"Freya Byers," my teacher spoke, glaring down at me, glasses perched in the tip of his nose. "You're up now."

I shuffled my papers together, and made my way to the front of the classroom. I turned, staring down the bored faces of my peers. Boy, they won't be bored after this, I thought, mentally smirking.

"We were asked to do a study project on Crazies and how they negatively impact suspect society," I began, good start. Just like the rest so far. "So, I did my research, and pulled this document-statistics-from the past ten years on USA's death rates." I waved the paper, flashing the graph but then quickly set it down. Here we go. My smirk grew significantly.

"I found the opposite. In fact, Crazies have only been known to cause eleven percent of deaths; and those were Crazies from poor families. If the government will offer free treatments, the percentile would decrease dram—"

"Please stop there, Freya," Mr. Crawley put his palm up, rubbing his temples. "You did not follow the topic. You just failed a presentation worth forty percent of your grade this trimester." The funny thing is, is that Crawley only ever announces your grades if he really likes you, or if he really hates you. For me, the former, so I just looked in my teacher hard in the eyes, and shoved my nineteen page presentation in his face, making him flinch backwards quickly.

"Thank you so much everyone for being my wonderful audience today to see just how sycophantic and fascist half the staff here is!" I smiled charmingly-and very fakely-before swinging my backpack over my shoulder and walking out the door. I threw one glance over at my friends Marcia, Blake and Raphael, feeling giggles bubble in my stomach as they-metaphorically-died of laughter, throwing me thumbs-up.

I grinned like a maniac as I skipped down the halls, skirting my fingers along the lockers and feeling so free as I grew further and further away from the English room. Soon, I got to the front door, and I stood, deciding whether or not I'd skip the rest of the day.

My decision was easy enough, and I walked out the front doors, hoping it wasn't too cold, and not being lucky. Out of anything, luck was something I certainly something I did not posses. When did my lucky disappear, I briefly wondered, but forced myself not to bring up painful memories.

I was snapped from my thoughts when I heard someone-namely, the Principal-yell my name, causing me to run like Hell's fire chased me. Fuck school today, I was so not going back there. That would be completely ridiculous of me; making a dramatic scene like that, just to get brought back. Who does that? Honestly.

So I booked it, and went even faster across the nearly vacant street to collapse beside a blue dumpster, chest heaving as adrenaline replaced the blood in my veins. After a few minutes, I decided the Principal probably already given up probably the moment I disappeared from his field of vision. I wasn't a priority after all; they probably wouldn't even make a call home.

I stood, stretching my arms above my head. It was still moderately cold, so I rushed into a small fast food restaurant, deciding on a cocoa.

"Hello. May I take your order?" A perky girl with blond hair smiled at me as I stepped up to the register, rubbing my hands together to get then warm.

"Yup. A medium mint cocoa with whipped cream." I replied politely as I pulled a five dollar bill from my bag.

"Will that be it?" She asked me, as if on the inside she didn't fear every person that walked into this store.

"Yeah."

"Great! That'll be three dollars and fifty-eight cents."

"Mhm," I handed her the five, and she rung it up, giving me back my change. I stood for about a minute off to the side before she handed me my drink, warning me that it was hot. I nodded, trying a smile, and took my cocoa and myself to the table furthest away from the front. I leaned back in the cracked vinyl seat, propping my feet on the table as I shut my eyes and sipped peacefully. Now this was what I lived for… an exiting day, and then ending it off by happily drinking delicious hot chocolate.

Since I had run out during the last class of the day, kids from school spilled into the shop, ordering warm things while they waited for parents to come pick them up.

"Nice show back in Crawley's, Frey. He had an absolute fit after you left—no, a rampage!" I opened my eyes to see an excited Marcia and her boyfriend, Blake, who slowly trailed behind her.

"A rampage?" I raised an eyebrow at my theatrical friend.

"Yes!" She gushed, sitting across from me, "he put your papers through a shredder!"

"Wow," I giggled, rolling my eyes. "So much for a public display of activism. And passing English."

