The Framing

Twenty.

January 24th, 11:35am. Cafeteria.

The past few days have been pretty uneventful. Alex and I were enjoying the slow and easy pace of our health class, and Thomas and I were enjoying making fun of Nate in music theory. For the most part, things were going back to normal. There were no more weapons in our lockers and no more creepy notes in my mailbox. My mom and I are starting to get along again, and she filed a claim to the board and they sent her a check for my new tires. Life actually felt good for once.

"Did you do the music theory homework?" Thomas asked. I was sitting with him, Alex and Kevin at our usual spot in the cafeteria.

"Yeah I finished it in homeroom this morning," I said. I took my notebook out of my bag for that class and handed it to him.

"You never did my homework for me when you were my tutor," Alex said.

"Don't be such a baby," I told him, "if it wasn't for me you probably would've failed half your classes last semester."

We finished eating and Thomas finished the homework until the bell rang. The four of us got up to throw away our trash, and then Thomas and I walked to music theory. Minus the fact that I also have this class with Nate and Jess, it wasn't so bad. The teacher was an old boring man, but as long as you finished the work early he would let you do whatever for the rest of class.

Thomas and I walked in and put our books on our desks. "I'm gonna go run to the bathroom," he said, "I'll be right back."

I took out my notebook and textbook for this class and copied down the warm up. As I was writing, I heard someone call my name. I looked up and saw that it was Nate who was standing right in front of my desk.

"What is it?" I asked.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asked.

"Uh, writing the warm up down," I said and pointed to the board, "and you're kind of blocking my view."

"No not that," he said, "I meant what are you doing with that guy," he pointed to Thomas's desk.

"Sitting... next to him? I don't see what you're going on about," I said.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," he said, "what the hell are you doing hanging around with those guys? Isn't your punishment over? You don't have to tutor Alex anymore."

"Just because I don't have to tutor him anymore doesn't mean I can't be his friend, and it doesn't mean that you and John can't be mine, but you two childish idiots can't seem to understand that," I said.

"Whatever," he said, "have fun ruining your life."

"Have fun with that psycho," I said and pointed to Jess.

"You don't even know her," he said, which was true but I was just going off of the things Thomas and Alex told me.

"And you don't know Thomas or Alex," I said, "but I know you, and this jealous idiot isn't it."

"Yeah man what's your problem?" Thomas asked. I guess he got back from the bathroom without me noticing.

"You are," he said.

"Well what are you going to do about it?" Thomas asked.

"Nate you weigh 120 pounds. Don't fight him," I told him.

"Like I'd stoop to his level," Nate said and started walking back to his desk.

"I'm sorry about him," I said to Thomas as he sat down.

"I could totally wreck his shit," he said.

"I know."

A few seconds later, the bell rang and our old ass teacher walked into the room. We passed our homework assignments to the front and started going over our lesson. About twenty minutes into class, the fire alarm started going off and everyone got out of their seats.

"What do you think this is?" I asked Nate as we were walking towards the exit.

"A fire drill? We have them once a month..." he said.

"I know I've just been so nervous with everything that's been going on recently," I said. But we ended up making it outside completely fine.

Our class got in line and faced away from the building as our teacher called out our names. Once he took attendance, he had someone bring it to the vice principal who was standing a few feet from us. "Man it's fucking cold," I said.

"Do you want my coat?" He asked.

"No I'm fine."

We stood outside for a few more minutes until I noticed that Nate was walking toward us. "Here comes trouble," I whispered to Thomas.

"What do you want now?" I asked.

"Nothing, freaks," he said.

"What the hell did I ever do to you man?" Thomas asked. Our teacher shushed them but they kept going at it.

"You took my best friend from me and made her an entirely different person," he said.

"Uhm, earth to you jackass, I'm still the same person I was a few months ago. You're the one who turned into an asshole," I said.

I didn't realize it, but apparently we were getting pretty loud because a bunch of people started gathering around us and chanting "fight fight fight" and they kept chanting louder.

"Please don't do this," I said to them.

"Oh please, he's all talk. He'd never do anything to me," Nate said. He turned around to walk away, and just as he did, Thomas grabbed him by the arms and flipped him over his back and slammed him into a snow bank. Thomas then sat on top of Nate and started punching the shit out of him. And it's not like there was anything Nate could do about it. He was some scrawny kid who had never felt a punch in his life, let alone give one to someone else.

Everyone was going crazy since people in public schools are always itching to see a fight. All the noise attracted every teacher in the vicinity to run over and break it up. By the time they pried Thomas off of Nate, the damage was done. It looked like a murder scene. There were sheds of clothing and hair everywhere, and a bunch of blood had stained the snow. I knew then and there that there was no way Nate and I would ever bury the hatchet.