Delilah typing.

I sighed.

I grabbed my lunchbox from my backpack and headed to the lunch tables.

"Hey!" Holly greeted me.

"Hi," I said back.

I haven't said this, but Holly actually has a noncontagious disease called albinism. She can't do anything about it. That's why she's a sheer blonde; Holly has one green eye and one blue eye. Although, she isn't as pale as a 100% albino; she has a light skin tone.

The only reasons she has those friends other than me is because they feel SORRY for her! I look deeper in a soul. I don't judge you by your appearance. I treat all human beings the same and I treat all bee-otch whores the differently from that.

"I was just wondering," Holly started, "Do you like Brandon?"

What now? "Aw hell no," I disagreed, "He's not what I would like." I scowled in his direction about a few tables away.

"Really? 'Cause Kiley says-"

I narrowed my eyes at the sound of the she-devil's name. "Kiley?" I asked, tensing up, "You mean Kiley Welder?"

"Yup,"

I flicked my head to her snooki table that was five tables from where Holly and I sat down.

"Sooner or later I'm gonna smack some sense into that bitch," I muttered aloud to myself, "I want to watch her puckered-up skin and revolting cherry-scented hair burn in the dark abyss trenches of Hell under the crust of this soulless earth so badly..."

"Dare," Holly interrupted my poetic burn prayer, "You're talking to yourself again."

"Oh,"

Holly yawned. "I'm gonna sit with my friends," she reminds me of that daily, "I'll see you later!" She snatched her lunch bag and left.

"Yeah, I'll se you, too, friend," I flamed to myself.

I know that someday, somehow, Kiley isn't going to bother me anymore.

It's still lunch hours. I'm just dropping off my lunchbox back into my locker.

I'M FREAKING DEPRESSED.

WHY?

BECAUSE I HATE MYSELF.

AND WHY?

BECAUSE I TOLD IZM I CRUSHED ON HIM.

THAT'S LIKE THE NUMBER ONE REPELLENT AGAINST A CRUSH.

I HAVE OFFICIALLY STARTED KICKING MYSELF OVER THIS.

This sucks. I wanna go home and forget all about the Highers and my scar.

Oh yeah, my scar. It's healing, but I still need to keep the bandage over it.

Well, I can't forget the scar. It'll be on my arm forever. But at least I'll be able to cover it with my sleeve.

I grabbed an Erin Hunter Warriors Series book (Series III: Outcast to be exact) and wandered back outside to a brick wall. It's only about six feet tall. I climbed it and lay down across the foot of width it had. I have near perfect balance, but that's just another perk of being an animal hybrid.

Delilah, I thought to myself, Read some warrior cats; it'll get your mind of Izm.

The spot that I read under every school day is shaded by a peppercorn tree. It's sharp scent filled my nostrils with peace and quiet.

Nightcloud's a bitch. Crowfeather could do SO much better than that! He got Leafpool for a short amount of time. AND he used to have Feathertail! He's way out of Nightcloud's league.

"Yo!"

The sudden voice startled me and knocked me off the brick wall. The book stumbled out of my hand and flopped a foot away from my grasp towards the person, making me lose the page.

"Thanks a lot!" I complained as I got up onto my knees, "Now I'll never find the page again! You suck."

"Do I?"

I twitched my eyes up at the kid. I've never seen such beautifully messy ebony hair shine like that in the sunlight. His crimson eyes glowed mischievously and his goggles-

WAIT GOGGLES?

"Izm?"

"Ya know it when you see it." He helped me up. "And I think you dropped this," he handed me my warrior book.

"Thanks," I took it, "Now, what the-"

"Hell am I doing here? I just wanted to say hi and thank you for sending over the panther with the note and flowers."

I paused. In case you still haven't freaking GOTTEN THIS YET, I was the panther. "So Marie came?" I started, "How nice was she to you? I hope she didn't demand anything in return."

"The panther's name is Marie?"

"Yeah, so?"

"She was pretty nice; although she freaked me out right when I opened the door, but, Marie was pretty friendly."

I sat upright on the brick wall, Izm following. "That's good,"

"But how the hell did you train a panther?"

"It's a long story..." I quickly thought of an alibi. "I hate zoos that don't have sufficient habitats for their creatures. One day I was too fed up, and... I freed her and some other animals too." I pretended to shy away in shame and embarrassment.

