Begrudgingly, I slammed my locker shut. What a waste of time, I thought. An hour of assembly and all that happened was getting talked at about not drinking if you're underage. This was never going to be an issue for me; who in their right mind would invite me to a party? And even if the message did apply to other people who did go to parties, it wasn't like they were ever going to listen to what that crabby lady had been saying. Next weekend there was going to be another party whether or not the assembly had been held, and someone was going to get their older brother or cousin or uncle to buy a bunch of alcohol, and everyone was going to go and trash someone's house while the parents are away, and they would all wake up on Sunday morning next to someone disappointing with an agonizing headache and a thousand regrets. Taking an hour of class time to blow hot air into a furnace was definitely not something I felt was worthwhile.

I turned to walk to history class, pushing my glasses up my nose. Elsa was standing at her locker further down the hall in my path, but I wasn't going to bother saying hello. She was busy talking to Cap, anyways. "Please, Elsa," he said softly, leaning nonchalantly against the wall, "it's the semifinal. You have to come."

"Dylan, I'm not that into football," the blonde said, putting a few binders away and taking a textbook into her bag. "I don't really want to go, I'm sorry."

Cap reached his hand out and ran it up and down Elsa's arm. "Sweetie, c'mon." He smiled. "One game. You said before the last game that you'd come if we won." Elsa shut her locker heavily. Cap stood upright. "One game."

"Okay, I'll come," she said, putting her bag over her shoulder. She shut her locker and started walking away. "But I'm not sitting with Kelsey, she makes me anxious."

Cap's grin was enormous. "You don't have to sit with no-one, Elsa." She stood up on her toes and kissed him as she walked past. Once his lips were free, Cap thanked her once more. "I'm up for a record, too; I've gotta impress you now." Elsa walked down the hall, rolling her eyes. "I'll see you for lunch, girly!"

Elsa waved shyly and turned around. She passed by a group of girls at another locker and quickened her pace; I immediately saw why. The group of girls shot looks at her so sour they could have pickled the air. The hostility was like a punch in the gut, and I was even a good ten yards away. I could hardly imagine what Elsa must have felt like.

"Rookie!" Cap boomed into my line of sight and fell into stride with me. "Heading to class, big man?"

I nodded. "I've got history," I said boringly, "just walking over there."

"Nice stuff, bud," Cap grinned, "do you have it with Foreman? Or are you in Anna's class?"

I tripped over my own tongue. "No, I'm in Anna's class. I was on my way to meet her and we were going to go together."

"That's cool, man. It must be great having her in that class with you; you don't have to worry about not knowing anyone. It's always weird when you have to do group projects and stuff with random kids."

"Totally," I replied. It's also nice to know that at least once a day she remembers who I am.

"Dylan?" Cap spun around at the sound of his name. He and I had made it over to the group of girls that had given Elsa death stares. They were all locked on to Cap, paying less than no attention to me; for all I knew, I had just turned invisible.

"Tish," Cap said, "hey! What's up?"

The tallest of the girls, presumedly the one who had gotten Cap's attention, pushed some of her bleached-blonde hair out of her face so it wouldn't stick to her spray-on tan. "You texted me earlier? Said y'had something to ask?" The girls gathered around her wriggled excitedly.

Cap clapped his hands together. "Right! I totally forgot! I needed to ask a favor of you!" He took his backpack off and unzipped the pouch. "I missed class the other day, and I was wondering if you'd let me copy your notes. I know we have a quiz coming up soon, and Elsa's really on my case about passing."

Tish's smile curled into a grimace for less than a millisecond before she bobbled her head—her heavily-styled hair rustled stiffly—and reached back into her locker. "Of course, Dylan, it's no trouble at all!" The sweetness in her voice was almost venomous. She handed Cap an orange notebook from her locker, which he slipped into his backpack. "Just don't take too long with it now, y'hear? I've gotta study for that test myself."

"Don't you worry, Tish; I'll have it back to you after lunch." Cap closed the zipper and shouldered his bag. "Thank you so much, Tish."

Tish giggled. "Of course," she said. Cap waved goodbye and took off down the hall, leaving me standing by myself next to a pack of upperclassmen girls. Well, I guess it's probably too much for him to be unnervingly friendly all the time. Once Cap was out of earshot, the group of girls let out a collective groan; my mind was filled with the image of cats with their hackles raised.

