Couldn't ask for better reviews, so thanks guys. I'll try and update as often as I can. I tend to write on the train, and I'm on a train 6 times a week. Hope you guys like this chapter too. I don't really want to (Big Time) rush into things, so I hope that this isn't too boring. Let me know what you think and thanks for reading :)
Chapter 2:
Kendall yawned and stretched his arms above his head. He had been working for hours. He gazed out the window and saw darkness, he hadn't even become aware that the sun had set. That's when he checked his watch and was surprised to see that it was past midnight. He gazed down at his masterpiece. A whole A2 sized poster full of information about the heart and it's structure and functions. Kendall had wrote so much information that he needed to glue extra pieces of paper to the edges. He couldn't be more proud. This was the first time he had completed a project like this, one his own. He beamed silently at it until his realisation of just how tired he actually was hit him. He stood up, yawned and delicately picked up his piece of art and carried it to the lift back to his apartment, 2J.
Wednesday finally arrived and Kendall awoke to the sound of his alarm. He peered over to the, now empty, bed to his left. When the guys first moved to LA they had drawn straws for who would be sharing a room with who. And to Kendall's relief, it had been Logan who had picked the straw indicating he would be sharing with him. Kendall couldn't be more thrilled, as much as he liked James and Carlos, none of them were really considered the cleanest of people. Kendall wasn't surprised that Logan's bed was vacant, it was the same every morning. Up at six. Shower at five past. Breakfast at six fifteen. Then go over the material they were going to cover in today's lessons. Kendall's morning routine couldn't be more different. Up at seven thirty. Shower at quarter to. Eat breakfast at quarter past 8. Then left, with the other boys, for school at quarter to nine. Kendall placed his hands behind his head and lay there staring at his ceiling allowing his mind to drift away.
"Right, gather round." the gym teacher's voice was loud and very masculine for the women. She was sporting an very unfashionable matching track suit. A sparkling silver whistle hung around her neck from a tattered piece of string that resembled a very worn out shoelace that had been tired together a number of times due to fraying. "Today, we're going to be doing some hockey. Knight. Smith. Captains, pick your teams."
The two boys she had named stepped forward and stood facing the pack of teenage misfits that awaited to be allocated teams. The boys flipped and coin and Kendall Knight chose correcting allowing him to make the first choice. The two boys immediately chose their friends until they were left with two people. Kendall eyed up the two hopefuls. To his left, Jenny Tinkler, the accident prone, highly risky blonde girl that had once caused Kendall to be rushed to the hospital for fifteen stitches. He swore he would never go near her again, as his life depended on it. To his right, the new boy, short, brunette, his hair was perfectly groomed. This was the first time Kendall had laid eyes on the boy and his first impression wasn't great. Kendall assumed that this boy was a straight A nerd. He obviously wasn't good at hockey. And Kendall wanted to win, as soon as hockey was mentioned, he always had to win. And as much as he knew Jenny was likely to cause accidents, he was hoping, no, begging, she would inflict pain on the opposite team rather than his own.
"Jenny." she smiled and tripped as she began walking over to her team. She fell to the floor and slowly lifted her head to look at the blonde captain, wishing he wasn't already regretting his choice.
"Great, looks like we're left with the new kid." Matthew Smith wasn't a nice guy. He didn't care about people's feelings, all that mattered to him was, well, him. Logan hesitantly made his way over to him and listened from the outside of their group chat.
Logan had been at this school for 40 minutes and he was already an outsider. Logan listened to the plan, and knew that this Matt Smith boy had never played a game of hockey in his life. His whole positioning and gameplay was all wrong. But Logan wasn't in the mood to try and convince him otherwise. Besides, who would listen to him? He's just the new guy. "You just stay out of the way." Matt barked this order at Logan and he held his hands up in surrender.
A few seconds later the teacher blew her whistle indicating that the game had begun. Kendall was immediately at the puck, racing towards the goal. Matt barked commands and two of his team mates raced up to try and stop the charging blonde. Logan wasn't surprised that they missed Kendall and smacked into each other. That's not how you tackle someone. Kendall kept charging. Matt then rushed towards Kendall and stuck his stick between his legs causing the blonde to fall over.
"Smith. Showers. Now! I'll see you at the end of the lesson." the teacher was furious. She ran up to Kendall to check if he was alright. Kendall tried to stand up but winced as he placed some weight on his right ankle. "You can't play anymore."
