The next few days passed by rather uneventfully. English, World History, break spent hiding in the library, Creative Writing, Algebra, lunch spent with Sue, Chemistry, Art, staying late to work on my project, then riding my bike home to spend the rest of the evening locked in my room with my dog Sven while avoiding my parents pestering me to finally get a social life. The school year was already halfway over, and the usual pattern seemed to be breaking. And not in a good way.

We were in the second semester, and I still had as of yet to make any friends my own age. Usually people would end up talking to me, but no one had really talked to me at all, aside from the Mike boy yesterday. I was starting to wonder if I'd even have any friends at all this year, aside from Sue. I could already see the answer forming in the magic eight ball in my mind: Out look not so good.

It was early on a Friday morning, and I decided to come in early to get some more work done on my project which was due Wednesday of next week. I loved to do anything that kept my hands busy, but art was my greatest passion, writing coming in at a close second. I was always drawing, doodling, and even making my own little clay sculptures at home. If it involved being creative, I loved doing it.

The halls were disturbingly quiet, so to compensate I cranked up the volume on my iPod, while also taking one ear bud out, just in case. Did I watch too many horror movies? Probably. The least I could say is if real life turned into a horror movie, I would probably be the one to end up surviving in the end. I knew all the rules to live by in a horror movie. But anyway, the creepiness of the silence wasn't helped by the fact that the sun was just starting to rise, and the bright, fluorescent lights of the school made the hazy twilight outside seem even darker. A subconscious shiver worked its way down my spine. Thankfully I was nearing my destination, so I quickened my pace, disguising it by skipping. I was just reaching for the doorknob when it suddenly swung open, smashed into my face, and sent me sprawling backwards.

Really, Fate? Really?

I quickly reached up to feel my nose; it wasn't bleeding and it didn't feel broken, but I did let out a hefty sneeze, a weird automatic response to any sort of blunt trauma to my nose. Just as I was getting ready to cuss out the genius who'd bashed me in the face with the door, I looked up and found myself looking up at none other than Mike friggin' Chang. Again.

"We've gotta stop meeting like this," I quipped, shaking my head as I accepted his hand and used it to pull myself to my feet. I was quite grateful now that my nose wasn't bleeding or broken; the last thing I wanted for him to feel awful and try and take care of me. That, and I was almost positive that the nurse hadn't even come in yet. It was only the principal and the janitor, as far as I knew.

"I'm so sorry about this. Are you-"

"I'm fine," I interrupted him before he could get going. "If anything, I'll have a bruise, but otherwise my nose is fine. No worse than Tuesday."

He gave a sort of wry smile at that, which confused me. Until he said, "So you do remember me. Then again, who can forget Twinkle Toes?" I cringed so hard at that, I didn't think my face would ever become un-cringed again, and I felt a spark of guilt settle nicely in the pit of my stomach.

"I'm really sorry about that. I was having a bad day, and I took it out on you, and I really shouldn't have. I'm so-"
This time it was my turn to get interrupted, as he suddenly held up a hand to silence me and said, rather amused, "It's fine. I can understand. Though, just out of curiosity, what brings you here so early?"

I blinked and shrugged. "I was coming in to get some work on my project," I said, motioning to the door to the Art Room which we stood in front of. "Why are you here so early?"

He chuckled and grinned broadly at me. "Same thing, actually," he said with a shrug. I couldn't hide my shock at that.

"You take Art?" I blurted.

"Yeah, I do. You wanna see what I've got so far of my project? Come on," he grinned, not waiting for a response before taking my wrist—forcing me to ignore a small, abnormal fluttering in my chest—and leading me inside the room.

He sat me in at one of the tables before quickly dashing into the back to go grab his project. He returned with a cloth-covered lump that was roughly the size of a basketball. He set it on the table in front of me and whipped off the cloth of with great flair. My reaction was a little. . . . anti-climatic. I studied it, tilting my head this way and that, trying to decipher what exactly it was, or was supposed to be. It had a vaguely humanoid shape, its what could be considered arms were raised high above a rather disproportionally large head. I was guessing he still had work to do on it, as instead of legs, it simply had a stump, like a tree.

"So what do you think?" he asked as he bit his lip, clearly eager to hear my opinion. I took a quick moment to decide on whether I should lie or not. Compared to others I'd seen, it was. . . . nothing special. But if I were to go on the assumption he had little to no experience with this stuff, it was actually pretty good. And I realized I didn't need to lie.

"It's really good," I said with a smile, feeling much better about myself as a good person when I saw his face light up. Also he was really cute when he perked up like that. Why do I keep writing this shit? "The only thing I noticed is the head's a wee bit big for the body."

He nodded. "That's intentional. I did it as a reminder to myself that no matter what happens, no matter how popular or famous I might get, that I should never let it go to my head and forget who I am and where I came from," he said as he looked at the sculpture.

I have to admit, I was extremely shocked at that. He'd always seemed—from what I saw, I can't say I knew he was for I did not know him very well—so lighthearted and goofy, not to mention he was a football player. I'd never expected something so. . . . so deep or meaningful to come out of his mouth. He earned some major respect points for that. Though now I suddenly felt more self-conscious about my own project, which had no deeper meaning to it other than it was of me and my dog.

