i sit down in a chair and look around the room. all i have to do is get through this study hall and it's the weekend.

richie sits in the corner with another girl and twirls her hair around, causing me and probably a lot of other people to be slightly uncomfortable. i roll my eyes at the couple and look over towards the rest of the people in my study hall. mouth sits towards the front in his specially assigned seat and taps his pencil against his desk impatiently.

i stand up and quietly make my way over to him in the midst of the rowdy 7th period study hall.

"mouth," i whisper just before i sit down next to him.

he turns his head and looks at me with a blank face. mouths type of comedy is the type where he pulls things like a blank face for too long or doesn't make a joke clear.

"oh hi, nicky," he says smiling after a few seconds.

"please...tell me..that uh- you didn't tell mikey anything," i say to him causing him to nod his head slightly out of cockiness.

"now why do you think i'd go and do anything like that?"

"seriously mouth, i got it all wrong. i don't like mikey, i confused admiration with romantic feelings," i lie to him causing mouth to start grinning wildly.

"what? no way, you like him," he fights against me.

"mouth, seriously. you didn't tell him, right?" i say with my last shred of hope hanging in the air.

"of course not, i'm low but not that low," he tells me, allowing me to release the breath i've been holding in.

"thanks,"

we're both silent for a while until i look back towards him. he's back to writing something, i don't know what he's so concentrated on and quite frankly i don't care.

i turn back and look at richie. something abut him makes me unsure if i want to punch him or if i want him to punch me so i don't have to think about him anymore.

i shake my head slightly and watch the clock instead. just a few more minutes.

as my patience gets less and less with every couple of seconds i stand up and walk towards my teacher. i stand in front of her desk and play with the small trinkets she has on it while waiting for her to look up. the plastic apple tape dispenser seems to look really important at the moment.

"yes, nicole?" i hear and without looking up i ask to go to the bathroom.

"uh, sure," she says, so calmly i walk back and grab my items before bolting out the door in a hurry.

i run down to my locker and put my things away before looking around the halls so someone or something to do. i have got 7 minutes until the bell rings and everyone basically gets to go home.

a few freaks and burnouts sit around in corners and talk but for the most part the halls are empty.

"gee, this is almost more boring than study hall," i say quietly to myself before turning heel and walking around.

trophies earned by jocks and medals won by nerds sit in shiny glass cases. i can hear a class laugh just down the 10th grade hall. i wonder what other grades are like, i suppose everyone has the the smart kid, the bossy girl, the cocky jock, and then there's the inbetweeners. the average kids that earn the B- on quizzes and try to be fit in as much as possible. the nicole hurshes.

a kid exits the class he was currently in and looks around. upon spotting me they smile and nod before heading off towards a locker.

right after the bell rings causing me to walk in a quick pace to my locker. 12-30-55, i put in the combination and grab my items quickly. my jacket sits boldly against the grey metal and makes me debate whether or not putting it on would make me warm or cold.

"nicky!" i hear someone shouting causing me to turn towards them. there, in the middle of the hallway, stands richie.

i roll my eyes and turn back around looking for my friends while he runs up to me.

"nicky," he replies, earning an unreadable face from me.

"beat it,"

"hey, what's with you anyways? i show an interest in you and you throw me off to the side anyways!" he exclaims to me. i turn to the taller boy with an unknown expression. even i didn't know what it meant.

"richie, be a gentleman will you?," i snap at him before running off towards mikey and chunk.

"hey guys," i say walking up to them while they stare at me. the look on their faces are both of astound and curiosity.

"why were you talking to richie?" mikey voice throws at me while chunk opens a candy bar and eats it.

"i told you, he likes her. he wants to take her to the dance, heard him say so in-"

"shut up chunk!" i say a little too harsh, causing him to shrug and mikey to stare at me longer. his eyes are always so intimidating that at points i'm sure he can take down the president with his glare.

"really? is that what he asked? to go to the dance with you?"

"no, he didn't ask me because i told him to get lost," i inform mikey, getting impatient that we aren't leaving yet.

"well he's been staring at you ever since you left him back there," mikey tells me breaking eye contact to look towards richie as he shrugs and takes a bite of a candy bar. i turn my head slightly to see if it's true and sure enough he's looking towards us while his friends slap each others backs and laugh. he shakes his head as if he disbelieves something. i glare straight ahead and tap my foot against the ground impatiently.

i turn around quickly, "can we just go?" i ask them.

"yeah, i gotta run somewhere before going to mikeys," chunk says standing up nervously and fastwalking towards outside.

"mikey?" i say. implying that i want to leave.

"yeah, sure,"

he stands up and we walk out of the doors nearby. the school sits ontop of a huge hill, overlooking all of the small and mostly white houses sitting along the dock. mikey looks around to his right with his hands in his jacket pockets, kicking the ground every now and then.

"mikey, what's up?" i ask him bluntly, turning to face him. ever since the morning he's been slightly off with reactions.

"nothing, everything's just changing,"

and he's right. everything is changing. we can't help that we're all growing up. we're starting to get into relationships, starting to see who we're going to become. we're growing up. the boy with crooked teeth that sipped iced tea with me under the willow tree during the summers before grew a foot taller and was moving away in less than a week.

there's nothing you can do to stop from getting older.