The next day at school was weird. Like, weird, weird.

Nora was used to living in the background. She stayed under the radar. Aces didn't know who she was other than "that one Scholar" chick. That was how she preferred it.

But the second she walked into Jostlin Academy, she immediately noticed a different quality to the air. It was the day before the weekend, so usually, kids were more alert and happier, already putting plans in place for their two days of freedom.

Today, there was stiffness to the air. Students glanced at her and Tessa as the two of them strolled through the hallways. Once they passed, groups of girls either giggled or frowned. Guys gave them both a once over that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

"Is my uniform on backward?" Tessa asked her.

Nora checked. "No. Is mine?"

"No."

"Weird." She'd given up trying to understand the students at Jostlin a long time ago. Their priorities were never lined up with where they should be. The things they valued - like money and status - were frivolous and fleeting.

Stupid, she scolded herself. Don't pretend you don't care about money. If she had the funds, she wouldn't be producing music and running Musetunes profiles for seven different artists. If she had money, she could go to college.

If she had money, maybe some kids would stop looking down at her for being a Scholar.

But she didn't. At this rate, she never would. That was life.

Nora sighed and said goodbye to Tessa as they split off to go to their lockers. Her locker was in the history corridor - the ugliest of hallways. Each wing of the school had color-coded lockers to help the students navigate the expansive halls. The English hall was blue, the Math hallway yellow, and the main hallway a stark red. But the history hallway was a nasty tan. They assigned each grade a specific hall as their class entered Jostlin to encourage students to hang out with others in their class. However, after her first few months, she quickly realized most of the Scholars had lockers in the history wing. She never found out if that was intentional or not.

Maybe if she had money, her locker would be in the main hallway like Tessa. Or in the blue hallway, like Felicity and Devon.

She adjusted the strap of her bag and spun the dial on her locker.

The moment the metal door opened, soggy toilet paper rolls slumped over onto the floor in front of her.

The entire hallway seemed to stop.

Laughter broke out.

Nora clenched her fist. Whoever had gotten her locker combo had also decided to use two long sheets as streamers and taped them to the top of the opening. "Scholar Slut," it said in thick red marker.

As the surrounding kids laughed, something in her slammed closed and locked tight. She stared at the words, her entire body feeling numb.

"Scholar," someone sneered as they walked past.

Nora grabbed her folders and all the books she'd need for the day and walked away, leaving the toilet paper rolls cast out on the tile floor.

❄︎❄︎❄︎

Her first period dragged on almost painfully. Usually, she could write her way through classes when she got bored. But today, all she could think about was the soggy mess of her locker.

In another life, maybe she'd be stronger. Maybe something like childish bullying wouldn't bother her. Maybe she'd be able to let it roll right off of her. But in this life, it hit her harder than she expected.

When she first arrived at Jostlin Academy, she'd carefully constructed her social status and the people she hung out with. It was a rough few first months, but she'd eventually whittled down the people who she trusted. Which, at this school, she could only count on one hand. She'd also been careful not to socialize too much. She didn't want fake friends. And she didn't want to be a part of a group that decided money meant more than hard work. She'd found that removing herself from the equation entirely was the better way to go. Instead, she'd chosen to stay on the outside, removed from the drama and the stupid power plays.

When the first period bells chimed, she didn't get up immediately. Instead, she stared out the window for another minute as everyone filed out. Then she piled her mass of books together - some covers still wet - and threw her bag over her shoulder. She moseyed towards the door. The teacher had already left - no doubt out to grab more coffee before the next class. Nora didn't blame her.

"What are you doing?"

A tall, thin-boned girl stepped in front of her. Nora stopped.

Another girl — this one smaller and dark-skinned — saddled up next to the first girl. "She asked you a question."

Inside, Nora's body tensed. Externally, she kept a nonchalant face. Maybe if she faked boredom, they'd leave her alone. "I'm trying to decide if I want to answer it generally or literally."

The taller girl - who she belatedly recognized as Janey Alberez, a friend of Felicity's - slammed her hand down on the pile of books.

Nora's books scattered on the tile. She didn't move. If she bent down to pick them up, that put her in a vulnerable position. And no way would she allow that in front of these two.

She took a deep breath and prayed to the Creator that these girls didn't notice the way her hands shook. "Was that necessary?"

Janey got into Nora's space. Nora, who hated confrontation, made herself stand firm. "Stay on your own side, Scholar," Janey said, "This is my only warning."

"I was unaware we were on separate sides in the first place."

The smaller girl sneered.

"For a Scholar, you're really an idiot."

"If I see you hanging around with Eli Leonger again, we will have words," Janey said as if the smaller girl hadn't spoken.