However, Izm's manipulative grin didn't fall from his face, "How did you unlock the gates anyway?"

"Uh... Let's just say that I now have a pretty fucking strong handshake now."

He had a face that said O rly but still kept the evil smile. "Neat," he responded, "So what have you been up to lately? Got any plans for the rest of the week?"

Well wouldn't you like to know. "I'm free; why you ask?"

"Meh, Desmond invited you to one of his crack parties this Saturday night."

"Did he? What time, place?"

"He's my roommate, so in our room, and sunset."

"Then I should see you, Des, and the rest of your school there."

"Dare," he turned more serious, "I was just kidding; Des is a drug addict, has a serious substance abuse problem. I don't want him to hurt you."

I hopped off the wall. "And you care for me why?"

"'Cause, well..." He didn't bother to finish his sentence. Izm wrapped his arms around my back. I looked slightly over his shoulder (he's a tad taller than me) and wondered, Does he like me as much as I like him?

I inhaled deeply. I felt a strong emotional disturbance pouring from inside him. I think he loved me.

"I'm sorry about Caleb," he mumbled in sorrowful apology, still latched onto me, "And I'm sorry about your arm and everything bad that happened... If I never met you, none of this would have happened. I'm so sorry..."

Izm trailed off, lost in the depression of his own words.

"Izm," he loosened his grip on my body and let me look at his face. He was this close to tears rolling down his cheeks. "Don't be sorry. This was never your fault. I met you because we both stumbled there at the same time, that's it. And I'm glad we got to know each other, too. I love your friends; they're all really nice. I couldn't care less about what happened to me. I'm fine now, and, as I'm vaguely guessing, that's all that matters to you."

I stared deeply into his ruby colored eyes. The sun shined on my dark brown hair, turning it into a chestnut-mahogany shade. He didn't answer.

Izm broke his grip around me. I turned around, flipping my hair back flirtatiously, "And I'm going to the party," I argued playfully, "whether you love it or not."

The taunting grin returned to his face. "Well, fine then," he replied.

"Delilah! There's a-"

"Holly?" She ran up to me out of nowhere, her different colored eyes were sparkling. "What are you doing here? I don't like to have my privacy invaded, thank you very much."

"Dare! There's a red motorbike in the parking lot! No one has ever seen it before and a think that they're gonna tow it away... Who's that?"

"Aw shit, my bike," Izm muttered bitterly. "I'll see you again sometime, Dare; bye."

"Bye," I replied.

"Who was that?" Holly repeated.

"That was a friend of mine. And that was his bike."

"He's cute! Can I have him?"

"HELL NO. You can have his roommate."

"Aw, he's probably ugly."

"Kinda, don't get me wrong,"

Holly wandered away from me back to the lunch tables.

That was the perfect timing for my back-up cell phone to ring. It's my back-up because I actually forgot my real cell phone at Hedone and was planning on coming back to get it someday that I didn't have monster homework; but that day hasn't come yet.

I yanked it out of my pocket and slid it open. The caller ID said it was my real cell phone, so probably someone at Hedone was calling me. "Hello?"

"Hey Delilah, it's .D,"

"Hey .D; why you call?"

"Do you know where Izm is? He snuck out of school property and isn't anywhere near here. I'm a prefect, so I gotta report this."

"Oh yeah, he came by my school about now; you just missed him. He should be going back."

"Thanks. He better be back before lunch hours are over. Izm's gonna be screwed."

I cackled a little. "And I want my cell phone back, too. Next time I see you, give it to me, OK?"

"Why don't you just come over?"

"Because I have way to much freaking homework! I would have flown over there as a falcon or something, but I never have the time."

"Then you can come with your homework; you're a few grades lower than us, we can help you. Plus, Izm could have a happy-gasm and get sent to the nurse's office for suspicion of being overly crazy."

I smiled a little. "Thanks A.E.D. Your room?"

"Sure why not."

"Thanks,"

"You're welcome,"

"Bye,"

"See ya,"

I hung up. I HATE homework. I so desperately want someone to do it for me! Maybe I can convince Wei Ren.

Yes, Ren would do nicely.

excellent...

MUWWAAHAHAHAHAHA!

SMITHERS! RELEASE THE HOUNDS!

Okay, okay, I'm beating the dead horse here.