Jack

The bell rang just as Jack stepped through the school gates. Just on time, Jack thought, relieved. Relaxed, he walked to his form room, smiling at people and responding to cheerful greetings of "Morning Jack" on the way. Nearly everyone was already there when Jack got to form, but he wasn't late so he strode in with a casual "Morning Sir, how are you?"

"Fine thank you Jack. How are you?"

"I'm wonderful Sir" Jack said with a grin. He crossed the classroom to the table with students from his year group, smiling at the younger kids on the way. They giggled nervously and hesitated before smiling back. Jack was the only one who ever acknowledged the other year groups in form, everybody else just huddled round there own table and kept to themselves. Boring, Jack thought, sighing as he sat down next to Owen.

"Hey" Owen turned to face Jack, along with a few others on the table.

"Hey, how're you doing?" Jack replied.

"Yeah not bad, you?

"I'm good thanks" Jack said with a smile.

He turned and joined in easily with the rest of the group. Today, most of them were talking about the half term break, it was only a week or so away. Only a few people stayed out of this conversation; they were using the time to read or catch up on homework. Jack looked around the room. Roughly 25 people were there, 5 ish from each year group. They saw eachother at the start and end of every single day and yet they still stayed separate. Jack reminded himself that he couldn't do anything about it, it's just the way life works. People herd together to protect themselves from the uncertainty of new things. He pushed it from his mind, smiled and continued making plans, with his friends, for the half term.

The rest of the morning went quickly. Biology, Maths, break, Computing, English and now lunch. They stood outside; chatting, laughing and eating. Jack was the centre of conversation, as per usual, so he told some funny stories and sparked some good discussions that let him stand back while everyone talked around him. He watched the group as they spoke, noticing small things like who they looked at, who they spoke to, what they did when they weren't talking. Rhys was constantly watching Gwen, Bless him, Jack thought, he doesn't have a chance with her, but his obsession is pretty adorable. Jack saw Gwen glance awkwardly at Rhys before taking control of the conversation. Toshiko was sat at the bench, going through her notes from Computing and sneaking peaks at Owen when she thought no one was looking. Jack moved onto Ianto. He was just stood there. He was staring blankly ahead, smiling when someone looked in his general direction and he only spoke when someone asked him a question. Maybe he has something on his mind, Jack pondered. It seemed a bit odd, almost as if Ianto wasn't really there. Jack shrugged it off and took his place in the centre of the conversation.

The bell rang and the group headed off in the direction of PE; cutting through the corridors, joking and messing around on the way. The younger students inside scuttled out of their way, squishing into the walls - trying to be invisible. Jack frowned. He didn't think it was right that they should be afraid, there was only a few years age gap between them after all. Jack supposed that his group was quite intimidating; they were top of the school and some of them probably forgot how afraid they used to be. They were the loudest group of friends in their year, probably in the school too. Jack didn't like the word "popular" because it was a label and he didn't like labels, but that's probably how other people described them.

"You okay Jack?" It was Ianto, he was watching Jack expectantly. Jack wondered if he had been asked a question, he hoped not because he hadn't a clue what it could've been.

"Of course," He smiled, "Are you?"

"Always" Ianto smiled too, a half smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. Jack chuckled and asked Ianto some questions about his weekend, while noticing that he was actually pretty hot. Jack often did this while talking to people, he liked to figure out why each person was attractive. Sometimes he'd pick his favourite aspect of that person, but not always. This time he did, though it was quite difficult; Ianto had a subtle sort of attractiveness and all of his features were handsome without being obtrusive. In the end, Jack decided that Ianto's nose was probably the cutest thing on his face, or maybe his eyes... Jack could get lost in those eyes if he wanted to.

Although maybe not right now, Jack thought, realising that he'd been staring intently at Ianto for longer than was socially acceptable. He cleared his throat and shifted his gaze forward, concentrating on the walk.

Ianto

While in a world of his own - and not a very nice one - Ianto had noticed Jack's brow furrow. So to be polite, he had automatically checked that Jack was alright. Of course Jack was going to say yes, so the whole conversation was a bit pointless but at least he was talking to someone, meaning that people wouldn't get suspicious of his lack of interaction. Not that anyone has noticed, Ianto thought dejectedly. To prevent himself from following that train of thought, Ianto jumped on a question Jack had asked and began rambling, hoping that he was talking sense.

"..and that's all I did on Sunday.. So, um.. Yeah" He finished lamely when Jack didn't acknowledge his response. Ianto walked uncomfortably in the silence, glancing from Jack to the floor and back again. Finally, Jack seemed to snap out of his reverie and realise that he was staring at Ianto. He coughed and looked away, Ianto breathed a sigh of relief.

Jack strode ahead confidently to catch up with Owen and Gwen, abandoning Ianto. He said something that Ianto couldn't hear and the group chuckled in unison. Probably something to do with Gwen and Owen's not-so-subtle flirting, Ianto assumed. Everyone was joking and shouting and pushing and laughing; Ianto was left trailing behind, with no distractions. He was left to his own thoughts, which never worked out well...