Ray put on his usual face before he entered the room.
It was the one people accepted as fine when they didn't feel like looking any closer. He'd been using it long enough that he barely had to think about it anymore.
Then he saw Mia already in her seat.
She never looked his way.
That pretty much ruined the attempt.
By the time Ray reached his desk, he didn't have the energy to keep pretending he was stoic about any of this. He sat down, dropped his bag beside the chair, and looked at the board.
Nothing on it registered.
School was annoying now.
He still had to show up. Still had quizzes, assignments, attendance, all of it waiting for him after what happened on the footbridge.
He uncapped his pen and stared at his notebook.
What was the point of anything here?
He could ace the next exam. The teachers would be pleased for about ten seconds and he'd go back to feeling exactly the same.
Maybe getting exactly fifty on every test would be funnier. Enough to pass while making it obvious he'd done it on purpose. He wondered how long it would take before somebody called him into an office.
He could join a club instead.
Literature sounded unbearable. Half the people here probably discussed books the way their parents discussed wine. Chess might keep his brain occupied for a week. Astronomy sounded peaceful until somebody started talking to him.
Debate was completely out.
Blake dropped into the seat in front of him and turned around.
"Boss."
Ray looked at him. "What?"
Mason appeared beside him shortly after. Dylan pulled over the empty chair from the next desk with his foot and sat down.
Apparently all three of them had free time this morning.
Blake rested his arms across the back of the chair. "You look terrible."
"Thanks."
"You sleep?"
"Probably."
Mason frowned. "How do you probably sleep?"
"I wasn't taking attendance."
Dylan looked at Ray's face for another second. "You lose money?"
"No."
"Game?"
"No."
"Family?"
Ray looked at him.
Dylan raised a hand. "Alright."
Ray started drawing a box in the corner of his notebook.
Blake was still there.
"What?" Ray asked.
"Just checking."
"Use your own life."
"My life is boring."
"That sounds manageable."
Mason nodded toward the notebook. "What are you drawing?"
"I don't know yet."
"It looks like a coffin."
Ray glanced down.
"It's a box."
"That's what a coffin is."
Ray continued drawing.
Dylan laughed under his breath.
The box eventually became bread. He wasn't sure when that happened.
Blake had started looking around the classroom when he went quiet.
"Mia looks rough too."
Ray's pen stopped.
Only for a second.
He kept drawing.
Blake glanced between them. There was no knowing look behind it. Mostly curiosity.
"Something happen?"
"You can ask her."
Blake looked toward Mia again.
She had her books open already. Her attention stayed on the window beside her, although Ray doubted she was looking at anything outside.
Caitlin hadn't arrived yet.
Even from across the room, Mia looked like she hadn't slept much. She'd done everything she usually did to hide it. Hair fixed properly. Uniform neat. Her desk arranged the way she liked it.
Ray knew anyway.
He hated that.
Blake turned back. "You're weird today."
"I'm weird every day."
"Fair."
Mason leaned closer to the notebook. "That is definitely bread now."
Ray added another line.
"Congratulations."
Caitlin came through the door a few minutes later.
She spotted Mia almost immediately.
Her pace slowed.
Ray watched her go over, put her bag down, and say something to Mia. Whatever answer she got made her look toward his desk.
Great.
Caitlin headed over.
Blake saw her coming and moved his chair aside.
Mason followed him.
Dylan stayed seated until Caitlin looked at him.
Then he moved too.
Cowards.
Caitlin stopped beside Ray's desk and put one hand on it.
"Get up."
Ray kept drawing. "Why?"
"I need to talk to you."
"You're talking now."
"Somewhere else."
"Class is about to start."
"You can stand for thirty seconds."
"I'd rather sit."
Caitlin stared at him.
Ray worked on the bread.
"Mia's upset."
His pen slowed again.
"You asked her?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"She won't tell me."
"Then maybe she doesn't want to."
Caitlin's brows pulled together. "Ray."
He added another line to the drawing.
"Can you stop acting like this?"
"Like what?"
"Like I'm bothering you for asking."
"You are bothering me."
Caitlin stared at him for a few seconds.
"Wow."
Ray finally looked up. "What do you want me to say?"
"I don't know. Something?"
The classroom door opened before Ray had to answer.
Their teacher walked in carrying a folder under one arm.
Caitlin looked toward the front, then back at Ray.
