𝟷𝟸. 𝐷𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑

The giggling was what caught Jules attention, the girl looked over at the other side of the classroom to see Sam. A smile crossed her face as Jules saw the blow pop on her shoulder, Sam heard the laughter and looked at her shoulder. The girl's face dropped as she pulled the blow pop off.

"Thanks for the blow pop, guys. Really never gets old." Sam said sarcastically but Jules thought it was so funny

"It's cause she give blowjobs." Demetri explained the joke behind Jules. "Get it? Blow pop, blow job."

Miguel answered monotonously. "Yeah. I get it, it's just a rumor."

Jules was about to turn around and say something, when the teacher walked in and started the class. "Hey, everybody. Who let the pigs out? I did, because I ordered the fetal pigs."

There was a few kids who chuckled at the joke but for the most part, the room was silent.

The teacher's face fell. "But seriously, get in your groups."

Jules looked at the person she was sitting by, he was her partner. The boy smiled back as Jules looked behind her, she wished she partnered up with Miguel. She watched as Sam got up and walked to the front.

"Mr. Palmer, my partner is absent." Mr. Palmer nodded at Sam's words before calling out to the class. "Who wants to take Samantha in? This little piggy needs a group."

As Sam turned, the class went silent. No one volunteered, Sam looked at all of the groups as she sighed. Her eyes landed on Jules last, Sam glared at the girl who glared back.

"Don't all volunteer at once." Mr. Palmer joked

Miguel raised his hand. "Well take her."

Jules rolled her eyes as Sam smiled, it was so obvious that Miguel had a crush on her. Jules looked back down at her work as Sam rushed to Miguel's side.

"Thank you." Sam said to the boy

Jules rolled her eyes again and just shook her head. As Sam went to grab a chair, Jules looked behind her and stared at Miguel.

"What?" He mouthed to her but Jules said nothing

Class continued on like nothing had happened. They had started to dissect the pigs, Jules's partner didn't do too well with organs so Jules was the one basically doing all the work. She found it interesting and not gross at all.

"What were you thinking for sex?" Sam asked and Miguel froze. "Uh...uh... I mean, I've, I've..."

Jules chuckled a bit, nice save Miguel. Sam just brushed it off and pointed at the pig.

"Because in the make, this tract opens up near the umbilical cord." Jules could hear Miguel sigh as Sam talked about the pig. "So I think ours is female."

"Yeah". Miguel pushed out. "Um....yeah I concur."

"Thanks for, um helping me out, by the way."

"Oh yeah. I mean, I'm sure you would've found another group." Miguel was oblivious, and Jules just wanted to yell at him that wasn't what she meant but Sam said it first. "I meant with the fight."

The girl's jaw clenched as she glared over her shoulder. Miguel wasn't the only one who helped but Jules hadn't gotten a single thank you or anything.

Miguel responded. "Oh yeah, someone had to take care of those assholes."

"But no one else did." Jules wanted to yell at Sam. She was forgetting about the other person in the fight. "It was a pretty nice roundhouse."

"Thanks. I'm taking these karate lessons-"

"But you telegraphed the sweep. When you lift up your foot like that, it shifts the weight to your back leg. More windup, less power." There was Ms. Karate talking like her father. It was annoying to Jules, Sam was better at school, better at karate and just everything. That's the daughter Victoria wanted but instead she was stuck with Jules

"Wow. You know your stuff." Miguel sounded so much like a fool in love. "I guess I should be taking lessons from you."

"That was a freebie. Next one, I'm gonna expect money up front." And that was where Jules tuned out from the conversation. She was just waiting for practice today

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Both Miguel and Jules seemed off in their own little world at practice that day. Aisha stood next to Jules who was practicing by herself, Aisha cocked her eyebrow as she looked over at the other teen.

"What's on your mind?" Aisha asked but Jules just shook her head. Aisha riled her head. "Come on who's the guy or girl?"

Jules looked over at Aisha confused, how did she know about Robby? Jules hadn't known about him until a couple days ago. Aisha just laughed and clapped her hands.

