Because there aren't enough stupid stories like this one between these two. Ad thus, I am correcting that problem.

Like how most stories go, theirs started just as anyone would expect. They met, the first day of high school, with lockers right next to each other, only because it was alphabetized and that's just how they happened to meet. He was an Me, and Desmond was an Mi. Lockers that hugged each other, and that first morning they hadn't acknowledge each other, just accepted the presence of another boy next to them, and their lockers slammed shut and they were running off in opposite directions to class.

They don't see each other again until two class periods later, when they're out on the blacktop and milling about as they wait for their P.E teacher to call out roll. And it's how they learn each others names, each other's faces.

The teacher calls out, "Mercer, Alexander!"

And a small boy responds with, "Here"

The teacher calls out, "Miles, Desmond!"

And Desmond calls back the same. They turn to look at each other, the two boys in their P.E class with Ms for a last name. They just stare at each other from across their class.

Desmond is a boy of fourteen, like most freshman. He's one of the taller freshman, having been smacked repeatedly with the puberty stick countless times over the course of middle school. And he's still expected to keep growing throughout high school, definitely will be hitting in the six foot mark or over by the time he graduates. He's like every other boy, remarkably thin, but still able to devour three times his own body weight every day and be fine.

Alexander, from what Desmond can see, is his exact opposite. One of those unfortunate kids who hasn't grown since he entered middle school, and still looked like a sixth grader. He's a scrawny thing, a miracle all on its own that he can even hold himself up on those sticks he calls legs. He's small, and pale, and his angry little face is framed by glasses that take up most of it, as if he has yet to grow into those as well. Even his clothes just hang off him, and the whole look just screams "feed me, feed me!"

Since it's the first day, the teacher swings them all through the locker rooms, put on a lock, put your clothes in, etc. The lockers are small, big enough to fit in shoes and their uniform. Naturally, their lockers ended up being, right next to each other once more.

"So" Desmond suddenly starts, just deciding to break the ice, might as well since he's going to be stuck with this kid for the next eight months. "Gonna be a long year, huh Alexander?"

The other boy looks up at him with narrowed eyes behind those gigantic, thick frames, and says to him in the perfect high-pitched little boy voice; "Shut the fuck up you stupid mouth breather….It's just Alex"

And that is how it began between them.

x-X-X-x

It becomes routine, this is how they meet each other each day after that. Every morning, if Desmond catches him at their lockers, he gives Alex a hearty good morning. And Alex will ignore him, or send him a withering glare, or just tells him to "fuck off". If they happen to meet each other between classes, Desmond will greet him again, or just say "bye Alex!" when they depart. Maybe Alex will give him the cold shoulder, or throw a middle finger in his direction. During P.E, they mostly ignore each other.

The first day they changed into their uniforms, Desmond can't help but sneak glances at Alex. He's such a skeletal little thing, collarbone and ribs poking out of his skin, practically no fat to be found on him. He is a tiny little boy who needs to put on at least another hundred pounds to be considered healthy. Alex never looks at him in the locker room while they change. Not because it's awkward, but because Desmond is forever his exact opposite. The contrast is startling between them when they pull of their shirts and pull another one over it. There's a thousand questions burning in Desmond's mind, but he never asks them.

If Desmond finishes changing first, he'll go and wait outside the locker room door for Alex. They're certainly not friends, not comrades, not buddies, not anything. Hardly even acquaintances. Yet Desmond waits, for whatever reason. The first time he did that, the look Alex gave him could have killed someone. And Desmond just gave him a small smile, and they made their way out to class.

Class begins with roll call, then a run around the track. Desmond is usually to always the first to finish. Alex is always most definitely last. Even the girls who don't like to run and would rather gossip to each other finish the lap before Alex does. No one says anything to his face, but everyone is laughing behind his back, whispering dumb things to each other. Whether Alex notices or not, he doesn't show it. Just bends over with his hands on his knees and tries to keep his breakfast down, if he ate any at all that morning.

