Thanks to that anon reviewer that kept hounding me for an update... you motivated me to get this chapter done sooner so this one is for you!

"The last lesson we will learn today will be carbon dating."

They were all in the makeshift classroom again, everyone sitting at their assigned desks. X and Z had switched seats, so X was no longer seated behind B. The boy sat silently on the other side of the room, bandages on his face, glaring at B. Vienna stood at the front of the room, writing some things on the board. Roger had told her to teach the class today while he took care of some things; B figured he was just being a lazy old man.

He stared up at the girl standing at the front of the room. She wore a white blouse and a lavender colored skirt, her dark hair pulled away from her face. Vienna was pale, very thin and very tall, almost like L. She wore a smile on her lips as she spoke, and you could even see that smile in her dark eyes. She had a very innocent look to her, similar to K. At first glance, Vienna seemed like the nicest person you would ever meet. She looked like some type of angel. Looks can be deceiving. B looked at the little red characters floating above her head. She was no angel, she was human, and she wasn't the least bit nice.

Vienna was obsessed with order, she was controlling. If she didn't like what you were doing she would manipulate you until you were doing what she wanted. Thats one of the reasons she didn't like B. He didn't listen to anyone and Vienna knew it. He wasn't going to do anything she told him to and he never would. But she just kept on bossing him around, hoping one day he would obey her. B would love to see that. He would die before he ever listened to her.

B was biting his nails. She had also stayed with L for months... wherever he was. Why was L so fond of Vienna... how could he even tolerate her? B chewed harder. B didn't even know where L was. How come Vienna got to stay with him all the time? B hadn't heard L's voice let alone seen his face in years and Vienna, of all people, got to visit him. It really wasn't fair. B clenched his fist. He just wanted to wrap his fingers around Vienna's neck and just...

His finger was bleeding. B sighed and put his hands down flat on the desk. They were covered in scratches and bruises, as usual. He poked a rather large purplish bruise on his left hand and cringed. He found another one that was angular shaped and light green. He figured that it was a result of Roger's little punishment. A smudge of blood was left on his hand, and B wiped it away on his navy blue shirt.

He looked up at the board where Vienna had written with chalk. Almost the whole board was covered with numbers and definitions that B was most likely not going to write down. He could just remember it. Maybe.

"Carbon dating is used to determine the age of fossil remains by calculating the carbon-14 left in the organism." Vienna said, turning to face the class. "After the organism dies, the carbon-14 inside of it begins to decay, by finding how much is left in the organism you can find out when it died, which will then allow you to determine its age."

B turned and stared at K in the desk next to him. She was looking at the chalkboard diligently copying down notes. He watched her as she glanced up at the board every few seconds, then looked back down and moved her pen quickly across the paper. She looked tired, he could see it in her eyes. They looked heavy and dull, not much interest showing. She was probably tired from last night.

"Now I will show you how to calculate the age of an organism." Vienna said, glancing at B briefly. "B, pay attention."

B snapped his head forward, glaring at Vienna. She simply turned around and began writing more things on the chalk board. It was something about half-lives and fractions, and some complicated looking problem that was surely going to make his head hurt.

Vienna cleared her throat and read off of the board. "The carbon-14 in an organism is found to have three tenths of that in the same organism living today, how old is the organism?"

B squinted at the board. A half-life is the amount of time it takes for half of a quantity to decay. The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years. The amount of C-14 left is 30% or .300. B set up his problem as:

x log .5 =log .300

He turned on his calculator and plugged in the numbers, not being able to do a logarithm problem in his head. From that problem he got 1.737 and simply multiplied it by the half-life of carbon-14 (5,730 years). He did the math in his head carefully.

So the answer is... 9,953 years! The organism is 9,953 years old.

As B began to raise his hand, A's hand bolted up in the air.

"Yes, A?" Vienna said with a smile.

"The answer is 9,953 years." He stated, fixing his glasses.

B clenched his jaw.

"That is correct!" Vienna exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "Excellent job A you figured that out quite fast."

A leaned back in his seat and smiled. B stared at him, trying so hard not to roll his eyes. B had figured out the answer too, probably even before A did. A was always acting like he was better than someone... B just wanted to rip that smug look right off of his face.

"Okay let's try another. This time it will be a little harder." Vienna said erasing the previous problem and writing a new one in its place.

B wasn't even going to bother solving it, he wasn't in the mood. As everyone was typing away on their calculators, B could hear abnormally loud breathing. He looked to his left to see K asleep, her head down on the desk. B knew from past experiences that both Roger and Vienna did not tolerate sleeping during class. B leaned over in her direction, reaching his arm over to her to poke her with his pencil.

