The final bell finally put me out of my misery. Alvin and I leaned against the lockers near our homeroom, waiting for the crowd to thin out.

  "Fuck," I muttered, wincing as I shifted my weight. "The dull ache is still there. That girl has a mean punt."

  "I'm sorry, Daeron." Alvin stared at his shoes, the familiar guilt creeping into his voice. "I always drag you into my messes, and I never actually step up to defend you."

  "Rex, dude." I kept my voice perfectly ft. "You just need to grow a pair. Actually, next time, I'll just let the Cheeto kick you in the groin. Maybe the impact will force your balls to drop."

  "Oh, fuck off!" Alvin barked out a ugh.

  We were still chuckling when a fsh of bright red hair caught my eye. The girl from the courtyard was marching toward us. The bzing, self-righteous fury was gone. Instead, she stopped a few feet away, shifting her weight awkwardly from side to side, suddenly looking very small.

  "I’m sorry for what I did earlier, Daeron," she muttered, staring at the floor tiles. "I... I know you were only trying to protect Alvin. I overreacted."

  I leaned my head back against the locker, observing her calmly. "You know my name?"

  She looked up, frowning as if I had asked a stupid question. "Of course I do. Everyone knows who you are."

  "Why?"

  "You’re st year's winner, right?"

  "....You mean the under-18 Karate circuit?"

  "Have you won any other circuits?" she asked, her tone dripping with sudden sarcasm.

  "No."

  "Well, duh." She rolled her eyes so hard I thought they might get stuck in the back of her head.

  I let out a slow exhale, unbothered by her attitude. "I just figured the basketball guys were the popur ones."

  "Ugh. Who said you were popur?" She crossed her arms defensively. "You’re just 'known.' You're definitely not 'well-known', and you are miles away from 'popur'. Duh."

  "Right. Well, I’m apparently more known than you, Cheeto," I replied smoothly. "Because I have no idea who you are."

  "Hah! You live in a cave, then!"

  Alvin frantically elbowed my ribs, leaning in close. "Dude," he hissed, terrified she might hear. "That's Jessica. She’s on the main cheerleading squad."

  "Ah." I looked back at her, my expression deadpan. Everything suddenly made sense. "You’re one of the ditzy girls."

  The silence in the hallway was deafening.

  Jessica froze. The pale skin of her neck flushed a furious, blotchy red that quickly spread to her cheeks.

  "What the fuck did you just call me?!" Her voice echoed off the lockers. Her green eyes were practically glowing with rage. "Stop calling us ditzy! I am not stupid! You know what? My friends were completely right about you. You really are a psycho bastard!"

  She didn't wait for a response. She spun on her heel and stomped down the hall, radiating pure hostility.

  I watched her go, my face completely bnk.

  "Dude." Alvin rubbed his temples, exhausted. "That was completely uncalled for."

  "What? Everyone calls them the ditzy girls, Al. It's an objective fact."

  "Yeah, but you don't say it to their faces, man! It's social suicide!"

  "I don't care about social suicide," I said calmly, grabbing my backpack from the floor. "Come on. Let’s go home and py Halo."

  **

  Alvin didn't show up to homeroom. A text ter confirmed his grandfather had passed away.

  For the first time in a long time, I navigated the halls alone. The silence was deafening. Without Alvin rambling about video game stats beside me, I realized just how isoted I actually was.

  I sat alone in css. I ate my lunch alone in the courtyard, watching the social hierarchy spin around me. It was boring, but it gave me time to think. It was a twisted system. The jocks tormented people for fun, and the school treated them like kings. I put those kings in the dirt to protect my friend, and the school treated me like a rabid dog.

  It wasn't fair. But I had long ago accepted that high school had nothing to do with fairness.

  *

  The final bell rang. My pn was simple: go home, lock the door, and bury myself in an RPG until my eyes hurt.

  I stepped out of the cssroom and stopped.

  Jessica was leaning against the lockers, her arms crossed, her bright ginger hair standing out like a warning beacon in the dull hallway. She looked right at me.

  "Where’s Alvin?" she asked.

  "Family emergency. Grandfather died," I said, keeping my voice ft.

  "Oh." Her defensive posture softened immediately. "I’m sorry to hear that. I guess that’s why you were alone in the courtyard today."

  "Yeah."

