Guys im putting this on AO3 and wattpad as well. I edited this a few times before finally getting it right so bear with me please. Sorry and thank you to readers of the unedited version. NOW ON TO THE PROLOGUE!

It was the first day of the second week back at school. Most of the summer-time feeling had worn off and most everyone was getting excited for Friday would be the first football game of the season. The pep-rallies had been interesting enough and it was clear to see the cheerleaders didn't do cheer camp this year because a lot of them fell and messed up in a hilarious scene that wouldn't soon be forgotten. The ever flawless marching band, however, had been working for half of the summer on preparing their field show, knowing full well that they still wouldn't have it complete in time for the half time show for the game. They would have to perform anyway and just deal with what they had. They had never had a truly horrible show even if it was unfinished and they were known for bringing in first and second place trophies. Regardless the students never received any praise from their peers on the matter.

The football game, and the cheerleading failure would have been the talk of the school, as would jokes about the band not being totally ready, but that wasn't exactly the buzz going around the school lately. They were talking about the male, colorguard captain and the only boy on the team and not in the nicest of ways.

"Oh my god, you heard about that too? Is it true then, is he ...?"

"Yeah. He's obviously a fag. There's no way any normal guy would dress up and dance around in a frilly outfit twirling a flag. Straight guys just don't do that crap."

"What a faggot. Not to mention he's like a super ginger. That hair color can't be natural. He has to dye it. Just another way he's like a girl."

"Hey, don't look now but there he is, probably on his way to his fag boyfriend."

"Shhhh. Act cool. Don't even acknowledge him. Wouldn't want to catch the gay. It's probably contagious the way he radiates it."

The rumors were getting more popular and the comments even more harsh. School had barely started and the redhead already wished he had been homeschooled this year. People may have thought they were being discrete and quiet with their whispering, but he always heard their comments and was always hurt by them. He wasn't going to start anything because of it though, he wouldn't bother to pick fights with people who didn't know what they were talking about half the time. It wasn't worth it. He could just as easily brush it off and act like everything was fine. He almost made it all the way to lunch without showing any signs of being bothered. Almost.

Ron and Grell sat down at the same table they had sat at for the past three years and remained in mutual silence until Ron spoke up. "Hey Grell, ... uh, ha- have you heard what people have been saying today?" he asked carefully, concerned about his usually charismatic and bombastic friend. The redhead had been acting strange all day and he knew it was probably because of the rumors. He picked at his food and began eating as he breached the subject.

Grell looked up and answered a little too quickly, a knowing recognition behind his tone. "No."

Ronald put his plastic fork down and looked at him with the 'don't-give-me-that-bullshit' look.

The redhead sighed because he knew that Ronnie saw right through his lie. "Yeah, I have. I'm okay though. It's just their opinions, why would that matter to me? I don't even know most of them." He said while trying his best to smile. Right as Ronald was about to respond, their other friend William sat down next to Grell and across from Ronald.

"Know most of who?" William asked, setting his tray down.

"Nobody." Grell said softly as he tried to drop the subject.

"William wasn't buying it though. He may have been oblivious to the rumors but he knew something was up. Not many people, other than his small group of friends, talked to him unless they were asking questions about homework or getting a tutor or something school related. He was the top nominee for valedictorian, much to his parents satisfaction and he didn't plan on giving up the title any time soon. On top of doing his own work flawlessly he also did a few bullies' work to avoid being bullied and also to get on their better side, should the need arise. Granted he would only do so half-efforted to make it believable that they did the work themselves, but he still got by being an idol among the student body.

"Well Grell here, clearly doesn't want to talk about this but ... he has rumors being spread about him. Granted most of it is technically true but, it's still not being said in the nicest of ways." Ronnie said with a mouth full of cafeteria macaroni.

Grell sighed and slouched onto the table, holding himself up by his elbows. "Ugh Ronnie. Two things." He said as he held up two fingers. "One, nobody wants to see your food. Two, I'm fine. I already told you I'm fine." Grell said, seeming rather upset that it was being brought up. It would be bad enough to discuss it at all, but in front of his crush and close friend. He didn't want to deal with it. He also really didn't want William to worry about it because their relationship was complicated. They were a bit more than friends at times and at other times they were just barely friends. Ronald had been trying to set them up all summer but William was stubborn and Grell could sometimes be a bit too much with his flamboyancy. Though on occasion William played along with the dramatics.

"Sorry." Ron muttered after he finished his bite. It tasted like cardboard and he wanted to say something but knew if he changed the topic again that Grell wouldn't let it stray back to this and this was important.

"What kinds of things are they saying, if I may ask?" William said looking back and forth between Ronald and Grell expectantly.

Grell just buried his head in his folded arms on the table, silently leaving it to Ron to explain to William. " Well ... some of the things I've heard are things like 'what a faggot' and 'he's fucking disgusting', 'he should die' ... that's the worst of what I've heard at least. There's also comments about how being captain makes him even worse and all but it's just nonsense. Although a few people asked me personally if he was wearing a dress with the rest of the girls for the show." Ron explained. He put air quotes around the horrible things that he had to repeat but it didn't help the sting that was clearly expressed in Grell's body language. He would cringe with each and every statement.

