TW: A piece of derogatory, homophobic language.

Tide paused on the court, the ball was heavy and rough in his hands.

“Hey? Hey, Earth to Tide? You gonna pass or what?”

Tide ignored Connor, tossing the ball across to Ryan as he jogged over past the stands to see that he had been correct. Jason Cole and his friends were smoking over by the far wall.

Tide grit his teeth and walked quickly towards them. It had been an unusually grey Monday morning, although the sun was just starting to creep through the clouds. Jason was shielding his eyes as he looked up to see who was approaching them.

“Hi Tide,” Jason gave a rigid smile, “looking good out there man, it’s the big game on Friday right?”

“Did you leave Forest in the locker room the other day?” Tide snapped. He hadn’t been expecting to confront the other boy publicly. However, when he had seen Jason laughing and looking so carefree with his friends it had made Tide furious.

“It was you wasn’t it?” Tide pressed as Jason let out a sigh and flicked his eyes away. Jason’s friend Trev let out an awkward laugh.

“Come on Tide, it’s not that big a deal. Plus we could have reported that freak for sexual harassment the way he kept checking us out as we changed!”

“Forest wouldn’t have been looking at you,” Tide stated grimly. “What the hell have you got against him?”

“You have to admit there’s something just creepy about him,” Jason exclaimed, “he’s always staring, he barely blinks for crying out loud! Those weird ass glasses make his eyes look like one of those fucked up animals… you know the ones? The lemur looking ones?”

“He’s got social anxiety,” Tide muttered, “there’s no reason for you to pick on him. You need to cut it out.”

“Or what?” Trev narrowed his eyes in amusement. “Don’t tell me that little weirdo has got Mr. 'Popular Prom King' acting as his guard dog now? What has he got over you Tide?”

“He’s my friend,” Tide stated firmly, “and you’re going to leave him the hell alone from now on, got it?”

“Look, it wasn’t anything serious alright?” Jason rolled his eyes. “Just a bit of horseplay in the locker room. It’s not my problem if he’s way too sensitive.”

“Besides,” Trev grinned, “was probably a bit of a wet dream for him – getting to be naked with a load of hot guys. Kid probably jerked it raw after we left.”

The rest of their friends laughed as Tide dug his fingernails into the flesh of his palm. He knew he needed to control his anger, it wouldn’t solve anything. Tide had used to suffer from hot flashes of rage after his mom had died. His dad had even sent him to a mild-mannered therapist to talk it through. It had helped, up until now.

“He was crying you dick,” Tide growled, staring hard at Trev.

“Ugh,” Trev scrunched up his face in mock disgust, “I don’t need to know Effy’s twisted perversions!”

“Effy?” Tide frowned. He could hear Ryan and the others coming up behind them to see what was going on.

“Yeah,” Trev snorted as Jason paled slightly and signalled at his friend to shut the hell up. “Effy – the four ‘f’s’, Forest the four-eyed fag freak.”

Tide felt his knuckles connect sharply with the bridge of Trev’s nose, a sickening crunch and spurts of blood.

“TIDE!” Ryan’s shout was loud and desperate as Tide raised his hand again and pushed Trev down to the ground, hitting him for a second time.

“Stop! Enough!” Hunter was yelling now, as a multitude of hands gripped Tide’s arms and jerked him backwards.

“What the hell?” Jason screeched as he scrambled to get away from them. Trev was moaning on the dusty ground as he rolled over and spat out a mouthful of bright blood.

“Jesus, Tide,” Ryan muttered, pulling his friend further back and not releasing his vice like grip. “What the fuck have you gone and done?”

***

Tide sat stiffly on the creaking wooden chair in front of Principal Brodeur’s desk. They appeared to be waiting for something, Tide realised with a groan what it was when the door slammed open and he heard Coach Miller’s gruff voice.

“Are you insane Serrano?” Coach yelled, stalking forwards to slam his hands on the Principal’s desk whilst glaring at Tide. “You got in a damn fight? Four days before the game? You do realise there are going to be scouts watching?”

“Sorry Coach,” Tide stated numbly, his throat felt dry and his hand was throbbing.

“The emphasis here should be that getting in a fight at any time of the year is wrong,” Principal Brodeur sighed, narrowing her eyes at Tide. “You’ve never got involved in anything like this before Tide, what’s going on?”

“He deserved it,” Tide muttered, he knew that was completely the wrong thing to say but he didn’t care.

“Do you?” Brodeur asked, causing Tide to frown in confusion.

“Huh?” Tide asked inarticulately.

“Do you deserve what you’ve brought upon yourself Tide?” Brodeur continued. “A fight on your behavioural record, not being able to play on Friday?”

“You’re benching me,” Tide stated miserably.

“Jesus,” Coach Miller looked distraught, “Is there anything the boy can do? Detention for the rest of the year – you name it? Come on Gabby, he’s got a perfect behaviour and attendance record up to this point!”

“Coach Miller,” Principal Brodeur cleared her throat and shot him a reprimanding expression. She turned to Tide and let out a suffering sigh. “I assume nothing like this will ever happen again?”

“It won’t,” Tide replied, feeling a glimmer of hope in his chest.

“The SCS,” Brodeur announced, shuffling some papers on her desk.

“The School Contribution Scheme?” Tide frowned. It had been one of Brodeur’s initiatives the previous year. Students would volunteer to help around the school in different areas, from serving lunch meals to cleaning up the science labs after lessons. It looked good on a college application but very few people wanted to dedicate that much time when they could be focussing on their actual studies…or lives.

“If you were to become a ‘Contributor’ I could perhaps clear you to still play on Friday, what do you think?”

“He’ll do it!” Coach exclaimed before Tide could even open his mouth.

“Excellent,” Brodeur nodded. “You can start by seeing Mrs Kittaneh, I’m sure she had some cleaning in the art studio that needed doing.”

“Thank you,” Tide nodded, “I won’t let you down.”