CHERYL AND Ron had gone to meet Ron's Grandma in Miami (they lived twenty miles away from there, in a relatively large town) leaving Noel at home alone with his mother in what felt like eons.

Noel was sitting at the dining table with his homework spread across like peacock feathers, the bright sunshine was peeking through the blinds, tampering with his eyesight every few seconds. His mom hovered by the door of the dining room, attempting to go in, but then reversing and walking by again. Noel felt agitated at his mom's movements, that he wasn't really in the mood to revise homeostasis again.

"Mom?" Noel called out apprehensively. He put his pen down and shot a wan smile at her. Noel's mom walked into the dining room firmly, pulling out a chair next to him, before wringing her hands through her dark hair.

"Are you okay Noel?"

"Er...yeah."

"Are you sure? You don't look okay." Kim took the opportunity to scrutinize her son's appearance, his face had never been this bad before, the pimples having doubled in size and his skin was discoloured and scarred. There was a defeated look in his eyes that Noel never used to have, it made Kim upset. "Please, I'm your mother, you can talk to me. What's bothering you?"

So many things were bothering Noel at the moment, his skin (not unusual) Ron (just his presence in general) his erratic and blunt daughter (who never seized to stop running her mouth) and his general lack of self esteem. Whatever was left of it had most definitely run out. He felt as if he was controlling a robot of a body, wake up, eat, go to sleep, repeat. Noel wanted to get out, boy did he want out, but he didn't know how.

"I-I don't know. I just don't want it to bother me anymore."

Kim looked at Noel carefully, she knew he wasn't going to tell her everything that was going on, but she didn't want to see him hurting. "Then don't let it." She placed a light kiss by Noel's cheek before rubbing circles into his back slowly before retreating out of the room, her lips curled into a light smile.

_________________

It was Monday morning, meaning that school was today. If there was one thing Noel was certain of is that he was not ready to go back to school. He had pulled out his black hoodie with the stocky white letters branded on the front, but for some reason, he didn't want to wear it.

The new bright clothes that he had brought last week were laying on a tangled heap on his bed. Noel couldn't help it, but he always brought them out as if he was about to wear it, even though deep down he didn't have the guts.

Still he picked up a vivid red cap and slipped it over his mop of curls, before taking a look at one of his cracked mirrors. He wasn't sure whether the red of the cap brought out the red of his pimples or if it was just his imagination. Sighing indignantly he stuffed the cap into his backpack and slipped his black hoodie on, pulling it over his face in his usual grim reaper fashion. (He just hoped some stupid meatball jock wasn't going to yank his hood down and cause him to have another mental breakdown.)

Running out of the door to his house, he was shocked to see Myron leaning against a black sleek car, his gaze turned towards the house absentmindedly. "Oh hey Noel!" Myron walked over to Noel with a smile on his face. He wasn't wearing his varsity jacket today but instead a long sleeve dark shirt with blue jeans.

Noel shot a weak smile at Myron in turn, he already knew what Myron was about to do. "You want a ride?"

Before Noel could sputter out a response, Cheryl came bounding down the driveway in an ensemble of pink fabrics and lipgloss, she threw her arms around Myron theatrically, her small mouth puckering and placing a kiss on his cheek. "Thanks for waiting My."

Myron let out an incomprehensible sound in return, his seemingly tanned face darkening before he threw open the car door for her. Cheryl turned to look at Noel with distaste on her face. "He's not coming with us, is he?"

Noel slowly started to back away before Myron broke in. "Of course, we can't leave him here. You can be shotgun Noel." Before Cheryl even had a chance to protest Myron had bundled Noel into the passenger side of his car, leaving Cheryl with a permanent frown etched on her lithe face.

"What are you playing at Myron?" Despite her protests Cheryl slipped her way into the backseat, grumbling as she fiddled with the end of her spangly pink top.

Myron opted to say nothing, starting the car and turning on the radio idly, his warm brown eyes flicking to the dark shadows of Noel's face and then to Cheryl's rosy aura.

