Around Christmas time, I was mentally drained from all the concerts I had to do. I buttoned up my shirt while walking down the music hallway, when I noticed my friend, Kaiden looking out the door.

“Kaiden,” I said walking up to him. He didn’t turn around. “Hey, what the hell are you looking at?” I looked over him to see Miranda walking by herself in the rain towards us. I opened the door and felt the rain immediately drench my hair and shoulders. “Miranda, what the hell are you doing out here? We have a concert in fifteen minutes, so get inside.” She walked up to me, but refused to come inside.

“Am I ugly, Kane?” My eyes widened as she looked up at me. Even though her face was wet from the rain, I could tell that she was crying. “Honestly, am I really that ugly Kane-?”

“Okay, what the hell did Xavier say to you?” I snapped angrily. She shook her head slowly. “If it wasn’t him, then who said something?” Kaiden grabbed Miranda’s left wrist and dragged her inside, where I finally shut the door. “Hey, answer the goddamn question, Miranda. It’s not like you to get offended so easily by someone. I thought I told you to stop building everything up, because one day it’s going to pour out and you won’t be able to control your emotions.”

“It was Xavier’s friend Travis. I was just walking here when-” I ran outside and approached another door, where I started bashing it loudly with my fist. A teacher came over to me and opened the door.

“Where are you coming from?”

“Move lady!” I said pushing her aside. I took off running down the hallway. She hollered at me, but I couldn’t even make out a word. Ahead I saw Xavier walking with his friends Travis and Silvia. They were all laughing, which angered me a lot more. I hated all of them with every single inch of my body. I walked up to them, where I tapped Travis on his shoulder. He turned around, and even though I wanted to punch him so hard right now, I didn’t want to attract attention. “Can you come outside with me?” Xavier gave me a plain stare, whereas Silvia rolled her eyes and looked away.

“Kane, right? Why do you need me to come outside?” Travis responded while observing my clothes.

“I’m not asking you.” I grabbed onto the back of his shirt and began to pull him towards the door. “I’m telling you.”

“Get the hell off of me!” He turned around to swing at me, but I grabbed onto his shirt and threw him towards the door. I pushed him back and opened the door with his body. The rain fell harder as I threw Travis on the ground. “What the hell is your problem, Kane?” I reached for his shirt and brought him up to my face.

“So, you like saying messed up things to girls, huh?” I punched him across the face with my left fist. “You like breaking her self-esteem? What else did you say to her?” I dropped him and started punching him across the face nonstop. “What kind of man belittles a girl who’s been through enough? Don’t you ever say anything mean to her-she’s been through a lot in her life! Say all your negativity to me! I have nothing left to lose in this worthless world!” Travis grabbed onto my shirt and punched me across the face. I flinched in pain, but I stood up and kicked him across the stomach, which ended our fight right there. He groaned in pain as I slowly turned around to see Xavier and Silvia staring at me in horror from inside the school. “Listen to me you bastard, watch what you say to people! Don’t make me come back here and tell you again. Stay the hell away from my friends, all of them.” Travis said nothing, he just continued to hold his stomach. I walked over to the door and stared angrily at Xavier. “Open the door.” I said as I felt the rain drench my entire body. Xavier shook his head and began to walk away; I clenched my teeth and kicked the door. “Open the damn door Xavier!” He walked away with Silvia. I turned back to Travis, who finally stood himself up. “You see the type of friends you have? If they cared about you, they would’ve stepped in and helped you up, but no, they left you out here like a worthless piece of crap.”

I started to walk away from Travis, until I heard him say, “Wait.” I turned around to see him looking down.

“What? I have a concert to get to, and I can’t keep my ensemble waiting.”

“They’re all I have Kane. I know they have some downsides to them, but they can be good people, sometimes.”

“I don’t buy that. I know how they are and nothing will change them. They think it’s all fun and games because we’re in high school now. You can keep calling them your friends, but right now I have to go to my true friends.” I finally walked away. I hurried over to the music wing, where I saw Kaiden still standing by the door. He noticed me. “Open it up, Kaiden.” He opened it and I ran inside. “Damn it, I’m soaked real bad.”

“You didn’t have to go and do that.”

“Well, someone had to teach that idiot a thing or two. Where’s Miranda?”

“She’s with her ensemble. Kole came by not too long ago and asked for you.” I gave him a face, but he patted my back. “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell him what you were doing. He would’ve killed me too.”

“I’m going to dry off. Wait, for me here.” Kaiden nodded and I went inside the orchestra room to find it empty.

The daytime concert went well, but I was questioned a lot about my clothes and my face. I didn’t see Miranda until the end of the day. I told her what happened, but she took my actions as no surprise. She told me I didn’t have to go and do that, but I left her and went home.

Near the end of February, I was in the music hallway looking for Miranda, but I found Marie and Sandra instead. They noticed me and waved, but I didn’t wave back; I walked over to them though.

“What are you two doing here? I expect you here Sandra, but why are you here Marie?”

“We’re waiting for Miranda.” Marie said. “Why are you here?”

“I honestly live in this hallway. I’m here to get Miranda.”

“Can I ask you a question, Kane?”

“I don’t care.” I said while looking away. Marie grew annoyed, but I didn’t want to waste my time with her.

“Do you hate us?”

“Hate is a very strong word, which I use a lot these days. However, I would feel a little bothered if something happened to you two. Out of respect to Miranda, I show respect to you guys, even though I believe you don’t deserve it.”

“So you don’t hate us, but you don’t like us? Is there a reason why? If there is, I want to try and fix it.”

