I drifted in and out of consciousness for the next couple of hours, I couldn't remember things too well. When I was coherent enough to think again, I was lying on the floor in my room. My head was lying next to a puddle of vomit, the carpet had quite a number of bloodstains. My arm hurt like a mother and there were still shards of glass embedded in it. But, despite it all, I couldn't feel a whole lot. Was it blood loss? No, I hadn't lost enough for that. I could only feel an empty void in my own soul, an itch in the corner of my mind, lamenting what I lost.

I stood up and wobbled unsteadily towards the bathroom. I looked a mess when I saw my face in the mirror, although I was calm enough to not want to slam my other arm into it. I opened the medicine cabinet to find a pair of tweezers. Most of the mirror shards were not large, but enough of them protruded for me to get a good grip on them. It hurt like a bitch when each one was removed. We didn't have any sort of first-aid kit at the house, so I just applied pressure with toilet paper.

"Like a giant shaving nick." I thought to myself, trying to get myself to laugh. I failed. After the emergency was taken care of, I regarded myself in the mirror again. My arm soaked in blood, my shirt drenched in tears and vomit, missing an entire sleeve, my face flushed and red. I looked absolutely pathetic.

"When did I throw up?" I thought. Must have been one of those times I drifted into consciousness; I didn't remember it. I went back to my room to change shirts, and used the now ruined one to pick up the rest of the broken mirror.


During my chore, I heard a knock at my door.

"Oh, fantastic. Now I'll have the jeers at home. Wonder if I can still beat them up with this wounded arm." I thought. I briefly considered ignoring the door, but my car was outside, and whoever it was would know I was home. The students at school were patient; they'd wait to get their taunts in. So I answered the door, expecting to get ready for a fight.

However, it was that nerdy girl, Megan Crawford, at the door. She looked meek and submissive, even more so then Stacy, standing outside with a plate of something covered in aluminum foil in her hands.

"Jeffy." She was very quiet and apologetic in her tone. "Oh my God, your arm!" She shrieked, nearly dropping what she was carrying.

"Huh, oh, it's...Megan, right?" My head was swimming and it was hard for me to think.

"Sorry, today's a bad day to stop by, and I'm not much for visitors even on a good day." I tried to be pleasant. Megan wasn't a part of the condemning crowd that witnessed Sandi's little escapade, but scandals were like herpes at Lawndale; anyone who had it wanted to spread it around. She would have known what happened.

"Jeffy, your arm!" She ignored me. I sighed.

"It's fine. It was just an accident. Look, it's not bleeding." I told her. She still looked at me strangely.

"It was an accident." I insisted. I held my arm out to her.

"See, Don't worry." It was a little extreme of me to hold that in front of her, but that probably would have calmed her down, I thought.

"We need to treat that."

"It's fine." I insisted, yet again. "Why do girls have to be such worryworts. Besides, I don't have anything to treat it with."

"I do. Hang on." Megan went back to her car and rummaged around the front seat. She came back with a tiny first aid kit. I was about to protest again, but I knew better. When a woman made up her mind, that was pretty much the end of a conversation.


I brought her into the dining room, one of the cleaner rooms in the house since we never used it. She scrubbed my wounds with an alcohol swab, then bandaged up my whole forearm.

"Thanks." I responded somberly. What on Earth was she doing here? She was a geek, and would not associate with a fallen jock. As bad as it was to be a brain, traitors to the cause were despised worse.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry about what happened today, Jeffy. It was absolutely unfair what she did." Megan was polite, but dismissive, about Sandi. I certainly had a few choice words for that bitch.

"I'm on your side." Megan told me. "I'm not going to laugh at you or call you whatever. I know you're a really nice person, and that's all that matters to me." Her voice was soothing, although that may have just been the blood loss talking.

"It's probably too early for me to stop by like this, you're probably really tired." Did Megan notice? She stood up, and took my arm so I could steadily get to my feet.

"Call me tomorrow." She wrote her number on a scrap of paper. "If you feel like talking." Her voice was still very soft, and I almost felt it lulling me to sleep. I tried to fight off an image of my mother. I stood in the dining room for a moment as Megan excused herself. Then I noticed she left that foil-wrapped bundle on the table. I peeked inside.

