Paige Fisher's Story

((First couple posts are going to be before the meteor shower. You can ignore them and jump right in if you want but I think id be cool to see how the characters change . . . by the way my character is just going to kind of notice yours as she walks down the hallway. She's not creating your characters in any way, she's just saying how she views them as of now))

Paige Fisher started shuffling down the hall. She had quickly learned the skill of dodging people in crowds, sometime she made a game out of it. She twisted to avoid a posse of girls giggling to themselves. As she past they paused to watch her before whispers followed her.
"Is that the mute girl?" one asked and they murmured some more before continuing on their way. For a moment Paige felt a sliver of courage and she opened her mouth slightly to yell at them but nothing came out. The courage faded and she turned back shuffling down the hallway. She glanced at the faces noting each one when she heard some laughter from the other end. She spotted a black haired boy she recognized.

What was his name? Jake? No it was a little odd . . . Joke! That was it. Joke Virgel. He was the all american boy of the school. Club leaders and class president. Those sort of things. She faintly smiled when something else drew her attention, she glanced behind her to see another laughing face. She screwed up her face to try and recall his name when it hit her.

Malcolm Locke. He was the kind of kid who kind of was popular and friendly with everyone. She nodded to herself. She turned around to go towards her classroom again when she nearly ran into someone. Since she didn't really hit him he didn't notice her but she recognized him all the same.

Bryce Riggs. He was a genius apparently, but he drifted instead of tried. She heard he could ace a test after pulling a video game all-nighter but she wasn't sure if that was true or not. He also was known for hacking and his handy work. She shrugged it off and shuffled through her papers unanimously. I wish I could be good at something like that. She thought quietly.

She continued towards her classroom when an idiot jock stepped in front of her smirking.
"I'm sorry. Am I in your way?" he teased and she glared at him. "Ask me to move and I will." he smirked and she looked up at him with puppy eyes. "What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" they all snickered at her and she stuck her tongue out at him before stamping on his foot and ducking under his arm. The sliver of courage she had when she did that vanished and she gaped turning and slunk into the classroom and slumped into her seat.

No more. She thought. I wont take their crap anymore. She promised herself. But she knew it was a lie. She was trapped by their taunting, she couldn't get up the courage to say anything. Suddenly, Sarah Collins came sashaying over smacking her lips.
"Hey, Fish." she said blowing a bubble, "Can you do me a favor and draw up a picture of an Ipod?" Paige looked up at her frowning. "It's for an art final. Due next week. I'm counting on you!" she called and turned still smacking her gum in her mouth. Paige looked down at the blank sheet of paper and sighed. she had been working on a new weapon design for her online blog, sometimes people put in design requests and she did them but she wouldn't have time now. She felt the need to switch paper and pulled out her pencil roughly sketching as the class bell rang.

Joke Virgel...at the center of attention, yet again. Mentally, he shook his head tiredly, but on the outside, he kept a smile to be nice to the people around him. Especially the rather nasty ones...and the girls who were just looking for attention.

"Virgel~Are you free today?" asked a girl with unbelievably large amount of make up on. Joke resisted the impulse to shudder at the way she flirtatiously fluttered her eyes.

"No, I have basketball practice." he gently excused himself. A jock smacked his back with a firm hand and laughed heartily. Joke managed an awkward smile.

"That's the spirit man! " he grinned before he took notice to someone and walked off. Joke looked and saw that the jock was walking towards a girl with white hair. He resisted the urge to sigh and roll his eyes. Paige Fisher. The girl who was always picked upon by others and taken advantage off. She was quite a great artist though and he usually admired her handiwork whenever possible. But of course, the girl was rather...shy, and never left her works laying about. He would try to get to know her, but his busy schedule kept him from it. And he still had to do something about the bullying in this school. Hurray for being JUST a Vice-President. He turned his attention to the crowd of girls in front of him and earned himself a sweat drop.

"Virgel, do you have a girlfriend?" one of the girls asked. Another one of those questions... how many times were they planning to ask?

"No. I don't."

"Why not? "

"I'm just not interested. " Not interested in girls like you guys, that is. Joke's idea of an ideal girl was one who could be truthful, didn't like him for being a popular guy, wasn't a big fan of make-up and had an interesting personality. After all... simplicity is elegance and a mystery kept a fool around.

"I'm sure any girl would be ready to be your girlfriend, Virgel. " another girl cooed, and a lot of other girls began to nod in agreement. Another reason why he wasn't interested in them. He didn't want a girl who would become him girlfriend straight away. He wanted to build up something, get to know the girl.

"Excuse me ladies, but I really need to go. The Student Council needs me, and I have basketball practice soon. " he dipped his head, his soft black hair flaring out from his ponytail like a bizarre black flame. He straightened his posture and walked off. He nodded at people he recognized and observed those he didn't know very well. After all...being a Vice-President with a President who couldn't care less about the students, he had the responsibility of remembering everyone and checking up on the school affairs. He noticed a couple of familiar faces.

A tall teen with messy spiked hair was having a few laughs with some other students. Joke recognized him, and boy, was this guy a really nice one. Cheerful too. Tall and well-honed, towering over Joke was an easy task for this guy, Joke merely stood up to the guy's chin. If Joke had to guess, he'd say that Malcolm Locke here was a natural born fighter. He smiled as an inkling of acknowledgement, just in case Malcolm saw him.

Bryce Riggs. A person that Joke could deem as a smart person born naturally, a prodigy. While Joke had to get his marks up through sheer hard work and study, Bryce could keep his marks at a reasonable level, considering the fact that he wasn't EVEN trying his hardest. An oddball at times, but honestly, Joke would have no problems being around Bryce. He was a nice guy, no doubt. And Joke appreciated people who were nice and had their hearts in the right place.

