While he was lost in thought, Mrs. Chun-Gang had returned from her office.
"Alright, class!" she announced cheerily, "Today is our last day of the year, and for some of you, our last class ever! So finish up those projects, and I can give you all a passing grade!"
Then she left. Noddy panicked – his project was only half-finished. It was Wood Shop Class, and for a good grade he'd need to assemble an unpainted chair in fifteen minutes. He was the only ninth grader who wanted to take Wood Shop that year, so he wanted to do something impressive: copying Mrs. Chun-Gang's example, a basic wooden table chair, seemed like a sure thing. That was until he skipped class to go dirt-biking at the track. He may have sold the story of his "sudden flu", but he couldn't fib that chair together. Or... could he? He took a can of wood staining paint. Instead of grooving the brush through the grain of the wood, three times over a week like he meant to, he took a paint roller and soaked it in as little stain as possible. Then he rolled each piece so thinly that it would dry before he'd even set it down. It wouldn't get him an 'A', but he could live with that. What mattered was that it looked like he'd tried. It wasn't a deep-staining that would last forever, just a surface-coating which he could touch up later, if he felt like it.
At that moment, Mrs. Chun-Gang's two daughters took notice. They weren't aware of his schemes, nor his problems; they were still in the seventh grade, and their attentions were usually elsewhere. Duri wanted to be a reporter for the local news, and Ji-a was already the school journalist. Both of them wanted to be close to Noddy, he quite naturally assumed: he was tall, muscular but lean, handsome, and he considered himself interesting. His tan skin complimented his blond hair, which was straight, with parted bangs that hung over his face like golden curtains. He thought it made him look all the more mysterious to them if he kept his eyes covered by them, at least some of the time. That way he could look up at them while sitting down, and flash those baby blues. It was stuff like that which always made a girl red in the face, he'd noticed. More than that, he was sensitive, and underneath his thin layer of 'tough guy act', he had a soft heart and a big smile. He listened to them talk, kind of, not really understanding what they were saying, as he hastily drilled the rush-stained pieces together. No matter what, they seemed to stay by his side... never imposing, never abandoning, never guilting. He liked it, so he finished his chair and nodded along with them. They'd been his unofficial friends all summer, and now that he was leaving, he was going to miss them. Unfortunately, all they knew of him was lies. That his dad was a 'baseball star in Spain', or that he was 'once knighted by the Spanish King as a boy', for 'saving the royal pooch from a moving car'. He even claimed to have once 'survived a two-story drop, without any broken bones'. They'd recently grown bored, so he told them he'd once beat the school's over-dramatic vampire-fanatic, Vladosi Moldovan, in a fight – and that he was the reason Vlad's one fang was chipped. Vlad had never heard the rumor, as Duri and Ji-a kept Noddy's tales to themselves, like secret treasures in a locked box. So because it was never discussed, it was never disproved. Noddy had just finished recounting the story, with one new embellishment: that he'd landed an elbow jab to Vlad's stomach. That's when the girls' mother returned, clipboard in hand.
Mrs. Chun-Gang cleared her throat. "Ahem! Please present your projects on or next to the table, and line up."
As each student was graded, Noddy became more and more nervous. Sweat formed on his brow, and his heart raced in circles inside his chest. Gradually, he began to feel like he didn't belong there at all. When it finally came his turn, he made sure to act both proud and ashamed of his handiwork. Mrs. Chun-Gang looked at the chair, then at Noddy.
"That's an interesting staining method you've got there. It almost looks right, too. Go ahead, sit in it."
Noddy did so, as gently as possible. It creaked very loudly.
"You didn't sand the ends, did you?" she deigned to quiz him.
Noddy lied, "I did, but I stained over them." The second part was true.
She sighed. "You've got rough surfaces rubbing together, creating friction all over. You could wake up a whole sleepover with this thing, just by sitting down for a coffee. But, it's in one piece, and it supports weight. You get... a C."
"YES!" Noddy shouted, pumping his fist.
"We both know you could have done better. If you stopped pretending to be so dumb..." She walked over to the table-saw, with hadn't been guarded properly. "You unplugged this, right?"
"Of course!" says Noddy.
Mrs. Chun-Gang set her hand on the surface to check, and suddenly, Noddy's chair legs snapped! One leg flew and hit Mrs. Chun-Gang in the back, and her hand hit the big green button that said 'START'. The sawblade screeched to life, and before ground-bound Noddy could process what was happening, Duri and Ji-a leapt into action. They pulled their mom back, her face and fingers stopping just short of the deadly, spinning razor. Noddy got up as quick as he can, to slam the big red STOP button.
Mrs. Chun-Gang was safe... just barely. The blade had a magnetic safety system, so it wasn't going to keep spinning if it touched any skin. But she was mortified, and catatonic. She could have still been severely injured, from the weight of her own body onto its decelerating momentum. Even if it stopped in an instant, it was still sharp enough to kill in a matter of milliseconds. "Out. N-NOW!" she managed to stutter.
Noddy turned around and walked out, with the seat of his chair stuck to his ass. It fell off, leaving flakes of paint behind.

