Loop One
Pete was awakened the next day by a gentle dive-bomb to his vital organs. "OOF JESUS" He didn't really register the cackling that accompanied his rude wake-up call.
"Rise and shine, Feme-boy!" Wait… he forced his eyes open at that familiar nick-name. "Time for another fun-filled week of the highest-quality education available to donkeys anywhere!" …What?
Gary finally got off of Pete, berating him as usual. "Come on, Petey, you can always get back to your stupid, girly fantasies later, mmkay?" As his brain struggled to catch up to what was going on, Gary turned away, walking over to his wardrobe. "You know, Petey," What "I've got a good feeling about today." Whaaaaat "You know that new kid we were discussing? Hopkins?" Gary then glanced back at Pete, whose mouth had been hanging open like a fish for the last thirty seconds. He raised one eyebrow as he pulled his arms through his shirt. "…come on, Petey, I know you're madly in love with me but really—it's not polite to stare."
Pete couldn't believe it. How did Gary even get back in the building? "What… but… you… wha- what're you doing here?" Gary frowned as he started buttoning said shirt.
"Geze, Petey, I live here, keep up." He dipped his head while he buttoned up the rest of his shirt, saying as he did so "Now, as I was saying, Hopkins is rumored to arrive today. Pretty exciting stuff, no?" Finally finished, he looked up at Pete with a lop-sided grin while he reached out to grab his vest.
Pete's mind was still occupied with what-the-fuckery, leaving his mouth little to work with in the way of intelligent conversation: "…um." Gary full-on glared at Pete as his head popped through his vest.
"Jesus Petey, what's with you? You sound even more annoyingly girly than usual." Suddenly his face lit up and he grinned evilly. "Oh, did poor, innocent Feme-boy have a bad dream?" Straightening up from packing up his books, he started walking over to Pete, grinning wider all the time. "Want me to hold you, hm? Aw, or kiss you and make it better?—"
Pete had no idea what was going on, but he was having none of this teasing bullshit. "Gary, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in… you know, Happy Volts?" Gary's grin evaporated immediately.
All cold anger, Gary hissed, "What the fuck're you talking about, Kowalski?" Pete was clearly treading in dangerous waters, but he needed to know what was going on!
"Y-you and Jimmy fought yesterday?" Pete decided to skootch to the end of the bed, just to be on the safe side. "Don't you remember?"
Now Gary just looked… confused. That was weird. "Who?" He seemed to suddenly realize something, but the confusion only seemed to deepen, narrowing his eyes at Pete in suspicion. "You mean the new kid?"
"Well, I guess?… I mean, he's been here nearly eight months, he's not exactly 'the new kid' anymore…" Gary seemed to be trying to ascertain whether Pete was bullshitting him or not. What is going on!?
"…No. I don't remember that. Hopkins hasn't even started attending this school yet, Petey, as I literally just mentioned." He shook his head, deciding that Pete must be the loony one, and turned back to packing up his stuff. "I can't tell if you need some of my meds, or if you need to stop taking them, Petey." Apparently he'd finished, because he straightened up and started heading for the door. "Welp, I'm gonna head out. Try and not hallucinate anymore imaginary boyfriends, m'kay?" Gary waved merrily to Pete as he strolled out the door, shutting it behind him.
The normal waking-up noises of the boy's dormitory were all around Pete, and it sounded like any other day at Bullworth Academy. The familiar hum of misery and noise only amplified the confusing thoughts in Pete's head. Why the hell did Gary come back? Was he suffering from some kind of amnesia?Had he somehow become so deluded that he forgot about yesterday? Am I crazy?
Pete shook his head for a moment, trying to stop the despair-spiral of thoughts he could feel coming. Pete, calm down. Take three deep breaths, then think logically about what you need to do. …in…out. …in…out. …in…out. Phew. Okay. Gary being back… was big news. Somebody in a position of authority needed to know. But there weren't any adults in the dorms. I guess the closest thing to 'authority' in the dorms is Jimmy. Not the ideal person, but Jimmy would have to find out eventually.
As he got up to throw some clothes on, Pete just hoped beyond hope that Jimmy wouldn't be too harsh to Gary. He was obviously completely deluded, or in denial, or something. Happy Volts must be horrible for him to be fooling himself this much… Pete decided not to think about it too hard.
