Matt won't take BS from anyone

Matt glared at the football punk. "Back off, loser."

"Oooh. Somebody thinks he's a tough guy." The sidekick put his hands up as if afraid of what Matt would do. "Watch out, Jordan. The new kid is going to school you."

"Is that right, new kid?" The football punk, Jordan, shoved Matt into one of the antique lockers which lined the school corridors. "You going to give me some kung fu lessons?"

A crowd had already gathered and Matt's heart sank into his gut. Even if he could win a fair fight, the sidekick would make sure nothing was fair. Worse, there were some girls watching including a really pretty pair, one blond and one brunette. Talk about unfair.

The only solution, Matt decided, was to tough it out. Maybe a teacher would interfere before he got his head bashed in. And maybe his father was right about bullies always being afraid.

"You want a piece of me, I'm right here." He kept his hands at his side. Raising them and making fists was a good way to get himself expelled before his first class. He might be new to this school but that didn't mean he wasn't aware of how things went. And how things went was that the football stars couldn't do any wrong. He had to bet Jordan was a football star.

"You want a piece of him?" the sidekick urged. "Doesn't look like there's more than about half a slice."

Jordan grabbed one of Matt's arms and hammered his head into the lockers. "You need to learn something about respect, kid."

Matt spun around, fists up. He was going to get killed but he'd give it his best shot.

"You guys leave this idiot alone." All of a sudden, Karen was between the football jerks and Matt.

"Hey," Jordan backed off. "Just letting him know about the football team. You thinking about joining the cheerleading squad. A pretty girl like you could fit in there and they're always looking."

"I hadn't thought about it."

Jordan might as well have been stripping Matt's sister with his gaze. "Just goes to show, sometimes the new kids are a drag and other times they're real assets. You want to hang out some time, pretty girl, you just ask for Jordan."

"Or Freddy," the sidekick put in.

"Yeah, or him." Jordan took Karen by the arm. "What's your first class? I'll walk you there."

Matt looked around. It was if he'd vanished from reality. Then again, he'd just gotten rescued by his sister. There weren't many girls who would find that especially manly. Maybe he shouldn't have gone the confrontation route.