It was third period and Kristen had excused herself from class to the ladies room. Once inside one of the stalls she fumbled for a cigarette. She caught herself nodding off a few times today and knew the longer she kept this up, the more she would have to put up with it.

Lighting and taking a long drag she leaned against one of the walls and shut her eyes for only a moment before voices of girls checking their makeup on the outside made her snap them back open.

"Get yourself together Kristen!"

She scolded herself before taking one last drag and returning back to class.

Outside near the baseball fields Alice stood in the school's gym uniform. A short sleeve forest green T-shirt and gray shorts. With her hair in a ponytail she stood with the other girls in line for tennis as the spring morning's sun blared down on her.

She stood there with her tennis racket by her side looking off a few feet away to the baseball field where the guys were having a game.

He was there.

Squinting she saw he was pitching, a small smile started to show through her face as she watched him haul back forward the baseball before the opposite team member slammed it with their wooden bate and began to run. She heard the guys shout back and forth laughing to each other, a sound that seemed very familiar in the hallways of Springwood High.

Alice turned her attention back to the line as it started to move up, that's when they started.

"Hey Alice!"

She looked over and saw it was Jim and Mark.

Jim and Mark were two seniors who had loved the rather cruel sport of picking on Alice ever since the school year started with gym. She knew they were harmless, but the never ending teases of Alice's breasts, or how "fine" she looked whenever she ran the laps started to really get under her skin.

"Lift up your shirt!"

Jim screamed standing on one of the bases, Mark started to crack up.

Alice shot them a dirty look for a second before feeling the warmth in her cheeks began to rise as the other girls started to look at her. Why couldn't they pick on someone else, what made her so special that they had to do this every single time and embarrass her.

"Come on show em off!"

The guys started to laugh together now and their voices were so loud almost everyone but the teachers started to notice. Alice heard a few of the other girls in line start to laugh which made it much worse.

"Why don't you guys shut the fuck up?"

The voice almost made her heart jump into her throat…no it couldn't be.

Joey stood there, his baseball glove and ball to one side as he used to free hand to push away the free hair that hung in his eyes. She never saw him look angry before, but this was it.

Part of her was happy he said this, another even more embarrassed.

The guys turned and looked at Joey, Jim started to snap his gum.

"Come on Crusel we're just fooling with her!"

Now everyone was looking.

"Yeah anyways she likes it, don't you Alice?"

Everyone kept looking, Alice lowered her eyes, wanting to die just then. She tried to pretend it wasn't happening, no it was happening to the girl next to her…not her.

"Yeah she likes to show em off…I mean it's hard not to, their so big!"

Mark started to make a loud groaning sound as Jim and a few other boys on the team joined in on.

That's when it happened, so fast Alice at first didn't think she saw straight.

Joey's face almost crumpled, he raised back his glove, turned his body a little and bang, a baseball flew across the field and hit Mark right in the face.

Mark made a thick sound in his throat before dropping down in a heavy heap. Right away everyone yelled and jumped back in disbelief. Most people were shocked, as much as Alice was, and as much as Jim was who looked down at his best friend.

"That asshole broke my nose!"

Mark was rolling around on the ground, holding his face…Alice could see blood as a few people started to laugh and point. Mark kept swearing as Jim turned towards Joey.

"You fucking freak!"

He charged towards him, and before Alice knew it Joey and Jim were rolling around punching each other right there on the ground. Dirt flew up just like those old cartoons in which two people would start fighting and all you would see is a giant dust ball and a spare foot or fist poking out every once in a while.

People started running towards them, the chant of the word "Fight!" started as they formed a circle around the two boys. Alice ran and was able to push past some people to see just a few moments of the fight before the coach and one of the gym teachers came running.

Coach Atkins along with Mr. Pez rushed down and grabbed both of the boys by the collars of their shirts before dragging them apart.

"Quit it!"

Alice saw Joey's face was bleeding.

"You march your little asses right to the principles' office right now!"

Mr. Pez and Coach Atkins started to march the boys forward past the crowd, before Mrs. Hyde told everyone to go back to their activities.

A half an hour later just about everyone knew about the fight…and seemed to forget Alice was the reason it started in the first place. Everyone's story changed and Alice knew by tomorrow it would become old news…as sad as it sounded fights weren't really that rare of a thing at this high school.

