It's been too long, hasn't it? Sorry!

The lights flicked off and stayed off, and Tiffany jumped up as a lamp attacked her. Odd threw a kick at it, but its chord wrapped around her wrist. She grunted and pulled at it, yelling something about a superstition she should've listened to. He finally, after about a minute, managed to unravel it and pry it off her arm. Chords were suprisingly strong.

"What- the- hell-!" She enunciated each word with a stomp of her foot on top of the lamp.

"Come on!" He grabbed her wrist and dragged her out the door. The other kids were all screaming and fighting the classroom appliances.

"What's going on?"

"I have absolutely no idea!" He panted back. "We have to get somewhere that doesn't have anything electrical!"

"Uhm- what- what about-" She was cut off because Odd jerked her out of the way of someone's cellphone that had come to life, turned inside out, and aimed its sharp gears, looking for someone to stab them into. Stomping on top of it, crushing it, she yelled, "Unko!(1)" and took out her cellphone and Mp3 player out of her pocket and threw them at the wall.

"Here," he took her wrist again and dragged her into a nearby janitorial closet.

"Were you just trying to get me alone with you?"

"No," he answered indignantly.

She yelped when the light flicked on and off before it exploded, small shards of glass raining down on them. Then they were in complete silence and darkness, with so little room that they couldn't stand shoulder-to-shoulder.

Tiffany finished gasping for breath and asked, "How long are we going to be stuck in here?"

"I don't know," he replied. There was silence for a few moments, and then she slid to the floor and sighed. Odd sat across from her, thier knees pressed together. She knew her eyeliner was running, but she didn't bother to fix it. It was too dark to see it, and the only person who would've seen it was Odd, who didn't matter. She'd had a crush on him in fifth grade, but after she'd changed her style he'd started talking down at her. Ever since then, she'd gotten used to the stupid comments people made. Tabby, her current best friend, had just told her to snap something back and walk away. That's why the closet made her uncomfortable; she kept expecting Odd to verbally assault her and she'd have nowhere to go.

Then Odd couldn't handle the utter silence, so he asked, "You moved here in fourth grade, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Where were you before that?"

"Homeschooled."

"Was it hard coming to a school?"

"No. I had Allianah."

Allianah Fray. She was that girl that had died. The school had held a memorial service, but no one had showed up. She got sick or something. "How did she die?"

"Look," Tiffany's voice was slightly shaky, like when she was having trouble controlling it. He must have hit a nerve. "As much as I'd love to sit here and play twenty questions with you, I'm a little concerned for my friends right now and you're voice is kind of annoying."

Stung, Odd shut up. I'm such a bitch. She hated herself instantly. He'd just wanted to know. But she also felt that he didn't have a right to concern himself with matters like Allianah, and he'd lost the privelege the day after she died when he called to her, "Tiffany! You're eyeliner's all smeared! Is you're soul leaking out of your eyes again?" Not something she wanted to hear the day after she buried her best friend.

Her anger was building up, and she squeezed her knees until her knuckles turned white. Seething, she resisted the urge to kick him in the teeth. And after she'd calmed herself down, a white beam of light enveloped them and she couldn't remember a thing.

Sorta kinda before, except after becuase this is right after the last class...

That afternoon, Mikey offered to walk her to her dorm, and she accepted, closing the door behind her. Tabby was already there, at the desktop computer, as usual.

"How was your day?"

"Lame," she rolled her eyes, dropping her black messenger bag next to her bed. "You?"

"I've had worse. You can tell by the way he looks at her that Ulrich's still hung up on Yumi."

"Aw, does the unbreakable wall have a leak?"

"Shut up."

"Yes, it does," Tiffany landed on the bed, staring up at the Hollywood Undead poster she'd taped to the roof. "You look funny next to him. They dress weird."

"Please. Odd was following you around like a lost puppy-dog."

"Gross. I don't date idiots like him." But secretly she realized he had been following her around, and she kind of liked it.

"Six months in Juvie could quite possibly have changed that idiot."

"It might not have." She reached over and turned a desk lamp on, picking up her silver laptop. As soon as she was signed in, she immediately recieved an IM. It read: "it might haveee."

Rolling her eyes at Tabby, she turned back to her laptop.

With Odd and Ulrich...

"...yeah, and then he said it was a date, and it was Mikey's number, plus he walked her to her dorm."

"So?"

"He has an advantage! He knows her better and she pretty much hates me!"

"You haven't changed at all."

"What?"

"You only want her because you can't have her." (2)

"That's not true!"

"Is to. If you really like her, you should probably tell her you're sorry for being such a complete idiot. Plus I don't think she even likes him like that."

"What do you mean?"

"I took a class on Body Language at Juvenile Hall for my extra-curricular. She doesn't act the way someone would toward someone they're attracted to."

"Then what's his body language toward her?"

"Friendly." He paused. "From what Sparky told me, he and Gwen are together, and Tabby used to go out with him. The rest of them are single."

"Interesting. But in the closet she seemed so angry-"

"So you probably should avoid talking about Allianah." Ulrich, who'd been looking something up on the computer, seemed to have found what he'd been looking for, because he announced, "Allianah Sophia Fray- died of brain cancer toward the end of our sixth grade year."

"What? But she wasn't even bald!"

"That's only if they go through chemo, Odd. It says here that the doctors caught it too late. They gave her six months to live." They did that to my uncle, =[ Pissed me off.

"I feel guilty."

"So tell her you do."

"It's not that easy. She can barely stand talking to me."

"You wanted my advice. There it is."

Odd sighed. Ulrich was never any help when it came to girls. What happened to him and Yumi was proof. Nope. That was my fault. He felt so guilty. For everything. He'd ruined everyone's lives, and ended someone else's.

(1) Unko means "shit" in Japanese. lol. She was probably in the Japanese spirit. XD

(2) Yeah, that was really in Odd's character, wasn't it?

Mkay, its kinda late, but review anyway? =] I'll update ASAP.