Fen-

As I walked down University Avenue, I checked my phone to see what time it was. Holy mother of Jesus. It was 7:30 and I had 15 minutes to get to class. I pulled up GPS on my phone. I knew the way to school by now, but I wanted to see how far away I was. Good. It will only take me 8 minutes to walk to school. I started walking at a leisurely trot. 10 minutes later I was in front of my locker trying to get it to unlock. After three tries, stupid lock, I had it open and was rummaging for my English Lit binder. It was hidden under my AP Calculus textbook. It was the first day of school and I had put everything in my locker last week when I came to meet my teachers and get my schedule. I had already known what classes I had, but I didn't know what teachers. On my way to English I thought of the mysterious girl who I had met earlier that day. I wonder what had driven her to the ledge today. What could be so horrible as to make someone want to end their own lives? I had heard of people committing suicide, but today was my first encounter with someone like that. Would we ever meet again? I turned the corner and entered my class. I greeted the teacher and found a seat in the back just as the bell rang. I heard thudding going on in the hallway and looked up to see who it was. There, standing in the entrance to the classroom, was the girl from this morning.

Jevae-

The bell had just rang. I had made it in time. I sneaked around the edge of the classroom hoping the teacher wouldn't notice me. I found a seat in the back next to the windows and let out the breath I had been holding in. The teacher hadn't noticed me yet. I felt a pair of eyes on me. I looked to the right and met a pair of ice cold blue eyes.

"You!" We said at the same time, almost at a shout. Everybody in the room looked back to see who made the commotion. I felt the blush creep back into my face. I quickly turned to look out the window.

"Now, now. Everybody look up here. I'm going to do roll call and then I'll introduce this month's topic." I couldn't believe we had the same first period. I wouldn't talk to him. No matter how much I wanted answers, in this school, I was invisible. I wanted to keep it that way.

"Alicia Avery!" I could feel his gaze bore into me.

"Here!" A small blond haired girl in the front answered. Hopefully my questions earlier scared him off.

"Belladonna Blue!" If he tried to talk to me, I would speak to him the same way I spoke to everyone else in this hell hole.

"Present!" A tall raven haired girl sitting in front of me answered.

"Fenrock Cynth" What a peculiar name.

"Here." I was startled to hear someone speak next to me. Oh. My. God. His name is Fenrock Cynth. Fenrock. Seriously. Bahahaha. I feel bad for him. After a couple more people, my name was called.

"Java Fawks!" Why do people always pronounce it wrong?!

"It's Jevae, ma'am." If only I didn't have such a complicated name.

"Pft!" I turned and saw Fenrock holding back laughter.

"Laugh again and your intestines will be hanging from the flagpole, Fenrock," I hissed at him, putting emphasis on his name. He glared at me and turned to face the front of the classroom again.

Fen-

This girl, seriously. Jevae. With a name like that, she finds it okay to make fun of mine? I hope we don't have any other classes together. If she comes looking for me after class today, I'll make a run for it. I'm not going to go through the effort of changing classes to get away from this one girl. But that last comment. Was it really necessary?! Where was the girl who had questioned me so fiercely? This girl sitting next to me was just cold and threatening.

"Fenrock!" I snapped back to reality. I guess the teacher had called on me to answer a question.

"Can you repeat the question please?" I asked, trying to sound as invested in the lesson as possible.

"I asked who has the title of greatest poet to ever live?" Oh. This was easy.

"William Shakespeare. No greater poet ever traversed this earth." I had studied Shakespeare the year before.

"Correct. And how many of his works are still around today?" This is harder, but I think it's right.

"36 plays, 150 sonnets, and 2 other longer poems." A smirk appeared on my face. I totally had this correct.

"Wrong." I looked to my left to see Jevae speaking.

"Excuse me. What do you mean it's wrong?" A tinge of anger had entered my tone.

"Shakespeare wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and 4 other longer poems." I could see the deadly twinkle in her eyes as she proved me wrong.

I looked up at Miss. Sage and asked, "Who's right?"

"I believe Ms. Fawks has answered correctly this time. But don't fret. You were close."

Jevae-

Hahaha. I had studied Shakespeare intently the year before. There was no way he was going to get the better of me on Shakespeare. The look on his face was priceless. The rest of the class went smoothly. I answered a couple more questions on Shakespeare and Miss. Sage gave us our first assignment. We didn't talk to each other for the rest of the period.

The bell rang. Fenrock. Pft. It's still funny. Fenrock had packed his things away five minutes before the bell rang. As soon as it rang he picked up his bag and was out the door before I had even put the cap back on my pen. Guess he really wanted to get away from me.

I had finally managed to stuff my binder in my bag when I realized I was the last student in the classroom. I walked up to Miss. Sage.

"Thank you for the great class Miss. Sage," I told her kindly. Miss. Sage had always been kind to me. Only this year had she become an English teacher. She used to be a librarian. She would always let me and my siblings stay at the library a little while after it closed.

"It's always great having you in class Jevae. Sorry about your name. Even after knowing you for a while, I still can't pronounce it correctly! Java, ha!"

"It's ok. It happens all the time. Well, I gotta get going. If I don't leave now I'll be late for AP Calculus."

I left the classroom as she said, "Have fun in Math and have a great day!" Like anyone could have fun in math.