Mark's nose was broken, and from what Alice heard Jim and Joey were on warnings most likely be sent home for the day. After class ended she started to think about it, he did stick up for her…the least she could do was say thanks.

Still in her gym clothes she took her bag and headed down the hallway to the nurse's office.

Alice walked up to the school nurse who was sitting behind her desk with her little table fan blowing in her direction. Alice noticed she was reading some romance novel in which painted on the cover showed a beautiful young woman with flowing brown hair clutching a handful of roses.

Alice cleared her throat to get her attention, only being to the nurse once during Freshmen year when she was sent home sick.

The nurse raised her eyes and gave a warm smile to Alice, which was something she needed.

"Yes dear?"

Alice tried to smile and lot look as nervous as she felt, she clutched her notebooks tighter against her chest.

"I just wanted to see if my friend wanted to take a look at some notes I wrote for the final."

The nurse raised an eyebrow, setting down her novel with her red thick pained nails.

"Are you to in the same class together?"

Alice nodded quickly.

"Yeah, he missed last period and I know he would of wanted to see these.."

Alice was scared at first the nurse would agree and take whatever notes she was making up in her head to take to him, instead she smiled and motioned for the back room.

"He's back there…could you see if he's going back to class or wants to lay down a little longer, It's my lunch time."

Alice nodded again.

The nurse placed a bookmark in her novel and took her leather bound purse which was hiding underneath her desk. Putting the strap over one shoulder she smiled and put her "Be back in twenty minutes." sign up before leaving.

"Thanks again."

She said while walking out, Alice smiled as she watched her disappear in the hallway and then saw her chance.

Walking over to the backroom, she noticed the blinds were drawn, giving off a very dim bluish tint to the backroom. She also noticed that there was a tiny A.C hooked up to one of the windows, most likely for the students who had a weak spell in the heat or just wanted to skip a few classes and lay down.

Walking in she saw him sitting on the back over stuffed beaten couch that was set up for people to lay back on. Three or four patches were on the fabric, stitched up to hold for at least another five to four years before some teacher was willing to give up some hunk of old batten furniture for the school. He sat there with his head down, almost in-between his legs, his long brown hair hung down almost lifeless and he had an icepack pressed up against one eye.

Alice stood there for a second, trying to think of something to say, then she cleared her throat again.

But nothing came, she felt frozen, just looking at him sitting there made her feel awful. Before he even had the chance to look up she darted out and ran to her next class, almost losing breath from coming so close.

At the end of the day Alice noticed Joey's car was missing, most likely he had left soon afterwards and went home.

That's when she decided it was now or never.

Like most days after school she didn't need a ride, at two-thirty she had work and then around six she would go home and try to clean around the house before dad came home. He would be drunk like always, complain a little and then stumble off to bed.

Like always.

Walking out of the parking-lot she saw she still had time for a quick little stop, she turned the next block and headed towards Marquette street. Today it was beautiful out, the houses were all lined up in neat little rows as the rest of the schools left out for the afternoon.

Somehow as nervous as Alice felt, she dreamed that all of this had worked out for a strange reason, and how Joey must of liked her in some strange way to do that to Mark.

Smiling she found his house, having past it many times before. Brushing back her hair she sighed and knew it was now or never. Smoothing out her dress with her free hand she walked up to the front porch and rang the doorbell.

For a moment no one answered, then a middle aged woman dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt came to the door, a broom in one hand.

"Hello?"

Alice right away felt frozen again, clearing her throat she tried to smile, feeling very small inside and her skin burning.

"Hi...Hello I'm of...I'm a friend of...of Joey's and I wanted to see if he was, okay?"

Her words stumbled over each other as she gulped and waited for a response. The woman looked Alice up and down and her face seemed to soften a little, which Alice was thankful for.

"Your not one of those fools who were in the fight were you?"

Alice didn't know what to say, her eyes grew wide and she shook her head. Joey's mother laughed a little.

"I didn't think so hon, please come in..."

Joey's mother lead Alice inside, smiling and all ready asking her questions.

"What's your name dear?"

"Alice..."

"Please to meet your Alice, now I'm sorry I have a ton of cleaning to do here, his bedroom is the last one on the left upstairs, he should still be awake...I made him put ice on that thing, stupid doesn't even know what's good for him."

