"You really got me now,

You got me so I don't know what I'm doin', now"

-The Kinks, You Really Got Me

The next week at school was uneventful but different for Robin. She found herself catching Diane's eye multiple times in the hallways and looking away. As always, she felt frustrated when she wasn't called on in class and someone else answered the question correctly. But this week she couldn't help but notice Chris Chambers smirking at her when this happened, and she would scowl back at him.

She wondered throughout the week if she'd have to face him again for the forum, and the thought made her stomach twist into knots. Though their conversation was good overall, and it seemed as if he held her same viewpoints on the war, she certainly didn't need him prying into her life—and into her pain.

Fortunately, she was given her answer right before lunch on Thursday.

"Robin," Mrs. Turner called out, "Do you mind staying back a moment?"

As the other students filed out of the Biology room, Robin made her way to the front of the classroom.

"I wanted to let you know that Mrs. Bradbury has set your college application meeting," Mrs. Turner informed her with a smile, "The good news is that it is tomorrow, but the bad news is it will be at 3, right when school lets out. Is that alright?"

Both sounded like good news to her. Robin beamed.

"That sounds great! I'm really looking forward to it! Thank you so much for writing my recommendation letter already."

"No problem, dear," Mrs. Turner replied, "You'll be going places, that is for certain. And I'm glad the time works for you. We figured you wouldn't mind meeting so late."

Robin frowned slightly. What did she mean by that?

"No, not at all."

"Oh, and Robin?" Mrs. Turner added, "How was your first meeting with Mr. Duchamp? I hope he didn't give you too much trouble."

The memory of Teddy Duchamp laughing his head off while calling her selfish swam into view.

"It was…"

Suddenly, the thought of Teddy was replaced by Chris laughing while calling her "completely honest." She smiled inwardly.

"It was interesting."

"Oh no," Mrs. Turner responded with worry, "Don't tell me he ran you off."

"No, he didn't," Robin answered, "We're going to keep meeting."

"Thank you," Mrs. Turner exhaled, "You are our last hope for him, Robin. There's no way he could graduate without you."

Robin raised an eyebrow. It was meant to be a compliment, but it didn't sit well with her. Did the teachers always talk about their students like this? Or just him?

"He'll graduate," she declared, "He will."

"Well, we'll see," Mrs. Turner said hesitantly, "I hope you enjoy your lunch."

Robin was immediately filled with dread.

"Yeah, lunch…"

To say the cafeteria was a zoo was an understatement.

As soon as the doors swung closed behind her, Robin was immediately overstimulated by her senses. The sight of crowded tables and people pushing past each other, the raucous laughter and loud chatter vibrating off the walls, the pervasive smell of boiled hot dogs—she was hit with a wave of nausea.

Her eyes darted frantically around the room for refuge in the form of an open table, but it seemed that every single one was taken up. Just as she was about to give up and skip eating lunch, a voice managed to break through the crowd.

"ROBIN! HEY, ROBIN! OVER HERE!"

Robin's eyes widened in horror as she watched Teddy Duchamp waving his arms wildly at her.

"COME SIT OVER HERE! ROBIN! HEY, ROBIN!"

Hot anger—and embarrassment—filling her insides, she stomped over to his table where he was seated at the very end. She stood over him with her hands on her hips.

"What do you want, Teddy?" Robin hissed dangerously.

"Uh…" Teddy trailed off, "...for you to sit with me?"

Panic pulsed through her.

"Sit with you? Why?" she questioned, her voice becoming shrill, "No, I'm not sitting with you. No, not happening!"

Teddy rolled his eyes at her.

"Christ woman, I'm asking you to sit with me, not to take the bald headed gnome for a stroll in the misty forest!"

Robin was dumbfounded. Who the hell said things like that?

"To—to what?!" she asked with a mixed look of confusion and shock.

Seeing the expression on her face made Teddy smirk.

"Oh come on, taking the bald headed gnome for a stroll in the misty forest? Bringing an al dente noodle to the spaghetti house? A bit of the old in-out, in-out? It's not rocket science, Robin. Actually, it's biology," Teddy explained with a wink.

"Well then, I don't know what's more of a revelation, that your dick is most comparable to a short and ugly mythical creature or that you actually know what 'al dente' means."

She was disgusted by his blatant sexual comments, especially after she had specifically asked him last week to not say anything of the sort. But she couldn't let him see her falter: if she learned anything about Teddy Duchamp so far, it was that you had to go toe-to-toe with him.

Teddy smacked his knee and let out a grating cackle, and though she had heard the sound before, it still surprised her.

