A/N: No more reviews :-( Please hit the purple button.

God, my back hurts! A.J. thought.

Opening her eyes, she realized she'd fallen asleep on the house's concrete backporch. The teen's back gave an ominous crack as she sat up. A.J. rolled her stiff neck from side to side for a moment.

A glance at her watch revealed it was 9:30. A.J. grabbed her bags and jumped to her feet, racing in the direction of her high school.

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"You are over an hour late, Miss Delvecchio," the principal snapped. "Explain yourself."

Mr. Brunfeld was a short, chubby,sour-looking man. Dubbed "Battle Ax Brunfeld" by the students, he gave severe punishments for even the most minor infractions.

"I overslept, sir," said A.J.

Mr. Brunfeld looked her up and down. "I believe those are the same clothes you wore yesterday."

"I fell asleep in my clothes studying last night. I didn't take time to change when I realized how late I was," A.J. clarified.

"I'm going to have to give you detention for this, Miss Delvecchio," said Mr. Brunfeld.

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The day seemed to stretch out endlessly. Midway through chemistry, the hunger hit. A.J. planned to buy a snack from the vending machine at lunch, then realized her wallet was in her desk drawer at home. The only thing she could do was nibble the stash of orange Tic-Tacs in her backpack. That wasn't very effective, however.
By her final class of the day, A.J. had a pounding headache. The teacher noticed her lethargy and sent her to the nurse's office, where A.J. quickly made up a story about sinus trouble, declining the nurse's offer of Benadryl.

Once detention was over, A.J. went to the gym to work out with Jonny. She did her best to behave as though nothing was wrong. Midway through a sparring match, she was gripped by a sudden wave of light-headedness.

"You all right?" Jonny questioned.

"Yeah...I don't know what hit me," said A.J.

"Maybe you need to sit down for a while," Jonny suggested. He held out a bottle of Gatorade. "Drink this. It'll make you feel better."

After a few swallows, the dizziness disippated slightly. Jonny walked out of the boxing ring, heading in the direction of the locker room. He saw A.J. standing outside the locker room door when he emerged from showering.

"You finally trust me to drive you home?" he asked.

"We can't exactly go to my house. Nobody's home and I locked myself out."

"Then you can stay at my place tonight," said Jonny.

A.J. turned red. "You don't have to do that."

"A.J., I'm your friend. Friends help each other when they need a hand," Jonny said warmly.

They walked out to the sidewalk, where Jonny had parked his candy-apple red Chevrolet Camaro SS.