She gave a warm laugh as Alice weakly smiled and watched as she went into the den. Inside the place was kept up and normal, parts almost as if Alice thought it would be. Looking up at the stairs she gave herself one final chance to catch her breath and push back her hair before slowlu walking up.

The soap of the carpet smelled very strong as she walked upstairs, stopping at his bedroom door she thought for a second and then slowly knocked.

"Come in."

She heard his voice...panic rushed through her but without thinking she opened the door and just stood there.

His room was like any other teenage boy's were at this time. A huge bed, a stereo, TV, shelves, walls covered with rock posters and girls, and sport awards of every kind all around. Here she was...standing in his room.

Taking a second she looked and saw he was in a pair of red PJ bottoms and a gray T-shirt. His headphones were on and it seemed as if he was drifting off to sleep. His eye didn't look to bad now, the ice pack now laying by his side.

She stood there almost not being able to breath, he looked at her and right away sat up, almost caught of guard seeing her.

"Hi..."

He managed to shudder out with a shaken voice as he sat up more, tossing aside whatever he was reading.

Alice held her notebooks as tight as she could.

"Hi...I just came by to..."

They looked at each other, having no idea what to say. Alice wanted to die inside...he must of thought she was such a freak for coming all the way here.

"Alice right?"

Alice blinked and nodded.

"You okay?"

Alice shook her head.

"Are you okay?"

"Fine...just hit my eye a little, you were in the nurses' office today, before I got a chance to say anything you ran out."

Alice only nodded.

Joey put down his headphones.

"I just...I just wanted to thank you for..."

She felt like such an idiot.

Joey then looked at her and cracked a small smile.

"Did you hear I broke Mark's nose?"

Alice couldn't keep it in, for no reason at all she started to crack up, she felt nervous and scared, but somehow it helped since it laughed to.

A little while later Alice sat beside Joey on his water bed, the underneath slowly moving back and forth, Alice felt as if she was going to get sea sick.

Both had time to talk, mostly about what happened today in which Joey joked about, not making it into such a big deal, even if Alice thought by far it was the best thing anyone had ever done for her in her life before.

They asked a few questions, a little about Kristen, and how they knew her. Alice explained how her twin brother Rick...who Joey knew from a few classes and seeing before was dating her. Joey said he met her around last year but wouldn't go into any details.

They talked a little about school and even made Alice laugh a little more, sitting side by side.

As awful as she felt she really was having a great time, not being able to believe that here she was sitting right beside him only a few hours later.

Alice never thought herself much of a talker before, but for once she seemed to open up and really liked how someone wanted to hear what she had to say.

He didn't go a lot into himself anyways, only a little bit about school and a few other things, but mostly he let Alice talk.

Both started to relax a little after Alice looked at Joey's eye and said how sorry she was for ever having that start.

He told her it was worth it, and both matched eyes for a moment before Alice noticed a very strange looking class china doll sitting on his night stand.

"What's that?"

She picked it up and gazed at it.

Joey smiled

"That's my mullasian dream doll, supposed to bring good dreams."

Alice found it funny how such an off thing would be in a teenage boy's room. Looking at it one final time she set it back.

"Do you believe in that sort of thing?"

"I guess after time yeah...I do."

"Where did you get it?"

"Doctor I knew gave it to me before he retired to New York, said it was for good luck."

"Does it work?"

"Lately it had..."

He looked at her again, and that strange tossing feeling washed over her as they locked eyes.

Just then Alice saw the time, she was late for work and needed to get out of there. Grabbing her things she said how sorry she was again and was about to just hurry out before saying anything else stupid he stopped her and asked for her number.

Alice seemed almost a little shocked to hear this. Did it mean anything or was he just trying to be nice?

After giving it to him he put his ice pack on his face again and told her he would see her around in school. As nervous as she felt she smiled and said her final goodbyes before leaving.

When she reached the diner Debbie was on and didn't seem to mind at all. Knowing Kristen and Rick would both have problems she went to Debbie and yet again felt normal and a little out of her shell again as she gushed about that half an hour with him.

Debbie kept making jokes about how cute they would be together and told Alice to be a little more forward if she wanted anything to work out.

Smiling Alice went through the rest of her day and everything seemed like a breeze. And by the time her head hit the pillow she was all ready to replay the dream again in her mind.

That night she went to be the happiest girl in the world.