-Mysophobia: fear of germs.

SCHOOL WAS such an overrated place.

There were so many problems with school that it was almost laughable that they were even still a real place. For one thing, there were too many cliques. There's a clear division amongst the many different groups at school that it was sad.

Everyone had some type of group or place in the social status of it, and no one tried to disrupt the flow of how the students worked against one another. There were the overachievers, who fought each other to be the next valedictorian while still trying to balance a shaky friendship. There were the drama and art kids, who all hung out in the hallway at the back of the school and always were either tranquil, or angry. Then there were the stoners, the do-gooders, the nerds, the bullies, the weirdo's who always smelled like dirty hot dog water and farted on taco meat, The jocks- Football, Lacrosse, Soccer, Basketball, and Baseball- and the Pops.

The pops, cliche as it was, were a group of narcissistic, bitch faced, no personality having hoes who, also very cliche, were varsity cheerleaders. Pitifully original, she knew.

Although Winter was an artist, she did not like to be around other ones. They made her uncomfortable and feel pressured. She tried to hang with them once, just so she could understand what it would be like to be surrounded by people with creative abilities like her, but they were mostly stuck up and rude. They flashed their art around and demanded praise for their work, and then they tried to bully Winter into showing off some of her work so that they could size her up and see just how good she was.

She refused, of course, and told them all where they could stick it before she hastily escaped them. They were not true artists. It wasn't right to do what they did. An artist was to be humble, yet confident in their works. Those people were just savages. Mean, terrible savages who only craved recognition rather than showing what they were made of from their souls.

So, no, she did not like being around them. She rather fancied her small group of friends instead: the clique that was mashed up with people of several different hobbies and interests, who somehow became friends with each other. There was Herself, the Artist. Kristopher, The golden boy and the Quarterback for the School's raging, rampaging Bulls. Then there was Angie, her strong willed companion who laughed in the face of danger while dancing her butt off in a pair of Loui Vuittons like it was no one's business. And Leon. Leon, quiet, smart, athletic and a perfect gentleman. He was in the run to be valedictorian, and yet he was too kind and too honest to be friends with the others who were as well.

Together, they formed a ragtag group of friends, and their friendship wasn't exactly unlikely. It was just a little bit strange. But they were all great friends, and would continue to be for a very long time.

The next problem with schools were the teaching tactics. If Winter was being honest with herself, she knew that she would forget all of the stuff she was learning by the time she left this hellhole and began her first stages into adulthood. The school didn't teach her anything but to be able to hold or memorize something long enough until she passed her tests, then moved onto something else.

It wasn't about learning. It was about surviving. And putting yourself through constant torture just so you can get into a good college and have a decent future. If not for those reasons, she would have long since raised some hell and slapped a teacher back into prehistoric times just for making her put up with "learning" day in and day out for the last eleven so years.

Winter sighed as Kristopher pulled into the student parking lot of the high school. He maneuvered his truck all the way down to the end of the lot, right in the corner that rested between the sidewalk and parked car. He didn't like parking so close to the other kids because he thought that they didn't understand how to drive or pull out of a parking space correctly. He didn't voice his opinion outright, because he was too kind to be so rude, but he did make it known that he'd rather park away from the rest of them to avoid as little possibility of an accident as possible.

"Love school so much," she mumbled sarcastically as he killed the engine. " Love love love being forced to come to such a terrible place at eight A.M with a bunch of kids that I don't like, and having to stay here for seven hours straight. Love it so much."

Kristopher chuckled. "Its not so bad, Win. It could be worse."

She rolled her eyes.

"How could it possibly be any worse?"

"You know in some countries, girls aren't even allowed to have an education. They're forced to stay home, cook, and clean the whole day. They would kill to have the same opportunities as you do."

Winter flung her hands up in the air and glared at him.

"You really do know how to drive a point home, don't you?"

He shrugged and feigned innocence.. " I'm just pointing out the obvious here. It's not so good to complain about the opportunities and privileges that you have when others are not so fortune."

"If your goal was to make me feel like poo, Krissy, Then you've succeeded."

"I'm just sayin' is all..."

"Whatever."

Winter took hold of the handle and eased the car door open, making sure to be careful so that she wouldn't hit the car next to her. She waited on the side of the curb for Kristopher to come too, and when he did, they walked side by side to the entrance of the school together. There were clusters of kids everywhere, all lingering outside of the school talking or standing like they had no where in particular to be. A few of them watched Winter and Kristopher as they passed, particularly the girls. They ogled him with hungry eyes, and then looked at her a second after with dislike. It was very well known that most of the kids here thought that they would wind up an item. Since they spent virtually every hour together, she guessed that she could understand where they were coming from with that theory. But come on. Her and Krissy? Not in a million years.

Plus, there was the fact that one of the pop's had a major gigantic mega crush on him and never tried to hide it. She was the leader of the pop's, if there ever was one. It was like a big group of them, about ten in all, but inside that that group was an incredibly smaller, more prestigious group. Everyone referred to them as the Big Three- although Winter thought it to be stupid to name them after the three God's of the highest importance: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. These girls were the meanest of them all, so it only made sense that they joined together inside of an already stuck up group to become an even more ridiculous and overly stuck up group of three. Completely sane, right?

