Joseph awoke early the next morning to bright sunshine and someone sitting on his bed beside him. He pulled the covers from his face and saw Rose, her long white hair pulled back in a ponytail and wearing a small t-shirt and blue jean shorts. He smiled at her, but she just grabbed his arm and shook him.

"Get up," she said. "It's time to go."

Joseph looked at the clock and discovered that he still had half an hour to sleep. He looked at Rose in confusion, but she punched him in the shoulder and told him to get up again. "You jog to school every morning, right?" He sat up and nodded, rubbing his eyes. He was still half asleep and had no idea why she wanted to know. "I wanna join you."

Well that was nice. A little too nice for Rose, in fact. Joseph woke up enough to sign, "I thought you were suspended."

"I am, but can I just go with you until we reach campus?"

"Sure." He hadn't seen her this interested in what he was doing before, and he couldn't help that it made him a little suspicious, but he decided to just let her come with him unless she did something weird again.

People were still wondering how she had managed to pull a prank as serious as putting a bomb in the school lockers. It was a wonder she wasn't expelled, but for some odd reason she was merely suspended for a week. Joseph seemed to be the only one that had suspicions about the bomb itself, which the police had examined but didn't have much to say about. He knew he had seen that orange S logo before, but he wasn't sure where or when. And Addie had freaked out when she found out what had happened, wearing an expression the rest of the day that made her seem like she wanted to strangle Rose on the spot.

Now Rose left the room and Joseph got up and changed clothes, then managed to quickly comb his wavy blond hair before hearing Rose yelling at him from the kitchen to hurry up. He grabbed his backpack and went to the living room, where he met up with Rose and they left the apartment room.

As they jogged down the flights of stairs to get to the bottom floor of the building, Rose asked if he ever took the bus to school, and he shook his head, glad that she didn't ask why. Avoiding Jared Thomas was not an easy task.

"At my other schools," Rose said as they left the building and headed down the sidewalk, "I was expelled three times before I just dropped out and decided to stay home. I had better things to do, anyway."

Joseph couldn't really use sign language while jogging, so he just looked at her questioningly. She explained that she had always been very passionate about martial arts, and it was the only thing that made her relax, "believe it or not. Kinda like you and art or music."

So now he understood when she used that example. Except his music and art didn't get him kicked out of school. He slowed down a little and signed, "Why exacty were you expelled?"

"Different reasons with different schools," she replied. "Fighting, mainly. I could whip every kid in those places. So, do you know any fight moves?"

He nodded slightly. "I learned a lot from my older brother, but he moved out this year. We haven't really heard from him since."

"You miss him?"

Joseph thought that was a good question. He didn't even know himself, so he couldn't really answer. He just shrugged.

The school bus came around the corner and drove past them slowly, and Jared Thomas pulled open a window and threw something hard at Joseph, which he dodged just in time. It skidded across the sidewalk and appeared to be a rock. What in the world? "Screw you, Wilson!" Jared yelled.

Rose waved a fist and yelled back, "Shut-up, jerk!" She grabbed his rock and chucked it at the bus, and it hit his window squarely, though it missed his face. Joseph was almost glad for that. When the bus was out of sight, she turned to him and said, "Was he talking to me or you?"

Joseph pointed at himself. "That guy's a real problem for me," he signed. "I think he hates me."

Rose smashed a fist into her open palm. "When I get back in school, I'm gonna crush him."

Joseph didn't know if she was saying this to defend him or if she just liked to fight. Either way, he touched her arm and shook his head. "No, you'd better not. You'll get suspended again."

She shrugged. "Not like it hasn't happened before. But come on, you're gonna be late if we don't hurry up."

She was right, so they continued at a sprint until they reached the school. They stopped to catch their breath a moment, and Joseph noticed that she was fairly muscely for a girl. When she had said she worked out a lot, she had obviously been telling the truth. He wondered if he could join her sometime, but he heard the bell before he could ask.

"Well, see ya," she said. "I'm gonna go back to the apartment and help your mom with some stuff."

