It was Tuesday. I had four days left of the week to work my way up the chain. And I planned on starting as soon as possible.

I had gotten up early that day, leaving the house without Elise in hopes of catching an advantage.

Few people were there, wandering the halls or talking to friends. One of them was Hart, who was looking through her locker.

"Hey." I said, walking up to her.

Hart nodded but kept digging through randomly strewn pieces of paper and half-filled notebooks.

"It's literally the beginning of the year. How did you get it that messy already.

"You're early." She acknowledged with an eye roll.

"Got into a fight with my sister." I said with a sigh.

"Me too." She said with a frown.

"Mine was last night. About popularity." I sighed.

"Yeah, me too. Except the 'last night' was like three years ago." Hart grunted, dislodging a textbook from the void that was her locker.

"Seriously, how is it already that messy?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"It's not my stuff." She growled.

"Okay, I don't even want to- fine. That's so suspicious though and I'm a bit concerned."

She just grunted and continued to struggle with the locker.

"I gotta go, okay? But do you know where Metin, Link, and Penn are?" I asked her, then sighed. "Nevermind. Why would you know that? I'm such an idiot sometimes, Har-"

"Cafeteria." She said.

"Thanks." I walked down the halls and to the lunch room. Like Hart had said, the three girls were there, sitting on a table and chatting.

"Hey." I said, walking up to them.

Three sets of eyes turned and looked at me disapprovingly. As you can tell, they were really happy to see me.

"You could've just said no." Metin said, rolling her eyes. "We saved you a seat and everything."

"Yeah, I'm sorry." I said, scratching the back of my neck.

"What do you need?" Penn asked, tapping her nails on the table impatiently.

"I was hoping you would let me sit with you today." I asked nervously.

Listen, I didn't want to be their friends. But if I was going to become popular, I had to be friends with the popular kids. It sounds really cliche, but it was true.

"I guess so." Link said, shrugging her shoulders. "But I'm gonna be honest. We don't have enough room for your friend."

"Oh." I muttered. "It's fine. I'm sure she'll understand."

"Ok. See you at lunch." Metin said, and the girls continued their previous conversation.

So, having no where to go for the next twenty minutes, I decided to head to the library to study.

When I arrived, it was empty except for the librarian. That was probably for the best.

Setting my bag on a chair, I took a seat next to the window.

Five minutes passed, and I had read through the same paragraph at least nine times, not comprehending any of the information.

Maybe there was just too much on my mind. I mean, fighting with Elise, getting punched at the party, the new school, coming out to everybody. It was a bit overwhelming. But what's done is done, so I had to get over it and push forward.

After my eleventh attempt at reading the paragraph, someone entered the library. I wasn't going to look up, but the way the sound of their footsteps suddenly stopped made me curious.

I glanced up, and saw Red Martin standing in the doorway with a shocked look on his face.

My eyes narrowed at him.

"I think you should take a seat." I said with a fake grin. A new attitude overtook me, and I was struck with a newfound confidence.

He cleared his throat.

"I'm gonna go." He said.

"Take a seat." I said, holding my arm out to the chair in front of me.

"You're the gay kid." He said, shifting his weight from foot to foot nervously as he stared at the ground.

He wasn't a small kid. He was kinda tall, and built like a football player. Though, if I remembered correctly, he played basketball.

"I am the gay kid. I'm also the kid you punched and you owe me an explanation."

I shocked myself with the authority and confidence in my voice, but some people really don't like being punched.

He sighed and pulled the chair across from me out, sitting down with a grunt.

"That was my party." He started.

"Congratulations." I drawled.

"It wasn't a normal party." He sighed.

"I don't know. Seemed pretty normal to me. Average, even. One might say, below avera-"

"Shut up." He snapped. "I had it for a reason." His eyes were set in a mean glare.

"You mean, besides punching me in the face?"

"Please, I wouldn't waste my own time with a party all for you." He said, rolling his eyes. "I didn't even know who you were before you... made a special announcement."

"Wow, thanks," I said. "and it was an accident."

"I don't care." He said with a frown.

"Whatever. Just....what was the reason for having your stupid party?" I sighed, becoming bored with the conversation.

"You can't tell anyone this..." he said.

"No promises." I sang.

"I think you'll understand once you hear it." He glared.

"Does that make your eyes hurt?"

"What?" He asked, disgruntled.

"All that.... glaring. It has to put a strain on your ey-"

"Shut up." He groaned in frustration. "Let's just say...." he trailed off.

"Yeah, let's." I agreed sarcastically.

"Let's just say that Red isn't the only color that describes me." Oh?

"What other colors would you use to describe yourself?" I asked with a grin.

"I think you know." He grunted.

"I...yeah, I don't think I do. I'm kinda dull." I said, scratching my head.

"I can tell."

"What are the other colors? I'm thinking maybe, like....a nice black. To match the color of your soul."

"Orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, okay?" He stuttered.

"But those are the colors of the rainbow." I said with a knowing smile.

"You are dull." He remarked.

"Okay, okay. I'm gonna be serious for a second. Red, are you gay?" I asked him

"Sure." He moaned, putting his head in his hands.

"So what does that have to do with your party?" I asked him with a frown.

