"Like a Bullet with Butterfly Wings"
an original fic by SchizoAuthoress and a_fish_called_sid

[despite all my rage i am still just a rat in a cage
then someone will say what is lost can never be saved]

A tall, skinny-looking white teenage boy dressed in fitted jeans, chuck taylors, and a hemp hoodie was attacked from one side on his way onto the campus of Donna Bella High School. He went sprawling, a hand ruffled his shaggy brown hair, and a familiar voice cried, "G'mornin' Siddy!"

Sid Lydon sat up in the grass and caught Charmaigne Baermos, his 'attacker,' in a waist-crushing hug. The girl laughed and kissed his nose, her scraggy black hair falling into his half-closed eyes. "Cuddle me," she pronounced decisively, resting her head on his right shoulder.

"'Kay," Sid replied, obliging his friend. Charmaigne was in one of her 'highs,' an extremely happy mood that would later crash into a dark sadness when nobody could touch her except for Squee. Squee was Charmaigne's mostly-oblivious crush, one of her friends from all the way back in freshman year. Sid was a junior, in the year below Charmaigne, Squee, and Charmaigne's best friend Florie.

"Hey, I thought you were *my* boyfriend, Sid."

The two of them looked up to see junior Chris Colarusso, a tall boy of Italian descent with black hair in a buzzcut with long sideburns and deep brown eyes. His dark, heavy eyebrows were drawn together in a mock-frown and he held out one of his large hands to Sid. Sid released Charmaigne and was helped up. Charmaigne grinned up at Chris and got to her feet on her own.

"Jealous?" she teased, shoving her red-framed glasses up to the bridge of her nose. Chris laughed,

"Of a short, mean little Flip like you? You don't pose a threat at all, Maine."

Maine rocked her head from side to side, adjusting the left strap of her backpack. "If I was a guy, I might."

"No, you wouldn't," Sid said softly, embracing his boyfriend and hiding his face in Chris's bowling shirt. "'Cause I love Chris too much."

Maine surveyed them both with an insolent smile on her face, her usually angry-looking eyes alight with rare happiness. She put both hands on her hips, careful to avoid the spikes of her belt, and simpered, "Aren't you both just *too* cute?"

As the three of them entered their school, Chris split off down a different hallway, as his locker was on the other side of the building, due to the idiocy of the school system. Swaying to the song stuck in his head, Sid swooped up and gave Maine a hug from behind. They both nearly fell over as they tried to walk that way.

"I was thinking of dying my hair pink. Or at least getting highlights. Whaddya think?" Sid asked as they headed to their own lockers.

"Fabulous," she replied with a smile. "You'd look good in any hair color."

"Aw, gee, ya make me blush," Sid quipped, struggling with the combination lock on his locker. "Man! I always leave the lock open so I don't hafta undo it, and someone always locks it again!"

"It's the vice principle, duh," Maine told him dryly.

"Yeah...does she ever piss me off, sometimes...hey, what the hell is this?" Sid said, his voice suddenly wavering. He stood aside to let his best friend see into his locker. She swore when she saw it--someone had torn every page out of every textbook Sid had had in his locker, and the locker was stuffed with all of the pages, piled in a huge, disgraceful mess. She looked at Sid--he seemed close to tears. He could be so sensitive sometimes, it was a wonder that he didn't collapse out of stress. Not only did he get upset about his own problems, but other people's problems. He had nearly burst a blood vessel when he heard the USA might go to war.

"Maine...what did I do?"

"Nothing." Charmaigne replied shortly, viciously. She was angry again, angry at the people who would dare do this. But Sid misunderstood her anger and turned away, ashamed for some reason at his initial reaction.

Realizing the mistake, Maine touched his shoulder and said in a gentler voice, "It's not you, Siddy. It's the assholes who would do this to you that piss me off." She reached over, slamming the locker shut and clicking the lock closed. "Let's go to the security office."

