"Look, I don't have any excuses for it, okay? I was drunk out of my skull. Can't we just call this little war off and be civilized again?"

Her bottom lip trembled. "I don't think I can, Justin." A tear trickled down her cheek. "How would it look if I forgave you after all the pain you've put me through?"

"You'd look pretty good, actually. Magnanimous, even."

She shook her head and reached a hand out to touch mine. Her hand jerked back like it had touched a hot stove. "Things have gone too far. It's too late for us to ever be friends again."

Coming from her like that, it actually hurt. "Was it really so horrible?"

"It was painful. Maybe because you hit a sore spot. I'm not proud of what I did with Brad." She sighed. "I don't really regret being friends with you." Her face flushed and she looked away. "I really treasured our friendship, Justin. I know you think I'm a horrible person for putting Brad over you, but just because I didn't want to date you didn't mean I valued you any less. I guess that's why your words hurt me so much."

"Hey, I get it. I mean who would want to date a chubby loser anyway?"

"Please don't say that. You're not a loser."

I laughed. "I'm social poison to anyone who gets near me now. Besides, I kind of understand things a little better than I did then." I reached a hand toward her, thought better of it, and lowered it. "Can you call the dogs off? Please?"

"I can't. I don't control them." She wiped away tears. Her gaze settled on something behind me and widened slightly. "Be careful, Justin," she whispered and hurried away.

Before I could turn around, the sound of a fist hitting an open palm alerted me to yet another confrontation. I turned to see Nathan and three of his biggest buddies baring their teeth and trying to look menacing. Instead, it appeared as if they were straining to drop a deuce in the parking lot.

With great effort, I kept my silence. What else could I do? If I fought them, I'd lose politically. If I did nothing, they still won.

"What did I say about harassing Katie, you little stalker?" Nathan sneered. "Looks like we're gonna have to teach you a lesson real soon. You won't know when or where, but it could come at any second."

"I'll bet your parents are so proud," I said. I turned and walked into the building. The morning was starting off so well I could hardly wait to see what came next. The bell rang for homeroom and I groaned. It was too late to get to the gymnasium to see Elyssa. "Damn," I muttered. My heart sank. I missed her already.

Lunch rolled around. I noticed immediately something was vastly different at the Goth table. In the place of pale-faced mascara-slathered individuals with nauseating amounts of piercings, sat two dejected guys. Ash, who was surprisingly Asian under all the makeup he usually wore, had a dark bruise under one eye that definitely was not eye shadow. Nyte, despite his black-dyed hair, had a ginger complexion and a scab on his lower lip.

I dropped into my seat and dropped my bagged lunch on the table. "What happened?"

Ash frowned. "The principal informed us we were no longer allowed to wear our 'devil-worshipping costumes' as he called them."

"And he hit you?"

He shook his head. "No, that happened when Nyte and I were leaving the mall last night. It was dark and three big guys in ski masks did this." He pointed at his eye.

"And one of them jerked out my lip ring," said Nyte, his face flushing scarlet as only a carrot-top's face can.

"What the principal did is against freedom of speech," I said. "You can wear makeup, jewelry, and clothes just like any of these other people." I pointed at Lisa Gibbs who wore so much foundation her face looked like baked mud. "And see those letter jackets?" I pointed at Nathan and his group. "If they can wear those, you can wear your Goth gear."

Ash nodded. "I agree. We could fight this in court." He looked at Nathan. "But if we do, I have a feeling those guys will put on their ski masks and come after us again."

I looked at Nathan and his leering companions again and saw red. This couldn't continue, but what could I do about it? I'd already tried physical violence and that had just ticked them off more and caused them to go after my friends, not to mention triggered punishment for all of us. I glanced back at Ash and Nyte. I hadn't known them long but it was true: They were my friends. They'd brought me in when times were tough and stood by me. Mark and Harry had shown me what fake friends they'd really been.

None of it could be helped now. I had to figure out a better way to take Nathan and his fools on their own turf. Unfortunately, my brains didn't appear to have been upgraded along with my libido and muscles.

"Where is Elyssa?" I asked.

Then I saw her enter the lunchroom on the far side. Her shoulders slumped and the dark rings under her eyes looked more pronounced than ever. Her face brightened when our eyes locked. My stomach fluttered and everything seemed right with the world all of a sudden. She set her lunch on the table.

"You two feeling any better?" she asked Ash and Nyte.

They nodded.

