DISCLAIMER: I don't own House of Anubis.

"Thanks again," KT smiled widely as she set her tray down on the lunch table, glancing at Patricia. Fabian nodded as well, sitting next to KT as an awkward silence fell upon the three. KT finally spoke up, an apologetic glance crossing her face, "Look, I'm sorry about yesterday. Amber was being…"

"A real bitch? Yeah," Patricia muttered before her eyes widened. What was that? Patricia wasn't supposed to say stuff like this in school!

KT and Fabian looked surprised but anyone could tell it was what they were both thinking. "Um…yeah," KT said slowly. "Sorry, I just didn't think…"

"That I said things like that?" Patricia finished for the girl, astonished herself. Here she was, the antisocial freak of the century, actually having a half-decent conversation with someone she had only recently met. Patricia was opening up, but unlike with Eddie, it didn't feel weird or forced or questionable.

It just felt right.

Maybe she could finally go home and tell Piper that yes, she too was capable of making friends. Maybe she could tell her mum that she wasn't hopeless in the social department. Maybe she could call her dad and tell him that she was simply surviving. Maybe she could finally be the one who talked for long hours on the phone with somebody.

Because, as much as she denied it, Patricia Williamson was lonely.

Years had passed in which Patricia had kept her head down, kept her fiery nature within her. When she had come here, she had figured she would just continue the streak. And she was staying quiet…why she was getting so much attention was what she was wondering.

But maybe attention wasn't all bad. Attention from the right people, recognition from the nice ones, maybe that was okay.

"So, Patricia," Fabian started. "I'm Fabian." The guy who warned me about Eddie. "I think we share the same English class."

Patricia nodded before taking a big breath. This was a huge step for her- she was about to say what was on her mind, what was really there. "Yeah, I've seen you before. Personally, though, I think English is kind of stupid. I mean, we already know the language, yeah?" Soon enough, she found herself rambling, but this was progress in itself. This was something she would say to Piper. This was something she would say to her mum.

This was something she had just said to Fabian.

Fabian let out a chuckle and KT smiled appreciatively. Patricia noted that they both looked more than a little surprised by her steady flow of rudeness, but that was to be expected. She was usually quiet.

"I completely agree," KT nodded in support before standing up. "Um, well, I'm going to go use the bathroom so…" She hastily stood up and sped out of the lunchroom, and Patricia and Fabian locked eyes.

"I used to, uh," Fabian cleared his throat several times. "I used to, uh, get bullied too."

"This isn't bullying," Patricia said quickly. She knew what bullying was, and in comparison to what she used to receive, everything here was just light teasing.

Fabian quirked an eyebrow but didn't question her logic, instead shifting to another topic. "So, Eddie."

Patricia wishes they were still talking about bullying.

"What about him?" she murmured, tossing around her food with a plastic fork. Fabian's 'warning' the other day had certainly stuck around, but she doesn't like talking about it. Patricia doesn't like anything to do with indefinites- she still has so many questions for Eddie that until she gets answered, she doesn't feel like discussing. And who knows, maybe Fabian actually was helping her out by giving her his tip, but talking about the subject felt awkward and uncomfortable. Some conversations could go without being spoken out loud, and this was one of them. Patricia already knew everything he was going to say just by the look in his eyes the day he told her.

"Don't…get, erm, involved with him, yeah?" Fabian bit his lip, and Patricia raised an eyebrow. Who was he to tell her what to do? It was probably for her own sake, but still. Patricia didn't like to be ordered- she could do whatever the hell she wanted to and whenever.

But before she can reply, KT strolls back in, and the three continue idle chatter, Patricia and Fabian avoiding eyes and KT filling the void that had formed.

"THAT'S NOT FAIR MOM!" Eddie screamed, his face red with fury.

Ms. Miller's temper was getting high as well, "Edison! You know well your father and I share custody of you!"

"We live a half hour away! And we see each other enough in school anyways!" Eddie fumed. His mother had just recently told him that he was to go with his father for the weekend. But Mick was throwing a party this weekend, and Eddie just knew Eric would want to do some lame activity with him as bonding. Therefore, Eddie would miss the party and this was one of the biggest parties of the year which made it even more unfair. Mick hadn't told everybody about it yet, but tomorrow he would be announcing it was open invite. If Eddie didn't make it, his place on the popularity scale would drop- and it wasn't a matter of his standing as much as it was the treatment he would receive once he got the standing. For example, people like Patricia, who were pretty low on the scale, got treated badly. And Eddie was not going to risk his standing to go do something with his stupid father who suddenly was all gung-ho about bettering their relationship.

"Edison, enough is enough! To your room, now!" Ms. Miller pointed upstairs, ignoring her son, who grumbled some unmentionable things under his breath before heading up the stairs. His room had become a fortress of solitude even though the house itself was only occupied by two people. Eddie plopped himself on the bed, crossing his arms and angrily sighing. Come to think of it, it was more than popularity. The problem lied in his father himself, but today was not the day to think of that.

He sighed, leaning his head back and cracking an eye open to look out his window. His eyes almost bugged as he saw Patricia on her bed as well. She hadn't seemed to notice him yet, but did he want her to?

Yes.

The answer came so quickly he was unsure it was even his own. But he is surprised how much it is true; he needs someone right now.

Patricia's eyes dart up at the feeling of someone's eyes on her.

Oh.

Eddie.

Their eyes connect, and Patricia has half the mind to shut the blinds, but something stops her. Maybe the look on his face, pitiful and desperate. She can't imagine what went wrong, but she's definitely curious as he holds his index finger to his window pane in a show of 'give me one second.' Patricia studies him as he bends down, slowing emerging with a whiteboard that says nothing but hey.

She can't pretend he's not there.

Maybe something happened at lunch that caused her to feel obliged to pick up her pad of paper. Maybe somehow over the course of the day she had opened up so much that she was now writing hi to Eddie on said pad of paper.

Whatever the reason was, he looked surprised at her response.

But that was who she was today- surprising everybody as her marker scratched on the notepad again, this time forming a sentence she would probably regret asking.