• II

    “So where’s your next class,” Alena asked considerately. Zane questioned the sincerity of it. There was no denying the hesitation before she’d agreed to escort him.
    “You don’t have to help me. I’ll find it myself.”
    She didn’t respond immediately, and Zane could’ve sworn he saw her purse her lips. “It’s really no big deal,” she said kindly. “You have your schedule, right?”
    Zane rolled his eyes before pulling out the crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. “History. Room 209.”
    “That’s upstairs.”
    He watched as she stepped ahead of him, her fiery red curls bouncing off of her back. And her scent was so strong to him. So pleasant.
    “This way,” Alena mused as she took the first flight of stairs.
    Zane was actually a bit disappointed when she paused in front of a classroom before opening the door. The teacher immediately stopped speaking and looked over at them both, followed by the entire class.
    Zane hated attention, especially from large groups of people.
    “Mrs. Norris, this is Zane. He’s a new student.”
    The teacher smiled. “Well find a seat, Zane.”
    Alena looked back at him and said, “Good luck,” before leaving.

    After two more grueling class periods, it was finally time for lunch. Unfortunately, lunch time meant fighting through the crowd of students to the cafeteria line and trying to find a seat without looking like the loser that has no friends to sit with.
    Got to love public school.
    With his tray of food, Zane scanned the cafeteria awkwardly for an empty table. The last thing he wanted to have to do was introduce himself to a group of people he didn’t know only to be rejected. Not that he cared what others thought about him, but why expose yourself to unnecessary embarrassment?
    He finally came across an empty table off to the side next to the wall. After setting his tray down, he looked up and froze. Alena was in his direct line of sight. He groaned wearily. Great. Zane forced himself to eat with his head down.
    “Hey,” a voice said.
    He instantly recognized the voice. Clenching his teeth, he forced himself to look up and meet the gaze of Alena’s stunning blue eyes. They always shimmered with a false friendliness, and it was the one thing about her that Zane couldn’t stand. Sure they were beautiful, but what was beauty without sincerity?
    When Zane didn’t respond, Alena asked awkwardly, “Are you saving these seats for anyone?”
    He wanted to roll his eyes. Was she asking him a rhetorical question? No, he wasn’t saving these seats for anyone. “Obviously, that’s a no.”
    Zane watched as that shimmer disappeared for only an instant. For some reason, he wanted nothing more than to break through that fake persona of hers. To expose her for what she was. Just another superficial girl.
    “You should come sit with us,” she suggested pointing toward a table full of students.
    “Yeah right,” Zane laughed almost immediately.
    Her smile faded into confusion. “What? Why not? You’re not sitting with anyone. Just come—”
    Zane interrupted her sentence by abruptly standing up. “I said no.”
    Gathering up his tray, he started to walk away, but Alena stepped into his path, blocking him in between tables.
    “Move,” he warned, his blood pressure increasing.
    “Why don’t you stop being such a jerk,” she asked. “You’ve been nothing but rude to me every time we’ve spoken today, and all I’ve tried to do is help you.”
    Zane took in a slow, intended breath. The last thing he needed to do right now was argue and get himself all worked up. “I said move.”
    He recoiled slightly as Alena slammed her fist on the table next to him. “Don’t tell me what to do!”
    Zane smirked. The true Alena had finally made itself known. Her face was stern and cold. Obviously she wasn’t used to being turned down. “Well, well,” he said mockingly. “Looks like someone isn’t used to rejection.”
    She gaped slightly, her eyes narrowing with disbelief. “Excuse me? You think I care whether or not you want to sit with me? I came over here because you were by yourself! It’s called being friendly! Look it up!”
    “I know what being friendly is!” he snapped. Alena stepped back slightly, surprised by his sharp tone of voice. Zane didn’t care at all. “People have been friendly to me my entire life! It’s called pretending. Fake. That’s what you are, Alena. Fake. You don’t care about me. I bet you don’t even care about half of those people sitting at your table.”
    Her facial expression softened vaguely, considering his words.
    Zane glowered and shook his head at her. “People like you make me sick. You’ve been nice to me today because you had to. It’s your job. And yeah, you may have chosen that job, but only because you pride yourself in helping others. Not because you actually enjoy helping, but because you need a reason to believe that you really are a good person. That you really do care about others more than you do yourself. But you know it’s not true. You’ll help them out, pat yourself on your back, and never spare another thought about them.”
    Alena’s mouth moved like she was going to say something, but words never formed.
    “Excuse me,” he said. “I think I’m finished.”
    She swallowed hard. “But you barely ate.”
    He didn’t respond. He simply pushed her to the side and walked past.

    Alena watched in dismay as Zane emptied his tray and disappeared around the corner. She fought hard against the tears collecting behind her eyes.
    That was harsh, she thought. But true.
    Everything he’d said described her to a T. She did only help people in order to convince herself she was a better person than she was. She reveled in compliments of her kindness. But when she was home, she never once thought about anyone she’d helped. She’d never even really checked up on them.
    She volunteered to be a chaperone for new students because she liked being thought of as the hero. But what middle school student didn’t want to be liked?
    Obviously him.
    But…that couldn’t really be true. Could it?
    “Alena, what are you doing?” her friend asked from her table.
    Gathering herself, she rejoined her “friends.” “Sorry,” she said. “I was just asking the new student if he wanted to sit with us. He was by himself.”
    Her friend, Kat, looked at her concerned. “Yeah, I saw that. My mom told me to stay away from that kid, so if I were you I wouldn’t talk to him.”
    Alena cocked her eyebrow curiously. “And how would your mom know anything about him?”
    “My mom’s the secretary. Obviously she’s seen his records.”
    She nodded thoughtfully. “So what’s wrong with him then?”
    “She said he’s dangerous or something. He’s got some crazy rare disease. My mom said it’s not talked about very much, so you probably haven’t heard of it.”
    She shook her head, suddenly very interested.
    Kat took a bit of her sandwich and said with a full mouth, “I can’t remember what my mom called it, but it’s some number and some letters. It’s really freaky, though. They get all violent when they get worked up, like they can’t control it, and their body changes, too! Like…it deforms and whatnot.” She laughed. “So freaky.”
    Alena rolled her eyes. Zane was right. She really didn’t care much for these people. But they were popular. Most everyone liked them. “I doubt it’s that serious.” But she did remember the case in the hallway. He’d gripped his side in clear agony. And during the second case, she’d found him doubled over on the floor.
    She pursed her lips. No wonder he hates the world.