The girls wouldn't talk to Noddy for two whole weeks. His only friends had lost all faith in him, after seeing his little white lies almost turn red with their mother's blood. They might wonder, he imagined, what else he was lying about. There was a reason they were his only friends. The other boys called him 'The Rat', for three reasons: one, because he had a large, defined nose, and big, round ears. They weren't what he considered his most handsome traits, so he'd left them out, earlier. Two, because though he lied for himself, he would seldom do so for others. Three: because at the very core of his being, he was nothing but afraid of the world around him. He could have fought all those other boys for calling him that, but he had never been in a real fight in his life. Some scuffles during gym class, or basketball, or soccer, sure. Never had he faced an opponent whom he couldn't convince a teacher or a referee to hold at fault. Noddy was a nobody, and it was catching up with him. He was taken to detention, watched carefully by Mr. Carisol.
"Are you aware," Mr. Carisol began, "that Mrs. Chun-Gang has taken a week's leave from Slate Middle School, as of your incident this month?"
Noddy groaned and sighed and almost cried, all at the same time, as he dropped his head to the cold desk.
"Now, what kind of devil are you, Mr. Cortez? Or perhaps I should name you Dolus, or Mendacius. Don't bother asking – it's Greek, and Latin, respectively. They're all myths that mean the same thing: worthless liar."
"I just... forgot. I'm sorry." Noddy didn't lift his head.
"You will be," Mr. Carisol warned gravely. "We're speaking to your mother, and we've heard from the girls all about your lying habit. What happened with your father was detestable, but that's no reason to make things up. You won't win any real friends that way, I promise you. Moreover, you've been suspended from Wood Shop... and we've no choice but to reassign you to something else. You'll need to select a new extracurricular, and you'll be doing weeks of catch-up before you even set foot in class. If you want to graduate junior high AT ALL, I suggest that you stay right here in this very room for the next month. After that, I expect you to keep your nose as clean as a whistle." That was pretty funny coming from Ol' Carson, since that's exactly what his nose sounded like, some of the time.
But Noddy didn't feel like laughing. "I don't deserve this," he whined.
"Finally," Mr. Carisol beamed, "you've started telling the truth. You really don't deserve it... any of this. This school, this life of yours. Not with what you've done to disearn it."
Mr. Carisol left, and the smell of a hardware store's express lane stayed behind. It was September, and Noddy was supposed to be swimming at the waterpark with the rest of his grade... instead, he was taking safety courses, which made his mind feel like a transparent brick of solid glass. Not because it was difficult, but because it was demeaning. Then again, it was the same way he felt about calculus.
It was about to get worse. Right then, as he stood staring out the window of the door, and into the hallway, Noddy saw it: Vlad was peeking around a corner, looking for signs of surveillance. Then he walked a wheelbarrow forward. Inside was a black gym back... and it was struggling. The bag unzipped itself, and a girl in a red hood poked her head out! Then Vlad took a sports bottle full of clear, brown liquid, forced it into the girl's mouth, and zipped the bag up again. Vlad turned to face Noddy, who watched in horror.
He smiled, baring his fangs, and put a single finger to his lips. "Ssshhh..."
Vlad wheeled the unconscious girl away, and out of sight. Before Noddy could react, the door opened. It was Mr. Carisol again, and some scruffy kid with white hair and a black hoodie. Noddy tried to summon the words, but it dawned on him – nobody would believe a word he said. He tried anyway.
"Mr. Carisol, I just saw Vlad booze a girl to sleep and trap her in a gym bag! Or maybe it was some kind of... sleeping potion!! Then he wheeled her off, and-"
"Mr. Cortez, REALLY! Do you expect me to believe a single word that comes from you? You think you can just LIE your way out of DETENTION? Well, I won't have it." Mr. Carisol walked out, stiff as two boards nailed together, and locked the door behind him. His jaw looked like it was clenching at the back.
Left alone, Noddy stared at the albino boy, who raised his sunglasses to meet eyes.
"I believe you," he started.
"You do? That's great! We gotta-"
"But I don't like you." he finished, flipping his shades back down.
"Why not?" Noddy begged.
"Call it instinct. You smell like you're full of shit."
Noddy sniffed his armpit. "You can SMELL that?"
The boy stared at him blankly. "I meant figuratively."
Noddy furrowed his brows. "What's your name, kid? What'd you do?"
"I'm Rex. And APPARENTLY we can't PISS in the FOUNTAIN, EVEN THOUGH there's CLEARLY a DRAIN!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. His jagged, sharp teeth glinted in the fluorescent light – they looked even more dangerous than Vlad's. Like a dog's.
Noddy told him, with a hand on his shoulder, "We have to save that girl. If you believe me, then you're the only one who can help me."
"Well, Vlad said he was hungry. I dunno, I just met him-" Rex froze. Then he said, with some annoyance, "Plus, he's a terrible kisser."
"First, we need to get out of here," Noddy went on, looking for a way to crack the electric lock.
Rex laughed. "Stand back." He took off his shoes, hopped, and rubbed his socks furiously on the carpet. Then he rubbed his palms together, grabbed the door knob, and ZZZKT! The panel sparked with red flashes of light, and started making smoke. The little light dimmed, and Noddy tried the door – still locked. He smacked his forehead.
"Now it's fried," he lamented. "How did you even-"

"I call it The Jolt," Rex shrugged. "I dunno how it works, I just... do that sometimes. You should see what happens when I touch a dead guy."
Noddy stared blankly at Rex. "...what?"
Rex looked around. "Alright, let's try this." He lifted up a window, and there was a screen behind it. Rex snapped at it futilely with his teeth, and pressed his face and hands into it, trying to rip it open.
Noddy thumbed the two spring-locks, and carefully removed the screen. He glared at Rex.
Rex grunted, "Well, don't look at me like I'm stupid. Trial and error."
Then he climbed out of the window, and to Noddy's shock, he jumped. Noddy looked down below, at the boy who landed without a care. Though Noddy was still on the second floor, Rex was fine on the ground, and was already brushing off his clothes.
He stared at Noddy. "What, you've never jumped from a tree before? A high swing-set?"

Noddy shook his head. Behind him, he heard pounding on the door – it was Mr. Carisol, trying to get in, looking very upset that his key-card wasn't working. Then, he started fumbling with a key-ring. Noddy looked at the door, then at the ground... the door, the ground... he thought of the girl, and Vlad's creepy smile...
"Ssshhh..."
Noddy jumped.