Graces Fall
Author's Note: I don't own them, I'm not making any money, please don't sue me, I'm still a student and it wouldn't be worth your time. In this story, Blink and Mush are just good friends, as are Jack and David, and a couple of the boys have yet to get their nicknames- but don't worry, they will! I could use a beta reader- I'm having a little trouble nailing down the different voices of the characters.
Chapter 1: New Friends
Usually, the beginning of the school year was the best part. Usually, it meant seeing friends again after summer and not being under stress. This year, things were clearly different. Tony was three and a half days into his last year of high school, and he was ready to hit something. Or someone. He didn't feel too particular by now.
Two of his teachers inexplicably seemed to hate him, which made no sense, as he had never had them before. Suddenly nothing in Spanish class was even recognizable, not that he had been great at it to begin with, but it was becoming a serious problem. And his alarm clock had developed a "personality" and had started waking him up any damn time it felt like it- anywhere from 4 AM to 7:30. With his mom working the early shift at the diner this month, he had no choice but to stay up or run like hell, respectively.
This morning, it had woken him up later rather than earlier, so instead of bringing real food he was going to be stuck eating from the lunch line. And the lunch line generally consisted of whatever the cafeteria workers had decided wasn't actually likely to kill any students that day.
He was darting through the crowded hallway, trying to make it to lunch so he could see his friends, when he very nearly ran over some girl who was talking with a bunch of guys. Not that he was very effective- she topped his height by a good four or five inches.
In fact, she had barely moved, so he was a little startled at the devastated look on her face. She apologized fast and tried to hurry away in the other direction, but one of the guys snaked an arm out and grabbed her wrist, and Tony was trapped by the crowd.
"Hey, we're not done with you yet, dyke." There was real bite in the guy's voice, and Tony froze. "You haven't answered our question. Where's your little girlfriend, huh?"
"Let go of me, Rich." The girl's voice lowered as she glanced down the hall for a second, and Tony blinked. So that's who this guy was- he should have recognized him. Rich Nolan had spent winter semester studying abroad last year, and Tony hadn't seen him in almost ten months. He had apparently shot up a few inches and gained some serious muscle since then.
Clearly, of course, his personality was just the same as ever.
"Come on, honey- what, do you need a little help coming out of the closet? We're here for you." Rich and his buddies laughed, and the girl tried to twist her arm up and away. On the third try, she got her wrist out of Rich's grip, and very nearly hit Tony in the face.
She didn't notice, as she was looking down the hall again, and her voice was dripping with sarcasm as she replied. "Careful, Rich, you take such a heavy interest in my love life and I'll start expecting you to ask me out." Tony realized she looked vaguely familiar- but it was a big school, and he wasn't terribly interested in ticking Rich off this early in the year, especially when he already had that look in his eye.
"You stupid bitch! Who'd want you?" Rich raised his arm as though to strike her, when a voice cut through the crowd.
"Mr. Nolan! Miss Hoffman! Anything wrong here?" Mr. Denton, head of the English department, had apparently been close enough to hear that last comment. Rich's face went through a quick transformation, and he grinned up at Denton innocently as he started to sweet talk his way out of it. The girl ducked her head and started to slip away- but Tony could see she was shaking slightly.
There was no point in staying- and the girl was heading towards the cafeteria, too. He hurried after her.
"Hey, you all right?"
She looked at him, surprised, and cleared her throat. "Yeah. No problem. Um... Tony, right?"
"Tony Higgins. I'm sorry, I'm bad with faces..."
"Amy Hoffman. We had some classes together in ninth." Right. She had been the gangly brunette in glasses with a habit of fading into the woodwork. Three out of the four were still true- her disappearing trick seemed rusty.
"Geometry, right." And then he realized why he hadn't recognized her- she usually had a pudgy blonde attached at the hip. Who was, he remembered with a start, one of the dozen or so "out" homosexuals in the school. "So, I guess... Clara's out sick?"
"Cara. Cara McClure. And she'll be back in a few weeks." Her voice got defensive. "Why do you ask?"
He shrugged, and let the crowds separate them. In a few seconds, she was out of sight.
He stopped at his table to drop off his stuff, and his face must really have shown how bad a day he was having, because even Kid noticed. "What's up, Tony?"
"Well, for one thing, I have to eat that," he pointed at the lunch line, "today. Be right back."
On his way towards the line, his day got even worse when he had to apologize to Oscar Delancey for running into him- when it had really been the other way around. Oscar and his brother, Morris (who might have been even lower on brain cells) were security guards. Their uncle, Mr. Wiesel (known better far and wide as the Weasel) ran the cafeteria- which explained both the state of the food and their state of employment.
