By the time Ray got back to the classroom, lunch break was almost over.
He still had the bread. He noticed it when he reached for the door, crushed in his hand with a small red smear near one corner of the wrapper. He must have touched it after wiping his lip.
He dropped it into the trash outside the room and went in.
Blake saw him before he reached his desk.
"Boss?"
Ray kept walking.
Blake stood up. "What happened?"
Mason turned around at the question and stared at him. "Dude."
Ray put his bag beside his chair and sat down. Dylan had been looking out the window, but when he turned, his eyes stayed on Ray's face longer than usual.
"Were you in a fight?"
"Can we not?"
Ray pulled out his notebook. Blake came over anyway and stopped in front of his desk.
"You're bleeding."
"I know."
"Who hit you?"
Ray opened his notebook without answering.
"I'm fine."
"That's not what I asked."
Mason had left his seat too. "Wait. You actually got into a fight?"
Ray looked at him.
Mason pointed at his lip. "That's fresh."
"Yeah."
"Was it one guy?"
"Mason."
"What?"
"Go sit down."
Mason looked at Blake as if Blake might give him permission to continue. Blake only shrugged.
Dylan stayed by the window. His attention had moved lower.
"Your knuckles are bleeding."
Ray put his right hand under the desk.
Mason stared at him. "You punched somebody?"
Ray didn't answer.
The rest of the class had started noticing by then. A few students weren't bothering to hide it. Others looked away whenever Ray caught them and went back to whispering to whoever was beside them.
Blake lowered his voice. "Seriously. Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
He stayed there for another second before nodding and backing off.
Mason didn't.
"How many people?"
Ray looked at him.
"What? I'm curious."
"Go sit down."
Dylan spoke from his seat without looking away from his phone. "Mason."
"What?"
"Sit."
Mason frowned at him but finally left.
Ray picked up his pen. Closing his fingers around it hurt more than he'd expected. He tried his left hand instead, made it through half a letter, then switched back because his handwriting looked terrible.
The classroom door opened while he was still trying to find a way to hold the pen that didn't pull at his knuckles.
Caitlin came in with Mia.
They were talking about something, with Caitlin digging through her bag while Mia walked beside her. Caitlin looked toward Ray's desk and stopped.
Mia followed her eyes.
Ray went back to his notebook.
He heard Caitlin's chair scrape against the floor a few seconds later. She had pulled over the empty one beside him.
"What happened to you?"
"I'm okay."
"I didn't ask that."
"Ray."
"What?"
"Look at me."
He did.
Caitlin's expression changed once she got a closer look at his jaw.
"Who did that?"
"No one you know."
"So somebody did."
"Yeah."
She frowned and leaned back a little. "Did you go to the clinic?"
"No."
"Why?"
"I didn't want to."
"That's stupid."
Ray shrugged.
Caitlin noticed his hand when it came out from under the desk.
"Wait."
He moved it back too late.
"Did you punch someone?"
Ray stayed quiet.
"Ray."
"Yeah."
Caitlin lowered her voice. "What happened?"
Ray glanced around the room. Plenty of people had suddenly become very slow at unpacking their things.
"Some girls were bothering someone on the roof."
"What do you mean, bothering?"
"Cornering her. Making fun of her."
"And you fought them?"
"No."
Caitlin looked at his face.
Ray rubbed his forehead. "I took my phone out."
"Why?"
"To record it."
Mia had moved closer without him noticing. When Ray looked up, she was staring at the bruise along his jaw.
"They saw you?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"What happened?"
"One of them tried taking my phone."
"And then?"
Ray looked down at his hand. "They grabbed me."
Caitlin blinked. "Girls did this?"
"Yeah."
Mia's eyes dropped to his knuckles.
"Did they hit you first?"
"Yeah."
"You're sure?"
Ray looked at her. "Yes."
She nodded.
"The council came up," he added. "Julian was there. Grant too."
Caitlin seemed a little less tense after that. "So people saw?"
"Enough."
"And the girl?"
"I think she's okay."
"You think?"
"I left once the council got there."
Caitlin stared at him. "You just came back here?"
"Yeah."
"You should've gone to the clinic."
Ray opened his notebook again.
Caitlin sighed, but the warning bell rang before she could start another argument. Students began returning to their seats around them.
"I'm getting you ice."
"No."
"I'm getting it."
"Cait."
Mia had said it.
Caitlin looked at her.
"Class is starting."
"He needs something for his face."
"I know."
Caitlin looked between the two of them, then picked up the chair. "Fine. After."
She went back to her seat.
Mia stayed beside Ray's desk.
She still had her lunch bag with her, both hands wrapped around the handles.
"Does your hand hurt?"
"A little."
"Can you move it?"
