Author Note: Uhhh well... Sorry for dying for a while, I'm alive and still working on things. This is an AU high school setting and depending on what you say this can be a slash... (I ship Crane and Edward harder than Nutella and my mouth.). X3 I'll probably leave this one more a friendship type story though. Ok well... Enjoy, feedback is always welcome andconstructive criticism.

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16-year-old Jonathan Crane thought that moving to a new high school would be for the better. In his old school the kids would avoid him like the plague, throw stones and taunt him. He hoped by moving school would mean he could start anew and he might actually enjoy his school life. He realised he couldn't be any more wrong as his face hit the ground and his glasses flew off his face. He spat bits of gravel out of his mouth and pushed himself up, this was the third beating this month and the school term had only just begun. It was pitiful really, caving into his fear like this, cowering and running like a frightened animal.

Reaching out to pick up his glasses a foot made contact with his ribcage, sending a wave of pain through his body. No doubt that would leave a bruise, just like the punch to his face, not that anyone cared. He fell on his side and cringed. "Trying to go somewhere Ichabod?" One of the brutes that taunted and beat him said. Ichabod was a nickname they called him because of his thin frame and timid demeanour, scarecrow was one of their other favourites.

"N-no."

"Good, 'cuz we aren't finished with you yet." He taunted, a smirk on his face. Jon just whimpered in response. The leader of this tribe (Bo Griggs) picked his up by the collar and pressed him against a brick wall. The bell went, signalling the end of lunch and Bo looked somewhat disappointed. "I'll see you after school scarecrow…" Jonathan held his breath as his knees hit the pavement. The unjustified punishment was over, for now… The group walked off and Jon hissed against every breath. After some time he got up and shakily picked up his glasses, the corner of the left frame had spider web like cracks running through it, great…

As the bell to signal the end of school for today and by extension the weekend. Jon decides that instead of walking towards the testosterone driven apes he'd hide behind some of the dumpsters at the back of the school, it would be better to wait them out rather than to confront them. Sitting in-between two foetid metal containers he drew the hood of his black jacket over his dark brown mop of a hair-do, trying the blend into the shadows cast by the dumpsters. He sighed; this was still better than back home with his grandmother, how he hated that witch…

Jon reached into his bag and pulled out a sketchbook, when he wasn't being terrorised by his grandmother or being tormented by the school bullies he was reading or drawing. Inside the pages were pencil or ink drawings of twisted shadows and other macabre shapes, some of which were what haunted his dreams. A lot of the images had bird like qualities, specifically crows. Sharp angles and long strokes made the feathers, rounded strokes for the piercing eyes and more sharp angles for the pointed beaks made the beasts in his pictures. Even just thinking about the animals sent a shiver down his spine.

He started to draw humanoid figures with a charcoal pencil, leaving white for the eyes and giving then pointed limbs and talons. "You know sitting there is very unhygienic." Jon jumped almost running the pencil across the page, which would have ruined his picture.

His head snapped to where the voice came from.

A boy with coppery-orange hair, purple round glasses, in a black shirt covered by a green jacket stood across from him with his arms crossed. "Very, very unsanitary. Maybe the garbage collectors will pick you up as well, bet you'd smell bad enough." Jon examined him. This kid wasn't new to the school, he was there before Jonathan had come along. He had a tendency to skip class or come in late; he seemed like a bright kid though... Jon guessed it was just a façade and he wasn't as smart as he claimed to be, however he was always able to answer questions when asked and if he didn't answer them he just avoided the question with questions of his own and the teachers just gave up.

Jon had seen Bo pick on him a few times, and he knew he wasn't a very physical fighter. He'd dodge and make snide remarks, careful not to get himself cornered. He relaxed and turned his attention back to his drawing. "Hey, are you even listening?" His voice picking up an angry tone. "How dare you ignore me, do you even realise how much intelligence you could learn for even just listening to a genius such as myself?!" Jeez this guy was full of himself.

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"Hey, are you even listening?" Who did this guy think he was just brushing him off like that? "How dare you ignore me, do you even realise how much intelligence you could learn for even just listening to a genius such as myself?!" How ignorant, no one brushed Eddie Nashton off! "Moron, stop looking at that stupid book and listen." This guy was new to the school and it didn't take long for him to become Bo's new target. He was awfully thin and although he was approximately the same height as Bo he was pushed around as if he were more Eddie's size. No one called him by his real name when gossiping, it was either scarecrow or Ichabod, Jonathan was just a name for when they were in class.

Jonathan looked up again, an unreadable expression on his face. "Oh so there is something intelligible in that head of yours." Eddie jeered.

"If you're just going to taunt me can you please piss off, I'm trying to keep away from attention thank you very much… I don't need Bo finding me here… I'm already sure he's given me a black eye and I don't need any more abuse…" Jonathan said in a neutral voice. It was true, Eddie could see the flesh around his right eye becoming dark and swollen. "Sure Bo and his ruffians are tough but you won't have to worry about them on the weekend or in the holidays, consider yourself lucky…" Of course he didn't tell him about his father… If he wasn't yelling at and hitting Eddie he was pretending his son didn't exist. He wouldn't let anyone know, he wanted them to guess and if they didn't guess they wouldn't know. But instead of asking about why he would be lucky Jonathan merely scoffed and went back to his book. SCOFFED. "A-aren't you going to ask why, aren't you curious?"

"No, not really… I've got it hard back home, if you'd even call it a home… You know… I might try to sneak past those brutes instead of talking…" He put his book back in his bag and stood up, heading towards one of the fences running around the school.

Eddie wanted to know what he meant by 'he had it hard back home' and 'If you could even call it a home'. Did he have an abusive parent(s), judging by his clothes maybe his family was fanatically in trouble or maybe he was just being whiny… Eddie wanted to know. He loved all things puzzle, riddle or mystery related. He wanted to know things he didn't, he had to know things he didn't. He almost followed the scrawny boy but decided if he was trying to sneak past unnoticed the bright green jacket Eddie was wearing wouldn't exactly blend in.

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"Sure Bo and his ruffians are rough but you won't have to worry about them on the weekend or in the holidays, consider yourself lucky…" Lucky? He was too scared to stand up for himself, he just whimpered and cowered not only from the bullies but from his own grandmother! All he could do is scoff in response; this kid had no idea about how terrible it was for him back home. A face of confusion or perhaps disappointment crossed the other boy's face. "A-aren't you going to ask why, aren't you curious?" Curious? No. Annoyed? Yes.

"No, not really… I've got it hard back home, if you'd even call it a home… You know… I might try to sneak past those brutes instead of talking…" With that he put his book and pencil in his bag and headed towards a fence he could climb over. He had the need for social isolation, he'd had enough talking. He wanted to sit in quiet and pretend his problems didn't bother him, to not feel scared for once.

Author Note: I'm going through giving this minor changes, just to make it smoother. xoxo