Summary: Five conversations. Two characters in each. Simple. Or not.

A/N: I have decided not to follow rules so much. Quotes may be a little twisted and the next couple of chapters will probably have more of a theme. I am just trying something new so tell me what you think.

TUESDAY

Brian:

I think having friends, proper friends that is, is a sort of compromise in itself.

Bender was waiting at my locker at the start of school; I don't know how he knew where it was, and I was kind of scared of asking. When I got there, I smiled at him, it seemed the right thing to do, but I was terrified of what he wanted from me.

"You're a nerd aren't you?" he said quietly as I pulled books out of my bag and stowed them in my locker. I looked at him for a moment and he grinned.

"I mean, Intelligent American. That's the right term isn't it Bri?"

I sighed.

"What do you want John?" I asked tiredly, because as much as I like him, I knew he wouldn't come and see me if he didn't want something.

"I need to pass Trig. this semester. Otherwise I'm booted."

His answer was abrupt, and I felt my mouth drop open.

All I could say was; "Oh."

Pushing my mouth closed, John shook his head.

"I don't want your pity. This is a trade."

I knew the guy had learning issues, but how could he not know a trade?

"John, you need to give me something too if this is a trade."

John rolled his eyes.

"I know, I'm not retarded Dork. Here's the deal, you help me pass Trig., and I do your work in Shop."

"Are we even in the same class?' I asked tentatively, telling myself I hadn't made my decision yet, despite the feeling of hope in my chest that was rising rapidly.

John nodded.

"Yeah, I checked."

I cocked my head to one side.

"You put a lot of thought into this. How long have you been failing Trig.?"

I had never been a fan of that abbreviation, but I wanted John to think I was cool.

"Since the start of the semester. I have this thing with classes..." John trailed off, I motioned with my head to go on.

"I don't go okay Brainiac? Look, just tutor me okay, I'll fix your fuckin' elephant and do your assignments. I get mine done quick enough."

I thought about it for a moment.

"Okay." I said quietly, and John smiled.

"But on one condition." I said mysteriously, and John's smile dropped. "You stop calling me Dork."

John smiled again, shaking his head. Slinging his arm around my shoulders, he steered me toward the exit that lead to the oval.

"Bri," he said happily, "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship..."

Andrew:

I can't believe this is actually happening to me.

I have to keep on telling myself that, that it isn't just some weird dream that I'll wake up out of any second.

I skipped the last period before lunch to watch Allison in the art room.

It was her favourite class I could tell. She still set up her easel at the back, and acted all anti-social, but she had this great glow about her.

I felt kind of like a stalker, watching her for thirty minutes while she fiddled and critically appraised her work, I couldn't see what she was painting, just the reactions she had when she saw what she had made.

Finally the bell went and I waited for her outside the door. She didn't look surprised when she saw me, just happy. Pulling her aside, I stroked her hair and kissed her.

"You look so different in there Ally." I said after a while.

Suddenly she looked uncomfortable and shoved me aside and went to storm away, but I caught her arm.

"Ally what's wrong?" I asked looking her in the eye, but she glared back at me.

"That's what's wrong!" she yelled, like she had in the library, "Ally! A nickname! Why do I need a nickname? It's so stupid! So normal!"

She was being ridiculous, but I tried being patient.

"Because I thought since you were my girlfriend," I put emphasis on the word, "that I should be able to call you something cute."

She pouted and shrugged. Looking at the floor she spoke softly.

"Mother called me that before...when..."

"...when she still cared." I finished her sentence and reached out, pushing her chin up so we were looking into each other's eyes. There were now tears on both her cheeks and her eyes showed intense pain like nothing I'd ever seen.

"I'm not like her. I'm not going to stop caring."

With that I kissed her and hugged her. I had never hugged a girl before, at least not one that I had liked that way. I don't do hugs. Not normally. But Allison. It's like; when I'm with her I'm a different person to the guy that hangs out with the Jocks from the wrestling team, or the submissive son that eats dinner quietly with his family. The funny thing is, this new person is feeling more and more like who I really am.

"Do you want to have lunch with me?" she asked cautiously.

I thought about her proposal.

"Do I have to try your food?" I asked jokingly.

Allison smiled and I pulled her down the hallway toward my locker. When I pulled out my large paper bag stuffed with food she snatched it off me and looked inside. I was afraid of what she would do next but she just threw it back at me.

"Well Andy, this is a very nutritious lunch," she put on John's voice, "All the food groups are represented..."

John

Why did I do that?

Everyone knows I am an asshole. I know I am an asshole. I acted like an asshole to Claire on Saturday and I tend to stick to my instincts. But I think I've really lost her now.

