Monday came.

What did they really expect to happen anyway? Of course everything would be different once you were with your natural friends and the connections made in a time of loneliness and desperation would fade. That's what it was anyway; they had all been desperate for a reprieve from the stress of daily life that had proven too much for them to handle.

They had all wound up in detention hadn't they? They were cracking. The gleaming façade of nonchalance was wearing thin so it was obvious they couldn't handle life anymore; some more than others.

So out of that despair they had sought someone who would listen, someone who could relate. They had found each other but none of it was real.

Allison ran to the bathroom to find herself in midnight black eyeliner and a curtain of hair once Andy dismissed her as a 'freak.' Brian was oblivious to the harsh words Claire spewed about him to her friends once he had passed her and all this time John stood back watching it happen; his intuition had told him from the moment Claire had placed a soft kiss on his neck that this was a lie and it wouldn't last.

What they found in each other that Saturday was enough to tide them over until they found it again in someone else. But now that Monday had arrived it was time they all got real.

"Shit." Amanda muttered as she felt around in her pocket for a piece of gum. How could she be so stupid as to leave her cigarettes in her pocket? The rules clearly stated that if any tobacco was found on her person it was an immediate Saturday detention and a write up.

First day in a new school, in the middle of the year mind you, and she had already broken a cardinal rule.

'Just don't think about them.' She told herself as she grabbed the door handle to English and yanked it open to reveal an entirely full up classroom. Stopping dead in her tracks from lack of an obvious place to sit she stood and stared at the twenty plus faces that looked at her with equal confusion.

"Amanda?" The teacher asked. She turned her head and nodded slowly at the teacher who had been writing on the board.

"Yeah." She responded hesitantly. Remembering the piece of paper in her pocket she had to have all the teachers' sign she reached into her jacket and pulled it out. The teacher, Mr. Swanson, took it and went to sign it on the level top of his desk. Sitting on the mustard colored chair he lifted it and made to hand it to her without even looking up from the book he had opened.

"Go on and take a seat." He told her. She turned her head and surveyed the severe lack of space.

"Where?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter." He waved his hand at her, dismissing her concern. She sighed and walked down the middle of the aisle. There were five rows of long tables on each side that sat about five and not a single inch was open. Every person who happened to make eye contact with her sneered and shifted away as though she were harboring a contagious disease.

'Maybe it's an Illinois thing to be rude.' Amanda thought to herself. She continued to slowly peruse the aisles until a leather clad hand shot up in the back of the class and waved for her to come back. Without hesitation she sped up back to where the person whom beckoned her sat.

He sat a double wide table that had one shorter leg so it looked cockeyed. His leg was resting nonchalantly on its surface and he was twirling a match between his fingers. He turned his head and gave her a slow onceover as she stood stock still before him. His long hair flared out slightly at the end and he had a small light streak in the very front of it. The side of his mouth crooked slightly, flashing a few white teeth and making her heart beat just a little faster.

"Sit." He commanded. She promptly took the seat immediately to his right and exhaled in relief as the teacher started the lecture.

"I'm Amanda." She offered her hand to him but he just looked at it.

"I heard." He responded shortly. Maybe it was an Illinois thing…

"What's your name?" she continued after a few minutes of silence. He turned his head and gave her an exasperated look.

"What are we in Elementary school? Gonna tell me your favorite color too? Why not tell me your best talent while you're at it?" He sneered. Unable to believe the sheer rudeness of what he was saying she sat there staring, dumbfounded, "Able to sing the alphabet backwards? Name the fifty states?" she shook her head. Yanking his foot off the table he turned and leaned in so he could grab the seat of her chair and wrench her in close and whisper against her ear, "Or can you do something FAR more useful like… tie a cherry stem into a knot with your tongue? Because THAT is a talent I'd be interested in hearing about." The smell of tobacco and Colgate wafted around her as he held his position close.

Hearing him chuckle he shoved her seat back and returned to his previous position. Feeling thoroughly shaken up, Amanda leaned down and pulled a notebook and pencil from her bag.

"John." She heard him say as she was hovering over her backpack.

"What?" She whispered, sitting back up.

"My name is John." He said without looking at her. This garnered a little smile from her as she sat her notebook and pencil on the tabletop.

"I'm Amanda." She replied.

"We've already covered this for the third time and no, you're not," he turned his head and gave her a look of exasperation yet again, "You're Mandy." He told her.

Without missing a beat she smiled and said, "Well hi Johnny, nice to meet you."

'She's been at this school ten minutes and already she's fallen asleep,' John thought as he looked over at Mandy who was snoring and drooling against her notebook, 'Pathetic.' He thought. Reaching over he wrapped his hand around the back of her head and lifted it just enough to shove his flannel underneath it so she wouldn't have red spots on her cheekbones when she woke up.

'Maybe I was a little too harsh.' He thought. Brand new fresh meat and he's already groped her with his gaze and language. She was a little hard to miss as she walked in slowly, her eyes darting around the room like she was waiting for something to pop out and grab her. Sure she was pretty enough with short electric blonde hair and killer dark blue eyes but it's not like the slime balls at this school would make it easy on her anyway so he knew he had to take the initiative and at least give her some place to sit.

The fact that she took him up on his offer was shocking to say the least.

She groaned loudly and shifted around to get more comfortable. Half the class heard her groan and turned to look, including the teacher. John coughed and groaned to try and cover up the sound but it was no use; she shifted so much her large jacket pocket opened up and spilled a tube of lipstick, a paperclip and a pack of Marlboro 100's onto the floor.

'Fuck me standing.' John's mouth fell open in shock at the sight before him and the fact that the teacher stood and began to walk to the back table. John reached over and gave Mandy a shove to which she promptly snarled at him not to wake her. The teacher was sauntering closer and closer, his face showing a large dose of suspicion. John grabbed her shoulders and lifted her roughly and rubbed her back as though comforting her, his right foot shifted over and pulled the pack of smokes closer to him than to her.

"What is going on over here?" Mr. Swanson demanded. Mandy's eyes shot open and she looked to John for an answer.

"She felt sick." He prompted.

"What is that?" The teacher asked, pointing to the cigarettes beneath John's chair. Mandy grew noticeably nervous as she realized her pocket had spilled open and she had been found out. Opening her mouth to apologize, John squeezed her shoulder and interjected, "Cigarettes."

"And why are they in here?" Mr. Swanson snarled.

"What can I say?" John turned his head and smiled devilishly at Mandy, "breaking the rules gets me off." His smile faded away slowly and left him with an intense gleam in his eye that shot right through Mandy's chest.

"Go to the principal's office right now Bender!" The teacher screamed. John smiled and stood slowly, grabbing his jackets and bag. Mr. Swanson turned and walked back to the front of the classroom to fill out an incident report, leaving John alone with Mandy for just a second.

John shrugged his jacket on and set the bag back down on the table so he could reach over and grab the flannel Mandy had her hands on. Yanking it out, she recoiled and blinked, looking down at the ground. He smiled, shook out the material and set it over her shoulders.

"What are you doing?" She asked, finally looking back up at him.

"Making sure you keep warm; wouldn't want you to catch a cold," He smiled and hit her upper arm in faux encouragement, "see you in Chemistry Mandy." And with that he swooped down and placed a rough kiss on her cheek.