"I was throwing it so that everyone would be there for me to come out." He answered. "And when you did, you kinda completely stole my spotlight."

"Is that why you punched me?" I groaned.

He nodded.

"I thought you were a drunk homophobe." I confessed.

"I didn't drink at all that night." He admitted. "And...you know. I'm gay."

"Listen, I'm sorry. If I could change places with you, I would. But I can't. So just suck it up and come out another way." I sighed.

"I can't do it for a while, cause I'll look like a copycat. You took my chance, Chance." He said.

"I didn't do it on purpose." I said in a tired voice. "You can't blame me. And you can't go around punching people when you're mad."

"Well, this is news to me." said Red with a look of amazement on his face.

"I don't like you." I sighed, glancing back down at my textbook.

"I don't like you either."

"Then why are you still here?" I asked.

"You're the one that forced me to sit in the first place." He reminded me.

"Good talk. Please don't do it again." With that, I stood up and grabbed my bag, walking out of the library.

********

You wouldn't imagine the stares an unpopular kid gets walking to the popular table. As soon as I stepped out of the lunch line, I moved as inconspicuously as possible to my new table. But the whispers spread quickly, and soon, it was all eyes on me.

I hate having people stare at me when I walk.

I arrived at the table and took a seat between Link and a girl who looked vaguely familiar.

"Nothing to see here." Charley said bitterly from the head of the table. People went back to their lunches, still casting glances at us every now and then.

"So you decided to sit with us today, huh? What, you decide we were good enough for you?" Charley remarked.

I took a deep breath. "I skipped out yesterday to sit with a friend." I explained.

"Are you going back?" She glared.

"No, I'm not." I said confidently. I would miss sitting with Hart, not that she was great company. If I wanted to be more popular than Elise I would have to make sacrifices.

"Why?" She pressed.

"I'd rather sit here." I said with a fake smile.

"Was the person you were sitting with before annoying?" Charley asked.

Why was she being so persistent?

"Sure, she was annoying." I grunted.

Someone sighed behind me, and I spun around in my chair to see Hart standing there with a small frown and her lunch tray.

"Hart, I didn't me-" I started. She walked away, not looking back.

"What were you going to say?" Charley asked.

"Nothing." I muttered, twisting back around and biting my lip.

Several conversations started up around the table, and I sank into the background, not really paying attention. I couldn't help but stare at the empty spot in front of me.

"I thought you said you didn't have room." I said, nudging Link on the shoulder and pointing to the seat.

Link shrugged. "Red sits there. He's usually late." She explained.

I sighed. Of course he does. Just my luck.

Maybe I should try to socialize with the other kids, to work my way up. If people like me I'll be more popular, right?

"What's your name?" I asked to the girl on my left.

"Blithe." She said with a smile.

"I'm Chance." I said, then paused. "Did we.... did we meet at the party?"

"Yes!" She exclaimed. "We did."

"Yeah, I remember you. I thought you looked familiar."

"How are people treating you? With rumors and stuff?" Blithe asked.

"There's not much right now. People will ask me if it's true and I just tell 'em it is. But nothing bad yet." I told her with a shrug.

"That's good." She smiled.

"Yeah. Can I ask you a favor?" I asked.

"Sure." Blithe said with a nod.

"Do you mind if I stick with you? Like if people get together or something. Just like, until I get to know everyone else. I'm not used to big friend groups." I explained.

"Are you gonna ditch me after?" She asked with raised eyebrows.

"That's not what I meant. I meant like-"

She laughed. "I'm teasing. Of course you can."

"Oh, cool. Thanks."

"So where are you from?" She questioned.

"I just moved here from Providence."

"Don't you have a sister?"

"I do, yeah." I mumbled. Our conversation died down soon after that. I zoned out, catching snippets of people talking.

"Did you hear that the girl in Charley's geography class is sleeping with Luke from the other high school?" Penn whispered.

"That's a lot of work just to get laid." Some else whistled.

"Do you think it's actually true?" Metin gossiped back.

Several minutes later, someone was calling my name.

"Chance. Chance! Is it true?" They asked.

"Sure." I muttered, not knowing what I was answering.

I really regret doing this. Even now, I know it was one of the things I could've prevented from happening.

There were gasps around the table.

"Seriously?" A girl gasped. "What a slut."

I just nodded along.

"She told you that?" A guy asked me.

I snapped out of my daze.

"Sorry, what?" I asked, shifting in my seat.

"She told you she slept with him?" He asked again.

Popular people loved to gossip, right?

"Yeah, sure." I nodded.

"I never would've pinned Elise as his type." Metin murmured.

"I'm sorry, what?" I exclaimed.

"You don't have to get defensive. Just cause you're twins doesn't mean you're not his type too. But I don't think he swings that way." She said with an eye roll.

"No. Sorry, it's not true." I said. I could still fix it.

"Yeah, right." Charley said with a laugh and an evil glare in her eye.

"Really. I zoned out and just kept talking. It's not true!" I groaned.

"We all tell people things we wish we hadn't." Said a girl with bleach blonde hair.

"It's actually not true though." I insisted. "Elise hasn't slept with anyone."

"So she's a virgin?" Someone laughed.

I let out a frustrated grown. "I need to go." I said with an exasperated sigh, picking up my bag and making my way to the library for the second time that day.