At school, everyone knew what had happened.

A curvy girl with big cheeks came up to me.

"Andy, I'm so sorry what happened to your mom. My dad's her doctor and says she's gonna be fine!" She smiled, her name was Amanda Grace. She had a crooked smile and a chipped tooth.

"Thanks, Amanda." I smiled.

The day went by agonizingly slowly. I stared at the clock and watched it tick away the seconds of the day. After about ten minutes, I was tempted to get up and smash the clock against a wall. I took the small doll out of my pocket and poked its left arm, I lifted the arm up so that it was as if it was raising its arm.

"Yes Jason?" said the teacher, she was looking at Jason, who had his arm up.

"Uh... Uhm, I- may I use the bathroom?" He asked. I rarely heard Jason stutter, he usually walked around with an aura of confidence and calmness.

"Sure Jason, just be back within the next ten minutes," Miss Ambrosino turned back to the board and continued writing. Jason stood up and walked out of the room, I put the doll into the back pocket of my bag, and went back to staring at the clock.

Lunch time finally arrived after what felt like at least thirty years, although it was only about three and a half hours. Dina waited for me at our table in the corner by the large window that stretched across half the wall. The lunchroom was a large rectangle, one of the longer sides being half covered by a huge window that allowed us to see the small forest that began around 100 feet away from the school. Dina and I sat at the table we always sat at, since we claimed it during freshman year. Damien joined us soon after I sat down, and so did Hannah. Before I came to this school, I never really spoke to Damien. But since he and Dina were on the baseball team together, he started hanging around our small group a lot. Although our lunch table had eight seats, only us four sat here. Sometimes we'd have more baseball kids come and sit with us for a bit, but we were always here every day.

We had small conversations, about random, meaningless topics. I could tell they were trying to avoid talking about what had happened with my mother.

Amanda walked by and greeted us, once she walked away Hannah groaned.

"Where can I find a good ass like that?!" she exclaimed. Every stared at her, shock clearly spelled out on their faces. "What? I'm just stating the truth, she has a good ass."

No response still.

"So... that weather though, am I right?" Dina smiled awkwardly, trying to change the conversation.

"Yeah, really weird, sunny one minute and rainy the next." Damien pitched in.

"Ignore all you guys want, I am gonna find a way for her to fall in love with me! Then I'll be the one having the last laugh!" Hannah announced while getting up from the table, she grabbed her backpack and walked away.

"Ok... So uh... look what at this cool article I found!" Dina tried. She hated silences, especially if they were awkward.

I zoned out of the conversation, I just stared into the distance until Dina punched my shoulder. I looked at her in protest.

"The love of your life is heading this way, dweeb." She nodded towards her left, where I saw Jason and Jenna fast approaching.

"Well, it doesn't matter, I think he's dating Jenna."

"Ew!" Damien exclaimed "Jason and my sister? Gross... Nah he keeps turning her down. Thank god, am I right? Those two, as a couple? Too weird."

Jason sat down next to me. I looked down and pretended to look at my phone. Jenna sat right next to him.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

"Oh hey Jason" Dina smiled, she looked at Jenna and the smile faded. "Hi Jenna" you could hear the discontent in her voice.

"Hey," Damien began "we were just talking about Hannah and her obsession with butts."

How could Damien say that with a straight face? I giggled.

"So Andy," Jenna said turning towards me "how are you holding up with your mom and all?" she asked. I couldn't tell if she said that with malice or not.

"Jenna!" Jason dropped his smile "I'm sorry Andy, she doesn't mean it in a mean way." He put his hand on my shoulder. I froze under his touch. He was actually touching me, holy shit, oh my god. This was probably the greatest moment of my life.

"I-it's fine, don't worry about it" I raised my head and gave him a stiff smile. I probably looked really weird "and Jenna, my mom is doing fine, thank you for asking" I tried not saying it as nicely as I could. Which was hard, considering how she's such a bitch to me and Dina.

"So.. Andy how's pitching practice going? You think you're finally going to lower that ball count?" Damien asked. Jason took his hand off my back, and they continued their conversation about baseball. Even if I did go to every game, I hated the sport. I just went to support Dina.