Cole walked down the crowded hall of the school, holding a paper in her hands, tears in her eyes. She had gotten yet another D in science. She didn't know why! She spent days on that paper! She had more facts than she needed. She made sure it was understandable, she even had her father, a complete science nerd in his day, and mother, a grammer/spelling nazi, proofread it! It didn't  make sense! Her teacher, Mrs. Tirant (that wasn't her real name, but Cole called her that behind her back) said the topic she picked didn't relate to what they were studying! But that didn't make sense either! They were studying their towns ecology and Cole chose to do it on the abnormally long winters that continued to get longer, and the deathly hot summers, that continued to get hotter, and how the two might relate to eachother.

In her daze she didn't even notice Anthony standing in front of her. She ran into him and fell on her ass. She looked up and the tears started falling.

"Hey Cole. How are y- Are you okay?! You didn't run into me that hard, did you?" Anthony asked crouching down by Cole. She shook her head and wiped he eyes.

"No, I got another D. My dad's going to kill me!" She started crying harder, crumpling the paper on accident.

"Hey, hey! It's not that bad is it? Come on, let's get you to lunch." Anthony said, trying to cheer Cole up, helping her to her feet. She nodded and followed the older boy to the cafeteria.

"Hey guys! You're late!" Another friend, Chi, chided playfully. "Woah, what happened?"

"Cole got another D."

"Aww! Do you need a hug?" Cole nodded and Chi pulled her into a hug. It was sort of awkward, seeing as Chi was at just the right hight that she was almost drowning in Cole's chest. "Don't worry! We'll fix this! But first let's get some food."

After waiting in the lunch line, for nearly 15 minutes, the group went to their table. Cole slammed her head on the table. "Let me see that paper," Rhain, yet another friend, asked. Cole handed the paper to her and Rhain read over it. "Why did you get a D? This is good!"

"Mrs. Tirant said it didn't relate to what we are studying."

"What are you studying?"

"Our ecology."

"Do you want me to stab her?" Chi asked.

Cole nodded, but Rhain interjected. "No you may not! The last thing we need is another teacher getting mauled by a bear!"

"I didn't say she would get mauled by a bear! I said she would get stabbed!"

"Yeah, but once the bear gets wind of this he's going to go into another rage!"

The "Bear" they were talking about was actually Cole's boyfriend Stilletto. Don't ask why he was named after a very femminine shoe, we don't exactly know. Stilletto was a rather protective person. If someone made Cole cry they usually ended up in the hospital. He went to a different school, so the only way he would know about the D was if Chi had to borrow a knife. That's actually how another one of their teachers got mauled, but that's a different story.

"Oh yeah. Sorry Cole. No can do."

"It's okay." Cole took a bite of her pizza and frowned, spitting it out. "What do they put in this stuff?! Rat poison?!" She wiped her mouth and took a drink of soda instead. "I swear, the lunch ladys want all of us to die."

"Probably. But if you have an iron stomach it doesn't matter!" Anthony said smiling, taking a bite of his own pizza. "Muahahah!"

"Oh go back to your Will and Grace!" Cole said glaring. Anthony and Cole got into a lot of arguments over stupid things like this, but it was always in jest. Unless Cole called Anthony gay, or Anthony said something bad about Cole's appearance.

The bell rang and the group of friends departed. "Hey Cole, about that paper? Don't worry! I'll make sure you get the grade you deserve!" Chi said as she ran off to her next class.

"I'm sure you will." Cole muttered under her breath as she went back to her own class.