Since when was there a rule she couldn't hang out with Eli? She made her face stay blank as she said, "as if I can tell Eli who he can and can't hang out with."

Janey shoved Nora by the shoulders. She stumbled but steadied herself. Don't waiver. Don't let them know they're getting to you, she self-coached.

"You have no business hanging around with someone like him." Hatred curled the smaller girl's expression as she yanked Nora's backpack off her shoulder.

On instinct, her heart clenching tight, she reached out to get it back. But the girl narrowed her eyes, grabbed the edges of the bag's opening, and ripped the zipper apart. Her notebooks, pens, and headphones clattered to the ground. The girl kicked at her leather journal, and Nora watched in horror as it slid under a bookshelf near the door.

The bag landed at Nora's feet.

Janey shoved Nora again. "Stay away from Eli. I mean it."

Then they were gone.

Nora ignored the rest of her supplies and ran straight to the dark wood bookshelf. The thing was filled with heavy math textbooks crammed into five shelves. She got down to peer under it. Her leather journal was all the way in the back. Her hand caught painfully on the edge when she tried to reach under it - her wrist was too big to fit under there.

She braced a hand on the edge of the shelf and pulled. A loud whine pierced the room as it moved half an inch. Then a quarter of an inch. Desperately, she abandoned that plan and got down to try to push the notebook forward with a pen. Anything.

A ruler. Nora went to the board and grabbed the large measuring stick in the metal marker holder. She slid it under the bookshelf, her heart sobbing in relief as the dark journal came out the other side.

Thank Creator.

Students for the next class shuffled in. If they noticed her stuff all over the floor, they said nothing. A few of them even stepped right over her pens and her giant literature book.

She shuffled everything together and started shoving it into her broken backpack. The next period would start soon. She probably only had a minute to make her grand escape. If she had one.

Black sneakers appeared at the edge of her vision. She scrambled to get the memory stick with Felicity's newest song into the pocket of her navy uniform skirt.

"Nora?" Ian Leonger crouched in front of her and helped her pull her papers together. One of her folders had upended all her class sheets onto the tile. "What happened?"

She could feel her cheeks heating. Of course, this would be Ian Leonger's next class. And of course, he would stop and help. She made herself crack a smile. Hopefully, it looked self-deprecating. "I was going so fast I spilled my backpack."

Ian frowned, but said nothing as he helped her gather everything together.

The warning bells chimed.

She tried to zip up the backpack, but it was beyond repair. Ian helped her get everything together, and then she shot up to her feet. "Thanks, Ian. I owe you."

Then she got out of there, ignoring him as he called out after her.

❄︎❄︎❄︎

The library was her sanctuary. It had always been a quiet, safe place for her. All her artists avoided it like the plague. It was the one spot in the entire school where she didn't have to worry about running into anyone. Especially in the place she'd found tucked away in the back of the upper level. Only one other person had ever found her secret spot.

Eli Leonger.

She hadn't seen him here since the first day he appeared and fell asleep across from her. She couldn't imagine ever being able to do that herself. She didn't trust anyone enough to fall asleep in front of them.

Sitting now at the tiny two-seated wooden table, she pulled out her notebook. Then she sat...and stared.

And stared.

The numbness was still there. And underneath it - something much colder. Darker.

She knew this feeling. Was painfully familiar with this feeling. She couldn't let it take over. If it did, it could very well shatter her, and, once broken, she wasn't sure she could pull herself back together again.

So instead of breaking down, she opened up the leather journal her father gave her and started writing.

It wasn't often she got sucked into a hole while writing. But sometimes she did. When that happened, the world disappeared, and only her emotions, her dreams, her heartaches, her pain, her laughter, her bittersweet memories resided. She loved these moments. They allowed her to connect with the piece, to fade into the background and let the song take the front line.

She wasn't sure how long she sat there in the library writing. Distantly, she heard the bells chime for third period. Then fourth. She must've drafted at least three different songs. Three sets of lyrics and two smaller verses she would hold until they became of use.

Usually, she would put the lyrics to the side and let them sit for a week or so. Then she'd come back with a sharper eye and analyze what could be kept and what had to go. But her mind was still going, her brain racing, so she went back to the first piece and worked with it a bit.

It had seven verses and two different refrains. But it was a starting point. Something she could work with. And she wasn't done yet.

It was about her father -- about a little girl with big dreams and a man drenched in reality. It was about a child who selfishly thought her father belonged to her. It was about Nora. Nora, who believed, for some reason, she could be enough to keep a broken man together. It was—

Her vision blurred, and, hand shaking, she put down her pen, yanked off her black frames, and buried her face in her hands. She took a slow, shaky breath.