I was being tutored by Brian at lunch (I don't even call him dork in my head now. Weird) and she was at my locker again. We had a brief kiss and I went to put my hand on her thigh but she pulled away.

"Where were you at lunch?" her voice was gentle, like she didn't want to trigger an outburst.

"You know the usual, smoking dope with my friends behind the gym."

"John."

"Why do you care?"

She looked embarrassed.

"Oh no reason. I was going to introduce you to the girls but I couldn't find you so..."

"Oh okay, so now you want to show off your rebel boyfriend and your friends can marvel at how Claire snared the poor guy with the attitude problem!"

I felt pretty pleased with myself until I saw the anger building in her face.

"You were the one who pushed me to go public with this so don't get all weird on me just because I want to tell my friends that I'm dating you and not just sucking face in the hallway!"

"My God you are such a spoilt brat! News Flash: the girls don't give a shit about you and we are not dating!"

"You are such a jerk."

"You're such a Princess!"

"Go to hell."

"Have you heard your own voice recently? I'm already there!"

By now she was crying again and as angry as I was I couldn't help but hate myself.

"I hate you John Bender."

"Whatever." I turned and opened my locker trying to look careless. But she just stood there for a minute doing nothing. Finally I turned back to her and pulled out the earring she gave me.

"Here," I said, throwing it at her feet, "Consider yourself single once more."

She looked so pathetic. Tears smudging her make up, snot edging out of her nose and hair all messed. But she just slowly bent down and picked up the earring, and came back up again and looked me in the eye.

"It was a gift."

Leaning over, she pried my fingers apart gently and put the earring back in my palm. I didn't try and stop her. As soon as she had she closed my fist again and ran in the opposite direction.

Allison:

I did it.

I never thought I would do it. Nobody would pick me for someone that would've done it already, and if someone told me I would have do it a week ago I would have squeaked angrily at them. But now I've done it. And I feel different.

Today,

on the oval,

for the first time ever,

I counselled a friend

I went outside just after lunch because whenever I go to PE I usually just go to the guidance counsellor's office but I didn't feel like it today. I think my head is kid of clearing up, like a cloud was on top of it and it was all dark but now the cloud has moved and it's all sunny. I don't like the sun much. But I like the light.

I went onto the oval and sat behind the bleachers and took out my sketch pad, because when the oval is muddy and the boys come out to play football they make great pictures. The smell, the filth, the groaning and swearing and pain. It's disgusting. I love it.

But then John turned up, and when he saw me he rolled his eyes and came over, and sat next to me. He took out a packet of cigarettes and offered them to me. So I took one, and then he took one and put it in his mouth. So I copied him. Then he took out a lighter, shaped like the body of a naked woman and I leaned forward like I saw girls do in the bathrooms when they were lighting their cigarettes. When he had lit the cigarette I just let it sit in my mouth for a minute while he inhaled and exhaled his quietly. Finally he looked at me and laughed. He took a deep breath of smoke and then breathed it out again, motioning for me to copy him. So I did, but it really dried out my throat, and I coughed. I pulled it out of my mouth and held it in one hand. John laughed again and pulled a flask out of his other pocket, unscrewing the lid and passing it to me. I took a big gulp, but it just made my throat burn. I didn't cough though. I just swallowed a couple of times and it felt a bit better. John was still smiling at me. So I glared at him and took another puff of the cigarette, a big one and breathed it out as easily as I could.

"Well done," he said clapping, "You've mastered smoking and drinking. Now why are you really here?"

I stayed quiet and took another puff of the cigarette.

"Why are you here?" I said eventually and John just shrugged.

"Tell me yours and I'll tell you mine."

I glared at him and decided to tell him the truth.

"Andy is confusing me."

"Andy's confusing."

I glared at him and he just adjusted himself in his spot. He had finished his cigarette and took out another one, lighting it and exhaling the smoke gracefully, slowly. It was then that I decided to start sketching him. I stubbed my cigarette on the ground and picked up my book. While I began drawing his outline, he breathed smoke in my face.

"Andy. Andy. Andy, Andy, Andy..." John started saying and l looked up at him.

"What's up with you two anyway? Are you just good friends or are you actually tagging each other?"

"What's up with you and Claire?" I asked defensively, knowing he would have to admit what was going on now, he'd promised. I kept drawing while I waited for his answer and I noticed that my frustration was giving the drawing fire, the fire that I first saw in John on Saturday.

"She's Claire Standish. I'm John Bender. How do you think its going?" he said savagely after a few more puffs of his cigarette.

I didn't say anything, just kept drawing. Andy and Claire and Brian always answered back, always tried saying smart stuff when John was mean. I had decided to let him be mean, he would stop if I just let him say it, let the poison out.

"I thought if I made her tell everyone that this would be better for us, I wouldn't feel so alone in this," John said eventually and I looked back up at him.

