"Alright, you two, you know I have to ask," Ash began, "where on God's green earth did you get all of that junk?"

It was lunchtime at Nockfell High School. As usual, the group had gathered at their table to eat together. Larry and Violet decided to save most of their snacks for now, as their only other option was the school's disgusting bologna sandwiches.

Violet took a bite out of one of the 4 Astroid Brownies in her lunchbox. "We went to the gas station at 3 AM," she bragged.

"On a school night?!"

"Yup!"

"That explains your lack of focus in organic chemistry," Todd interjected. "You mistook Hydrogen for Helium multiple times."

"You should come with us next time!" She turned to Sal, who hadn't said a word so far. "You too, Sal!"

He looked up from the bologna sandwich on his tray, which he'd been poking at for nearly 20 minutes. "Oh, that's alright. It's not really my thing."

"You won't know until you try it," Larry coaxed.

"Nah, I'm good. Thanks anyway."

Violet gave Larry a look as if to say, "See what I'm talking about?" And he certainly did. He made a mental note to ask him about it when they hung out later.

Ash grabbed Violet's lunchbox and peeked inside of it. "So, you're eating 4 Astroid Brownies, a pack of Sour Worms, a peanut butter cup, and an obnoxious amount of nacho cheese chips for lunch?"

"I guess we went a little overboard..." she responded, sheepishly.

"I'll say."

"What about you, Larry?"

"Heh heh, na-cho business."

> > >

Violet had a dreadful feeling as she walked into algebra. She didn't feel ready to see Sal treat her like she wasn't there again. Part of her was still on a high from the thrilling night she had. Something told her that this would certainly ruin it.

She took her seat in the back of the room again. She noticed that the word "Project" was written in huge letters on the chalkboard. Slowly, she felt her heart sinking. The fun was over and the dreadful cycle had continued. She'd do anything to be back in that parking lot with Larry without her school work and Sal looming over her head.

Sal arrived about a minute or two after her and returned to the desk closest to the door, not even bothering to look in her direction. Go figure. She stared at the back of his head for a moment, resting her head in her hand. All she wanted was to understand. Maybe this would hurt a little less if she knew why he was doing this to her. What could she have done to make him this upset with her?

Mrs. Packerton tapped a ruler against her desk to gain everyone's attention as soon as the bell rang. "Let's get started, shall we?"

Silence. A few students nodded just so she'd get on with the lesson.

"We'll be starting a project today. You'll all be working in pairs, which means no individual or group work. I'll assign your partners."

Violet's heart leapt. What if she was so lucky as to be paired with Sal? Or...would that be lucky? What if he ignored her the whole time they worked together? What if they got in an argument? Then again, what if they worked everything out and became friends again? What if he told her what she did wrong so she could apologize and regain his trust? Her eyes wandered back to the back of his head. This was her chance. Well, as long as Mrs. Packerton granted it to her.

Mrs. Packerton began rattling off names. Some students rolled their eyes when they heard their partner's name, while others fist pumped or whispered "Yes!" to themselves. Violet anxiously listened for either her or Sal's name.

"Sal Fisher and..." Her heart stopped. "Amy Fletcher."

Turns out, Amy was the girl who sat beside her. She huffed while crossing her arms over her chest. Violet was sure that Mrs. Packerton would hear her performance, but she seemed to have missed it. She wanted to look over at Amy and shoot her a nasty glare. Maybe Sal didn't want to be her friend, but that didn't mean she'd let anyone treat him poorly. Amy's dramatic behavior wasn't just about not getting the partner she wanted. It was about getting Sally Face himself as her partner. Violet knew that for sure. She made a mental note to keep an eye on her.

After a few more names were listed and then...

"Travis Phelps and Violet Sinclaire."

Violet's jaw dropped as Travis let out a frustrated groan. Even Amy Fletcher gave her a look of pity. Sal perked up at the news, his head immediately snapping in Travis's direction.

"What?" Travis snarled at him.

"Travis," Mrs. Packerton intervened. "Enough."

Surely this was some sort of twisted nightmare. Travis had to have liked someone in this class. Why couldn't he just be paired with them? Wasn't Mrs. Packerton aware that he tried beat her to a pulp during her first week here? There was no way she'd make it out of this class in one piece.

