How to Save Someone Like Me

Tomboy

We all exchanged numbers after lunch and during a bit of talking we somehow landed on the topic about music.
"No way, how have you never heard of Cavetown?" I questioned. Pierre just shrugged and grinned. "I only listen to AJR or Two Feet."
"Both of those bands are amazing, but have either of you ever heard of MGMT or Absofacto? Or perhaps Glass Animals?" Eric asked, peering over my head.
"Duh!" Pierre and I laughed in unison.
We were all walking down the empty sixth grade hallway, admiring the crappy and somewhat decent art they made. It was easy for us to sneak in there since none of the hallway monitors ever came, so we used that as an advantage.
"Dude, I need you to listen to Boys Will Be Bugs or Green." I chuckled while showing off my Android to her.
"Why not Talk to Me?" I heard Eric ask from behind me.
"That song's great and all, but after listening to it for twelve times it starts to get boring. I wanna stick with the classics, right, Pierre?" I giggled and nudged her arm.
She suddenly jumped back a couple steps and held her arm over the one I nudged, almost protecting it.
"Woah...are you okay?" Eric asked. Pierre's eyes grew wide and she put her arms back down, embarrassed.
"S-Sorry... I'm fine, I just..." She looked away before finishing and walked back to us. I gave Eric a concerned look but he just shrugged back.
"We should probably head back to the courtyard, I don't want the dogs to know we're missing." The "dogs" is what we called the teachers, only because they all have SnapChat dog filters on their faces on the front of every classroom door.

Pierre let out a small laugh and followed from behind until Eric suddenly stood in front of us. He wasn't facing us, instead he was shooting a glare at the end of the hallway.
"Louise." He grumbled. I could see his curly black hair poking out from the dim corridor.
"Shit, dude. What're you doing here? C'mon, I thought we were gonna play basketball with Jake and Dennis!" Louise flashed a cheesy, moldy grin at him.
"I said I wasn't going to do that." He said. Louise stepped closer to us and peered over Eric's shoulder.
"Oh my god," he rolled his eyes dramatically and tilted his head away when he saw me.
"Dude! Why're you hanging out with," he gestured his hand at me annoyingly, "her?" Eric huffed at his demeanor and narrowed his eyes.
"She's my friend, that's why." Louise looked up and down at me then smirked. He leaned over to Eric and whispered something in his ear, causing him to gasp suddenly and grow wide-eyed. His face turned into a scowl and he gritted his teeth. "Don't do anything to her, just leave us alone," he growled. Louise chuckled and looked over me to Pierre.
"Who's that? Another 'friend'?" Pierre looked away shamefully and scooted closer behind me. He shook his head and grabbed Eric's arm.
"Stop wasting your time, let's go." He dragged Eric away while flashing me another moldy, grimy smile. I shivered and gagged in disgust. Pierre seemed to notice my sudden reaction and she quickly nudged me.
"Didn't you say that you wanted to play me some songs?" My frown went away and it grew into a warm smile. "Yeah, I did say that." We waited till Eric and Louise were out of sight to run down the hallway and into a nearby girl's bathroom.

I took out my pastel blue earphones and Android and opened up the Spotify app. I handed her the right earbud and placed the left one in mine. A few minutes later we were both bobbing our heads to the beat of Cavetown's "Boys Will Be Bugs".

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"Nucleus," I mumbled. Mrs. Lackey clapped her hands and pointed to the projector screen that showed a diagram of inside a cell.
"Yes! The nucleus is the brain of the cell, and it also contains what?" She swished her hand at me again.
"DNA," I mumbled again. She clicked her heel and pulled the screen back up.
"You are on fire today!" She shouted happily. Oh boy, I wish I was. Louise eyed me down and snickered. I rolled my eyes at him and put my head in my arms and rested on the table, just in time to hear students pushing out their chairs and chattering. I peeked through my hands and saw a group of girls staring at my direction and murmuring something. I chose to ignore them and decided to focus on what I could hear. I did hear the classroom door close and felt a sudden tap on my shoulder.
"Nucleus." Oh god, that voice. It's all too familiar.