"I can! I'll just go in goal." the teacher was hesitant at first, but she had dealt with Kendall Knight before and knew how stubborn he could be. If she forcefully removed him from the game we would just keep limping on and joining in until he ended up hurt worse. She reluctantly agreed and he swapped places with James. The whistle was heard and the game resumed.
Five minutes into the game, Kendall's team had already scored three times. And Logan had done nothing to prevent it. This time James was charging straight towards him, and he decided to do something about it. He ran full pelt towards James and at the very last moment span out of the way, placing the stick perfectly in front of the puck and bringing it with him. The teacher stared at him, mouth open. The move was beautiful. It took James a couple of seconds to realise what had happened and that he no longer had the puck. By the time he turned around to do something about it, Logan was already half way towards their goal and a dazed Carlos was lying on the floor. Now Logan just had to get past Kendall. James knew it was impossible. Logan swung his stick back and used all his might to cause the puck to head straight towards the net.
Peeeeeeeeeeeep!
The whistle blew when the puck was mere meters away from the goal.
"Excellent, really good guys, but we've already over run and you're gonna be late for your next lessons. Let's get going." Logan couldn't believe his luck, he was about to beat this, obviously amazing hockey player but his time ran out. He sighed and headed to the locker room to get ready for his next lesson.
It was finally lunch time and Logan saw that as only one thing. He was half way through the day but his day was no where close to being any better. During his lessons he didn't feel so much like an outsider. Even if no one actually wanted to sit with him, they were made to by the teacher. However, at lunch, this all changed. It was a social nightmare. Logan received his lunch tray and slowly wandered through the crowded tables carefully analysing until, to his relief, found an empty table, far away in the corner.
"You know my mum's going to be pissed if I fail bio." Kendall instructed as he placed a bowl of jello onto his tray.
"Please, your mum has nothing against how much shit I'm gonna have to take from mine when she realises I'm failing." replied James.
"Well, then maybe you and Carlos should stop messing about playing paper hockey and distracting me."
"We don't force you to play."
"You know how much I love hockey, how am I supposed to refuse?" the guys laughed to each other as they turned to face the sea of teenage faces, deciding where there was space for them to eat. Their eyes finally fell on the table in the corner with one inhabitant.
"Hey, isn't that that new kid who almost scored against you in hockey earlier?" asked Carlos. Kendall's smile dropped instantly.
"Hey. He was not going to score against me. He's a nerd. Besides I'm not the one who got tackled by him and pushed to the floor." defended Kendall.
"Admit it Kendall, the kids good." Kendall opened his mouth to deny it, but when he realised he couldn't, he closed it without another word. "We could use a guy like him on the team." The three boys made their way over to the shy individual.
Hey, you look like you can use some friends." Logan didn't look up from his tray. Kendall looked at James and he shrugged. "Something wrong?" Kendall asked. Seconds later the s,all brunette lofted his head and looked at the blonde. Kendall could see the fear in his eyes and suddenly realised that this boy actually needed some friends. Logan seemed to force a shake of his head. "Will it be alright if we sit with you?" he asked. Logan raised his hand and gestured for them to sit down.
"Do you actually speak?" James asked. Logan nodded in response and James caught a glimpse of Carlos smiling at Kendall out of the corner of his eye. Logan managed to let out a very quiet 'yes' and James smiled at the boy's response.
"My name's Carlos, this is James and this is..."
"Kendall, I know. We have phys ed together. You were the hockey captain, you chose that Jenny girl over me." the disappointed tone of his voice couldn't have been mistaken.
"Don't take offence buddy, Kendall's horrible to his team mates, always knocking them against the boards to show what he's got."
"That's Kendall, always has to be the centre of attention when it comes it hockey. He probably did you a favour by not picking you." Carlos attempted to reinsure the shy boy.
"And besides, I didn't know how good a player you were until yesterday. Not everyone can tackle James and avoid Carlos one after another." smiled the blonde. At that point Kendall saw something in Logan's eye, like some of his sadness seemed to disappear. "How did you learn to play like that?"
"I watch hockey all the time, and I read a lot of books about technique. I haven't really played a proper match before."
"Could have fooled me. Sorry mate, didn't actually catch your name."
"It's Logan."
