"Do guy's who get charged with sexual assault or rape get sent here?"

"No," Sage assured me. "With having a co-ed population they can't have those kinds of offenders sent here."

Well, that was a relief.

Lolly was pouting about not getting her moment at the window with Lucas during lunch. Instead, Mr. B walked Lucas and Wes through the serving line and to their table where the rest of the class B kids soon joined them. I couldn't help my eyes from wondering to Wes but eventually tried to mentally restrain myself. Even though I couldn't help but notice him looking back at me.

Everyone's tales of horror played through my mind. Some scarier than others, like Wes, Lucas, and Lolly's. Even Alicia's actions resulted in a death, and mine could have. But did that mean they were bad, or that I was bad? I didn't feel like I was some horrible person but then again, maybe someone who was truly crazy or evil wouldn't feel bad about the wicked things they had done. I, however, did feel guilty and sorry for what I did to Kelly, I just didn't think that my actions made me a bad person.

Sage and Lolly seemed to be stuck in their thought as well, but we were all brought out of our own heads when Alicia and Declan took seats at our table.

"So when are we hanging out?" Declan asked, grabbing a tater tot from Sage's tray. She tried to smack it out of his hand but missed and his smile grew wider.

"Well, I'm free after dinner though. I don't think it would be smart to invite the class B rejects," Alicia stated.

Lolly's face pinched in annoyance while announcing, "Well I think it would be a great idea to invite them."

Alicia chuckled, while Declan stole another tater from Sage.

"Of course you do, you want time to make goo-goo eyes at your red-headed demon boyfriend."

Lolly looked like she was about to jump across the table.

"Guys cool it," I called out which seemed to get their attention. "Look, you guys want to meet up, then that includes Wes and Lucas."

No one questioned me, surprisingly. Sage nodded in agreement before suggesting, "How about the TV room? After dinner? Everyone else will probably hang outside."

Everyone agreed and Lolly skipped her way over to Mr. B to invite Wes and Lucas.

Later that evening, Lolly, Sage, and I quietly ate our dinner waiting for the bell to ring so we could head to the TV room. I didn't think anyone knew what to expect from this get-together. Would we talk about the class, the things that landed us all here, or the fact that we all seemed to have something in common that we knew nothing about?

The bell rang and we headed across the hall to the TV room. Sage was right, no one was in there, but the TV was on some news channel. Sage and I both flopped down on one of the three green couches placed around the front of the TV. Lolly stood in the middle of the room nearly bouncing up and down, staring at the door. When the door opened, Lolly looked like she was about to pounce but in walked Alicia and Declan causing Lolly to visibly pout. She didn't have to pout for long though, a minute later Mr. B walked in with Wes and Lucas in tow.

"Pookie!" Lolly screamed and jumped into Lucas' arms, wrapping her legs around his waist. He carried her to the couch where he situated both of them in a seat with her in his lap. Alicia made a disgusted look but at least we were all here now. Wes took a seat while throwing me that same sly smile from earlier.

"So what now?" Declan asked, looking around the room at each of us.

No one seemed to know what to say. I thought about it for a minute, but before I could say anything Wes stood up.

"Well, we know whatever this is, has something to do with our birthdays, our most recent birthdays. So what age is everyone?"

"Sixteen," Sage called out and the rest of us all chimed in with mixes of "Me too." and "Same."

"Okay, so that's something else we all have in common. That means it's our birthday's, our ages"

"and the blackouts," Lucas chimed in.

"Right, the blackouts," Wes repeated.

This time Alicia stood up and immediately started eyeballing Lucas and Wes.

"Well here's something we don't all have in common, you two are class B, which means your more dangerous than the rest of us."

"You got room to talk, you're a killer too," Lucas shot back.

"Let's all be honest here, if Sage, Declan, or I hadn't  of been interrupted, we would be killers too," I announced, causing everyone in the room to quiet down for a minute. 

"Well, what did you guys do to get sent to class B?" Sage asked.

"I stabbed a pencil through another guys hand during history class," Lucas stated.

Lolly made sure to add, "He kept grabbing my ass, it was totally justified."

Alicia looked like she was about to start ranting and raving again but before she could, Wes stepped in and gave her a look which sent her right back to her seat.

