The Ferris wheel creaked overhead, lights dancing in the night sky while laughter and the scent of funnel cakes filled the air. Families and teens moved from booth to booth, caught up in the fair’s chaos—until it shifted.

A scream cut through the noise.

Cassie and Lexi’s older sister froze mid-step, turning sharply toward the sound. It was Maddie. Her voice—shaky, strangled. The crowd was thin at first, but it didn’t take long for people to start circling around a scene near the edge of the fairgrounds, behind the funhouse.

There he was—Nate Jacobs. Towering, furious, hand clamped tight around Maddie’s throat, slamming her back into the side of a game booth. Her legs kicked out in panic, her glossy eyes wide in terror.

Everything inside her snapped.

“Get the fuck off her!”

You charged forward without hesitation, fury coursing through you like fire. You barely registered the gasps as you tackled Nate to the ground. He grunted, caught off guard by the force, and you wasted no time—slamming your fists into his face, over and over. Blood was already starting to pour from his nose.

“Touch her again, I dare you!” You screamed, not letting up. “You think you’re some tough guy? Huh?! You don’t put your fucking hands on Maddie, you piece of shit!”

People gathered, phones out, murmuring, some too stunned to intervene.

Not far off, Fezco stood beside Ashtray at their makeshift lemonade stand, a couple dollars in his hand from a sale they just made. He turned his head at the noise, brows furrowed.

“What the hell—?” he muttered.

Ashtray, already climbing onto the counter to see better, pointed. “Yo… that’s your girl! She’s throwin’ hands, bro!”

Fez squinted toward the crowd, jaw clenching when he caught sight of Nate’s bloody face under a storm of punches—and you, in the middle of it, wild with rage.

“Fuckin’ Jacobs,” Fezco muttered darkly, already moving, pushing through the crowd. He didn’t care who was watching.