The daily routine of this acknowledgement and survey of the students, pausing every once in a while for a small talk or to prevent someone from being beaten down to the floor. A long, drawn out conversation in the Student Council room, with the President not bothering to listen and instead fell asleep. There conversation was mostly about how they could improve the school and how they could get it to be better. But Joke knew that it wasn't going to go anywhere, especially if the President was too busy SLEEPING than to listen to the pleases of the student body.

Joke stood up from the chair just as the council began to file out. A few stretches and a large yawn that he has suppressed for quite sometime now. Man...the same thing everyday. Doesn't the council get bored of it? There's no changing anything, unless they changed the President. A look at the clock. Practice time.

Proceeding to the gym, Joke's smile increased with every bounce of a basketball he could hear through the walls. He opened the door and caught a pass that one of the guys had thrown at him. Quickly he dropped his bag and slashed straight for the glass and slam dunked. He dipped his head, embarrassed as claps began to echo through the gym.

"Nice one Virgel!"

"I still don't get how the hell he jumps that high in such a short stature."

"King of the Court right there!"

Man...seriously. He thanked one of the players who handed him his bag and walked to the locker room to change out from his school clothes. There wasn't anything special about him... He just practiced hard to be able to do what he could right now. He stepped out in his basketball jersey and began shooting hoops with everyone else, eventually breaking out and coming into a small game. As it usually did, the team with Joke dominated.

Paige got out of her class and she headed over to the gym. She loved drawing moving pictures because, if she got them right, they seemed to come to life. She ducked through the crowd and found herself in the corner where she had a perfect view of the court, no one was nearby. She took her bag off and started to scribble some sketches but tore them out of her notebook and threw them next to her bag. Glancing over the team suddenly Joke took the court and he started moving like she would imagine a bird to move. She watched and started to sketch the outline of him dunking another ball. She finally started getting the air about the picture and she smiled.

"Flying." she whispered. She didn't have the prettiest voice in the world but it did have a nice ring to it. She sung while drawing at home and found it made her outcomes better. She took out her eraser and brushed away some unwanted lines and clapped with the crowd as Joke dunked another ball. The crowd started cheering for him and he thanked them. He looked happy. She smiled for him and started scribbling again. She had to draw while the image was fresh in her mind.

As she finished the drawing she smiled at the result and took out her inking pen going over the lines she wanted. It didn't look like it was moving without shading but it was still an amazing picture. She closed her notebook and ducked out of the gym again. No need to linger where I'm not wanted. She thought and nearly swore. She had left her sketches in the gym. She looked back but the crowd had swallowed the entrance. She wince and ducked away. I'll regret that. She thought embarrassed. But the choice was made and she hid back in her next classroom.

"Good game guys! We're all in perfect shape! Can't wait for the competition to begin! " praised Joke, holding up a thumbs up for the team to see. He wiped face with a towel and breathed out heavily. Foo... an excellent game indeed. He watched as the crowd that were watching start to leave but Joke knew several girls would be lingering behind the shut door to greet the jocks and what not. He was about to enter the locker room to change into a clean set of clothes, he caught the glimpse of paper laying in the corner of the gym. He jogged over to see what it was. Several sketches... with a style that looked oddly familiar.

"...Paige's...? " he picked them up and shuffled through them. There were several incomplete drawings of things, but... "She was trying to draw someone. " The drawing seemed oddly familiar. Who was she trying to draw? But surely...these must be Paige's drawings. Not many people could draw this way...and this well.

He went back to the locker and carefully placed the paper into his bag and quickly got changed. He slung the bag over his shoulder and proceeded out, sure enough, there were girls out there. This time though, instead of staying and entertaining them as he usually did in order to not seem disrespectful, he pushed past them, looking from left to right to catch a glimpse of white hair.

Being the Vice-President, Joke had to mentally go through every student's schedules. Difficult, but do-able. At least to a certain extent. So Paige Fisher's schedule should be...

He entered two wrong classes before eventually finding Paige sitting alone in her classroom. Damn, he needed to work more on remembering every single schedule. He tapped on the door frame lightly to get her attention. He pulled out the sketches from his bag, no wrinkles and held it up so she could see them.

"Hey! " he greeted warmly with a smile, "Paige Fisher, am I right? I think you left these back in the gym. "

He walked over and placed the sketches down on her desk. He tried to make eye-contact with the shy girl.

"I, uh, kinda went through the sketches. Sorry if they weren't supposed to be seen. " he smiled apologetically. "But they're really good though. There aren't many people with a talent like yours for drawing. I find it interesting. And this isn't flattery, Ms Fisher, I seriously think you're talented at drawing. "

"Perhaps you could participate in a drawing competition that's scheduled a few weeks from now? You'll do well. "

Oh! He totally forgot to introduce himself. He held out a hand.

"Joke Virgel. But call me Virgel. " he wasn't comfortable with people calling him 'Joke', unless they were really close to him. So far, only his parents had that privilege. He hadn't allowed anyone in the school to call him 'Joke'.

She carefully took her sketches then looked at his hand. Was he talking to her? The mute albino? The girl who didn't talk because she was too afraid? She looked around the room. No one but him and her. He seemed nice enough. She opened her mouth but it took afew tried to get words to come from her mouth.
"Thanks." she said almost inaudibly and looked through the sketches. "Hello." she practiced to the sketches.
"Hello." she said more surly and gave a smile. "I know . . . " she said at his introduction, it was a shy kind of thing, as though she was trying to make conversation. She dug through her sketches until she reached the one she did of him. "Here." she said shyly and held it out. "It's y-you." she said, It's not very good. She wanted to say but no more words came out. She glanced up to judge his reaction but quickly looked away. There were some more murmurs in the hallway and she dropped the picture in surprise as some girls entered all giggling.

