I shut my locker and took a deep breath. There was a lot of stuff to do tonight and my stress levels were starting to rise. Hallowsgreed was this coming weekend so I only had two days to edit and finish the photos, post them on the website and get a new SD card to handle taking a garbage-load more at the event itself so that they had everything they could possibly need to be successful. That included flattering candid shots at their best moments. Unfortunately, we also had our first large wave of big exams next week and studying had to be top priority too.

Lee was waiting for me as I adjusted my books and started to walk to lunch.

“I’m so stressed,” she whined. “We’re not ready for this weekend and now we have another history essay.”

I nodded. “It’ll be okay,” I told her. Part of my brain was on Scarlet… I was always worrying about Scarlet. She could fend for herself but I worried about her emotional health after being cooped up in that asylum for many years. I made a mental note to figure out exactly how long she’d been there.

We walked to the cafeteria, my brain already tuning out the avalanche of chatter from the hundreds of other students. 

“What’re you gonna do your essay about?” Lee asked. 

“I was thinking of recycling some of my research from last year's Art of War essay,” I said. “I’ll be able to do it quick and easy that way.”

Elias and Christian were already at the table leaning over some music sheets while Elias was running Christian through some tips to get his notes out ‘cleaner,’ whatever that meant. It seemed how well you could curl your fingers made a big difference. Sierra was also there, diligently working through some of the beat tracks on her computer.

I felt a bit lonely as I sat with them and Lee started babbling about the Hallowsgreed festival. I wasn’t feeling super into the music right now. We were all amateurs trying to get a foot into the door of industry but it wouldn’t matter much in the end. We were all just highschoolers, after all. Nobody expected much.

With some amount of gloom I started to eat my salad. My daily lunch was usually salad with some cheese and some cheap dressing. There was a persistent fear I’d ruin my gothic silhouette if I went too crazy.

The others babbled and I started to tune it out when I heard a sudden silence from the group and looked up.

I held back an eye roll as they decided to come up to us. Josh was being his usual self, surrounding himself with his circle. I wished they'd keep walking but they stopped at our table.

Elias stood, already on the defensive.

"Hey, faggots," Josh taunted.

I wanted to punch him too, but I put a hand on Elias’s elbow. We were under adult supervision, even if that supervision was currently reading an old-lady romance novel on the other side of the room and completely oblivious to our current stand-off.

“Shove off, Josh,” Lee snapped at him.

“Oh I’ll shove off, but I just gotta know, what exactly are you planning for Hallowsgreed? Some weird shit I’m sure.”

Elias ground his teeth. “Look,” he said. “I know you think because you’ve hogged the practice room for the past month and a half, you guys have pushed us out of the competition. But we’ll be there.”

Josh smirked his nasty little smirk. “Okay then, I guess we’ll just have to break some fingers then.” He made a lunge for Elias’s hand but Elias jumped outside of his range.

It was a flurry of action. I grabbed onto Elias to hold him back but nobody was there to hold back Josh  except for Christian, who was easily thrown off, and Sierra, making a brave attempt to dig her heels in the floor to keep him away, but she wasn’t strong enough to stop him entirely. Finally, after quite a few scuffles I felt Elias’s elbow crack against my nose and the immediate blossom of pain and blood that followed. I had to let go to try and stop the bleeding. By then, the lunch custodian had gotten to us and one of the math teachers grabbed Josh and pulled him away.

“Go to the nurse,” I heard the custodian say. “Then the principal’s.” She was leading the others of our group out of the lunch room. I felt everyone’s eyes on me as I held a hand over my mouth and nose. The blood dripped down, into my mouth. I could taste it in the worst possible way.

It felt surreal. The pain was intense. My eyes were crying even if my emotions hadn’t yet caught up with the situation. My blood dripped. I stumbled to the nurse, feeling everybody staring at me.

I didn’t know what to do other than what I was told. So I went to the nurse and iced my bleeding nose for quite a while. She asked me a few questions but I didn’t trust my words. The blood took forever to stop, and even after I’d numbed my nose down until all I could do was smell the cold blood, it continued to drip. My eyes stopped watering finally and the principal and the lunch custodian came in, looking grave.

I took a deep breath. I knew it wasn’t my fault. Nor was it Elias’s but we were still going to be in trouble.