“Listen Marie, to start, you’re too goddamn positive. I don’t know how the hell Miranda stayed friends with you for so long. Not only that, you act like you can fix everything, you’re freaking judgmental and you always try to get others to be like you, when they clearly don’t want to be. We’re in the same boat of academics, but you don’t see me making people feel bad when they show me a failing grade.” I exhaled heavily, and Marie stood there with a shocked look. “Don’t be so surprised, you asked.” Sandra looked at Marie and then at me. “I’m leaving now.” I walked away from them and headed to the orchestra room, where I saw Miranda walk out with Kole. They noticed me and waved at me. Before I could say anything, I heard my name on the loudspeaker.

“Uh oh,” Kole said. “What did you do now?” I gave him a face. “They called you down to the front office. Did you do something that we don’t know about?”

“No you idiot, I haven’t done anything since my incident with Travis.” I sighed with irritation and pinched my forehead. “Man, I really don’t want to go.”

“Come on Kane, I’ll go with you.” Miranda said. I didn’t bother to argue, so we went to the front office together, where I saw my guidance counselor there talking with the principal. “Oh god, Kane what did you do?” Now, I’m scared because now I don’t know what’s going on. They noticed me and called me over, but they told Miranda to wait by the desk. I went inside the principal’s office where I saw Ivan sitting in another chair. Ivan was our salutatorian, but I don’t talk to him. I took the seat next to him, and that’s when the principal and my guidance counselor walked in. They told us about our GPA, and how it’s affected due to our grades from the first two quarters. The second quarter just ended, so what does that mean?

“Kane, Ivan, before we gave you guys your ranks, both of you had the exact same GPA.” My eyes widened, but Ivan gave me a glare. He knew something was up. “Now, the only thing that separated you guys was your Regents’ score from the end of your junior year. You guys scored the same for all the exams, except for Physics. Kane, you got a 97 and Ivan beat you with a 98. So, he became the salutatorian and you became number three.”

“So, why are we here then?” Ivan asked.

“We overlooked the grades after the two quarters and we’ve noticed something interesting. It appears that both your GPAs went up, but one of them is actually higher, it’s not the same anymore. Ivan, you have a GPA of 106.17, but Kane, you have a GPA of 106.49.” The principal smiled at me, where I gasped softly. No way; I didn’t think our ranks could change once they were given.

“So, what does that mean?” Ivan said with an irritated look.

“Kane, you’re our new salutatorian.” I stood up an awe, but Ivan stood up and clenched his fists.

“That’s bullcrap. He can’t be the salutatorian; I’m the salutatorian. I’ve worked hard to get here!” Ivan said while clenching his fists. “You can’t just give my rank to someone who got lucky with his grade!”

“Ivan, Kane has five AP classes and he maintained a 90 and over in all of them, but you dropped an AP class and maintained an 80 for all of them, some are even in the 70s. We look at that and colleges look at that. I think what happened is, you got so comfortable with your rank that you stopped caring about your grades because you thought you secured the spot, but that’s not how we do things around here. We specifically told you guys at the beginning of the school year that we would take your grades into thought with your rank. Now, Kane has improved and kept his high grades, but your grades have dropped.”

“You can’t do this to me! I deserve the rank, not this idiot!” I turned to him and glared at him callously.

“What did you call me you worthless piece of-”

“Boys, do not fight or you will be suspended,” the principal said. “Ivan, I know that you’re upset about this, but Kane worked hard this year while you slacked off. Just because you’re a senior, doesn’t mean that your job as a student is done.” Ivan grew quiet but remained frustrated. They talked to us some more, until they told Ivan to leave. He left angrily and Miranda saw him walk out with his hands covering his face. She stared at him and wondered if I punched him in the face, but she grew surprised when he removed his hands and noticed that his eyes were red. He left the front office and Miranda grew concerned about me. She waited nervously for five more minutes before I came out with the principal and my guidance counselor. She stood up from her seat and stared at me. I walked over to her and stared blankly.

“Kane, what happened in there? Ivan just came out five minutes ago crying.” I smiled brightly, which terrified Miranda. “You’re smiling!” I threw my arms around her and hugged her tightly. She stood stiff for a moment before hugging me back. “Kane, what happened?”

“I’m the salutatorian now…” I said smiling even harder. “I knocked that idiot Ivan off his pedestal.”

“You’re the salutatorian? Congratulations Kane!” She hugged me tighter and I couldn’t feel any happier. I worked so hard, endured so much stress, and lost so much time as a kid to become who I am today. Now, I knew I was set for a bright future. I released Miranda and she picked up her backpack. Then, the door opened before I could grab it and I saw Summer walk in. I noticed that she dyed her hair red; I glared at her, annoyed, while Miranda glared at her.

“Kane, what’re you doing here?” She asked. At first I decided to ignore her and went to grab the door, but she stood in my path and closed it right behind her. “I asked you a question-”

“That doesn’t mean I have to answer it, now move before I make you.” She faced Miranda, who said nothing to her. “Move Summer-”

“I heard what you did to Travis.” I shrugged nonchalantly. “How could you do something like that to him?”

“He spoke badly to my friend, so I had to teach him a lesson. By the way, why are you here?”

“I got called down to see the principal and my guidance counselor. Is that why you got called down?”

“Wait, what’s your rank in the schoo?”

“I’m eleven right now.” I stared at her blankly for a few seconds before pinching my forehead. “Why?” If I figured this out right, she’s most likely going to be part of the top ten, which means she knocked off number ten and is going to take their spot. I sighed forcefully.

“Welcome to the top ten,” I bitterly said. Summer raised her eyebrow, but before she could say anything, I moved her out the way and opened the door. I held it for Miranda, who walked out, but I gave Summer one last look. “Oh by the way, just because you colored your hair, that doesn’t mean you got any prettier. You’re still a mess.” She gasped loudly in dismay; I ignored her and left the front office with Miranda.