alright everyone, jez and morgead are about 11 and 12 here, and this is juts before morgead's mom leaves and he stops coming to school. hope you enjoy. all rights to L. J. Smith of course.

Stupid School

"This is stupid," Jez complained, ripping off another chunk of her eraser and tossing it onto the floor.

"School is stupid," Morgead agreed. He was sitting beside her with his long legs stretched out in front of him, his head tilted back and his eyes closed.

"Why do we even need stupid school?" Jez huffed. She was sick and tired of getting up early, sitting in a cramped desk for eight hours straight while being forced to learn things, and then being expected to do more work at home!

No. That was not what she liked.

"It's one of the many mysteries of the universe," Morgead looked at Jez with a bored expression.

"Well, someone better –"

"Miss. Redfern, Mr. Blackthorn," Jez and Morgead both snapped to attention as the teacher called them out in front of the class. "If you would be so kind as to close your mouths and stop disrupting the class, I'm sure everyone would appreciate it."

Jez bristled beside Morgead, and he knew he had to say something before Jez got herself in trouble – again.

"Sorry, Mrs. Gilbert," Morgead inclined his head politely to his teacher and grabbed Jez's arm, giving it a hard squeeze meant to warn her to keep her mouth shut.

Jez shook off Morgead's arm and glared at him. He found himself trapped by her silver-blue gaze like he always was, and he stared back at her until she sniffed and turned her head away from him abruptly.

Morgead watched Jez dig through her pencil case for something to occupy herself with.

Morgead, well he could easily sit still and let his mind drift far, far away, while his body stayed anchored in the here and now. This is what he did as Jez pulled out a pair of scissors and started hacking away at her desk with them.

Pretty soon, Jez had cut two of her fingers, and Morgead was snoring lightly beside her.

"Jez," the teacher called back to the red haired child sucking on her bleeding finger with exasperation evident in her voice. Jez popped her finger out of her mouth and hid it beneath the table and with wide eyes and the sweetest voice she could muster, she asked, "Yes, Mrs. Gilbert?"

The teacher sighed and made a mental note to ask for a pay raise. Having both Jez and Morgead in her class was going to give her an ulcer.

At least it was one of their good days today.

"Could you please wake up Morgead?" she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes briefly.

Jez looked beside her at Morgead's peaceful face as he slept. He had his arms crossed and one of his legs stretched out past the limits of his desk, the other folded under his chair. With his head lolling towards Jez and his too-long black hair falling across his eyes, Jez thought it was almost a shame to wake him up.

But oh well.

"My pleasure, Mrs. G." Jez purred. Without even bothering to look at her target, Jez thrust her hand out and planted it against Morgead's face. She felt the jolt in her mind as he was startled awake, but he wasn't fast enough to catch himself as Jez shoved him out of his seat. He toppled sideways and crashed face first on the tile floor.

Before Morgead had even hit the ground, the class was erupting in laughter, the teacher was gasping, and Jez was cackling.

In the middle of the initial collision, Morgead managed to twist his body so that he rolled into a semi lying position at the end of his little tumble.

"Jez!" Mrs. Gilbert yelped. With an angry red face, the teacher nearly shoved a child out of her way in her attempt to reach Jez and Morgead before another fight broke out. With a headache pounding itself up the left side of her skull, and a back that protested every time the exerted, she did not feel like having to deal with breaking up a brawl between the two of them today.

But before she could take two steps, Morgead was launching himself as quick as lightning at Jez, who was much too busy keeping herself on her chair while she laughed to notice his attack. Morgead crashed into Jez, and in a blur of black and red, the pair flew across the aisle and into an empty desk, sending it spinning sideways.

The girl next to the demolished desk screamed and tripped out of her own, sprinting up the aisle to hide behind the teacher, nearly sending Mrs. Gilbert to the ground herself as she brushed against her side. As Morgead and Jez rolled around in a high speed tussle, the teacher yelled out the usual instructions to the rest of her sixth grade class.

"Everyone, out of your seats!" she cried, herding students towards the door. "Get into a line along the wall once you are out of the class, please!"

Nudging the last student out the door, Mrs. Gilbert picked up the phone that was mounted on the wall and pressed the dial to page the office. As soon as she heard the telltale click on the other end of the line, she blurted, "Code black!" quickly, she slammed the phone back into place and rushed out the door herself to wait for the two janitors that would come to pry apart the two wrestling kids.

Within a minute or two of waiting, a pair of middle aged janitors jogged around the corner with grim expressions. This had become half of their jobs, and they weren't even being paid extra, despite the constant bruising and swelling.

The teacher moved aside and motioned them into the class. She peered through the open doorway along with the better part of her class that had crowded in around her. They watched as the two janitors dove into a fight that was well past a tussle and somewhere deep within the domains of a full out brawl.

It was the same nearly every day, these two children pounding away at each other with fists and feet time and time again. Jez didn't even seem to care that Morgead was a year older than she, let alone the fact that he was a boy. She never shied away from a fight, and that was something that Mrs. Gilbert and the rest of the staff found most tiring.

After several minutes and a third janitor added to the mix, Jez was finally pulled in one direction, and Morgead in another along with a clump of Jez's flaming red hair clenched in his fist.

"Morgead, you cunt!" Jez yelled and beat at her captor. He was quickly rewarded with a bloody nose and had to hand the little girl off to the third janitor so he could mop up his own blood.

"I should be paid double for this," the janitor muttered to himself as he swabbed at his nose with a rag and stalked off to the bathroom.

Staring at the mess dominating the back half of her classroom, Mrs. Gilbert sighed. "I couldn't agree more…"

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