A/N: Thanks so much for all the reviews! Since I haven't updated ina little while, here's a BIG chapter for you! Enjoy this chapter, everyone

TOM'S POV:

Mrs. Wright had assigned a group project the day after the incident between Roger and Angel. The children were to read a specific lesson in their Science books that had been assigned to them and then, later, get up in front of the room and show the rest of the class what they learned from the lesson. Since it was their first group project, Mrs. Wright had decided to be a little lenient and let the children pick their groups. The children split up into groups of five.

This was a problem for a certain Mimi Marquez who simply insisted that she and her friends (minus Roger, who had apparently gone to April's group) be in their own group. But since there were six children and only five were allowed per group, Mrs. Wright sternly told Mimi that one of her friends had to go to a group of which there only consisted four children. There were twenty-five fifth grade students and five per group balanced it out

So Tom offered to go to the group of four—that happened to be the same group Roger Davis was in.

It was no surprise to him that a couple of minutes after each of the kids in the group started reading a paragraph of the lesson, Roger leaned over and whispered to him:

"Dude, could you do me a favor and tell Angie—I mean—Angel that I'm really sorry? I didn't know that I'd hurt his feelings and crap...I didn't even know he was listening to me when I was talkin' about that cartoon."

Tom was silent for a moment.

"And, dude, stop with the whole silent treatment 'cause it's ticking me off," Roger snapped.

Tom sighed and stared at April as she quietly read her section of the lesson out loud to the group. He was watching her and pretending like he was listening.

"Why can't you just go tell Angel yourself that you're sorry?" he asked.

"Because you guys are ignoring me, that's why!"

Tom felt his blood boiling. "Why do you always have to open that big mouth of yours? Angel's going through a lot of crap right now. Since the rest of our group knows I might as well tell you...Angel's dad swears at him and yells at him and makes fun of him. Tells him that he's useless. Says that he doesn't want anyone calling him 'Angie' 'cause it's a girl's name. Rog, Angel is being pretty much tormented by his dad; how do you think he feels right now?"

Roger's mouth gaped open. Tormented was a strong word. "Dude..."

"Dude. Is that all you say! Listen, Roger." Tom's voice was in a loud whisper now. "You know Angel was always a little different from me, you, and Mark as far as...you know...guy stuff. But we never let it get in the way. But Angel's dad doesn't want him to be different. He's making it seem like it's a bad thing, and that's why Angel is so upset. And you made it worse by talking about a flippin' gay cat."

"I...I didn't..." Roger stuttered.

"Just forget it."

ROGER'S POV:

By lunch time, Roger knew what he had to do. He stomped over to his usual table and threw his lunch box down on the table next to Mimi, who jumped in surprise. After setting his lunch box down, he walked over to Angel, who was at the far corner of the table. He took a deep breath, and then spoke:

"Angel-I'm-really-sorry-about-what-I-said-and-Tom-told-me-what-happened-and-Dude-I'm-sorry-about-what-happened-with-your-dad-are-we-friends-again?"

He said it so fast that when he was finished, Angel blinked a couple of times, trying to figure out what he said. Finally, he looked up at Roger.

"It's okay, Rog...I was just really...mad...and stuff..." He trailed off.

"Well you're dad's just being stupid," Roger concluded.

Angel smiled a little. "Yeah...yeah, he is," he said.

Roger smiled back and turned towards the rest of his friends. "Are you guys still mad at me?"

"Do us a favor, Rog," Mark said, "Think before you say stuff."

"Easy, dude!" Roger replied, shrugging his shoulders and sitting down next to Mimi.

"Are you sure about that?" Joanne joked. Mimi giggled.

Roger rolled his eyes. "Whatever, dude."

MARK'S POV:

Mark was very relieved about the fact that the fight between his friends and Roger was finally over. He never liked it when his friends weren't speaking to each other, though it never happened very often. Now, as he was sitting in class doing his Social Studies work, he felt someone nudge his arm. He turned to face Mimi, who placed a note in his hand.

"Pass it to Maureen," she whispered. Mark passed the note to Tom, who passed it to Angel, who passed it to Joanne, who passed it to Maureen, who opened the note.

Mark had never understood the skill of note-passing. It was a girl thing. How his friends managed to write notes and pass them back and forth without getting caught by the evil that is Mrs. Wright was beyond what Mark could comprehend.

Soon the note had been passed back to him again to give to Mimi, then back to him once more to pass down to Maureen. After the fourth time of this ritual of passing the note back and forth, Mark suddenly became curious of what the note actually said. He had observed that every time Maureen started to read it, she blushed. So, when the note was passed back to him for Mimi, he made sure that Mimi was concentrating on her work before slowly unfolding the paper...what it said completely shocked him.

So, how are you going 2 tell Mark that you like him? That was Mimi's handwriting. He stared, in shock, and slowly shifted his gaze down to the next line, which was Maureen's reply:

I don't know. He probably doesn't like me back. But I like him a lot, I'm just scared 2 tell him.

Mark gulped.

You have to tell him, Maureen! I'm sure Marky likes you back. Roger knows that I like him...You just gotta tell him right out.

Imagine if he read this note! Wouldn't that be easier?

Mark thought that the last line was extremely and sickeningly ironic. A hand snatched the note away. He looked up. Mimi was glaring at him.

"You read it?" she whispered. Mark gulped and nodded. They both glanced over at Maureen, who was busily writing in her notebook.

"Well if you're gonna be nosy, Marky, you have to do this." She pushed the note onto his desk and handed him a pen.

"Write your answer."

Mark was confused. "What answer?"

"If you like her back or not, dummy! Write it! Quick!"

Mark shakily took the pen in his hand and wrote, in his scrawny handwriting:

I like you too, Maureen.

He folded it up and passed the note down. Mimi and Mark eagerly watched Maureen as she opened the note and read what it said. Her eyes widened and her face flushed once more. She slowly looked over at Mark and smiled the biggest, happiest smile Mark had ever seen. Mark smiled back.

It was going to be a quite interesting October afternoon.