'Gotta Lighter?'

19-S'pretty cool man

"Without lamps, there'd be no light." As John continued his bickering Matt pulled out the lighter he had given her and lit it, proving the boy wrong. Though it did earn her a glare and a playful shove to her shoulder, being a smart-ass was one of the top notch qualities she wasn't willing to let go of.

"Okay, so neither one of you is any better than the other one." Claire broke up the boys fighting.

"I can write with my toes!" Allison stated, feeling left out of the conversation. "I can also eat, brush my teeth." She continued.

"With your feet?" It was hard to tell if Claire was disgusted or amazed.

"Play Heart and Soul on the piano."

"I can make spaghetti." Brian continued to conversation.

"What can you do?" Claire asked Andy who had gone silent for a bit.

"I can uh, tape all your buns together.." He looked to Matt and with a nod asked her, "What about you?"

"Me?" Her left hand moved up to scratch at her neck. "Uh...i play bass. And I know a few wrestling moves."

"Really? Like what?" Andrew seemed interested in where they had learned this from.

"Like um..WWF moves. That's how I got in here actually." A small airy laugh left her mouth to cover the embarrassment.

"What?"  Andrew replied back through laughter. The others waiting in suspense for her answer.

"Uh, me and Julian were in the room-the uh, abandoned classroom everyone smokes in and I had missed Monday Night Raw that Monday so I recorded it and finally got around to watching it on Thursday so I was talking about it and y'know I was high so all of a sudden I just started wrestling him and the office lady caught us cause we were being real loud." The room broke out in laughter about half way through Matt's story. When they were done laughing, much to Matt's embarrassment, Bender brought the conversation back on track.

"I wanna see what Claire can do." John stated after the girl finished.

"I can't do anything."

"Everybody can do something." His tone of voice made it clear- well to Matt at least, the others seemed to be clueless- that he was mocking the girl.

"There's one thing I can do." The red hear responded after a bit of thinking. "No, forget it. It's way too embarrassing."

"You ever seen Wild Kingdom? That guy's been doin' that show for thirty years." The girl finally caved, as she began to look through the purse next to her.

"Okay. But you have to swear to God you won't laugh." After finding her lipstick she continued muttering to herself. "I can't believe I'm actually doing this." She stuck her lipstick tube down her shirt and putting her head down. After somewhere around 30 seconds she lifted her head back up, revealing the lipstick that was now on her lips. As the others clapped and cheered her on Matt only clapped a few times- she wasn't too impressed but she didn't want to embarrass the girl too much, she'd done that enough earlier.

"All right! That's great! Where'd you learn to do that?" Andrew seemed almost to happy that the girl could do that.

"Camp. Seventh grade."

"S'pretty cool dude, pretty cool." Matt sat up a bit, going to give the girl a fist bump. Claire knew she wouldn't get to much out of the girl so she would take it. She didn't like the fact that she was being called dude either but it seemed that Matt called everyone that so she'd have to get used to it. After the praises towards the girl were done you could hear a sarcastic clap coming from John.

"That was great, Claire." Becoming insecure, the girl wiped her lipstick off. "My image of you is totally blown." Leaning her head up against the pillar with an eye roll, Matt let out a sigh.

"You're a shit. Don't do that to her. You swore to God you wouldn't laugh."

"Am I laughing?"

"Come on, John..." Matt muttered under her breath. She had tried to not be so mean and he decided to be even meaner.

"You fuckin' prick!"

"What do you care what I think anyway? I don't even count, right? I could disappear forever and it wouldn't make any difference. I may as well not even exist at this school, remember? And you- don't like me anyway." Matt looked to Ally and they both sighed, knowing what was to come.

"You know, I have just as many feelings as you do and it hurts just as much when somebody steps all over them."

"God you're so pathetic. Don't you ever, ever okay? You got everything, and I got shit! Fuckin' Rapunzel, right? School would probably fucking shut down if you didn't show up! "Queenie isn't here!" I like those earrings Claire." When his voice started getting higher, Matt shuffled so she was closed to Ally then John and layed her head on the other girls shoulder, closing her eyes. Ally laughed softly at the girls antics.

"Shut up." You could see the tears forming in Claire's eyes at this point.

"Are those real diamonds Claire?"

"Shut up!"

"I bet they are. Did you work for the money.."

"Shut your mouth!" The girls voice was progressively getting louder.

"...for those earrings? Or did your daddy buy those for you?"

"Shut up!!" When her voice raised even more it was clear that she was furious. With a sigh, Matt opened her eyes and removed her head from Ally's shoulder but still sitting by to her.

"I bet he bought those for you. I bet those are a Christmas gift! Right? You know what I got for Christmas this year? It was a banner fuckin' year at the old Bender family! I got a carton of cigarettes. The old man grabbed me and said "Hey! Smoke up Johnny!" Okay, so go home'n cry to your daddy, don't cry here, okay?" After John spoke the library went into a state of what felt like calmness, a silence it hadn't been in for a while.

"My god, are we gonna be like our parents?"

"Not me." Claire stated while Matt scoffed- not at the girl, just at the fact that it was impossible for her to act like her parents. "Ever."

"It's unavoidable. It just happens."

"What happens?" Brian asked the girl.

"When you grow up, your heart dies."

"Who cares?"

"I care." As Allison said it, her voice cracked. Matt have a hum. Their  eyes were glazed over but they refused to recognize it. The topic of parents was a rough one and even though she could get through her story it was hard having a group of people talk about how their gonna grow up to be like there parents, even if it was in a bad way. John pulls Matt back to his side.

"M'sorry." Matt mumbled - she didn't like crying none the less in front of people and even if she hadn't but was close to it, she felt the need to apologize.

"Don't be.." He mumbled back, kissing the top of her head.

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EDITED--