Finally slipping out into the hallway, he just saw the usual traffic of kids getting ready for the day. No sign of Gary; he breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God. Pete opted to take the stairs closest to Jimmy's room, rather than his usual route to get downstairs. As usual, Jimmy's door was wide open. Pete never knew why Jimmy liked having the door open, but hey, it was his room. Pete knocked a couple times for politeness's sake, but hey, this situation was a little pressing. "Uh, hey Jimmy?" Jimmy's head snapped up, and he started glaring at Pete. Must've had a bad night's sleep. "Sorry, it's just that—"
"Wha'd you want?" He flinched at the clear hostility in that question. That's odd, Jimmy wasn't always nice to him, but he was never threatening…
Pete shuffled tentatively into the room. Which, come to think of it, looked kind of… empty? "Hey, what happened to your stuff?" Jimmy's room was usually crammed full of trophies and nick-knacks, along with general junk lying on the floor.
"What? Hey, I asked you a fucking question,kid! What the hell do you want?" He suddenly stood up from the bed and moved over to Pete like he was freakin' challenging him! What the heck!?
"I-I was just—" why was Jimmy so mad at him?
"Ooh my, isn't the new kid scary!" And now Gary was here, and it was probably going to get violent, fast. Pete backed as far away from the pair as he could get. Here we go. "Come on, pal, give up the tough-guy act."
Jimmy frowned, glaring at Gary who, unsurprisingly, was sporting a wide grin. "Hey man, what's your problem?" Pete frowned. What was he doing? He'd just spent yesterday telling Gary what his problem was.
"Well, ADD primarily…" Gary started wandering over to where Pete was, and he wasn't really sure what to do. If they weren't going to fight, he figured he didn't really have anything to worry about. But hadn't they had this conversation before? "…But really, honestly, enough about me—Ah, I see you've met the dorm's mascot!" Gary flung his arm around Pete's shoulder, and he knew this had happened before. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Feme-Boy! The—" This was the exact thing Gary said and did! "—girliest boy in school." He ducked out of Gary's arm before lightly shoving him away.
"Uhhh look, I don't know what's going on guys, but—" Pete backed away, looking from Jimmy to Gary and back, "Ahaha, this is getting a liiiittle creepy." Jimmy just looked angry and confused (which was his norm, to be honest) but Gary was scrutinizing Pete and it was kinda creeping him out.
"…Come now, Petey, don't call the new kid creepy!" Gary looked Jimmy up and down as if examining him, mock-picking up his hand and inspecting it before he shrugged. "Sure, he looks like he's on a one-way track to prison…" He ignored Jimmy's angry glare as he snatched his hand back, instead crossing his arms and shaking his head at Pete—as if he was disappointed in him. "…but you really shouldn't make snap judgements like that."
Jimmy looked pretty pissed, interrupting with, "Hey, I gotta unpack. Why don't you two fuckwads beat it, huh?" He didn't say it like that last time… Did he?
Gary grinned as he started for the door, Pete on his heels. "Haha, now look what you've done Pete! Jimmy hates you already." Does he? Pete looked at Jimmy—he did look pretty mad.
"Hey, I'm sorry if I offended you Jimmy, I didn't mean to." Wrong thing to say, apparently. Jimmy looked ready to punch his lights out.
"Stop calling me Jimmy!" He accentuated his point by slamming his hands on either side of Pete's head. "I don't even fuckin' know you, kid. Where the hell did you learn my name!?" Jimmy was clearly prepared to beat him should he try and get away. He had forgotten that his friend could be utterly terrifying when he wanted to.
"IdontreallyknowwhatsgoingonImsosorrypleasedontkillme—"
"Whoa, whoa, ladies, break it up!" Gary lightly pushed Jimmy away from the wall, getting him to refocus his attention on Gary, and Pete tried to calm himself down. His friend looking like he was about to kill him was not something Pete would be forgetting anytime soon. "Really, James, your name has been on quite a few people's lips lately." Pete looked between the two of them. This was the beginning of the school year…
Jimmy continued to look angry. "Yeah? Like who?"
Gary just shrugged in a non-committal manner. "Oh, everybody. People loooove to talk in this town, Jimmy-boy." Did… did I go back in time? A sudden yank on his forearm broke Pete's train of thought, and nearly sent him face-planting on the floor. "Anyhow, we'll get out of your way, James. See you at school in a few!" Then, Pete was basically dragged down the hallway and flung against one of the walls separating the common room from the rest of the hall.
"Jesus, Kowalski. It's almost amazing how pathetic you are." Pete couldn't see Gary's expression, but his voice sounded absolutely disgusted. Gary crossed his arms and leaned against the wall next to where Pete had collapsed, waiting for him to get up. "I mean, seriously, Hopkins didn't even do anything to you and you're crying like a fucking faucet."
What? Pete felt his face, and sure enough, it was pretty wet. "…Oh." No wonder he couldn't catch his breath very well. Pete turned to sit against the wall, trying to deep breathe. …in…out. …in…out. …i—his mantra was interrupted by very loud laughter.