Never enough.

She would never be enough.

She'd never recognized the signs. She'd noticed her father taking longer to get out of bed in the morning. Noticed how some days he never left it. He'd stopped eating too. And she'd thought it was a phase. Just like she thought eventually, he'd smile again.

But she'd been naïve — no, ignorant — in thinking he'd been okay. She'd never imagined that his problems, their family loss, would be significant enough for him to take his own life.

Suicide was damaging to people around it. So much so that their insurance company had offered therapy sessions for her, Mallory, and Felicity. She'd been the only one to take them. Not because she wanted to initially, but rather, because the first month after it happened, Nora had begun to have thoughts. And those thoughts led her to a place so dark, so devoid of any sign of color or positivity she knew she needed to get out. Reshape her thinking.

She needed to not be alone. And at that time, her therapist had been the only one she had. And thank Creator she'd gone. She still struggled - still had a bruise on her heart when it concerned her father - but now the darkness wasn't so...suffocating.

Except on days like today.

Next to her, her phone was blowing up. Musetunes notifications. Then Tessa.

Where r u?

You missed class!

Nora?

WHERE ARE YOU?

She didn't have the motivation to answer her which was probably for the best. She wouldn't have anything to say right now.

She wouldn't be able to fake alright anyway.

"There you are," a voice said.

She'd have to be deaf not to recognize the voice. But what surprised her was the way her heart gave a solid thump.

Eli Leonger sat in the chair across from her as he pulled on a red baseball cap. He adjusted it, so the bill was low on his forehead. "You weren't in Chem," he said. A question hid among his statement.

Nora sat up straighter and put her glasses back on. "Not right now, Eli."

He leaned forward and crossed his arms on the wooden table. "Tessa said you missed lunch too."

She shook her head and stared down at her journal. She couldn't look him in the eye. Wouldn't look him in the eye. She'd never been one for a poker face, and he was not stupid. He knew something was wrong.

But why the hell did he care enough to ask her about it? Sure, they'd hung out. She'd even call them friends. But they weren't like that. They didn't share everything with each other.

He set a green apple on the table in front of her.

Even her laugh was shaky. She wasn't hungry. But the gesture was nice. The whole thing was nice. Why would Eli take the time out to not only go in search of her but also bring her food? Her. She was nothing more than a Scholar. And he was at the peak of the school hierarchy.

Janey was right. They had no business hanging out with each other.

It was probably better he found that out early on. Before, he wasted more of his time. "I can't give you anything," she said.

Eli shifted in his chair, "what?"

She gestured at the apple in front of her, and then at herself. "Me. I have nothing to give you. I'm just a Scholar. I don't have money or fame. I can't help you."

"It's just an apple," Eli said. His tone said he was amused.

She risked looking up at him. "I wasn't talking about the apple."

He reached forward, his hand landing on her forearm. His grip was warm. Nice. "I know," he said. Then, after a moment, "I think it's funny how unobservant you are sometimes."

Nora jerked back out of his grip. What?

Eli laughed at her now. His white teeth stark against his skin. She hated how much she loved the smile on him, especially as he'd just insulted her. "I don't want anything from you, Nora. Except you."

What the hell did that mean? And why did her heart speed up?

Nora shook her head. "Everyone wants something."

He tilted his head, his gaze narrowing. "I can give you whatever you want. Cash. A boost of fame. Do you want it?"

Her eyebrows creased. "I don't need anything from you." Sure, she wanted money. It would definitely help her especially considering her situation. But if she got it from him, she wouldn't be earning it. How could she expect to live with herself by living off the gifts of other people? Especially when it came to her life. The help was fine. But it was only temporary.

She still had hope - still knew she could get where she needed to be on her own.

Besides, she spent most of her days helping other artists. Working for other people. She wouldn't do that to others.

Eli grinned as if she made his point. "Exactly."

Nora shook her head, "You have no business hanging around with someone like me."

"Someone like you?" Eli pulled up the brim of his hat. "You're exactly who I want to hang out with."

She was hopelessly, endlessly confused. "Why?" She was Nora. Just...Nora.

"Because everyone wants something," Eli said. "Except you."

Oh.

Her cheeks heated. Eli's lips curved, that same boyish grin that did weird things to her insides.

Trying for nonchalance, she grabbed the apple off the table and took a bite.

Eli only looked at her, which made her cheeks heat even more. Just why was he staring at her?

"Let's blow this place and go somewhere," he said.

"What?" Nora turned as he got up and came around her side. He was careful as he closed up her journal and put it in her backpack along with her pens. Then, he grabbed her hand and pulled her up.

"Come on, Nora. Let's go on an adventure."