I was sitting at my desk, ignoring the teacher who was going on and on about the Periodic Table. The truth was... I really didn't care. I glanced at my friend, Stanley, who was sitting next to me, listening intently to Mr. Durben. I looked past him to outside where the wind was blowing leaves on the trees lightly. I turned around when Lanise tapped my shoulder. Lanise was black and was one of my best friends in the whole universe. God gave her a talent for drawing... Really good. For example: when I turned around she held up her recent drawing-- Mr. Durben getting his throat sliced by Sweeney Todd. I couldn't help myself. I let out a loud laugh. The entire class looked at me and Mr. Durben glared at me from over his glasses.

"Do I need to separate you two again?" he asked.

I smirked and shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know why you would have to. I'm not doing anything." Literally, I thought to myself.

"Okay," he said and came up to my desk, "you need to get paper out and take some notes."

"I don't need to." I tapped the side of my head with my index finger. "It's all up here." I'll admit it. I could be a smart-ass sometimes. It was the way I was raised.

"Melina, get paper out," he ordered.

"I haven't got any."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm poor and live out in the streets." Lanise let out a chuckle at my lie.

"Go out into the hall and wait for me."

That wiped the smile off my face and I threw my hands in the air. "Why? I was just joking around!"

"You disrupted my class and are failing to participate."

"Well, it's not my fault this class is boring." There were a couple of 'Oooos' and 'Burns' from my classmates. I knew that snide remark was enough to get me sent to Principle Smith's office, but it was the truth!

Pointing to the door he said, "Get out."

I let out a loud groan and pushed my whole desk away from me, then stood up and walked down the aisle. I caught Stanley rolling his eyes at me and he earned a punch in the shoulder. Luckily Mr. Durben didn't see. He was busy scolding Lanise for not taking notes either.

When I got out in the hall, I leaned against the wall and slid down it. "Ow," I said loudly when I landed hard on my ass.

"What a doushbag," I heard a voice from my left say. It was Kyleen. We despised each other since seventh grade, when we were disecting frogs and she thought it would be funny to throw frog eggs at me, so I threw the whole frog at her. And then last year, freshmen year, we got in a food fight in the cafeteria after she 'accidently' tripped and spilled taco salad all over me. I thought it was pretty fun until some fool thought it would be funny to sling a tray at me. Yeah, it wasn't funny.

I stood up, not in the mood to tolerate her bitchiness. "The only doush I can see is standing right in front of me."

"Hey, I'm not the idiot that got sent out here again." She gave me a satisfied grin and switched her white purse to the other shoulder. "But, please, keep getting in trouble. I'll be happy when you're suspended and I don't have to look at your ugly face."

Ugly face?! Hell, she was the one with all that make-up on, making it look like she was wearing a Halloween mask. I made myself laugh and walked toward her slowly. "You would be happy if I was suspended, huh? Okay. That's fine by me." I flashed her a sweet smile before grabbing her straightened, bleech-blonde hair and yanked it back, slamming her head against the lockers.

She let out a yelp and dropped her purse, her hands flying to my hands, which were now tightening around her thoat. Her eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets, her mouth opening and closing trying to breathe in air.

"Mel, stop!" a boy yelled. "You're going to kill her!"

I turned my head to see who was shouting at me. Corey was running towards me. I looked back at Kyleen, whose eyes were now rolling in the back of her head. I released my grip on her throat, instead grabbing her shirt collar with my left hand and punching her in the stomache with my right. I let all my anger out with each punch. I directed my blows to her powdered face. After three hits, her nose and mouth were bleeding. Tears were streaming down her face, making her mascara and eyeliner run.

Corey tried to grab me from behind, but I pushed him away easily, him being just a tiny thing. Grabbing Kyleen's head with both my hands, I started slamming it against the lockers over and over again.

"Hey!" I heard Corey shout. "Somebody get out here! Fight!"

Kyleen collapsed down to the floor, apparently unconscience, but I wasn't done. I jumped on top of her, continuing to throw punches. When I was about to hit her for the, what seemed like, hundreth time, I was fiercely yanked away from her limp figure. I tried struggling out of the grip that had me, but stopped abruptly when I met Mr. Bender's small, black eyes.