"Girl, you so do not deserve him if he's going to treat you like that," came a nasally voice from somewhere in the group.

"You're just too good for him, he can't see what it is you have," added a second voice.

"You're a hundred times prettier than that basic city bitch he's climbing all over," spat a third. Wow, I thought, that invisibility thing may not be too far off. "Did you see what she was wearing today? Did she get dressed by a blind homeless person?"

Trish made a small "aww" sound, and wrapped her arms around the girls closest to her. "Thanks, girls," she said, "but I'll be okay." She looked down the hallway after Cap. "He'll figure it out soon enough."

"He'd better," one of the girls hissed, "before Psycho makes him all weird."

"Honestly, of all the perfectly good girls here, he picks her? It's disgusting."

"Has she even said two words since she got here? How does he even know what he's sticking his dick in?"

"Maybe he does; because you know what they say: the quiet ones get louder when you take their clothes off."

"You shut up!" Everyone's head, including mine, snapped towards the angry shout that had exploded into the hallway. Anna was standing not three feet away, her fingers white-knuckle clenching the binder clutched to her chest. Her face was stern, her eyebrows furrowed, and her teeth bared. "You shut your mouth about my sister!"

Tish scoffed, stepping past her posse and standing toe-to-toe with Anna. "Excuse me, bitch?" The older girl peered down her nose at the little redhead. "Were we talking to you?"

Anna didn't give an inch. "Dylan would never go out with you if he heard you talk like that! You apologize right now!"

Tish laughed, throwing her head back and laughing up to the ceiling. Behind her, the group of girls began to snicker too. She regained her breath, looking back down at Anna. "Listen to me, you little twat," she began, "I'll say whatever I damn well want to say about whoever I damn well want to say it about. You have no right to tell me to do anything, you hear?"

"Nobody talks about my sister like that!"

"That weird-o bitch is your older sister? No wonder you're such an ugly, flat-chested little bitch! Your momma must have hit the two of you with the ugly switch when you were little; no human being alive could end up looking like you otherwise."

I knew the insults about her appearance were going to be about as hurtful as water is to a duck, but Anna's lip quivered for a different reason. "Leave my parents out of this," she said, weaker than before.

"Why should I? They aren't dead, are they?" Anna's ears turned red. "And even if they were, it'd probably be for the better; they wouldn't have to see what a social disgrace their slutty daughter is, and how stupidly hopeless her kid sister has become."

Anna turned and started running down the hall. "I hope you die!" Her words were garbled by an onslaught of tears, but I could hear the fiery hatred that was spat into them. I watched her scamper off, away from the room we had history in. I felt my stomach turn sour. That wasn't right. That wasn't the way she should be. Tish and her friends had gathered around one another again, muttering this and that about Anna and Elsa as the last of the footfalls faded away. They were smiling, happy about it.

You're all disgusting.

"Excuse me?" It was suddenly a lot more crowded than it had been a few seconds ago. Tish and all her friends had encircled me, hands on their hips, glaring daggers at me. "Mind running that by us again?"

It was in that moment I realized I had thought that out loud.

Tish squinted, curling her lip in disdain. "Who even are you, string bean? Did you get lost on the way to the comic book store?"

One of her friends piped up from the back. "If you have something on your mind, please say it; we're so interested."

I looked at all the fake-tan faces and horribly colored hair-dos that were around me, the push-up bras and too-tight jeans reminders that I was not in any position to be speaking to them. It would probably be best for me to pass it off like they had misheard, or even fake that I had said nothing. Flattery would get me nowhere; they'd already proven that they don't really care if I'm alive or dead, but I'd opened my stupid mouth and given them an opportunity to flay me as sport. There was one last thing that came to mind to do, though, and something in my gut told me to do it.

"You don't know anything about her, or her sister; it's gross of you to say stuff like that."

There was a collective laugh from the group of girls. Tish crossed her arms. "Are you a freshman too, four-eyes? Anyone with two drops of common sense would know that I say whatever the hell I want."

