"Mon ami, are you alright?" Laf asks, raising an eyebrow at me.

I look up from my gross cafeteria food and look at him. "Hm? Oh yeah, I'm fine." I say. 

Herc sighs. "Obviously you are not. You've been staring at your food this entire lunch period and haven't said a word." 

I shrug. "I'm not hungry." I say, pushing my food away from me. They both give me a stern look and I sigh. "What? It's true!"

Obviously it wasn't true. They knew that. I knew that. I'm not sure why I was still lying to them. 

"Alex, you have been acting strange like this for three weeks now. You think we haven't noticed you've been pulling away from us?" Lafayette asks. 

"I haven't been pulling away from you guys-"

"You're still lying to us!" Herc interrupts. "You know you've been shutting yourself out. What are you keeping from us?"

I hesitate. Do I tell them or do I keep the act up? I didn't want the fact that John was acting like nothing had happened between us to become a reality. I thought maybe if I kept it a secret, I could pretend nothing even happened in the first place. 

"I swear, I'm not hiding anything from you guys. Since when am I not an open book with you guys?" I ask, smiling at them. 

They frown and shake their heads at me. "Okay, I see..." Hercules mumbles, standing up. I raise an eyebrow and Lafayette stands up as well.

"Where are you two going?"

"Talk to us when you want to stop lying, Alexander." Laf says before the two walk away from the table. I stare in shock at them as they leave. Were we fighting? That's never happened before..

The vacant seats are quickly filled up by two of the Schuyler sisters, the youngest in yellow sitting down next to me. I groan gently. "Can I help you?"

"What's going on between you and John?" Eliza asks bluntly. 

I raise an eyebrow and glance at Peggy, who's subtly shaking her head. "I don't know what you mean, Elizabeth. There never has been, and never will be, anything between John and I."

"Oh, cut the crap, Alexander." Angelica scoffs. "He's been off around us and we know it has something to do with you. And clearly something's up because your two only friends just left you alone at this table."

"They just wanted to head to class early." I smirk at them. "Listen, I'm sorry, but I can't help you ladies. You guys know him way better than I do." 

"I have a feeling you know more about him now, though." Eliza raises an eyebrow skeptically at me. 

"What exactly are you guys suggesting?" I ask, placing my elbows on the table and leaning my chin in my hands. 

Angelica glares at me. "I"m not sure. But whatever it is you two are hiding, we're going to find out. It's what I'm good at." She smirks back at me and I feel slightly intimidated. Angelica was probably the only scary one out of that group, because she had connections and knew things, and could ruin your whole career in seconds. 

They stand up and Eliza raises an eyebrow at me. "Also, don't think this gets you out of anything. You just have a little break today. You're welcome." Her and Angelica turn and promptly walk away, leaving their little sister sitting next to me. 

I look over at her. "You aren't going to follow them?" I ask. 

"Oh, I will. I just wanted to say be careful. Angelica will find out if you slip up.." Peggy warns.

I nod. "Yeah, I know.. Have they talked to John yet?" 

"I'm assuming that's where they're headed now." She sighs. "I'd better get going. Bye, loser." She stands up and walks away from my table. I look at the food on my plate and sigh before standing and throwing it away, heading to my next class. 

Timeskip brought to you by the clock crying, "Wait, not yet!" (Wow, I listen to The Last Five Years a lot)

"Alright, debaters! We have a competition this weekend, and it's a duo competition this time. You guys will be paired up with someone-" He paused when people started talking to each other, already deciding who they would partner up with. Washington interrupted them with, "-who I will be pairing you up with." 

A collective groan was heard, including from me. Angelica raises her hand. "Mr. Washington, sir, why are we being assigned partners? That's just not fair to us because we may get stuck with someone less talented, and they could get in the way of me winning-"

"Angelica, are you even coming to the competition this weekend? Or will you be in Miami or something?" He asks. 

"Well, I'm actually staying in town this weekend, and I will be going. I just don't want to get stuck with someone like.." She looks over at me with a disgusted look on her face. I make the face back at her and then roll my eyes and turn back to see Washington smirking gently. 

"Great, so Alex and Angelica will be paired up. Let's see..Thomas Jefferson, you'll be with-"

"Wait, I can't be with him!" Angelica shrieks.

"Trust me, I don't want to be with you, either." I mumble, crossing my arms. 

"Hush, you two. You're not changing my mind. Let's do Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, and then...Oh, there's three left.." He thinks about it. "We need to find an alternate."

"I volunteer Aaron." Paine jokes. He thought he was so funny, but really I just think he hated Aaron. 

"Thank you for volunteering yourself, Paine. Aaron and James will be partnered up." Washington says, looking down at his papers. I snicker as Paine scoffs and stares in shock. "Alright, stop staring. Everyone get into your groups. Paine, go with Angelica and Alex for now." 

We all get up and sit with our partners. I sigh as I sit in the desk behind Angelica, Paine sitting in the desk next to her. "So, Angelica, how have you been lately?" Paine asks. 

"Give it up, Thomas. I broke up with you for a reason." Angelica says and rolls her eyes before turning to me. "Alright, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to write both sides and you're going to study them like your life depends on it, because I do not want to lose this competition."

"Well, I'm finally not going against you, so you may have a chance to win this time." I smile and she gets angry. "Also, you're not writing both sides, I don't trust that one bit. I want to do good, so I'll write one side, you write the other." 

"Absolutely not. You think I trust you to write something good?" She asks. 

"Well, I think you should. Considering how many times you've come in second place to me. I've won way more competitions than you." I argue back. 

"Wow, you haven't even got your debate topic and you're already debating. What else did I expect from you two?" Washington asks as he hands us a paper. "Try to stay on topic, please." He says before walking to one of the other groups. 

I look at Angelica and she snatches the paper, reading the topic off. "Should children be taught about religion in schools?" 

"Hell no." I say, looking at the paper. I groan. "You've got the agree side, I'm doing the disagree argument." 

"Well, fine." Angelica rolls her eyes and sticks the paper in her bag. 

"Paine, go join Aaron and James's group!" Washington calls from the other side of the classroom. 

Thomas Paine winks at us- well, Angelica -and walks to join the group he was told. Angelica leans in close to me and whispers, "This is the perfect opportunity for me to find out what you're hiding. Last chance to fess up before I find out myself." 

I shake my head. "You can try, but you're not going to find anything." I whisper back. 

"Alright, make sure you have your outlines done by tomorrow. We're meeting everyday this week and will have details on the competition tomorrow. Now get out of my classroom so I can go home." Washington says and I gather my stuff together. 

I walk out of the classroom and as I'm walking through the school, I see John walking out of the same classroom he did a few days ago. I walk up to him again. "Man, you must be failing that class pretty bad." I tease. 

He just nods, not looking at me. I frown when he does't reply. 

"John? You okay?" I ask. 

"You know, you probably shouldn't be talking to me right now." He mumbles. 

I freeze and raise an eyebrow. "No one even comes this way, they all exit towards the main parking lot." I reason. 

He shakes his head and looks up at me. He looks and sounds afraid, but he does a somewhat good job of masking it. "Look, I would rather we just not talk at school anymore. Like, at all. You know, like it used to be?"

I feel saddened by this but I nod. "Yeah..Yeah okay. See you later, I guess." 

He nods and walks away. I sigh and walk the other way. I'm sure he just didn't want anyone to find out, but I don't get why it was such a big deal for him. If people found out, they'd take all the teasing and bullying out on me, not him. 

But it's whatever I guess. It's not like I care. The only reason he's even in my life is because he's paying me college money, and I can live with that. 

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