'Boo'd up, biddy da da boo'd up, ba ba-"

Myron quickly changed the song, his face curdling into a grimace. "I hate that song so much."

"What do you mean, I love this song. You have such horrible taste in music Myron. Change it back!"

Myron ignored Cheryl's unnecessary pleas and took a glance at Noel. "What do you listen to?"

Noel tended to listen to those chill lo-fi playlists on YouTube, remixes of popular songs and a bit of Cavetown from time to time. He sometimes would listen to unknown small garage and indie bands, but that was only when he was feeling extra edgy and broody.

"I don't really listen to much music..." Noel spoke quietly as he could feel Cheryl boring a deadly glare into his back, his curls twisting unconsciously at the friction.

"Not even that cartoon stuff?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, like that cartoon you were talking about before, what was it...Steven Universe, yeah..."

Noel watched Myron curiously from the corner of his eyes, he could see his lips slightly moving as if he were singing. "We are the crystal gems..."

Noel suddenly let out a spatter of laughter, his lips curling into a grin at Myron's foolish antics.

"What-what I'd do?" Yet there was a smile in his voice as he started singing louder, his bushy eyebrows waggling in an unsavory manner. "We are the Crystal Gems, we'll always save the day and if you think we can't..."

Noel was laughing silently to himself, a smile on his face felt so foreign, so fresh so new that it felt it almost hurt to smile, his eyes glazed over as he almost forget about his problems for a quarter of a second, all that mattered was the journey in the car and Myron's stupid, stupid singing voice.

Myron couldn't stop smiling and singing, he'd never heard Noel laugh ever, the sound was bright, sweet almost, and infectious. "You have a nice laugh." Myron unintentionally blurted. Noel was still to busy snickering to himself that he didn't hear.

But Cheryl did.

As soon as they pulled up to the school, Cheryl grabbed onto Myron's stretchy black shirt and planted a messy sticky kiss on his lips, her eyes twisted in malicious intent. Before she stalked off she leaned closer to Noel, whispering quietly so only he could hear.

"Stay away from Myron, he's only nice to you because he's nice to everyone. Remember you're a freak."

Freak.

That was new, so new that it felt as if someone splashed a bucket of ice cold water all over him, his lips starting to tremble unconsciously as he played with the strings of his hoodie.

He watched Cheryl merge into the crowd, her band of witchy friends circling around her, similarly with Myron, his gang of oafs greeted him loudly, before the crowd immersed into the building of his high school (Mersey High- but that's not really important information.)

Noel tried to shake the word from his memory, but ever since his mental breakdown on Friday it felt as if every glance, every snarky look and insult imprinted itself in his brain.

Hisdemons weren't finished with him yet.

_________________________

Noel was making his way over to the library as usual, his lessons had been uneventful to say the least (just the way he liked them). Before he could swing open the doors May and Bethany appeared out of nowhere, screeching Noel's name across the empty expanse of the hallway. "No way are you entering that musty, crusty, dusty library." Bethany's unbothered voice was the first to speak, her arm looped around May's as they came to interrogate him. (Noel couldn't help but feel like they were conjoined twins or something, but he didn't feel like he knew them long enough to say anything.)

They both unlooped arms and unlatched onto Noel's arm sleeve on either side, practically dragging him towards the claustrophobic cafeteria.

"Can we not eat there." Noel groaned, it smelt like meatloaf all the time and it was supposed to be 'Vegetarian Day' or whatever.

They both ignored him and pushed him through the doors of the cafeteria, quickly going over to Dylan and Thomas who looked like they were having a distressing conversation.

"What's the juice with you too?" Bethany said frankly, she pushed out a chair for herself and sat there squarely, flipping her braids behind her back as she scrutinized Dylan and Thomas's troubled faces.

They chose to ignore her, Thomas's face curdling into a hateful frown at Noel's presence. "What's Pizzaface doing here?" His ruddy brown eyes were squinting at Noel's, he didn't even try to hide the malice in his tone.

