"You don't talk much, do you?" Alvie just nodded, trying to lose himself in his book. "What are you reading?" Alvie held the book up instead of answering. "Ooh, I've read those." Crystal smiled. "I love them, but the author is so mean."

"Hey, no spoilers. I've only just got this."

"Sorry." Crystal smiled. "Just prepare with a box of tissues, OK?"

"I don't cry."

"Why? Is it not manly enough?" Alvie gave a small smile. "Hey, you smile. Wow. Let me get photographic evidence." Alvie hid his face in his book. "Oh, don't be like that." She tried to gently prise the third Hunger Games book away. "Hi." She smiled when she had uncovered his eyes. "You're so unsociable."

"Mm." He hummed. He started reading again. Crystal watched him for a few seconds before snatching up his rucksack and rummaging through it. It took a minute for him to notice, but she had already found some interesting things.

There were two others books- the fourth Harry Potter and a book by a guy called Ben Kane called Spartacus: The Gladiator. Both had bookmarks about halfway through.

She also found a writing book, Alvie's shaky print filling every page. He really needed to sort out his spelling.

But what worried her was the knife.

"Alvie?" She gingerly picked the knife up. Alvie looked pale.

"Um… that's a, uh, gift from my aunt."

"Why would she give you a knife? Why would you bring it to school?" Crystal made to get up, but Alvie grabbed her wrist, dropping his book. He snapped his fingers and she blacked out.

"Oy, wake up. We've got Math in two minutes."

"Wh-? Ugh, my head hurts."

Alvie hadn't liked using the Mist on Crystal, but it stopped him having to explain all the demigod stuff and losing the one friend he did have.

He gently helped her to her feet and picked up her bag. "Why didn't you wake me earlier?"

"I only just noticed."

"Aw, lil' bookworm." She teased, poking his side. Alvie poked her in return. "Give me my bag."

"No, it's OK."

"Are you carrying my stuff for me?" Alvie nodded. "Why can't all guys be like you? You read, you carry a girl's stuff. Although, you do wake her up late."

"Sorry. It was a good book."

"Wait until the ending."

"No spoilers!"

Alvie opened doors for her on the way to Math class. He got strange looks from people, but Crystal had noticed that people threw strange looks his way every day. He had obviously become accustomed to them, but that wasn't exactly a good thing.

He was such a gentleman. If they didn't have the same class, he would walk her to class. He would open doors for her, carry her stuff and occasionally share his lunch with her if she didn't have enough money for a proper lunch. He had turned up in the middle of class to return her Geography book to her. She had asked him how had he got out of lesson and he said he being with the counsellor, but didn't elaborate.

Despite his sweetness, there was something he was hiding. He was different from the others guys, other than the fact he was a little gentleman. There were times when it felt like Crystal was talking to the trees or the walls. He seemed to have a little world of his own in the back of his mind and, most of the time, he fell so deep into that world, he didn't seem to register that someone was talking to him. More often than not, she had had to pinch his arm to get his attention.

He was like that in Math. He was reading under the table until their teacher arrived, but as soon as the lesson started, his mind was elsewhere. Crystal made sure to write down all the notes for Alvie to copy later. But copying wasn't going to help him.

"Alvie." She hissed, pinching his arm. His eyes came into focus and he looked round.

"What?"

"Focus." He nodded and looked at the board, his eyes scanning the equations written on it. She passed over her book and he copied the notes down.

"Alvie, what is Pythagoras's theorem?"

"Um…"

"No looking down at your book." The teacher smiled.

"Uh…" His hesitation bought forth a few snickers from the class.

"Ssh!" The teacher ordered, frowning. He looked back at Alvie patiently.

"A… A squared add… add B squared equals… C squared?" Alvie said haltingly.

"Try and make it not sound like a question." The teacher smiled kindly.

"A squared add B squared equals C squared." Crystal smiled and Alvie relaxed slightly.

"Took him a while." Somebody muttered. Mean laughs went up and Alvie's good mood faltered.

"It won't take me very long to come over there and smack you though." Crystal said brightly, giving an angelic smile. Alvie's expression lightened.

"Crystal, we don't make threats." The teacher warned.

"But bullying is OK? That's hardly fair."

