Chapter 81: Bullies(3)

Massaging his bum, Luke glared at Liz before starting to tell the story about how he had gotten involved in the entire business with the bullies.

This problem had been effecting Derek for a long time, but it had obviously reached a different level with Derek even getting injured.

Apparently, Derek had been pushed from behind while he was walking home and he had rammed into a tree which caused the bleeding injury.

Luke was coming to pick up Derek anyway, and he had seen this entire thing go down. In anger, he reprimanded the bullies.

He had come close to beating them up, but he left them alone because they were just kids. However, they told tall stories to their parents, saying that Luke had indeed beaten them up.

This was when Luke was called to the principal's office, where the parent started insinuating that their children were golden role models and that Derek was a delinquent who had grown up in the poorest part of the city. In their words, this sort of thing was 'expected' from him.

Anger radiated from Liz as she heard this part, as it was something that she had also gone through during her schooling years.

Society always focused on reasons to look down on somebody, and until recently, the Redmaine family had indeed been down in the docks.

Of course, things were different now.

It seemed that Luke had felt the same way, as he had actually thrown a punch at the parents and gotten one return, which was the reason for his black eye.

After this, Luke and Derek had been asked to leave and the principal was now requesting a meeting with Liz or Mary, because they were the official guardians for Derek. An expulsion had also been mentioned.

Clearly, the damn principal was also on the side of these parents.

Gritting her teeth, she tried to decide what to do.

If it was up to her, she would have loved to go along with Luke to beat them up. Yet, she knew that it would definitely cause more problems that it would solve.

Seeing the way Luke was still muttering under his breath and running the spot where she had landed her kick, Liz felt a little sorry as he had only acted as an older brother to Derek. He couldn't be blamed for standing up to those kids, and that punch was well warranted.

Maybe he could have handled it better if he had kept his anger in check, but Luke had always been someone who acted on his emotions instead of controlling them.

Smiling and feeling glad that she had such an awesome person in her life, Liz suddenly swooped forward and hugged Luke's waist tight, making him freeze in his place with shock.

Pecking his cheek and moving away, she said, "I missed you. And I'm glad you did stand up for Derek. But it may be time for a different approach, because this definitely doesn't solve anything. Can we have more biscuits first? They're all over…"

Of course, Luke was still standing there dumbly.

Seeing this, Liz actually chuckled to herself and ran up.

After a few seconds, Luke nodded like a robot and walked to the kitchen counter before automatically starting to fill another baking tray with the cookie dough that was prepared beforehand.

It was only halfway through this process that he finally looked up and said indignantly, "Hey! Why the kick, though? No biscuits for kickers!"

However, when he looked around, he realized that the kitchen was empty, making him glance up to the second floor from where he heard a small laugh.

Continuing to mutter and still rub his ass, Luke shook his head and put the baking tray in the oven before going out to join Derek and Mary on the porch beside the pool.

…

Getting to her room and closing the door behind her, Liz first smiled even more widely as it felt great to be back home among the people she loved.

However, this problem with the bullies was indeed something that was troubling her, and she didn't have too much experience with it as she had handled them in a different way when she was in school.

She didn't want to go into those memories now, but it was enough to say that everyone knew not to mess with Elizabeth Redmayne, especially after the first one who did so were sent to the infirmary, crying.

Thinking for a bit and remembering that offer which she had agreed to so that she wouldn't be awkward, she shrugged and made the call to the CEO, still not really understanding what kind of experience he might have.

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Announcement: Release rate is going back to 7 Chapters/week from today.

I started this book with 7/week, and I increased it to 10 because of so many requests. I work 2 jobs and I'm dead tired when I get home, but I still struggled through it anyway because I am very passionate about this book.

However, seeing the many ungrateful reviews and comments about the release schedule, I am just really demotivated.

And seeing the glowing reviews with 3-4 stars, I just feel helpless.

People say that it's annoying if there are 2 chapters on some days and only 1 on others. Well, from today, there will only be 1, so you don't need to wait for another one.

For all those complaining that chapters are "so short", all chapters are around the same, around 700-800 words.

Still, I will be increasing the chapter length to around 1000 words.

The bonus will still remain the same(Top 15: 4 chapters, Top 10: 8 chapters. Don't think its gonna happen this week anyway, so let's see about next week).

There is also a lot of encouragement, and it would be wrong to say that I don't notice this.

I am very, very grateful for all the support, and you guys are the ones who are keeping me going. Thank you.

PS About posting time, I used to eat lunch in 5 minutes and write fast so that I can ensure that I push a chapter out. So, before, the time varied. Even though they varied, I didn't even miss one chapter. Still, I see that the posting time is 'frustrating'. After this one, all chapters will be posted at 00:00 GMT+8, which is when power stones reset.