So, new update! Couldn't leave you lot with the story the way it was, that would be slightly cruel of me. Thanks to the one that reminded me that I left it on an almost cliffy! Still co-written - this is not likely to change, so I'll stop mentioning it. Audbuscus and I write this - so that one sentence counts for all future chapters unless I say different.
In George's memory world thing…
"Ah! HARRIS!"
George smirked as his maths teacher, Mrs Lorry, shrieked out with a shrill and repulsive voice. He and his friends tried to stifle laughs while looking after the teacher that was now covered with vanilla custard.
"George, that has to be the best trick you've thought of yet!" John, George's best friend whispered with a grin.
"Come off it, John! All my ideas are the best!" George whispered back, causing his friend to wack him on the bicep as the school bell rang.
"George and John! I wish to speak with you!" The teacher called over the general noisiness of the students.
John and George exchanged looks before coming out of their hiding place in the bushes outside their classroom. The children in the area stopped to look at them and silence themselves as Mrs Lorry, or 'Sagface', as she was most commonly referred, stared at the two boys with a penetrating glare.
"Yes Mrs?" the two asked simultaneously.
"What is the meaning of this?" she asked them fingering some of the custard.
"Fun Mrs." they answered again, both bordering on cocky.
"Fun?" Sagface asked a subtly furious tone in her voice. "You call this fun?"
"Yes, Mrs," George replied, an innocent and sweet, yet fake, smile on his freckled face.
John spoke up: "Haven't you heard of it?"
The Sagface scowled at the two.
"You'll never see the outside of my class room again. Detention! Both of you!"
The two boys groaned.
They started trudging behind the teacher, humming a sad dirge, when suddenly,
"JOHN! Look out!"
John looked to his left to find a soccer ball whack into his forehead. A girl, the kicker of the ball, came running over to them, apologies tumbling out of her mouth.
"Oh, my gosh! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" she asked with a concerned voice.
John stumbled into George muttering and seemingly not comprehending anything that was happening around him. Sagface looked especially scared.
"Harris! Take your friend, and follow me! It might mean his life, boy!" she called to George and started off at a surprisingly fast pace.
His life? George hurriedly grabbed John and followed Sagface, the children around them murmuring words that George couldn't hear. His thoughts were only focused on his best friend whom was shaking and trembling in his arms as they stalked towards the nurse's office.
The nurse looked up at the sudden appearance of people in her office, but when she saw who it was she hurried over and ordered George in a no-nonsense tone to lay John gently on one of the plastic like beds.
George did as he was asked before sitting down in a chair, finally deciding that he couldn't sit still, so he started to pace around the room on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
"Mr Harris?" the nurse asked poking her head in through the door way.
"Yes?" George answered almost immediately.
"Did you know that the soccer ball... It hit his temple. The force behind the soccer ball, it's…well, it was enough to kill him. He only has a few minutes left before his brain swells too much. The ambulance won't get here in time. Would you like to spend his last minutes together?" the nurse said slowly and as confidently as she could manage knowing that a student was dying in the next room.
George choked back a sob. "He's-d-dying?"
The nurse hung her head, affirming George's question. He suddenly raced into the next room and was by John's side in a trice, holding his hand that grew colder and colder by the second.
"Don't leave me, John..."
"G-George...?" a weak voice muttered.
"John!" George exclaimed and hugged his best friend awkwardly.
"I-it hurts-s G-George," John stammered as his life started to drain away.
"Don't worry...it'll be alright, John..." George sobbed.
His best friend was dying.
"George!" Fred shouted in his ear.
"Ahh!" George recoiled. "What was that for?"
"You blacked out..." Fred said a tone of worry in his voice.
"No! I didn-" George trailed off at Fred and Lees worried expressions. George tilted his head confused. "I did?"
"Yeah, you were trembling as well, looked like you were... on the verge of… well, tears." Fred said worriedly.
"I was?" George asked.
His sudden flashback came back to him, making him shut his eyes and look down in sadness. "Oh, yeah... Uhh, don't worry about it. I was just remembering... Yeah."
"You were remembering 'yeah'? No come on you got to tell us mate, we dragged you out of the hall and into our new dorms. Look, see? New location. You were really out of it." Lee amended.
"Oh," George said, looking around the room with newfound interest. "Thanks, but, I don't really feel comfortable saying it up front..."
"No-one's here but us, George. You can trust us, right? We're all friends. We won't tell anyone." Lee probed.
Fred was sitting in a far corner of the room, looking uncomfortable. George again wondered what kinds of secrets he held.
"Uh–" George looked around the dorm, finally settling his gaze on a pillow- "You know, I'm feeling really tired, so I'm gonna go to bed...night!" He rushed to get beneath the covers and turn away from Fred and Lee. The two still up glanced at each other warily.
Fred shrugged non-committedly; after all, everyone has secrets. You'd be an idiot if you told them to anyone you met.
He crawled under the sheets of his own bed and after a long, and quite possibly the best day he'd had ever, he fell asleep.