Calum walked up to his friend, Michael's front door. Michael rushed down the stairs to open the door, knowing it would be Calum. When he opened the door, he was dizzy and panting a bit. Calum was surprised to see Michael so out of breath, he only walked down the stairs!

"Michael? Are you okay?" Calum asked wearily. Michael glanced at Calum, seeing a concerned look plastered on the boy's face.

"What? Yeah, just feel a little sick today, nothing major." Michael said, regaining his breath and the two began the walk to school.

"Okay." Said Calum, feeling a little reassurance in that. As a second though, he added, "Make sure you let me know if you feel really bad, yeah?" Michael nodded with a small smile and they continued to walk, talking about random things that came to mind.

When they reached the school gates, they noticed their other friends, Ashton and Luke, standing around, just talking. The two walked over, tapping the pair on their shoulders. Ashton jumped, and they all laughed at him, making him pretend to be mad. It was amusing, really.

"Oh guys." Calum asked, gaining hums of response from the three boys. "I meant them two, Michael." Calum laughed.

"You should have specified then!" Michael said.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, Ashton and Luke, Michael said he wasn't feeling great today, will you help me make sure he doesn't die?" Calum asked, being very specific on the names and the two nodded.

"I could tell he wasn't." Luke said suddenly.

"What? How?" Michael asked, kinda worried about that statement.

"You're never that sassy unless you're sick. It's usually Ash who makes them comments." Luke said, a grin on his face.

"You're some sort of creepy stalker, I swear." Michael muttered.

"Me? Stalk you?" Luke asked in a high pitched voice, placing his hand over his heart in fake offence. "Never. I don't have that sort of commitment."

"Anyways, thanks for looking out for me guys." Michael mumbled, feeling a small blush creep onto his cheeks.

"Anytime, Michael. We can't have you getting sicker than you are." Ashton laughed, the other two joining in.

"Yeah, yeah." Michael rolled his eyes. He checked his watch, seeing it wasn't long until first period. "We should get going, we have class in like 5 minutes."

"Yeah, I'll see you guys at recess." Ashton waved goodbye as he separated from the three guitarists. Luke, Michael and Calum started walking the opposite direction towards their own classrooms. Michael split from the other two about halfway to said classrooms and went down a different corridor from the other two. He got to his own classroom just as the class were going in, so followed the small crowd in and sat down at one of the desks.

The desks were set up in twos and he hoped no one would sit next to him. He was lucky as nobody did. Not feeling like joining in too much, Michael put his burning head on the table while the teacher began the lesson.

It went the same as most classes did, a few jerks who think they are better than everyone else, the 2 or 3 nerds who know everything, nothing new. Except that the shouting had intensified the pain in his head and it was moving to his stomach. Michael tried to inconspicuously rub his stomach and it settled the churning temporarily.

Soon enough, the bell rang- terrifying poor Michael, and hurting his head- and everybody packed up to leave. Michael did too, slower than everyone else, and stopping to grab the table to keep him up every time a bad pain hit. It was- to put it nicely- hell.

It wasn't too long before Michael was out of the room, and walking slowly down the corridor to go to his next room when a kid that Michael recognised wandered past. Michael recognised him for a bad reason. It was one of the kids that bullied Michael constantly, and Michael panicked when the boy stopped in front of him to look at Michael with menacing eyes.

"Hey Tiny, what you got there?" The boy asked, looking at the water bottle that Michael was holding in his hand. Michael tried to get past him, but the boy pushed him back, making him fall back onto his bum. The kids around them stepped out the way, but otherwise they ignored them. "Well, come on, get up, will you?"

"Uh." Michael stuttered, as he tried to get up. His head was pounding, he could barely hear what anyone was saying and his stomach was churning, he knew he was going to throw up soon. Suddenly, what Michael could see of the boy was blocked by a large figure that he, despite his blurred vision, managed to recognise as Luke.

"What do you think you are doing to my best friend?" Luke seethed at the boy, who happened to be an old friend of his, who he had been associated with before he knew any of the lads.

"Him? Your best friend? He's tiny, not to mention he can't do anything because he's so stupid." The boy laughed, but that was cut short by a very intense growl from Luke.

"He is more than you will ever be. He is smart, he can sing and play guitar, and, most importantly, he is my friend, and you are not." Luke growled, pushing the other boy towards the wall, shaking his fist in the boy's face. Luke was pulled away by a tap on his shoulder, he looked at the person who had touched him with as much anger as he was showing his ex-friend, but his expression softened when he saw a very pale Michael.

"Michael? What's.." He was cut off by Michael grabbing his hand and pulling him down the corridor, hand over his mouth. Luke didn't realise what was happening until Michael pulled him into the bathroom and towards a cubicle, finally letting go of Luke's hand to bend over the toilet. Luke kneeled down next to Michael, rubbing circles in the small of his back. "Oh Mikey!"