I'm not different for the sake of being different, only for the desperate sake of being myself. I can't join your gang: you'd think I was a phony and I'd know it.

-Vivian Stanshall

"Toris Laurinaitis?"

"Here!"

The substitute teacher nodded in the boy's direction as he took roll.

"Feliks Lukasiewicz?"

"Here!"

The sub nodded in the student's direction as well.

"Thank you, miss."

"I'm a boy, sir."

The sub started and stared at Feliks. With his big green eyes, smooth blond hair and feminine face, it was logical to mistaken him as a boy.

Not to mention his attitude.

The teacher was still staring at Feliks, who was examining his nails. He felt the stare of the teacher and turned to him, but the teacher quickly turned away, clearing his throat.

"Ahem, so-"

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

Feliks felt a piece of paper thrown at him. He looked up to see a group of boys giggling like little school girls.

Feliks frowned and opened up the ball of paper thrown at him.

"""She-man"""

Then the group burst out laughing.

"Man, did you see the look on his face?" One whispered among themselves.

"Don't you mean 'her'?"

"You mean 'It', right?"

The group of boys howled with laughter again.

"Then again, he could be gay."

"Perfect for his boyfriend."

"Hey, don't be so mean!"

A tall, skinny boy with shoulder-length brown hair stood in front of the group of boys.

"It's not very nice! You should be ashamed of yourselves!"

"Go away, homo." One of the boys said.

"Standing up for your boyfriend now, are you?"

They threw paper at the boy until he backed down and walked to the back of the room.

"Don't worry about them, Toris," Feliks said to his best friend, "They're just, like, totally jealous of our friendship."

Toris sighed and sank into a seat in front of him.

"I told them I'm not gay so many times, but they think I'm just in denial."

"Well maybe you are gay."

Toris glared at Feliks.

"You know I have a crush on Natalya."

"You could be Bi."

Feliks looked at the group of boys again.

"You know, I don't mind being different," he said.

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to be normal. Normal is so boring! Like, come on, what's wrong with a guy who wears skirts? If I want to wear one, that's fine! Besides, skirts are comfortable; you should try to wear one someday, Toris!"

"I-I think I'm fine with the clothes I have."

The two sat in silence, seperated from the multitude of the class.

"You know, I saw a disturbing thing today," Toris said.

"Hmm?" Feliks mildly questioned, infatuated with his split ends.

"I saw a group of those popular girls drag some other girls off today," he scrunched his brow up in worry, "I wonder if she's okay..."

"Well," Feliks wiped the split ended hair from his desk, "where did they take her?"

"To one of the unused girl's bathroo- oh wait I just remembered!"

"What?"

"That girl who was dragged off-she was in our class and was marked absent today!"

"So she's still there?"

"I think so-oh my god, what happened to her?!"

Feliks stood up and walked out of the classroom, ignoring the jeers and paper-tossing from the crowd.

"Loser!"

"She-he!

"You homo!"

Toris ran after his friend.

"What are you doing?! There's only two minutes left of Break?"

"That girl needs help."

Toris had never seen his friend so serious before today.

With a nod of his head, the two of them walked down the school corridor together with a noblr thought in mind.