Never Judge

"Who\'s the new kid?" Al\'s friend, Fred asked as he ran up to Al after class. He was laughing, as if plotting a way to bully Eric.

Cara and Eric had gone ahead since Cara didn\'t exactly get along well with Fred. She didn\'t want to interact with him, so as soon as she saw Fred marching up to them, she left, dragging Eric along.

"My cousin." Al answered in a threatening tone, making Fred shrink out of fear.

"Chill man." Fred tried his best to make it seem like he wasn\'t afraid of Al, but Al could see it, he could sense the fear and worry.

"Pretty boy." Al said as he walked ahead, making Fred chase after him not wanting to be alienated by his friend.

"Huh?" Fred asked as he tried to keep up with Al who\'s pace was quite fast.

Al was trying to get rid of Fred since his friend made Cara comfortable. He and the other popular kids had bullied Cara when she was new to school.

Even until that day, Al knew that some of the mean girls picked on Cara.

They didn\'t do it publicly afraid that if Al saw them he would stop hanging out with them.

Unfortunately, Al had always known that the bullying never stopped. That everyone continued to take jabs at her behind his back.

He tried to get Cara to tell him, but she didn\'t want him to find out that she was suffering.

Al also tried to trick people into bullying her in front of him so that he could have a reason to punish them, unfortunately they were careful around him.

"That\'s the name you planned to use to bully him." Al said as he stopped and turned to face Fred. His voice was a little bit louder, making Eric turn and give his cousin a concerned look.

"Take Eric to the cafeteria first, Cara. Fred and I need to talk." Al told her. He didn\'t want them to witness the upcoming argument.

From his peripheral vision Al could see Cara trying to pull his cousin away.

Unfortunately for the much smaller girl, Eric didn\'t want to move. He was planted firmly on the hallway as he crossed his arms on his chest.

"Do you really want to wait here?" Al asked Eric.

Eric didn\'t say a word, but nodded.

"Cara, you can go ahead if you want. We won\'t be long." Al said with a smile, making Cara hesitate.

She wanted to stay with them. She needed to see how Al was about to deal with Fred, but something told her that Al didn\'t want her to be there.

"I\'ll go save us a table." Cara quickly rushed away so as not to waste Al\'s time.

When Cara was gone, Al suddenly grabbed Fred by the arm and dragged him out of the building.

Eric was not far away at the time as Al threw Fred to the ground in a more private place.

"Woah, what\'s with the aggression?" Fred asked as he tried to get up.

"You wanted to say something?" Al asked as he glared at Fred, making the young man hesitate.

Fred hesitated as he looked up at the other man.

Something about Al seemed to have changed overnight and Fred couldn\'t pinpoint what it was.

He was a natural born leader, everyone respected him and wanted to be his friend, but now he seemed more intimidating.

"Al." Eric sighed as he walked up next to his cousin. "Calm down."

Al looked down at Fred and after a few moments took a step back.

He understood that Fred wouldn\'t speak honestly if he was intimidated by Al\'s actions. Plus he didn\'t want to cause trouble. He might be an ordinary student, but with the principal knowing his real identity it could pose a few risks.

Fred stood up and fixed his uniform, making sure that it wasn\'t wrinkled or that there wasn\'t any dirt on it.

He then looked Al in the eyes and sighed.

"Out with it." Al said as he crossed his arms and observed Fred.

At first Fred hesitated, glancing at Eric before looking back at Al. It was clear that he didn\'t want to talk to Al in front of Eric, but he had no choice.

"This isn\'t just my opinion, this is coming from a lot of people from the school." Fred said, clearly carefully picking out his words. He didn\'t want to offend Al.

Al raised an eyebrow as he waited for Fred to say more.

"What\'s your point, Fred?" Al asked.

"You\'ve gone soft." Fred\'s tone became agitated, angry for some unknown reason to Al.

"Gone soft?" Al asked as he looked Fred in the eyes, challenging him to say something more.

"How could you be friends with someone like Cara? How could you protect her? She\'s a nobody, you ditched all of us for some nobody that doesn\'t have anything to add to our group." Fred scoffed.

"He sounds like he\'s in love with you, Al." Eric teased, making Al cringe at the thought.

"What the fuck are you talking about, new kid?" Fred hissed, completely forgetting that Eric and Al were cousins.

"Don\'t you dare insult my cousin." Al said in a low voice.

He didn\'t even need to touch Fred to threaten him, the other man simply shrank back and didn\'t say a word. He knew he was wrong to say something bad about Al\'s cousin.

"So childish." Eric mocked as he looked at Fred. "Are these people really the friends you chose Al?"

Al decided to ignore his cousin\'s comment. He had only been friends with them because he had a lot to benefit, just as he was only friends with Cara at first because he needed her for a mission.

"Look, even for a highschool student you are all being immature." Al said calmly as he chose not to fight with Fred. "Cara is a good person, so what if she\'s new or if she isn\'t part of the cool group."

Fred looked at Al, stunned that he had said those things to him.

"Let\'s go, I don\'t want to deal with children anymore." Al said as he turned around with his cousin laughing walking away right behind him.