The girl who was crushing hard on Kristopher was Stacey Trumstomp. She was like a real life mean girl straight from all the teenage problematic movies. Tall, Blond, and beautiful. She was cheerleader captain, running for valedictorian, and grossly fake. She volunteered at soup kitchens and animal shelters just to try to get a good reputation, and posted things on social media afterwards to gloat about her doing "Good deeds." When Winter volunteered at places like that, she often runs into Stacey. Stacey would wrinkle her nose at her, lift her chin, and look away like Winter was some type of street thug who was pestering her for money. Winter didn't even fully comprehend why Stacey hated her so much, besides the fact that she and Kristopher spent a good deal of time together. But somehow her hatred seemed to run deeper than that. She just did not like her and the feeling was mutual.

But Kristopher, bless his kind and stupid heart, didn't toss Stacey to the curb like the piece of garbage she was. He would speak to her and be nice. He smiles at her and asks her how she is, and he tries to make light conversation with her whenever she approaches him. He was too much of a gentlemen in Winters opinion. Not everyone deserved his kindness and positivity. She'd even told him that once, but he only tsked at her disapprovingly and shook his head.

"Everyone deserves kindness, Win. There's always someone who needs to be shown some kindness."

She'd called him a bitch and slapped his shoulder.

"If being kind towards others makes me a... Bitch...then I guess I am one."

He even took an insult in stride. It was almost sickening how nice he could be. But she understood what he meant by it, so she bared his niceness and accepted that it was just who he was as a person. She should be glad that, considering the kind of world they live in, such niceness still existed and she was lucky enough to have him as a friend. Not many people could say that.

They made their way into the building quickly and strided down the hallway to their lockers. Although when they got there, they both were graced with the sight of an argument between Angie and Leon. Or, better yet, Angie yelling and Leon taking it with a concerned look on his face. She was stabbing her sharply pointed finger nail at his chest and yelling up at him. Even in her heels, she was short. But Leon was tall, i it difficult for her to make a full threat given that she was at least two heads shorter than he was.

Kristopher gazed at them with an amused expression on his face. He may be good and kind, but one thing that seemed to bring out his slightly evil side was watching Angie and Leon bicker, strange as it was. Everything about it, he found funny. Probably because she was a 4"11 Japanese girl yelling at a 6" African American boy who didn't have the heart to tell her to be quiet and calm down. He was too sweet for that.

Winter nudged Kristopher with her elbow. "Another Lovers quarrel?" she joked.

"Definitely. I wonder what about this time."

"Well leave it to Angie to announce whatever it is to everyone within ear shot."

As they approached the arguing couple, Leon looked over at them with a pleading look in his eyes. It didn't take a genius to guess what he was thinking: Help me.

Winter calmly stepped beside Angie and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Angie cut herself off in the middle of her sentence and snapped her head over to look at her, the fire only slightly dulling from her eyes. Winter took that as an opening.

"What's wrong this time, Ang?"

Angie had a habit of picking arguments with Leon for no real reason. Sometimes she was just teasing, but other times she was so angry that she was half expected to have smoke pouring out of her ears. Winter didn't understand how Leon could put up with it, but maybe that was just the price of Love. Who knew.

Angie made it very clear that she was trying to calm herself down before she choked out her answer.

"Some hussy was talking to my man."

"What?"

"Some ignorant girl started talking to him and touching his shoulder and giggling. Giggling!"

Winter's face contoured into one of confusion. "I don't exactly follow..."

"Some girl was giggling at my boyfriend!"

"I get that part. I just don't get why you're yelling at him about it?"

She wrinkled her nose in anger like a frustrated bunny. It was both cute and scary.

"She's upset because I didn't tell her to go away," Leon mumbled. His voice was quiet and deep, soothing against everyone's ears. However, it did not calm Angie down.

"You should have told her to leave you alone! She was all over you!"

"Baby, she was like fourteen years old."

This earned some laughter from Kristopher. "You're mad at him because some freshman girl was flirting with him?"

"Yes! "

Winter shook her head. " That's ridiculous, Ang. She's just a kid with a silly crush. Don't let that get to you."

Angie tried again to calm herself down. She was beginning to see what a big deal she was making out of nothing, and the look of realization was slowly begin to cross her face. She made a whining sound and stomped her heeled foot against the floor.

With a look of sadness, she glanced over at Leon and pouted her lip.

"I'm sorry, Le. I was acting crazy and shouldn't have yelled at you."

Leon took hold of both her hands and pulled her in for a hug. It was grossly cute how he held her with such love and sentiment. He was such a good guy, Angie really should learn how to stop yelling at him so much and appreciate him more. It was a good thing that he was so compassionate, or else they probably would have broken up by now.

"It's okay. I get it."

The bell sounded off.

Winter ran her fingers through her thick waves and smiled at them. Their love never seemed to be boring to observe. She briefly wondered when she would ever get the opportunity to love someone and be loved in return, and wondered what kind of love they might have together.

.....