"As for me," Wes started, "I got into a fist fight with some guy that was bullying this younger kid. I guess any act of violence, even when you're trying to watch out for someone else, is enough to send you to class B."

Lucas nearly choked on his laugh as he added, "Yeah, cause you shattered his cheekbone."

Wes ignored the comment and I wondered if it was true or not. Even if it was I can't say I felt bad for the guy. This time I was the one who stood up and walked over to stand by Wes and faced everyone.

"Okay, maybe being class A or class B has nothing to do with it. So what about the blackouts? Can anyone remember how it felt before it happened?" I asked and Wes looked over at me with a smile. Not one of his flirty or wicked smiles. It seemed like it was more out of appreciation.

"How about you Chloe?" Lolly piped up for the first time, other than to defend Lucas.

I thought about it for a minute before answering.

"I remember being dizzy, and then I got overheated. It felt like I was standing in a fire, and there was this ringing in my ears. After that, everything went black."

I looked to see most of them nodding as if it were the same for them.

"It was like that for me too but right before the black, it was like everything I was looking at was painted in red," Declan added. 

Lucas looked up from Lolly long enough to add, "Me too." 

Wes nodded as well, "Yeah, same here."

"Okay well, maybe it's a little different for guys," I thought out loud.

Things got quiet and then Alicia was huffing and puffing, "Look we're just going in circles. Why don't we chill and just see what Ms. Pierce has in store for us tomorrow?"

We all agreed and took seats back on the couches to watch the news program on the TV. This time, Wes took a seat next to me and out of the corner of my eye I could see he was looking more at me than the TV. I could feel my cheeks getting hot, once again betrayed by my own body. He must have noticed because that sly smile crept across his lips again.

The news program was the usual, weather, sports, things that happened throughout the day. Then a red bulletin spread across the screen with the words "Breaking News!" and the screen changed to show a helicopter view of a cemetery.

The cemeteries here were so much prettier than the ones back home. Ours were just grass and dirt with headstones to mark the burials. But in New Orleans, they had huge cement coverings or tombs with such beautiful statues all around. Not this one though, this one looked destroyed. Like someone had gone through it with a bulldozer. The anchorman said it had been vandalized with no witnesses and they were asking for anyone who knew anything to come forward. When I heard vandalism I usually thought of kids with spray paint, making graffiti and knocking over mailboxes. Whoever did this was more than just a couple of crazy kids.

When the news program ended, the bell rang for everyone to head to the dorms. Everyone started to head out but Mr. B waited for Lucas and Wes at the door. Lolly gave Lucas a bunch of kisses and they held on to each other like they didn't want to let go of one another. Wes started heading for the door, and as he walked by he whispered close to my ear, "See you later Chloe." Then grabbed Lucas by the arm and dragged him to meet Mr. B at the door while saying, "Come on, lover boy."

The next day, I counted the minutes to peer counseling, which only made the time go by slower. When twelve rolled around, I took off for the cafeteria just to find that everyone was already seated in the circle of chairs. Apparently, I wasn't the only one in a rush to get here. Even Ms. Pierce and Mr. B beat me there. I took the only empty seat left, right in between Sage and Wes. I refused to look at Wes, I had the feeling he would for sure be smiling about our seating arrangement.

Ms. Pierce didn't bother to sit this time, instead, she stood in the middle of the circle with her papers in hand.

"So I heard you all got together last night after dinner, and I'm happy. That means you all are taking this seriously. I also know that you all are very curious about what you all have in common. But I don't think we are quite ready for that topic, at least not today."

She shuffled her papers some more.

"Today I want you all to try and get to know each other some more. So I will be breaking you all up into groups of two," she announced and everyone's eyes looked around visually counting.

"I know we have an odd number here, plus" She waved her hand towards Lolly and Lucas, "there's no way I'm going to be able to break up Romeo and Juliet. So we will have two groups of two and one group of three."

She motioned for us all to stand and started having us move the chairs around. We placed three chairs in one corner of the room, two in another, and the last two in another.

"Over here, we will have Lolly, Lucas, and Alicia," Ms. Pierce instructed, pointing to the three chairs in the first corner.