She slid in her seat and stared at another blank sheet of paper. This is my world. She thought. I'm forever stuck in a blank world that I need to fill. She looked up at the girls. They sneered at her, though they didn't say anything right there, probably thanks to Joke, they still shot her looks of distain. My hair tells people of my world. She touched her naturally white hair and blinked her bright green eyes at them. One of the girls was Sarah.
"Hey! Are you drawing again?" she asked and peered over her shoulder. She frowned at the white sheet, disappointed. "Oh." she said but what she meant was 'Why aren't you working on something? I've even given you stuff to do so why are you staring at this blank sheet?' Paige pulled all her stuff together and moved across the room to the furthest desk in a corner. Guys like that don't need someone like me when he's got girls like them. She thought a little sad. She had to remind herself she lived in a separate world than everyone else. she lived in the blank world that needed to be filled.

Bryce walked down the hallway with his usual, lazy gait. His eyes were almost glazed over with post-sleep as he fumbled with his locker dial. He spun the dial and began to put in his locker combination, twitching fingers moving slowly to avoid accidentily turning past a number. His fingers usually never twitched, but in the mornings they tended to until around second period. He didn't really pay attention to the students around him unless they knew him as well. However, that wasn't many people - Since most people didn't really talk to him. Usually, they asked him for help with this or that, which Bryce would attempt to do before they told him to forget about it because they couldn't understand his gushing vocabulary.

Before he knew it, he had practically slept through is AP computer programming class, awake. Well, that was to say that he was awake, but might as well have been asleep. His brain was set on auto pilot the entire time, as it usually was. When he was at school, Bryce was about routine. Very rarely did he stray from his usual routine, although he did sometimes for one reason or another. As a chill went through his bones, he shuddered, feeling his heavy backpack pull him backwards as he did so, but managed not to fall.

In the hallways, he did manage to notice several people whom he had heard the names of before - Some of the few people he had attached their names to their faces.

Paige Fisher. To his understanding, she was a sweet, quiet girl. He didn't know much about her since he lived in his own bubble, but he had heard that she was occasionally picked on by the walking jockstraps of the school. The computer genius noted that she was fairly pretty, but his noting didn't carry much further than that of course. When Paige entered her class, he caught a glimpse of Joke Virgel entering as well.

Virgel was the vice-president of the discipline thing, at least, to his understanding. He was vice-president of something, he knew. He probably should have paid more attention, after all - Being the treasurer of student council. He didn't really want to be, but the teachers insisted on this as a growing experience for Bryce, although he usually left the work up to his assistant treasurer, a position that didn't exist until Bryce was treasurer for obvious reasons. Despite this though, Bryce didn't know much about Virgel. From what he heard, Virgel's mind worked in strange, but glorious ways and he seemed to have a smile on most of the time.

The last person he ran into before turning into his classroom was Malcolm Locke. From what he understood of him, which wasn't much really, he was a pretty nice guy, smiling and optimistic - friendly. Also to his understanding however, when you got on his bad side, he was pretty vindictive and vengeful. At least, from what he heard heard from inside his haze.

Slipping into another advanced class, he dragged himself across the room and slid into his seat. He slouched, looking up at the ceiling. No one usually talked to him in this class, though every day he kind of hoped someone would - At least it would make the class less boring. Besides, he had never really had any friends at the school, and being called a nerd or a freak didn't count.

Laughter exhumed from the mouths of his friends who surrounded him in the hallway. Malcolm often liked to hang out at the crossroads of the hallway whenever he really had free time before a class. It allowed him to people watch, something that he perfected as a child. No matter how much you stare at people when they walk by you on the streets, all of them tried their hardest to not look back at you. Though, his friends usually found him so he spent his time talking with them about current events or classes or other crap like that. He enjoyed talking about useless subjects, it made him feel normal and in the loop. He suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder. It was a large black student wearing a Letterman's jacket, his friend Deanthony, linebacker on the football team. "Hey yo Mal, I'll catch you later man, got class. Peace." He gave him a fist bump and a smile as he left. Soon his other friends started to leave to find their classes and he was left alone to watch again.

He managed to spot some people of interest in the crowds of the hall. He saw Joke Virgil, Vice-President of the student council. Personally he found that the student council was a large waste of time seeing as how they never really do anything except for plan things like twin day or other things like that. Virgil, though, was someone who you could see running for an office. He was uptight enough, even though many people couldn't see it. Constantly going over every flier in the hallways and seeming to memorize certain things. He swore he recited the schedule of one of his locker mates too him once. Then there was his awkward modesty, every time he did something impressive, which was often, he defends himself like he did nothing and that people are embarrassing him, yet he is at the same time rather charismatic. Just look at the crowd of girls around him, it seems a lot of shallow girls are attracted to power. Luckily, Virgil seemed nice enough and smart enough never to fall for it. They had had several conversations and he liked him for the most part.

