At school the whispers continued but I knew that Anna was ok. And that's all that matters right now. Honey walked behind us. "Hey guys. Any news?" Honey who has mastered the art of walking with making a sound scared me and some how made Adam fall. "Honey next time don't sneak up on us. This is the second time Adams fell." As he stood he corrected me, "Fourth actually. I tripped over Mike O'Rely's service dog earlier." "Answer the question. How's Anna?" "Out of the bead. She won't respond to us till she gets her sense back." "Which will be?" "About a month."

While they continued to talk I had to get to class. I walked into the class where I punched the guy yesterday. "I thought you said he was suspended?" The guy I punched asked. His nose was swollen twice the size it was yesterday. "Mr. Lincoln. Have a set." So I sat down. I listened to the teacher drone on and on about something I'll never use at the lab or in real life.

....................

At the lab Honey was trying to make me and Adam laugh. "Your faces are made of stone." She finally said when we didn't even crack a smile. When Honey came to lab we always ended up-

1: Breaking something.
2: Laughing till Honey cried, Adam passed out and I forget about Anna for a couple minutes.
3: Talking about Anna.

I tried not to talk about last year with Mr. Ions a lot. But sometimes Honey and Adam would convince me to. When this happens I wouldn't talk about the Friday nights when Mr. Ions needed to talk to us. That was something I never want to relive. The fear in Anna's eyes. The pain shooting though me when Zack would punch me.

Adam snapped his fingers in front of my face, "Nathan. Earth to Nathan. Stop fantasizing about making out with Anna and answer the question." "Sorry. And I wasn't fantasizing about making out with Anna. What was the question?" "Do you want to go out to eat or suffer through Ike's cooking?" "I'm not hungry. You can do what you want." "Yeah right your not hungry. You didn't eat lunch and I'm tired of hearing your stomach growling.

As if to prove his point my stomach growled. "See let's go." He grabbed his keys from the counter. I had no choice but to follow him out the door. We ate at McDonald's because we're all to broke to eat anywhere else. We got kicked out because we were all laughing loudly at a video on Adams phone. But hey we have food now.

It was like having friends that don't just like me because I'm popular. Before Mr. Ions missed up our lives I had been popular on the football team. Honestly I'm glad I'm no longer part of the Squirrels. Who names a football team after squirrels? But anyway, I had friends who liked being popular but didn't like hanging out with me.  Now with these lovely idiots they don't care if I'm popular or not. And neither do I really.