Jayda POV

I close my locker and walk down the hallway towards Jessica's. The hallway is crowded. Everyone keeps looking at me and whispering. Nothing new, of course, I'm used to it. The only difference is that now I know what they're whispering about.

The rest of the school day was pretty crazy. Everyone was still all excited about the fight. During Gym class, that's all everyone talked about. One of Ryder's teammates told some of the other boys that this doesn't change anything. He then said, "Everyone has a place, the school has a balance, just because Ryder did one fucking good deed doesn't mean we have to." Later on, I heard another boy say that Ryder fucked up and that he ruined everything.

I think he was talking about the game Friday, though. It makes sense right now there is a lot of tension between the whole team. No one is focused on the game. They need to be focused and together if they want to make it to the championships next week.

I knew this would happen. I knew that him standing up for me would change everything. Ryder said it. After standing in silence in Mr.Brook's classroom for a while, Mr.Brooks came in along with Ms.Moore. I excused myself, of course. I wonder what they said to him. I know he didn't get suspended. I think they just sent him home for the rest of the day.

I haven't seen him since then.

Now that I think about it, Ms.Moore didn't speak to me. I did throw the milk at Matt. Did Matt not say anything? Maybe they were just too concerned about the fight that they forgot to ask why it started. I spot Jessica down the hallway at her locker. She is quickly throwing her books into her bag. I haven't seen her since the fight either. "Are you okay?" I ask when I get closer to her.

She turns around, startled. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

She doesn't look so good. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," She closes her locker and starts walking.

I follow behind her. "So, um, I have Stem Club after school, maybe we can work on it after I'm finished. We can meet at the din--"

"No." she cuts me off and stops walking. She turns around to me. "I can't go there," she says.

"Uhhhh, okay. Well, um..."

"Can you come to my house after school?" she asks me and pushes her hair out of her face.

"Sure."

She gives me a quick smile. "Okay, I'll see you later."

"Okay."

She turns around and disappears down the hall. Why was she acting like that? Does she not want to go to the diner because of what happened the other day or because of what happened today?

Before Stem, I have to go to Brook's class. I forgot he wanted to see me after school.

...

Mr.Brooks is sitting at his desk with papers in his hand. He looks up at me. "Jayda, come in, come in." I walk further into the classroom. "Take a seat." He instructs me. I take a seat in the nearest chair. "I won't keep you long. You have Stem today, right?"

"Uh yeah... Am I in trouble?" I ask; it feels like I'm in trouble.

"No, no. Of course not," he says.

"Oh."

"Let me start by saying, I know you've had problems with people in this class. I may not know why these problems are occurring, but I do see them. Let me just jump straight to the point. I feel like this class is a little." he moves his head side to side. " Too easy for you."

"You do?" His class isn't easy, but it isn't hard.

"I do. Granted, I do give out tough assignments. But I feel like they're not as hard for you as they are for other people. Week after week, you excel in everything I give you. Even when you were out sick, your poems, your essays were phenomenal. They are phenomenal." he says cheerfully. "You're definitely one of the smartest students I have ever taught."

I smile at his words. I'm not going to lie. Hearing these things makes me feel good about myself—a feeling I'm not used to.

"With that being said, how would you feel about switching classes? Instead of taking regular 12th grade English Lit, you would take English honors."

"Don't I have to take a test to get into that class?" I ask.

"For normal students, yes, but you're far from normal, so you don't have to take it. Plus, I talked to the honors teacher, Ms.Collins. She wants you in her class."

"Does she even know who I am?" I have never met the English honors teacher before. The fifth floor of the school is where all the honors classes are. I've never been up there before. We aren't allowed to go up there unless we take honors or AP classes.

"Yes, she does. All English teachers meet together every week. Whether you're just a regular English teacher, an AP English teacher, or an English honors teacher. We are all a part of the English department." he explains. "Anyways, last week at our meeting, I shared some of your work with Ms.Collins, and she stated that she wanted you in her honors class...immediately," he states. "Now I was a little hesitant because once again, you're one of the best students I've ever taught, and I really don't want to let you go. But I feel as though it would be best for you. Fewer distractions, and you'll be in a class that I feel pushes you a little more. Not to mention, college looks favorably on kids who take honors classes."

I don't say anything. I don't know what to say. I don't know how I feel about switching classes.

There are pros and cons of switching over to an honors class, the cons out way the pros. The main con being as though there is no point in me going to an honors class. I'm not going to college. So why take a harder class for no reason.

"We can get you switched over by the end of the next week. There's some paperwork we have to do first " he looks excited, and I haven't even told him yes yet.

"Can I think about it?" I ask him. His smile goes away. I don't want to just tell him no. He will then ask me why not. So a simple 'can I think about it' will suffice. "I want to talk to my parents about it first," I add, knowing I'm not going to mention it to them.

"Yeah." he nods his head. "No problem, just let me know by Monday," he tells me.

I stand up from my chair. "Okay." I start to walk to the door.

"Jayda." I turn back around. "I hope you make the right decision."

...

"Where is everyone?" I ask Thomas when I walk into the room. No one is here except for him. He is sitting at one of the tables working on the robot. It looks amazing. I've seen pictures of it when he came over to the house, but it looks so different from how it looked in the pictures he showed me.

"I sent them home," he says.

"Why?" I walk further into the room over to where he is.

"They were too busy talking about the fight that they couldn't get anything else done." He grabs the screwdriver and starts screwing the screw into the side of the robot.

"Oh."

"There's not much to do. I'm just putting the final touches on it. You can go home if you want. You-"

I cut him off. "No, no. It's fine. I don't have anything to do."

He smiles at me and then continues fixing the robot.

We have been sitting in silence for about thirty minutes. I haven't done much but just handed him everything he's asked for from the toolbox. He's really good at this. I have never been good at the engineering side of building a robot. I don't think I've ever even tried. I don't think I want to try. Our robot has shocked him about three times, now. It looked painful, so yeah, I think I will just stick with coding.

"I'm sorry." Thomas comes out and says.

"Sorry for what?" I ask him. I'm confused. He didn't do anything.

"I should've done something at lunch. I saw what Matt was about to do, yet I didn't do anything; I just sat there." he's frustrated, upset. He shouldn't be. It's sweet that he wanted to do something, but I'm glad he didn't. He would've gotten hurt. Matt is ten times his size.

"You shouldn't have done anything. It had nothing to do with you."

"I know but, I'm your friend, and friends stand up for each other, just how you stood up for Jessica."

"You don't have to stand up for me."

"You stood up for her, so why can't I stand up for you?" he asks. I stare at him but don't say anything. I don't want anyone to stand up for me. I didn't want Ryder to stand up for me; I just wanted him to do the right thing, whether for me or someone else. "People look up to you, Jayda," he says.

"They do?" People don't look up to me. They hate me.

"They do, I do," he says. He stops and stares at me for a second. I swear I can see his pupils dilate. "Ever since you got into that fight with Ashely, it really meant something to people." he pauses. "You have to remember; the school isn't just filled with narcissistic assholes." I laugh at his words.

"There are people like us here too. There are more people like us than it is of people like them." he explains, "Then again, maybe there is no, them and us."

"What do you mean?" I ask. I know what he means because I have said it before, but to hear someone else say it, too, makes a difference.

" I mean, those narcissistic assholes deep down are just like us."