"AHAHAHA Oh my God, you didn't even realize you were crying like a little girl?" Pete looked up, and Gary was grinning and staring at him as if he'd won the lottery.
Now Pete felt embarrassed. But what could he even say? He just tried to ignore Gary, but of course he took Pete's silence as confirmation. He immediately doubled-over laughing. "Ohahaha that is… oh man, that's priceless! Ehehehe…"
"Haha, are you fucking crying, pink-shirt kid?" Pete sighed. Great, just what he needed, another person to bully him. That orange-haired Bully was grinning down at his, apparently, tear-streaked face. Turning, he yelled "Oi, Wade, check out this loser!" You have got to be kidding me!
Pete scrambled to his feet and made a beeline for his room. He heard a "—Feme-boy…" from behind, but Pete needed a few minutes to himself to think about what the heck was going on. Maybe a few years…
After shutting the door to his room so he could tear through all his binders and filing-cabinets, he had found: almost none of the work he'd done throughout the year, any of the drawings he'd made, trading cards he'd found or nick-knacks he'd received throughout the year, and he'd even looked at his watch, which said the date was September 9th, 2006. With all this evidence, Pete had come to the conclusion that he had gone back in time. …somehow.
I must be crazy… I have to be crazy, ri—no. No, Pete, just… just go to class. Think about something else for a while, then tackle this later. He shook his head, and—stuffing some of his books into his backpack—went out the door.
A couple seconds later, he re-entered the room, realizing that if he had gone back in time, he'd need his first-semester class books, not the second-semester classes. This is going to be weird.
Pete held the Boy's dorm door for a couple of people (nobody said 'thank you') before he was able to walk into the brisk, autumn air himself. As he weaved between students screaming, crying, yelling, and/or being generally threatening, he stewed on how it was amazing to think that just a day ago all these kids had been fighting each other like wild animals.
Well, I guess they… didn't do that. They will be fighting each other? Whatever—focus Pete—if I assume that I didn't hallucinate an entire school year, what does this even mean? The din of the school lobby gave Pete plenty of white-noise in which to think clearly. Okay, so… does this mean that somebody sent me back in time to try and change how the school year turns out? That made some kind of logical sense, even if he had no idea who would be able to send somebody through time, he could certainly think of plenty of people with the motivation to do so. The school year had been a pretty shitty one for lots of people.
As he entered the cafeteria, Gary's voice reached his ears. Turning around, he saw Gary and Jimmy talking, or, well, Gary talking, and Jimmy providing occasional comments. "…and condescending attitudes!"
"Yeah, massively inbred and completely brainless." Pete noticed Gary smile approvingly as he walked over automatically, still lost in his own thoughts.
"Very observant, Jimmy-boy. Now over there… oh, hell-OH Feme-boy!" Pete sighed to himself. Honestly, Pete, what did you even come over for—to ask for advice on time travel? "You finally finish crying to your mommy?" Gary emphasized his words by punching him twice, and even though he'd kind of been expecting it, he still managed to flinch horribly.
"Ow! Oof! Yeah, yeah, I'm done crying." Pete rubbed the arm that Gary had punched. That's definitely going to bruise. Out of the corner of his eye, Pete saw Gary turn to Jimmy, who was looking…a little awkward, actually.
"Can you believe this little girl" Gary reached out to pinch Pete's cheek like some sadistic grandmother, ignoring his squeak of pain to continue his tale. "…was crying about you not liking him?"
Jimmy glared Gary in the eye for a bit before looking at Pete as he stopped rubbing his arm, trying to not seem like too big a wimp. He seemed to reach a conclusion because he replied "Yeah, actually." He, shrugged, adding "I can believe that."
Pete shuffled his feet, and figured he might as well try and apologize to Jimmy—he wanted to keep being friends with him, after all. Even if that was just a hallucination. "Look, I'm sorry about freaking you out back there—I wasn't thinking about how weird it would sound that I knew your name."
Jimmy shrugged, breaking eye-contact with Pete to stare at his feet and kick some imaginary dust off to the side. "'scool. Look, I'm… sorry for… you know." He looked back up at Pete. "We cool?"
Pete smiled. Maybe this won't be so bad! "Yeah, it- OOF" Oh that's right, I forgot about Gary.
"Aww isn't this cute. In fact, I think I might be tearing up." Gary gave a huge sniff as if he were crying. Pete just sighed. And it had been going so well. BRRRRRING! Gary stopped mock-crying, looking up at the bell in annoyance. "…I suppose we'll need to continue this heart-to-heart later." He finally unhooked his arm from around Pete's neck, and, waving good-by to Jimmy and blowing an imaginary kiss to Pete, he disappeared into the departing throng of students. …oh crap! In all the excitement, he had forgotten about class. Where was he supposed to be, again?