Joseph waved at her, and she turned around and ran back the way they had came. Rose, helping with stuff? What had gotten into her? Joseph hadn't known what to think about her at first, but after today she seemed that she might be all right.

He went inside and hurried to his first class, barely getting there in time to avoid a scolding from the teacher. He slid into his desk and saw that he was sitting in front of the brunette Lisa Hensely again today. Not that that was a problem, but he just felt a little uncomfortable around her. She had been crushing on him since he had first came to the school, and by the way she was batting her eyelashes all the time, she didn't care to hide it. Which was what she was doing now. Joseph blushed and hovered over his book, bashfully ignoring her. He heard her move, and a note was slipped onto his desk. He glanced at the teacher to make sure she wasn't looking, then opened it slightly and saw that Lisa was requesting to meet him after school. He quickly scribbled down that he would, then passed it back to her, embarrassed at her beaming smile as she read his reply.

Something hit him in the shoulder and landed on his desk, and he opened it, revealing a simply drawn skull. He glanced up at Jared Thomas, who glared and flipped a bird at him. Joseph looked away and crushed the paper in his fist, then dropped it into his backpack. The teacher obviously saw the note passing, but she just frowned and amazingly didn't say anything.

Later in the cafeteria, Joseph sat at a table alone. He was one of those people where everybody either loved or hated him, and there seemed to be no in-between. Mostly the guys hated him, and the girls had crushes on him, which the latter made him feel a little shy.

"Hi," a female voice said. Lisa was standing beside him, holding her lunch tray. "Can I sit here?" He smiled and nodded, and she sat down in the chair across from him. "So, have you been getting as much homework as I have?"

"Probably," he signed. He was glad she understood sign language, though there were some words that she didn't know. He almost suspected she had learn it just to talk to him. "It's Mr. Johnson, mainly."

"Yeah, he's pretty tough on everybody," she said, tearing open a milk carton. She took a drink, then dabbed her mouth with a napkin. "Where's your sister?"

"Well, she's my half sister, really. And she's suspended."

"Already? But she just got here, like, yesterday."

He nodded. "Did you hear about that bomb in the lockers?"

"Yeah. She did that? Oh my gosh! Why?"

"Probably her idea of a prank, I guess."

Lisa looked confused. "What?"

"Her idea of a prank." When she still looked at him blankly, he tried a different word. "It was her joke she played on the school."

She looked embarrassed. "Oh. Sorry, I'm not as fluent in sign language as you are."

"It's okay, I know it's hard to learn. It took me forever." He suddenly wondered if she knew why he was mute. A lot of kids didn't, and most didn't care. But she didn't ask.

"Yeah. So, you like art, don't you?"

Now here was something he could really talk about. "Yes, I've always liked to paint and draw. How about you?"

"I like it, but I'm not the best. Drawing's my thing, really. I couldn't paint a stick if I tried."

Joseph laughed his silent laugh. By now he was used to being totally quiet, but right after the ordeal that had cost him his voice, he had nearly lost his mind with the frustration of being unable to make a sound.

They had barely eaten anything when the bell rang that signaled them to get back to class. "Well, I'd better go. See you after school?" Lisa said.

Joseph nodded.

-T-

The rest of the day seemed to go by very slowly, and Joseph was tired when it was time to meet Lisa under the flagpole, but he got his books and went out to meet her because he had said he would. Also, she was funny and pleasant to be around, and he felt like he might like her if they got to know each other better. He had had to keep his school books in his backpack the whole day, since most of the lockers were unusuable, though they were in the process of being repaired, and now he had the job of carrying the heavy books all the way home. Oh well. Endurance.

He went outside and saw Lisa leaning against the flagpole, and he waved. He caught her eye, and she waved back enthusiastically. Looking at her from a distance, Joseph thought she was very pretty. Her straight brown hair reached her shoulder blades, and she was fairly skinny and about 5'7, his height. Today she was wearing a tank top and jeans, and somehow managed a jacket, despite the heat. The temperature didn't usually get this high in Tibet, but you never knew about the weather.