  Silence stretched between us. She didn't move. She just stared at me with those sharp green eyes, clearly waiting.

  I let out a quiet breath. "Look. Since you're here... sorry about st week. I didn't mean to mock you."

  "Hm-mp." She tilted her chin up. "Is that all?"

  ".... And thank you. For standing up for Alvin while I was grabbing water."

  "Hm-mp. I just hate bullies."

  "Same."

  "...."

  "...."

  "Alright." I adjusted my backpack strap. "I’m going home. See ya."

  I took one step before her voice cut through the empty hall.

  "Do you really think a dry, robotic apology like that is enough?" I stopped and looked over my shoulder. She was tapping her foot. "It took you a whole week, and you didn't even try to find me to say it. I had to ambush you."

  I turned fully around, my expression completely unbothered. "What do you want, then?"

  A wicked smirk spread across her face. "Let’s go. Buy me a hotdog, and I will reconsider."

  "Huh?"

  "Come on, move your ass, Caveman."

  She pushed off the lockers and walked down the hall, radiating absolute confidence. I stood there for a second, blinked, and then quietly followed her.

  *

  She dragged me all the way to the city park.

  When we got to the hotdog cart, she ordered the biggest, most expensive loaded dog on the menu, complete with extra cheese and jape?os. I paid the vendor, my wallet significantly lighter. This girl is a menace.

  "Mmph, now this is a proper apology!" She took a massive bite, sitting on a park bench. She had mustard on the corner of her lip, swinging her legs like a kid.

  "Yeah. It cost enough to be 'proper'," I muttered, taking a bite of my own.

  "Oh, don’t be such a killjoy. Take notes, Daeron. This is how you make girls happy."

  "Heh." I chewed quietly. I had to admit, the hotdog was incredible.

  She wiped her mouth with a napkin, her tone shifting from pyful to curious. "Anyway. Why do you do it? Why do you keep fighting with those jocks?"

  "I already told you," I said calmly. "I hate bullies. And they won't leave Alvin alone."

  "Doesn't fighting them just paint a bigger target on Alvin’s back? They know it gets to you."

  I stopped chewing. For the first time, she had pierced my armor. She wasn't just a ditzy cheerleader; she saw right through the dynamic.

  I let out a heavy sigh, leaning back against the wooden bench. "I know."

  "Then why—"

  "Because there's no other option," I interrupted smoothly. "If I do nothing, they break him. If I fight, they think twice before touching him."

  "Why not report it to the discipline committee?"

  I let out a dry, humorless chuckle. "I did. Twice. The school protects its athletes. The committee gives them a warning, and then the jocks corner Alvin off-campus where the teachers can't see. Snitching only makes it worse."

  "But..." She looked at me, her green eyes searching my stoic face. "The other students are terrified of you. You know that, right? They think you’re a psycho."

  "I don't care what they think."

  "So, what? You're like a dark superhero?" She bumped her shoulder against mine, giggling. "Fighting injustice in the shadows without expecting any credit?"

  I looked at her, the corners of my mouth twitching upward. "If I were a hero, they’d build a bronze statue of me in the cafeteria. Besides, I don’t have the patience to py hero."

  "A firefighter, then!"

  "I don't carry an axe."

  "Good. If you carried an axe with that deadpan face of yours, you’d look like Patrick Bateman."

  The image hit me, and a sudden, genuine ugh barked out of my chest. I couldn't help it. She threw her head back and ughed with me, the sound bright and clear over the noise of the park. As she leaned against me to ugh, a scent hit me—something sweet, like cocoa and vanil shampoo. It was a soft smell, completely out of pce in a park that smelled like exhaust and cheap meat.

  An hour ter, the sun started to dip, and we tossed our trash in the bin.

  "Thank you for the hotdogs, Daeron." She stopped on the sidewalk, offering a bright, genuine smile. "See you tomorrow."

  "See you, Jess."

  I stood on the pavement, watching her ginger hair bounce as she walked away.

  I realized my heart was beating a little faster. In two years of high school, I hadn't had a single, genuine conversation with a girl. I was too busy being Alvin's shield and the school's monster. But Jessica just bulldozed right through the perimeter, demanded a hotdog, and made me ugh.

  She was definitely trouble. But for the first time in a long time, I wasn't bored.