It was another Tuesday. About the 7^th or 8^th week into the AT classes. Eddie, Jonathan and Katherine were sitting at lunch when Lilian Tore walked up to them. She sat down in the empty seat next to Katherine.

“Listen, Foster. I’m failing math and I need you to do my homework,” she snapped.

“I will not do your homework for you, Lilian, but I will help you with it,” Katherine responded. Lilian rolled her eyes.

“Whatever, just do it,” she snapped. She pulled a mirror out of her purse and some lip-gloss.

“Well, this one here is 11,” Katherine said. Lilian looked at it and looked up at her.

“No it’s not, stupid. It’s 4,” Lilian snapped.

“You asked me for my help and I gave you the correct answer!” Katherine snapped.

“The answer is 4, retard!” Lilian shouted, standing up.

“What did you just call me?” Katherine demanded. She too stood up.

“Oh, you heard me,” Lilian snapped in her face. Katherine rolled her eyes.

“I am in the AT math class. I am in Honors Algebra. And where are you? Algebra II!” Katherine shouted at her. At this statement, Lilian had had enough. She held up her fist and slammed it into Katherine’s eye. Katherine let out a small screech and fell onto the table. Jonathan shot up and faced her.

“What the heck is wrong with you, Lilian?” he snapped. “How dare you come over here asking Katherine for help on your homework and when she gives you an answer, you call…” He didn’t get to finish his sentence before Lilian smacked him in the face as well. She smiled triumphantly and walked away. Jonathan stood up and glared at her, his hand over his nose. Eddie sat there with his mouth wide open.

“How dare she?” Eddie asked. Jonathan looked up at him, blood seeping through his hand. Katherine stood up, wobbled slightly on her feet and held her hand to her bloody eye. She grabbed Jonathan’s arm. He looked at her and she gestured towards the door.

“We should go to the nurse,” she said quietly. Jonathan nodded, hand still over his nose. They headed down to the nurse’s office and sat down in the small waiting room.

“Is it bad?” he asked, but it sounded more like ‘s t bd’.

“I’m sorry?” Katherine asked. Jonathan took his hand off of his gushing nose.

“Is it bad?” he repeated. Katherine nodded and held a tissue to his nose. Jonathan ran his blood-free hand across her eye and caressed her face in his hand. “Does it hurt?”

“Yes,” Katherine replied. She dabbed his nose with the tissue and leaned into him. She lightly kissed him on the cheek. “Does your nose hurt?”

“A little,” he replied. He pulled her closer to him and hugged her. The nurse all of a sudden walked in.

“Um… are you sure you need to see me?” she asked. The two of them jumped apart. Once the nurse saw Jonathan’s bloody nose and Katherine’s bloody eye, she sighed. “What happened?”

“Er… this girl, Lilian Tore punched me in the eye and punched Jonathan in the nose. Judging by the amount of blood coming out of his nose, I think it may be broken,” Katherine responded.

“Yes, yes, Mr. Calbino, come, I’ll examine your nose,” the nurse said. Jonathan stood up and followed her into a room. A few minutes later, Jonathan came back out holding a bloody cloth to his nose. On his nose was a white bandage.

“Broken?” Katherine asked.

“Yep,” Jonathan replied, sitting back down in the seat next to Katherine.

“Miss Foster, come here. I’ll examine your eye now,” the nurse said, and Katherine followed the nurse into the same room. “Sit up here.” The nurse patted a chair as she closed the door. She grabbed a wet wipe from the counter and walked over to her. “I’d like you to please dab this onto your eye, all right? It’ll disinfect it and clean up the blood.” Katherine nodded. The nurse went to find her instruments to examine her eye. Once Katherine had mopped up all the blood, the nurse checked her eye.

“Is it bad?” she asked.

“No, not really. It’ll be black for a bit, but other than that, you’re fine,” the nurse said. She handed Katherine an ice pack.

“Thanks,” Katherine said, leaving the room. Jonathan stood up.

“How’s your eye?” he asked.

“It’ll be black for a bit, but other than that, fine,” Katherine replied. Jonathan nodded, and the two of them walked out of the nurse’s office.

Katherine arrived at the AT science class with Jonathan and they sat in their seats.

“Good afternoon, class,” said Mr. Howard. “I think it’s time to change seats. I will put you all in alphabetical order. Please move to the back of the room.” Once he was done with the seating charts, he began the lesson. “Miss Foster, Mr. Calbino, were you two involved in a fight?”

“No,” Jonathan said.

“Lilian Tore punched me in the eye and punched Jonathan in the nose,” Katherine finished.

“Oh, yes! I heard about that!” Mr. Howard said. “Anyway, can someone tell me what the 18^th column in the Periodic Table of Elements is called?” Marguerite raised her hand. “Miss Petronia.”

“The Noble Gases,” she said.

“Correct,” Mr. Howard said. “Do the elements in this table react with any other elements? If not, why? How many valence electrons does it have?” Katherine’s hand shot in the air. “Miss Foster.”

“No, it doesn’t because it has 8 valence electrons, which makes it completely stable,” she answered.

“Correct,” said Mr. Howard. “Now, what is group 17 called?” Erik raised his hand. “Mr. Martin?”

“Halogens,” said Erik.

“Good, good,” Mr. Howard said. “Now, I’m going to turn on this short video. I’d like complete silence. Respect your classmates.” Mr. Howard turned on the TV and put the video in.