It wasn't until he was safely in line that he noticed who was standing in front of him. Amy was trying to go through her backpack, despite the crowd. He debated ignoring her but figured she'd notice him anyways. "I was just trying to be nice."
She hunched her back. "Fine. Thanks." Finally, she found a wallet in the bottom of the bag and straightened up. "I really appreciate your concern in my girlfriend's welfare."
"I don't like to see gay bashing, all right?"
"Damn it, I'm straight, how many times do I have to repeat myself?!"
Tony glanced around. He didn't recognize anyone nearby- not that that meant a lot- but it'd come out sooner or later anyways. "Yeah, well, I'm not." He had her attention. "So I was trying to help."
She sighed and hefted her backpack to her shoulder. "Okay, thanks." This time it sounded sincere. "Sorry, truce?"
"Fine."
"Rich is an asshole." She rubbed her wrist for a moment.
"Agreed."
She paused, and glanced around as the line moved forward. "So... who do you have for English this year?"
The small talk continued as they went through the lunch line, with the occasional interruption as the Weasel tried to get kids to stop "perusing the merchandise" and order. Since Tony was paying with cash instead of a lunch card, he lost sight of Amy at the end of the line, but he caught up with her a few moments later.
She was standing next to a wall, looking around the cafeteria with what he'd term a fairly decent poker face- and he had the experience to know. His mom worried he wouldn't concentrate enough on school if he had a job, so he had years of experience at making his pocket money off of anyone stupid enough to face him across a deck of cards.
Suddenly, he really did remember her- he had seen her standing there like that often in the past, and it always ended with her sitting with the pudgy blonde girl (Clar- no, Cara, that's right).
Who wasn't here today. Or apparently likely to be back for some time. He looked at his table, saw there were a few open spaces left, and walked over to Amy.
Well, she had had worse days, but life would be a lot better when Cara got back. Until then, where to sit...
"Hey, um... if you want, you could join us?" It was Tony again.
She blinked at him. "I'm sorry?"
He waved towards a table. "Do you want to eat with us?"
She paused again. "Um, sure. Thanks." They started heading over. "Why are you... being so nice to me?"
Tony shrugged. "You look like you've had a worse day than I have." She smirked at that, and they arrived at the table. He got the table's attention and said, "Hey, this is Amy," and once the obligatory "Hi, Amy!" was over, he started introducing her around. "This is Kid, who likes to think he's a ladies' man, and Max, who's a sucker for mushy stuff." A blond guy with gauze over one eye was talking about some girl he'd met the night before with a darker guy who smiled a lot. They looked vaguely familiar.
"And that's Crutchy- er, Chris, and Sarah." A guy wearing a leg brace, with a crutch next to him, was talking to a brunette Amy had seen around with a certain group of girls in the last few days- who were not Amy's favorite people.
"And that's Sarah's brother David, and Jack."
Them, she knew. She let an edge creep into her voice. "We've met," she said towards Jack, and then turned to David with a much calmer expression. "Hi David."
Tony looked at her. "You have?"
"David and I have classes together. And Jack- was in gym with me last year."
Jack raised his eyebrows. "And that makes you angry at me because..."
"Because you thought it was funny when you knocked my glasses off with that volleyball."
He threw up his hands. "It was funny!"
Her eyes narrowed. "I had three stitches, genius."
David looked at him, surprised. "Jack?"
"Well, I stopped laughing when I saw she was hurt!"
Tony nudged Max into the only open spot left, across from Jack. "Mush over, Max." Amy thanked him and sat down in the newly empty spot, and Tony turned to talk to Crutchy as he sat down, ignoring the ongoing conversation.
"Jack, I'm surprised at you!" David didn't seem like he was going to let go of this.
"And who are you, my mother?"
"You hit this poor girl hard enough to knock off her glasses, and you-"
"Poor girl?!" The edge was back in her voice and had found new direction. "I'm sorry?"
David turned, blinked, and tried to switch modes. "Erm, sorry. I, um-" and he gave up entirely. "So, Amy, where's you're friend, uh, Cara?"
"Not here, obviously." Amy glanced at her food, and very carefully did not look at Tony- who knew who he was out to. She and Cara had talked about this very conversation, though, during the one phone call her parents allowed them before she got sent off. Cara had said very plainly that it was public information, and she wasn't going to lie about it when she got back; so Amy shouldn't worry about telling it.
Still, it felt like she was about to tell a story that belonged to someone else when she looked back up. "She came out to her dad a couple weeks ago, and he flipped. He sent her off to get, um, deprogrammed, I guess."
David and Tony spoke at the same time, and the rest of the table fell silent. "He did what?"
"He didn't know?"
