"Well, well, well. Looks like the two nerds have finally, what is it, decided they want to be-" Mary flipped her hair, "erased." Alex glared at her, but Bria just rolled her eyes and said,

"I'm not sure you realized, but the library is a quiet place for a reason. You might get in trouble, we're trying to study." Mary looked scared for a second, but she recovered her manner quickly. She was terrible in classes, and usually forced Bria or Amelia, one of their classmates, to help her. The librarian would death-glare Mary to pieces until she left, so she normally left the library- and Alex and Bria, who spent lots of time there, -alone.

Amelia, being nice enough, would tutor her for 15-30 minutes at the end of the day. Mary seemed to only be nice to her, probably because Amelia was the reason Mary was still in the class.

Alex gave a huge, fake cough, that would surely draw Ms. Smith, the librarian, towards them. Mary flinched, and hissed, "If you b-bring anyone o-over here, I'll-"

"'"Stutter at me?"'" Bria quotes. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, if you didn't know.

Alex knew how to scar someone physically, and Bria mentally, so when something like this happened, they would scare off whoever was being a "cocky douchebag". JaidenAnimations quote, but Bria says this. No, Alex wouldn't punch anyone, but the threat of going home with a giant bruise would "scare them to death".

Currently, the "score" stands at 0 times getting in trouble for Bria and Alex, and 2 times for Mary.

Well, Amelia had used her "innocence" to convince the teachers that Mary had been with her once. The second time she was absent, so Mary was sent to the office.

"I think being the teacher's pet has given you rather a high opinion of yourself and your skill." Mary sneers, taking a small yet noticeable step towards the side table where they were sitting.

"Oh, yes!" Alex said suddenly. "And being the one who doesn't know anything harder than multiplication will totally not make you feel like a slug." Mary blushed. It normally meant that Bria had softened her and Alex was ready to, well, roast her.
"Alex," Bria warns softly. "Remember last time."

The last time Alex had said "slug" in front of Mary, she had punched him. But Mary was not like most "people who offended others for the pleasure of it" (Bria refuses to say "bullies"). She was skinny, and Alex was stronger, so the hand that had punched was both blocked and also pushed into the wall, with this thing called force.

Basically, Alex had pushed Mary's hand into the wall.

"I can hear!" Mary snapped. "I'm not deaf, although you may be. When was the bell supposed to ring again?"

Alex and Bria pelted towards the door, grabbing the scattered pencils and papers still sprawled across the small table.

"Students!" Ms. Smith called. "Slow down!" Instead of slowing down, Bria just whisper-shouted,

"Thanks, Ms. Smith! We'll get our papers later today, bye!"

Mary had disappeared behind a shelf, although her giggles followed the pair out of the library and into the hallway.

After literally running as though a tornado had appeared in the halls, they skidded to a stop outside the classroom. Bria had their excuse prepared, but she really hoped she wouldn't need to use it.

"W-wait," Alex gasped for breath. Racing time and trying to be absolutely silent at the same time was really hard. Surprisingly, no one can come running. "W-why don't I hear a-anything from i-inside the c-classroom?" Bria peeked through the small curtains blocking the inside of the classroom from view, but just saw a shadow.

"I just hear some sort of... tune." Bria shuddered. "It's really bad. Like a thousand- no, a million recorders being played by three-year olds. And maybe someone's also breaking their violin. Yeah, that's also a piano. At least it's upright, not a grand. Imagine how much money they spent..." It suddenly occurred to Bria that no one was stupid enough to buy a million recorders and an upright piano, especially if they were that bad. Who knew a million three-year olds, anyway?

"Well, can you see anything?" Alex asked, his words laced with sarcasm, sprinkled with apprehension, but hiding a layer of worry.

"There's a shadow. I guess Mr. Wang put up the calendar right in front of the door. Wait, but-"

"How did they manage to get a bunch of instruments in an hour?" They said in unison. Alex looked at Bria and they both needed to stifle a giggle.

"Wait, shh. Is that Amelia?" Bria whispered.

It sure sounded like her. She was saying, "Mr. Wang! Alex and Bria are at the door."

Their teacher opened the door. "Alexander, Bria. Why were you two so late? Lunch break ended ten minutes ago."

The terrible music had stopped. Bria peeked inside the classroom, no piano.

No recorders.

No violin. No instruments at all, except the ones belonging to the strings students. The classes were dreaded by most teachers and students. They really hated hearing the screeching that echoed through the school on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

Bria suspected that most of the Strings students were playing badly just to annoy the school.

"We're sorry, Mr. Wang. We were at the library after we finished lunch, you know, to study. But I went to the bathroom and Alex got carried away, so we didn't make it in time."

Mr. Wang seemed satisfied with the excuse and let them in.

"Let's continue with the lesson." Today was about the Amazon Rainforest, and was actually pretty interesting, but Bria couldn't take her mind off the odd music playing. How could no one else hear it? Alex could, but for some reason she couldn't shake off the thought that it had something to do with her.

No, she told herself. No. That's a- a selfish thought, it's got nothing to do with her or Alex. Still, Bria couldn't concentrate on the lesson, and jumped when Mr. Wang called on her.

"Bria, what is the largest river by volume in the world?"

"The Amazon River." Bria answered. Her ability to think of answers under pressure really fast was helpful in situations like this, when she was thinking of something else.

Her teacher nodded and moved on to the other students. Most of them answered correctly, although some people messed up the more basic questions in existence. The Amazon Rainforest is in South America, not Europe.

After a little while, Bria felt something change in the air, although she couldn't place what. Maybe Mr. Wang's fan turned on? Looking over to the little fan in the corner, Bria gasped and covered her eyes.

It looked like there were wisps of color floating around the fan, each one melting once it got too far away.

Suddenly, Amelia stood up, and then sat back down. "Mr. Wang?" Amelia asked, raising her hand. "Where's Alex?" 

A solid 1,155 words.

Also in case you didn't pick up on it, Alex's real name is "Alexander".