My mood was awful the next day. Even Jordan kept our conversation short and polite as we made our way to class.

                I had no interest in going to this stupid Peer Program after class today. But I also had no interest in getting sent to Headmaster Constance's office to have a meeting with him and my parents. Mr. Constance made it seem like that would be a lot more trouble than it sounded.

                I was glad that my mood was keeping people away from me. Jordan didn't bother inviting me to eat with him and his friends at lunch, so I got to sit alone and simmer in my anger.

                By the time classes were over, I was ready to fling myself into space to suffocate to death and float endlessly through the universe.

                I pulled the crumpled piece of paper out of my bag and checked it for the room number. I packed away my stuff and limped off down the hallway, searching for the room.

                I found it and pushed the door open, stepping inside, dreading what I would see. Would it be a gang of Maroons holding some poor Blue student hostage?

                But apparently I just watched way too much TV. When I stepped into the room, there was only one person in there.

                He looked up at me from where he was sitting. He had a Maroon vest on, but his expression was curious, not hostile.

                "Peer Program?" I asked.

                He nodded and smiled. "I heard we were getting a new kid in the group. I'm Lev."

                "I didn't ask," I said, going over to a desk and sitting down at it.

                He frowned, but had the intelligence not to press the conversation. I had no interest in making friends here, and it sounded like the teachers wouldn't give me a hard time over not talking to the Maroons. I'd just have to pretend to have a few conversations with the Blue student in the group and hope I could convince the teacher I was a social butterfly who deserved freedom from this torture.

                The door opened again and I couldn't decide if I wanted to punch myself or punch the boy entering the room. I recognized him from my first day here.

                He noticed me and his eyes lit up behind his glasses. "Crip!"

                The asshole who'd kicked my cane in the dining hall. I glared at him as his expression grew more amused.

                "Karson!" Lev groaned.

                Karson laughed. "Oh, calm down, Lev. Crip and I here have a blooming friendship going. I see I was right about the blue vest."

                He stepped towards the desks and I realized there was someone behind him. Not just someone, but the boy from the market.

                He had his hat on, white hair tumbling out from under it. He didn't bother a glance at me, his face as impassive as it had been the last time I'd seen him.

                "I can't believe the crip is the new guy Kean was talking about," Karson said, still amused by this horrible turn of fate.

                "You're going to be a nightmare, aren't you?" Lev said, glaring at Karson.

                "He always is," the white haired boy said. He surprised me by punching Karson in the back of the head with quite a bit of force. "Shut up. I've never heard the word 'crip' so much in my life and we haven't in been in here for two minutes."

                Karson winced and rubbed the back of his head. "Jeez, Jin. Are you defending a Blue?"

                "No, I'm defending my sanity. Stop talking," Jin said. He gave Karson a rough shove towards the desks.

                "I can take a hint!" Karson complained.  He sat down and Jin took the seat next to him.

                Jin pulled something out of his bag and I realized that it was half of a straw. He held it between his fingers like a cigarette as he took out two notebooks and set them on his desk. He put the straw between his lips and pushed it off to the corner of his mouth, chewing absentmindedly on it.

                The door to the room opened and a girl came in. She spotted Jin and her expression brightened.

                "Jin, guess what! I finally figured out how to hack into Sudlow's account! So, I was thinking we could go into his files and get-"

                She didn't get to finish speaking. Lev stood up and put his hand over her mouth with an exasperated sigh.

                "Amelia, the new guy is here," he said, turning her head so she could see me.

                She pulled his hand away from her mouth, her eyes going wide. "Oh, what's with the cane? Are you physically disabled? Is it your legs? Your hips? Your back? Do you-"

                Lev slapped his hand back over her mouth. "That's enough out of you."

                He threw her over his shoulder and she let out an indignant noise. She began to punch her fists against his back.

                "Lev! Release me!" she commanded.

                He set her down in the chair next to him. "There, you've been released. But if you open your mouth again, I'm going to tape it shut."

