I rushed through the halls, frantically making my way (though not enjoying the trip) to the locker room.

"Heh…Hello…"

The sudden voice made me halt in my tracks. No one seemed to be in the corridor; was I going insane? I hit myself in the cheek, pinched my skin, and began reciting the Barney theme song. "I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy…"

"That song isn't helping your case any." I turned to one of the more shaded areas and saw a pair of deep green eyes looking back at me.

"AAAHHH!" I shouted. "It's Medusa!!"

"I'm not freakin' Medusa." A black boot emerged, and then the entire person came out. It was a girl. She had on a pair of combat boots that stretched up to a bit below her knees; the rest of her legs consisted of black jeans with a chain dangling from the right pocket. She had on an MCR belly shirt, and a belly button ring glimmered in the light. Her skin was a pale white, with those evergreen eyes. Her hair was jet black with a few purple highlights running down the back.

"AAAHHH! It IS Medusa!"

The girl growled. "I'm not Medusa, you dillhole." Her frown was aimed right at my face. She fired, and I was immediately afraid of her. "My name is Xefeclorn."

Oh…So this was Xefeclorn, the school's most popular lesbian. I had heard stories that she was dark and secluded, but I'd always imagined her as being a victim of bad rumors…Something like her having banana-yellow hair with an orange shirt and a lot more flamboyancy; not a scowling, "get-out-of-my-face" vampire.

"You're the little gay boy with grabbed Riku, aren't you…?"

It was official – everyone knew. Rumors spread like wildfire in this school – or herpes after a Backstreet Boys concert. My face went deep red, and the girl laughed. "It's not like I'm the only one who knows. It's amazing how rumors can get around so quickly…" She glanced down the hall. "It's like they're in a Viper, cruising down Main Street with the radio blaring it out."

So she liked Vipers…I guess she wasn't all bad and hold on just a second. So everyone did know…I threw my head into my hands. It wouldn't be long before my parents found out, and God knows they were gossipers…

"I feel like I wanna kill myself…" I moaned through my fingers.

Xefeclorn laughed. "Ya know, I felt the same way when everyone found out I was a lesbian…freakin' Namine…Just has to go blurt out to everyone 'Look at me! I'm Namine! I just made out with the sluttiest whore ever! And guess what?! IT WAS XEFY!!'" Her impression of Namine was high and squeaky like a chipmunk. It at least got me to laugh a little.

Now she seemed to take on a more serious tone. "Look – if you want to be accepted by the pricks at this place, you have to do something really cool. In your case, if you made out with Freddie Mercury, you might have a chance."

"But Freddie Mercury's dead."

"And you'd be frenching a gay skeleton; people think that's awesome. Um…let me give you an example…

"Me. Everyone laughed and pointed and muttered whenever I'd walk by. All those whores would flip up their skirts when I was looking at them…"

"How is this helping me?" I asked.

"Let me finish. The thing was, I was playing guitar – I have been since I was six. No one bothered to notice, though. They screamed so they wouldn't hear me.

"That's when Samcyxk took me in." I looked up, completely surprised at what Xefeclorn had said. Tears were welling up in her eyes. "He was just walking down the hall, blowing bubbles with his gum. It was after hours, and I thought I was the only one in the place. Apparently, he heard me playing and literally rammed the door over.

"He asked me what I was playing. I was so in shock – no one had ever bothered to ask me. I was playing Through the Fire and Flames, and he asked if he could hear it. When I finished, he said, 'You're coming with me.'

"We went to his house, into his garage. Selven was there, and so was Taxmt – you know him, don't you? Guy who's so much of a Seahawks fan that he painted his skin light blue? That guy?" I shook my head. "Oh, well. It was something to see, though. Selven was sitting behind a drum set, there was an empty mic, and Taxmt was holding a bass guitar. He said in that cheery voice of his, 'Guys – we've got ourselves a lead guitarist.'" She sighed before continuing.

"I blew them away, and that's when Sam told me that they had a gig a few days later. We played, and he gave me an instrumental so I could show off." She seemed to be getting pretty choked up. "I…I've never heard applause that loud. The next day, everyone was congratulating me…"

Xefeclorn finally noticed tears were running down her cheeks; she wiped them away and got back to that dark, goth look. "The point is, the really cool thing I do is play guitar. You just have to find your niche.

"Oh, and by the way, you might want to get to class." The bell rang, and students started falling out of classroom doors.

"Xefeclorn!" She turned back to me. "Yes?"

"Thank you."

She smiled, and disappeared into the crowd. It was then that I remembered I was supposed to be going to the locker room. My plan to be there before anyone else had been sabotaged by Xefeclorn, so now I had to face all the guys. With a sinking heart, I went on my way.

It took a few minutes, but I arrived. There were only a few guys there, but they made smooching noises and puckered up their lips. Trying my best to ignore them, I went to my locker and got out my gym clothes.

As I took my shirt off, there was a loud wolf whistle. Snickers followed.

"Okay, who the hell did that?!" I shouted. Nobody seemed to be listening. Muttering to myself, I got changed and went to Saïx's half of the huge room.

To my surprise, most of the class was already there. Everyone was in line and silent. They only moved to glance at me; I noticed Riku paid attention. So he didn't even have to look to know it was me…

"So glad you could join us," Saïx said. "Look, I heard about what happened in your first period. If you don't want to participate, I understand…"

"No," I replied. "I'm fine."

"Good," he said back. I couldn't keep from wondering what his mouth twisting into a crazed grin was all about. His eyes kept their same apathy as he made contact with mine. "It just wouldn't be the same without you."

The first game we did was half-and-half dodgeball. Riku and I were on opposite teams, with Samcyxk on mine. The three of us never threw a ball at each other, though we did manage to peg the majority of our opposing team.

In fact, Samcyxk retained his title as "unhittable." His moves were so swift and elegant from playing DDR that no ball did so much as glance off of him; he had been within a yard of Tidus and had dodged the ball.

The second game was some three-on-three basket ball. Larxene's class was learning about health that day, so the other gym wasn't occupied. Saïx sent my team and Riku's team only over there. Nothing interesting happened…until I was dodging and Riku had the ball.

I at first didn't know who it was, but they had shoved me from behind. If I hadn't brought my hands to my sides, it probably would've been a repeat of the locker incident. When I got up, I saw Samcyxk walking over to the bleachers.

His hit was a resounding one. Whoever it was, I didn't personally know him, was sent sprawling but Samcyxk's fist.

"If any one of you makes another joke about that," he said in a clear, powerful voice, "I swear to God I will beat the living shit out of you." After that, the games we played were uneventful.

The period ended on a happy note; everyone was chatting, and didn't pay any attention to me. I guess Samcyxk had been heard in the other gym, too.

The last period of the day was English – a relatively boring class. But I knew that when the final bell rang, I was going to have to do the most insane, most hard thing there was to do.

I had to confront Riku.