William watched Grell's reaction from the corner of his eye and seeing that pain there set him off "That's ... That's fucking unacceptable. Honestly I cannot believe the immaturity and closed mindset of some of our classmates. Fuck." He groaned. "Fucking hell, I just want to punch anyone who thinks that you're disgusting or that you should die because of who you are. You're a wonderful, amazing person and you don't deserve this bullshit." He said, now facing Grell who still had his head down on the table.

Grell slowly picked his head up when he heard the last sentence. He stared straight at William with immense pain, confusion, hope and tears in his eyes from re-hearing what he head heard from others about him all day and then from everything Will had said in response. "D-do you really mean that?" he asked as he tried to hold back the tears that were welling up, needing to fall, begging to fall.

"Of course I do." Grell's heart skipped a beat and he smiled. "You're an amazing friend ..." His smile lessened. " ...and you're a fantastic colorguard member and an even better captain. You don't deserve to be bullied like this." Will said gazing at the redhead. He didn't like the tears or the pain that he saw welling up in those eyes. He didn't realize that some of the pain he had just put there himself because of the way he basically put Grell in the friendzone again. He scooted closer and hugged his friend to comfort him, but it was more than just a basic comforting hug.

Grell hugged back and choked out a "T-thanks ... W-will." before breaking down and releasing tears. They still had twenty more minutes of lunch after that and they spent the whole time wrapped in each other's arms as if they were lovers who were spending their last day together. William continued to try and comfort Grell but found that his words weren't helping much. With five minutes left of their lunch he forced Grell to eat at least some of his food so he wouldn't starve.

The rest of the week passed with even more rumors each day. Apparently some kids had seen William comfort Grell in the cafeteria and they of course assumed the worst possible thing they could make out of it.

"The faggot has a boyfriend now."

"What the fuck? Really? Who is it?"

"That super nerd guy who's going to be valedictorian this year. William something or another."

"No way. I never would have guessed."

"Yeah. Turns out he's a faggot too. I heard they suck eachother's dicks while William studies."

"Ew. Gross."

"I heard that little red was crying yesterday to try and get his boyfriend to fuck his faggot ass in the bathroom out of pity."

"Guys. That's seriously fucking disgusting. If you keep talking about it, then you two are fags too." And just like that the topic was dropped.

The rumors were never ending and a constant topic in and out of class. On Thursday things got a whole lot worse though. Some kid intentionally tripped Grell in the hallway after third period, making him fall flat on his face. Everyone pointed and laughed and a few even high-fived the kid. At lunch, no one really bothered him but he kept a defined distance between himself and William because he didn't want to drag him into the mess.

Then after school, he was confronted in the parking lot on his way to meet Ron and Will at Ronald's car. A group of football players walked up behind him and pulled on his red backpack.

"So, you must be the faggot that's with our faggot ass homework supplier." The head jock said in a cocky accusing tone.

Grell stopped in his tracks and froze. He had never been confronted and didn't really know what to do. His mind screamed at him to run but he didn't know if he could outrun this stranger and didn't want to find out. He turned around to at least look at who was talking to him and had the balls to confront him. "What?" he asked innocently and genuinely confused.

"You suck his dick. He sucks yours. I don't want to know who fucks who in the ass though. You both fucking disgust me, and you're a worthless piece of shit." He spat as he took a step closer to Grell. "Where's your boyfriend anyway? I'm thinking I want to terminate my homework deal with that fag."

Grell had no idea what they meant or where they got the idea but he subconsciously he wished that what they were saying was true, that he was with William. "He's not my boyfriend." was all he could say in defense. His voice came out weak and scared and he wished it hadn't.

"Oh so you're fuck buddies, that's even more fucking repulsive. You're both going to hell. You know that don't you. You and your fuck buddy will burn in hell where you fucking belong. You sick fuck." The jock growled as he pushed Grell, hitting him in the chest with one hand.

Grell didn't know what to do. He just stumbled back at being pushed and stared at the ground, hanging his head in shame and unable to look at his new enemy. "No. It's not like that. We're just friends. We don't do any-" he said, getting cut off and sounding as meek and pathetic as he felt.

"Bullshit. I've fucking seen you guys around school. You're always together. Unless you want me to beat you into a pulp, keep your gay, fucking man-whore faggot ass away from him. We don't need him distracted from our homework to suck your pathetic, puny dick." He spat. He then pushed Grell back to catch him off guard and then punched him in the chest to knock him to the ground. Grell cowered and immediately went to fetal position once he hit the gravel. "Fucking bitch-ass faggot." the jock muttered before walking away with his group of friends who were all laughing at the pathetic sight of the redhead cowering on the gravel.

Ronald caught the last comment and ran over to help Grell up. "Hey what was that about? Did you start something?" he asked as he extended a hand to pull him up.

"It was nothing Ronnie, don't worry about it. I can handle myself." he said as he resumed his walk to Ronald's car. William had been waiting there for them both and greeted them with a smile.

"Are you guys ready for the show tomorrow night?" Will asked as Ronald climbed in to the drivers seat and he and Grell got in the back.

Ronald gave an enthusiastic "HELL YEAH!" and pumped his fist in the air before starting the car.

Grell's eyes lit up as he remembered and he couldn't hold back a smile. "Of course. I can't wait for our feature." he beamed at William.

Prologue has been re-written and this is my final draft. Hope you enjoy the story.