                "No, that hurt," Amelia said in horror.

                "Then think before you speak!" Lev said.

                "Oh, the new guy already heard me," Amelia said dismissively, turning back to face Jin. "So anyways, about hacking into Sudlow's account, I was thinking we could-"

                Lev covered her mouth and let out a hopeless sigh.

                The door opened and a man came in. He set his stuff down on the desk in the room and noticed me.

                "Hello, Kai Humphrey?" he said.

                "If I say no can I leave?" I said.

                He laughed. "This group isn't so bad, I promise. It's nice to meet you. I'm Mr. Kean. If you have any questions at all while you're here, please feel free to ask me." He looked around the room. "We're still missing one, so we'll begin when he gets here."

                The other Blue student. Okay, okay, so there were four Maroons and two Blues. That wasn't as awful as I thought.

                It was another minute before the door opened and Isaac came into the room. I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to hold in my angry outburst.

                Of course the only other Blue in this group was a nine year old child. Of course it was the annoying little kid from the market.

                Isaac started to move towards the desks, but Mr. Kean caught his arm. He led Isaac over to a desk near the teacher's desk.

                "Sit here, Isaac. You're getting too friendly with those Maroons. They're trouble," Mr. Kean said. "We don't want you getting caught up with those delinquents."

                Isaac frowned. "Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Kean. I'll sit here from now on!"

                "Good boy," Mr. Kean said.

                He turned to face the small group in the room. Karson had that eternally amused look on his face, Jin was impassive, Amelia looked distracted by something outside, and Lev was the only one who looked attentive.

                "This is the new student, Kai Humphrey," Mr. Kean said, gesturing to me. "Introduce yourselves to him."

                "Oh, we've met," Karson said, grin growing. "But I'm Karson."

                "Jin," Jin said.

                Lev elbowed Amelia and she snapped her attention to me. "Oh, hi, I'm Amelia! So anyways, I have questions for you about you ca-"

                Lev put his hand over her mouth and smiled at me. "Again, I'm Lev."

                "And I'm Isaac!" Isaac said. His eyes widened as he recognized me. "You're the boy who helped me in the market!"

                "Alright, let's get started on your work. Jin, Isaac, lists," Mr. Kean said.

                Jin pulled a piece of paper out of his bag and handed it to Mr. Kean. Mr. Kean eyed it and tucked it into his pocket.

                "You can get that done during this period," he said. "Don't slack off."

                Jin shrugged. Mr. Kean went over and looked at the paper Isaac handed him. He put that in his pocket as well.

                He turned to face me. "Oh, yes. If you keep slacking off on work even while you're in the Peer Program, I'll get in touch with your teachers. They'll make a list of the work you have due so I can make sure you're doing what you need to and help you get your work done in a timely manner." He looked at Jin. "Jin, you start with your math worksheet. That should be the quickest thing." He looked at Isaac. "Isaac, do your history assignment."

                Isaac dug through his bag and frowned. "Mr. Kean, I forgot to grab my history textbook. Can you please borrow one from Mr. Vinci's room?"

                "Of course. I'll go get that for you. Everyone do your work and behave. I'll be right back," Mr. Kean said and left the room.

                The second the door was shut, Isaac's frown turned to an annoyed expression. He leaned back in his seat.

                "I can't believe he's making me sit here," he grumbled.

                "The hard life of a nine year old," Karson said.

                Isaac shot him a dirty look. "Shut it, glasses."

                "We'll figure something out, Isaac," Lev assured. "Just be patient."

                "Jin?" Isaac said, looking to Jin.

                Jin just shrugged again. "It's not a big deal. It won't kill you to sit there. Deal with it."

                Isaac pouted. "You're so moody."

                Karson slung an arm around Jin's shoulders, grinning. "Jealous, kid? And you thought Jin was so fond of you."

                Karson let out a choked noise as Jin slammed his elbow into Karson's gut. "Get off of me. I'm not fond of anyone, you included."