His eyes traced the crowd and he spotted a familiar lazy figure treading through the sea of students. Bryce Riggs, the local genius. He barely bats and eyelash and perfect scores seem to simply appear on his paper. Bryce is one of those kids that things like school work came incredibly easy to him, so he never really has to try. Which is unfortunate, because if he did apply himself in some way, Malcolm was convinced he could change the world. He sometimes wanted to shake the kid and yell WAKE UP! There is so much to do and see in this world and he seems to want to shut his eyes and coast through life. Though, it wasn't Malcolm's place to say anything to him. He wasn't his family or mentor or friend. He wouldn't mind being his friend though. Hell, Malcolm wouldn't mind being anyone's friend.

Speaking of being someones friend, here came a prime example of his goal in life. Paige Fisher, the girl who is different, therefore threatening to the weak minded and shallow people of this school. He had to break his back to try and stop other jocks from bullying anyone. When a football player throws a freshman in the trashcan, Malcolm picks him out of the trashcan and throws the football player in. His friends help him out sometimes, but for some reasons, people really love to pick on her. They called her a mute since she didn't really talk to anyone. Malcolm wouldn't talk to anyone either if he got the responses and greetings she did. He tried so hard to get peopl to leave her alone, and they listened when he was in ear shot, but he knew she was still being teased. Why else would she still walk around like someone was going to attack her at any minute. In all honesty, he believed the main reason he defended her, was because he was scared to talk to her. She was so talented and seemed like such a tortured soul, that he felt he wouldn't be able to say anything to her, he having the reputation he has, that would make her feel better at all. He wasn't sure how he would take that.

After those riveting character analysis he just did, he really didn't feel like going to class. He was feeling a bit pent up, so he decided to make his way to he track. It was like his home now......seeing as he lived under the bleachers. He left the main buildings and trekked his way over to the track. If some authority figure came by and questioned what he was doing, he always had a note ready.

He reached the track and dropped his stuff near one of the bleachers. He just breathed in the silence for a bit, then was off. He was full on sprinting around the track. It wasn't the fastest in the world by any means, but he did not show signs of slowing or fatigue. He just kept going and going. Whenever he exerted himself, he was able to clear his mind and enter a state of rhythmic zen. He could be at peace.

Paige shifted uneasily. Sarah and the other girls tried to flirt with Joke-Virgel, she corrected herself- as more and more people filed into the classroom. She glanced back to realize no one really noticed her. She gathered up her papers and filed them away in her folder before darting out of the classroom. She could skip one day. Glancing one last time at Joke she realized her picture of him had landed on a desk chair at least it wouldn't be trampled on. She started wandering the hallways glancing into classes as the bell rang She swore she saw Bryce lounging in a chair. She gave a wave at him as she passed, he probably didn't even notice her. She dodged into the girls bathroom to avoid a teacher advancing towards her.

Coming back out she started wandering again turning a corner and freezing. Malcolm Locke stood leaned against the filed corners of the crossed hallways, he looked like he was pausing for a thought. She stared at him then got the most bizarre urge and pulled out her sketch pad again. She sat down the hallway, scratching on the paper as she drew him, staring at the ceiling like he imagined to drift away. She finished the shading and pulled out her inking pen tracing the lines. It had turned out just as well as Joke's portrait. The two, if they had been compared, would challenge each other at which was better. She pulled out her eraser to fast and dropped her pen with an echoing clatter.

She froze. The entire reality of what she was doing scared her. She shuffled all her papers together but stumbled dropping her stacks again. She let out a squeak and tried to gather them all up again. Maybe she should have taken her chances with the class after all. She reached for the furthest picture, the one of Malcolm but slipped again barely catching herself.

Today was just not her day.

Bryce sighed, slouching in his chair even more, which was probably terrible for his back. As the teacher talked on, he pushed his notes aside and reached into a pocket of his backpack, pulling out some paperclips. Straightening them out, he lay them all together on his desk. Slowly, he began to twist them into strange, curling shapes and almost into framework. Noticing movement out of the corner of his eye, he turned his head. Setting down his little paperclip project, he lifted one skinny, long-fingered hand and offered the girl, who he assumed to be Paige with his quick glance, a little wave. Paige and he had never really talked. No one ever really talked to him, to be honest - Unless they were trying to get him to do something for them of course, and not in the polite request way.

Turning back to his paperclip project, he twisted the curled wire (formerly papercilps) together with care. Slowly, he began to form two wheels before connecting them. Soon he experimentally spun the wheels on the doo-hickey, watching them spin smoothly.

"Bryce," The genius looked up from his work and frowned. The Teacher crossed her arms. Mrs. Rowe had never liked Bryce's lack of motivation and how he didn't seem to care. She knew the boy to be a 'genius', but believed that she made the class look bad by not paying attention in her class. She gestured to the picture she had drawn on the board before speaking. "Solid cylinder of mass m is attached to the two springs of total stiffness k as shown. Each of the springs is connected to the wall. What is the period of small oscillations of the cylinder, assuming that it doesn't slide on the floor?" The class turned their heads to Bryce who simply let his mouth hang open, letting out a quiet 'Uhhh' for several seconds. After those five seconds were up, Bryce's mouth closed and he wet his lips before answering.

"Have the springs deflect a distance A, then return to the middle place, center position. Half the value of k times A squared equals half the value of m Velocity squared plus half the value of I times w squared, where V is the velocity of the center of mass and w is the angular velocity-"

"Just the answer, Mr. Riggs."

Bryce rolled his eyes. "T equals 2 times pi divided by w equals 2pi square root of m divided by 2k." The teacher gave him a long stare and narrowed her eyes slowly. Slowly, she wrote the equation Bryce spoke out loud on the broad and nodded, indicating that it was correct. Bryce put his hands up and shrugged. "Did as ya said, Teach, don't be mad." As the teacher muttered and went back to her teaching, he looked back at his creation and continued it. Soon enough, he had a little metal sculpture of a stick man riding a simple little bike. A little, bitty crank that extended from the back wheel and Bryce began to turn it, smiling when the wheels began to turn and the man's legs began to move.