    If school itself was hell, Zane couldn’t imagine what the bus ride home was going to be like. He was starting to regret his decision not to let his mother pick him up. He was lucky he was given the choice in the first place, so he wanted to take advantage of it.
    The anxiety he felt getting on the bus caused his chest to tighten significantly, especially when he saw how many students were already there. Almost every seat had been taken, but luckily he found an empty one closer to the back.
    He wondered to himself if he’d ever get over his fear of making friends, but considering the reproach he got from the people in the hospital, he had serious doubts that kids his own age would treat him with kindness. He felt his heart pound against his chest as he saw some patch of crimson hair surfacing from the stairs of the bus. His suspicions were verified when Alena finally made her way to the aisle, her blue eyes searching hopefully for an open seat. She had a brown headed girl behind her, giggling as she pushed her farther down the aisle toward Zane.
    Zane sunk down in his seat suddenly mortified by what he’d said to the girl earlier. He wasn’t sure if his heart could take this kind of worry. Maybe public school was a bad idea.
    She passed, luckily, without offering to take his seat, but he could’ve sworn he saw her take notice of him as she walked by. That’s probably why she didn’t ask to sit next to him.
    “Can I sit here,” a voice asked.
    Zane turned to find a young boy his age standing expectantly next to him. “Sure,” Zane nodded.
    “My name’s Alex,” he said. “You?”
    Zane shifted awkwardly next to the raven-haired boy. Alex, he knew, was very outgoing just by the way that he spoke—so sure of himself. And his green eyes shone with easiness. “Zane,” he replied.
    “Are you new? I haven’t seen you here before.”
    “Yeah,” Zane nodded.
    “Where did you come from?”
    Zane felt uncomfortable under Alex’s steady gaze. He wasn’t used to socializing, and he figured Alex could probably tell. “Home-schooled.”
    “Seriously? That’s awesome,” Alex replied.
    Zane lifted an eyebrow. Awesome? He tried not to laugh at Alex’s enthusiasm. But despite Zane’s discomfort, they talked the entire bus ride. Alex, he decided, was a pretty interesting guy who seemed genuinely interested in Zane.
    Unlike Alena.
    They spoke the entire bus ride about various topics—comics, sports, girls—before finally the bus came to a stop. “Well here’s my stop,” Alex said standing up. “We should hang out at school! I think I saw you in some of my classes.”
    Zane felt bad for not recognizing him. “Yeah, sure,” he replied.
    “Cool! See you later.”
    He couldn’t believe he’d actually made a friend. That was one thing Zane definitely didn’t expect. He jumped slightly as someone unexpectedly replaced the seat that Alex was seated in, and Zane almost puked on the floor when he saw Alena’s azure eyes settling on him.
    “Sorry,” she said lightly. “I know you probably don’t want anything to do with me after today, but,” she bit her lip and averted her poignant eyes to her hands, “I just wanted to tell you that I was sorry.”
    Zane’s eyes shot up, and he felt a pang of guilt erupt through his chest. He could see the soft curve of Alena’s throat bob up and down as she swallowed.
    “I didn’t mean to make you think that I didn’t care. To be honest, you were right.” She smiled at him wistfully. “I’m not as perfect as I like to make people think, but… is it so wrong to help people? Even if I’m not totally sincere about it, I’m still helping. Isn’t that better than not helping at all? Are you really any better just sitting by yourself ignoring people because you’re afraid that they’re being fake?”
    Zane’s jaw set as she searched his face for an answer—an answer he couldn’t give.
    Alena sighed slowly. “I guess now that you’ve figured me out, it’s okay for me to say that if there’s every anything you need at school—anything—please tell me. I know how hard it is to be the new student.”
    Zane couldn’t but be mesmerized by the glow of her eyes—like the sky on the sunniest of days. He ached to say something, but all he could do was look away shyly.
    “Here’s my stop,” she said before standing up. “Think about my offer, would you?”
    He watched as she walked off the bus, her curls shining brilliantly under the sun. Zane also couldn’t help but notice that they lived right around the block from one another. As his bus pulled to a stop in front of his house, he noticed the police cars and ambulance stopped beside his driveway.
    Zane’s pulse quickened as she stepped off the bus and was greeted instantly by two police officers. “What’s going on,” he asked nervously.
    “Son, I’m going to need you to stay calm.”
    “What’s happened?”
    The police officer spared a knowing glance with his partner. “We’re going to need you to calm down and come with us.”
    Zane’s heart pounded violently against his chest, wreaking all sorts of havoc on his body. He felt his ribs suddenly convulsing, and he knew this would be bad. “Tell me what happened!” He screamed violently as the police offices grabbed him by the arms to restrain him.
    The last thing he felt was an explosion in his chest before everything went black.