Fen-

I had made sure all my stuff was packed up early so I could get out of there as fast as possible. And I did. As I exited the room, I looked back and saw her with her mouth open in shock. Got the better of you now, didn't I! I had AP Calculus next. Just because she was great at English Literature doesn't mean she's great in math. She probably won't be in my class. At my locker, I stuffed my textbook, my graphing calculator, notebook, and extra paper folder into my bag. It was hard running with so much weight, but I was used to it. It had been part of training. But instead of books in the bags, there were blocks of cement. No wonder so many kids these days had back problems. It was all the teachers fault. I turned left, entered the classroom, greeted Mr. Lepeskey, and sat near the front. Out of all the subjects, math was not my strong suit. I needed to have all the advantages possible to pass this class. The bell rang. I heard running outside the classroom. Oh no. Please, not her. Jevae comes running in and plops herself right behind me. Why does this girl have to have another class with me?!

"Fenrock," she whispered from behind me. I turned to see what she wanted.

"What?" I hissed back, hoping she wouldn't ask about this morning.

"Can we switch seats? You're too tall and I can't see the board." I sat there, looking at her in shock. Out of all the things she could have said to me, she just wanted to ask if we could switch seats?!

"Sure." I picked up my stuff and we switched. It wasn't much of a difference. She was so tiny, I could see over her head easily.

Mr. Lepeskey started roll call. When my name was called, I heard a snicker from in front of me and knew it was her.

"Shut up." I leaned forward and whispered to her.

"I'm sorry! I really tried to hold my laughter in this time. Is there something easier I can call you that isn't as hilarious?" Hilarious huh. She thought my name was hilarious.

"Just call me Fen." Only my friends call me that and I wouldn't consider her a friend, but it was all I could think of.

"Ok. But you still need to call me Jevae. It's pronounced Je-vay." I smirked and looked back up at the board. During this whole conversation, Mr. Lepeskey had finished doing roll call and had begun to discuss the first unit.

"Ok, class. It's great that everybody is here. Let's all have a great first day and an even greater year!" Right off the bat, this guy was too excited to be teaching a bunch of teenagers. Whatever, it's still better than if he were mean.

"This month we will finish Chapter 1: Functions and Limits and half of Chapter 2: Derivatives." A chapter and a half in one month?! This was going to be a hard class. I wonder how many kids will drop out.

The rest of the class we barely looked at each other. Mr. Lepeskey talked so fast, you had to never lift your pencil from the paper. At the end of class, my head was so fried, I didn't even think about running to my next class.

"Hey, can I talk to you after school?" She asked, pulling me aside in the hall. I just nodded. Barely processing what she said as I continued to walk to European History.

"Cool. Meet me on the roof of the school." She sped up and disappeared around a corner before I could reply. Whatever. I'll just ditch her. It's not like she knows where I fence.

Jevae-

He had said yes! I was curious about what had happened earlier, but mostly just wanted him to forget about the almost suicide. I did not need another visit to the counselors office at the moment. For a drug addict he seemed pretty smart. AP Calculus is really hard. Even for me. I can't believe we had two classes together. Some might call it fate, but I don't believe in fate. It's just the system. I sped up, not wanting to be late for history. I ran headlong into someone. They must have been bigger than me, because I fell, sprawled on the floor. It was him.

"Sorr- Oh. It's you." Don't tell me we had yet another class together.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, picking up my fallen books.

"Nothing." He said quickly not meeting my gaze.

"Don't tell me you have history here?" I questioned, a little unkindly.

"Yeah. I do. Got a problem with that?" He was now standing at his full height. Why did he have to be so tall?

"Do you?" I drew myself up to my full height, knowing that wasn't very impressive.

He didn't respond and just entered the classroom. I followed and chose a seat at the very back. History was so dull.

I continued my day. I also continued running into him. Turns out we had every single class together. Every. Single. ONE! I didn't want to drop any classes so I would just have to deal with it. At the end of the day, I shoved my stuff in my bag and walked up to his desk. I slammed my hands on it and he looked up, startled.

"Come on. Let's talk." I waited for him to finish packing his stuff, grabbed his wrist and dragged him behind me. I knew the way to the roof, having spent time there, ditching pointless droning in years past. As I climbed the stairs, he started trying to tug his wrist out of my hold. I just held on tighter.

"Can you please let me go? I know I said I would talk to you, but I have a fencing tournament today and really need to get to practice. Can't we do this some other time?" I wonder if this was just an excuse. Earlier today, he did mention a tournament. I know what being on time is like, so I let him go. I had to pick up my siblings anyway.

"Fine. Tomorrow." I started walking down the stairs and was gone before he had even said anything.

Fen-

I really did have a tournament. I ran down the stairs and out the front entrance of the school. I paused to look down at my phone to check the time. Coach will kill me if I'm late. I had about 15 minutes to get there so I ordered an Uber. The Uber was there in no time and by the time I got to the company, I had a couple of minutes to spare. I walked in and greeted Coach. I went to the locker rooms to get changed. Before I knew it, I was going against Coach, in a final practice match. I won.

"We'll do great today boy!" Coach patted me on the back and I grinned, absorbing the praise.

"I'll make sure to get you that trophy Coach." I went to the corner of the room to get some water. The competition started in 15 minutes and we needed to be out front to greet them. I wasn't worried. I was the best of the best.