"Hey Joey," she said when he reached her, and he waved as they walked across the street. Once on the other side, he let his backpack drop to the ground. He didn't want to seem like he was complaining, but he didn't want to have to hold it any longer than he had to either.

"What's up?" he signed.

"Nothing. What are you doing you doing after school?"

Joseph thought for a moment. "Just homework."

"Do you want to come over to my house? We could do ours together." She seemed to love the thought of that.

"All right, sure."

"Good. I-" Her smile suddenly faded as she looked beyond Joseph's shoulder. He turned to look too, and soon discovered what had made her suddenly silent. Jared Thomas came walking over to them with an expression of fury on his face.

Joseph stiffened angrily as Jared grabbed Lisa around the waist and attempted to pull her close to him, though she was trying to shove him away. "Back off, Blondie," he growled. "Get your own girl."

"Jared, get off me," Lisa said, struggling to get away from him. "And I'm not your girl, okay? Leave me alone and let me talk to Joseph in peace."

"Quiet, baby. Me and Blondie here have a few things to settle."

"No! Just go away."

Joseph touched Lisa's shoulder to encourage her to be quiet, but Jared's fist met his face and knocked him back onto the grass, drawing blood from his mouth. Lisa screeched slightly and tried to grab Jared, but he shoved her away and jumped onto Joseph, pinning him to the ground and throwing hard punches, which Joseph managed to dodge or block, though he did it with great difficulty.

"Keep your hands to yourself, you little punk!" Jared yelled.

Joseph struggled and finally planted a knee hard into the other boy's stomach, knocking the breath out of him and shoving him off. Jared tried to jump forward again, but Lisa latched onto his arm with both hands and held on with all of her might. "Jared, stop!"

"I'm gonna kill him!" he growled.

"No! Stop it, okay? Just quit," she said, still holding onto his arm tightly. After a few seconds, Jared sat back and caught his breath, but Joseph didn't move from the ground in fear of getting jumped again.

"I don't want him near you," Jared said to Lisa, and she looked away. "If he does, I'll kill him. If not on campus, then somewhere else. Got it?" He stood up and brushed the dirt off his clothes, shot Joseph an evil look, and walked away.

Lisa stood up and helped Joseph to his feet. "I'm really sorry," she said. "Are you okay?" When he nodded, she continued. "Jared tends to be a little... possessive sometimes. And I want to, but I really can't be around you. I'm sorry."

"What? You're going to do what he says? Why?"

"Because he'll hurt you if I don't. I don't doubt that he will." She dabbed his bleeding lip with the back of her finger. "I'm sorry. But it's only a matter of time before he gets expelled from this place, so then we won't have to worry about him anymore. Won't that be the day?" Then her brief smile faded, and she hugged herself. "I have to go. I'm really sorry." And she hurried away.

Joseph stood on the sidewalk, still in slight shock at the whole situation. The pain in his mouth wasn't even the problem, it was about Lisa. One minute he had been on his way to her house to do homework with her, and now she didn't want to be around him. Well, no. She wanted to be around him, she just felt like she couldn't because of Jared. For a second Joseph wished for the day when someone wiped the floor with Jared Thomas.

He automatically picked up his heavy backpack and walked to his house, not really sure of what he was doing until he reached his apartment. He moved to open the door, but froze when he heard angry voices from inside. Was his father home? Yes, it sounded like it. And his mother was off work early again, obviously.

Joseph took a deep breath and opened the door, only to be assaulted with foul language and loud voices, which stopped when he came inside. Rose was standing silently in the hall. Slade was sitting in a chair and running a hand through his white hair and frowning behind his eye patch, and Addie was perched against the back of the couch with her arms crossed.

"Hello, Joseph," she said in a tone as if all this was his fault. No one seemed to notice his dirty clothes and bleeding lip. "Why don't you sit down? Your father and Rose have something to tell us."

And by the sound of her voice, whatever it was about was serious.