"What about your project? Can I see it?" I find it odd he asked me that question right as I was thinking about how I suddenly didn't want to show it to anybody out of shame that it was so shallow. But I didn't want to be rude, so I reluctantly agreed and went to go fetch it.

After setting it on the table, I removed the cloth and showed it to him with far less aplomb than he had. I'd already finished the me half of it, but the part that was supposed to be Sven was still just a formless, shapeless lump of clay. I decided not to wait for him to ask what it was, and told him, "It's supposed to be me and my dog, Sven. I still have to finish Sven. Sadly, it really doesn't have the deeper meaning that yours does."

Mike chuckled and shook his head. "It's still really good though. Better than mine, actually," he snorted with a shrug. I scoffed.

"Depends on what you're judging it on. I usually take how good it looks and average it with the meaning behind it. So going based off of that, yours is actually much better than mine," I said with a smile. He studied me a moment.

"You're just saying that to make me feel better," he chuckled, pointing an accusing finger at me. I laughed and pushed his finger out of my face, being wary as usual of my glasses. They were a bitch to clean.

"I'm not, I'm being honest," I said with a grin, amazed at myself. Normally I was never this at ease around someone I barely knew, but for some reason, there was just something about him that pushed my anxieties aside and allowed me to joke around with him like we were friends. It was an entirely new experience, and I felt rather giddy. That only helped to enhance my ease around him. I had almost deluded myself into thinking we'd be friends.

"So how come you're leaving already? We've still got another half hour before class starts," I asked curiously as I decided to work on my project with him there. If I was focused enough, I was pretty damn good at multi-tasking.

Mike shrugged as he sat in the seat next to me, boredly prodding at his own sculpture, fixing things here and there. "I was kind of getting frustrated with it, and decided to give up for the day," he snorted.

I chuckled and nodded. "Understandable. I've felt that lots of times, mostly with my sculpting and my drawing," I said with a shrug, trying not to be so OCD about getting Sven's big ol' ears just right.

"Usually only happens to me when I'm drawing," Mike said with a chuckle. I immediately perked up at that.

"You draw?" I said stunned.

"Yeah. I draw manga all the time," Mike said with a grin. I grinned right back.

"Awesome! I've always wanted to draw like that."

Mike's grin widened at my enthusiasm. "Maybe I'll give you lessons some time," he said. I embarrassingly lit up like a Christmas tree.

"That would be awesome!" I gushed, already feeling the embarrassment at my eagerness set in. I made a mental note to tone it down from now on, though Mike didn't seem to mind too much.

We lapsed into an easy conversation from then on as we both worked on our projects. By the time the bell rang, Mike's sculpture had legs—albeit rather thick ones—and Sven was now a shapeless blob with pointy ears and stumpy legs. We both laughed at one of Mike's jokes as we put our projects away and said see ya before parting ways to go to our respective classes.

I noted as I walked away that he hadn't asked to hang out at lunch or anything, so I figured my hopes that we'd actually be real friends was just a pipe dream. As usual. I shrugged it off and spent the rest of the time until lunch focusing on my schoolwork and not on what might have been. It was never good to dwell on the past. . . . Which I'm dwelling on by not shutting up about how I'm not dwelling on it, aren't I? MOVING ON.

I arrived at Sue's office to find it locked and dark, and I got a flashback to Tuesday. As I turned to begin my trek to the library, I did a quick check to make sure there were no random Asian kids who could possibly run me over. Thankfully I managed to reach the library without incident and headed inside. I spotted a girl I always saw in the library when I did go in there—Lily, if I remembered correctly—and she always seemed nice, but I never approached. I quickly put my head down before she could catch me staring like a freak and made my way to my usual spot in the far back.

After a while I heard some unfamiliar voices and looked up to see some of the Glee club members standing at the table where Lily was, Mike among them. He spotted me and waved with a smile, but before I could wave back, one of the other members, the one with the mohawk, caught his attention, along with mine.

"Dude, what are you doing?" the mohawked one said to Mike when he caught Mike waving at me.

Mike looked confused and from what I could lip-read, said something along the lines of "What?"

"She's friends with Sue."

"So?"

"So, she's friends with the enemy. She probably helps out Sue with her plots against us? Are you really gonna fraternize with the enemy?"

"They're probably lesbian lovers or something," the one known as Santana said. I mentally balked at that. I'd never been talked about before, to my knowledge at least, and this felt like a major invasion of privacy. I suddenly had much more sympathy for the new girl.

The rest of their conversation was said in a hushed tone that was too low for my hearing, but whatever it was, it hadn't made Mike very happy. He looked over at me with a serious expression and quickly looked away. And I couldn't help but feel hurt. The one person I'd thought could possibly be a real friend, and it had been ruined because his stupid team mates were so friggin' paranoid. I wanted to go over and beat every last one of them—excluding Mike and Lily of course—over their stupid heads with my stupid Algebra book.

It turns out I didn't need to as the Lily girl stood up out of her seat and began reaming them out for talking about me like that. She gained some major respect points, but I still wanted to get out of there. I'd see if Sue was back in her office yet, and if she wasn't, I'd hide out in the damn bathroom if I needed to.

Gathering up my stuff while forcing back the urge to cry, I quickly made my way out of the library. People were stupid. People were jerks. I couldn't believe anyone could be so. . . . ugh. I didn't need friends like that. And you know what?

I didn't need friends.