"There's this place, near Philly, he sent her to. She should be back in a month or so. He's really, well- He couldn't handle it."
"But she's been out since what, tenth grade?" David looked confused.
"Here, yeah. Not to her dad."
Max spoke up. "He can do that?"
"For another few months. She'll turn 18 in December."
"That sucks. Maybe she should talk to Jack."
"What?" She turned from Max to look at Jack, and he put down his Coke.
"Um, yeah. I'm emancipated. I've been living on my own for a year now."
Since she had no idea how to respond to that, she was grateful when David popped up with, "Which is why our grocery bill jumped so much when we met you."
"What can I say, Davy, your mom cooks so much better than I do!"
"Wow." Kid looked a little stunned. "Tony, it's a good thing your mom didn't freak out like that."
"Yeah." He looked from Kid to Amy. "I came out to my mom- and these guys- this summer. Mom wasn't thrilled- I'm her only shot at grandchildren- but she calmed down after a couple days."
"Well, that's good." The tension at the table was pretty thick, so Amy cast around for an easier topic. "So how long have you guys all known each other?"
"Well, Kid and I grew up in the same building," Max said, "and Crutchy and Jack were right down the street- Jack's further away, now."
Kid took over. "Tony started tutoring me in math when he transferred here in ninth grade. And Jack met David this year at their summer jobs at the Times, and then met Sarah, of course." Max and Crutchy led an "awww" around the table, and Jack gently smacked Crutchy upside the head.
Max piped back up. "Which turned out to be really handy when Kid decided to step in front of the wrong baseball."
Amy raised her eyebrows, and Sarah shrugged. "I've had some first aid training- mostly I just kept stupid people from trying to be helpful until the ambulance got there."
Amy turned to Kid. "So is it going to be okay?"
"I have to wear this patch for a couple months- but it should be fine by Christmas."
"So Amy," Max asked, "I don't remember seeing you around a lot. Did you transfer here, or something?"
"Um, no. I've always been here- I'm just not very social. I'm in choir, though. And I'm guessing most of you guys went to Arthur Middle School?" Everyone nodded- except for Tony, who had been in Brooklyn, then, and David and Sarah, who had apparently moved from the Bronx. "I went to Cleveland."
The high school was fed by two middle schools- in slightly different neighborhoods. Arthur was further north, and closer to the Park. It was a very middle class area, with relatively low crime. Cleveland was further south, and while it wasn't a poor area, it was much more blue-collar apartments than white-collar condos, and the crime was a little worse. They talked about streets and addresses for a minute, and it turned out that Jack's apartment was about five blocks west from Amy's home, and the Jacobs lived about four blocks north. The others were all about twelve blocks northeast.
Tony glanced away from the table quickly, and Amy noticed his eyes seemed to be following someone behind her. "Well, shit," he said, and his Brooklyn accent grew thicker in surprise, "that's Sean Conlon." He got up and left the table as he raised his voice. "Never fear, Brooklyn is here!"
She turned, and saw Tony shaking hands and trading fake punches with a guy she hadn't expected to see here- hadn't expected to see again, actually.
She didn't make it out to Brooklyn often- but when she did, it was usually with Cara's family. And going with Cara's family meant meeting a lot of... Irish people. As in, the legacy of Tammany Hall, type of Irish people. She and Cara, and Cara's much younger sisters, would be sent off to have lunch in a restaurant and see a movie, while Mr. McClure and his son Aaron, who was nineteen now, met with the other men.
Amy's parents didn't know about that part of it. They knew Cara would take her along to see her "cousins" in Brooklyn sometimes, and Amy was always careful to come back with funny stories. Sometimes that involved pranking Cara's sisters in order to have funny stories to tell, of course- which was just as well.
Amy had thought about turning down the invitations, but in the end, decided she didn't really want to. Cara appreciated the help looking after her sisters, and it was always a good time, and a good restaurant. She hadn't even realized what was going on for several months, until Cara had dropped a few hints so Amy would stop asking the most obvious, and troublesome, questions. Since Amy didn't officially know what was going on, she figured she was safe enough.
The last one of these trips at been the previous July. Usually, Mr. McClure had sent them off to have lunch without even letting them enter the building he would be meeting in. But it had been an incredibly hot day, so he let them cool off in the air-conditioned foyer for a few minutes before heading out.
In that foyer, ostensibly acting as a doorman or a gopher, was a young man Amy's age. He was very clearly not following any adult, like Aaron was following Mr. McClure, but on his own. And he was also very clearly standing guard. Because despite the incredible heat, he had been wearing a blazer- and she had seen a bulge at the back of his waistband.
Mr. McClure had called him Spot.
Tony Higgins, on the other hand, was calling him Sean. Damn.