CHAPTER 1
GIVE EM' HELL KID
FRANK'S POV
7:00 AM, the day after Winter Break, the first day at a new school for me and my sick excuse for an older brother, Derek. We moved here to Jersey after being evicted out of our old apartment. Dad of course came home trashed, screaming at me loud enough for all of the neighbors to complain about. He had been warned a million times before, and if it hadn't been this that had gotten us evicted, it would have been his tardiness to the rent. So here I am, in a new run down apartment, dreading the school I will be faced to meet in about an hour.
I pull on some black ripped skinny jeans and a worn out Black Flag t-shirt. I smudge some red under my right eye and some black under my left before slipping on my fingerless skeleton gloves and rummaging around a few boxes to find my black hoodie, soaked in holes.
When I had just thought I saw a ripped sleeve, I was suddenly greeted with a bucket of freezing cold water to my back. My fists clenched and I turned around to face him, Derek. "Hurry up, Princess. We're going to be late. You wouldn't want to miss meeting my friends, would you?" he cackled at me. Derek, being the ignorant selfish insecure asshole that he is, has already in the week we've been here found a group of ignorant selfish insecure assholes to accompany himself with. And more importantly, throw around his weaker gay brother around with.
He pulled me up with such a force, he pulled the black hoodie up with me, and thank god he did, because once he pushed me outside into the white covered pathway I didn't think I'd be able to make it to school without it. I slipped one of my shaking arms through the sleeve of my jacket when I heard him snicker. "What the fuck do you think you;re doing, Pansy?" He ripped the only bit of warmth that I had away from me and stomped it into the snow. There was no reason for me to question this or try to grab my jacket, this would only result in being hit. And it's about a half an hour too early for that. I sighed and wrapped my arms around myself, preparing for the walk to the high school.
The whole walk to school consisted of me shivering and quietly panting to the point of almost passing out. He wouldn't look at me, he would walk behind me, focusing on my soaking wet back to make sure I don't try to get away.
I never really understood why he did this. Maybe it was for self assurance, maybe to show off to the others with similar beliefs. I can't figure out where all of the cruelty comes from or why it began. A few weeks into sixth grade he started to tell me not to get within 5 feet of him during school or he'd beat my face in. It wasn't a huge change, we were never close, but he was never as disgusted in me as he began to be that year. I guess the hate as just progressed among the years.
I sighed again as we walked through the gates in front of the high school. The lot was empty except for a huge group of guys cursing, pushing each other and laughing. Sweet. Those must be my guys. "What the fuck's up Derek?" said some guy wearing a shirt with capital lettered scripture quoting "Just do it." How original. "Ah, nothin' bro." Derek said with such ease to his voice although he knew what was going to happen, when I only had a farmiliar idea. "I see you've brought the faggot." He stared me down with piercing eyes. "I didn't think you'd notice, he blends right in, doesn't he?" Derek said sarcastically while pushing me a little, making me stumble backwards. "He's far from blending in, I thought I saw him staring at my shit." I sighed.
A tall one with shoes way too fucking big for his feet, and jeans almost down to his ankles, it was ridiculous, stepped up to me. He smiled with malice stuck in between his teeth. "Hey, faggot." he greeted, the spat onto my face. The shit flew into my eye. I went to wipe it away to conceal what I had left of my dignity by this point in my life, but he kicked me, hard in the junk. He successfully got me where I knew from experience they all wanted me, the ground. And as soon as I was there, they all swarmed around me kicking, punching and spitting hateful words, which I did not understand. Well at least not completely. I had just arrived there literally 10 minutes ago. They know no other label to call me but "faggot" and they can still feel such anger, such hate?
They continued until blood began to spurt out of my nose, but they did not decide to stop until the majority of my face was painted crimson. They all threw whatever they had left at me, a few kicks and a last hit to the face. And before I knew it they were halfway to the doors laughing so hard, I was surprised one of them didn't strike into fucking cardiac arrest.
I lay there for a while trying to remember which limbs did which movements in order to get the fuck up. The rest of the week went similar to this, missing my first period to get plummeted to the ground by a group of assholes. Everyday but Friday, extensive football practice all day. There was no way to fit me into their schedule, this was the day I met Mikey.