"Brownies. My favorite." I thought. I wasn't hungry, so I took the plate up to my room to eat later. At least my father wouldn't scarf them down if he saw them.


I woke up really early, just around sunrise, and I felt a little better. I cleaned up the mess on my carpet. I wondered whether or not I should even bother going to school today. I'd probably end up suspended for picking a fight within the first ten minutes of my day there, and that would involve my father coming to school so Ms. Li could bitch about it to them. Although it would be amusing to watch the two of them come to a head. They might even kill each other, although I knew I would never be that lucky.

Eventually, though, I decided to just go. I couldn't hide forever, and I'd just have to endure it.

Surprisingly, when I went to school, very little was said about me to my face. I could still hear whispers, as the students were too stupid to realize how discreet they weren't. I could feel their stares as I walked to my classes. I was ignored in classes, no one wanted to partner with a pariah. I tried my best to just perform as I usually would. Joey and Jamie said nothing to me at all, neither did Quinn, although I think I still caught her looking at me every once in a while. I only looked at her coldly whenever our eyes met. No words were spoken between us.

No matter what I tried though, it was still very painful, to walk down the halls and have no one to throw a football too. For other people to hush up as soon as I walked by, eager not to let me in on the conversation. It felt very lonely. Did all of the brains feel this way?

"No. The brains have other brains." I thought. "This is just...depressing."


I did decide to call Megan after school. I didn't want to talk or anything, but I was hungry for a friendly face, and she was the only one willing to give me the time of day. We met at Pizza Palace, and I was surprised when she went for extra cheese, just like me. Most girls ate cheeseless pizza, and I always thought that was ridiculous. We barely said anything to each other, but soon I was uncomfortable. I could feel the looks of other people upon us; people from class noticing the outsiders in their midst.

"Let's leave." Megan sensed my discomfort, and we headed back to my place. Unfortunately for me, my father was home.

"Let's...go somewhere else." I started to mention.

"Why?" Megan asked. "We're already here." And she went towards the house without another word. I was surprised she was so forward. I quickly followed her. My dad was in the kitchen, grabbing some beers from the fridge, as we walked in.

"Jeffy, who the hell is this?" He slurred towards Megan. "This that Homecoming Queen?" I scowled immediately. Five seconds into the conversation and I was already prepared to slug him.

"No, Dad, this is Megan. We stopped by to piss, and now we're leaving." I crossed my arms across my chest and cold stared him down. Dad didn't say anything for a moment.

"Goodbye, Mr. Mercer." Megan politely walked out of the door. I stared at him for a moment longer, then followed her.


"Sorry." I told Megan once we left the house. "I didn't want to tell you, but he kind of sucks."

"It's no bother." Megan was surprisingly comfortable with this.

"Why don't we hit your place or something?" I offered. Megan shook her head.

"I'm afraid my parents won't even allow boys over." Megan replied.

"Okay, then. Thanks for today. I feel better." Megan smiled at what I told her before she left. I waved and smiled as she drove off.

"This isn't that bad." I thought. "At least somebody loves me."


A week passed, and Megan occupied most of my time, not that anyone else would have been doing so. We studied a little together, talked a bit about what had happened with Sandi and all. I was glad to have a confidant, someone to share things with. I never really had friends that were girls before; it was usually just romantic interest when it came to them, but having her around was actually kind of fun. She was a little forward, praising my looks and such, and I suppose I was a little flirtatious as well, but we weren't dating, and I had no intention of starting one with her. Quinn still held a grip over my heart, much as I didn't want her too.

"My dad won't be around over the weekend." I had told Megan outside of her locker.

"No?" Megan smiled. "Then maybe you'll give me a tour of the house." She smiled pleasantly. "It'll be nice to review things not at the library. I prefer soda when I study."

"Well, there isn't much to see." I told her. "But I guess if that's what you want." Megan smiled, and shut her locker. We were headed in separate directions, so I started to bid her farewell as she dashed off. Then I noticed that something had fallen out, a picture of some kind. I stuffed it into my pocket for now since I was running out of time before Ms. Defoe's class, but once I got safely situated, I snuck a quick peek at it.