"I knew it." She laughed out. "So who is this lucky person."

Jules rolled her eyes and pushed Aisha's shoulder. "No one. I'm serious, it's just everything's been hectic."

Aisha nodded sarcastically. "Yeah sure."

They turned to see Johnny walking out of his office. "Okay, everybody. Fall in." His eyebrows furrowed as he saw the smaller group. "Where is everyone? Crater face? Nose ring? Slingshot?"

Miguel sighed. "They quit Sensei."

Johnny looked over at Jules who nodded and also sighed. She understood why but it also felt weird to her.

"Are you serious? I mean good. That was a test, I wanted to see who the quitters are. Not you guys, you're in it to win it, right. You could be at home playing your iComputers, playing your video games, eating candy. Instead, you're here, doing pushups, learning how to fight." Johnny ended his talk and pointed over at a kid

They all looked to see who it was, Eli looked down at the ground as his face became red. He didn't like being the center of attention.

"Lip. Look, even Lip's tougher than those guys. He's no quitter." Eli responded to Johnny with a soft voice. "Could you please not call me that?"

Jules smiled, he was finally standing up for himself. Maybe it was a small thing but it was a step.

"Excuse me what?" Johnny asked not hearing the boy and Eli said a little louder. "I said could you please not call me that."

Miguel clapped his hands together trying to take the attention from Eli. "Um, I'm warm 'em up Sensei."

Johnny shook his head and put his hand up to stop Miguel. "No, Lip has something he wants to say."

Jules gulped, uh oh this wasn't going to be good. She stood there fidgeting with her hands as her and Miguel gave each other a look. Johnny walked up to the boy giving him all of the attention.

"Sorry, speak up Lip, or is your tongue messed up too?" Johnny stopped in front of him and asked in a semi-quiet voice. "Are you one of those challenged kids?"

"Um, the doctor said I could be on the spectrum."

"I don't know what that is, but get off it pronto. All right? If you don't want me to call you 'Lip' don't have a weird lip. Can't you get surgery?"

"I was born with a cleft lip. This is the scar from the surgery."

"You mean it was worse before that? Or did the doctor just screw up?"

They could see the boy becoming more embarrassed. Miguel couldn't stand still anymore and Jules felt her stomach get tight, she wanted it to stop. Miguel leaned over to her.

"I'm going to say something." He hissed out

Jules looked at him and shook her head. "And make it worse for Eli? You say something now, Eli will get mad at you."

"I can't take it Jules." Miguel angrily whispered to her

Jules tuned back into the conversation as Eli asked to change the topic. Johnny didn't want to let it go yet.

"You don't think I want to? It's tough when it's right in front of me. If you wanna be something other than a nerd with a scar on his lip, you gotta flip the script. Get a face tattoo or gouge your eye out. We'll call you 'Patch' all right?" As Johnny turned away he ended it in the worst way possible. "No, don't do that one. You'll still look like a freak."

Eli's face twisted in embarrassment and anger, they watched as the boy almost ran out. Johnny rolled his eyes as he looked at the teens. Miguel and Jules just sighed, she knew this was going to happen. Johnny was pushing more people out faster than they knew what to do.

"Oh, great, really? Another quitter?" He asked

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"Bye guys." Aisha said as she followed everyone out of the door, Jules and Miguel waved goodbye to her

They were only ones left, Jules turned to grab her bag before Miguel pulled her to the side. Johnny walked into his office.

"I'm gonna talk to him." Miguel whispered to her. "I feel so bad for standing there."

Jules just let out a sigh. "Miguel if you had said something there, Eli would've gotten mad at you because you made it worse. Sensei was a bully when he was younger, it's a hard habit to kick and when no one's coming to him he'll learn that what he's been doing is wrong."

Miguel's expression changed to anger. "So you're saying that I should just stand by and let this happen."

"No, what I'm saying is that you think a 30-something year old man is going to listen to a teenager?" The girl answered and crossed her arms

Miguel shook his head. "I still have to try."

Jules nodded her head and pulled her clothes from her bag. "Tell me how it goes."