"Bryce," With a heavy sigh, Bryce looked back up. "Since you've shown off for today and you're not going to pay attention, write down your homework and you may leave class early." This, Bryce had no problem with. He looked up at the board, scribbled with his assignment, and practically bolted from the room after stuffing everything in his bag and tucking his metal creation into a pocket of his bag that it wouldn't be crushed in.

As Bryce wandered the halls and the school in general, he eventually found Malcolm and Paige. He was about to pass them by when Paige dropped her stack of papers and almost slipped.

"Woah," he reached forward and held her shoulder to keep her steadiest before kneeling on the ground and starting to help Paige pick up her papers. "You okay, Paige?" he asked, gathering up some of her papers. He glanced over at Malcolm again before standing and holding out Paige's sheets of paper to her. It wasn't unusual to see Bryce wandering the halls during class, usually managing to be released early from at least half of his classes.

Malcolm's head was still thinking about going off to the track. Right now, the placid silence of the hallway was soothing his soul. Though, he swear he kept hearing an odd scratching noise. Suddenly, a loud clanging sound went through out the hall way. Malcolm looked over to see Paige sitting down in the hallway with her sketch pad. She had apparently dropped her pen. He started to make his way over to her, when she started hurriedly gathering her things. IN her haste, she seemed to slip, spilling her papers everywhere. Several floated over to him. He saw that Bryce had caught her fall. Malcolm's face dawned a warm smile. "Nice catch Bryce. I should take you a long next time I go ice skating, maybe my ass would be a little less cold with you around." he said with a joking laugh. He bent down and started picking up her papers that had blown closest to him. They seem to mostly be drawings, he then came across an odd one.

He simply sat there squatting with a smile on his face, looking down upon an incredibly detailed drawing of a pensive version of himself. He couldn't stop staring at it, it was so good. It made him looked very deep and thoughtful. He then glanced upwards towards Paige. His smile got warmer. He the walked closer to her. "Wow, Paige. I'm really flattered. You made me look so.........pensive. Thanks for managing to bring some class to this ugly mug of mine. It couldn't have been easy." he said with a chuckle. He then handed her the papers back. "You should sell some of those, there very good. Of course, I don't need to tell you that, you know your good, otherwise you wouldn't draw. Then again some people draw because it's fun, even if their no good. Though you are good, really good. I'm not really gifted like that at all. Artistically I mean, they say those with an artistic soul have the purest ones, Like a blank canvas and they are always searching for that right splash of color or texture. Not saying your blank canvas! You seem like a really interesting person that I just don;t know well. Not that I don't want to get to know you, I just haven't before because Ive never really had a chance too. Though......." Malcolm finally forced himself to stop rambling. He then exhaled a sigh, and started to take off his boot with the other. Once he had freed his foot from his boot, hethen picked it up and then shoved it into his mouth. He then held out his hands as if to say 'Ta-Da! I'm an idiot!'

Malcolm pulled the shoe out of his mouth and stuck it back on his foot. He wiped his mouth a bit, then faced the two again. "So......, you guys leaving class too? Do you guys, I don't know, do something or walk each other home or...something?" He said, adding a friednly smile on the end. He never really got to know them, so why not know?

Paige froze. Both Bryce and Malcolm were being so nice to her she nodded at them. "I'm okay." she whispered as she gathered up all the pictures she could but left the one of Malcolm with him.
"You can keep . . ." she cleared her throat and gave a smile to both boys. "Thanks." she said nearly in silence. Suddenly he took out off his shoe and put it in her mouth. She covered her face and gave a laugh. She hadn't meant to laugh.
"Sorry." she said but giggled again. When he asked if she wanted to walk with him she froze up. Would that be like socializing? Was it so he could insult her without worrying about her tattling? She looked him over again then looked at Bryce. They seemed nice. "I guess I wouldn't mind to much." she got out, she sounded much more confidant than usual. "I don't really want to go home but I wouldn't mind walking around." she said and tugged at her papers. She wasn't sure what people talked about but she decided to continue the art topic. "Art really isn't that good of a talent. It'd be much better to be as daring as you are or maybe as smart as you." she said gesturing to the appropriate boy and she winced. They didn't really care. She reminded herself. They were probably interested because she was talking. She clamped her mouth shut and clutched her folders to her chest. She started shuffling to where Malcolm had been headed. Then pointed questioningly.

Bryce nodded at Paige, seeming happy to help. The man had the scent of herb on him, though seeing as though he was a well known stoner, one could guess the scent that surrounded him, as well as the scent of febreeze he had tried to use to cover up the other scent. As Malcolm commented, he chuckled lightly. "Thanks, but wouldn't be too sure about that. I think you'd be peeling me off the ice before you even managed to fall once, bro." He said. As Paige smiled at him, he offered her a slight smile as well. "No prob at all." When Malcolm put his shoe in his mouth though, Bryce laughed. "That's nasty, man!" Despite his comment, he continued laughing before stopping, slipping both of his hands into his pockets.

When Paige froze up though, he cocked his head a bit, watching her. The girl was seroiusly twitchy, but then so was he when he was super stoned - Was she stoned? Bryce shook his head at nothing. "Nah," At that point, he was just pretty sure he had smoked a little too much before school, and between classes, and during lunchtime, and- Well, he just smoked a lot - End of story. Though, he didn't usually go home for a while - Usually just wandering around and, well, smoking a bowl or a one hitter. Maybe he should talk to someone about that. Nah, weed never hurt anybody.