It was a picture of me, Joey, and Jamie at the beach, flexing, posing, and generally making fools of ourselves. I remembered this one; we took it sophomore year during Spring Break. Where did she get it? On the picture, my face was circled in a red marker, with little hearts around it.

My eyes widened at this; it was definitely kind of creepy. I didn't even know Megan at this point, and, during my sophomore year, I wasn't exactly the nicest person to brains like her. I would never have given a picture like this to her, and neither would Jamie or Joey. And the fanaticism shown here was borderline psychopathic.

"Stalker." I remembered what Jamie had told me about her. Had she always been doing this, and I just never noticed? Or did she see her invitation when I started stepping up in class? I returned the picture to my pocket. I needed to think on this later.


Sure enough, Megan came over on Friday night. I showed her the house, although she didn't seem interested in the furniture and all the other crap we had around. I took her up to my room, where we planned on reviewing some of Mr. DiMartino's notes. Ever since I'd been exposed as a brain, I'd been having a harder time concentrating as of late.

I excused myself to take a piss. While I was in the bathroom, I thought about that weird picture Megan had of me. How, exactly, would I handle this? How did you deal wit h stalkers, or was I just overreacting? She wasn't hurting me or anything, that was for sure. I doubted she'd flip out and get violent with me.

I sighed. Why were people so complicated? I zipped up and headed back to my room.

"Took a long time." Megan replied from my bed. I had gone to my desk to get out my notebook, then I turned around to get Megan, who was on the bed.

Megan was still on the bed, that's for sure. But, in the time I was in the bathroom, she had stripped almost completely naked. She was only wearing her panties.

"Wow." I was stunned. She wasn't the best looking girl I had seen, clothes on or off. But it was definitely a nice view, nontheless.

"Should I be in awe of your confidence, or angry that you think I just hop in the sack on a moment's notice." I thought. Megan winked at me, then stood up and wrapped her arms around my shoulders.

"You've been such a good guy, Jeffy." She whispered to me, and I could feel myself getting excited. "You've endured all those awful things people have said about you. Let me take care of you."


I was still quite stunned by what had happened. But before I knew it, I had lost my shirt and my pants, and we were making out on the bed. It was very steamy and passionate. I kissed roughly, letting out my week of frustration. Megan seemed to love every second of it. Her hands played with my boxers, slipping them down a little at a time. For a second, I thought about going all the way. I was angry, I was frustrated, and Megan was the only person in the world that was kind to me. She wanted this more then I did, and I wanted it pretty bad. I could feel the loneliness ebb away.

But I broke it off.

"Stop." I instructed, lightly grabbing her wrist and moving it away from my boxers. I readjusted my shorts as I sat back down on the bed away from Megan.

"Why? What did I do?" Megan asked. Lie after lie went through my head. I could say that I had no condoms; she wouldn't know about the box in my sock drawer. I could say that I was religious and was saving myself for marriage. I could have said it was wrong to take advantage of someone like this since we barely knew each other.

"You aren't the one I want." I told her, sadly. For all her kindness to me, she deserved the truth, even if it wasn't the whole truth. When we were on the bed, it wasn't Megan I was thinking about. It wasn't Quinn, either. Instead, I couldn't help but think about Joey. I could only see how he looked in the bathroom, staring at himself in the mirror with tears in his eyes. I could only see that sopping wet loser crying in the locker room consumed by his guilt. I didn't want that for him, or for me.

But I wouldn't tell Megan that. As furious as I was at Joey, I wouldn't betray him like that. Not that the story would have done me good anyway. So I had told her there was someone else.

"So, it's Quinn on your mind." Megan tried to wrap her arms around my chest, but I resisted.

"You should leave." I told her. Megan dressed, and I heard her car start up. I knew I was making the right decision, I thought. This wouldn't have been right and I would just end up sobbing in the locker room lamenting my lost innocence like Joey did. But I wouldn't have a friendly someone waiting for me to snap me out of my funk. I'd just be more miserable then before, however that was possible.

