A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, everyone! Enjoy this chapter! R&R please! A lot of Angel angst in this chapter again (and a little RENT song reference thrown in at the beginning...tehehe)...and a little bit of Roger/Mimi fluff for ya :) But don't worry! Next chapter there will be more of our favorite boho kid couples. R&R please!

MARK'S POV:

Mark Cohen watched as Roger Davis turned around in his seat. The fifth grade classroom was set up in rows, and since the children had been allowed to pick their seats on the first day of school, Roger had made sure he'd gotten a seat close to his friends. That was because, first of all, they were his friends, and second of all, if he ever needed answers to any questions as far as schoolwork, all he had to do was turn around and ask his friends for help. Now, the students were doing math problems, and he was stumped...Well, he wasn't really stumped. He just didn't feel like doing the math.

"Dude, what's 21,900 times 24?" Roger whispered to Tom.

Tom sighed and rolled his eyes. He thought for a moment, and then responded:"Five-hundred twenty-five thousand six-hundred."

Mimi and Mark, who were sitting on the right side of Tom, stared at him, wide eyed. Roger's mouth dropped open.

"Oh, my God...How did you figure that out so quick?" Mimi whispered.

"I dunno." Tom shrugged. Mark adjusted his glasses and looked down at Tom's paper. He was already finished with all of the math problems. Mark had always wished that he could be as smart as Tom.

"Thanks, Tom. You're, like, a human calculator..." Roger turned back to his desk and wrote down the answer. Luckily, Mrs. Wright hadn't noticed the boho kids having their little conversation. Mark found himself grinning like an idiot the whole time. He'd missed his friends a whole lot during the summer, he realized, and it was great to be back.

By lunchtime, Mark had observed that the only person in his little group of friends who hadn't talked at all was Angel. He had been very quiet, which was unusual of him. Then, when they had gone to the cafeteria for lunch, Mark watched as Angel took a seat a little farther away from the group at the table. That was when Mark knew there was definitely something wrong. He walked over and plopped his paper bag lunch on the table next to Angel.

"Hey, Angie, what's up? You look ticked off or something..." he asked.

"Nothing. I'm fine." Angel stared down at his peanut-butter sandwich.

Maureen nosily joined in on the conversation. "Hey, what's wrong, Angie? You haven't talked all day!"

"Yeah, what's the matter?" Mimi chimed in.

"Leave him alone," Tom muttered. Everyone shifted their glances towards him.

"Dude, what's your problem?" asked Roger, "You haven't talked a lot either."

"I'm just sayin', leave Angel alone..."

Joanne blinked. "Since when do you call him Angel?"

"Since he wants me to. Since he wants us to. So call him Angel."

"Why?"

"'Cause he just wants us to. Ask him if you don't believe me."

The five friends were quite confused as to what was going on with Tom and Angel, but concluded on the fact that they both wanted to be left alone. So that was what they did. They resumed with their usual chatter.

"Hey, did you guys see that new cartoon last night? It was on at eight. It was really dumb," said Mark.

"Which cartoon?" asked Joanne.

"The one about those talking animals."

"Dude, that was so gay!" Roger cried. "It took me, like, the whole hour to realize that the cat was a guy. I thought it was a girl. It was all talking in a high-pitched voice or whatever. It was acting like a girl. Really gay."

"You know, I didn't even know what that word meant until this year," said Maureen. "No one ever tells me anything."

"I'm sure they tell you a lot of things, you just don't pay attention," Joanne muttered. Roger burst out laughing.

"Dude, you're, like, stupid. I've known that word forever. Who doesn't know what 'gay' means?"

"I am not stupid, Rog!" Maureen snapped.

"Yeah, you are."

"Well who's the one who couldn't figure out 21,900 times 24?"

Roger looked down at his food.

Mimi laughed and gave Maureen a high-five. "Nice comeback, Mo!"

"Thanks, Meemz."

"Mimi, whose side are you on anyway?" Roger cried.

Mimi smiled at him. "Not telling." She playfully touched his arm, and he quickly pulled away. Mimi couldn't help but smile again as she caught him blushing.

Mark glanced over at Angel, who looked extremely pale. Apparently he hadn't been the only one who noticed.

"Whoa, Angie—I mean, Angel, are you okay? Did the peanut-butter make you sick?" Mimi asked.

Angel slowly looked up at all of them. He looked every one of them right in the eye and stopped at Roger.

"Why don't you make fun of me, Roger? Why not?" He asked, through gritted teeth.

"Dude, what're you---"

"My voice isn't as deep as any of the guys sitting at this table. I've worn makeup before. You'd consider that 'girly', wouldn't you? So, aren't you going to make fun of me? Call me gay?"

"Angie—I mean—Angel, I..."

"I've seen some of the kids in our class make fun of me. So why don't you, Roger? You had a great time making fun of the cartoon."

"But that's just a cartoon..."

"Do you think I wanna be different? Do you think I wanna be made fun of?" Angel's voice was rising. He was about to say something else when the bell rang, announcing that lunch was over. Angel was the first to get out of his seat, followed by Mimi who ran to catch up with him and put her arm around his shoulders. Roger stared after them both.

"Wow, Rog, you really messed up this time..." Mark muttered.

"Shut the heck up."

"I'm going after Angel and Mimi..." Maureen said. Joanne followed, as did Mark.

Roger shook his head. "I didn't mean to...Don't even know what I did..." With that, he went to catch up with his friends.