As students streamed past them, Jimmy and Pete both stood looking a little lost. That's right, Jimmy probably doesn't even know where any of his classes are. "What's your first class, Jimmy? I can show you where the room is, if you want."
Jimmy looked as relieved as somebody with chronic bitch-face can look. "Yeah, all they told me was that my first class is Chemistry. Didn't even fuckin' tell me where the room is."
"That's actually not very far from here." The two followed the stream of students out the door of the cafeteria, as Pete started to get recollections from the 'previous' year. "You know, I think Chem is my first class, too." I do remember being in Chem with Jimmy a couple times… He advanced pretty fast.
Jimmy wasn't paying Pete much attention, looking instead to a Greaser spray-painting MONEY DON'T BUY CLASS on the back of the stairs. "Huh. Where'd he get that spray-paint?"
Pete raised an eyebrow as he adjusted a strap on his backpack, looking at Jimmy out the corner of his eye. What does he mean? "Probably an art store?…"
Jimmy snorted as the Greaser ran from a Prefect as they walked past. "No age limit, huh?"
Huh? "What do you mean? An age limit on… paint?" Pete felt a little tug of sympathy at such a damper on artistic potential—when he was little his mom had loved laying down a giant piece of paper in the backyard so the two of them could throw paint around and see what it looked like. That's kinda sad…
Pete followed Jimmy into the room for Chemistry 1, leaving him to peer around at the room and wrinkle his nose at the horrible odor that permeated the space. "Yeah, California makes you show ID to buy that kinda stuff. Like cigarettes and lottery tickets." Wow, have Jimmy and I really never talked about where he was from?
As the teacher yelled at the students for entering the classroom, Pete just tried to keep the conversation going. "I, uh, didn't know that was a thing. Actually," as they talked Pete started organizing the chemicals they would need for the day as the teacher wrote them on the board, cocking his head as he thought, "Now that I think about it, there could be a legal age here—I've never tried to buy spray-paint."
Jimmy snorted and gave a small shrug as if to say fair enough. But the teacher then began to give them their instructions at top speed, forcing the two boys to concentrate on their work.
Two and a half hours later, Pete finally sat down to eat lunch. Instead of eating it, though, he just stared at it. I'm really back at the start of the school year. This had been bubbling at the back of his mind all through the morning's classes. Pete looked around at all the kids who were sitting with their friends, talking, laughing. Images of Townies cracking wooden bats over the heads of Greasers and Nerds cackling madly as a small throng of Jocks were thrown high in the air from an explosion flashed through his head. They have no idea how crazy this year can get. None.
Just like me last… year? Last time? Previously? He looked back down at his miserable-looking sandwich. Last… try. It's like I'm being given a free life in a video game or something. As he ate, the chewing at least giving him something to do, he thought. I'll probably never find out why this happened… but does it really matter? The most important question is how to not waste this opportunity. What could I change that could make last year's… insanity not happen, or at least not hurt so many pe— "HEY FEME-BOY!"
"GAH" Pete flinched from the sudden noise in his right ear. Looking to the right revealed, to the surprise of nobody, Gary Smith snickering at Pete's reaction. Godamn, just when I was getting somewhere.
Gary was still snickering as he sat down on Pete's left side. "Oh, Petey. You're wayyy too easy to scare." Picking up the other half of the sandwich, he gestured with it in Pete's direction as if it were a pointer for a presentation. "You're so lost in whatever dumbass daydreams you have you don't even pay attention to anything else."
Pete sighed. "Yeah, I guess." Remembering what he had been pondering, he added, "It was pretty important though. So it's not like I was wasting my attention." Gary just shrugged, taking a big bite out of his sandwich in response. Pete rolled his eyes. Well okay then. Looking to the other half of his sandwich, he shrugged and picked it up. Who knows if Gary's gonna take this one too.
The next afternoon, Pete tried to get his plans for the day in order as the bell to end Math rang. He had a few minutes of free time now before his next class. As he packed his papers and books, he reflected on this… second day of the 'second' school year. He'd been sticking to his regular schedule, at least as far as he could remember from the beginning of the year. He figured it wasn't too noticeable anyway— it wasn't like people were watching him or anything. Shouldering his bag, Pete quickly exited the room before the teacher could assign him some 'extra credit' or something for being slow.
Let's see… I usually went back to the dorm earlier in the day than later in the year, I think—plus, I know Gary's going to try and recruit me for the takeover thing soon. Making his way down the main staircase, Pete tried not to panic about how he'd already let himself be fooled once and had no real plan as to how to accomplish his goal. I'll… just have to try and convince him it's a bad idea. Easy enough. Yeah, right.