Softly, Sid protested, "You said that Security was just a bunch of wannabe cops on a power trip, last week." Maine chuckled at that.

"God, do you have tape recorder hidden in your coat or something? You remember everything I ever say to you." She grabbed Sid by the elbow and led him down the hall. She admitted, "Yeah, I did say that, but this is serious. We should report it."

Sid stared at his best friend in confusion, stumbling slightly as she increased her pace. This was very unlike Charmaigne. Usually, she'd be out for blood after someone so much as made fun of one of her friends...

"And then," Maine growled in a low, dangerous voice, "We're gonna hunt down these bastards, me and Chris and Florie, and make 'em fucking sorry they ever even considered ripping *one* page of your books in their tiny little brains."

Despite the gravity of the situation, Sid had to smile weakly. *That* sounded like the Charmaigne Baermos he knew.

"They did *what*?!" Florie Deadman shrieked as Charmaigne finished relating the events of that morning to her at lunch. The small, pixie-like girl slung down her shoulder bag at the foot of the oak tree and shouted, "Let's go find the fuckers!"

"Hey," interjected Steven McNeal, AKA 'Squee.' "Sorry to break the news to ya, Florie, but there's a whole bunch of people who could have done that to Sid. We don't know who to go after."

"Then we'll blow up the entire fucking school!"

"Careful," came a subdued, quiet voice from behind the fuming female, "Talk like that and you'll get suspended like Avery Smith."

"Sid!" Maine exclaimed in surprise. She flung her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tightly. He looked like he needed it.

To be frank, Sid looked like hell. It was obvious that he'd been crying a lot, and he exuded an aura of pure nervousness, as though he'd been shaken to the core. Chris hovered protectively over him, and Maine released him to retreat back into his boyfriend's arms.

They made quite the group, the gathering of teens by the Art Building oak tree. Squee was dressed in faded khaki cargo pants and old Air Jordans; his upper body was bundled up in a dark grey polarfleece pullover. His brown hair hung to his shoulders, mostly unbrushed without looking messy.

Florie had on a tight white Tool T-shirt, through which could be seen her black sportsbra, and baggy boys' pants that looked absolutely giant on her, held up by a black riveted belt, and black boots. A long black trenchcoat completed her outfit, and she was growing out her dyed-black hair past her shoulders. Her reddish-brown roots could be seen.

Charmaigne's outfit looked much like Florie's, without a trenchcoat. Her black tee had a picture of Invader Zim in his Voot Cruiser and read "Let us rain some DOOM upon the filthy heads of our DOOMED enemies." Her belt, as mentioned, was spiked instead of riveted, and her boots were laced with fat rainbow laces. Matching wristwarmers adorned her wrists.

"C'mon, Chris," Florie appealed to the taller boy, "You and me. I can get silver nitrate from the science labs; we'll blow this place sky-high."

Chris sighed, leaning against the tree trunk while still holding Sid. "What good would it do?" He asked softly.

"Huh? Chris, look at what they did to Sid! They have to pay!"

Sid distangled himself from his boyfriend's embrace and said, "I'm gonna go get something to eat."

"Yeah, I'm kinda thirsty," Squee said quickly. "I'll go with you." Chris shot Squee a thankful look, and Maine smiled slightly. Squee was a pretty decent guy; he knew that Sid probably needed a bodyguard of sorts, in the tense atmosphere of the quad.

Because it had already gotten around the school by second period: somebody had broken into Fairy-Boy Lydon's locker and messed up his school books. Some said he deserved it, others were mad that it had happened at all. A confrontation was brewing...it would surface soon enough.

Chris turned to Florie. His dark eyes were wounded; this business with Sid had really hurt him, and deeply. "It won't do any good, Flor, to say stuff like that or make threats. They already did what they wanted to do; Sid is talking about transferring to another school if it happens again."

The girls looked shocked. They cried together, "No!" Chris nodded sadly.

"Unfortunately, yes."