When Paige commented that it would be better to be daring or smart, gesturing to him when she said the latter, he frowned. Really, Bryce didn't understand the fuss about him being smart.

"It ain't so great to be a 'genius' or whatever sometimes." Bryce didn't elaborate, not wanting to get in those dumb arguements that he saw lots of girls get into 'My life is worse', 'No, my life is worse' - God, just shut up. Secretly, he was just glad no one had tried to beat him up to get him to their homework or shove him in a locker since Sophomore year - Dear god, the locker. Brycce shivered and hugged himself, muttering under his breath and hugging himself as he looked around for a moment as he followed them - Yeah, he was a bit paranoid, but it came with the genius package he supposed.

Wow...she was a really shy girl. But she seemed rather nice. And what was this? Paige had drawn him? He only saw a glimpse of the sketch before students started filing in and he was soon engulfed by more flirtatious girls. He managed look over at Paige before moving out of the room to his own class.

After what seemed like an incredibly long time, Joke had been restlessly shifting in his chair, a very well- known urge starting to form in him. He wanted to feel the wind again. As the bell rang, he dropped all the books into his bag and was the first to leave the room, not wanting to linger around and be swarmed by people again.

Wait...

He should go back to Paige's class to see what she had going on and to take a look at the sketch she made of him. He hide in a corner and waited until everyone left before slipping into the classroom. He looked around and saw the familiar white parchment laying underneath a desk chair. He picked it up and his eyes widened at the sketch. It was him, playing basketball and why did he feel that he was...soaring...? Wow. This girl really knew how to make drawings come to life. It was amazing! He smiled, holding the piece of paper in his hands and left the room. Nothing left to do here. He proceeded to walk down the hallway then...

"Oh, hey! " he greeted, raising one of his eyebrows slightly. "Socializing, yes? We're not...picking on anyone now, are we? Malcolm? Bryce? " he asked, not pointing fingers nor in a suspecting tone. He knew they were nice, but he still had to make sure. Especially with someone like Paige who would probably never speak up about the bullying. And after seeing how one of the girls treated her in classes before he left, it seemed that it was even worse. Paige couldn't stand up and speak for herself. He blinked as he realized he was staring at the white haired girl then lifted the sketch of himself.

"You did a really nice job! I kinda felt like I was flying in this sketch. " he smiled, then handed the paper over. "Here you go. "

He took a small whiff of the air around him. Phewww... wow. Was that...? It must be... With what? A hint of some kind of...was that febreeze?

"Alright...who's been taking hits among the 3 of you? " he asked, but Joke's tone seemed rather relaxed. He didn't have a disapproving demeanour either. He was just...curious? It's good to at least know what some of the student body were up to... and even more so if the President couldn't give a care in the world about them.

"I think it's better to be a genius than you know." Paige said quietly though she couldn't be sure if he had heard her. She hid behind her folder and looked at the crowds who had suddenly emerged around them. She wedged herself between Malcolm and Bryce as though it made he safer when she saw Joke-Vergil, she corrected- approaching her. He gave suspicious glances to Malcolm and Bryce teasingly and she blushed. She hadn't ever had this much social interaction since middle school.

"Ah!" she said as he thrust the picture back in her hands. Joke-Vergil- praised her for the artwork and she gave a disappointed look. "You can keep it." she murmured, "It's of you anyways." she handed it back to him and when he asked about hits she turned bright red. "I could always draw another if I wanted to." she said more confident now. Joke-VERGIL! she glared at her hands as if it were their fault she couldn't remember. Vergil asked suddenly who had been taking hits and she drew back bright red.
"N-no!" she stuttered, "Not me!" she waved her hand in horror and suddenly an unfamiliar face appeared in her line of vision causing her to step out of her protection.

"Did you just talk?!" he nearly shouted in her face and she backed away but couldn't escape from him. "HEY!" he shouted to the crowd, "Albino Mute just Spoke!" he called and she kicked him in the shins. She gave him a glare before scouring the crowd. She hadn't lost them had she? Paige kicked the guy a second time for good measure before trying to peak over the crowd. She couldn't see any sign of them but that was the least of her troubles. Soon a group of people crowded her. she had been separated from the others.
"Hey! Fish!" Sarah called, "Say something!" Paige stared back in horror and ducked through a gap dodging through the crowd.
I can't even spend time with the only people here who don't suffocate me! she thought bitterly, Surely this means I'm not supposed to have friends. she thought and dodged her way through the crowd again, trying to sulk, but she kept trying to spot at least one of the guys.

She passed the teachers lounge where a radio blared.
"~in other news astronomers say we might be in for a big meteor shower tonight, so wear your helmets when you go out to watch or you could be hit!~" they continued but that stuck with Paige as she ran right into someone. She looked up at them apologetically before she realized it was Malcolm. Nearly burst into tears of relief but managed to force out a smile instead. Even though they probably didn't want to hang out with her she was glad of their company, even if it was only today.

Bryce shrugged. "I guess." he said, once again not wanting to start up that bull shit 'My life is worse' competition that girls do. 'Oh my gosh, my dad didn't buy me the car i wanted!' 'Yeah, well my boyfriend broke up with me' 'I guess, but my boyfriend is cheating on me and'- Ugh, was that all girls did these days? He didn't even know, not being good with girls in the least. Sure, some girls liked him, but usually they just wanted to get close enough to copy his homework when he wasn't looking or to get a reputation for dating the genius, at least, before he turned into a 'loser pothead' which he had turned into, genius or not. Whatever, he didn't give a crap anyway.