First things first, though. There were still classes to attend, and Pete's least favorite class was coming up. Sigh. Time to head to the gym. As he walked down the stairs to the back of the building though, a wave of deja'vu swept through him. Whoa! What? He looked around as he walked toward the fountain. Everything looks normal, what was that about?
Before he realized anything had happened, he was on the ground with papers flying everywhere. Ow… Somebody's cackling retreated into the distance as Pete tried to pick himself up. "Shit Petey, didj'ya see where that dick went?"
Jimmy had run up, and he looked rather out of breath. Not to mention like he wanted to beat the crap out of somebody. Oh… yeah… I remember this… Pete turned to look at the fountain behind him. "Y-yeah, he went that way. Don't worry, I got these pap—" but Jimmy had already run off. "—ers."
As he collected his papers, Pete shuddered as he recalled Jimmy's expression from just now. But more than that; wasn't this… the day Gary first talked about his plan? Shoot… and I'm not any closer to knowing what caused all that insanity in the first place. Either way, as he rushed off to Gym he re-affirmed his desire to NEVER get on Jimmy's bad side.
As if I needed another reminder after yesterday…
Pete dragged himself into the common room and collapsed onto the couch, intent on just sitting and watching some television to relax after class. Goddamn, Burton really worked us hard today. Man—guess it was good that Jimmy wasn't there; I would definitely be hurting more if he had been.
But sadly, relaxation was not on somebody else's mind that evening. "Good evening, young lady! And what're we watching today?"
Uuuuugh "What do you want, Ga—" Pete was immediately put on high alert, remembering his train of thought from earlier. Oh shit, that's right… I just hope I'm wrong…
Gary answered Pete's uncompleted sentence, unaware of his peer's newly-heightened emotional distress. "Oh, what everybody wants, Feme-boy. I'm just better at getting it."
Pete blinked. "…Right. I feel like I should find that a little creepy…" He considered getting up to turn on the TV, but decided he was too tired, instead reaching for his bag to find something to do. Gary, meanwhile, frowned at Pete's comment.
"That's rather rude, Petey. What're you trying to imply?" Pete could feel Gary's eyes on him even though he wasn't looking at him. He tried not to shudder. I'm way too tired to deal with this…
"Uh… nothing. Just forget it." Finally settling on dragging his sketchbook out, he pulled it into his lap and just started doodling.
But a grin was spreading across Gary's face. "Aw, butthurt about getting knocked around today, Feme-boy?"
Pete looked up from the page of eye sketches he'd started. "Huh?" He frowned. Gary somehow knew about Jimmy not helping me up last time, too... "W-what do you mean?"
Gary's grin spread even wider. "Come on, Petey—don't lie to me. You look like shit." Leaning back, he swept his gaze up and down Pete's form in a way that he found kind of disturbing. Pete leaned back while Gary's expression shifted to something bordering on sympathetic. "Gym class isn't kind to those of us with more intellectual leanings, after all."
"Oh! Yeah…" Pete breathed a sigh. Turning back to his sketches, he continued "Burton really worked us hard today. Hope he's not as tough on Thursday…" Frowning as he put pencil to paper, Pete muttered more to himself "Plus, Jimmy'll be there, so that'll make it much tougher." A chill went through him as a picture of Jimmy's expression earlier that day mingled with all the times he'd seen the horrible anger his friend could express. He really can be terrifying sometimes.
Pete could hear the smirk in Gary's next comment. "Oh, you heard too, Petey?" He got up from the couch, moving to turn on the TV. "Jimmy-boy is making quite the name for himself, winning a slingshot off those Bullies like that."
Pete looked up at that. "Huh? A slingshot?" Gary hm'd distractedly as he flipped through channels, trying to find something to watch. Huh! The more you know, I guess. I'd assumed he'd always had that. Resuming his sketching, Pete tried to enjoy being able to sketch in peace. Since it'd been on his mind, he'd ended up sketching some rough approximations of Jimmy's Murder face. Pete frowned, scanning the drawing critically. Huh. Jimmy's kinda hard to draw now that I think about it.
"Your new boyfriend, Feme-boy?" Gary had, unbeknownst to Pete, sat back down and started leaning over so that he could see what he was drawing. Pete snapped the book closed, a response that made Gary laugh.
"No! Ew, dude, don't be gross." Besides, Zoe would kill me! Well, she will, I guess.
Gary stopped laughing abruptly, and gave Pete a very level stare. "But seriously. Pete." His serious expression was almost more frightening than the laughter. "If you ever find yourself in an abusive relationship, you'll let me know right?"
Sighing, Pete replied "Whatever, man." Turning back to his sketch, he added, "Would it kill you to just leave me alone for once?"
