(I'm so sorry for the super-long delay guys :( I was having dreadful writers block. But I am back now! Enjoy the second installment of me and flabaloobalah's story :D)

Later that morning, I trudged into my school with less energy than a sloth. That sleep I lost earlier was starting to catch up with me. Also, my finished project must have added at least a pound and a half to my already heavy backpack, so it was even harder to move.
With a tremendous effort, I finally reached my locker. I pressed my thumb to its scanner and there was a loud, long beep as it analyzed and confirmed my thumbprint. Then, I heard the familiar 'click' of the lock unlocking. The door opened, and I proceeded to take books out of my bag and put them on the shelves. As I was doing so, I became aware of several other beeps and clicks, sounds of other students arriving.
I started to shut my locker, when suddenly I heard a loud "Boo!"
Startled, I whirled around, in hopes of locating the owner of the boisterous voice, and I find myself standing face to face with my best friend, Phawn. I should have know it was her who startled me. Phawn is the perkiest--and probably most clueless--person in our group of friends. She had curly brown hair that stuck out in every direction, glasses with bright purple frames that enlarged her eyes to make her look like a deer in the headlights, lots of freckles, and could usually be seen grinning from ear to ear. You could count of her to make you laugh, but sometimes she got annoying when you were in a really bad mood. In this case though, I was glad to see her.
"Sheesh, Phawn," I said, "You scared the crap out of me!"
'"Good morning to you, too," Phawn said jokingly.
I laughed. "Good morning."
"Much better. Did you do your project?"
"Yes. I finally finished it this morning. What about you?"
"Yeah I finished it. I thought it was kind of fun."
I stared at her. "You did? I thought it was dreadful! What's the point in learning about something that doesn't even exist?"
Phawn just sighed, but it was more like an 'of course you would say that you science geek' sigh than a 'wow I'm so disappointed in you' sigh, so I didn't let it get to me.
"Come on, let's go see Dot and Brant and Janica," I said, tugging Phawn in the direction of our other friends.
Every morning, my friends and I all met at what we called "The Artist." It was just some huge mural of the founder of our school. Don't ask me why we called it the artist, because I really have no idea. Dot started calling it that one day, and the name just stuck. We'd been meeting there every day for years, and that's how I liked it. Everyone else in school was a little afraid of the Artist's face--he kind of looked like an evil business man. The way he was grinning and the arch of his eyebrows made him look like he just devised an evil plot and was really happy about it-- so everyone pretty much stayed out of our way.
Phawn and I were still a bit far away from the Artist, but we could already see Dot, Brant, and Janica standing there clustered around something that I couldn't see.
"Hey guys!" Phawn said cheerfully. I mumbled my own hello as well.
"Hey Phawn, hi Jem," Brant said. Brant was burly for a fourteen year old. He was really muscular, and his hands were tough from playing guitar so much, and he had the beginning of a light brown stubble on his chin to match his uncombed hair. He looked more like a seventeen year old than a fourteen year old. His voice was raspy because he sang so much, and his singing was heavenly. Right now, though, he didn't seem at all interested in music. "Look at this!" He said excitedly. The specimen he and the others were staring at earlier came into view. It was a dead rodent.
"EEWW!" Phawn screamed. She hated rodents, especially dead ones. "Get that thing away from me!"
"Relax, Phawn," I said. Unlike her, I was fascinated by rodents. They were so much like us, yet at the same time, they weren't. It was mystifying how they could be so much like our species on the inside, but look nothing like us on the outside. "You guys just found it lying here?"
"Well, that's what Janica told us. She got here first," Dot said. Dot was the fashionista in our group. She always looked like she picked out her outfits with careful consideration, had perfect makeup, and her hair looked like it must have taken at least an hour to style. She also wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, except in math. She wanted to be a fashion designer someday, so she worked hard in math, I guess because of measurements or something. I wasn't big on fashion myself, so wouldn't know. Today, Dot was wearing an emerald green blouse and a white denim skirt, and all twelve of her fingernails were painted a violent shade of electric blue.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Dot and Brant were dating. Yeah, they'd been going out for almost six months. Dot liked him for the longest time, and then one night we were all hanging out at Phawn's place when she finally got the stupid guy to ask her out. Phawn and I cheered and looked at each other like, 'It's about time," but Janica stayed quiet. I've always had a funny feeling she liked Brant, and it must have been hard watching him fall for someone else, especially one of her close friends. Janica acted like she was happy for them though. She's always been really considerate of other people, and I admired her for that. Janica was really gorgeous, but she tried not to draw attention to herself. She never ever wore makeup, and she wore a lot of black, but all the guys still stared at her anyway. She could be with anybody she wanted, because I could guarantee they would like her back. Except for Brant.
"Ew, Brant that's DISGUSTING!"
I snapped out of my thoughts. Phawn was staring in horror as Brant poked the dead animal with his ruler.
"Ugh, Brant that really is pretty gross," I said. Even me, the science nerd, could get grossed out sometimes. "Brant, seriously, let the poor thing rest in peace."
"Okay, fine," he said, and dropped the ruler.
"Brant, you're NOT going to keep that ruler, are you?" Dot asked.
"No way, that thing probably has loads of diseases. I don't want to die."
"We should tell a janitor about it. It won't be long before that thing starts stinking up the hall," Janica said.
"Good point. I'll go with you," I said, so Janica and I said goodbye to our other friends and went to find a janitor. After our friends were out of sight, I asked Janica if she finished her project.
"Yeah, I finished it," she said, "I thought it was dumb."
"THANK YOU," I said with relief. Finally, a person who agreed with me.
Jamica laughed. "Yeah, those human things sound so dumb. They were like so violent. Like half my project is about all the wars they started."
"I know, right? Plus they were so unskillful. They could barely do anything. And what's with the--" but I didn't finish, because just then, Janica spotted a janitor and she started to tell him about the rodent problem. While she was talking, I looked around at all the people clustered together and talking. I heard one frizzy-haired girl complaining to her friend about how she was SO tired. Then I saw another pair of girls talking about some TV show that I had never heard of. A group of boys and girls behind them were laughing at something the boy in the middle just said. Everybody was having a normal day of school, just chatting before classes started.
Suddenly, I felt the eyes of somebody staring at me. I turned around and saw a boy looking at me from across the hall with an expression I couldn't read. He turned away when he saw me looking. I knew who he was. That was Eli. He was the weirdest person ever. Even his name was strange. I don't think he had any friends, and he never seemed to pay much attention in class. He usually just sat in the back of the room scrawling and doodling in his notebook. I don't think I'd ever heard him speak. He had longish, dark brown hair that fell over his eyes, and he wore a lot of dark colors. For a second I thought he and Janica would make a cute couple, but then I remembered that he wasn't like the rest of the guys in school. He barely acknowledged anybody, let alone the prettiest girl in school.
"Ready to go?" My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Janica's voice. I noticed the janitor was gone.
"Yeah," I said absentmindedly. I was still staring at the spot where Eli was just standing.
"Hey, earth to Jem!" Janica said, waving a hand in front of my face.
"Sorry," I said, "I just...never mind." For some reason I didn't want Janica to know about Eli.
"Okay, well let's get to homeroom, we're already late." Janica tugged my arm towards our homeroom. On the way there, I couldn't help wondering why Eli was staring at ME, of all people. We didn't even know each other, and for some reason, I hoped it stayed that way.