When Virgel asked who had been taking hits and Paige quickly denied, Bryce just laughed loudly and threw his hand up. "Ladies and gents, that would totally be me. Pretty dank stuff, took me a while to get it!" Half the people at school knew Bryce as the hardcore stoner, student council treasurer genius kid, so it was mostly just the expected outcome when he admitted it out loud. When the crowd came busting through though, he spun around, looking at everyone with narrowed eyes. Once he became comfortable with the sudden flood of people, he began to speak again when the commotion started.

"The hell?" He muttered as Paige disappeared into the crowd. "Hey," he moved forward to try and find Paige in the crowd when he realized he had been separated from Malcom as well. When turning to find them, someone shoved him pretty roughly aside to bother Paige. After recovering from his stumble, he moved forward towards them again. "Dude, piss off!" he yelled, knowing that Paige was bothered enough daily and didn't need their crap. Besides, he had deal with that kind of crap himself and hated that others had to as well. Bryce fell quiet when he found himself sitting against a locker with a bloody nose, blinking to realization. With a heavy sigh, the young prodigy stood and threw up his arms. "Dudes, Chillax! Can't we just get along for like... three seconds? Damn, man..." he said, trying to shove his way into the crowd to try and find anyone of the group, one hand up to cover his nose and mouth. What a mess... He hadn't noticed, but his small metal sculpture had fallen from the pocket by the time he realized he was sitting against the locker and was lying, discarded in a corner between a locker and the wall.

"Your very welcome." he said to Paige when she accepted his compliments. He smiled very wide when he heard Paige laugh at his foot in the mouth joke. A victory, a small one, but still. She had a great laugh, it was a shame that she didn't laugh more often. Well, maybe they could change that from now on. Bryce was a funny guy and was glad to have bumped into him. It seems they were helping her break out of her shell. She agreed to walk with him around a bit. HE smiled, then looked over to Bryce. "Well let's go then." Just as he was about to walk off, class seemed to end and people flooded the hallways. The moment that happened, Paige squeezed herself in between Bryce and him for protection.

Sudenly, Virgel walked up and asked them if they were bullying Paige, though he suspected he was joking. He then seemed to be returning a drawing Paige did of him. Malcolm faked a look of shock. "She did you too? Well, it looks like this girl gets around." He said in an extremely joking manner and he gave Paige a smile as he did it. Virgel the commented on how it smelled like weed and who was smoking it. It was well known that Bryce was a pothead, he wondered why he even asked. Bryce then surprisingly admitted that it was him with great fervor. Malcolm just chuckled at the situation and Paige seemed to be becoming more and more comfortable with them. Today seemed like a good day.

He had apparently spoken too soon, because a crowd forced them to separate when someone heard Paige talking. It was utter chaos and he couldn't find her anywhere or the guys. He knew they were going to be fine, but Paige was another story. He didn't know where one side of the crowd began and the other ended. He had never been in a situation like this. Eventually someone bumped into him and he looked down to find Paige. She managed to give a weak smile, but seemed to be holding back tears. He immediately hugged her. "I thought I lost you to those monsters! Your not hurt are you? Hey, don't listen to a word they say, they don't deserve to have you listen to them, ok? He gave her a warm smile. "Now let's go find the other guys and get out of here, whaddya say?" unforntunately, he was interrupted by a member of the water polo team, Brock. "There you are! Why don;t you talk for me?" He said tauntingly. Some other people started to form up behind him. Malcolm immediately stood beside Paige and stared at him. "What, Locke? Your in the way of the greatest scientific discovery ever, The rare mute albino is able to speak. We want to hear her! Malcolm simply took a step forward, not saying anything, a blank expression on his face. Brock seemed to step back a bit. "What? Am I supposed to be scared of you?" Malcolm's expression hardened. He seemed to step back a little more. "Look Malcolm, we're just having fun man, why do you have to be a party pooper?" Malcolm's face turned to a full on scowl, and Brock seemed to freeze. No one else seemed to be speaking.

He then turned put his arm around Paige and gestured to a direction through the crowd and walked her through it. No one said a word. The jocks knew better than to mess with Malcolm, after all, he did break the weight lifting record at their school. He managed to spot Virgel He waved his hand at him. "Yo, Virg!" He finally got closer to them with Paige. "Hey guys, let's get out of here, alright?" he then looked over and noticed Bryce's nose was bleeding. He went over to him. "How'd this happen, man?"

Paige was shocked when Malcolm wrapped his arms around her in a hug. She squeezed her eyes shut and let a few tears loose while she was hidden from view. She nodded and gave him a warm smile when he pulled away and quickly wiped her face. Suddenly a kid she recognized from the water polo team came up. He started jeering and insisting Paige opened her mouth and Malcolm looked like he might kill the kid. She grabbed his arm carefully and started pulling him away.

He shot one last glare and put his arm around her. She gave a squeak of surprise then and blushed. It was the first time anyone had been so nice to her. He waved and arm and led her through the crowd to Virgel and Bryce.
"Yo, Virg!" he said, "Hey guys, let's get out of here, alright?" he said and she realized Bryce's nose was bleeding. She frowned then gave a worried look. How'd that happen man?" Malcolm said pointing out her question. She carefully went towards him and pulled out a packet of kleenex from her pocket shyly handing them to him with an apologetic smile, as if to apologize for getting him hurt.