When he met my eyes I just said, "You don't have to be alone. Not anymore."

But he just looked away and threw his cigarette butt in the direction of the sport class out on the oval.

"If we're not alone anymore, how come you're out here instead of inside with your boyfriend?"

I looked back down at my drawing and started on his eyes. Cruel, dark, harsh eyes. Like him.

"He's not who he thinks he is. I need to show him." I said slowly and John laughed again, hard.

"He's exactly who he thinks he is. You just don't see him for what he is. He's not like you; he's not like some abstract artist. He's a colour by numbers. Simple."

"What about Claire? What's she? A packet of cheap cigarettes or a Cuban cigar?"

My approach was vicious but it was about time someone saw the fog that he took with him everywhere. I was just adding wisp strokes to his hair in the drawing when he shoved the flask under my nose again. Putting my drawing aside for a moment, I took another swig and looked sideways at him. He looked angry again. But I kept going.

"Well?"

"Neither! Okay? She's a spoilt brat, a Princess."

John's outburst was less scary than amusing. I read a book once, when I still tried to impress my parents with my reading, about a man who fell in love with a horrible woman, selfish and spoilt. But he loved her very much, for her beauty and her ability to surprise him. And I know that John still loves his Princess, the same way.

"The Princess won the Jesters heart." I said slyly, rounding off his nose in the drawing, and softly shading underneath, above his lip.

Instead of denying it, John just sighed and lit another cigarette.

"Yeah." He said simply, sighing.

"He won hers." I added hopefully and started doing the final shading on his chin.

"What about you and Andy? Did the Prisoner win the Painter's heart?"

John's face in the picture needed darker shading under his hair.

"Maybe. Maybe not." I said cheekily and John smiled, passing me another cigarette, but I turned this one down.

Finally the drawing was ready, so I ripped the sheet out of the book and passed it to John. He looked down at it and smiled, and passed it back.

"I'm not so much with the art appreciation." He said still smiling. He fidgeted and shuffled for a moment, adjusting in his seat, before getting out his flask again, but I snatched it off him.

"Go see your girlfriend lover boy; it's what you've been dying to do since you got here." I said in my best attempt at copying him.

Instead of telling me off John just looked at me for a moment and stood up, taking the flask off me and putting it back in his pocket.

"You're a shrink now?"

"No. Just a friend."

"Well then, as a friend let me tell you that Andy is fine the way he is. Don't make him be what he's not."

I reached up and pulled the naked lady lighter out of his pocket and the cigarette packet. It only had a few cigarettes in it.

"Okay you keep it." John said laughing and I decided instead of just stealing I would trade him.

"Wait." I said as he went to turn and go. I reached into my bag and searched for a while. Finally I found what I was looking for. When I put it in his hand he looked at me and back at it, but didn't say anything. He just turned and left.

Claire

That was real shitty

I can't believe I cried over that jerk again. In front of him. It took me about ten minutes in the bathroom to fix myself up. That must be a record.

I had a free period after that so I just went and sat in the library, skimming through old magazines. I don't think I read a single word, nothing sank in. All I could think about was why he was so mad at me. I didn't get it. I actually stood up to my friends at lunch, told them I was with him and then he goes and says; 'we're not dating'.

I was just sitting there staring at a photo of a swimsuit model but not taking any of it in when Brian came over.

"Oh hey Brian." I didn't give it much enthusiasm.

"Hi Claire." He said happily and sat down next to me, putting his chunky Physics textbooks next to my thin, shiny magazines.

"So what have you been up to today?" I asked.

"Well, nothing much, just classes. Oh and now I'm tutoring John so I was here at lunch, teaching him trigonometry."

A light bulb went on in my head.

"John. As in John Bender?"

"Yeah. As in John Bender. Your boyfriend."

I frowned and looked away.

"He's not my boyfriend…." I couldn't bring myself to say 'anymore'.

"Oh…" Brian looked uncomfortable and flicked over a page of his book. But there was something else in his eyes: hope.

"Brian." I said after a while and he looked at me again.

"Yes Claire?"

At that moment I saw John walk into the library and scan the tables, looking for me most likely. So I did what he knew I was good at. The bitchiest thing I could.

"Come here." I said quickly and grabbed Brian by the shirt, pressing my lips against his. Instead of pulling away like I thought he would, he stayed there for a while, until I finally let go of him. When we pulled back I looked at him and he smiled at me. But then I looked over at where John had been. He was gone.

But then I saw that Brian must've figured things out. I saw tears in his eyes but he wiped them away quickly. He just looked at me for a second and packed up his books quietly. Just as he picked up his things he said quietly;

"That was real shitty."

A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update, but I had a very bad case of writers block!

Now review!