Alicia huffed while Lolly started skipping over, her hand never letting go of Lucas'.

"In this corner, I want Sage and Declan." She pointed to the second set of chairs before saying, "Which leaves Chloe and Wes."

We headed over to the last set of chairs. I felt nervous and couldn't help but feel stupid for being nervous. It wasn't like we were going to be in a room alone together but there was a big amount of space between us and the others. Ms. Pierce even gave us all space and took a seat by the door where Mr. B stood.

Wes waited for me to choose a seat before taking the one facing me. I wasn't sure where we should start or what we should even talk about. Thankfully, he took charge and started the conversation. 

"So where are you from?" he asked casually.

I needed to find something to do with my hands, something to distract me from my stomach doing flips.

"Baltimore. You?"

"Right here in NOLA."

He flashed a smile and for the first time, I could actually start to hear a small accent in his voice.

"So who was this friend you were talking about yesterday? The one that wouldn't look at you when you busted your head?" he asked this time.

I didn't expect him to remember that little detail of my story and was taken back by it. Picturing Brandon in my head now and being face to face with Wes, I couldn't help but wonder what I was thinking back then. Don't get me wrong, Brandon was good looking in the cute boy next door kind of way but looking at Wes, well I had to admit, he blew Brandon out of the water. Not that I was going to tell him that, it didn't seem wise to give his ego the extra boost.

"Well, " I thought how to describe it, "Brandon, he wasn't a close friend just my lab partner. But it still hurt to see him act that way."

Wes' face seemed to get more intense as he bluntly stated, "Well, he's a bitch, obviously."

Not sure why but I tried not to laugh at that. Thinking of it now, he was probably right.

The intensity from his face left while he added, "If I was there, I sure as hell wouldn't have just sat by and watched. I would've helped you out."

His words would have been sweet if he wasn't giving me a once over with his eyes. I tried to drop as much sarcasm into my next words as I possibly could, "Gee thanks, look at you trying to act all chivalrous."

Wes leaned back in his chair and ran his hand through the longer length of his hair.

"Well, I'm sure you know how to reward a knight in shining armor."

I couldn't control the eye roll. "Wow, I think you just might be one of the cockiest guys I've ever met."

"I'm not cocky, I'm confident. There's a difference."

Another eye roll.

"Besides, it never bothered the chicks back home."

"Well thankfully, I'm not like them."

The look he gave me changed, almost softer. "No, I guess not."

The silence hung in the air for a minute. I tried to think of something to talk about and tried not to look at the tattoos on his forearms. The ink stretched over obviously firm muscles, winding down his arms to his wrists, and up and under the sleeve of his shirt. I wondered how far under that shirt the ink spread to. Shit, I was staring.

I averted my eyes to look at my shoes and Wes let out a small laugh. Yup, my shoes weren't that interesting. Plain white sneakers like everyone else.

"So, did you have a boyfriend back home?"

My head whipped up in shock. "What? No. Did you?" I leaned back in my chair trying to play cool.

His brows arched as he asked, "Have a boyfriend?"

Oh shit, not what I meant.

"No! The other way around."

"You mean a girlfriend?"

I tried to give my best nonchalant shrug.

"No, I don't really do the whole relationship thing."

Of course not, I doubted a guy like him made any kind of commitment to the girls he saw. Then again, I had a feeling that really didn't stop them from throwing themselves at him.

The lunch bell rang and Ms. Pierce asked us to set up the tables and chairs again. I went to get up from my chair and started doing just that until I tripped over my own two feet and went toppling forward. Thank god I was able to put my hands out and catch myself. I sure as hell didn't feel like busting my head open again. Someone walked over to stand in front of me. I looked up to see Wes stretching his hand out to help, so I put my hand in his and was effortlessly pulled to my feet.

"Thanks."

"Anytime," he replied.

Awkward. We stood there like that for a minute, my hand in his.

"Yo! Look who's Romeo now," Lucas' voice called out from across the room.

Wes let go of my hand and we both walked in opposite directions as if nothing happened. Truly though, nothing happened. I fell, he helped me, then we stood there a minute. He probably just wanted to make sure I was steady on my feet is all. No big deal.