After P.E, they don't see each other again until it's lunchtime. Alex doesn't bring a lunch from home, Desmond eventually notes. He concludes he must get it from the cafeteria (God bless his poor stomach). Desmond doesn't visit his locker again after lunch, so the last time he might catch a glimpse of Alex is when the final bell rings and releases them from school.

If Desmond catches Alex at their lockers, he'll always say to him; "Catch ya later, Alex!"

At the end of the first week, as students tear ass out of classrooms, through the halls, and out of the school to enjoy their weekends, Desmond's customary goodbye changes to "See ya monday, Alex!"

Much to his delighted surprise, Alex mumbles back. "See ya monday, Desmond"

Such a fantastic thing to start the weekend to.

x-X-X-x

The second week Alex is slightly more talkative. Talkative as in, he starts to say hi back to Desmond. Ot at least his name is used more. Instead of plain old "fuck off", he gets "fuck off Desmond" in that high-pitched voice only one octave higher than Alvin and the Chipmunks. Desmond doesn't mind, only merely impressed that something so squeaky sounding could put so much annoyance into such a strong word. But it's still an improvement, and Desmond takes it as is.

The second week is also when they start something in P.E, a simple crash course in baseball. Without much thought, Desmond immediately pairs up with Alex to toss the ball around upon demand by their teacher. They both just sorta realize that this is how it's gonna be the rest of the school year. When it comes down to teams of two, no one is gonna want to pair up with the weakest kid in class.

If anything, at least they get the most exercise out of a two-man game of catch. Alex can't catch the ball to save his life. Nor can he throw it very far. They can stand as close to each other as they'd like, and that ball wouldn't hit its intended target. Desmond did his damn best to just not outright clock Alex in the head with the ball, and playing as carefully as possible was painstaking. He reflects though, that this is must of how it had been when he was young and his older brothers were teaching him to play sports. How careful they were, how they had to ease off just for him. Is this how they felt back then?

With those thoughts in mind, Desmond enjoys their terrible came of catch a lot more. He supposes that maybe Alex doesn't have an older brother to teach him anything. Or maybe he did and his brother wasn't very sporty. Or if he didn't have a brother at all, he just didn't play outside a lot. Well, he doesn't need to have a brother or anything, maybe a sister worked too. Girls like baseball. Maybe his sister wasn't sporty either. Or maybe he didn't have one. But Desmond didn't ask him.

Instead, at the end of class, Desmond claps a hand on Alex's shoulder and says, "Gonna be a long year, huh Alex?"

Alex glares back at him and tells him to shut the fuck up, mouth breather.

x-X-X-x

It took a week for Desmond to learn it, but he shares some of the same teachers with Alex. Which shouldn't be surprising, there are how many freshman teachers for each subject? But what surprises him is that they have the same science teacher, two class periods after the other. Desmond has Math right after P.E, and Alex has Science at the same time. Desmond gets out of Math a minute early that day, and so he's outside the science room sooner than usual. The bell rings, students come pouring out of the room.

And Desmond spots, between backpacks and still taller freshman, he sees little Alex fighting his way through the crowd. And he doesn't think much of it at first, but by the time Science begins and ends, the same the realization sets in. And after Science, it's lunchtime. And at lunch, at their lockers, shoving books inside, Desmond asks, "Do you have Stephens for Earth Science during fourth period?"

"Yeah" Alex replies back as if the information isn't new.

"I have her fifth" Desmond grins at him.

"Great, I don't really care" Alex slams his locker shut and is off to go stand in that long ass lunch line. Desmond isn't going to let it go that quickly however. During lunch, he digs out his schedule of classes. After lunch, after sixth and seventh period, as they gather their things for the end of the day, Desmond can't help but follow Alex away from their lockers.

"So who else do you have?" Desmond asks him. "I have Hassen, McCann, Fitzpatrick, Stonsi, and Lopez"

"Just Stephens" Alex answers. "And Giles, of course. Why do you care?"

Desmond doesn't have answer for that, so he just shrugs. He just wanted to know. And Alex sighs at him.

