"How come you're in such a good mood today?" Darlene asked me.

Darlene and I had history together too. We both sat in the back so the teacher wouldn't catch us goofing off. We got away with it most of the time.

"Oh everything!" I said dreamily.

"What does that mean?" She asked mocking my tone.

"Well I'm going over to Jesse's house after school today." I said.

"Oooooooh what're you going to do?"

"I don't know yet. He just wants to hang out."

"Well if he tries to do anything you have my number and you call me so I can beat his ass for you." Darlene kidded.

"I don't think he'll do anything. But I will if he does." I said.

"So do you loooove him? You think he'll ask you out?"

"I really like him. He probably won't ask me out but I hope he will."

"Why are you so hard on yourself about that? There's probably a whole line of guys just waiting to ask you out and Jesse is the first in line." Darlene assured.

"I don't know. I just don't see what's so special about me. Like you say that I'm cute and stuff but I don't see that. So I figured if I don't see it why would someone else see it?" I said honestly.

"Everyone is beautiful, Jean, just not everybody sees it."

"I guess so."

"Jean and Darlene would you like to share with the rest of the class what is more interesting than the events that happened during World War II?" Mr. Small asked.

Darlene and I shook our heads.

"Very well then. On with the lesson." He continued.

Darlene and I snickered at our embarrassment.

"We'll he seems like a decent guy so I guess I like him." Darlene commented.

~~~~~~

I was at my locker getting my books for my next class, which was English, when the Barbie dolls Amanda, Ashlee and Courtney came over to me.

"Hey Sanchez," Amanda said in an overly friendly voice. "Lemme ask you something."

"Shoot." I said cautiously.

"What did Darlene mean by you were in the hospital? What happened? Cut yourself too deep?"

"No...."

"Well then what was it??"

"Why do you care?" I said bitterly.

"I asked you first!"

I rolled my eyes. To be honest, if I had to pick one part of my body that's in the best shape it would be my eyes. Because I do about 467 eye rolls a day.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?? Were you in the hospital or not??" Ashlee spat.

"I was in the hospital. But I don't know why. My sisters refuse to tell me."

"What do you mean your sisters refuse to tell you? Why wouldn't they tell you? They're your family." Courtney said loudly. "Unfortunately."

"Look, are you ignorant or just stupid?!?" I asked. "Was I in the hospital? Yes. What happened? I don't know. Was I hurt? No idea. That's it! Now would you go back to what ever miserable rock you crawled out of and leave me alone?!" I explained.

They just started laughing and I blew a glare as a shut my locker.

"If you really were in the hospital you would know why. You wouldn't say you don't know. You would say what happened. "Amanda got in my face. "You're nothing but a little pathetic attention whore."

Right then I smacked the bitch clear across the face. She pushed me down onto floor and I dragged her down with me. I grabbed the back of her head and banged it on the floor three times before she clawed (or at least tried to) at my face. Then she started flailing her arms and legs underneath me and screaming 'get this psycho off of me!'.

I think I would've been close to killing her if another staff member picked me up and took me off her. As I was set down, I noticed that there were 30 kids standing around me, whispering.

"Jean Sanchez Principals office now!" Said this old lady. She was overweight and had these flabby arms that jiggled when she moved. She sounded like Yoda.

I stormed off downstairs, but not to the principals office.

~~~~~~

In case you're wondering where I went, I went down to the cafeteria. That's where Darlene's study hall was. The two teachers that look after the kids don't really look after them. They just gossip about their families and other teachers. So they didn't really care who was in the study hall or not. Or who walked in or out. So I just let myself in.

"Hey." Darlene said happily. "What're you doing down here?"

"I got in a fight with Amanda."I said.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay I won." I said proudly.

"Oh geez. So what happened?"

"So I'm at my locker and she and her little bitch servants just decides to fuck with me and say that I'm an attention seeker."

"Where'd they get that idea from?" She asked.

"From you."

"How?"

"Because yesterday you said for them to go easy on me because I had just gotten out of the hospital. They asked why and I told them I didn't know." I explained. "So they thought I was doing it for attention."

"Me and my big mouth." Darlene muttered.

"Don't worry about it. You were just defending me so it's okay."

"Okay." Darlene sighed. "So did you tell Jesse that you can go over?"

"No. I haven't seen him all morning."

"Well he's over there." She pointed to Jesse who was 5 tables behind us. He was writing something down on a piece of paper.

"Dude, why didn't you tell me?" I slapped her arm with the back of my hand.

"He's always been here. Me and him just never sit together because I always have work to do." She explained. "Go say hi."

"No I don't want to."

"Well go tell him that you can hang out later."

"Darlene I-"

"Hey Jesse!" Darlene shouted, getting the other kids attention for a few seconds. I shushed her. But by then it was too late. He started coming over.

"Dammit Darlene!" I said.

"What? You wanted to tell him so go ahead."

"Tell me what?" Jesse spoke behind me.

"Oh hey, Jesse." I said nervously.

"Hey there. What'd you want to tell me?"

"Oh-um-my sister said it was okay that I can come over later."

"Cool! So what time?"

"How about right after school? My sister Ramona can drive so she can drop me off on her way home."

"Cool! Need my address?"

"Probably. You never know." I laughed.

He wrote down his address on a scrap piece of paper and handed it to me.

1210 First Street

"Oh you don't live that far away from me."

"Really? Haha that's weird. Where do you live?"

"2320 Riverside Drive. It's a dead end road. Nobody goes down there."

"I don't think I know where that is."

"Oh. Well then I'll have to show you sometime." I said smiling.

"Nice! So I'll see you later!"

"Can't wait!"

"Do you mind if I sit with you guys?" He asked.

I looked at Darlene. She shrugged.

"Sure!" I said.

"Great! I'll grab my stuff." He skidded back to his table.

"You're okay with him sitting with us right? I mean nobody else sits with us so...." I asked twiddling my fingers.

"Yeah I'm fine with it." She said.

"Good."
~~~~~~