"We will deal with it, Crystal."

"That's what all teachers say. I think we'd do a better job."

"I am not debating the school's disciplinary rules with you, Ms. Murphy. If you want to take that debate up with someone, take it up with the principal."

"Fine." Crystal packed her stuff up, got up and swung her bag onto her shoulder. She marched out without a care in the world.

The teacher shook his head.

"Crazy children…" He muttered. "Alright, two minutes to work out the length of the hypotenuse."

Alvie was called to the principal's office twenty minutes later.

"Book." The teacher demanded as he passed. Alvie hesitated before handing it over. "Well, you like to doodle."

"Mm."

"Alvie, Math isn't difficult once you get your head around it. I'm always here if you need help and I'm sure your brothers would be willing to help as well, should you ask. Tobias was a little Math bod when he was here."

"Was he?" The teacher nodded. "He never said that."

"I'll mark this and give it back to you next lesson, OK?" Alvie nodded. The teacher smacked him lightly on the head with the book. "Now go or you'll get me in trouble too."

Alvie left, crossing the corridor and going through the double doors to get to the stairs to go downstairs.

He was wondering what Crystal had said that would have made the principal call him to his office. Hopefully she didn't remember the knife.

Had his parents been called? Would they be on their way or would they already be here?

At the principal's office, Alvie found that it wasn't his parents that had been called. It was his eldest brother, Tobias.

"Hey bro."

"What are you doing here?"

"Mom and Dad are working and asked me to come by."

"What about Lou or Leo?"

"Lou's gone walkies again and Leo's looking after the kids."

"Oh. OK."

"Why? Not happy to see me?"

"Yeah, of course I am!"

"Alvie, I'm just teasing." Tobias smiled kindly, getting up and putting an arm around his brother. "Come on; let's see what trouble you've caused this time."

Crystal was relaxing in a leather chintz chair this side of the principal's desk. The principal, Mr Brooks, had a pen in his hand and a notepad on the desk in front of him. He was reading through a few pages of his neat, cursive writing. Mr. Brooks was in his late-fifties, early sixties with white hair and strict brown eyes. Once again, he was in a smart, crisp suit and shined shoes.

"Oh, I thought we got rid of you." The principal sighed.

"You missed me really, sir." Tobias grinned. The principal replied by rolling his eyes, but he wore an amused smile.

"Take a seat." The principal offered, spreading his hands at the other two chairs identical to Crystal's next to her. Tobias pointedly sat on the end seat, leaving the chair next to Crystal open for Alvie. Alvie didn't react to this, knowing it would give his brother the satisfaction.

The principal sighed. "Right, to business."

"As always." Tobias added.

"You," The principal pointed accusingly at Tobias, "was enough trouble when you were here. No trouble now." Tobias gave his best angelic smile. "Anyway, Alvie, Crystal has come to see me and explained the situation in Math class." Alvie glanced at Crystal, silently amused to see she was carefree and making a thin plait in her silvery-blonde hair, humming a merry tune to herself. "She's reported several accounts of bullying- I assume it's the same people?" Alvie nodded.

"And they're getting others involved." Crystal added.

"Tell me who they are." Tobias insisted.

"Why?" Mr Brooks quizzed.

"Obviously, I'm not going to hurt them."

"Obviously. And no, I won't." Tobias's shoulders slouched in defeat. "Alvie, what has been happening?"

"Sir, I told you."

"I know, Ms. Murphy, but I want to hear it from Alvie."

They were all watching him patiently and expectantly, but Alvie couldn't frame the words in his mind into a verbal reply. His voice always betrayed him in situations like these.

The bell rang for next lesson. Alvie realised they had been waiting for over five minutes for him to speak. He just looked down at his lap, remaining mute.

"One sec." Tobias said. He got up and left.

"What's the matter, Alvie?" Crystal asked kindly. Alvie didn't react to her voice, not registering she had spoken.

Tobias returned minutes later with a blob of blue plasticine. He pressed it into Alvie's hand.

Alvie loved plasticine. He could make anything he wanted and destroy it and start all over again without having to worry. It helped calm his nerves- having control of something as simple as a blob of plasticine. And it was his favourite colour.