Ray opened and closed his fingers.
"Yeah."
Mia nodded and started to turn.
"Mia."
She stopped.
Ray hadn't thought past saying her name.
"Uh..."
She waited.
He looked down at his notebook. "Never mind."
Mia stayed there a little longer before answering.
"Okay."
She returned to her seat just as the teacher came in.
Ray looked down at the page in front of him.
He hadn't written anything.
He put the date at the top.
Caitlin found ice anyway.
During the last period, she dropped a plastic bag wrapped in a handkerchief onto his desk.
Ray looked at it. "Where'd you get this?"
"Clinic."
"You told them?"
"I said someone got hit with a ball."
Ray stared at her.
"What?"
He shook his head.
"Use it."
She went back to her seat.
Ray left the ice sitting there until Caitlin passed his desk again a few minutes later and noticed.
"Ray."
He picked it up.
"On your face."
He pressed the bag against his jaw. The cold went straight through the bruise and made him wince.
Caitlin watched long enough to see it.
"Good."
Ray gave her a look.
She went back to her seat.
Mia was two rows ahead. She glanced back while Caitlin was walking away, and Ray caught her before she could turn around.
He kept the ice against his face and looked toward the board.
The bruise looked worse the next morning.
Ray noticed while brushing his teeth and considered staying home. That lasted until he imagined having to explain why.
He went to school.
Blake looked up when Ray came in. "That got darker."
"Yeah."
Ray sat down.
"Does it hurt?"
"Yeah."
Mason turned around from the next row. "Can I touch it?"
"No."
"I wasn't going to hit it."
Ray looked at him.
Mason sat back. "Okay."
Dylan arrived a few minutes later, dropped his bag beside his desk, and took one look at Ray.
"Looks worse."
"Yeah."
Dylan sat down.
Caitlin came in with Mia again. Caitlin looked at Ray's jaw and shook her head before going to her seat.
Mia glanced at him too.
Nobody asked what happened this time.
Ray got called to the disciplinary office before lunch.
Grant was already there when he arrived. Kazuto came in a few minutes later with a teacher Ray didn't recognize, and they spent most of the meeting making Ray explain the same sequence of events in more detail than he thought was necessary.
His first version had apparently skipped too much.
They watched the recording from his phone.
The footage shook whenever Ray moved, but the beginning was clear enough to show the girls crowding the student near the wall. One of them could be heard telling him to delete the recording. A few seconds later, she reached toward him.
Then the phone disappeared into his pocket.
Everything after that was mostly noise.
Kazuto confirmed that the girl had messaged him before Ray arrived. Grant explained what they saw when they reached the roof.
The teacher folded her hands on the desk.
"Once you had evidence, you should have left and contacted faculty."
"I tried."
"You still hit another student."
"After she hit me."
"That doesn't make it acceptable."
Ray nodded.
There wasn't much else to say.
The girls were suspended while the school investigated what had happened on the rooftop. Ray received a written warning for fighting and was told to stay away from the roof from now on.
"Okay."
The teacher looked at him. "Anything else?"
"No."
The meeting ended shortly after.
Grant walked with him until they reached the stairs.
"You really should've gone to the clinic."
Ray looked at him.
Grant shrugged. "I'm just saying."
"I'm fine."
"Alright."
They went separate ways.
Caitlin caught him alone after lunch.
Ray was standing by the vending machine, trying to decide whether bottled coffee counted as food, when she walked up beside him.
"Mia won't tell me what happened."
Ray put his coins into the machine.
"Okay."
Caitlin waited while the machine made a noise and did nothing.
Ray pressed the button again.
"Ray."
"I heard you."
"Then say something."
"What do you want me to say?"
"I don't know."
The bottle finally dropped.
Ray bent down to get it. Caitlin followed him when he started walking.
"She barely talked yesterday. She was already upset before lunch too."
Ray opened the bottle and took a drink.
Caitlin caught his sleeve.
"Can you stop for a second?"
He stopped.
She let go.
"I don't know what happened between you two. She won't tell me."
"Then don't push her."
"I'm not."
Ray looked at her.
Caitlin sighed. "Okay, I'm trying not to."
He waited.
"Mia's my friend."
"I know."
"And you're my friend too."
Ray looked at her again.
"Unfortunately," she added.
He looked away.
"I'm trying to help," Caitlin said. "That's it."
"I know."
"Then help me a little."
Ray twisted the cap back onto the bottle.
"I don't know what to tell you."
"Is she mad at you?"
He thought about it.
"I don't know."
"Are you mad at her?"
"No."
Caitlin frowned. "Then what happened?"
Ray didn't answer.
She rubbed her forehead. "Okay. Fine."
They stood there while a group of students came down the hall toward them. Caitlin waited until they'd passed before speaking again.
