A/N: School has kept me quite busy, so I haven't been updating as much. Sorry! To make up for it: Very long chapter. Yay. Enjoy!

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ANGEL'S POV:

Angel lay sprawled out on the bed in his room. He had completed his suspension, but had no intention of going back to school. He couldn't possibly go. He had made his decision.

That is, until his father came into the picture.

The bedroom door burst open. "Ángelo, get up. You're going to school," Mr. Schunard barked, his voice sending chills up and down Angel's spine.

"But, Dad, I can't —"

"You can, and you will. It's bad enough you got a damn suspension in the first place. Get up and get dressed. Now."

Angel didn't move.

"Do you hear me?" Angel's eyes widened with fear as his father moved closer to him. "GET. UP. NOW."

Tears burning in the back of his eyes, Angel got out of bed and hurried around to find an outfit for school.

MIMI'S POV:

It was February 1st. Freezing. Mimi huddled closer to Roger, who awkwardly shifted from foot to foot.

"Is Angel comin' back to school today?" Joanne inquired as the group of friends stood outside waiting for school to begin.

Mimi was waiting for one of her friends to ask that. "Yup," she answered. No one said anything in response to that. No one knew exactly what to say.

Tom scratched the back of his head absentmindedly. He had a cut on the back of his head from when he had fallen to the pavement only a couple of days before that was now covered by a band-aid.

"I hate Band-Aids..." Tom muttered, breaking the silence.

Roger nodded. "Me too."

Mark said nothing. Mimi glanced at Maureen who seemed transfixed on her pinkie finger. The silence was almost unbearable. If they were this quiet now, Mimi could only imagine how awkward it would turn out to be when Angel finally showed up.

As if on cue, Angel, walking sluggishly as he carried his backpack, entered the schoolyard.

"Act casual," Mimi commanded, her voice low, "Like this whole thing never happened."

Mimi knew how to handle Angel. She'd known him since pre-school, after all. She watched as he hesitantly took a couple of steps towards the group.

Mimi motioned for him to come over. She knew that Angel trusted her enough to know that he was allowed to hang out with the group if she said it was okay.

Angel walked over to the seven friends and threw his backpack onto the ground.

"Hi, Angel," Mimi said, trying to sound cheerful.

She could only hope that the cheerfulness was somehow contagious.

TOM'S POV:

It was strange. Angel had looked Tom right in the eye that morning and said nothing at all. Now that Tom thought about it as he did his Math assignment, Angel hadn't said much of anything to anyone yet. It had been two hours.

Yet, a part of Tom didn't want to talk to Angel. Even sitting next to him got him just a little bit nervous, after what had happened the last time he'd tried to talk to him.

A big punch in the face is what I got. God, that hurt. So much for reasoning.

The other part of him wished all of this had never happened. Angel was a great person. So he was a little on the feminine side. Big deal! He was still one of Tom's best friends. Tom knew he hadn't done what he did on purpose.

As he was easily jotting down problem number twenty-four without even having to think about it (Tom was quite good at math), he felt something touch the back of his head where the Band-Aid was.

His instinct told him to immediately reach for the back of his neck—and when he did so, he felt another person's hand instead of the weird texture of the much-hated Band-Aid.

"Hold still."

That was Angel's whisper. It dawned on Tom to glance to his right, where, sure enough, Angel was kneeling on his chair to reach him. His eyebrows were furrowed slightly with concentration. Tom dropped his hand and let Angel do whatever it was he was doing. But he couldn't help but tense up at his friend's touch.

When Angel had returned to a normal sitting position at his desk, confirming that he was finished, Tom looked over at him.

"What the heck were you doing?"

Angel looked up at him from his Math book, his brown eyes full of obvious affection. "Your Band-Aid was falling off. I wanted to fix it."

"Oh..." It was the first time they had spoken that day. "Thanks."

Angel didn't reply.

As he was heading to lunch, Tom felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to face Angel.

Angel looked at him for a long time. "I...I didn't...What I did...I..."

"It's okay, Angel," Tom said before Angel even had the chance to form his apology.

Angel looked down at his shoes. "I feel...really stupid. And...I'm really sorry that...I kinda-sorta-punched-ya-in-the-face. I was just upset, ya know?"

"Don't feel stupid. I'm fine. Hey, at least I got a day outta school..."

Angel laughed. The sound rang through Tom's ears and he couldn't help but smile. Angel looked around as if to make sure no one was in the hallway, and quickly grabbed Tom and pulled him into a hug. Tom looked around quickly himself before awkwardly putting an arm around Angel's shoulders.

Angel broke away and bounced up and down."Let's go to lunch. I'm starving."

The fact that Angel could go from depressed to giggly in minutes amazed Tom.

" I'll bet you any money Roger and Mimi are fighting about something."

Little did Tom know how right Angel was.

MARK'S POV:

"Mimi, I still don't understand what I did!"

"Shut up and leave me alone, Roger!"

Mark Cohen sighed as he grabbed his lunch box and followed a very confused Roger and an extremely frustrated Mimi to the cafeteria.

"What the heck is wrong with you two this time?" he called out, trying to catch up with them.

Mimi rolled her eyes. "Roger's being an idiot. He called me fat."

"No, I didn't!" Roger protested. "I swear, dude, I did not call her fat."

Mark took a seat next to Mimi once they reached the cafeteria, who was on the other side of the table away from Roger. She looked at him.

"He said I should cut down on the junk food. Mark, is that not calling me fat?"

Mark blinked. "Um...Um..."

"Dude. You can't possibly say I called her fat. She just eats a lot of chips. Her breath smells bad."

"ROGER DAVIS! I AM NOT TALKING TO YOU FOR THE REST OF THE DAY!"

"Mimiiiiiiiiiiiii!" Roger whined.

Mark watched as Tom and Angel entered the cafeteria, Angel literally skipping to sit beside him.

"Hi, Markie!"

"Uh...Hi..." Looks like things are settled between those two... Mark was quite happy about that.

Maureen sighed dramatically. "Mimi and Roger are fighting again," she informed Angel and Tom.

Angel smirked. "See? What'd I tell ya, Tom?"

Tom rolled his eyes. "Yes, Angel, you know all."

"Don't I know it?"