"You're so fucking weird"

"See you later, Alex"

"Later, Desmond"

x-X-X-x

September is nearly over when Desmond finally catches Alex having lunch, alone. Sometimes he sees the other boy coming back into their Science class to eat there, some sort of whatever with the teacher. But the first time Desmond sees him eating lunch alone, it doesn't sit well with him and he seeks to fix that. Their school is an open campus, so everyone eats outside at lunch. There is a cafeteria, but it's small and crowded, so it's just easier to eat around planters or in the halls, on patches of grass or at smaller tables.

Alex sits in a corner that somehow isn't covered in students. Desmond didn't mean to find him there, just passing by because he made a quick run to Lucy's locker, and was on his way back. Just the moment he sees Alex alone, little cardboard tray of food to one side, his books in his lap, Desmond immediately stomps over him.

"Pack your shit up dude, I'm getting you a real place to sit" Desmond commands. Alex of course, fights him on it. No Desmond, what are you doing, go away, I'm fine, look I'm busy, Desmond, Desmond please. You fucktard, leave me alone. Goddammit why are you so stubborn? Desmond.

Desmond pulls him across campus to a group of tables between the cafeteria and the band room. That is where Desmond and his friends sit for lunch. "Yo guys" Desmond says to them as he plops Alex down on the bench. "This is Alex, he sits with us now"

Alex is mortified. Desmond's friends are relatively overjoyed. They all happily introduce themselves, Clay, Lucy, Rebecca. Except Shaun. Shaun turns his nose up at Alex, as if how dare this little miscreant is brought before them. But Shaun treats everyone like that, and thus, no one in their group really gives a shit. Alex hardly says a word to any of them, just stares at them like they're some foreign aliens who'll jump him and dissect him at any second. When the bell rings to signify the end of lunch, Alex offers a hurried goodbye and scampers away.

"I like him" Clay grins as they walked to class. "I've never met someone more talkative"

x-X-X-x

"You're a dick" is the first thing Alex says to him after school.

"They're not bad ya know" Desmond replies. "I think you'd like them. They like you already"

"You're full of shit" Alex snarls at him.

"Come sit with us again tomorrow"

"No"

The familiar slamming of a locker.

"See ya later, Alex"

"Fuck off, Desmond"

x-X-X-x

Alex avoids him for two days, as best he can. He doesn't acknowledge Desmond at all in P.E, doesn't look in his direction, doesn't talk to him, pretends he just doesn't exist. Desmond thought it stupid the first day. But at the end of that day, it hurt when Alex didn't say goodbye to him after school, just stormed off without a word, without so much as a glance. It was painful the second day, because it was starting to drive him up a wall that Alex was so determined to ignore him.

And he starts to doubt himself. He thinks about it some, talks about it with Clay, just for a little confirmation. Clay tells it to him straight, Desmond pretty much has been forcing himself on Alex for the last couple weeks. Similar last names and neighboring lockers is not a friendship make. But Clay does say he admires Desmond for taking this lonely little half-pint under his wing.

Most everyone in their collective freshman class knows who Alex Mercer is. A scrawny little nerd who is already blowing everyone out of the water with grades. With his high intellect. How he spends whole class periods being a teacher's pet because he's the only one with enough balls to speak up and say something, and it's usually something that no one can really comprehend. That's he rude and insulting to others. He keeps to himself.

And then there's Desmond, who didn't know jack shit, and because of that, smiles at Alex everyday, talks to him, everything. Desmond cheers up a little knowing he's the only thing that's friendly to Alex. And in turn, Alex is slowly warming up to him. At least he feels the other boy is.

The third day, Alex cracks. Alex takes longer than usual to leave the locker room, yet Desmond still waits. And he stills walk with him to class. And on their way, Alex finally speaks.

"I miss you" Alex says quietly. "Where do you guys eat lunch again?"

And everything is right once more in their small world.

Well, you know how it goes by now. Updated whenever, blah blah blah, expect M/M blah blah blah, cursing blah blah blah, teenager shit blah blah blah.

Blah blah blah see ya next update, blah