"She's miserable."
Ray looked toward the classrooms.
"I know."
Caitlin went quiet.
"Then..."
She stopped there.
Ray looked at her.
"I don't get you."
"Yeah."
"What are you even doing?"
Ray looked down at the coffee in his hand.
"I don't know."
Caitlin didn't have anything to say to that.
Ray started walking again.
She stayed behind.
Midterms came up fast enough to keep everyone busy.
Review sheets started appearing in almost every subject, and the library got so crowded in the afternoons that Ray stopped bothering with it. Even students who barely took notes were asking around for copies now.
Ray studied more than usual.
He and Mia still talked when class gave them a reason.
"Did you finish number eight?"
"Yeah."
"What did you get?"
"Seventeen."
Mia checked her page. "I got nineteen."
Ray pointed at one line. "You added that twice."
She looked down.
"Oh."
Most of their conversations ended somewhere around there.
Sometimes Caitlin was with them. Other times Mia would ask him something about an assignment and go back to her work as soon as she had the answer.
They didn't eat lunch together anymore.
Ray found other places to go, and Mia stopped asking where he was headed.
The trio noticed eventually.
Blake brought it up while they were waiting for a teacher one morning.
"You and Mia okay?"
Ray looked at him. "Why?"
"You don't hang out anymore."
Mason glanced up from his phone. "Oh. Yeah."
"We're fine."
Ray went back to the worksheet in front of him.
Blake watched him for a second.
"Okay."
He left it there.
Dylan never asked.
A few days before the exams, Blake dropped into the chair beside Ray with a physics reviewer.
"Can you help me?"
Ray looked at the paper. "With what?"
Blake flipped through several pages. "Most of this."
"You didn't study any of it?"
"I studied."
"You got twelve on the last quiz."
Blake frowned. "That doesn't mean I didn't study."
Mason leaned over from the next desk.
"I got sixteen."
Blake looked at him. "Why are you proud of that?"
"I'm not. I'm just saying."
Dylan looked up from his phone.
"You need twenty-five."
Blake turned around. "I know."
Dylan went back to his phone.
Mason started laughing.
Ray pulled Blake's reviewer closer and pointed at the first problem.
"Start here."
Blake moved his chair.
"What do I do?"
"Read it."
He did.
A few seconds passed.
"I don't get it."
Ray took out another sheet of paper.
Mason moved his chair over too.
Ray looked at him.
"I want to listen."
Ray shifted his things aside to make room.
Two mornings after the last exam, Blake found Ray near the stairs.
"Boss. Come here."
"Why?"
"Just come."
Mason was with him.
Ray stopped. "What happened?"
"Nothing."
"Then why?"
Blake pointed toward the main office.
There was already a crowd outside it.
Rankings.
Ray looked at the students gathered around the board. "I'll check later."
"No, come on."
Mason was already heading over.
Ray followed them.
Dylan stood near the board and moved aside when Ray reached him.
Ray looked at the top of the list.
His name was there.
He checked the score once before noticing Mia directly underneath.
Two points behind.
Blake came up beside him. "You got first."
Ray nodded.
Mason leaned in closer. "By two."
"I see it."
"Are you happy?"
Ray kept looking at the list.
"I don't know."
Mason frowned, but Ray didn't explain.
Dylan glanced past them toward the crowd.
Caitlin was making her way through with Mia behind her.
Ray stayed where he was.
Caitlin reached the board first.
"No way."
Mia stepped beside her and read the top of the list.
Her eyes stayed on the scores for a while.
Then she looked at Ray.
He smiled.
Mia frowned.
"Don't."
"What?"
"You're going to say something."
Ray shook his head.
She looked back at the board. "Two points."
"Yeah."
"That's annoying."
Ray laughed under his breath.
Caitlin glanced between them.
Mia caught her.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Cait."
"I said nothing."
Caitlin moved a little farther away.
Mia looked at Ray again.
"I'm beating you next time."
"Okay."
Her brows pulled together.
"Why are you saying it like that?"
"Like what?"
"Like you don't care."
"I do."
Mia waited.
Ray checked the score again.
"You almost got me."
"Almost?"
"Two points."
She stared at him.
Then she laughed.
Ray did too.
Caitlin looked over at them, and Mia stopped first.
Ray looked away.
"Still two points," she said.
"Yeah."
The bell rang before they could keep going. Students started peeling away from the board and heading toward class, taking Blake and Dylan with them. Mason was already talking about his own ranking by the time he disappeared into the crowd.
Caitlin waited for Mia.
Ray headed toward the stairs.
They passed him a little later.
After a few steps, Mia looked back.
Ray was already looking at her.
She turned around.
He kept walking.