I felt my throat start to close up, but I was pushed on by the still-fresh memory of Anna running away. "Just because nobody's stopped you before doesn't mean you're right. Saying stuff about her family was really too far. You need to apologize."

Tish patted me on the shoulder. "When pigs fly, squirt." She pointed down the hallway. "Now run along after your little girlfriend, make sure she knows how brave you were to stick up for her just now, and maybe she'll finally let you kiss her on the cheek."

I clenched my fist. "You're a sad human being." Tish rolled her eyes and turned her back. Her friends made throaty grunts of disgust and followed suit. They buzzed away like a single entity, but I found it hard to move; my knees had locked up from the anxiety that was coursing through my veins. Funny, I hadn't noticed that before.

With Tish gone, there was only one thing that was on my mind now. I turned away from history class and chased after Anna. The bell rang for the start of class as I jogged past a small corridor between two sets of lockers, catching a glimpse of red hair out of the corner of my eye. I slid to a stop, backtracking to find Anna standing up against the wall, eyes closed and head bowed.

I stepped quietly into the corridor. "Hey." She looked up at me. I cleared my throat. "I, uh…Are you—"

She stepped off the wall and thudded her forehead into my chest, pressing hard into me and causing me to stumble backwards slightly. My heart leaped into my throat when I realized I had grabbed hold of her arms to hold myself steady; I felt like I wasn't worthy to touch her unless she said so. Almost instantly, my hands sprung up into the air. Anna drew in a deep breath, huffing loudly into my shirt; she was still crying. My hands hovered inches away from her back. Do it, stupid. Man up and be her friend. Slowly, I lowered my palms onto her back.

She was warm to the touch, and the green cardigan she was wearing felt really soft. I could feel her ribs moving as she pushed out sob after sob. Hesitantly, I moved one hand up and down her back, using the other to gently pat her shoulder. "Hey," I said again, less than a whisper. I felt like I was holding a butterfly, and I was afraid to crush it. "Anna?"

"Why didn't you say something?"

My silence must not have been an adequate response, because Anna picked her head up from my chest and looked me square in the face. "You were standing right there," she said, "and you just let her say that to me. And what she was saying about Elsa! You just let it happen!"

"Anna, I—"

"I know you aren't good at that sort of thing, but I thought maybe you'd at least try!"

What was I supposed to do? I was still holding her, I could still feel her arms pressed against me. Hell, her big, watery, teal blue eyes were less than eight inches away from the frames of my glasses. What on earth was I supposed to do, right then and there? The truth would be a good place to start, probably.

"I'm sorry," I said, looking at the freckles on her cheeks. I let my arms fall from her back and I stepped away timidly, praying my heart would stop racing. "I…I didn't think of anything to say until after you left."

Anna took a step towards me, pushing up against me again. "Well, did you say it, at least?" Her lower lip quivered, and I found it hard to form words again.

"Y-yeah, I did." I couldn't look her in the face. "I did. I tried." I shook my head. "I don't like it when you're sad, and what she said was terrible." I stepped back again. "I'm sorry it wasn't good enough; I should have tried harder."

"No, Micah," Anna said. She wiped her eyes and stepped towards me again. This time, though, she wrapped her arms around me. She sighed shakily. "I trust that you did your best." She shook her head, rubbing against my chest. "I'm just…"

I smirked joylessly. "I know," I said. You're just upset. At Tish, and at me. Anna was always touchy when it came to the subject of her parents, and in all the years since she'd re-appeared in my life, I'd never really known why that was the case. Well, aside from the fact that they had died, obviously. I had never been sure how to ask about it, so I'd sort of just arrived at the conclusion that I would live without knowing and have to be careful when talking about her home here in Aarondale and her relationship with her sister. Because I really did hate to see her upset; she was so much prettier when she was happy and her normal self. I should have spoken up sooner.

Anna laughed quietly. "Of course you know," she said matter-of-factly, "you know better than anyone." She let go of me and wiped her eyes again. Clearing her throat, she wrapped her hands around her binder again. "Come on, we're already late." She slipped past me and started walking towards history class.

I took a moment and let the past few minutes sink in. I know better than anyone, huh? I followed her down the hallway.

If I know better than anyone, then the whole world is done for.