I sighed as I shut the light out and went to sleep. It was a little cruel of me to refuse her like that, but how else could I have done it? I had no practice at refusing to jump into bed with women. The only girl I ever really chased never gave me the chance.


The next day at school, I didn't hang around Megan. The day passed by slowly without anyone to talk to, and I couldn't concentrate on my work. I really wish Christmas break would come around soon, I could use the time away from all of these losers. At least the upside to being so distracted by personal matters was that I wasn't paying attention to the gossip mill. It had been about a week since I was revealed to be a brain, and I'm sure there were quite a number of made-up stories by now. There might have even been rumors about me and Megan, although I doubted anyone would have paid attention to that for too long. She'd be the one under fire, anyway, not me.

After Barch's class, I started to head for my study hall, but realized I would need my history book, so I took a detour back to my locker. I walked down the hallway to the corner where my locker was at, and I saw Quinn standing nearby, talking to Sandi. Or rather, Quinn seemed to be accusing Sandi, pointing angrily at her with one finger. I was not close enough to hear what they were discussing, but as I got closer, I think I heard my name mentioned. Sandi wasn't saying anything to her. In fact, Sandi seemed rather disinterested in Quinn's accusations.

Quinn stepped in closer to Sandi, and I wondered if whether or not she would hit her. I doubted it, Quinn was hardly violent, even though I'm sure she had the desire to, at one time or another, smack Sandi with a tire iron.

"You!" I heard another woman's voice shout. It wasn't Quinn or Sandi. From the other part of the hallway, I saw Megan step into view. She glared at Quinn, while Sandi seemed to step back and watch.

"I won't let you sink your claws into him, you bitch!" Megan raised her fist at Quinn.

"Oh, crap, this could get serious." I thought. I quickly moved in to intercept, but I wasn't close enough. Before I could reach the two of them, Megan lunged at Quinn. The collison drove both women back into Sandi, and all three of them collapsed in a heap. A crowd started to form around them, but I was the closest to the catfight, and in the best position to break it up. I immediately pulled Megan off of Quinn.

"Stop this, right now!" I ordered, dragging her backward and keeping her away from Quinn, while restraining her arms so she wouldn't lunge at her. Megan seemed surprised that I was the one who stopped the fight.

"Don't worry, Jeffy." Her voice turned strangely cheerful. "I'm just going to beat this wench down. There'll be nothing standing in our way after I'm through with her."

"You're a fucking loony." I insulted her.

"All right, fight's over, back to class!" Mr. DiMartino's shrill voice shouted. The crowd dispersed

"Augh, get me away from those two crazy girls." Sandi moaned. "They're going to hurt me, I just know it!" She wailed a crocodile wail.

"You can let go of her now, son." Mr. DiMartino instructed me. "But all four of you will be going to Ms. Li's office pronto!"


I wasn't exactly sure what was going on when we reached Ms. Li's office. Quinn seemed confused as well. But Megan was livid and stared daggers at Quinn, while Sandi looked straight ahead, her face completely blank. I tried to peace together the events of the fight in my mind. It was quite clear that Megan was the aggressor and Quinn her target. Sandi was just in the way. But Sandi's words in the hall clearly stated something to the contrary. Was this a scheme of hers? I had to be on my guard.

Our parents were all summoned. Mrs. Morgandorffer looked genuinely surprised to be here, although I caught a very not-friendly glare towards Ms. Li when she arrived. I doubted any parent was close with Ms. Li. Except, perhaps, Ms. Griffin, who arrived next. Sandi stood up and hugged her mother, and I was certain an elaborate plot was being spun. I had never met Sandi's mother before, but I had heard about her through Quinn, and she didn't like Quinn. Or her mother. Megan's parents arrived last and stood beside their daughter. After ten minutes, though, it was clear my father wasn't joining us.

"Not that it matters." Ms. Li replied. "This fight was reported as to just involving the three girls and Mister Mercer merely broke it up. Now, parents, I trust you all know why you were summoned here."

"Not the details. You seemed to be very...brief, with those, Ms. Li." Mrs. Morgandorffer sniped.

