From Bullets To Billions

Nearly every student in the school whose classroom windows faced the front entrance had their eyes locked on the scene unfolding outside.

It was impossible to ignore.

They recognized the uniforms. Each one represented a different school across the Brinhurst area. Many of them had crossed paths with these students before, on their way home, on the streets, or during past confrontations.

And while most of the students watching from inside weren't delinquents themselves, nor official members of the Bloodline group, they still owned the group's merch. Hoodies, bags, even keychains, items they wore for the simple reason that rumors about the Billion Bloodline had spread like wildfire.

Everything they were witnessing was shocking. Surreal.

The students could feel it, like the air itself was charged. The logical next step, the one they all expected, was a fight. A full-on brawl between Max and his school against the flood of outsiders that had just invaded.

"Max will be okay… right?" Abby asked, eyes still fixed on the window.

"I'm really not sure," Cindy replied nervously. Her voice trembled. "I mean… those guys look like brutes. I know you said Max is good at fighting and all, but there's so many of them. And what are they even doing here in the middle of the day?"

When Cindy glanced at Abby, she noticed her friend's fists clenched tight at her sides. Her body was shaking slightly, the tension rolling off her in waves.

"Max is always getting himself into trouble," Abby mumbled. "And he never tells me the truth about it. I have this feeling… that part of this might be because of me."

That was when Cindy snapped her fingers, an idea sparking.

"Wait, what about Sheri?" she asked. "We've gotten closer to her recently. And when she was talking to the others, it really seemed like she knew something about Max, or at least something about you two. Maybe she knows what's reallygoing on."

Before they could act on it, the students outside made their move, and every single pair of eyes in the school widened.

All of the students who had entered, the delinquents from the different schools, were now kneeling. Heads bowed low. Every last one of them.

It looked… ceremonial. Like they had just realized Max was their long-lost king.

"What's going on? Are they bowing to him? Is Max… royalty or something?"

"Nah," one student whispered. "Maybe he's like the son of a mob boss or something. You know, someone they all respect."

"Or maybe he's just really rich?"

Another student waved that off with a scoff.

"Even if someone's rich, that doesn't make this happen. You can't just buy that kind of loyalty, not from them."

While gossip and speculation flooded the classrooms, no one was more stunned than Max himself.

He stood frozen, blinking at the sight of dozens of kneeling students. He could hardly believe what he was hearing as the words echoed in his head.

"We would all like to join the Bloodline group!"

"You want to join the Bloodline group?" Max asked, his voice steady but laced with disbelief. "Why? What made you all decide this so suddenly?"

Print raised his head first, a confident smile on his face.

"The reason's simple," he said. "It's because of you."

Max didn't respond. He just watched.

"After your fight yesterday," Print continued, "Erik came to me with an idea. Not to unite West Brinhurst under my name. Not under his name. But yours."

He gestured to Max as he spoke.

"We both saw it. There's no way either of us could beat you, not you or your group. And eventually, if we kept standing on the opposite side, we'd be taken down. We knew that."

Erik nodded in agreement beside him.

"But more than that," Print added, "we realized that even if either of us did lead the West side... we couldn't take it to the heights you can."

"So, we figured," Erik chimed in, "why compete when we can contribute? Together, we could achieve more under your name than we ever could on our own."

Max felt a spark of pride deep inside. He had staged that fight, hoping to make a statement, to stop other schools from thinking about attacking. But to have them ask to join him? That was an unexpected reward.

"I see," Max said slowly. "But what about the others? The entire Clapton alliance? And Rick... after everything that happened, you really expect me to believe you want to join too?"

He turned his eyes toward Rick, skeptical. For those who had been pushed out or betrayed by their schools, maybe joining made sense. Max had expected one or two to come crawling eventually after more inter-school conflict.

But all of them? Together? That was something different. He must've made a bigger impression than he'd realized.

Rick stepped forward then.

"Print and Erik were the ones who came to me," he admitted. "But they're leaving out a big part of the story."

Both Print and Erik looked a little uneasy.

"The truth is," Rick said, "they came asking if I had any intention of going back against you."

He paused, letting the weight of his words hang.

"And honestly... the way they asked? It almost sounded like if I had said yes, they might've stood by my side. If I'd said I wanted revenge, this march could've looked very different."

Max looked from Rick to Print and Erik. Their subtle shifts, the way they avoided eye contact, it confirmed it. Rick was telling the truth.

And that meant something else too.

Despite beating Rick, Max hadn't crushed him enough to be considered untouchable. Not yet. He'd won, but not so convincingly that the idea of a counterattack was unthinkable.

That realization grounded him.

"I made my choice," Rick said, standing tall. "You made it clear, there's a wave coming. And I can either get drowned, forgotten with nothing to my name…"

He paused, eyes fierce.

"Or I can become part of that wave."

He turned to face Max directly.

"That's why we came. That's why we all want to join the Billion Bloodline group. So I ask again, on behalf of everyone here…"

He lowered his head once more.

"Will you accept us?"