At that, Gary grabbed his sketchbook and flung it onto the floor. Ignoring Pete's protests, he advanced toward his side of the couch. "Oh, but Feme-boy, don't tell me he's NOT abusive." Gary's grin started to gain an uncomfortably familiar edge to it, and Pete scooched rapidly toward the other end of the couch, nearly forgetting about his sketchbook.
"What? No, I just said—"
Interrupting him, Gary rolled his eyes and asked "Seriously, Petey? Who ignores another person lying on the ground and runs off without even helping them up?" He gave Pete a look that could've been sympathetic or patronizing. But Pete frowned. He does have a point, but… didn't he say something similar last time?
Gulping down his nerves, Pete replied slowly "I… I don't know what Jimmy was doing, so I can't assume he was being a jerk just because he didn't stop to help me up." Maybe it was important, or something.
Leaning back a little, Gary frowned, and then sighed, as if Pete was being extremely thick. Gesticulating with his hands, Gary leaned toward him again, but he fought the temptation to move away. "Look Pete, it's really simple. Jimmy isn't a good person, right?"
Pete frowned. He didn't want to bad-mouth his friend, but… his eyes focused on the sketchbook that Gary had thrown away, which had fallen on the page he'd been working on just minutes ago. Even so, he hesitated a bit more before nodding his agreement.
Smirking, Gary added "Not like you." his smirk deepened at Pete's utter confusion, but he didn't address it. "Let's face it, Feme-boy, you're probably the nicest kid on campus." Pete leaned back as his confusion evaporated. He remembered this conversation all too well. Gary was too busy counting 'Feme-boy's' traits off on his fingers to notice that his audience's reaction wasn't what he'd been expecting. "I've never seen you hit somebody despite the fact that nearly everybody at this lousy school taunts you, you're constantly helping people pick up crap they've dropped; you even apologize when somebody bumps into you." Gary shrugged, finally fixing his gaze directly on Pete, at which point his pleasant smile quickly disappeared to be replaced with confusion. "You're practically a... hey, what's your problem?"
Pete frowned, reflecting on 'last year'; Gary'd spun some yarn about how together Pete and he could 'remake the school in their image'. Pete hadn't really wanted to say yes… but Gary hadn't given him time to even think, so he'd agreed. Then, Jimmy'd shown up, and Gary had spouted some bullshit philosophy about 'letting the losers drown'. While staring directly at him. Then… well. The less said about 'what happens to liars' the better in Pete's opinion.
"…sorry. I… wasn't paying attention." Crossing his arms, Pete decided to go all-in. Looking Gary dead in the eye, he said "Look, Gary, just tell me what you want."
Gary's confusion seemed to melt away to reveal anger. Pete couldn't imagine what he was so mad for. Gary's voice was dangerously soft when he next spoke. "Whatever do you mean, Feme-boy?" He then shook his head, as if snapping himself out of something before giving Pete a concerned frown. "I'm just trying to help the people at this school be better friends! Don't you want that, Petey?" He leaned over and laid a hand on Pete's shoulder "A school where people could befriend others instead of fighting them?"
Pete was afraid to look Gary in the eye—would his disingenuous intentions shine through? Or would they stay hidden? Pete wasn't sure which option scared him more. "…Yeah… but..." He sighed, deciding he couldn't forsake Jimmy. "I have to support my friends, too."
To his surprise, Gary clapped his hands together in delight. "That's perfect! Oh, man—with my strategy, Jimmy's muscle, and your morals, we can do practically anything we want!" Pete looked back to Gary, who was no longer paying him any attention—he had that crazed look that Pete remembered so well from 'last year' as he rubbed his hands together. "Hehe, boy oh boy this is so exciting!" That wasn't what I meant!
Pete shook his head, really backing away from Gary now. "What? No! I don't wanna be part of your stupid plan." Gary froze to give Pete a blank look. Oh shit.
Luckily, he didn't sound angry when he said quietly "But Petey, didn't you just say you wanted to support your friends?" Gary quirked an eyebrow up at Pete, as if he were missing something very basic.
Pete furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Yeah? So?"
Gary laughed a little. "Come on, Feme-boy, do I not count? I'm literally the only person who talks to you." Gary's expression seemed to be a mix of pride, pity, and amusement.
It was in that moment Pete realized; fuck this guy. He looked Gary straight in the eye, and found himself saying in a mocking tone "Don't lie, Gary. Don't you know what happens to liars?" As he stood up to get his sketchbook, Jimmy walked in, unnoticed by the other two teenagers.
"…do you want to run that by me again, Kowalski?" As Pete swung his backpack onto his shoulder, Gary rose from his seat and loomed dangerously over Pete, who shrank back a little. Crap I forgot that Gary can still kick my ass…
At that point, Jimmy made his presence known. "Hey, the fuck's going on?" Gary snapped his head in Jimmy's direction, and smoothly threw an arm around Pete's shoulder in a cordial manner. Hey!
