The school bell just rang and Zay was late to class again. It wasn't his fault. He wasn't used to the school schedule, resulting in him being late. He had only been here for two weeks and everybody was bullying him except for a few people who don't get involved. Zay walked to his homeroom teacher to give him his late pass. Mr.Chid sat at the stool he had in front of the classroom, taking attendance, homeroom hadn't left yet but it was only two minutes until then. Mr.Chid looked up from the computer in front of him and smile politely at Zay.

"Hello, Zay, I expect that you have an excused absence," He asked and Zay nodded.

"Y-yes Mr.Chid, I made sure to come to the classroom before going to my locker this time," As Zay said the last sentence the while class burst into laughter. The teacher clapped and his clap was replied with a roar of clapping teenagers.

"OK Zay, give me the slip and you can unpack your stuff," Mr.Chid said while walking over to Zay. Zay gave him the slip and walked out of the classroom. He walked to his locker that was at the end of the hallway. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw names written on his locker. He sighed and put his book bag down.

"Not again," He muttered as the bell rang, signaling the first class of the day.

"Need a hand?" A female voice said, Zay spun around to see a girl with brown hair and blue eyes staring at him. She gave him a small smile and Zay looked away. He wasn't used to being talked to and by a girl no less. He looked back at her. She had a towel in her hand and her stuff resting on her hip, held up by her arm.

"I do not want to trouble you, màme," Zay said, looking her into her piercing blue eyes, by far the prettiest eyes he's ever seen.

"Nonsence! And you need help, it's marker. I saw them do it but I didn't want to get beat up myself, I want to help in return of not helping out the first time," She said, Zay nodded.

"Thank you miss," Zay said and the girl shook her head.

"You can call me Desper," She smiled and knelt down to start cleaning off the 'Go Away' from his locker.

"OK, Desper, I'll go and get another towl to help out," Zay started to go but was stopped by Desper pulling at his arm.

"I never got your name," She said, looking into his dark brown eyes. He smiled softly.

"Zay," He said simply and she smiled.

"For a second I thought you were gonna say Zero, I know that's not your name, I like your real name better," Desper said while continuing to the 'Zero's Locker' in black marker.

He smiled, finally he had someone to hang around that didn't make him uncomfortable. He went to the bathroom and wetted a towel. He came back and there was one more thing on his locker. Apparently this Desper character is a quick cleaner.

"Here, let me get that," Zay said but instantly frowned at what he read. 'Worthless'. Desper saw this and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, you OK?" She asked softly, as if talking to a hurt animal. He shook his head and continued wiping off the hurtful message.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Zay said. The word worthless brought back horrible memories. Like how his sister always discribes him when she was mad. He had always been nice, polite, and sharing torwads her but he never got the same thing in return. He had been lost in thought for a long time and Desper was getting worried, she tapped on his shoulder and that snapped him back to attention.

"Are you sure that you're OK?" She asked him.

"I'm fine!" Zay shouted. Desper stepped back and Zay's face changed from anger to regret. "Oh my god, I'm so so so sorry,I didn't mean to yell, it's just-" he was cut off by Desper shaking her head and looked at him with forgiving eyes.

"It's OK, you were in thought, I shouldn't of disturbed your thinking,"
She paused and then continued, "It looked like you were in pain, do you, maybe, want to talk about it?" Desper asked. Zay looked down at her and what Desper saw in his eyes surprised her. Sadness. Desper wrapped her arms around him. "It's OK, you don't have to," Desper said, Zay looked like he had just seen a ghost after she let go of him. Desper looked confused for a moment. "What?" She asked, he pointed at her and blinked a couple of times.

"You...hugged me!" He said, she nodded and gave him a face that said 'yeah, I can do that can't I?'. He quickly processed what he just said and tried to recover from sounding like a douchbag in his opinion. "I-I mean... It's just... Nobody hugs me... I just wasn't expecting you to do that... Not that it's a bad thing," Zay said, trying not to sound too awkward. Desper laughed and smirked at him.

"It's nice to know that I make you embarrassed," Desper said, making Zay blush even more. It was weird, the girls he had met from before never made him blush this much, although the girls he had met didn't even talk to him so that may be a reason, but it's like she has a superpower to do this. The school bell rang signaling the second class of the day. "Wow, we stood here talking for about 45 minutes! If that bell didn't come I'm pretty sure I could've stood here talking to you all day! Oh well, I hope I see you at lunch, bye!" Desper said as she picked her stuff back up from the ground and ran to her next class. Zay just stood there and then looked torwads his backpack, still full of his school objects. 'Great, I was so distracted by Desper I forgot to unpack,' he thought as he knelt down to unpack his back pack. After what felt forever he got his stuff and shut the locker that was wet from being newly washed. He walked down the hall to his next class. Thinking about the nice and caring girl he had just met.