A/N: Thanks, yet again for all the kind reviews! Don't hate me for what I make Angel do in this chappie. I just like building drama. When I was in fifth grade, there was TONS of drama. Please. You don't even wanna know. Enjoy!

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TOM'S POV:

Thomas Collins chewed on his fingernail as he studied for the big Social Studies test the following day. Mrs. Wright tended to give tests at short notice. Tom suspected she did such things on purpose, out of mere spite.

Still trying to stuff all the information into his brain, Tom didn't even notice the phone ringing.

"Tom," Mr. Collins said, bringing Tom out of his trance.

"Uh-huh?"

Mr. Collins held out the phone. "It's Angel."

Tom eagerly grabbed the phone. "Hi, Angel!" he said happily.

"What page is the Social Studies chapter review on?" was Angel's curt reply.

Tom blinked at the receiver, surprised at the tone of Angel's usually happy and squeaky voice. "It's...page one-hundred and sixty-four."

"Thank you."

Tom quickly asked before Angel could hang up, "Hey, is something wrong?"

A pause. "No. I have to go study."

"Don't change the subjec' on me. You mad?"

"No."

Tom rolled his eyes. "That definitely meant a 'yes'."

"If you say so, Mr. Know-it-All."

Tom sighed. "Cut the crap, Angel. I know you're mad at me." Then suddenly, it hit Tom like a slap in the face. He remembered, now.

Angel, stop telling me what to do, okay? I know what I'm doin'. You act like you know how to solve every single problem. You don't.

He remembered not even acknowledging the saddened look on his best friend's face.

"Angel, if this is about what happened—"

Before he could finish, the line went dead.

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ROGER'S POV:

"Dude, he hung up on you? I thought Mimi was the only one who did that to me." Roger Davis had listened intently as Tom explained what had happened during his phone conversation with Angel the night before.

Mark rolled his eyes. "Not everything originated with you, Rog."

"Shut it, Cohen."

Mimi laughed. "I do not hang up on you!"

"Do too."

Tom sighed. "He's probably gonna come to school still mad at me."

Roger glanced at Mimi standing beside him, her backpack weighing down her tiny body. "Angel has a temper sometimes, Tom. I should know. I've known him for a long time."

Maureen, who had been standing on the other side of Roger, spoke up: "He'll handle it how most guys handle things. He'll be all mean and then apologize like there it's nothing."

"I don't think Angel really focuses on what most guys do, Mo," Roger said. He received a death-glare from Tom. Sure enough, when Roger turned around, Angel was standing there.

Roger gulped. "Oh...uh...Angel. Hi. We were just talking about you."

"I noticed," Angel replied. He looked around at everyone, and then stared eye-to-eye at Tom for a long time. Roger was having a bad feeling about that look.

MARK'S POV:

Mark didn't want to know what was going to happen next. Angel had this certain flare in his eyes that Mark had never, ever seen before. In all honesty, it was scaring the living crap out of him.

"You..." Angel muttered, walking closer to Tom. "You...started...this."

Tom's eyes widened. "Started what? Angel...What're you doing?"

Angel looked around wildly at everyone. "You're always sayin', 'Leave Angel alone, he's different.' Different. Haven't we been through this before? I'm not gonna smile and bear it anymore."

"Angel, I just wanted to---"

"Shut up, Tom. Just shut up. Let's face it. I'm almost eleven years old. I like dresses and sparkles. 'Different' isn't the right word, is it?"

Tom was backing away from Angel slowly. "I didn't mean to..." He trailed off. Mark just felt like he was going to be sick.

"That's what you always say. You didn't mean it. Well, guess what?" Angel balled his hand into a fist. "I mean this!"

Mark watched as Angel rammed his fist into Tom's face, sending him flying to the ground.

Mimi screamed.

Roger's mouth dropped open.

Maureen started to cry.

Joanne turned away.

And Mark stared at his friend lying on the ground, not sure of what to think or feel.

Roger was the first to move. "Tom! Dude! My God!" He ran over and knelt down beside Tom, who was covering his nose. Blood was seeping through his hand.

Angel was panting heavily. Before Mark knew it, Mrs. Wright was towering over Angel, saying, "The principal's office. NOW."

Mrs. Wright started to walk away, Angel in tow. Angel had tears streaming down his face as he tried to break away from Mrs. Wright's firm grip on his wrist.

MAUREEN'S POV:

Maureen liked to cry on a regular basis. It was good for the soul, she decided. Of course, being 100 drama queen helped that theory along, too. Most of the time, Maureen cried over the littlest issues, or over nothing at all—even for mere spontaneousness.

But watching her friend get punched in the face by another friend—that hurt.

She sat picking at her food as Mimi finally walked over to the table. Maureen couldn't bear to eat anything.

"Angel got a suspension," Mimi announced flatly. She shoved Roger out of the way so that she could sit beside him. Mimi and Roger had a weird way of randomly shoving each other, Maureen observed.

"What about Tom?" Mark asked quietly.

Mimi managed a small smile. "I asked Mrs. Wright. She said Tom went to the hospital but now he's back home...said there was just a lot of blood. Can you believe he actually managed not to break his nose!"

"You serious? Wow. He got lucky," said Roger.

Joanne looked up from her food. "Whether he's lucky or not doesn't matter. He still got hurt."

Roger shrugged. "Angel's puny. I'm surprised he was able to hit that hard."

"Shut up, Roger!" everyone shouted in unison.

Maureen sighed dramatically. "I feel so bad..." She put down her sandwich. There was no way she could possibly eat any lunch that day.