Maximus nodded.
"Brax told his parents that I was getting bullied, but said they doubted the school would believe him because there was no evidence. Kage loves taking pictures and had a little camera his parents bought him for his 9th birthday. Apparently, Brax would sneak Kage out of school and they came to my school and began tracking the times I got bullied, taking tons of pictures. So when the bullies tried to throw me under the bus and tell me I was making lies up to get sympathy and prolong my time in foster care, Brax and his parents arrived with all the photos they developed from Kage's camera with a timeline for every event. They compared it with video surveillance and it matched perfectly."
"Justice," I cheered softly, wishing I could have been there myself to punch the living daylights out of all those bullies.
Maximus chuckled, his hand playing with my hair.
"Ya. Justice did feel good."
"What happened after that? Did you have to go to a new family? If Kage was nine, that means you were ten and Brax was eleven," I considered, remembering Brax and Maximus were one year apart, and Kage was younger than Maximus.
"I transferred to Brax's school and his parents took me in. I didn't change my last name or anything, simply because I wanted to keep my parents’ legacy. The Parks paid for my parents’ lingering medical bills and paid off the house. I was able to go there whenever I missed my parents, but I lived with Brax and his family from then onward. They're like family now, that's why we're so close."
"Are you upset about what Zane did?" I asked.
Maximus was silent for a full minute before answering.
"I'm upset that he's putting himself into a position where he will either get bullied into doing more reckless things or be thrown away like trash and will have no one to support him when he needs to get back up. I'm more angered at the fact you got seriously hurt due to his selfishness."
"So his new friends told him to not help during the exam, and I guess he thought if he played the 'I don't know how to create a net' excuse, the situation would work itself out. But then he realized creating a cement wall of such height was mana costing and he couldn't summon a wind sheet strong enough to prevent me from hitting the wall as hard as I did," I summarized, playing out the situation through my words since my brain was still playing catch up.
"Essentially yes. He could have used wind or levitation magic to halt your movement. I couldn't interfere or we would have been disqualified. You shot the others out of the arena and won, by the way." Maximus winked and I giggled.
"Excellent."
"That sounded more diabolical than it should have," Maximus commented.
I glanced back at Logan who stirred slightly.
"Precious...Jewel,” he whispered, before falling back to sleep.
I glanced at his bruised hand again, not liking how purple and discolored it looked.
"Did Logan snap?" I asked.
"As in, did he beat the shit out of Zane before Brax and Nixon could? Yes, and those two had to pull Logan off Zane and lock him in a room for three hours. I think after he broke the fourth light bulb Savannah finally told him if he didn't stop messing with the electricity, she'd ban him from seeing you. That’s when he calmed down," Maximus revealed.
I sighed, feeling bad for Logan. He had a really bad temper when it came to me getting hurt and as much as I told him to work on his "talking" skills, it always ended up with him teaching the person a lesson with his fist instead.
"That's just how Logan is, but how did Zane take it? Is he here?" I asked.
"He's not," Maximus admitted.
I turned my head to look at him and he had a stern look on his face.
"He's at a friend’s place."
"Please don't tell me he went back to the same friends that fucked him over?"
"You guessed it, Precious," Maximus grumbled.
I groaned. The amount of stupidity involved in this situation could induce headaches. "I can't believe this."
"Neither can we. I think he believes he'll have to suck up to them since his grade wasn't revealed yet," Maximus explained.
"It wasn't? But mine was? Did you get your grade?" I asked.
"Yes. We both passed, scoring perfect for bravery, quick thinking, and swift intervention. You demonstrated an act of selflessness which in real life could have cost you your life and they said my act of intervention by pointing out Zane's wrongs is what a commander on a mage warrior team would have done. I guess others in the past haven't voiced their concerns during tests."