To her favorite teacher's class

Chad manages a final bite before hurrying off after his fuming girlfriend. He catches up to her mid-rant.

"...just don't get it! He can break every rule. It doesn't make any goddamn sense. It's like their brains are mush around him!" Natalie says, her jaw clenched. "It's just you and me. Everyone else is fucking hopeless."

Trembling, Chad takes Natalie's hand. It feels so warm and soft in his. Like nothing he's ever felt before. Even angry, even how hard she squeezes, it radiates comfort to him. This is what it's like to have a girlfriend. He follows the goth girl, listening to her rant, knowing that everything is his fault but not caring. Because its just dawning on him that he has a girlfriend!

He comes back to himself when Natalie throws the door open, barging into Mrs. Lowell's class. He looks up to see the teacher, behind her desk, fix her top in a hurry, putting her phone down.

"Mrs. Lowell, can we stay in here today? The world's gone crazy again," Natalie asks.

"Brad again?" Lowell asks.

"Him and Tits again," Natalie corrects. "I swear, you're like the only person who he hasn't done in front of the whole school.

Mrs. Lowell's face goes red. "Right. Yeah, of course you two can stay here until the bell." She gives Chad a look that lets him know that he's not off her shit list just because she likes Natalie.

Chad looks away. "Sorry about this. It was just a little too much." He follows Natalie into the back corner of the room where they take a seat.

Natalie sighs, letting out the stress of the situation. "Hey, sorry. We're together, so let's focus on us. Are you free after school? I wanna do something."

"Yeah, I think so. What do you wanna do?" he asks, but she shrugs. "Well, um, we could go back to my place. I got a new game we could play." He had meant to play it with Nate, but it would be great with Natalie, too.

She cocks her head to the side. "Really? I can come over?"

"Sure," he says, knowing he was missing something. "I don't see why not."

"You've never let me come over before. I mean, I want to, if it's okay," she says, a smile on her pretty face for the first time since he's met this new her.

Chad's heart flutters. "Um, yeah, let's do it. You can meet my parents." They've always wanted him to have a girlfriend. It'll be great.

Plans made, they make idle chit-chat. Chad lightly probes her for information and finds out that they've been friends for as long as he and Nate had, but started dating in secret the previous year. They kept it quiet, out of fear that Brad would do something cruel, and it turns out that they were right. Still, they've been able to find shelter in each other among all of the bullying. When the bell rings and Chad has to go face Brad again, he's ready for the challenge.

He's even happier to see that it isn't much of a challenge, Brad deciding he has a different target for the rest of the day.