I was very nervous, I'll admit. But when all the other kids looked at me and smiled warmly, my heartbeat wend back down to its regular rate.

"I hate this," said Kathy.

"Why?" said Patty.

"Because it's just another year of the same: final exams, homework, boring teachers, bullies, and show-offs."

"Oh, come on, Kath. Don't be pessimistic," I said.

At that moment, Tyrone stopped in front of us, "Hey, Spiny."

"Hey, Tyrone."

Then, he grabbed two 6th graders, and gave them a wedgie. Boy, did it look painful. I was glad I'm three inches taller than Tyrone.

"That's exactly what I mean," said Kathy. "We've gone back to the primitive age of Tyrone's abuses and irritation."

"Well, that may be," I said, "but you know, other people might consider it a tradition."

"I can hardly believe that this act of sneaking up behind someone and pulling the fabric of their undergarment can be considered a tradition. It's childish, immature, and silly," Patty said.

Well, I do admit that having a bully like Tyrone can be a problem. And more so if he's repeated 8th grade three times. Yeah, like I said, he's not too smart.

We went to our lockers which had been sitting idle since 7th grade. That was 8oo years ago in your calendar. But for us, it's only one year. And we always re-use the same lockers.

Well, while we were grabbing our things for the first class—Amarkian History—my two best friends on Earth showed up. Dimetroodon and Larry. "Hey, Spiny!" they both said.

"Hey, guys, how you doing?" I said.

"It's good to see you again," said Dimetroodon.

"Yeah, it sure is," Larry said. "Um, wait. Where did Spiny come back from?" Larry may not seem as being too smart, but he is a genius. He just likes to act dumb and clumsy. He's the Dinosaur Joke Machine.

But, of course, I just played along with it. "Larry, we all came back from summer vacation."

"Oh, right. Who came back?"

Well. At least those two were still the same as always. The Nerd and The Comedian. So far a normal day. But at that moment, it went awful. Normal, but awful.

"Uh oh," said Patty. "Here comes Maria Antionnite."

We all turned to the entrance, and yep, there she was. Ms. Popularity. Ms. Unbearable. Ms. Gossip. Ms. Double-crosser. Kylie Anderson. "Spiny!" she yelled when she saw me. "How are you, cupcake?" She caressed my right cheek with the back of her right hand. "Didn't you miss me? I thought of you every day. I couldn't wait to come back into your arms."

Come back? Into my arms? Kylie and me? Hah! Never! Not in a million eons. The day she and I are couple will be the day that it snows in Rio de Janeiro.

But of course, I treated her with respect and dignity. My father had always said I should treat everyone like that. Even annoying cheerleaders who were crazy about me. So all I said was, "How are you, Kylie?"

"Oh, just counting the minutes until I could see you, honey." Eesh! Talk about mushy and flirty.

Then she turned to Kathy, Patty, Dimetroodon, and Larry. "Hi, lou," she said.

"Hi, lou?" said Dimetroodon with a puzzled face.

"Hi, losers!" Kylie said, laughing. I didn't get the comic part of that. Now, that's her real self. And that's the one and only reason for which I've never liked her at all.

But while Kylie was there babbling about all she did during the summer, something else happened. Guess who came in the entrance? No, not Taylor Swift. It was her. Lilia Woods.

My heart raced, my legs trembled, I got dizzy, and I forgot to breathe. Wow, she was real pretty! She walked by, then saw me, and smiled at me. My heart melted into butter.

"Hi, Spiny," she said in that captivating, sugar-sweet voice she's got. I could barely answer. trying to keep my voice from breaking, I said, "Hi, Lilia." Our eyes locked. Her beautiful eyes sparkled like stars at dusk.

"Spiny."

I could feel it. This was love.

"Spiny."

Nothing in the world could take us away from…

"Spiny!"

Huh? What? Who? What happened? Did I…yeah, I did. I dazed. I blanked out. My sister thankfully called me back to Earth.

"Oh, uh, yeah, that is, uh, right. Well. Uh, what happened? Oh, uh, hi." Stupid, I said to myself. You're stupid, stupid, stupid! You already said hi to her. Keep it cool. Wait, she's giggling. That's good. I take back what I said to myself.

"Hi," Lilia said, again, "How are you?"

"Oh, uh, fine." I fidgeted a little.

But before I could finish talking to her, Ms. Only-Got-One-Neuron stepped between the two of us, putting her arms around my neck, and said to Lilia, "Hi, weed. Oh, I mean Lilia."

Oh, boy. Here it came. Maybe you already noticed, but ever since I stared liking Lilia in the 7th grade, there's been a profound, mutual, vicious hatred between Lilia and Kylie. They're always fighting over me.

They have excellent taste in boys but, let's just say I have already perceived the outcome of this battle. I've already picked a winner.

But, anyways, Kylie called Lilia a weed. I kind of expected that. So, Lilia says, obviously offended, "Good morning, Kylie. How are you?"

"Oh, pfft! Isn't it obvious? I'm voluptuous, beautiful, got a sun tan, and" she twirled around, "I lost five pounds over the summer."

"Isn't that a coincidence?" said Larry. "Her brain weighed 5 pounds, too. That's the weight she lost."

Oh, that was hilarious! You should've seen Kylie's face. Hot red with anger. Of course, she didn't appreciate our justified sense of humor. Too bad we didn't have more time to make fun of her; at that moment, the bell rang.

We each went to our respective classrooms and our…well, our classes. Obviously.