"Oh… that is so ugly." "Toni! You can't just say that about people's outfits." Antonia looked at the boy who walked into the classroom. She smiled at her friend replying, "It's not my fault he doesn't know how to dress. Yeah, he's wearing all black, but they're different tones. His shirt is a bit blue-black, and those pants are so faded they look green. And he DEFINITELY needs to throw those Converse away. They've been through hell and back." Nicole gave Antonia a shocked expression as she was judging the students' outfits as they came through the door. Antonia always made sure that anything she wore would be worth displaying in a coffin. Today she wore a blacklong-sleeved shirt with a low-cut neckline. She layered it with a white vest matching it with white bell-bottom pants. The outfit came together with chunky loafers and a thin black choker. She had decided to dye her bangs back to black but leave some of the red as highlights. Her hair was getting a bit longer, but she hadn't decided if she wanted to but it , on the other hand, always wore clothing that was loose and flowy. She had a baby blue metallic mesh top with a lavender tank top underneath. Her jeans had purple flowers embroidered on the pockets. Her hair was tied into a bun with a flower clip to hold it in place. Gold accessories made her pink hair and blue eyes stand out. "AAHHHHH!" The whole class turned around to see their three of their peers running from a desk. Mr. Olson ran over to see what it was. "Marie, it's just a little… You know what? …Just stand over there." There was a large spider roaming between the desks. "NO, ITS A SPIDER!" the girl got out of their seats to get away from the innocent creature. It crawled fast under Mr. Olson's desk and disappeared. Nobody moved when the teacher told everyone to return to their seats and Mr. Olson continued with the lesson (pretending to be calm about the spider), then connecting the idea that the students were going to have to do their project and have it due before they leave for Thanksgiving students turned in their essays after class was over and Antonia and Nicole decided to find different partners for their upcoming project.
"He's seriously telling us we have another project?" Seymour looked at his friends walking down the hallway. "You could pay someone else to do it?" Jade responded. "I could barely write one paragraph before wanting to bash my head against the wall. Yet he wants us to write another one?" Samuel rolled his eyes walking down the hallway. "Wait… you actually turned in the essay?" Seymour was shocked that Samuel had taken the time to complete the assignment for their history class. "If you don't pass this class, you don't get to graduate right?" Jade smirked thinking it was amusing that poor Samuel had to repeat the course for his credits. The punk gave the girl a nasty sneer that made her laugh loudly. "You're so delicate. I swear you pretend to be such a dick, but you honestly can't take shit from anyone." She had stopped in front of the two and Samuel balled up his fist. Seymour's expression went blank. "Jade, get outta here with that nonsense. And at least he actually tried." Samuel continued looking at the girl thinking of what to say yet knowing nothing he did hurt her feelings. "You're the last to fucking talk. You are a lazy girl who gets other people to do everything for them. The scum on this this planet is what you are." She giggled thinking it was one of those moments where the two went back and forth teasing each other. "Oh right… I've got the need to pass high school and get a little job so me and mummy can get papers. That's why 've got to 'ave me thick skin" She mocked his British accents and looked at Seymour. In disappointment, he walked around Jade and headed to his next class. She locked eyes with Samuel, noticing he wasn't smiling. No. Instead, he frowned closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and moved following Seymour. She moved in his path blocking him from going. "Get the fuck out of my way you roach." She got shoved to the side, almost losing balance from the taller boy. "Sam! I'm just kidding! You don't have to be so sore."
Angelita stopped putting on her mascara looking at the Asian girl pulling out her pocketknife. She ran it under the sink to clean off the lint that had collected from sitting in her backpack. "Jade… That's like an unspoken rule when it comes to people when you find out their personal things, especially with immigrants. You weren't born here too! No one gives you shit for being born in another country so why would you say something so stupid to Samuel? And just knowing the type of person he is? His mom gives you food and you say that shit to his face?" She looked at the blonde sternly. "I was only kidding! Why do you care? Your grandparents are immigrants too. Jonathan's dad was undocumented. I'm pretty sure half of these kids at school are undocumented! … Angel… stop looking at me like that" "That is probably the most fucked up thing I've ever heard you say." She put on her backpack, unwrapped a piece of gum, and popped it into her mouth. "As if you've never said worse? You don't even have the balls to talk to Jiya about how upset you are for cutting you off and you talk shit about her practically every day. Do you think you're the only one who has issues? You at least have both of your parents. I don't have ANYTHING. But I don't ask anyone for anything because I'm not selfish." The girl started yelling and the second bell rang. Angelita looked at her with a blank expression. "This isn't a competition on who has less. You just need to understand that people experience things differently." Jade rolled her eyes and grabbed a paper towel. "Yeah. Just like how you need to experience everything with your boyfriend because you literally have nobody else." Angelita's face grew warm, and her eyes were getting misty. "I'm going to pretend that I never had this conversation with you..." She walked out of the restroom and another girl came in. She looked at Jade cleaning the knife and ran out into the hallway looking for a teacher to report to.