Winter's first period class was AP English. She shared this period with none of her friends, and often felt painfully aware that she did not enjoy the company of any of her classmates. There were about twenty of them total, including herself, and yet she found that none of them seemed that interesting, or she just didn't like them in general. She did not try to speak to any of them, and in return, none of them tried to speak to her. They were only a month into school, and so far all that they've really accomplished in class was standard grammar stuff. It was painfully boring with it being just a series of slides and an endless amount of worksheets day in and day out. But it was nothing that she didn't not expect. It was an Advanced class. This honestly did not exceed her expectations.

So she floated through the class period in a haze: Looking at the slides on the Smartboard and writing down what was on them in her notebook, filling out her worksheet, and staying silent. She would occasionally doodle in the margin of her notebook page- an eye here, a nose there, until it started to form into the face of man. She drew on his lips, which she found were pouty and plump. Her hand twitched as she drew. She did not feel like drawing the man any more.

"Do you have a pen I can borrow?" someone asked beside her.

She looked over and found a girl with chocolate skin, big glasses and short curly black pig tails in her hair staring at her, her question hanging in the air between them. Winter could not believe that she was actually speaking to her. The silent truce she and her fellow classmates had made involving the whole "Don't talk to me and I won't talk to you" bit had held up until now. She was almost shocked.

The girl carefully chewed a piece of gum that was in her mouth- grape, from the scent of it, and stared expectantly at Winter. Her lips were wide and chapped. She was half tempted to offer her some chapstick.

"Oh, uhm-yes. I do."

She quickly bent down and rummaged through one of the side pockets in her bag until she found a black pen. She handed it to the girl, making sure to hold onto one end of it so that she may take the other end without touching her hand.

She had a thing about touching other people's hands, preferably strangers.They could have done anything with them, there really was no telling what. She always had her hand sanitizer with her just in case someone accidentally touched her with their hands. Just the thought of it made her wince. It reminded her that she also had a small box of tissues in her bag for when she dealt with stall door handles in the bathrooms. Many hands touch those.

The girl took the pen with a simple " Thanks" and turned back in her seat. In return, Winter mumbled, " No problem. Keep it."

She had a feeling that the girl did strange things with her hands.

.....

Her next class period was Physics. Luckily though, she shared this class with Kristopher, so it was bearable. When she walked into the room, she found that he was already there, sitting at their table in one of the two stools that occupied each table. He was holding his head in his hand and looking quite bored, almost sleepy.

She quickly bounced over to him and flashed him a smile as she took her seat. He brightened up immediately.

"Look who's here," he said happily. " Gracing my existence once more with her presence."

She rolled her eyes at him, but smiled. "I just saw you this morning, you weirdo."

"This morning feels like forever ago though."

She shrugged. "The concept of forever is an illusion, my friend."

"Well aren't you always a ball of sunshine."

She pushed him a little and smiled. " I'm always a ball of sunshine. I'm just not particularly cheerful at the moment because this place drains my energy and hope and all things good about me until there is nothing left but misery."

"Quite dramatic right now too, I see. Way to commit, Win."

"Oh shush."

The bell that signaled the beginning of class rang.

The talk that was going on around them slowly began to simmer down, and their teacher, Mr. Kenney, Rose from his spot behind his desk.

"Good morning, Class," he said.

The class mumbled their good mornings back to him waited obediently to be called on from the attendance roster. Halfway down the list, the door burst open and Stacey and her two minions strode into class like they owned it and everyone in it. Mr. Kenny frowned at them and their sudden appearance, but didn't look surprised. This was not the first time that their hoe squad was late to class.

"Miss Trumstomp, Miss Yivens, Miss Forchester. You're all late."

They shrugged in unison.

"We all just got our periods," Stacey declared. "That's why we're late."

The class snickered. Winter silently cursed them.

Mr. Kenny's eyebrows flew up in question. " Oh, yes? All of you just happened to get your periods at the exact same time?"

She rolled her eyes like he was the dumbest person in the world and popped her gum.

"Yes, We all did. Wanna check yourself?"

More snickers.

Mr. Kenny shook his head and motioned for them to take a seat with the pen he was holding. "No, that all right. Take a seat, ladies."

She smiled triumphantly. "That's what I thought."

She flicked her hair behind her shoulder and together they all sauntered to their lab tables. Stacey cast a glance over in Kristopher and Winter's direction, winked at him, and took her seat at her stool. Kristoph gave her a polite smile.

Winter gagged.

"Gross," she whispered. " Super, duper gross."

" Hush."

Winter pulled out her notebook that contained all her physics notes and opened it to a fresh page. Mr. Kenny was already launching the class into their lesson, talking about something that a had to do with protons. Winter was only half listening. In the back of her mind, she thought about the girl with the glasses and pigtails. She'd never really seen her before. Like at all. Perhaps she was new or just didn't talk much, but something was nagging the back of her brain that told her something different. She began to sketch again, trying to remember the details of the girl and her weird gaze probing her. There was something wrong with her, but Winter could not place what it was. Maybe it wasn't that important.

She looked down at her sketch and wrinkled her eyebrow in confusion.

Over the course of this class period, she'd drawn the man again.