"OK…" The principal said. He had long learnt not to question anything the Jacksons or the Valdez's. It was just confusing and gave him a headache. They had their own little methods for everything; methods that he wouldn't have thought of in the first place. "Alvie, what happened then?"

Half an hour later, Alvie was making his (most likely) hundredth figure from the plasticine. He had finished recalling everything the bullies had done. Judging by the way Mr. Brooks jotted notes down and looked at the ones he had written from Crystal's influence, he was comparing the two. He didn't look worried.

"Well, your story is pretty much the same as Crystal, except it spans over a longer time period."

"You gonna call them down here and smack them?" Tobias asked. "I mean, not smack them. Uh… whatever you do now."

"Tobias, if I hit every child that annoyed me, I wouldn't have had this job for as long as I do. And I would have a mass of parents after me with torches and pitch forks."

"You could hire me. I'm looking for a job anyway."

"No, you've done your time here. Don't come back."

"Sir!" Tobias laughed. "Oh, you loved my company really."

"Sad to say that I did. You were… amusing."

"Amusing? What about sheer awesome sauce?"

"Hey, can we sort Alvie out first? You two can have your little guy chat afterwards."

"Yes, yes. Apologies." Mr. Brooks sighed. "Alright, I'll ring their parents and have these… bullies come to my office after lunch. Hopefully I will be able to sort things out for you, Alvie."

"If not, can I hit them?"

"Please tell me you come with an off-switch…" Mr. Brooks grumbled, hiding his face in his hands. His voice was muffled, but sounded exhausted.

"Don't you think Mom would have found it and slapped an 'out-of-order' sign on my head by now?"

"I pity your family."

"I don't. I annoy them."

"Why did you switch off when Brooks asked you what happened?" Crystal asked as they queued up for lunch.

"Um… I- I don't know."

"Are you OK?" He nodded meekly, not looking up at her. The school cook looked at him expectantly. Alvie nodded at the fries and the pizza. Crystal got the same. They went and sat at their table in the far corner of the cafeteria. "There's something about you that's different." Alvie gave a nervous laugh.

"There's a lot about me that's different."

"Such as?" He shook his head. "No, you can't say that you're a lot different and then not tell me anything." He looked up at her quizzically. "I'm nosy, OK? And that's not fair. Like- Finnick d-"

"No spoilers!"

"You read slowly!"

"I've had five minutes reading time today. I got through three chapters."

"In five minutes?"

"Maybe ten."

"That's more like it." They ate in silence. Crystal tried to get his attention by flicking the burnt end of a few fries at him. "Ugh, don't ignore me." He looked up at her again as if remembering she was there. "So, what is your favourite bo-?"

A milkshake cartoon landed on the table, leaking chocolate milkshake everywhere. Alvie sighed, getting up. He returned with a load of paper napkins, mopping the drink up.

Laughs from their grade's jocks' table reached Crystal and she saw red. She picked up her pudding of yogurt, stalking over to the jocks' table. She deliberately dumped the bowl on the Liam- the 'leader'-, the bowl making a nice hat. Yogurt ran down his face.

His girlfriend, who Crystal couldn't remember the name of (she was another Barbie- there was no point), jumped to her feet and made to slap Crystal. Crystal stepped out of range quickly, stepped back in and gave the girlfriend a hard slap.

"That," Crystal spat, "is for being a bitch." She snatched the bowl from Liam's head and dropped it in his lunch of spaghetti bolognese. Sauce splattered all over his expensive, white T-shirt. "And that is for being an arse." She spun on her heel and walked calmly back to her table, not a care weighing down on her.

Alvie was staring at her as if she were from another planet. He had finished cleaning up, milkshake sodden paper napkins in a pile at the end of the table. Crystal sat down calmly and continued with her fries, as if nothing had happened.

Five minutes later, the principal arrived and Crystal, Alvie, Liam and Liam's girlfriend were taken to the principal's office. Parents were called in- Alvie's were still working, but his aunt turned up. No-one turned up for Crystal- her parents were working as well and there was no-one else.

Louisa, obviously, found it all very funny. Mr. Brooks didn't agree with that.

Woo! This is seven pages, author's note included. And I made it up on the spot. Tell me what you think PLEASE! I'm hoping to update on this more often.