"Does anyone not want their tater tots?" Joseph handed the small black container to Wally. "Did y'all hear that Jade brought a knife to school?" Mal took a bite of his small burger. Karen rolled her eyes looking at her boyfriend. "When doesn't she have a weapon? And from what I know, it's nothing compared to what she carries on a daily basis?" The group laughed at her comment knowing that Jade would be causing trouble anywhere she went. "I can't wait till the temperature gets cooler. I wanna start wearing my cute fall outfits." Nicole went on about how she began watching the show Gossip Girl when all of a sudden loud commotion began. The cafeteria went silent because Dominic and one of the football players began fighting. Dominic wasn't a super tall guy, but he definitely had lots of muscles for being quite skinny. However, he was getting beat up really badly by a football player. Hegoton top of Dominic putting him in a headlock, squeezing as hard as he could. Dominic released a squeal and punched theboy in theleg. "GET OFF OF HIM" Angelita screamed seeing her boyfriend getting beat up and chunking a milk carton at the football player. "Kick that white trash ass!" Other football players swarmed around Dominic shouting and yelling. Samuel shoved them away to clear the space while William was trying to hold back little Seymour in all his got back on his knees pulling the guy's arm near his mouth and biting it. "RRAAAAHHHH!" He pushed Dominic towards the floor, taking a nosedive on the tile floor. CRUNCH! The blonde boy began crying in horror as his arm bled from being bit. A friend came up to the football player with thin napkins from the lunch line that were basically useless. Everyone began gasping and leaving the cafeteria after what had happened. Seymour grabbed Dominic and flipped him over. Dominic's pale face was now smeared with blood and snot as his nose was now broken. Angelita cried as she tried to lift him from his shirt to drag him away from the scene. William gently grabbed onto her wrist to get her to calm down. As she let go, Samuel took one of Dominic's arms and slung it over his shoulder. "Common mate, we need to clean your face up." The staff member grabbed her walkie-talkie and called for backup. Students were quiet as they saw the event come to an end. "Can they cancel the rest of the day now?" Wally looked at his friends smiling but no one returned his reaction. "You're such an idiot."
A moment later a staff member walked into the boy's bathroom. "He needs to go to the officer right now, so you need to let him go." Seymour looked at him concerned, "Can you give us a minute? He broke his nose and we're trying to-" "He can go to the nurse if he needs to, but he needs to go now!" He looked back at his friends and saw Samuel wiping his face. Dominic grunted in pain, tears falling from his eyes, knowing that he would be the one in trouble for what happened. The assistant principal showed up and she looked at the staff member. He got close to Samuel and gently tapped his arm. Samuel got a paper towel while Dominic kept his head submerged under the running water. The staff member kept trying to move his arm between them, so Samuel wedged his right leg between Dominic's. He then put his hand against Samuel's chest, grabbing Dominic's arm and pulling him towards him. This made Samuel upset, and he tried to grab Dominic by the back of the neck. "Sam…" Dominic flung his arm out shoving the staff member away. "Sam let him go." The assistant principal fully stepped into the boy's bathroom. "Samuel, we need to get Dominic to the off- to the nurse and you're not making this easy." He wiped his friend's face one last time before giving him off to the staff. He threw the sopping wet bloody napkin at the assistant principal, and she made a face at him. The staff member turned around to face Seymour and Samuel, "Boy's head to class now."