"You're a fucking trip! This is why I like you, Robin. Come on, sit down."

Robin felt fluttering in her stomach. She couldn't remember the last time she had heard those words, and they terrified her. As usual, her mind was screaming at her to bolt, to run away, but something kept her rooted to the spot. Her mind then tried convincing her to get angry, to get indignant—"like" her? How could he like her when he's only spoken to her 3 times?!—but for some reason, it just wasn't in her to get mad this time. It was scary, but it felt different. It even felt...good?

"Hello, anybody home?" Teddy called out impatiently, "You gonna sit or not?"

"O—okay," Robin breathed in nervous agreement.

"The lady is sitting down fellas, move your asses!" he commanded the guys at the table, giving the one next to him a small shove.

They all slid down the bench to make room for Robin to sit on the end. As she did, she found herself face to face with Vern Tessio.

"Hi, Robin!" Vern greeted brightly, "How ya doin'? It's been a long time."

Vern Tessio had been one of the only boys in elementary school that had spoken to her every now and then. Robin certainly didn't consider him a friend, but he had always been polite and sweet, albeit somewhat clueless. Like Teddy, she didn't share any classes with him once they made it to junior high and rarely saw him, so she was a little surprised to see how handsome he had become. Still, his light blue eyes twinkled with naïvety.

"Hey, Vern," Robin returned with a closed-lip smile, "I'm good, how are you?"

"Oh, I'm great!" Vern replied cheerfully, "So glad it's our last year in school, I'm done with it, but this year's going to be a lot of fun. I heard you were helping Teddy with Biology, that's so boss of you. You were always really smart, you're probably gonna go to some really smart school, huh?"

"Yes," Robin answered confidently, "I think I am."

"That's so cool, you're gonna do great. Teddy told me you're planning on going to some school, Stanford, right? In California? That's awesome, I gotta admit, I'm way jealous, California seems too cool."

Robin nodded her head in agreement.

"It really does, I'm really excited for it."

"That's great. Wow, I'll know someone who will be living out in California. You're lucky you're such a genius, Robin. You're probably the smartest person at this school, you might even beat out Chris Chambers—"

"Jesus Christ, would you shut the fuck up, Vern?!" Teddy exclaimed heatedly.

Robin shot him a look. Sure, Vern was quite chatty, but he was harmless. Really, she preferred that he did most of the talking for fear of having to share anything more. He didn't deserve to be treated in that way.

"Sorry," Vern mumbled, playing with his food.

"Don't talk to him like that," Robin ordered, crossing her arms, "It's wrong. You should apologize."

Teddy looked at Robin with curiosity and then gave her a sarcastic yet placating smile.

"You're right."

He then turned to Vern.

"I'm sorry, Vern," Teddy said slowly and dryly, his sarcastic smile growing wider, "That I have to tell you when to close your fucking mouth—"

Robin felt herself welling up with indignance.

"Teddy," she said warningly, "If you keep being an asshole to your friend, I'm leaving."

"Alright, alright!" Teddy conceded hastily, "Vern, I'm...sorry."

Vern smiled jovially at Teddy.

"It's okay," Vern forgave, "You four-eyed dickwad."

Teddy and Vern burst into laughter as Robin looked on quizzically. Is this what all male friendships were like or were these two just strange?...Maybe both?

"You're actually right for once anyway, Verno," Teddy explained, slinging an arm around Robin's shoulders, "Robin here is the fucking female Albert Einstein."

Robin immediately stiffened at his touch, her body screaming for him to get off of her—but his arm then felt warm around her. She tentatively let her shoulders settle.

"Wow, Robin, I didn't know you were as smart as that guy," Vern commented with amazement.

"She's certainly smarter than Chris Chambers," Teddy snarled viciously.

Robin was completely taken aback by his tone. When he had spoken to Vern, and even when he had yelled at Robin last week, it was the volume of his voice and the colorful curse words that he chose. It was anger and frustration. But this was more than that, worse than that—this was pure loathing.

She could distantly remember that Chris and Teddy used to spend time together in elementary and middle school, with Vern and Gordie Lachance. Sure, it seemed as if they didn't hang out anymore, but what could have happened that was so bad for Teddy to speak with such resentment towards Chris? Not to mention, besides feeling like he was constantly examining her, her own interaction with Chris had been mostly positive.

She shrugged his arm off of her shoulders and looked up at him with confusion.

"What's wrong with Chris Chambers?"

Teddy narrowed his eyes.

"That asshole walks around here all fucking high and mighty. Golden Boy Chambers," he spat cruelly.