"I'm so righteously angry," Ash said.

Despite my new abilities, I felt powerless in the face of such bullying. "We've got to put a stop to this crap."

"How?" Ash asked, interest sparking in his eyes.

"I'll come up with something. I have to."

* * * * *

"I hope you're not getting their hopes up for nothing," Elyssa said that afternoon in detention. "I'm going to be really mad with you if you are." The violet in her eyes seemed paler and less fiery than usual. Her skin had gone from fair to pale. It gave the impression that her sleep deprivation was even worse than usual.

"Is something wrong?" I whispered, glancing back down the hall for any sign of our warden, Ms. Foreman.

She looked thoughtful for a moment before apparently reaching the conclusion she didn't want to tell me something. Oddly, I could barely detect her feelings as I did other girls, and the usual emotional runoff that accompanied most females wasn't there. It was like she guarded her emotions with the Great Wall of China. I could have dropped the leash keeping my beast at bay and possibly sensed more but I didn't want to violate her. I cared too much for her to do that. Even worse, I might lose control and bad things could happen. If she was The One, I didn't want to ruin anything.

"I'm just tired," she said.

Today we were prying the gum from underneath lunchroom tables. The table Nathan and gang usually sat at had mounds of the stuff glommed underneath. Thankfully we had on rubber gloves. I didn't want to touch anything that had been chewed by someone else's mouth, especially Nathan's. Elyssa didn't seem to mind.

"Doesn't this gross you out?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I've done worse."

"Your parents make you shovel horse poo or something?"

She giggled. "No." She threw a chunk of fossilized gum at me. I swatted it out of the air with a laugh.

"Ahem." Ms. Foreman stood at the door to the cafeteria, just five feet away. The piece of gum hung in her hair.

It was all I could do not to burst into hysterical laughter or scream in a fit of pure panic.

"Well, children, I can see this job is much too easy for you," she said with a mirthless giggle. "Follow me."

Dread formed a bubbling cauldron of acid in my stomach as she took us back into the kitchen and gave us large pairs of coveralls. They stank of rancid grease and industrial detergents.

"Put these on," she commanded.

"What are these for?" I asked.

"Now is not the time for questions, young man. Both of you. Put these on." She smiled as a torturer might smile as he pulled out someone's toenails.

Elyssa slipped into hers without a word. I followed suit. Heck, if a girl wasn't complaining, I guess I wouldn't either.

That didn't last long.

Five minutes later we stood before the school cafeteria grease traps. These weren't small grease traps. They were industrial-sized ones, big as kitchen sinks, and they belonged to a government-run institution of lower learning. The mutated organisms they cooked in this kitchen probably created hazardous waste that could kill on contact. I couldn't believe she could make us do this. Wasn't this against child labor laws? The vacuum station which usually handled the grease was broken. It meant we had to scoop whatever was in those things out by hand and put it into thick plastic bags for disposal.

Ms. Foreman had obviously used this as punishment before. She had the janitor show us how to pop the lids off the traps while she made a quick exit.

"You kids must've really ticked her off," said the wrinkled old man with a chuckle. "I wouldn't wish this on my ex-wife."

"It can't be that bad," Elyssa said, holding what looked like a metal ice scoop to muck out the grease, and a flat-bladed scraper.

He wheezed out a laugh. "Oh it's bad. I just hope you got strong stomachs and a weak sense of smell."

I almost insta-barfed when he popped the lid off the first trap. The fumes and odor drifting from it smelled like rotting carcasses slathered in dog vomit and feces. It looked even worse, like black pools of liquefied bodies with bits of corn and other random garbage floating on top. Elyssa wrinkled her nose, took a couple of deep breaths, then got on her knees and started scooping. The janitor left us, his laughter echoing down the hallway as he went.

"What in God's name do your parents make you do at home?" I asked. "How can you stand the stench?"

"You'll get used to it," she said.

"They don't make you shovel horse poo. They make you shovel horse carcasses."

Ms. Foreman apparently knew about the odor and never showed her totalitarian face while we worked, sweated, and, in my case, gagged. If you've heard the expression "I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole" then add another thousand feet and you'll know how I felt just looking at the tub of putrescence. Somehow I managed to choke down the constant urge to vomit and started scooping. By the time we finished, it was almost eleven. Neither of us had particularly enjoyed the exercise, but I still felt closer to Elyssa, as if by sharing such a horrific task it had bonded us even tighter.