My red cardinal painting in Mr. Barton's class was really coming along.

    It was this little puff of a bird, sitting on a thing little tree branch, it's feathers were kinda everywhere, I was aiming for a windy day effect. I had nailed it pretty well with some help from Mr. Barton. It's been a while since I had been quite this proud of something I painted.

    "Ah Micah, I'm so sorry about yesterday. Normally Isaac is pretty well behaved, be he occasionally slips up." Mr. Barton patted my shoulder. "Here's the ten dollars he stole from you back."

    He handed it to me, and I considered telling him it had been twenty dollars, then decided I would rather have two Hamiltons in my wallet than make the situation anymore uncomfortable. My love for musicals was going to drive me penniless.

    "Thanks Mr. Barton." I smiled warmly at him. "Wait Isaac is your son?"

    Mr. Barton shrugged. "I get that all the time. My wife is where he gets his looks."

    Huh.

    "Any more luck on your soulmate quest?" He asked.

    Oh, so apparently it's a quest now. I felt slightly intimidated by the title. What does that make me? A knight? I don't think I fit knight criteria.

    "Not really. We've must have gone through like half the girls in the school by now." I sighed.

    Mr. Barton shrugged, crouching down next to me. "Well Micah, the thing about soulmates is you'll find them eventually. No one has ever gone their whole life without finding their lovers. I've heard stories of couples who weren't soulmates, but settled down anyway and lived out perfectly happy lives."

    Yeah like my parents. That went fantastic. "Yeah, I'll find her eventually. It probably won't even be this year."

    "That's the spirit, you're doing great with this piece by that way, you've really improved."

    "Thanks."

    That's why I appreciated Mr. Barton. Not only could he turn the most artistically inept kid into a Van Gogh (if they really wanted it of course) but he could lift your spirits anytime. I don't know how he did it. Maybe it was an effect of parenthood, but if that was true my dad definitely didn't get that memo. Or at least my dad was working on it.

    Art was the last class I had, and there wasn't play practice today, so I would be going home right after this. Of course, right after I put away my books. I had some snacks in my locker as well and wondered if they were worth the trip over. I really didn't want to lug these books home, so locker it was.

    I don't know what it was about Gregory Smith and the times that I happened to be standing near my locker but as soon as I closed it up, I heard distorted yelling coming from the bathroom around the corner. I was gonna try and ignore it and maybe find a teacher (how would I help anyway) until the door must have swung open and I recognized Julia's voice.

    Was I about to run into a situation where I could get seriously beat up for Julia? Yes I was, goodness.

    I threw open the door the boys bathroom an saw it was none other then Greg beating Alex from play practice? What did Alex ever do to Greg?

    Then I froze.

    Julia wasn't getting beat up, she was standing right next to Greg with her fists clenched.

    What?

    "You take that back, your little freak!" Greg spat at Alex, who was scrambling to my feet.

    Alex spit at his face. "I don't care, you're the one who's overreacting here!"

    Julia, I kept staring, not believing it was actually her, Julia Woods herself spoke up in Greg's defense. "You're being a jerk Alex, just say you're sorry."

    "Alright fine! I'm sorry! Geeze-"

    I couldn't watch anymore, I closed the door gently and disappeared around the corner, breathing hard. I felt sick, not ill, anxiety sick. I was going to have an attack right here and now. I really didn't need this right now. I crouched down against the wall and slowly breathed, four seconds in, seven seconds still, eight seconds out. Julia Woods helped beat up Alex. Julia was in cahoots with Greg.

    That made no sense.

    I couldn't believe it I had just seen that. Julia was always so nice. Julia was the very embodiment of kindness. Why-?

    The boy's bathroom door suddenly swung open and Julia and Greg rushed out, Julia was fussing over him.

    "Are you okay? You seem pretty shaken up?"

    "I'm fine!"

    "That's good, although next time you really need to learn to handle your anger better, remember we've been working on..." The two of them moved out of earshot.

    What the actual heck.

    I slowly opened the door to see Alex was lying against the wall, pushing himself up wearily.

    "Are you okay?" I asked, walking towards him.

    He blinked up at me with a black eye. "Oh yeah, never been better."

    I helped him up with one hand. Alex brushed himself off and groaned.

    "What a creep!" He said angrily. "You won't believe what Greg was doing in here!"

    "Why did he beat you up?" I asked, knowing that, because it was Alex, I would get a full five paragraph essay on what happened.

    "I caught him with tampons in here! He's disgusting, what kind of pervert would steal that kind of thing." Alex said angrily. "I hate him, he pisses me off so much. I'm pissed that Julia sided with him as well! She didn't even know what happened, she just walked in and started yelling at me! Julia Woods! Popular, super kinds Julia Woods."

    I blinked. I knew Greg was a jerk but honestly this surprised even me.

    "He started ripping through my bag as well." Alex continued, limping over to his backpack, his books and paper were strewn out over the floor. "I mean honestly."

    Both our hands were shaking, I noticed, as I helped him pick up his stuff. I didn't know what to say. I'm not sure I could say anything.

    "Well. At least my homework's not ruined." Alex continued to grumble. "This giant footprint will be fun to explain to Mr. Youle."

    "What's this?" I asked, picking up a small shiny packet, it looked like pills.

    He took it from me and our hands briefly brushed against each other. I don't know why I decided to pay attention to this, because we had already crossed out males as my possible soulmates. Nothing happened anyway. Not that I was expecting anything to happen.

    Alex glanced over at me. "Oh, I was wondering where that went. It's not drugs or anything if you're wondering, I mean it is drugs but it's like prescription. You've probably noticed but I'm totally ADHD."

    I shrugged and handed it over to him, along with the rest of his stuff. "Yeah, you are pretty..." I trailed off, wondering what adjectives were least offensive.

    "Wired? Energetic? A spaz?" He filled in, an unexpected grin on his face.

    "Okay I was gonna say happy but whatever." I smiled at him.

    "It's fine. I've heard it all before and more. Thanks for helping me out by the way." He added. "Do you know where I could some ice? My head hurts like the dickens. I read that in a book once, of course I didn't finish the book but it sounded British so I like using it. Everything sounds better with a British accent doesn't it? Plus when they swear it doesn't even sounds gritty or uncivilized, in fact it only makes them sound more interesting, don't you think?"

    I blinked. "Um, I can find you some ice, yeah."

    We walked out of there, with Alex telling me all about British swear words. I was listening, but another part of me was fixated on Julia angry face. I had never seen her make that face before. It scared me me.

    I almost felt betrayed.