Alex Gaskarth dreaded this day. It was all happening again. A new house, a new school, a new life. Why couldn't he have been a part of any other family? Instead he was stuck with work crazed business partners for parents and an older brother who had yet to learn how to act his age. Alex done up the last button on his blue and black plaid shirt. He took one look around his suburban room and sighed to himself. They had only been living here for a few days and already he was eager to go back to Denver. "Morning Alex." Mrs Gaskarth greeted him as he took a seat at the dining table. Her sandy blonde hair was pinned up, revelling her hollow cheekbones. Alex recalled to when one of his classmates back in Denver had mistaken his mother for an older sister. "Morning faggot." Daniel stood in the doorway with a cheeky grin plastered on his face. Alex rolled his eyes as Daniel ruffled his already messy brown hair. Daniel could be irritating at times, but at the end of the day, they were still brothers. "Alex hurry up and eat something or you're both going to be late." Mr Gaskarth said, putting down his newspaper. Alex ignored him and plugged in his earphones, letting the sound of 'Blink-182' fill his ears. He hoped his Dad would get mad enough to drive off and leave him behind. But his Mom was having no such thing, she pulled the earphones out of his ears. "Eat up, Alex. You don't want to be late on the first day, now do you?" She also ruffled his hair. 'Yes', Alex thought, not daring to say it out loud. Fifteen minutes passefmd and he still hadn't touched his cereal. "We're leaving now, Alex." His Dad said, regardless of whether Alex had finished his breakfast or not. Alex slid into the back seat of the sleek black family car. He folded his arms and refused to buckle his seatbelt. "Come on, Alex. Stop acting so childish." Mr Gaskarth said, turning around to buckle it for him. "I'm not going in there." Alex said, as the car pulled up in front of 'Baltimore High'. They couldn't force him to go in and that was that. Mr Gaskarth dropped the boys off and waved as he drove off down the road, glad to be rid of a moody Alex. "It doesn't seem that bad, Lex." Daniel said, eyeing two girls as they walked past. Alex waited while Daniel talked to the red-haired secretary. "You must be Daniel and Alex Gaskarth." She said, smiling in a motion that made Alex's stomach churn. Daniel returned to his side and handed him his timetable. "You have Math first." Daniel informed him. "Why thank you, captain obvious." Alex retorted, waving his timetable in Daniel's face. "Do you know where it is?" Daniel asked smugly. "No.." "Thought so, follow me." Alex was surprised at how quickly Daniel was growing accustomed to this place. Daniel lightly knocked on a blue door and stood back. "Please don't make me go in there." Alex begged. "Give it a try, Lex. For me?" Daniel asked. The door opened and a woman, supposedly the teacher, stared oddly at them. "And you are?"She asked. "Alex. He's Alex Gaskarth." Daniel said, pushing Alex forward. "Oh." Her face softened, "Welcome Alex, I'm Ms Redwood." Daniel grinned and ran off to find his class. "Hi." Alex said lamely, looking around at the bugged eyed students staring at him. "Guys, I want you to make Alex feel welcome.." Ms Redwood droned on with the usual 'Lets welcome the new student speech'. After she had finished, she instructed Alex to take a seat where ever his hear desired. It didn't surprise Alex much as girls and boys with empty seats beside them, began placing their bags on the seat. There was only one seat beside a boy at the back of the classroom. His hazel eyes met Alex's and he smiled warmly. Alex sat down and kept his eyes locked on the table, he didn't want to make any eye contact with anyone. He felt someone poke his side with a pen, he looked in the opposite direction to find the boy staring at him. "I'm Zack." The boy grinned. "Good for you." Alex muttered. Zack didn't bother Alex for the remaining twenty five minutes. When the bell rang, everyone hurried out, leaving Alex behind. He pulled out his scrunched up timetable, he was supposed to be in Geography now. But where the hell was that? Alex stood in the hallway not knowing where to go next. "Lost?" He spun around to find Daniel smirking at him. "I can't find Geography class." "Follow me." Again, the same regime with Daniel introducing him to the teacher. "You must be Alexander Gaskeert." He said, drawling out on the e. Alex gritted his teeth, it annoyed him greatly when someone pronounced his name wrong. "Gaskarth." Daniel corrected, seeing how irritated his younger brother was getting. "Very well, take a seat over at that table, beside Zack." Alex looked across, there sitting with his back turned was the boy he had been rude to earlier, along with another boy. "You again." Zack said flatly. "Who?" The other boy asked, he had a low and rather cool buzz cut that seemed to fit him perfectly. Alex touched his own hair to make sure it was all still there. "He's new." Zack informed. "Hi, I'm Rian." Rian gave Alex a small smile. "Alex." He replied quietly. "This is project season," Zack said, "So as long as you pretend to look busy, you won't have to do any work." Him and Rian high fived each other, delighted with their ingenious plan. "Anyway, so Jack is in a really pissy mood today." Rian said to Zack. Alex couldn't care less about whoever Jack was, or anyone else in the bloody place. "Where are you from?" Rian suddenly asked him. "Denver." "Nice." Zack said. Alex had to stop himself from gritting his teeth. He knew for a fact that life in Denver was not 'nice' and he was relieved to get out of the place. Lunch time came around and Alex was left by himself in the crowded hallways. He felt like sliding to the ground and resting his head against the rusty lockers. "You're new here, right?" Alex looked up at the boy talking to him. He slowly nodded. "I'm Taylor, you were in my Math class this morning." Taylor held out his hand and Alex shook it politely. "I'm Alex." Taylor was about to say something else but Daniel came up to them. "There you are, Lex. C'mon, you can sit with us." Us? Alex followed Daniel's gaze to the crowd of Seniors behind him. How had Daniel made friends that quickly?! "Luck, I guess." Daniel shrugged, reading Alex's face. "Give it time, Alex. I'm sure you'll make new friends by the end of the week." That was the thing though, Alex didn't want to make new friends, he wanted to get the hell out of here.