Days later Virgil glanced over at the popular table again, yearning to be seated next to his old friend (and current crush) Stephanie.

"It's interesting." Jay stared at him, her chin propped up with her palm.

Virgil broke out of his regret-ridden trance. "What is?"

"You're always looking at them, but you look like you're more curious than afraid," she explained. "Everyone else just…looks at them in fear."

Virgil thought about her statement. Due to "The Incident" back when he was a freshman, Virgil was marked. He was sometimes the victim of name calling, he would sometimes be the subject of impolite conversations or references—lately, he's just been ignored—but he's never experienced any luck with the populars. That didn't mean he was afraid in their presence, he simply felt regret.

"He only looks over there because of Stephanie," Charlie said.

"Who's that?"

"She's a cheerleader who so happened to be one of Virgil's friends back when they were in middle school."

Jay's eyebrows shot up. "Really? What happened?"

Virgil groaned; he knew where this conversation was headed.

"The Incident," Zeke said.

"The—? Oh," Jay nodded apprehensively. "The yearbook."

Virgil sighed in frustration and rubbed his cheek as a sign of irritation. "What happened was—"

"No it's okay," she cut him off. "I don't want to know the details."

"It's going to come up again sooner or later," Virgil sighed heavily, "you may as well know now."

He told her what happened on the first day of freshman year—the football practice, Charlie and the rocket cart, standing up for Charlie when the football players picked on him, the statue—and when he finished, he glanced at Stephanie again. "…All the time I just wonder what my life would be like if it DIDN'T happen."

"Yeah but you're mainly just staring at her because you like her," Charlie said, earning him a sarcastic glare.

"Wow, way to keep a secret Charlie."

Grinning Jay held up her hands. "Hey we're all seniors here. I didn't hear a thing. But try not to live in the past Virgil, I say you should keep moving forward. Look at what you've accomplished so far, you didn't and don't need to be popular to live your life."

Virgil simply smiled in response, agreeing to disagree in silence. He may not have needed popularity, but he certainly wanted it.

…

When the guys came back from getting a boy out of the vending machine, Jeanette wasn't there waiting in the computer, FOR ONCE. Jay was sitting in her place with a math book in her lap. She closed it, pulled out a bud and turned off the vortex.

"Where's Jeanette?" Virgil slid off the hood of his snow suit.

"I don't know," Jay opened her book again to do her work. "She told me she was just going to do something with a friend."

"Hm, interesting," Virgil said jokingly.

Zeke circled around the machine towards Jay as he pulled of his gloves. "What is it this time?"

"Math. When I can do it, I love it. But when it's like this, look…" she lifted the book "I hate it."

Zeke frowned slightly, looking the work over. "Trigonometry?"

"The worst. Subject. Ever." Jay brought the book back to her lap and rubbed her eyes. "I never learned Trigonometry so I don't get it no matter how hard I study it. Do you?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think you can help me with it?"

Zeke shrugged a shoulder. "Sure."

"Normally I'd say, 'Let's eat out,' but we've been doing that a lot lately AND I've got a few things to take care of at home," Virgil said, calling the pair's attention. "So we're going to have to wait until tomorrow."

"Okay," Jay agreed, "it'd feel weird without Jeanette anyway."

"Yeah," Virgil agreed and turned to face Charlie, who had run up to say something about his cat, Albert Felinestein.

Jay stood up and stuffed her book in her backpack. "I think I'll go and try to figure this out so I can ask you about it tomorrow."

"I could help you now if you want," Zeke offered with a careless shrug.

"Nah its fine, I wouldn't want to interrupt anything."

"I've got nothing to do, so if you want..." he trailed off, letting her know the offer was still available.

She took a few seconds to consider it, but shook her head. "Tomorrow, during lunch."

…

Zeke was usually the second one to the lunch table since Jay was the first so when he entered the cafeteria, he expected to see her in her spot with an open math book. When he saw that he was the first this time, he scanned the cafeteria as he sat down, feeling a little weirded out. It took her about a minute to show up.

"Had to go get my book," she said in an apology. As soon as she took her seat, she whipped out her homework and had Zeke help her with the problems she circled. Her eyes never left the page while he explained the properties of each problem. She took up her pencil when he finished and began working through her assignment.

"Make sure I'm doing this right, okay?" she said without looking at him.

"You're doing fine."

The two fell to silence and random little comments about multiplying and addition, but as much as Zeke wanted to start up an actual conversation to avoid the awkwardness, he didn't want to distract Jay.

After three more problems she leaned back in her chair and smiled, keeping her eyes on the paper. Making a comment about how she was getting the hang of it, she leaned forward again and continued to work.

"So how is it that you never learned Trig?" Zeke asked in an effort to break the silence.

"It just…never came up," she shrugged. Zeke thought she was going to close with that, but she continued. "I think you're lucky to have learned this crap, all I got around was the basics—Statistics, Probability, Geometry, although I prefer Algebra. How about you, which do you prefer?"

"Uh….Nothing really," Zeke said. "It's all the same to me."

"You don't like Math?"

"Yes, but I'm more into mechanics."

"Just motorcycle mechanics? No cars?"

"Yeah."

"Interesting. How is it that you became interested in bikes?"

Zeke told her about the Thompson's Cycle Cemetery and how his dad taught him how to work on bikes when he was a kid. And from there, the conversation escalated. He told her about his family and she told him about her own. They talked about places they've been with their family, places they liked, things they've done, things they liked to do, and then things they just liked. Zeke corrected her small mistakes as she did her assignment, and they kept talking even after Virgil and Charlie came to join the table.

Jay finished and she kissed the paper happily. "FINALLY! Trigonometry isn't such a pain in the ass anymore."

Zeke had been seeing her Vampire Smile (as he dubbed it) a lot recently and for the first time she turned it to him, making him focus on the two dull peaks. "Thanks for the help."

He forced his gaze away from her entrancing teeth and nodded. "No problem."