"This isn't done."
"It looked done."
She left before she could get herself in trouble.
Ray watched her return to Mia.
That was another thing he hadn't really considered.
Caitlin was part of this because of Mia.
Before Mia started pulling him into things, Caitlin had been somebody he occasionally passed in the hallway. Now she showed up at his desk, stole food from him, insulted him whenever she felt like it, and expected him to listen.
If things stayed bad with Mia, that would probably disappear too.
He didn't blame Caitlin for it. He just hadn't thought about how much of his life here ran through one person until now.
The teacher started taking attendance.
Ray copied the date onto his notebook and spent most of the lesson making the bread look unnecessarily realistic.
By lunch, he had already decided he wasn't eating with them.
He was putting his notebook away when Mia stopped beside his desk.
Caitlin was with her.
"Are you eating with us?" Mia asked.
She sounded careful around him now.
Ray hated that more than he expected.
He looked at her properly for the first time all day.
She really did look tired.
Most people probably wouldn't notice. Ray knew her face too well for that.
He had done that.
Caitlin stayed quiet beside her, watching.
"No," Ray said.
Mia's fingers tightened around the handle of her lunch bag. "You already have somewhere to go?"
"Yeah."
He didn't.
He would figure that out once he left.
Ray reached into his bag and pulled out the wrapped bread he'd brought for lunch.
Caitlin looked at it.
"You're going somewhere with bread?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
Ray looked at her. "Somewhere that allows bread."
Caitlin's mouth tightened.
Mia gave the smallest breath of a laugh before it disappeared.
That nearly got him.
Ray looked away.
There were plenty of people around Mia anyway.
Julian, for one.
Julian would know what to say if she wanted someone to talk to. He always knew how to carry himself around people, which was probably why half the school liked him. Sitting beside Mia wouldn't make anyone stare either.
They made more sense together from the outside.
Ray wished his brain would stop returning to that.
He put the bread under one arm and headed for the door.
Nobody followed him.
The bench was out.
Mia knew where it was.
If she decided to look for him, that would probably be the first place she checked. Ray wasn't going to sit there waiting to find out.
He took the long way through the side hall near the old science rooms. He passed the annex stairs and kept going until he reached the corridor with the vending machine that sometimes gave people two drinks.
There were already second-years hanging around it.
Ray kept walking.
The bread was warm in his hand by the time he reached the back staircase.
His mood had flattened enough that he could deal with it.
The rooftop came to mind.
He knew how to get up there.
During first year, Ray had spent enough lunches wandering Aurelius to learn which parts of the school nobody cared about. The chain on the rooftop gate had been badly fitted for as long as he could remember. Push the gate at the right angle and there was enough room to squeeze through.
He rarely bothered.
The stairs alone usually convinced him to go somewhere else.
Today he started climbing.
By the time he reached the top, he was already regretting the decision.
He pushed against the gate.
A girl's voice came from the other side.
"Look at her face."
Several people laughed.
Ray stopped.
He pushed the gate farther and stepped onto the rooftop.
A group of girls had gathered near the far wall. Most of them were standing around another girl who had backed herself close to the concrete.
They looked like second-years.
The girl closest to Ray noticed him first.
"What?"
Ray's eyes went to the girl near the wall.
She stood out from the rest of them. Her uniform looked freshly pressed and even her shoes were the kind somebody probably worried about scratching. She was holding herself stiffly while one of the others stood far too close to her.
Nobody here looked like they were having the same conversation.
Ray took out his phone.
The atmosphere changed immediately.
One of the girls stepped toward him. She was taller than the others and built heavily enough that Ray guessed she was involved in some kind of sport.
"Delete that."
Ray raised the phone a little. "Keep going."
"What are you doing?"
"Recording."
"I can see that. Delete it."
"Faculty can delete it if they want."
Another girl gave an awkward laugh. "We're messing around. She knows that."
Ray looked toward the girl against the wall.
She said nothing.
"Does she?"
The bigger girl walked toward him.
Ray had enough time to think this through.
He could leave.
There were teachers downstairs. Student council members were probably eating somewhere nearby. He had video now, assuming he'd actually managed to record anything useful.
That was the sensible version.
Then the girl reached for his phone.
Ray pulled it away.
Her fingers caught his wrist.
He slapped her hand off.
"Don't."
"What the hell?"
She grabbed for him again.
