I was so not in the mood to see him write "group project" on the chalkboard. After everything I went through, I couldn't focus on my studies, let alone focus on making sure I passed a grade for someone else, too. In the most boring voice ever, he said we'd have to write a five page paper with a partner on the origins of our favorite holiday, and then we'd have to do a five minute presentation in front of the class.

When I heard I was paired with Maria Clinton--little goody-two-shoes, Miss Priss, Miss Automatic A, I smiled. But when I glanced at her, it appeared that she rolled her eyes when she heard we were paired together. Uppity bitch.

Since we sat beside each other in class, I just had to scoot my desk over. With a pencil in my hand, I pretended to be ready for this distraction. I smiled inside when Maria took the lead. I wouldn't have thought anything differently. I planned on giving her the benefit of the doubt, though. Maybe I had imagined Maria rolling her eyes by projecting my insecurities onto her.

"What's your favorite holiday?" she asked.

Shrugging my shoulders, I said, "I don't know."

"You must have something." Her eyes stared into my soul. Did she see how much I was hurting? Did she see my  pain?

I chewed the bottom of my lip and thought hard. My birthday was my favorite holiday, but something told me that wouldn't be a good answer for Miss Priss. "What's your favorite holiday?" I asked.

"Valentine's Day. I love that girls get pampered with gifts for that one day. A day of love, a day of romance, a day of relationships." She tapped her foot and wiped sweat from her forehead. "You know what pampered is, right? The dictionary says being pampered means 'being indulged with every attention, comfort, and kindness; to be spoiled.'"

I clenched my jaw. "Maria, I know what pampered means."

"I'm sorry. I'm just nervous."

"Why are you nervous?"

"Well...you've been out of school for a while. I don't want to get stuck with a class partner who has no drive or motivation. You know the meaning of motivation, right? The dictionary--"

"Yes, I know what motivation means." I crossed my arms over my chest. "I didn't ask for my brother to die, you know."

My dig at Maria didn't even faze her. She stared at me, unblinking. No flinch. No sorrow in her eyes for a split second. No frown. Man, I wanted to slap the shit out of her. Instead, I said, "You know what 'death' means, right? I'm not as smart as you, so I don't have the dictionary memorized, but I can still give you the cliff notes version: Franco will never wake up because he's worm food. He'll never smile again. He'll never get to see another one of my ballet dances. And, most importantly, he won't be there for me to vent to when I meet jerks in my life, like you."

"I didn't know you lost your brother, Loren."

"Besides being a jerk, I can add self-absorbed to the list of your personality traits. Most kids our age have real problems. More than just obsessing over getting an A in class."

Before she could respond, the bell rang.

Mr. Patterson ended the class by saying, "Tomorrow, we'll be meeting in the library to do research on your favorite holiday. Have a good day."

I gathered my notebook and pencil into my book bag and stood. Maria watched my every move. I turned to leave without even saying goodbye.

"Wait! We haven't come up with a decision yet," she said.

It took all of me not to stick my middle finger up at her. Instead, I stormed out of the classroom. If she whined to our teacher, I'd make her regret it.

I slammed my locker after getting my textbooks for homework. Gregory jumped from the sound. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I had a run-in with Maria Clinton."

"Ouch. She can be pretty intense."

"Tell me about it." I studied the faces in the busy hallway. My locker was in the center of the hallway by the cafeteria. So many students looked happy that we were free from boring teachers, petty gossip, and difficult school work. Not me, though, I was sad. Sad that no matter how much I prayed, Franco wouldn't be meeting me outside to walk me to ballet practice.

Gregory would be taking on the task for him. I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be disappointed in being greeted by Gregory, but there I was.

I couldn't contain my sadness, my anger. No matter how much I vented about Maria, I knew the real reason I was upset. I was being forced to go to ballet practice when I didn't want to. And Gregory and his sister were the ones forcing me to go, walking me to my death sentence. Maybe I could slam my head on the floor and knock myself out again. Except, there was only so much luck a person could have. Eventually, I'd crush my skull to the point of no return.

I looked back at Gregory when he said, "I hope your first day back was okay other than that. Sorry I was late this morning and couldn't walk with you and Kina. I had a dentist appointment. Hope you weren't waiting too long for me."

I nodded and smiled politely. For some reason, I always wanted to be on my best behavior around him. Maybe because he chose to put up with me and actually enjoyed my company.

"It's all good. Did the school ever make an announcement about Franco?"

His gaze dropped to the floor. "There was a moment of silence for Franco in homeroom the day after he died. Why?"

"I was just wondering." So, Maria was truly a heartless bitch! There was no way she didn't know Franco was my brother. We had the same last name for goodness sake!

"Well, I'm sorry, but we should go. Hannah's waiting for us."

"Why are you sorry?"

"Because I know you don't want to go."

I patted his shoulder. I loved that Gregory cared about me. "That really means a lot, but it's not your fault that my mom's a dictator."

As we walked out the door, Gregory's eyebrow raised. "Hey, where's your other bag?"

"I don't have anything. Kina burned all my ballet stuff."

"Get out of here!"

"Yep, it happened last night, right after Mom picked us up. I cried to Kina about not wanting to go to ballet anymore. Her idea of helping me was to burn all of my stuff."

"Wow, a fire. You guys could've gotten hurt! Your place could've burned down, and then we wouldn't be neighbors anymore."

If only he knew...about Kina and Mom wanting to kill me. If only he knew I had to kill Kina to avenge Franco's honor. But if he acted in total disbelief over a little fire, I could only imagine his reaction to those bombshells.

We met Hannah by the school buses. Why couldn't we ride one? I was sure one of those buses had a stop near the dance studio. Why did we have to walk a mile to catch a stinky public bus?

Hannah greeted us with an upbeat smile as she punched Gregory playfully on the arm. "You guys ready?" She searched my eyes before her gaze lowered to my shoulder. "Hey, Loren, you have time to go back to your locker and get your ballet bag."

Before I could repeat my lie, Maria rushed toward us. She stood in front of me, trying to catch her breath. Completely ignoring my company, she said, "You walked away before we could finalize our decision on our history project. Which holiday would you like to write about?"

"I would love to answer you, but I can't be late for ballet practice," I said in a condescending way.

"Well, it'll just have to wait."

Hannah interrupted. "Actually, we really  need to go. You've got two seconds to exchange phone numbers." She had my respect until she said those dreaded words 'that we could exchange phone numbers.' Yuck, Maria and I weren't friends. We would never be friends. She didn't need my number and I didn't need hers. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.