BACKGROUND CHECK

I went to my locker room and saw Emma and Sophie waiting for me.

"Are you hiding something from us?" asked Emma suspiciously.

"Nope. Why?" I replied, stunned at the sudden question.

"You and Liam seem to be great friends" said Sophie, looking at me curiously.

"Yeah. What's wrong with that?" I replied. Both of them were up to something , I thought.

"Nothing. Lets head back to class."

I was tired because of the game and could not listen to classes anymore. I didn't even realize when I dozed off in my seat.

When I opened my eyes, I saw Liam looking fixedly at me. I noticed that the class was empty except for Liam and me.

"Morning , sunshine. It's enthralling to watch you drool over the desk", he teased.

"Shut the fuck up. I don't drool. What are you doing here and where's everyone?", I asked , rubbing my eyes.

" In the ground, watching seniors' basketball match. We don't have any class now."

Suddenly, we heard a commotion. It seemed to be from the restroom. I could hear a girl wailing.

"Let's check it out", said Liam.

We hurried to the girls' restroom. Liam stood outside. I went in and saw something unbelievable.

"Help! Please anyone help me", cried a girl. When I saw properly, I realized it was Alicia, a class 4 girl. She was in a deplorable condition. Her shirt was almost torn off and her hair was messy as if someone had pulled it mercilessly. There were bruises on her legs. I felt blood rising in my veins.

"Noone can hear you. All the morons are in the ground , sweety", yelled a boy and slapped her. "Someone gag her. We can't let her off easily. The bitch refused to go out with me. She has no idea about who I am and what I can do. I wanna teach her a lesson", he said. I recognized him in that moment. He was Derek White of class 4, a well known bully of our school. I never expected that he would stoop so low. Apart from him, there were two other boys, whom I didn't recognize.

I was fuming. I lunged forward, quickly sprinting towards him and slammed my right fist into his face. He was surprised but he recovered quickly and deflected my second attack. He adjusted himself and clutched my neck. I slammed my knee into his balls. He cried out loud. I grabbed the opportunity, darted forward and impaled his stomach. He was terrified and fell to his knees. The other two guys were astounded watching the fight. They joined, but they were relatively weaker than Derek. I grabbed one guy, pushed him down and slammed my knee into his face. He collapsed. The other guy was petrified. He sprang forward and attempted to attack, but I dodged it quickly and smashed my fist against his shoulder with brute force. He fell back.

"Don't.. you know... who... I'm?", Said Derek, choking on his words. "I can ...make your entire family ....disappear from this... country", he tried to sound dangerously.

I knew what he meant. Derek's father was involved in the underworld. Due to this reason, the brat courageously bullied the students in the school, and no one dared to stand up against him.

I got jitters listening to his threat. I couldn't help thinking about my mom and sister. What have I done? I would have shot his action and complained to the authority. My identity would not have been revealed. Why did I go against him directly?

"No, you won't ", Liam appeared in front of him, blocking me from Derek's sight. "You won't dare do that", he growled at him, baring his teeth.

I was confused. What was going on? Liam sounded different. I never saw him enraged like this before. It was like he had a completely different side, which was unknown to all of us. Was it because of me? Why would he be involved? If he is, his family will face the consequences too.

"Get out of here, Liam. That asshole really has a lot of power. Don't get involved", I warned him.

But he was indifferent to my warning. He continued to stare angrily at Derek. To my astonishment, Derek got frightened and agreed to him. He was trembling with fear.

Why would the bully be so afraid of Liam's glare? I had no idea about what was going on. Liam took off his blazer and wrapped it around Alicia. I helped her up and escorted her to the school office.

Liam accompanied me but we remained silent for the rest of the day. We didn't utter a single word to each other. I was still wondering why Derek was so frightened of him.

"Hey , Hayley. Where were you, girl? You missed such an amazing sight. Hottie seniors were playing ball. Oh gosh! Why is Tyler so hot? I couldn't take my eyes off him during the game", said Sophie dreamily.

"You know you are literally drooling, right?", replied Emma giving an exasperated face. ''Besides, Shawn is way hotter than Tyler."

"You are kidding me, right? Shawn has a lean body, whereas Tyler is muscular", Sophie refuted.

"What's wrong with her?", asked Emma, looking at me. "Anything happened?" she asked me.

"Err.. It's a long story. Will tell you later. Anyways, did you see Liam?" I asked, trying not to sound worried.

"Nope. Speaking of which, Soph, did you notice that Liam wasn't in the ground either?"

"Holy crap. Did you both....?" asked Sophie, eyeing me curiously.

I nearly jumped from my seat at that question. "Have you lost it? We were just umm... talking and something happened", I replied.

Both of them turned their heads towards me and listened in rapt attention as I narrated the whole incident. When I finished, Sophie was the first to react.

"Are you fucking insane? Don't you know his family background? Why did you butt in?", she asked me annoyed.

"What was I supposed to do? Let the girl be raped? And leave it aside, I don't think he will be a threat anymore", I said, thinking of Liam.

"Why did he listen to Liam like a puppy? I mean you beat him up like shit but he wasn't afraid of you, was he? Why would he listen to Liam after just one glare?" said Sophie.

"Unless he has the same background", said Emma slowly. I felt my heart skip a beat.

"You mean his family is involved in the underworld too?" asked Sophie.

"Why else would Derek agree to him so easily then?"

Both of them gave me a questioning look. "I don't know anything, we never talked about our families ", I said.

This time both of them looked at each other and smiled wickedly. I suspected that they were up to no good. "What are your evil minds filled with now?" I asked.

"How about a background check?" said Emma, giving an evil grin.

" And from where are thou all going to get the records?" I asked tiredly.

Her grin widened. "The school office."