into his shirt and buried my face further into his chest when he rubbed soothing circles on my back.

"That's right, shortie. Let it all out," He cooed in a calming tone.

I sniffled and hugged him a bit tighter before choking out my words.

"Thank you," I whispered.

He chuckled, causing me to bounce a little since my head was at his stomach, and patted my back. "Anytime, kiddo. Now," he put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me away, though he still held me at arms length. "Why were you crying?" He asked.

I looked down and wiped a stray tear off my cheek. "It was my first time getting in trouble and I was really scared," I mumbled, hating that I sounded like a child.

Max bent down onto his knees so he could be close to eye level with me. "Look at me, shortie." I looked up, still having to tilt up my head so I could see his face, even if he was in his knees. "You don't have to be scared, okay? As long as you got your knight in shining armor here with you, you're good! Don't worry so much, okay? I'm your friend now, you're as safe as can be," he assured.

I smiled slightly and nodded. "Okay, thanks knight."

He smirked. "Is that my new nickname? Knight?"

I shrugged. "You call me shortie, I call you knight."

He nodded. "I like it. It really suits me. Or should I say armor."

I giggled. "That wasn't funny."

"How come you're laughing?"

"Because I'd never though I see the day when I heard you make a pun."

He shrugged. "I have a lot of layers."

I smirked. "Yeah right."

~<~<~<

"He likes you! He totally likes you! Oh my God, do you like him too?! Did you guys kiss?! What happened?! I need to know!" Samantha screamed as we walked inside my room.

She had decided to drive to my house that day and I was fine with it since I needed to tell her about the whole lunch fiasco. We were best friends since freshman year and as part of girl code and bestie code, I had to tell her every important detail of my life.

"I don't like him, he doesn't like me. We are friends, that's it. He hugged me because I was sad, that's it. We didn't kiss. I'm still a kiss-virgin, and, well, a virgin-virgin," I recapped for her.

I had already told her the story, that was the aftermath.

She pouted. "So nothing?" I nodded. She shook her head in denial. "Nope, not okay, not taking that shit! You two are going to get married and have three beautiful children because both of you look like literal models! Anyway," she plopped onto my bed and started to unload her stuff, "I'm going to be in detective mode until that happens!"

I rolled my eyes and sat down at my desk. "Whatever that means, go ahead and do it. You're just going to have to spend the rest of your life in detective mode because we are never going to get married, let alone have children, let alone date."

Samantha chuckled evilly. "You say that now, my sweet child, but you just wait and see..."

My best friend was crazy if you couldn't tell.

"So how was lunch with Xander?" I asked after a few moments of us taking out our stuff in silence.

She shrugged with a blush and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "He was just so sweet!" She gushed. "We went to the restaurant and he was all like 'Let me open the door for you,' or 'You look amazing,' and other cute stuff like that. The waiter tried to flirt with him but he grabbed my hand and was all like 'Do you want anything else sweetie?'" She smirked. "The look on that bitch's face! And... he said that he loves me!" She screamed.

I jumped up out of my chair and ran over to her. "He did?! Really?!"

She nodded excitedly causing me to tackle her into a hug. She giggled as I kept squealing happily.

"Damn! For such a small girl you can do a good tackle!" She laughed.

I instantly stopped my squealing when I realized that I had to do the most important (and extra) thing a best friend can do when their bestie's boyfriend says the "L" world.

"I've gotta go out real quick," I stated as I stumbled off of her and ran to the door. "Just keep doing what you're doing, honey! I'll be back!" I called as I ran down the steps.

I'm such a good friend! I thought in my mind as I grabbed the baseball bat near the door.