                "Do I have to deal with this every day?" I asked in irritation.

                "Whoops, forgot about the crip," Karson said, rubbing his gut.

                "Karson," Lev said, shooting him a look. "Cut that out."

                "Oh, Isaac can make fun of my dysfunctional sight but I can't make fun of his dysfunctional legs?" Karson said. "This is a double standard."

                "It's just one dysfunctional leg," I said. "And keep bothering me about it, I'll beat both your knees in with my cane."

                "Aha! So it is your legs!" Amelia said, looking excited. "Okay, how did it happen? Were you born like that or was it-"

                I had a feeling she'd never actually finished a statement in her life. Lev's hand was always there to cover her mouth and shut her up, thank god.

                "Amelia, you can't ask questions like that," Lev said, the exasperation back on his face. "That's too personal. You have to respect people's boundaries."

                Amelia looked confused at the concept of personal boundaries. Great, I was tossed in with this insane group. Just my damn luck.

                "Hey." Jin's voice was quiet and lacked all emotion, but they all fell silent and looked to him. "You're all being too annoying. Shut it."

                Karson slumped back in his chair. "I can't believe we have a new Blue in the group. This makes things a million times more tedious."

                "It doesn't change anything. Quit complaining," Jin said.

                They all shut up as Mr. Kean came back into the room. He set a textbook down on Isaac's desk.

                "There you are, Isaac," he said.

                "God forbid the little bastard has to do something for himself," Karson said. "Start pampering them young, right Kean?"

                Mr. Kean picked the textbook up and walked over to Karson. I watched in surprise as he hit Karson across the face with it so hard that Karson's glasses flew off his face and clattered to the floor.

                I mean, damn, I wanted to hit the guy too. But that was a hard hit, and Mr. Kean was a teacher. He couldn't do that!

                Mr. Kean dropped the textbook to Karson's desk and grabbed Karson by the hair. "Karson, you are here for a lot of reasons. You're in that maroon vest for a lot of reasons. And this Academy will fix you, you disgusting delinquent."

                "I wish I could see how serious your expression was during that speech, but unfortunately, you knocked my glasses off," Karson said.

                Mr. Kean released Karson's hair. He picked up the textbook, hit Karson with it again, and brought it back over to Isaac, setting it on Isaac's desk.

                He walked back over and snatched Jin's hat off his head. He dropped it into the trash can by his desk.

                "No hats allowed in the classroom," he snapped.

                Jin stood up and went over to the trash can, pulling his hat out. He brushed it off and sat back down, setting it in his bag.

                Karson picked his glasses up and wiped them off on his shirt before putting them on his face, blinking a few times as his vision adjusted. Mr. Kean glared between the two of them.

                "You two are the worst of this lot," he said in disgust. His eyes fell to Jin. "It's good you've given up on life, because yours certainly isn't going anywhere."

                "And yet here you are, wasting your time after class to make sure my work is done," Jin said.

                Mr. Kean picked up Jin's notebook and hit him in the face with it. "Worthless scum."

                Jin remained impassive, just gazing up at Mr. Kean. Mr. Kean turned to face me and I couldn't help but flinch back a little. Shit, was he going to smack me around too?

                "I'm very sorry about them, Kai," he said, surprising me. "If they give you any trouble, please let me know and I'll be sure to handle them."

                "We'd never give him trouble!" Karson said. He grunted as Jin stabbed him in the ribs with a pen.

                "Shut up. I want to daydream in peace since my life isn't going anywhere," Jin said.

                Mr. Kean glared at the two of them before going over and sitting at the desk. I looked around the room, wondering if this was actual a common day for these people.

                Jin sat doodling in his notebook, Karson looked bored as he skimmed through a book, Lev had a hand over Amelia's mouth as she glared at Mr. Kean, and Isaac was flipping through his textbook curiously.

                None of them seemed concerned by Mr. Kean's show of violence. I sank down in my seat a little. Just what the hell had my parents gotten me into?