Tap tap tap. I drum my pencil on the enclosed desk. ISS is so boring, and I don’t even have any homework since it was the first hour when I got sent here. To make matters worse, the teacher is a hawk-eyed bitch who won’t even let me talk to Mikey. It’s too disruptive to our work, she says. Plus, not once is Jared called to the office, which means the principal completely ignored my complaints. Fuck my life.

By the final bell I’m ready to tear my hair out. I just want to go home and lock myself in my room with some loud music. I walk out the door without even thinking about Mikey, who jogs to catch up with me. I turn when I hear him breathing next to me.

“That was torture,” he says plainly.

“No kidding. Welcome to Hoboken High.”

“Aw, thanks. I think I’ll hate it here. Their discipline policy is shit.”

“You’re telling me. They hate us because we’re not ‘normal,’ but there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Mikey shakes his head, “Load of crap, if you ask me. Anyway, my brother’s here, so I’m gonna go.”

“All right, see you later.”

Mikey walks toward the parking lot and gets in a car. I immediately wish he hadn’t left as I see none other than Jared Leto walking my way. His cheek is a light purple. Good. He doesn’t speak, just slams a fist into my gut, causing me to double over.

“Think you can get away with punching me, bitch? And now the school’s all on my case,” the second sentence is accompanied with a fist to the eye. I fall on the ground and he looms over me, “Here’s what’s gonna happen. Tomorrow morning, you’re gonna walk into the office and tell them you made everything up. My pretty face can’t go to ISS.”

I spit on the side walk, “No. tomorrow, I’m going to go straight to the ISS room and relish in seeing you there with me.”

His foot comes down hard on my stomach, “I don’t think you’re hearing what I’m saying. Do what I said, or you’re little friend’s next.” He kicks my jaw before walking off.

I taste blood in my mouth as I limp home. Jared’s never gotten that violent before. There’s no way I can hide this from Mom. So I don’t even try. I walk into the kitchen with my head held high.

“Oh my God, Frankie! What happened?!” she’s on me in an instant, fussing over my injuries.

“Fucking Jared happened. I’m sick of this shit!”

She doesn’t even get onto me for my language, just gets a stony look, “That’s it; I’m calling the school right now. He is not going to get away with it this time.”

I grab her arm as she heads for the phone, “No, Mom, don’t. Please.”

“Frank, don’t be stupid. Look what he did to you! He’s gotta be stopped someti—”

“But he’ll go after my friend!” I cut her off.

She blinks, “Friend? There’s a friend now?”

“Yeah…Mikey. I met him today. He stood up for me, so he’s on Jared’s list. Just…let me deal with this, okay?”

She sighs, “Fine. Go upstairs and clean up, okay? If you come home with blood on your face again, I’m getting involved.”

And that is the end of that. I go into my bathroom and groan at my reflection. My eye is already black and there’s a line of blood from my lip to my chin. I’m not sure where the blood came from. Possibly my gums, seeing as I don’t feel any sores. I wash my face and get in the shower. The water is hot and soothing as it runs down my aching body.

Why does this have to happen to me? All I want to do is blend into the background where people don’t notice me. So why do Jared and his thugs think they need to pull me out of the shadows and turn me red? It fucking sucks.

I go in my room and pull on some pajama pants, no shirt. Then I log on to the computer as I light a cigarette. Mom hates it when I smoke in the house, but I’ve had a rough day so she probably won’t care. I get on Facebook and discover that I already have a friend request from Mikey. And looky looky, he’s online. I get a message from him almost immediately.

Hey, Whatsup?

Not much. Face hurts, but whatever.

Why does your face hurt?

Leto got me right after you left.

Oh, shit, I’m sorry. I should have offered you a ride home.

I would have said no. I only live a couple blocks from the school

Oh, neat. Hey, do you want to come over after school tomorrow? I mean, it being Friday and all. My mom is really insistent on me getting some friends.

“Frank, dinner!” Mom calls up the stairs.

Ya I’ll ask my mom. Anyway I gtg, dinner’s done

Okay bye

I go downstairs and sit at the table. Mom’s already filled my plate with chicken and spinach. I dig into the spinach and shove the offending meat to the side. After eating through two plates, I set down my fork and address my mom.

“Mikey wants to know if I can go to his house tomorrow.”

“Mikey? Oh, right, the friend. Yeah, that’s okay. Will you be spending the night?”

“Um, I’ll ask,” I get up and go upstairs. Mikey isn’t online anymore, but I send him a message anyway. Then I pull out Pansy and begin strumming absentmindedly. After a while, my computer gives off a little ping. The message from Mikey says it’ll be fine if I spend the night. I have to say, I’m a bit excited. I haven’t had a sleepover since elementary school. I go downstairs to tell Mom and pack a bag before going to sleep.

I feel shame as I walk into the office the next day. I really don’t want to do this, but I can’t let Mikey get hurt because of me. The secretary looks up when the door opens and smiles at me.

“Can I help you?” she asks.

“Um, I need to talk to the principle,” I say, flipping my fringe of hair over my black eye.

“Of course, he’s in his office.”

I walk into the small room and blow my hair off my face. I want the bastard to feel guilty. I know he’s going to latch on to every one of my excuses. For them to punish the son of one of the schools largest contributors would be bad, so he’ll want a way out of it.

A smirk flashes across his face before he resumes a professional position, “What is it, Franklin?”

I sigh, “Cut the crap. We both know why I’m here, so I’ll just cut to the chase. I lied about everything that has to do with Jared; this black eye, my bruises, and my swollen gums are from clumsiness, not Jared beating the shit out of me in the parking lot even though it’s on camera; and you have your golden boy back. Happy?”

“I’m not sure what you mean, Frank. But do try to be careful on your way out. We wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself further.”

I walk out of the office and straight into Mikey, who looks surprised, “Oh, you already told them. What’d they say?”

“The fucker smiled about it and wouldn’t believe me. That’s how this place works.”

“That’s messed up. You look like shit, by the way.”

“Yeah, thanks, let’s just get to the torture chamber.”

We walk to the ISS room and the teacher seems to be waiting for us. She immediately starts throwing orders around, “I’ve been told that today you are to take Michael on a tour of the school. As you show him his classes you can pick up your assignments which you will work on upon returning.”

I turn around and exit the room. At least if I’m showing Mikey where everything is I can talk. I start with the last class and work toward the first, which he’s already been to. Then I show him the gym, library, and cafeteria. On the way, we compare interests and discover a lot in common. I learn that Mikey plays bass, and we make plans to jam together. Then we have to go back to the classroom and talking ceases.

When the day is over we walk out to the parking lot.

“Gee should be around here somewhere,” Mikey says.

Gee…

G…

Xog…

No, it can’t be.

“There he is!” Mikey points to a car and my heart stops. Standing beside it is stalker mall guy.