"Hey, man—nothin' to worry about." From his voice alone, Pete could tell Gary was grinning. Are you serious!? "Petey's just getting a little too big for his britches, isn't that right, Feme-boy?" And God as his witness, Gary patted him on the head like a little kid. That's it—FUCK this! Pete shoved Gary off him and blindly stormed out of the common room. He bumped into somebody on the way out but was too lost in his own anger to give a shit. Gary shouted after him: "Aw, don't be like that Petey! You know I still love you, come on!"
Turning around as he backed out of the dorm, Pete flipped him the bird, shouting: "Here's a plan for you: Go fuck yourself, Gary!" Before shoving the door open and letting it shut with a satisfying BANG.
The sun looked like it was setting outside, but the shadow of the main building blocked most of the light from entering the inside of the library. The only sounds were the scratching of pens, turning of pages, and occasional light coughs from busy students. Pete, on the other hand, was trying his best to stop himself from repeatedly slamming his head on the table. Goddamnit why did I DO that!? He settled for trying to smother himself with his hands.
He was going to have to apologize. Gary hadn't done anything wrong—at least, nothing that he remembered. And it was hardly fair to hold something against him that he didn't even remember doing. But Pete really couldn't feel sorry for it; it'd been soooo satisfying. I'm surprised he didn't come beat the shit out of me immediately, actually. I doubt it would've have taken that great a logical leap to figure out that I'd gone to the library…
He shook his head, refocusing on the matter at hand. He still needed to find out what the hell happened 'last year'. Or was going to happen, anyway. And it was pretty obvious that Gary had played a big role in what'd gone down—so why had he done it? Pete still had no idea. And he probably wasn't going to find out if Gary would rather kick him in the nuts than talk to him.
Groaning in despair, he crossed his arms and hid his head in the little pocket of air. I am going to have to swallow my pride big time… Pete heard the chair across the way scrap as somebody sat down, so he chanced a peek from his arm-cage.
Jimmy was sitting across from him, looking supremely uncomfortable in these academic surroundings. Pete's startled "Jimmy?" caused a chorus of 'SHUSH'es to emanate from all directions.
Pete was about to apologize but Jimmy cupped his hand around his mouth and practically shouted "Hey, shut up! I'm tryin' to talk to my friend here!" Pete grimaced as he darted his eyes around the space looking for any authority figures. Oh geze that's going to piss Mrs. Carvin off for sure, and Lord knows Jimmy doesn't need to get even more on her bad side!
Whispering hastily, Pete tried to do some damage control. "No, no Jimmy, it's fine, we can talk somewhere else." The hostility in Jimmy's face melted away, and he nodded. After leaving the library (and apologizing to a disappointed-looking Mrs. Carvin), Pete resumed their conversation as they parked themselves in the courtyard of the library, away from the Nerds hanging around. "So what's up?"
Jimmy shrugged. "You looked super pissed off earlier. Figured ya needed some time to calm down." As he talked, Jimmy pulled his slingshot out of his pocket and started taking potshots at people passing by from far away. He didn't manage to hit anybody, but he seemed to enjoy it. Wow, that's actually kind of true…
"Yeah, actually—I did need some time to cool down. Thanks." Jimmy's being a lot nicer than he was last time. Pete frowned. It made sense at the end of 'last year' that Jimmy would be so friendly toward him, since 'the king' felt bad about ignoring him for all that time. But Pete wasn't sure why this Jimmy was being so nice. "Hey, um. This may sound like a weird question…" Jimmy nodded to show he was listening as he pulled back the slingshot for another round. "But why are you being so… nice to me?" At that, Jimmy turned his head toward Pete and dropped his firing arm.
"Wha'dya mean? You seem like a nice kid— why wouldn't I be nice to ya?" Pete shrugged and looked out across the library courtyard. Well you weren't this nice last time… A long silence stretched between the two before Jimmy sighed, and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Look, kid, you wanna talk about what went down between you and Gary? I don't really know either of you but that looked like some serious shit."
Pete shifted awkwardly. He was already pretty uncomfortable with this topic of conversation— talking about it with Jimmy of all people wasn't helping his nerves. "I don't really wanna talk about it. It's just… really complicated." Thinking again about how Gary had been talking down to him earlier made Pete let out an angry huff. "It's just, Gary's such a dick, you know?" Jimmy nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he's so… so… superior, it's really annoying. He just thinks he's sooo much better than everybody else."
Jimmy laughed a little, adding "Ha, yeah—like every time he gives a compliment it's like 'holy shit you can tie your shoes I never would've guessed you could do that'!"
