"Why thank you," Elizabeth said, slipping past Chris through the door he had propped open for her.

"Oh, you're welcome," he said, and let the door close behind him.

"Hey!"

Grinning, Chris looked behind him and waved at Gordie, who was resentfully pulling open the door for himself.

Elizabeth giggled. "I think you forgot to hold the door open for Gordie."

Gordie caught up to them. "Gee, thanks."

"Anytime, man," Chris laughed.

As the three of them walked through the hallway together, not looking forward to the mundane school day ahead of them, Teddy Duchamp came up behind them, an excited bounce in his step. "Come on, guys, there's a chick fight!"

Walking further, they came to a small crowd, all yelling and cheering and laughing. Not many people were watching; word hadn't traveled very quickly apparently.

"What's happening?" Gordie asked someone standing in front of them.

"Bitch fight," he replied simply.

"Yeah, but what happened? Who is it?"

"That Jennings girl and some other chick. They're just yelling. They haven't actually started to kick each other's asses yet."

Gordie glanced over at Chris, who was a few inches taller than he was. "Can you see, Chris?"

"Yep. It's Ren." He tried to push his way through the mini-mob. Finally, he got to the front, but just stopped, unsure of what to do.

"I'm sick of it!" Ren yelled.

"Sick of what?" Caroline demanded. "You've got it made, Ren, and you all of a sudden decide that you're above it all?"

"No, I'm not above anything, but neither are you! You shit all over everyone, people you've never given a chance, but you expect them all to bow down and worship you!"

"You're exactly the same as me, Ren."

"Bull shit. I don't get my kicks out of making people cry." She set her jaw defiantly. "And I never got people to like me by fucking anything that's got legs."

Caroline shoved her hard enough to send her staggering back, the only thing stopping her from falling was the row of lockers she slammed against.

"Don't try and crawl back to what you could have, you fucking gutter slut."

"What I could have?" Ren scoffed. "What, you mean gonorrhea and herpes, that kinda thing?"

Caroline practically lunged at her, and she probably would have taken Ren to the floor if she hadn't had the lockers up against her back.

Chris bragged Ren by the arm, and with some effort, pulled her away from Caroline.

They turned the corner together and went out one of the side doors into the parking lot.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Noticing a scratch stretching across her cheek from Caroline's fingernails, he reached out to touch her face, but stopped. He crossed his arms over his chest shyly, hoping that she hadn't noticed what he'd almost done.

"Yeah, I'm good," she muttered. "I think she bit me though. I hope my rabies shots are up to date."

"What happened?"

"I don't know, Chris," she said helplessly. "I don't fit anywhere."

"Sure you do," he told her gently.

"No I don't!" she exclaimed. "Nobody likes me, Chris! Nobody has ever cared about me or about what happens to me…I don't know, I'm starting to think that I don't care either."

"Ren, don't think like that. It's not true at all."

"You don't care about me!" she said. She was not accusing, just more hurt.

"I do too."

Startled, Ren looked up at him sharply. "But you keep telling me to stop following--you said--you said we're too different and we'll never be friends."

"I've seen you change." Puzzlement fell upon her face, and Chris just shrugged. "And I know that what you just did, sticking up for yourself to Caroline, took a lot of guts. How could I ignore that?"

She lowered her eyes to the ground, kicking a pebble across the asphalt.

"You fit in, Ren," he promised. "You fit in with me."