When the class was permitted to move next to their partners, Violet felt as if she'd been glued to her seat. Her brain told her to get up and sit next to Travis, but her muscles wouldn't comply. Amy stormed toward where Sal was sitting and threw herself into the seat next to him. At least she had guts. Although, Sal would never hurt a fly, whereas Travis would hurt anything in his path if he felt like it.

"Well?!" His bitter voice came from where he was sitting. "Get a move on!"

With a gulp, Violet gathered her things and dragged herself over to the empty seat on his left. At least from here she had a good view of Sal and Amy. "Listen," she said, forcing the fear out of her voice and replacing it with confidence, "we either suck it up and work through this, or we can fight the whole time and make it take longer. Your choice."

He scoffed. "I'll do whatever the hell I want, Sinclaire."

Violet placed her calculator on her desk and skimmed over the written instructions for the project Mrs. Packerton had provided. "Looks like it's about quadratics. How confident are you with this?"

"What's it to you?"

"So I know how to divide the work." She snuck a glance over at Sal and Amy. So far, so good.

"I don't know! I'm fine at this shit, I guess. Shut the hell up already and let's get to work! I'm already sick of you."

Violet bit her tongue as a stream of insults bubbled up in her throat. She knew better than to cater to his aggression. Reacting to his rash behavior would only make it worse. She hated this project more than anything already. "I'll do the quadratic formula problems, and you can do the factoring. How's that?"

"Whatever."

The two got to work, silently scribbling on scratch paper and typing on their calculators. Not having to listen to Travis's ranting and raving was like pure bliss. This gave Violet time to sneak another peek at how Sal and Amy were doing. She watched as Sal leaned over to look at her paper, causing her to dramatically lean away from him as if he had lice or scabies. After continuing to observe, she saw Amy repeat this behavior several more times any time Sal even looked in her direction. He didn't react to this at all. But, Violet couldn't stand watching this happen to him. She didn't care what was going on between them at the moment.

"Travis," she whispered without thinking.

"What? Don't you ever shut up?!" He barked.

"Shh! Look!"

Travis scoffed and followed her gaze. He smirked as Amy scooted her chair away from Sal and grimaced at him. "Ha! Freak's getting what he deserves."

"Ugh," Violet rolled her eyes at him. "I'm gonna go say something."

"Oh yeah? What are you gonna do? Cry about it?"

She grabbed her pencil and papers of her desk. "Nope, even better. Be right back."

Travis snickered as she rose from her seat and approached Sal and Amy. She clutched her things to her chest, partly nervous about how Sal would respond to what she was about to do. This would only work if he treated her like they were friends again. It was a bit of a stretch, but it was much smarter than starting a fight, especially under Mrs. Packerton's watch. She had Travis trained to obey her like a dog. That woman meant business.

"Sal," Violet began, dropping her papers onto his desk. The pair looked up at her. "I'm really struggling with the quadratic formula. Can you help me?"

"I thought you knew that like the back of your hand," he replied, frowning behind his prosthetic. "You don't need my help."

She pulled an empty chair across from him and sat down. "Evidently not. So I'm asking you for help."

"Alright."

Amy took this opportunity to turn with her back to Sal and work on her own. Violet hardly listened as the blue-haired boy walked through one of the problems for her, as she already knew exactly what to do. She wasn't in this class for nothing, after all.

"Basically, solve what's under the square root first and you'll be fine," Sal finished off after a few minutes. "Does that make sense?"

"Yes, that makes perfect sense." Violet then turned to Amy. "You know, you're lucky to have Sal as your partner. He's super smart and nice. He'll help you out whenever you ask."

Amy sneered at her as she stood up and headed back to her own seat. It seemed that Violet's bold action had some sort of impact on her, even if it was just embarrassing her a little. Sal's eyes followed her for a moment before he hurriedly looked back down at his own paper.

"That was your master plan?" Travis snarked as she sat back down. "What a joke!"

Violet smirked as Amy went back to work with Sal. She no longer jerked away from him when he moved or spoke. "Yeah, but it worked, didn't it?"

"Hmph!"