"Well, listen here!" Marcia animatedly continued. "Freya-this got really big! Everyone agreed with you! Student wise, at least. The whole ninth year wants Crawley out!"

"Yeah," Blake said, "Suzie started a petition. Her a Raph are back at school-still-getting signatures. We even have tenth and most of the eleventh year with us. Jocelyn recorded your presentation, and she's playing it for people that didn't get to see what happened." He explained, while I, wide eyed, sipped my cocoa.

"Well, this is ridiculous," I laughed. "In a good way. A very good way." Inside, I wasn't as enthusiastic. I mean, sure, I wanted 'Crazies' to have the same rights normal people do, but I also didn't want backlash. It's not like I wanted to be locked away for this, or even tested for that matter.

"You're pretty popular now…" Marcia winked, and I knew what was coming next. "So don't blame me if I soak up all of that famous-ness with you!"

I laughed, nodding as I allowed her to continue rambling. "And not saying you weren't popular before, Frey, 'cause you were—but now, it's like, ten-fold, y'know?" Suddenly, she stopped talking-which was weird for her-and she glared at something over my shoulder.

"You guys got a staring problem?" She growled, and I twisted in my seat to see who she had her attention focused on. A group of tenth year boys. Now, if there's one thing one must know about Marcia, it's that under all the bubbles and rainbows, she has eleven years of self defense training under her belt that she is not afraid to use. Marcia Lancaster is one serious force to be reckoned with, so moral is, don't mess with her or her friends.

"Maybe we do, 'cause there's a whole lot of pretty over there," one of the boys jerked his chin towards us, and I watched as Blake now stood, narrowing his eyes at the guys, his posture tense. Marcia's eyes screamed what I was thinking: that these bastards have a death wish.

I stood too, right after Blake did, and although I wasn't nearly as scary as Marcia, my rep worked it's magic. All five of them took an uneasy step back.

"Look, guys," I began, lazily pointing a finger in their direction. "You might want to leave, because as I'm sure you all well know, if you pick a fight with us, it will be really hard for the police to find your bodies."

The guys gave each other a few furtive glances, then one of them mumbled something, and they all shuffled out one by one out the back door. I sat back down, and took a long sip of my cocoa, feeling accomplished.

"What pervs!" Marcia huffed, then she turned her green eyes to me. "You were amazing, Frey!"

I shrugged, a faint blush growing on my cheeks. "It's just… you know the rumors about me."

"Oh," Marcia, always the loud, outgoing one, became quiet. "Yeah."

"It doesn't matter," I quickly said, and turned in just enough time to see Raph walk in, Suzie clinging to his arm. Something winced inside me at the sight, but I pushed it back, listening to Marcie as she recounted the tale about what happened to the pair.

"Guys," I said, getting their attention. "I have to go. Homework awaits."

Raph looked at me sympathetically. "We can drive you home, Freya," he said, gazing at me with those dark eyes of his. "It's cold outside."

"It's fine," I lied easily. "You know me, I live for walking. In rain, sun, snow or—"

"Seriously, Freya… if you need a ride, don't feel like you can't ask me." Raphael informed me, using his free hand that wasn't being clenched by Suzie to move his hair out of his view.

"Nope, trust me. I'm good." I said, vaguely annoyed, though I knew he cared. But maybe that's why I was annoyed.

"So there's no changing your mind, is there?" Suzie pouted.

"Nope." I drank the last bit of my drink, and threw it in the trashcan nearest me.

"She's a Taurus," Marcia chuckled. "Stubborn as a bull."

I rolled my eyes in a good natured way, hugging Marcia as I was about to leave, but Raphael stopped me as I was about to open the door.

"At least take my jacket," he said, eyeing my bare arms. I nodded, knowing he wouldn't stop until he did something nice for me. I shrugged it on, forcing myself not to inhale his scent that now surrounded me. I shut my eyes, quickly promising I'd bring it in tomorrow for him. "And Freya," he sighed. "Call me when you get home. I want to make sure you got there safely."

"Okay, Dad," I chuckled, turning away and walking out the door for real this time. "See you guys tomorrow."