"I've heard the entire story, Helen. Perhaps if you bothered to ask the questions, you would have known about it." Mrs. Griffin replied.

"Perhaps being punctual was the more appropriate action of the day, Linda. After all, Ms. Li would not have called us in if she wasn't going to explain it to us here." Both women smiled at each other, although even I could tell that they were ready to kill each other.

"Alright parents, let's deal with the matter at hand. Apparently Miss Griffin, Miss Morgandorffer, and Miss Crawford were involved in a fight on school property, which is unacceptable. That sort of behavior should never be tolerated at Lawndale High."

"Yes, we've all heard that, but what happened is the question. My Quinn would never pick a fight with anyone."

"Megan was the one who started the fight." I volunteered to speak before Sandi could twist things to her advantage. Everyone turned to look at me. I was the neutral party in this, I was able to speak my mind freely.

"You're lying, boy!" Mrs. Crawford yelled at me. "Our sweet little Megan?"

"Inconceivable!" Mr. Crawford agreed.

"No, Jeffy's right." Quinn noted. "She's the one who attacked me."

"I heard her insult Quinn, and then she jumped on her. Quinn didn't do anything." I elaborated on what I saw.

"Jeffy is telling the truth." Quinn noted.

"Jeffy, you didn't mention the part that happened before that." Sandi noted. Now I was scared. Sandi's tone was the same as it always was; she had planned for me to say this.

"Nothing happened before that." I replied. "You and Quinn were talking to each other then Megan showed up."

"And how long were you there, Mister Mercer." Ms. Li asked.

"You mean before Megan fought? Less then a minute." I replied.

"According to Miss Griffin, it was Miss Morgandorffer who threw a punch at her first."

"What!" Quinn and her mother exclaimed at the same time.

"That didn't happen!" I stated. "Those two weren't standing anywhere near each other."

"Jeffy, you weren't there when it happened. First she swung at me, then she started insulting me, and then the weird nerd girl showed up. I saw you walking up just before the nerd girl."

"That's bullcrap!" I replied.

"That's enough, little boy!" Mrs. Griffin scowled at me. "No one is accusing you of lying, don't you dare accuse my Sandi of such without proof."

"Mister Mercer, I think we know what you could tell us, and no one is disputing it." Ms. Li replied.

"We are!" Mr. Crawford replied.

"Your daughter isn't." Ms. Li replied. That seemed to shut them up.

"I never tried to hit Sandi!" Quinn protested.

"Then what did happen?" Ms. Li asked.

"We were only talking!"

"You don't talk to someone with your fists, Quinn." Sandi was derisive, and I felt my blood boil.

"Incredible plan, bitch." I thought. "Trying to one-up Quinn by getting her suspended. Since there was a fight already, no one will notice a fake one on top of it. And Ms. Li will believe anything if it threatens school prestige." I think I would have been impressed, if I wasn't consumed with the desire to drown her.

"I think the Morgandorffer's and the Griffin's will need to discuss this with me further. For now, Miss Crawford, you are suspended for ten days." Ms. Li ordered.

"And what about that boy?" Mrs. Crawford ordered. "He's..."

"Shut up!" I yelled at him. "I did nothing."

"There is no reason to believe Mister Mercer did anything other then break up the fight. All of the witnesses agree on this. So, Mister Mercer, you are free to go. Return to class." I tried to protest Quinn's innocence, but Ms. Li was not going to believe me.


Study hall was almost over by the time I went to class. People were actually paying attention to me now, asking me about the fight. I ignored them. There was nothing I could do to stop Sandi, there was no reason to make myself a target for her next scheme now.

"Did you manipulate Megan, too, Sandi? Did you tell her that fighting Quinn would restore my honor? Were they all just pawns in your stupid quest to reclaim your glory?" I couldn't help but marvel at Sandi's skill in intrigue.

"And what will become of you, Quinn? Shall you just bounce back, or will you finally become the creature you despised." I tried to think of it as karma, but I couldn't.

"You still can't hate her, even after she abandoned you." I thought to myself. I was pretty sure this would end with Quinn's suspension from school. I'd find out tomorrow, one way or another.