It was her fault after all. She winced and pulled her bag tighter. Was that the last class? She couldn't remember anymore. She had skipped it so she couldn't keep track anymore. She wanted to ask but she didn't want to talk with people around. That had gone down bad. She remembered Malcolm putting his shoe in his mouth and she giggled again. Even with everything that had gone wrong today she was managing to smile.

Bryce continued to hold the hem of his shirt to his nose, trying to keep it as clean as he could. Even with his head tilted back, he still had to make sure anything that went out the other direction didn't make a mess. However, he could feel the warm liquid down the back of his throat and shuddered. It was pleasant, interesting, and absolutely revolting at the same time. As he noticed Malcolm heading towards them along with Paige, he smiled in relief.

"Ah, man. Thank god we found you guys. It's a mess over there, ya know." The genius leaned his head back against the locker, not standing up just yet. After that hit, he didn't quite trust himself to stand just yet, not wanting to embarrass himself too horribly. Making a wave of dismissal, he shook his head. "You know, bro. Crowds, limbs flying, that junk. One managed to pop me in the nose, and i dunno if i got hit again one or twice - But it's no biggie. Nothin' new." As Paige handed him a pack of kleenex, he thanked her quietly before letting his bloody shirt hem go. The genius was thankful for tissues the moment he fished one out and pressed it against his bleeding nose - Which thankfully didn't feel broken. Seeing her apologetic smile, he grinned and shrugged as if to say 'Don't worry 'bout it'.

He sighed, cringing when he noticed a metallic taste on the back of his tongue - Blood. Reluctantly, he swallowed, gagging a bit after. Oh man, that was downright nasty. He'd definitely have to smoke this one off. He also made a note that when he did smoke it off, it wouldn't be a Pineapple Express kind of problem, more like a Razzle Dazzle kind of problem. Maybe he'd even go for the Blueberry or Grand Daddy Purple. He let out a chuckling when he thought of his super secret stash. Oh man, that Blue Dream had cost him a pretty penny - Maybe he'd have enough Blue Dream for this to be a Blue Dream kind of problem.

When he realized that Malcolm had suggested they leave, he shrugged. "I might need to catch up in a moment. My head's still a li'." Finishing his sentence, he put his hand out flat before making an almost coating movement as if to suggest dizziness. "Wheeeewww... Ya dig, man?" Bryce slowly stood, but kept himself leaning against the locker, a bit unstable. It wasn't anything serious or anything, but the knock to the head discombobulated him if anything and made his body unbalanced.

Claire waited a bit more before standing up, she had been in here for some time. She could have left earlier but she knew how crowded the hallway could be and she sure didn't want to get caught in it. Trying to get through that crowd filled with students that hurries to diffrent classes, is like trying to make a deal with death. You never know what will happen next.
She took a last glance at the black board to see if she missed taking any notes. Even if they never stayed long at once place, she still wanted to have good grades. She wanted to be more then her father is, she wanted to study and become something, no someone even if she didn't really fit in this world. She wanted to try to atleast fit in a little, it was the least thing she could do now.
She carefully open the classroom door and looked outside, the crowd was gone by now and she sighed in relief. There was only a few left of the students in the corridor so there was nothing to worry about. She walked quietly pass them before she noticed that one of them was bleeding from his nose.
"Press you thumb and index finger at start of your nose, it will cut off the blood." She said looking at him before walking up towards him, put up her hand to the boys' face and pressed her thumb and index finger at the start of his nose, between his eyes.
"Like this, wait a few seconds and then no more nose bleed." She said with a easy smile. She didn't usually talk to anyone, always holding to herself but this was one of those times she wanted to help. It looked like it wouldn't stop bleeding and wanted to spare the boy's time with holding back his head. She held her hand there for a few seconds and then let go.
"Problem solved, here. A more clean tissue for you." She said as she pulled up a clean tissue for him, giving it to him before she backed off and went to continue her way out from there. She had missed all her classes, well not really all of them but.. This time she didn't feel like being in school, her senses were a bit.. Off today. She had been close to say words that shouldn't be said near anyone, not even her father. It must be the meteor shower and it actually freaked her out.

Paige's eyes lit up at Virgel's offer. She wanted to sketch the meteor shower but didn't know if she would have time to set up because her parents were going to have her babysit tonight. She nodded vigorously. She could set up on the roof before her parents went out and make it in time. She shot him her biggest grin. She caught sight of her picture, it hadn't been ruined, in fact the rugged look made it seem more realistic, but at the same time her stomach dropped. It's okay. She thought, It's just a picture. And he didn't do it on purpose . . . did he?

She shook her head as a girl approached instructing Bryce on his nosebleed. She handed him new tissues and walked away. Paige followed her with her eyes. She's pretty. She thought and closed her eyes, trying to capture the girls frightening beauty in her head. She didn't feel comfortable around the girl but that didn't stop her from seeing an art opportunity. Isn't she kind of new? Her name is Cali or . . . or Chelsie . . . No that's not right.

She shook her head aqnd turned back to Bryce just in time to see a tall intimidating figure walked up to Bryce asking if he was okay. She drew back in fear. It wasn't the kind of shy fear so much as blood curdeling fear she had. The way the man's eyes flashed made her want to run, but she didn't. You can't judge someone on how they look. She reminded herself, but a voice in the back of her head whispered doubtfully, it's not his appearance that scares you . . . she forced a smile at him, though he may not have seen it and wedged herself in between Virgel and Malcolm. She grabbed their sleeves nervously to stop her shaking hands. Don't be scared . . . whispered the voice in the back of her head, What were all those self defense lessons about if you're going to be scared stiff? She swallowed quietly. "I'm not scared." she whispered nearly silently, and, surprisingly, it was almost true.

Almost.