Limit

Kirk's eyes widened and he sat back a little. He hadn't meant any harm by his comment. Why was Adison so upset? "I didn't..." Too late. She was gone already and he sighed. To follow or not to follow? That was the new question.


At Adison's reprimand and threat, Mark put his hands in the air. "Whoa, hey, chill." He frowned at her. "You can't prove I did anything but watch. He's the clumsy oaf, not me."

Barely looking up, Jamison's face was red as he kept working. "I'm fine," he muttered. "I'm always fine." It's not that he didn't appreciate the help, he was just too embarrassed and irritated to spend energy being overly polite.

"Um, these are supposed to be alphabetical then sorted by date, but just..." He sighed and stared at the mess. "Just don't worry about it. I'll sort it all out myself later."

Mark snickered as he finally started to leave the scene. "It'll be okay," he assured mockingly. "Just don't cry too loudly. Some of us have real work to do."

Jamison had hit his limit. Maybe it was being extra embarrassed in front of Adison. Maybe it was that he'd already been put down enough for one day. Maybe he'd gained courage from the earlier case. No matter the reason though, Mark's jeering was too much.

Abandoning the mess, Jamison sprang off the step and tackled Mark at the waist, bringing him to the tiled floor. Mark howled in protest, and held up his arms but not before he'd already absorbed two hard punches to his mouth. A wrestling match ensued. Jamison didn't have weight enough not to be thrown around, and was slammed into the wall hard before bouncing back and sweeping Mark's legs out from under him to bring him back down. It all happened so fast and Jamison gained the upper hand with Mark underestimating his speed. Before anyone could interfere, Jamison had Mark on his stomach, his arm torqued behind his back, and a knee pressing his face down into the floor.

"Get off me!" Mark yelled. "You are so dead!"

"And you are so done with your idiotic bullying!" Jamison put more pressure on him.

"You're gonna break my arm!" Mark writhed under him but could barely move. "Somebody get him off of me!"


Garret managed a small smile but was still feeling rather awkward. "No, I just... well, it's not something I... I mean..."

Laura interrupted, wondering if maybe he needed more information. "It's for the high schoolers and the students like Maggie," she explained. "The school is trying to create social gatherings where they can all interact. Doesn't always work well, but they try. Most of the high schoolers pair up...the kids and adults like Maggie...well, some of them go with each other, but most end up with siblings or parents. So if you did go with Maggie, you wouldn't be the only adult there. I think sometimes Maggie gets teased about always bringing her own brother as a date."

Garret looked down at his hands for a moment. It had nothing to do with dancing being his thing or not, or even it being out of his element. This was nothing compared to all he'd experienced in his life. And yet... "I'm...not sure I belong at a scene like that," he finally responded. "If anyone questioned who I was or anything... I could get you all in big trouble. And..." He wasn't even sure how to say this. "Well... I'm just not so sure Maggie should be getting so attached to me."