Pete snickered, "Haha, yeah, or he's trying to get you to do something, and you don't know if he's lying or not." He shook his head. Like how he was acting like we were friends just now. Yeah right— 'last year' Jimmy was right; we were never friends.
Jimmy snorted. "Yeah, hard to tell with that guy." He leaned against the wall separating the library from the rest of campus, surveying the passing students as he pulled out his slingshot again. "It's like, today he actually helped me figure this thing out," He pulled back, actually managing to shoot somebody rather far away, presumably to demonstrate this newfound skill. "But he insulted me the whole fuckin' time, and then just ditched me after I did what he wanted." Frowning, he added, "That Algernon kid I helped earlier said he was a sociopath—that's the thing where somebody doesn't have feelings, right?" He looked at Pete, seemingly for confirmation.
Pete shrugged. "I don't really know. I think it's a bit more complicated than just not being able to feel emotions, though." Dropping his backpack next to his friend, Pete propped himself on the wall as Jimmy resumed attempting to hit people with the slingshot. "Besides, Gary definitely feels emotions, he just…" Pete thought about Gary from 'last year', as he sunk deeper and deeper into his plans to ruin Jimmy, ignoring Pete (which he knew shouldn't bother him as much as it did), and generally preparing to fuck the whole school over. But why? "…I've got no clue what Gary's deal is." I mean, it's clear there's something wrong with him, but… I've got no idea what it could be.
Missing somebody else, Jimmy let out a disappointed raspberry before adding "Maybe it's got something to do with all that medication he keeps bitching about." Pete perked up at that. Medication? I think Gary's mentioned that before.
"Maybe—I assumed it was some kind of physical thing; my parents always said it's impolite to ask." He shrugged, watching the arc of another shot from the slingshot miss its target. "My dad takes a lot of vitamins, so didn't even really notice."
Jimmy snorted. "Yeah right; practically the first thing he said to me was that his meds made him crazy—that if you act weird here, they force you to take 'em." He glanced sidelong at Pete. "That's… not true, right?" He looks a little worried…
Pete thought for a moment before shaking his head. "If it is, I've never heard about it, and I've lived in this town all my life." Gaining confidence in the certainty of his knowledge, he nodded, continuing "I think something like that would be pretty hard to keep under wraps, especially since my dad used to be a teacher before he became a librarian; he keeps tabs on that kinda stuff." At that, Jimmy looked a little relieved—or at least, his eyebrows stopped furrowing together so hard. Pete gave him a reassuring smile. "I'm sure you've got nothing to worry about."
A corner of Jimmy's mouth lifted up, making it look a bit like he was smirking. "Yeah, like they'd get me to take that stuff. That shit's insane." Jimmy moved his gaze elsewhere, looking for non-living targets to practice hitting as he continued speaking. "I tried some once, and I couldn't sit still for four fucking hours." He shuddered. "I ended up breaking into my school's cafeteria and stealing, like, fifty jars of peanut butter and covering my desk and lockers with it." He snorted. "Got expelled for that pretty fast."
The two friends sat for a few minutes in silence as Jimmy tried to hit the windows of the third floor. Finally, Pete broke the silence. "I'm sorry, what? Peanut butter?" That makes literally no sense.
Jimmy full-on grinned at that. "HA! Yeah, I know. I was trying to mark my stuff. And since I like peanut butter, I figured that would make people realize that stuff was mine so they wouldn't mess with it." Wha… how would that even help with a situation like that? Jimmy looked at Pete's confused face and nodded. "Yeah, I know it makes no sense." He shrugged, adding "That's why they'd have to hold me down now to get me to take that stuff—whatever's in those ADD meds, it's fuckin' insane."
"Wow, that's crazy." A Greaser and a Prep started attacking each other in the distance, and both boys watched as some nearby prefects tackled both fighters to the ground. "…I didn't know you liked peanut butter." I really don't know much about Jimmy.
Jimmy shrugged as he pulled back the slingshot again. "Not so much now, I was pretty little back then." Taking aim at a Greaser trying to defend his friend from getting busted, he continued "I only really like homemade peanut butter, so I don't eat it much." As his shot flew, both friends flinched as it missed its mark—instead hitting the nearby prefect, who immediately zeroed in on Jimmy. "Fuck." Breaking into a run, Jimmy called over his shoulder to him "Meet you back in the dorms, Pete!" before disappearing around the corner with the prefect in hot pursuit. Pete smiled, surprised that Jimmy had actually called him 'Pete' and not 'Petey'—looks like I have at least one friend around here.
And now that the author has a handle on technical things, an author's note can be added. Any kind of feedback is appreciated, especially anything regarding the title—referencing Groundhog Day seems… well, too obvious.