"Golden Boy Chambers?" Robin asked, still perplexed, "I thought he and his family have one of the worst reputations in town?"

"Having a shit reputation doesn't keep him from thinking he's J.F.-fucking-K.," Teddy explained furiously, "That prick thinks he's better than me and everybody else in this shithole. He's a grade A douchebag."

"Well, I don't think he's so bad," Vern interjected lightly, "I think he did what he had to do."

"And what the fuck do you know about it anyway?" Teddy snapped.

"Jesus. Sorry...I'll go grab us some Cokes."

As she watched Vern walk away from the table, Robin felt a surge of anxiety. The very thing Teddy was so angry at Chris for was the same thing that Chris had accused her of: talking down to others, thinking that others were beneath her, in a way. And she admitted to herself that what Chris had told her was the truth. It proved interesting that Teddy was so furious with Chris for those exact actions, and yet he seemed to be so accepting of her.

With all of this on her mind, she decided to keep her mouth shut. It was clear that whatever this was between Teddy and Chris, it wasn't simply that Chris walked around "high and mighty": it was personal.

"...Hellooooooo? Is this just something that you do a lot that I have to get used to?"

Robin looked back up at Teddy. He was smirking at her with delight, and it was as if his resentment had never been. She raised her eyebrow at him.

"Get used to?"

"Well, yeah."

The assumption that he would need to "get used to" any of her quirks was not lost on her, and neither was his smugness.

"Wipe that smirk off your face," Robin ordered, "Or I'll do it for you."

His grin grew wickeder.

"Promise? Because there's only one way for you to do that…"

"You're right, there is only one way to do that: to go over the basic principles of biology."

How rapidly Teddy's expression turned glum was almost comical.

"Damnit Robin, that was a good one," Teddy admitted, "Fine, let's go over some of this shit now, I'm busy this afternoon anyway."

It was on the tip of her tongue to point out that he shouldn't have planned anything for the same time he was supposed to be in tutoring, but she became distracted. She caught Diane's eye a few tables away, and she noticed how downtrodden her former friend looked. Diane sat at the very end of the table, and, now looking away from Robin, was focused on eating her lunch and appeared to keep quiet. Robin took in the rest of the table and saw most of the girls laughing, their attention completely zeroed in on Martha Whittaker.

Martha was seated right in the middle, looking as gorgeous as ever except for a wide, satisfied smirk on her face that rivaled Teddy's. It was a wonder how someone so beautiful could be so cruel. But what was even more of a wonder to Robin was how someone so terrible managed to be so popular—to have friends. Maybe it was because she was from The View. Or maybe it was her appearance. Robin touched the bump in her nose.

"What the hell are you staring at?"

Teddy's voice once again broke her out of her thoughts, and Robin immediately tore her eyes away from Martha Whittaker. She focused on Vern strolling up to the table with 3 Cokes.

"Nothing."

As Vern sat down, Robin reached out for a Coke, popping the top and sipping from the can. Teddy, however, looked in the direction Robin was previously staring.

"Oh, were you looking at Martian Tittaker?"

Robin spit out her drink, spewing it into Vern's face. Teddy howled with laughter, and Robin couldn't help but join him.

"Aw c'mon Robin! No one's spit at me since junior high!" Vern exclaimed.

This caused the two of them to crack up even more. As her sides began hurting, Robin realized this was the first time in a long time that she had genuinely laughed out loud.

"Sorry—Vern," Robin wheezed out between laughs, holding her stomach, "Oh my god—what did you—call her?"

"Martian Tittaker," Teddy sniggered, "We've all been calling her that since I came up with it sophomore year."

"Why Martian Tittaker?"

"Because," Teddy answered with a sly smile, "Her tits are out of this world."

"Oh."

Robin had said it with more disappointment than she had meant to. Normally, she would get mad at the fact that a guy was creating nicknames for a girl based solely off of her appearance, even if it was Martha Whittaker. But for whatever reason, she suddenly felt disheartened.

Then Robin felt Teddy's hand on her arm. She looked back up at him, and she was shocked to see how earnestly he was gazing at her.

"But she's a fucking phony bitch," Teddy said fervently, "She ain't got nothing on you, Robin. I fucking swear it."

The electricity in his touch, his face, his voice—it had her reeling. She had no idea what she was feeling, but whatever it was, it felt amazing. And scary. She tried pushing the sensation away before responding.

"Okay, Teddy," Robin replied weakly, "Let's get to studying, huh?"

As Teddy shrugged his shoulders, she caught the self-satisfied smirk on his face. And still, she couldn't find her usual anger.