"K." He whispered sharply. "Wake up."

He could hear her whine a little, then she lifted up her head and looked at him lazily. Suddenly, someone grabbed his arm and tugged him. B looked up to see Vienna glaring down at him.

"What are you doing?" She asked. "No talking in class!"

B looked up to see her glaring down at him.

"Let go of me!" B yelled angrily, trying to pull away from the girl. "Don't touch me!"

Vienna released him, and took a few steps back. She'd been gone for so long she had forgotten about B's little problem with people touching him.

"B." She said calmly, looking down at his big red eyes. "Go to your room."

B was up before she had even finished speaking, stomping out of the classroom. Everyone was silent as Vienna walked slowly to the front of the room.

"The Backup freaks out once again!" X said, laughing.

K quickly sat up and turned to face the boy. "Why don't you just shut up?!" She blurted out.

Everyone looked at her, surprised.

"K..." Vienna said, taken aback.

"What?" K answered, sounding upset. "Why don't you all just leave B alone he was just..."

"See me after class." Vienna said, turning her back to the class once more.

K frowned.

...

"K it's not very nice to talk to people the way you talked to X earlier." Vienna said, sitting at the big desk.

She and K were the only ones in the room, everyone else had been dismissed. K stood in front of the desk, looking down at her fingers.

"I know that." K mumbled. "But he was..."

"That doesn't matter." Vienna interrupted. "Just because someone does something mean doesn't mean you can do something mean back."

K looked up at her. But X was such a mean person! And he keeps getting away with it...

"Are you friends with B?"

"Yes." K answered almost immediately.

"Is that so..." Vienna said standing up. "Has he done anything... strange to you?"

K narrowed her eyes at Vienna. Strange. B did lick her hand once. That was pretty weird. As a matter of fact it was blood he licked off her hand.

"K." Vienna said, bringing her back to reality.

"No, he hasn't."

Vienna walked from behind the desk and was now standing next to K. "Has he ever hurt you? Or put his hands on you in any threatening type of way?"

K frowned at her. "No! Why would he ever do that to me, he's my friend!"

"That's interesting." Vienna said with a forced smile. "Have you ever thought of making friends with Z? She's a little girl just like you, you're just a bit older than she is."

"I am not a little girl!" K protested.

"Okay, young lady," Vienna corrected herself. "I'm just suggesting you make other friends here besides B, it's not good for you to be with him all of the time... he's not a very good person."

"What?" K said in disbelief. "B has been nothing but nice to me since I've been here and I don't understand why all of you are attacking him all of the time! Maybe if you got to know him..."

"I do know him, K." Vienna said calmly, putting her hand on the younger girl's shoulder.

"No! You don't!" K exclaimed, nudging her hand away. "You don't know him!"

She ran out of the room.

...

B sat fully clothed in the bottom of his bathtub, weaving his razor blade between his fingers. One single cut decorated his right arm, he had caved and started hurting himself on that arm too. B couldn't help it. He needed to release that anger somewhere. B stared at the tile wall in front of him in thought. He thought of K. Why was everything B did so wrong? Everyone was always assuming he was doing something bad... even when he was trying to do something good... like trying to prevent K from getting in trouble.

There was a knock at the door.

"B it's me."

B stood up and carefully got out of the tub. He hid the razor and pulled down his sleeve before opening the door, K standing there patiently.

"B I'm sorry I got you in trouble before that was all my fault I know I shouldn't be sleeping in class I'm just really tired and all and..."

"Why are you apologizing?" B said with a small laugh.

"Because, Vienna touched you she grabbed your arm and..." K looked down at his right arm where blood was smeared on his palm from under the long sleeve he was wearing. "B are you bleeding?"

She looked at him concerned and he looked down at his arm. He could see the blood coming from under his sleeve.

"Uh, I just had a little cut, nothing major." B pulled down his sleeve and gripped it with his fingers. "So have you been able to sleep lately? Or are you tired from last night?"

"No, no that's not important I'm fine." K said shaking her head. "Vienna's trying to convince me to stay away from you."

"She what?" B said, his mood instantly going sour.

"She told me that your a bad person and that you're going to hurt me, she said I should be friends with someone else like Z. She doesn't want me around you."

"But I would never do anything to hurt you." B spoke, not realizing what he had said until after. He could feel this weird feeling inside of him, why was he getting so emotional?

K could see this was getting to B, and he was beginning to look sad.

"B I just wanted to tell you that I'll never leave you, and I'll always be here." She smiled at him. "I understand now how misunderstood you are, and I hate the person everyone makes you out to be..."

B didn't know what to say, his mouth was just partially open and he probably looked really stupid. He felt weird.

"K...I..."

He hugged her.

...