Carl felt like he'd lost all his strength to Simon that now had double strength. Simon split the bench in two pieces, one side with Carl and one with Courtney. Courtney gasped.

"What's HAPPENING?"

Simon looked wondering at Carl.

"Why aren't you answering?"

Carl woke up from the nightmare, both scared and relieved that the daydream finally ended.

"What did you say before?"

"I asked you out on a date."

Carl's face lit up. He'd never been asked out on a date before.

"What time?"

"Does it work after school?"

Yeah, of course!"

Courtney looked at Carl's blue hoodie.

"Nice hoodie. When did you buy it?"

"A year ago."

"I've never seen it on you before. You look good in it."

Carl looked at Courtney's dress.

"And you look good in your outfit."

"Thanks, I put my best clothes on today before we would have our date after school."

Carl gave her a sly grin.

"And how did you know I was going to say yes?"

Courtney pushed Carl jokingly on his arm.

"Because we're together."

She pressed her lips against Carl's and they started to kiss. It was the first kiss ever for both of them. When they were finished kissing, they saw a younger kid that looked disgusted at them. They didn't care about that. Nothing could make them feel awkward now. The kid walked away and Carl put his arm around Courtney.

The school bell rang and everyone got into their respective classes. Carl's and Courtney's class had P.E. That day, it was dodgeball. The gym teacher (Jack) had separated the students into two groups with ten people in each group. Everyone of them had training jackets that they borrowed from the school gym. Blue and green. Trent, Courtney and Harry were in "The Green Team" and Carl and Lizzie in "The Blue Team". Jack blew the whistle that was hanging around his neck. Everyone started to throw the red balls at each other. They were quite talented. It was harder to throw than to be thrown at. The one who threw the hardest balls was Trent. Carl thought that Trent was nicer now but maybe he was wrong. Trent looked at Carl with disgust every time they exchanged glances. As if it was Carl's fault that Trent hypnotized the girls. He could see the jealousy in his eyes. Suddenly, Trent threw a ball at Carl's face and his nose started to bleed. Carl stared at Trent but Trent didn't care. He just cared about that he finally made Carl sad after all of Carl's happiness. Not a single girl wanted to be together with Trent, just Carl. Carl ran out from the school gym to the schoolyard. He almost decided to run home but then he remembered that his parents were at work. Courtney ran after him, in her gym clothes.

"Carl!"

Carl looked at her with a sad face.

"Trent hates me! What have I ever done to him?"

"Nothing. He's just a bully, don't care about him. He wanted you to get out of the gym just so you would get bad grades. But that would be his loss too. I saw the look of Jack, the gym teacher. He seemed disappointed of both you and Trent."

Carl sighed deeply.

"I don't want to go back in there... But you can. If you want too, of course."

"Sure. See ya!"

They waved to each other and Courtney ran back to the school gym. When she got there, the only ones left were Trent and Jack. Jack frowned at Trent.

"What were you thinking!?"

Trent rolled his eyes.

"Don't yell at me. I had my reasons."

"No, you didn't. He's never done anything to you. And you're doing the same mistakes over and over again!"

Courtney sneaked out to the dressing room.

Carl opened his locker and took out two paper towels from a Kleenex pack that was in his backpack. He put them in his nostrils and looked himself in the mirror that hanged in the locker.

"My nose looks awful", he thought. "But two can play this game."

Carl started to do mean things to Trent, secretly. He put hot, red chili pepper in his food when no one saw it. Trent had to drink a lot of water to get rid of the burning feeling in his mouth and throat. Then, he attached a piece of paper on Trent's back with the text: "I love to ruin people's lives". Trent didn't notice it until the principal (Tim) took it off him.

"It's either Carl or Simon who's behind the two things that happened to me. Or both of them."

Tim nodded.

"I'll talk to them in my office."

Carl and Simon sat on two chairs in front of the principal. Simon frowned.

"This is ridiculous. I didn't do anything."

Tim looked at them, firmly.

"One of you put hot, red chili pepper in Trent's food and put a sign on his back."

When Trent did things to Carl, he never got called to the principal's office. Carl always wondered why no one snitched at him. Probably because no one dared to. Even though, Carl started to feel guilty.

Simon shook his head, angry.

"Forget it. I'm outta here..."

"Not so fast, Simon. Someone has to confess."

Carl couldn't stand it anymore. He had to tell him the truth.

"It was me!"

Tim and Simon stared at Carl. They'd never thought that Carl really was guilty. Simon thought that Trent said it was Carl just to get rid of him. And Tim thought it was Simon since Trent told him about Carl and Simon. Tim looked at him, suspiciously.

"Is it really true...?"

Carl looked down, ashamed.

"Yes..."

"I'm afraid I'll have to give you a punishment. Clean the toilets on the breaks."

"What!? I've never cleaned a toilet in my whole life!"

"The cleaner will show you."

Simon got up from the chair, to the door, smirking.

"I'm glad that I'm not the one who got the punishment."