"...and he thought it was funny to send pictures to Angelita, but she of course tracked his number down. So, when she found out it was him, she told Dominic, and he beat him- or tried to beat him up." Seymour was giving Antonia a recap of what happened at lunch. "That's so disgusting! What a maggot for thinking her can get away for creeping on her like that! UGH! I can't stand it when guys sendmepictures of their puny shrimp" She continued mixing the plaster and water in the plastic container. "We didn't think it was going to lead up to this. Like it first started off with a bunch of phone calls, then she was getting messages on Instagram and her other stuff. It was just crazy that it led up to all of this." "Wait, like a bunch of spam phone calls?" She stopped mixing the paster to look at the boy. Samuel grabbed the container from her annoyed to prevent the plaster from hardening. "Oi! Can't cha' do anything right?" She almost broke her neck looking at him and replied, "Bite me!" His eyes widened and Antonia realized what she had just said amidst the situation. "Never mind us... But ye, I've been getting calls left and right the past week or so. It's bothersome but now I'm thinking it could be him too. Or maybe even his mate." Seymour thought to himself for a moment and sighed. "It could be a possibility. But I wouldn't bet on it." Samuel poured the plaster into the mold, making sure not to spill any outside of their tub. "But at lunch, William had to get Angel to calm down because she was panicking and so he stayed with her. I mean, I figured that they would be back by now but there's probably some investigation going." "Antonia." The teen turned around to see Mrs. Sanders looking at her. "I need you to make sure you and your group members are wearing your safety goggles correctly at all times. They're not sunglasses for you to just leave them on your head. What would happen if some of the plaster dust got in your eyes?" "Oh. Yes, ma'am I apologize." Samuel snickered as he had no gloves or goggles on. They wrote their notes down on the worksheet making sure they had the same observations written down. Antonia looked at Samuel who was just aimlessly walking around carrying the used materials instead of throwing them away. She waved at him to come back to the table in which he rolled his eyes. "Don't you ever listen to people?" Get your act together." She carefully put the materials back in the bucket for the next class period. The groups that were done with their work chattered, finishing coloring pages until the timer went off.
"Seymour?" He looked at Antonia, her eyes softened. "Didn't you used to be friends with Jiya?" His coloring slowed down when she asked the question, looking a little sad when he responded. "Yeah, we were pretty close. We used to be really good friends, but she pretty much cut us off around this time last year." Seymour looked at Wally. "She changed a lot when she got in a relationship with Wally, but no one thought she would drop us." Samuel looked at him with a tight jaw. He knew girls always talked and had a feeling that Antonia only wanted to see his side of the story to gossip with her friends. However, Antonia was genuinely curious about how some people that seemed pretty cool, funny, and even nice could make bad decisions. But then again, she had been hearing stories about them for a while. She still kept her guard up in case they tried to cross her. "We did get in trouble a lot though. She even one time even got arrested for trespassing in private property." He gently smiled at the thought that at some point, he too hoped to be one of Jiya's boyfriends. Even if it was a little bit, he still deeply cared about him. "I still wouldn't try someone who drops me dead like nothing." Samuel had folded his paper into a fortune teller. Seymour looked at Jiya hopeful that they would end up being friends again. "I wouldn't make excuses for her either. She chose to do that, so it was something she decided to accept." He gestured the paper toward Antonia, looking at him hesitating to mess with it she thought about what he had said. She remembered a few weeks ago that Jiya had told her about her old friends. She knew he didn't care about talking crap about her friends. He was a guy to be then she thought back to Jiya, and did she actually cut them off without having any sort of conversation as to why she no longer wanted to be friends? He stood there quietly for a moment then sighed. "Are you just going to leave me hanging?" Antonia rolled her eyes annoyed at him, poking the purple section of the fortune teller. He spelled out the color, then asked her to pick a number. "Five." He counted and repeated the same thing. Open the flap he said, "You are going to fall down the stairs when you go to your next class." His monotone expression led to Antonia giving the boy a judgmental look before going back to her coloring. "Eeewww!" Jiya was in her group with Mal and Katherine. The blonde girl squealed making the class look at their table. "Jiya, take it out!" Mal demanded cracking up as Jiya walked away from the group laughing. She put her hands up, "I'm not taking that out."A big fly was stuck in their plaster and his little feet twitched as the liquid solidified. Jiya looked at Donna for help as her classmate complained and Antonia softly chuckled. The timer when off and everyone returned back to their desks.