"Dude, chill." Dylan broke in, his eyes were bloodshot and weary, with dark rings smoked under his bags.

May and Bethany shot each other a knowing look before prising into there packed lunchboxes. (After the taco incident people generally tried to avoid eating cafeteria food.)

Noel realized in that moment how little he knew about each of them. May and Bethany had some secret, telepathic friendship, Thomas was rude for no particular reason and Dylan was an enigma of his own. They didn't seem like a friendship group at all.

"I'm tired of you controlling me Dylan, I can handle myself!" Thomas suddenly broke out harshly, his features were twisted unattractively, his blonde hair in a tangled heap as he surveyed Dylan's dangerous features.

"Well you don't act like it." Dylan muttered under his breath. Noel wasn't sure if Thomas was intended to hear it or not, but he heard it anyway and with an exaggerated sigh he left the table, his ugly green backpack swinging as he stalked away sulkily.

"What was that about?" May asked curiously, she was nibbling on a carrot absentmindedly, her large brown dew eyes surveying Dylan's expression.

"Not your story to worry about."

"Story?"

Dylan said nothing, standing up and making eye contact with someone from the meathead table. Noel looked over and saw it was Myron who caught Dylan's eye. Cheryl was draped across his neck like a sloth, her fingers wrapped around his neck tightly, Noel wasn't sure whether Myron could even breathe.

Myron untangled himself from Cheryl and made his way over to Dylan, greeting him with one of those pretentious man hugs. "You okay man?" Dylan made an incomprehensible sound before whispering something that sounded like 'Thomas' and 'irritated' before they both left the dining hall, leaving the table oddly quiet.

"Well that was new." Bethany spoke out, placing her smartphone on the table.

"Is it really though?" May said shadily, her lips were pursed in a mocking smirk, her eyebrows raising up and down as they communicated in their silent language.

"Anyways...Noel why aren't you wearing those clothes we bought you, that's an afternoon I could have spent sleeping but instead I was trawling dusty thrift stores and antique shops." Noel couldn't tell whether or not Bethany was joking as her face was in its usually placid expression.

"I bought a cap." Noel offered unhelpfully, letting out a nervous laugh, not really at the situation at hand but more at the one that occurred.

May had already grabbed Noel's large black backpack and was bringing out the bright red cap, a menacing smile etched on her round face.

"Can you not do that again." Noel stated blankly, snatching his backpack out of her grubby hands. May merely shrugged before placing his hat on Noel's head haphazardly, the hat resting on top of his hoodie in a crazed manner.

"Oh, I heard on Friday that you stormed out of your lesson after Marcel yanked off your hoodie." Bethany stated flippantly, yet her tone was laced with concern.

Noel said nothing as the incident was still fresh in his mind. He fought the urge to cringe, but settled for sucking his lips together as if he ate a sour lemon.

"Marcel is a total douchebag. He has no respect for anyone." May added, she turned to Noel slightly, a softer expression on her face. "What did he say to you?"

Noel shrugged, but the action seemed heavy on his shoulders as he peered at May's face through the darkness of the hoodie. "You didn't hear? Just the usual lame comments...I'm over it." Noel was far from over it.

"We're here for you Noel." May spoke quietly, a light smile painted on her face.

"Speak for yourself." Bethany let out a snort as she reached for her phone again, Noel wasn't going to spill any juice so the conversation was over as far as she was concerned.

"BETHANY!" May cried out (garnering a few snarky looks from other tables). May, who looked like she was ready to go into speech mode, fought against it and turned her attention back to Noel. "If you don't wear the clothes I can't activate the other phases of my plan."

"I just need time."

Noel turned to look at the clock striking in the middle of the cafeteria, as he turned to look his eyes caught a group of giggling girls who's eyes froze in disgust at Noel's face, their eyes bugging. "Ew, while I'm eating." One of them untactfully said and there whole table burst out in a spatter of childish laughter, their simpering tones sounding in his head over and over again.

Noel felt his cheeks color as he looked back at his discarded PB&J, the crusts crooked and peeling off.

He just needed time.