"Miss Nix. Miss Nix. MISS NIX!" My teacher for calculus, Mr. Mattis, yelled banging his fist on his desk.

"Yeah?" I ask waking up from my nap.

"School is not a place for sleeping." He said in a huff

"Yeah? Well then home isn't place to study." I reply, yawning.

"Why I never-" he cut himself off, "The gall of kids these days." He said turning red in the ears. "If you think you are above it, then you shouldn't need any assistance with your textbook assignment."

I yawned again. "It is already done."

His face went pink. "Well then if you are so sure of yourself then there is not issues with me going over in now, and sharing your answers with the class."

I let out a snort. "Do whatever you want teach I couldn't care less." Now extremely angry he slammed my book on his desk and moved the projector over my paper, so sure I would have something done wrong. My immaculate handwriting was displayed on the board as he went over every problem.

Dissatisfied he says, "You could have easily gotten the answers from the back of the book."

"Hate to break it to ya teach. But the answer sheets in the back of the book do not exist in the student copies. Check for yourself." He flipped to he back to the book and you could very clearly see that there were no answer keys. You could also see that I already answered everything in the book for the rest of this year.

"Well that doesn't give you the right to disrupt my class." He spat out.

"Are you fucking kidding me? You woke me the fuck up for this bullshit. Don't get salty because an 18-year-old girl showed you up." I shot back.

"That's it. Get out of my class room."

"Fucking gladly." I grab my bag and walk to the door. I turn and walk to his desk and grab my textbook. Standing by the exit I have to have the last word. "By the way old man, you did number 3 wrong on the whiteboard." And then I let the door slam shut behind me.

********

Laying down on the metal bleachers by the football field with my headphones in I feel someone walking up to me. Sitting up I watched Zayne sit in the spot where my head just was. Stretching, I lay back down and place my head on his lap. He is stiff for a long while before relaxing and leaning back onto the bleacher behind him. "Does it not bother you or do you just not care?"

I'm not sure what in specific he is asking me about but I say, "I've come to a point in my life where I couldn't care less about what people think of me. I live on a day-to-day basis, doing what ever, and who ever I'd like, because at the end of the day Ill do whatever the fuck makes me happy. Does that make me selfish? Fuck yeah, but I always care. Now how much in the moment varies," I laugh. "...but I never not care."

He gives me a look that makes my heart contract and I have to break eye contact first. I see kids flooding the halls and make that my excuse to leave. "This has been fun but I've gotta go change for gym soon."

"Can't you just port there and like blink your clothes on?" he asks as I walk away.

Turning only my head I give him a half smile, "But where is the fun in that?"

**********

After the conversation with Zayne and having to train the female freshman volleyball team, I was mentally and physically drained and that was uncommon for me. All I wanted to do was go home and make some phone calls. And does that happen?

Nope.

"Hey Eric what's going on?"

"I saw you and the new kid on the bleachers earlier today. Did you skip class with him or something?"

"That's funny. Why? Are you jealous?" I ask him wiggling my eyebrows in a teasing manner.

He rubs the back of his neck and says, "Nah. I was just wondering what the deal was with you two."

"Awe. You are jealous. I haven't got into his pants... yet." I tease some more. "But don't worry. You will always be my favorite booty call."

"Right." His face turns sour for a moment. "So wanna hang today?"

"Nah, I've got shit to do. Maybe later. Besides, we have all summer to hang after graduation."

*********

I'm trapped in the room again. I'm hanging from the ceiling chains and my feet barely scrape the ground. The familiar chill seeps into my bones when I hear the creak of the door open. He stalks towards me with an evil glint in his eyes and a whip in his hand. I try to fight, to scream to do anything other than hang there, helplessly. But I can't. My body feels weighed down, as if my blood has turned to lead. And all I can do his hang there as he comes closer. Not bothering to give me his usual taunts, he rips my shirt off, leaving by bare child torso exposed to the elements. He cracks the whip behind me. If I didn't feel so heavy I might have flinched. I hear the whip crack again and then I feel a dull burn on my back that heat up gradually to a low pain. I hear another crack and the stark pain blinds me. The fire that is pain licks my back over and over and over. It burns and replaces the chill in my bones. And despite the pain I don't scream, I can't scream. My blood is still lead and all I can do as the pain overcomes me, and as he reduces the skin on my back to bits of bloody flesh, is hang there swinging back and forth. When the abuse to my body becomes too much for my mind to handle, the scene changes. I'm back in my cell. Kylo, Marcus, and I are telling stories of what our lives before we were taken when we head the metal door at the end of the hall open. We become silent wondering who they are coming for. They take Marcus and at the time Kylo and I don't worry. At this point he has been here for, what we think might have been, a few months. He is gone for hours. Then days. After a few weeks, we know he isn't coming back. The next time they come for anyone is a month after they took Marcus. They take Kylo this time. For the first time since I've been abducted I see Kylo as they take him away. He has straight orange hair, long knotted and filthy from his time as a captive here. He has pale skin covered in dirt, smudges and scars. He is wearing ripped jean shorts that are worse for the wear and I can't help but wonder when the last time he had a change of clothes was. His bright green eyes find mine in my dimly lit cell and for a moment everything stops. Looking into his eyes I can see that he has given up all hope. I run up the bars on my cell but can do nothing but watch as his scarred back disappears into the darkness of the hall. Falling to my knees I sob, scared that I will never hear his voice again. The heavy metal door opens again, and then slams closed.

I shoot out of bed covered in sweat and breathing hard. I bring my knees to my chest and hum softly to slow my breathing. With my heart rate back to normal I walk over to my window seat and light a cigarette. The instant I inhale I feel my nerves calm down, and I lean against the wall looking out of the opened window up at the moon.