The week seemed to fly by, James, Carlos and Kendall ate lunch with Logan all week, but Logan still seemed shy and afraid of the boys.
So how come you moved to Minnesota?" Kendall asked Logan Friday lunch time. Logan filled them in with the reason he moved and how he hadn't enjoyed where he used to live. Kendall could have almost cried when Logan informed him that he hadn't had any friends before. How could someone go through their life without a group of friends? As soon as the bell rang, Logan sprang out of his seat and the three boys managed to catch his departing words as he ran off.
"What do you think's wrong with him?" asked Carlos when the boy was clearly out of earshot.
"Carlos! Nothing is wrong with him. He's just new to everything. His mum uprooted him and he's placed in a new environment and he's obviously scared. You can see it in his eyes."
"Whoa dude! Can't say I've ever stated into his eyes." snorted James. "Okay, but why is he still a little, I dunno, scared of us?" This was what Kendall was thinking too. He stood up and the other boys followed suit. They left the cafeteria and headed towards their lockers when they head yelling.
Where'd you think you're going nerd?" When the boys rounded the corner they noticed Ryan Fighter, the irony in his name, the school's bully. And he was talking to Logan. The boys were too far away to hear Logan stutter a response. They heard Ryan laugh and the next thing they knew he had punched Logan in the stomach causing him to buckle over and fell to the floor. And before they knew what they were doing the three hockey players were running towards Ryan and tackled him to the floor and began punching and kicking him. Kendall broke away from the fight and scurried over to the injured Logan.
"Are you okay?" he asked worryingly.
"Yeah." Logan coughed back while attempting to get to his feet. Kendall automatically placed his arm around the boy helping him up. "Why did you help me?" Kendall couldn't help it, he let out a small laugh.
"Wow, he must have knocked a lot of oxygen out of you. You're our friend Logan, we're not going to let anyone beat you up." he smiled. Kendall could tell that Logan was assessing Kendall's words to see if they had some hidden meaning within them. Kendall felt relieved when he saw Logan muster up a small smile as all his tension was released.
Smack. A pillow landed directly on the blonde's face.
"Kendall, I though you were up ages ago. We gotta get to school." Logan threw another pillow at Kendall who was still lying in bed, and must have drifted off while thinking about how he and Logan had become friends. Logan turned around to leave the room whem kendall quickly began to talk.
"Hey, Logan?" Logan stopped in the doorway and turned around to look at his blonde friend. "Sorry." Logan looked confused.
"What for?"
"For not getting to you sooner, when Ryan hit you." Logan smiled and left the room. Kendall quickly scurried to get ready and snatched up his project before joining the other boys in the kitchen.
School began like normal. The boys sat at the back; Logan in the corner, followed by Kendall, then Carlos and James sat on the end. The teacher was giving instructions on how today's lesson was going to unfold.
"So we'll take it in turns to come up and present our projects to the class. Logan would you like to go first?" she asked. Logan stood up and walked to the front of the class and began relaying information he had gathered for his project. Despite not showing any distraction, he could see Carlos, James and Kendall all talking constantly while he was.
"Hey, Kendall." whispered Carlos. Kendall looked at him. "Can me and James put our names on your project please?" Kendall looked at both of them and saw them clasp their hands together in a hope that praying will convince the non-religious boy. Kendall really didn't want to, he had worked really hard on this project, all on his own as well. And he felt it was going to be the first time he got an A all by himself. But on the other hand. He looked at the scraps of paper that sat in front of James and Carlos, a few words were scribbled roughly on them. He knew that if they presented that as their project they would fail and they wouldn't be allowed to the launch party. He couldn't do that. He had to help them out. He reluctantly sighed and handed a pen to Carlos who scribbled his name at the bottom of Kendall's poster. James copied seconds later, when the pen was passed to him.
He hasn't surely. Logan's mind was going a thousand miles a second. He was still reciting his project but wondering what the boys at the back were doing. He wouldn't. That's when he saw Kendall hand Carlos a pen. Logan frowned as he finished his last sentence. He them proceeded to sit down next to the boy who had just disappointed him. Kendall was called up to present his project and James and Carlos followed. Kendall looked at Logan, seeing the disappointment and mouthed the word 'sorry'. Logan looked down at his desk and paid no attention to the boys presentation.
Do you think Logan's reaction is a fair one? Or do you think he's over reacting? After all it was Kendall's project, not his...