Ray stepped back, and somebody came in from his side before he could see who. A hand caught his shoulder.
His phone nearly hit the floor.
"Are you serious?"
Ray shoved it into his pocket.
The hand on his shoulder tightened.
He drove his elbow backward.
Somebody yelped.
The bigger girl pushed him hard enough to send him back a step.
That was about where his interest in solving this properly ran out.
He shoved her back.
Another girl came at him from the side. Ray caught an arm, lost his grip, and took something hard across the jaw.
His ears rang.
He put a hand against the side of his face.
The bigger girl was already coming at him again.
Ray hit her.
He didn't think about whether that was going to make things worse until after his fist connected.
Then everybody moved.
Someone pulled at the back of his uniform. Ray twisted away and almost lost his balance. He heard one of the girls shouting at him, although he couldn't make out the words over the rest of the noise.
Another hit caught his mouth.
He tasted blood.
Fine.
At least he knew what to do with this.
Ray shoved one girl aside and found himself standing between the group and the girl who had been against the wall.
He hadn't planned that part.
He looked over his shoulder.
"Stay there."
She nodded quickly.
The girls in front of him weren't moving together anymore. A couple of them looked like they wanted the whole thing to stop.
The bigger one still looked furious.
The rooftop door slammed open.
Ray turned.
Julian came through first, followed closely by Grant. Three other student council boys crowded in behind them, including someone Ray recognized as one of the vice presidents.
The whole rooftop went quiet enough that Ray could hear himself breathing.
Then everyone started talking.
"He attacked us!" the bigger girl said.
Ray wiped at his lip.
"Yeah, sure."
Grant looked over the group.
His eyes stopped on the girl behind Ray.
Then on Ray.
"What happened?"
"They started it," one of the other girls said.
"No, we didn't."
"She grabbed him first."
"Shut up."
Julian raised his voice.
"Enough."
That did more than Ray expected.
The girl behind him finally stepped away from the wall.
"I messaged Kazuto."
The vice president turned toward her.
"I saw it. Sorry. We were downstairs."
The way he spoke to her made Ray look at him again.
Kazuto glanced toward the girls.
Recognition came almost immediately.
"These are the girls I told you about."
Julian's attention sharpened.
"From your class?"
"Yes."
The bigger girl started speaking again.
Grant cut her off. "You can explain when a teacher gets here."
Kazuto already had his phone out.
Julian finally looked directly at Ray.
"Ray?"
Ray touched his lip with the back of his hand.
Blood.
Grant walked toward him. "You need the infirmary."
"I'm fine."
"You're bleeding."
"I noticed."
"Montrose," Julian said.
Ray straightened a little.
His jaw hurt. His lip had split somewhere near the corner, and his right hand was starting to complain now that he wasn't using it.
Strangely, his head felt clearer.
He looked at Grant.
"This actually helped more than I expected."
Grant stared at him.
"What?"
Ray shrugged.
Julian looked at him for a second longer.
The girl Ray had stepped in front of approached carefully.
"Thank you."
Ray looked at her.
Up close, she seemed younger than he'd thought. She was still shaken, though she was doing a decent job hiding it now that there were other people around.
"Next time, leave before it gets this far."
Her eyes lowered. "I tried."
Ray paused.
"Then yell."
"I did."
That shut him up.
She looked toward the group of girls.
"They took my phone."
Ray glanced back at them.
"Right."
His advice had been excellent so far.
The girl rubbed one wrist.
"Still. Thank you."
Ray gave a small nod.
He stepped around Grant.
"Where are you going?" Grant asked.
"Downstairs."
"To the infirmary?"
"No."
"Ray."
He kept walking.
Julian called him once before Ray reached the gate.
He ignored that too.
They had enough people up there now. Teachers would arrive soon, and the council could deal with the rest.
Ray slipped through the gate and started down the stairs.
His face was swelling.
He touched his jaw and immediately regretted it.
That hurt.
For once, pain was easy to understand. Somebody had hit him there, so it hurt there. His lip was split because somebody had caught him in the mouth.
There was nothing to figure out.
Ray wiped the blood from his lip with his thumb and continued downstairs.
He didn't exactly enjoy getting punched.
He could do without the headache.
Still, by the time he reached the next landing, Mia wasn't taking up every inch of his head anymore.
Ray found himself wishing the ringing in his ear would last through the afternoon.