"He said that Barbie's been hanging around with Alexandria?" Ethan began with a snort, proceeding to stride over to his locker as I struggled to keep up with his large steps. "And I have a pet donkey."

"What's that got to do with anything?" I questioned, already out of breath from just having to follow him. That really reflected how athletic I was, huh?

"Oh? I thought we were discussing events that are physically impossible," he stated bluntly. "There's no way Barbie would hang out with Alexandria without telling either of us about it. If that is the case then maybe she's trying to set you up with her?"

I heaved a sigh. I felt like there was more to it than just that, but I decided to let it slide. Ethan was probably right, hopefully. Even if he wasn't, it isn't my business what Barbara does with Alexandria. Neither of them are under my control so I should just forget about it, right? But why is it so difficult for me to do so?

"Forget all that, what you should be focusing on right now is your deal with Nick," he began after a moment of silence. "I seriously can't believe he invited us over to his table to eat with his gang, that's like the biggest achievement."

"In what way?" I questioned out of curiosity.

It wasn't like Nick's squad was popular or anything of that sort. To be truthful, our high-school lacked the stereotypical popular kids, bookworms, jocks and all that jazz. The only person who could be considered even remotely popular was our janitor.

"Because I can finally hang out with interesting people," he began with a smug grin on his face. "I feel like if I spend any more time around you or Barbie, I might become stupid."

I blinked at him in disbelief before landing him a hard smack on his arm, "Says the one who thinks the Earth is a doughnut."

"I'm serious! Think about it, the meteor that struck the Earth during the time of the dinosaurs could've left a giant hole in the middle of the Earth-"

"The Chicxulub Impactor's crater is already there on the surface of the Earth," I protested, probably with the wrong pronunciation - but anything to sound smart, right? Even though I could barely spell my name properly.

"Did you just say chimpanzee?" Ethan questioned, raising his brows at me.

I paused for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh, "Sometimes I wonder if you're really this stupid or you're just playing around."

"Hold on, isn't that Alexandria's locker?" Ethan questioned, the tone of his voice suddenly dropping in volume. "What's that guy doing over there?"

I peered into the distance and let out a sigh, "It's that guy again. They probably share lockers or something.. or maybe he's her boyfriend? I'm not sure."

"Huh, that's strange," Ethan stated, furrowing his brows at the boy.

"Why? Do you know who he is?" I questioned upon noticing the look on his face.

"I don't remember his name but he used to be on the football team," Ethan began, punching in his locker combination before pulling the door open and shoving a bunch of notebooks inside, struggling to keep all of them from falling on top of him. "He used to be really good at football, actually. But he suddenly left the team and we never heard from him again."

"How come? Did his teammates bully him into leaving or something?"

"Nah," Ethan said, shaking his head and finally slamming his locker door open, wiping the imaginary beads of sweat off his forehead with the sleeve of his sweater. "He got injured on the field. There are loads of stories about what happened, some people say he got dumped so he lost focus on the field and ended up tripping. Others say he was being abused at home and so he lost interest. Some people even say he has AIDS."

"How would having AIDS make him fall on the field?" I snorted. "People talk too much."

"But what actually happened, turns out, is that.." he began, catching my interest. He cleared his throat dramatically and straightened out his collar like some sort of professor before finishing: "He just fell, that's all."

I opened my mouth to respond, however he cut me off, "Here. Hold my bag, I forgot to wear my tie today. If Mr. Harrison sees, he'll probably call my parents or something." I decided to stay silent and obliged, taking a hold of his bag as I took another look at the boy standing in front of Alexandria's locker.

Just then, he turned to look at me and we made eye contact for a brief moment. I opened my mouth and quickly shut it again before looking away with my heart pounding in my chest from having been caught staring at someone.

And then a realization hit me. He'd been holding an envelope in his hand - the same envelope which I'd left in the locker.